You can find the rest of the top 8 matches on the Level|Up YouTube channel along with a lot of other great stuff.
I'm going to Norcal Regionals I hope it can top this tournament, cuz this SoCal stuff was hype! I'll probably bring my camera if any surprises happen on/off screen (such as the Tokido pose) I'll try to catch it hopefully.
I am more interested about:
Pool D, Winners Finals: EG.Ricky Ortiz (Rufus) beat EG.Marn (Dudley) 2-1. Close match.
EG.Ricky Ortiz (Rufus) beat GamerBee (Adon) 2-1. Amazing match.
Sako (Cammy) beat AndyOCR (M. Bison) 2-1. Close match.
BLG.Vangief (Zangief) beat DaggerG (Guile) 2-1. Great match.
Mike Ross (E. Honda) beat Online Tony (Seth) 2-1. Very close match, Mike Ross made a huge comeback.
lol @ 5 you fail.
It's a uphill battle for Ryu against Dhalsim because Dhalsim is one of the best zoners and can get around Ryu's fireballs quite easily with his Yoga tower and slides. He can also punish Ryu's fireballs from 3/4 screen with his pokes, which basically limits Ryu to either bait or guess which is why you see those random shoryukens and pokes. Also Ryu doesn't have much of a mixup game so he can't really keep Dhalsim guessing and pressuring him as much.
According to the tier list its 4-6 in Dhalsim's favour and yeah I know tier lists are bullsht whatever, but all Ryu's know its difficult vsing a Dhalsim especially in such high level play.
And how did Dudley end up in your comment?
@5
WTF are you smoking man cuz I want some... any one that knows dudley (my main along with adon) he cannot do Sh*t to sim. Only thing I can do is try to work my way inside which never really works since its pretty easy to zone out dudley. just waiting to see what the ex dash has to offer and hopefully this will help him with him bad match ups
Good match on both sides...
HOWEVER..
honestly, if I played like Filipino champ online, I would never get through one full match without a disconnect, and a follow up "cheap ass spammer" comment soon to follow. Don't get me wrong, those are his moves..what did you expect him to do against Diago?!
Kudos to the best "character" in the game..
I can't believe there are people claiming Dhalsim is IMPOSSIBLE for Ryu... man... Ryu players are spoiled. Any other character would have at least 4 or 5 matchups that are worse than Ryu vs Dhalsim.
I play Hakan, so when I see people cry about Ryu's one slightly uphill fight, I have to roll my eyes.
@9: That’s how Dhalsim works. You can’t just rush down the opponent with him, he is build upon the idea of zoning and keeping the opponent away because if you get close to him, he’s in serious trouble. You shouldn’t blame a Dhalsim player for using his strengths – or you must hate on Ryu too for using fireballs, Zangief for using command grabs and so on.
Really loved the match. Now I’m gonna check out Vangief’s.
I really don't see how the fact Dhalsim has bad matchups too has anything to do that it's extremely difficult for Ryu to win against Dhalsim. I thought the game is supposed to be balanced. That means any character has a decent chance to win against another.
Not a fan of dahlsim, but got to give philipino champ his props. He did overcome a lot of good players to win. I was hoping that tokido would beat daigo because I feel that would have been a better match up. Since champ knocked daigo out of winners bracket, I figured he would win. Daigo did adapt to champ, but then so did champ in reverse. Since tokido took second run in an OCV during 4v4, I think he could have won. But tokido still takes badass of the tournament for his pose...sh*t was so funny/awesome!!!
"Can’t win"? In some of those matches, Daigo litterally destroyed FChamp. And overall, it was almost an 50:50 performance, so I wouldn’t say that anyone of those two had real advantages.
@SAMURAI
Oops. You're right. I just talked to my friend who's a major in Computer Science. He checked the code and it is indeed impossible for Ryu to be Dhalsim.
You're all missing the point here. It was Tokido's tournament to lose. Dropping that link in the 2nd game, after baiting Daigos dragon punch, probably cost him the match.
