Street Fighter 3: Third Strike Emulated! - Page 61

In the last round, the timing on Akuma's air fireball super must have been near-PERFECT (to within a few frames before Dudley's wake-up) to allow Dudley's wake-up super to come out!

In retrospect, that move would counter only wake-up super and wake-up EX uppercut, and a better counter to those moves would've been to just block. Still, what he did made for a great finish, and the timing was incredible .

Bill (Makoto) vs Mike (Dudley)

0:12 - Kira's splash hits the backdash shadow, saving Lilica from being hit. This is going to happen a lot throughout the match.

0:38 - Kira "bursts" (activates her Arcana) to break the combo. Notice her lifebar: 60% HP lost from one combo + time super :S. On the up-side, at least Lilica has used up all her homing bars doing the combo.

0:39 - Kira's burst was timed so that Lilica's next move would whiff and leave her vulnerable for a while. Note that after you burst, there is a period where you are invincible but you cannot do anything, which often allows the opponent to recover from their whiffed attack. In this case, Lilica can't recover fast enough and gets Bustah'd.

0:47 - After the super, Lilica is left in Kira's 360+A grab range. (Note: 360+A = most range, least damage. 360+C = least range, most damage.) Normally Lilica has to guess between blocking and jumping, a standard throw mix-up. In this case, she attacks, which might beat Kira's 360+A, and evidently it clashes with her cr.B launcher, so basically her attack stops both of Kira's options o.O.

1:03 - You might be wondering why Kira fell straight into a jab without blocking or attacking. The reason: earlier she tried doing Kira's splash, but Lilica just backdashed and the splash hit the shadow. So this time she decided to do nothing and bait the backdash, then grab Lilica as soon as she landed (the backdash shadow doesn't stop grabs). But Lilica was one step ahead and did a jab rather than a backdash. Kira wasn't blocking probably because she was doing the 360 motion while falling.

1:54 - Wake-up 720 super! You know it must have been on wake-up because, like 3s, doing a standing 720 is near-impossible without buffering it during your wake-up, a jump-in, or some other move. (unless your name is YSB or Hayao )

2:05 - Here we see the power of the backwards guard cancel. A forwards GC puts up a temporary red shield in front of you that will clash with most attacks. This makes you mostly-invincible (for ~1 second or until you attack), and it allows you to counter-attack right away. A backwards GC makes you invincible temporarily, then you are vulnerable (cannot move or block) temporarily, and then you can move again. At first glance, it seems silly to do a backwards GC because it leaves you vulnerable for a brief period and you cannot counter-attack until this period is over. And I've seen a lot of vids where the Kira player repeatedly gets owned after doing a backwards GC because of this vulnerability period. I always used to wonder why he didn't forwards GC instead. But a couple of weeks ago, I realized my opponents quickly learn to homing cancel out of their move as soon as they see my forwards GC. As a result, they escape my 360/throw and get a combo on me. Here is where the backwards GC shines through: because it makes you totally invincible, your opponent's attack doesn't clash with you: it whiffs completely. As a result, they cannot homing cancel out of it! So if I time my backwards GC so that a move with a long recovery whiffs, I can grab them for free xD. That's similar to what happens here: the first hit of the super whiffs because of the backwards GC, and Lilica is totally open to a combo after that.

2:12 - Kira opts to charge her metre rather than following up, even though an extra hit + a successful wake-up mix-up would have won the round right here...

2:26 - Kira tries to do a backwards GC, but she never actually got hit and ends up doing a backwards homing dash instead. I think they both have the same effect, though. Anyway, that left her vulnerable for a brief period (as mentioned above) and Lilica capitalizes on it.

2:42 - That was a risky move by Lilica at the start of the round: Kira could've easily grabbed her at the start with 360+A (in fact this works if your opponent moves forward or attacks in any way: Kira's 360+A grab range is that big).

2:53 - Kira's forwards GC worked. Probably because Lilica was right beside Kira, so she didn't have enough time to react and homing cancel out of her move before Kira grabbed her.

2:56 - Standard throw mix-up, with a shield that prevents Kira from being hit by any wake-up attack (e.g. wake-up super). Kira goes for the air-unblockable rather than the throw. Lilica guesses right and blocks it on the ground rather than jumping.

2:59 - Another backwards GC by Kira, causing Lilica's slow cr.C to whiff. Kira does cr.B to launch Lilica. Lilica recovers fast enough to backdash, but interestingly, the cr.B hits both the shadow AND Lilica!

3:05 - Why did Kira just homing dash? Because she tried to do the shield again, but the homing dash button is the same as the Arcana button and she messed up =/. As a result, the shield comes out too late and Lilica can just jab it away.

3:07 - Again Kira's cr.B hits both the shadow and Lilica, but this time Lilica knew it'd still hit her and so she blocked it.

3:08 - Kira's splash hits the backdash shadow again. Free Lilica combo!

3:27 - I didn't know this until a couple of weeks ago, but if you get wall-slammed or hit the ground, apparently you can tech off of the wall or the ground (for a very fast quick-rise) by pressing D and using 1 homing bar. That's what Kira does here.

3:32 - Nice cross-up by Lilica.

3:35 - Another example of bursting when Lilica is doing a slow, long-recovery move. GG.

3:50 - You can't tell from the crappy video quality, but when Kira laughs in her win pose, her eyes go WIDE open. It's like... have you ever seen someone go completely insane and try to kill you? It looks something like that.

3:57 - Very good cross-up by Kira.

4:15 - Kira tried to burst and super again, but she expected Lilica to do another heel-drop, which would whiff and allow Kira to super her. Maybe Lilica anticipated it, though, because she did something different and was able to recover fast enough to jump away from the super.

4:31 - Standard tick-throw. Just in time, too.

4:53 - When players fight Kira, they often avoid teching in the air because when you air tech, you cannot move for a brief period and you are invincible to everything except air throws. It's easy for a Kira player to purposely drop an air combo, allow you to air tech, then grab you after you tech (while you can't move). And that's exactly what happened here.


Round 5 actually has a really close ending, so I'll put its notes in a spoiler tag.

5:05 - Again Lilica attacks at the start of the round. Again I believe Kira could've thrown her with 360+A.

5:52 - Lilica is airborne and she blocks one of Kira's attacks right before Kira lands. At this point, Lilica HAS to guard cancel: if she continues blocking, she will get hit by Kira's cr.B, which is air-unblockable.

6:32 - Worst. Burst. Ever. Under normal conditions, very-skilled Kira players can homing dash towards you in the air and super-grab you. Well, guess what happens when you burst right in front of them, during their homing dash? Also notice that the Time Arcana's power stops the round timer, giving Kira just enough extra time to finish her super .

6:42 - Lilica: "Shit I'm dead . Just kill me."

That burst at the end of the round was a HUGE mistake. Because time was running out, the Lilica player probably panicked and, instead of waiting a little longer before bursting, he used it at a time and place where Kira always homing cancels, setting himself up for a relatively-easy super-grab. Props to the Kira player for not screwing it up, too.