I advise against counter-picks. Choose a character you play the most confident with (Kabal I'm presuming), and any match-up you feel puts your character in a disadvantage is the match-up you need to practice.

Every character has the ability take down any of fighter from the cast. So for the next 5 months, I suggest you work on that. There's nothing worse than losing with a counter-pick.

Well, unless you have a favorite character that you really want to represent, you should go with the character you feel most confident with.


However, I have to be honest. I just don't see Sub-Zero doing well, his bad match-up characters are some of the most popular ones in tournaments (Kabal & Kitana especially) and they really blow him up. Poor Subby.



Congrats on going there and good luck! Keep us updated!

The best advice I could give is go with your main, get comfortable with their good and bad matchups, this will help you become a more innovative, well rounded player. There are no 9-1 or 10-0 matchups, so no matter who you choose you still have a chance at outplaying your opponent.

In regards to Sub-Zero, players usually place very well with him, I don't think he's as bad as people say he is, he might not be top 5, but he's not horrendous.

Kabal and Kitana are only difficult because they force Sub-Zero to stop shooting iceballs, while hiding behind his clone and to come forward.
Sub-Zero has underrated rushdown and his corner game is top notch. He has easy execution combos of 4-5 hits for about 30%.

If Sub-Zero plays how he normally plays, then yes Kitana destroys him and the same goes with Kabal, but Sub-Zero still has a fighting chance to shut them down. If he asjusts his playstyle.

When I use Stryker and I'm fighting Johnny Cage...I zone him out and keep him at bay because Stryker's not nearly as quick as him, and Johnny Cage puts Stryker on lockdown, despite him having decent rushdown. When I fight Jade, I cut the zoning out, throw out some gun cancels and rush her down. Adjusting your playstyle to fit your opponent is important, you cannot play every match the same way.

Not to mention, Kabal is a hard match up for almost everyone, except for Raiden and maybe Kung Lao.

Shang Tsung is a definite versatile, good choice, but of course this is contingent on you feeling comfortable with him.

There's nothing wrong with having a counterpick, but it's important to learn how to deal with bad match ups with your main too.


Good luck man and most importantly have fun, if you're not having fun, it's not worth it.

I'll be at that tournament.


You should play the character you're most comfortable with. It's far more important to be comfortable and able to play on almost auto pilot than it is to have good match ups. You have 2/3 games, there's no time for adjusting or second guessing. I can't tell you who'd be better between Sub-Zero and Kabal. On paper Kabal is a better character with better match ups but that's just in theory. Maybe you can pull off maining two characters and switch depending on match up. Some people can, some can't. I can't, I stick with my favorite character 100% of the time. Only you can know.

There's nothing you can do about nerves. You will be nervous, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to drop combos. It happens to all of us, even those of used to it. All you can do is go in with the right attitude and try to minimize possible mistakes.

I strongly believe in having VERY easy, reliable bread and butter combos. I mean brain dead easy. I have what I call the 10/10 rule. You MUST be able to do your combo under pressure in the heat of the moment 10 out of 10 times and it's ok to do less than max damage if it's under 10%. Giving up 10% for 100% consistency is worth it.

You also need to go in confident and not stress out so much over name players. If you play a top player and assume you have no chance because they're famous you've already lost. Just chill out, you only need to win 2 games, upsets happen all the time and players came from no where and place. I hadn't placed top 8 at a major until I placed 5th at Evo. At my last tournament a mid level, solid but not spectacular Sheeva player came closer to beating Perfect Legend than I did lol.

And you need to remember it's gonna be awesome even if you don't do as well as you hope. The tournaments that Kiets runs are the best. UFGT and Fighter x Shooter last year were two of my favorite tournaments. I didn't do as well as I wanted at UFGT last year and it was still a great experience. You literally have nothing to lose. Maybe you'll place high and that's cool, or maybe you'll get blown up and you can laugh it off, make it a learning experience, and enjoy playing casuals and enter one of the exhibitions.

Hehe, I noticed you stopped going for the f2,1 NJP combo and modified the non-NJP combo by adding an extra 2~fan before the final 2~cutter finisher.


I'm "upset" at how much Crazy Dominican has been dropping the NJP version of the combo. It happened to him more than once while playing NEC Top8 matches. To make it more painful, he usually connects the NJP spot on, but then drops the combo before the fan lift. Hopefully his combo drop rate decreases by the time for the next major.



Always watching closely Kitty players.

I've been meaning to ask you about that 16Bit, I always notice in your matches how rare you drop your combos and I think people exaggerate the ineffectiveness of lower damaging combos, even if a combo only does in the 20 percent ish range, that's still about 1/4 of your life gone, nothing to sneeze at, the conservative play really seems effective, I wanna adopt a more relaxed style like that; I've been playing more modestly, and try to find a more low execution oriented combo for Stryker, I have a reliable one with Sheeva, trying to figure out a quality one for Stryker too.



And unless you're Cyrax, most people aren't going to be landing their 50+ combos consistently anyway, I'd rather trade flash and high damage for consistency and practicality.

A lot of negative sentiment on counter-picking. I don't disagree with the reasoning. You have to be comfortable with the character you play.

That said, if you picked a character who compliments your main's bad match-ups, and you have practiced to the point where that character TRULY IS YOUR SECOND-BEST CHARACTER, counter-picking seems like a smart strategy to me. I realize they're statistically not successful, but I think that has more to do with counter-picks being an act of panic rather than a thought out plan of action.

It's also important to remember that counter-picking is a post-losing strategy. If you're doing it, that means you've lost at least one match. Sometimes that's all it takes to break a player's spirit. What you're seeing is not a failure of counter-picking so much as a failure of mental composure.