If he moves on, there's a great chance he beats Filipino Champ. Topping off a great tourney, where he dominated just about everything he touched.
i'm not trying to defend anyone here. my opinion is that Dhsim has always been a very tough fight for RYU/KEN player since SF2. It has always been an uphill battle. It is EXTREMELY difficult to get in, even after getting it, Dhsim has alot of ways to get out or push ryu/ken away. These matches were fun to watch, Seriously INORDER for RYU/KEN to have a chance they have to TAKE huge amount of risk by jumping in, whereas Dhsim can just sit or turtle all day.
Try being Zangief against Dhalsim at least Ryu has a fireball to atleast get some damage.
It's not easy to use Dhalsim against the best Ryu player. You have to be precisely on point with normal, special or even jump. There are no move or pattern that you can spam against a good player. You need to be playing at 100% the whole time or you will get bodied so hard. It comes with playing character that is fully active even at full screen apart.
A Dhalsim had to pull one hell of an amazing run to finish where he did in the tournament. Not dropping in to losers helped since less matches means less chance for error. In a way, all the stars were aligned and I think you are not going to see a Dhalsim winning tournaments very often. There is just too much that needs to go right.
So kudos to Filipino Champ for the best performance of his life so far. He's improved a lot over the past months and I'm glad it all paid off in the end.
@8
What do you mean Adon can't do anything to sim? Adon rapes Dhalsim. It's a good match-up for Adon. Maybe you should learn your "mains" match ups ;).
@ Maryokutai
Just because daigo and champ ran a 50:50 fight, finals and grand finals included, that has nothing to do with a match up between ryu and dhalsim. If daigo and champ were to play using there second or third best characters, i would bet money daigo would win. The match up between ryu and dhalsim is obviously in dhalsims favor.
@smorgasboard
Could not have put it better. Champ did awesome. But in a regular match between a joe blow ryu and joe blow dhaslim, dhalsim has the advantage.
@26
dude, sim and ryu is a 5. Ryu has the normals to counter poke, a solid fireball and good footspeed to chase. Dont be a fan boy, everytime daigo loses that matchup automaticly becomes a 4/6 for ryu and u konw that bs aint true.
When high level play is involved -
Ryu vs Sim is a 3:7 match up.
Filipino Champ don't deserve to win, look at his stupid attitude calling tokido free and smiling like a troll. He thinks he is popular but he is not. I strongly believe if tokido did not lose to daigo, filipino champ would have went back to his country. what luck.
dont hate on dhalsim just cuz he be playing exactly his style since SF2. Everything still applies, his opponents WILL take damage trying to get in, guaranteed, but once he screws up his defense sim's gonna take a beating. I've seen Vangief beat F champ before at the grand finals of a Norcal tournament a couple months ago and its still exciting as ever, especially when 2 characters are polar opposites of eachother. So don't worry about the matchup, just watch Sim try to defend his castle as consistently as he can against other styles, its unique and thats part of the SF diversity.
I'm a fan of Daigo but after watching that last set a few times its pretty clear that Champ outplayed him. No doubt it was a great match but Daigo got punished many times for trying to predict Champ's moves. You can debate all day long about match ups but I think Champ won fair and square.
the problem with the dhalsim ryu fight at high levels is that for ryu to win he literally has to guess. he has to make several correct guesses in a row to mount offense.
guessing and skill don't go together very well.
this is why as the skill level of the two players go up, the matchup becomes harder and harder for ryu.
the extra skill of the dhalsim player is helping dhalsim, but ryu is still just guessing.
daigo hasn't found a way around this yet, and i don't think he will. so he will either continue to lose to every sim, or counter pick. his choice.
you can't make excuses for him. he knows the situation.
If sim beats ryu then sim also beats everyone that doesnt have a dive kick. Honestly now, if sim was so automatic then sim players would be falling from the sky. U saw every time sim screwed up and got cornered he was done and thats what the whole match is about for every other character in the cast. he could give everyone a hard time but ryu is one of the characters that has all the tools to deal with it, dont act like ryu is like zangief or honda. People need to stop the crap, everytime diago loses its never because he lost, u fanboys always try to find some retarded excuse.
So much Daigo dick-riding. Daigo got beat, it HAPPENS. That takes nothing away from Daigo being an excellent player, he just lost to someone who played better at that tournament. Filipino Champ played better than him and used the match-up to his favor. Kudos to him for showing that Dhalsim is legit and a nightmare if played by the right player.
Great tournament. Wish Daigo won but what can you do. Smart move by FC for not going to rematch right away after Daigo tied it up, really slowed down the momentum!
Bang on #35, A good Dhalsim can beat an Amazing Ryu. FC is more than a good Dhalsim so it's no surprise he beat an amazing Ryu.
The normals just keep adding up, you have to get lucky to bait something to score a knock down or HOPE he doesn't anti air your jump in.
VERY tough for Sagat too, even for OP Vanilla Sagat.
Good matches though.
And #36 people are just saying it's an uphill battle for Ryu. No one is taking credit away from FC, even he knows its a tough fight for Ryu lol
@38
Dude, like i said, if its an uphill battle for ryu its an uphill battle for everyone else in the game. People are quick to forget that diago beat arturo very comfortablely and arturo is by no means free(are u forgeting low fierce super from across screen?). Ryu has everything he needs to win, u people are acting like ryu is free for sim, honestly now some moron posted that its 7.3 sim and thats just retarded.
@40
U win this thread. Nobody wants to say anything when justin loses with rufus v daigos ryu when thats a legit 6/4(its been this way from day 1). Fanboys cant be reasoned with.
@ Burn
That's bullsh*t. Rufus is very good against Ryu.
And Justin is never in trouble with a matchup. He got a whole bag of characters and he is never afraid to counterpick. That's why everyone gives him crap, because he counterpicks but still loses.
Anyway, I like Justin too, very good player.
@43
WHAT, even the biggest idiot here understands that dp>dive kick, and that shut down alot of what rufus has. Never mind the normals or anything else. And u people still bring up the counter pick crap? Didnt gamerbee break out akuma vs a honda? Didnt sako go to his rose? U my friend, are the reason the human race is in trouble.
@ chickenwings
Stop pretending Sim isn't a bad mach up for Ryu. I give all credit to F.Champ and his great performance. He outplayed Daigo and I'm not trying to take anything away from him. But saying Sim is not a bad match up for Ryu is ridiculous.
@46
Whats ridiculous is that u people dont see that ryu has all the tools to beat dhalsim. A bad matchup means that sim shuts down or nuetralizes ryus main weapons but sim doesnt do that now does he? Its not like a chun vs balrog guile vs honda match. But im done, u fan boys are just retarded. If daigo lost to hakan that would mean that hakan is a bad match up for ryu lol.
@chickenwings
What tools, care to explain? Trading fireballs with limbs? jumping in to get antiaired everytime? Psychic shoryus? Fullscreen cHP into super?
What's retarded is playing that stupid fanboy whenever someone disagrees with you instead of providing actual arguments.
@48
Ryu has the normals and foot speed to fight sim. Ur crying because ryu cant get in for free but thats the whole game versus sim, geting in. ITs all about spacing and being patient, sim is a lame matchup for everyone in the freakin game but out of the cast ryu is better equip to deal with it. Take a look at some of the other cast member vs sim and ull see the big picture. How about sagat, or balrog. Compare there tools vs ryu in the sim match and ull see that ryu is better off.
Daigo has an above average RYU. That's all, I don't see any thing special.
F.Champ is a loser who won't play money matches with sako unless sako uses any characters other than cammy. But guess what? He lost to sako's fei in the end still. You gotta respect daigo for sticking to ryu all the way although he has the option to counter-pick with cammy, which we all know he is able to use it quite effectively.
@samurai
didn't daigo counterpick with cammy in europe and got destroyed for it?
"Counter Picking" is in a way actually a form of defeat. You are ultimately admitting your style has been "downloaded" and your "main" or preferred character is outmatched, outskilled or straight up incapable with your present skill level to be competitive..