However, do not try to print out a a match-up grid and expect to theory fight your way to grand finals. It's impossible to commit every possible option into memory, and you sure as hell can't commit every possible option into reflexes.

Eh... I don't know. It's possible, but I do feel there are some 7-2 match-ups out there. Against a proficient Sonya, I literally feel like I can do nothing with Smoke. To a lesser extent, this is true with Skarlet. I have no clue how to even punish a good rushdown Skarlet.
However...

Oh yes. I absolutely agree with this.

Temp, just curious, I'd like your input on a couple of things. I would like to know what matches are 8-2 I assume you meant 8-2 as opposed to 7-2.

Thank you all, really I appreciate it. You've all helped me out. I've decided I will go with Kabal most of the time, and I will be using Johnny Cage at the tournament.

It just depends. I'll be practicing other characters in the meantime to see If I can maybe see if there's any other choices, as I have a solid Kabal but there are so many better players.

As regards to 16-Bit saying that I will have a great experience, yeah! I can't wait! It's going to be a blast. I am however worried about loosing in the 1st pool that i'm in and getting sent to losers and I loose to like a scrubby Noob-Saibot or Reptile or something. I am very worried, but I am confident in myself and will probably have a laugh afterwards. Also, do you know who is all going? I would love to meet some of the pros if they are. If you could tell me that that would be great, and btw my name on test your might so if you see me on there you can talk to me if you would like, it's Larry_Bird. I also have you added on 360, (Larry is Legend). Also, yeah. I do go for bnbs, I always try to get as much damage as I can, but make the combo relatively easy as I don't want to end up dropping it and get 15-20%.

Thank you Espio and totheark, I definitely won't try to counter-pick unless I really have to. I have done Sub-Zero mirror matches against Charliemurphy41 and have won most of the time, but I will most likely use Kabal if it's vs Sub. One person I am very very worried about is Mileena, if anyone could give me some tips on Mileena I would be really happy. I can't seem to beat her no matter who I use, so yeah.

By the way I will keep you guys updated on what progress I've almost made who ever asked that.

Good luck man, and give your all.

Get in and block the pokes.
Mileena has one of the slowest normals in the game.
Put the pressure, block the pokes, put the pressure.

Also, keep a look out for D-1. It always puts you at an advantage, even on hit. Most Mileena players don't know that.

Don't zone too much. We catch up on zoners.

I'm not too familiar with the match-up actually. You refuse to play your Kabal against my Mileena...

^ I will. Add Downfourality, lol it's my new account atm because my other has been suspended. Well, i'll send you a friend request actually and hopefully we can get some matches in.

Sometimes I feel so stupid it stings. I don't know if I'm qualified to participate in this thread anymore. I'll try to make an attempt nonetheless. It' hard to discuss match-ups with confidence, but it's definitely a lot of fun.

Can I cite a specific 8-2? Not with confidence yet, but I strongly, strongly, STRONGLY feel that Sonya is going to develop 8-2s once her rushdown matures. Reason being is that her rushdown can be set up from so many distances thanks to her dive kick and Cartwheel. Combine this with the theory that the engine naturally favors rushdown characters due to meter-building capabilities and the uneven distribution of strong reversals.

Still, this is all guess work. I've already demonstrated that I'm unable to count single-digit numbers, so we'll see how far my theory goes. The one match-up that has seemed terrible to me from day one is Sub-Zero/Cage, and I'm not sure that match is so bad anymore. Certainly not 8-2 (7-3 seems very possible, though). I also believe Smoke takes out Noob and Jade 7-3. However, I think Arturo said at APEX that Smoke blows up Reptile. Well, maybe if Reptile zones... but why would you do that? I would have thought that match was in Reptile's favor because Smoke's mobility options aren't too viable against the guy. Akuma teleporting is really dangerous against Rep, but Arturo probably know something I don't.

Anyway, that's my take.

Good games bud.
Just zone alot less and move in. Will put Mileena right in her place. Block the last hit of 4,2! Partly because you take damage and partly because it was so unexpected that I'd never combo into it! Those double sweeps can be tricky but most Mileena players go with completing the string rather than an EX-Roll. It's alot safer.

Looks like I definately need work on the Cage match-up. Fuckin' Cage man.

Besides myself Dizzy and Slips will be there. Pretty much every regular STL/Chicago player will be there. This is the midwest's biggest major so I'd expect several top players to travel for this. Last year we had Perfect Legend, Michaelangelo, Justin Wong, and Floe.

CD Jr (Smoke) vs Chris G (Rep, Noob)

You can see there that Smoke was dominating the whole time.

. You too bro. Those were great games, and yeah im so accustomed to zoning. I need to work on my offense and defense lol. We should play more, I need practice with cage ^_^ lol. And thank you godly shinnok, i will give it my all. If michaelangelo is there that would be soo crazy. Btw if this looks weird its cuz im on my phone atm.

where will this tournament take place?

Chicago, IL.

-Pick one main character

-Learn the ins and outs of that character. What to do in every matchup in every situation. Max damaging combos from free standing hits, max damage off of air jab punish, max damage off of blocked teleports. make sure you can land them 10 out of 10 times.

-Don't be nervouse, never underestimate your opponent but go in with the hunger of a tiger. You want that blood. No games, no mercy. You are going after that win, smartly. Not overly offensive unless it makes sense. Adapt and react.

-the most important rule. Breathe.... breathe alot and breathe steadily. Helps calm you in the moments of battle.

-When your not up or not playing, keep your controller in your hand. Doing the button inputs for your combos. over and over and over and over. That way, nerves in your idle fingers don't come out all wrong and you drop all the inputs. "nervous hands". if you have been doing inputs for the last 5 minutes, you should be fine when it's time.