I find that true high tier entries in tournaments treat their character like it represents them. They are known for a Main or preferred character, hence changing that during a match is like a retreat or a submission for a better word.
In conclusion, if you couldn't keep up with me, ill "nurf" it for u guys and dumb it down..
Just because someone had the capacity to choose someone else to defeat his opponent, they treat it as an honourable match and either overcome the odds and adapt or take the defeat and learn from it into the future...that makes a true professional.
Sorry...I think i still went over some heads there..oh well :(
Yes, I'm a fan, I never denied that. I'm a fan of good players, not only Daigo.
If Daigo was a counterpicker, he would've played with Cammy vs Filipino Champ. But he didn't, he stayed true to his main. Does it matter what once happened in Europe? No.
@ SAMURAI
After Daigo lost to Ryan Hart at SvsB he had to play a Dhalsim player for the 3rd place playoff.. He went with Ryu and won 2-0 IIRC. So it's pretty obvious the only reason Daigo chose Cammy vs Ryan Hart was because he thought Ryan Hart was going to counter pick him with Sim and he was just countering his counter-pick. But alas, Ryan Hart decided not to choose Sim :D
Vid here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNPV0k...
@chickenwings
Again, what normals? you just keep saying vague things like "Ryu has the tools", foot speed, normals, but you never give specific examples. Reacting to Dhalsim's fullscreen pokes is not a tool Einstein. Throwing random normals in the hopes of hitting Sim's limbs doesn't work either. Ryu has to get in, period. Ryu's foot speed is average, any half decent Sim can see Ryu coming from miles away and throw a poke in his face. That's why this match up is at least 6-5 in Sim favor, the only way for Ryu to win is to take huge risks and being psychic or else Dhalsim can poke him to dead. Seriously, you either don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about or you're just downright trolling.
Oh, and please refrain from using your stupid fanboyism "arguments" to get your points across. This has nothing to do with Daigo or F.Champ, this is a game fact, Sim is a bad matchup for Ryu in SSF4, whether you like it or not.
Dont be an ass. Low strong, sweep, low forward etc all are good at counter pokeing. ANd ryu is faster then alot of other characters so dont bs urself, or do i have to compare ryus speed to makoto and zangief. The matchup has been 5/5 since release of the game and NOTHING has changed in super, with the exception of dp trade ultra(sim aint gonna jump much anyway) and sim hits alittle harder. THATS IT. ANd how do u get counter hiting = throwing random normals? That right there just shows me ur understanding of the match up.
@chickenwings
LOL @ counterhitting Dhalsim's pokes on reaction, yeah right. If you're that good then what the hell are you doing posting nonsense here? Go to a tourney and prove that you can shut down Sim's pokes on reaction from 3/4 screen away and turn the matchup into a 5-5. Until then, you're just making up thinks out of your ass.
@65
Because dhalsim can sit there and spam fierce for free right? It doesnt matter, daigo had no prob beating arturo a minth ago and all u fanboys didnt say anything about the match up but now when daigo gets caught doin random dps and loses all u people are here makeing excuses. Like i said before and ill say for the last time, look at dhalsims other match ups and all see that ryu is better off then most of the cast. Or do u need to see blanka or zangief vs dhalsim? But yall dont want to here that though, dhalsim is overpowered blah blah. Cause all u morons now that if dhalsim shut down ryu for free there would be ALOT ALOT ALOT more of them in tournaments and playing online but yet theres only about 3 that most people have even heard of.
@chickenwings
*sigh* Why do you have to bring Daigo up on every freaking post? How many times do I have to tell you that this has nothing to do with Daigo. It's just a well known and accepted fact among the majority of SF players that Dhalsim is a bad match up for Ryu in SSF4. And where the hell did I say Ryu's free for Dhalsim, or that Sim is overpowered? Seriously, you should carefully reread my posts before putting words in my mouth.
Until now all you've done is repeat the same nonsense without providing any solid argument against the fact that Sim is a bad match up for Ryu. I asked you for specific examples on how exactly can Ryu counter Dhalsim and all you could came up with is counter poking Sim's limbs, no sh*t Sherlock. Problem is you need almost instant reaction to do that or downright just guess. Again, you say "look at Sim's other match ups and see what Ryu is better off" but you don't give specific examples of things Ryu CAN DO. And my favorite, when nothing works you just call people Daigo fanboy and somehow that makes you win the argument automatically. How old are you? 12?
Stop being so thick and prove that Dhalsim isn't a bad match up for Ryu or shut up.
@67
U dont want to accept that ryu has good normals and speed and corner pressure to win. Ryus low strong when spaced correctly will smack most of his normals, but now ur gonna say "zomg its to hard to react" or "that only works on online scrub sims". U have to fight him patiently and understand that sim players have no problem laming u out and winning on the clock, u have to learn the spacing of sims low fierce in paticular. Ryu has fast normals, low forward and low strong that are good counter hiting(low strong will beat sims kicks pretty clean) and u cant be afraid of fadc'ing through the limbs either. U know, i seriously should have to break this crap down for u, u have srk from that. But it doesnt matter what i say, because some crap tier list that came from some wiki tells u that ryu loses, but that say tier list has ryu loseing to bison and bison loseing to ken???? Yea im sure ur info is solid lol.
It's not about a f**cking tier list. It's about Ryu really having a hard time against Dhalsim. Dhalsim has al the tools to zone and Ryu can't do anything about it. Fireballs are completely useless because Dhalsim has many ways to get around them. Ryu has to get in or the fight is lost.
And you like to talk about Daigo. Guess what, Daigo has problems against every good Dhalsim. Filipino Champ, Arturo, Mochi, Iyo, it's always extremely difficult for him. These are all very good Dhalsim players, but Daigo is without a doubt the best Ryu in the world hands down. If he has so much trouble and loses so many fights against Dhalsims, you can't deny that this is a horrible matchup.
I say if the players are equally skilled, this is a 7-3 in Dhalsim's favor.
@chickenwings
So basically you're saying that Ryu wins the poke war against Dhalsim and that he doesn't need to get in to win? LMAO! Maybe if you have godly reactions you can stuff a few of Sim's pokes here and there but in the long run you'll still lose the poke war. And shoryu -> FADC? seriously? that's completely useless unless you can predict a poke or else you'll just wiff and get punished.
All the things you're saying are precisely the reasons why this is a bad match up for Ryu. It's extremely difficult to react to Sim's pokes, there's no way in hell you can beat them consistenly on reaction, let alone srk'em. So you have to guess and take lots of risks.
@ SAMURAI
Gotta love theory fighters. Not even the best Ryu in the world and arguably the best SF player can pull off all the crazy sh*t chickenwings is talking about, but still somehow they think it's pretty easy stuff to do.
@70
SO dhalsim beats everyone in the game that doesnt have a dive kick, its offical.
i do, and so do alot of other people. THats why there arent 50 million sim players out there. Think about it, a player that destroys ryu? Thats easy wins since everyone uses ryu right? Forget blanka, ima learn sim and just own up random ryus all day.
@ chick wings
You do understand that just because you pick a well balanced character, does not guarantee anything..You think you're going to be on Filipinos level to face all Ryu players?! Trust me, if Champ were to go easy just for a second, Diago would have swept the floor with him.
I don't like when people use professional tournament players or tournament results to depict who they feel is the best or who is better. These guys have no real responsibility in life. Their career for God's sake is videogames! If I devoted my entire life to SSF4 I'm sure my hakan would beat 90% of all my average Ryu opponents online...so what? Are we saying hakan is better than ryu because I never lose to one?
Gameplan was trying to explain matchups to you and u used Diago as basis to counter argue...Common! First of all, when last have you tried to poke a sim poke?! When Diago beat Sanchez in seasons beatings with a crouching med into super...common! Who does that?! So don't use Diago as a reference to back up your arguements unless its a valid point that can be applied to all or at least average skill levels across the board..
@74
Im not useing daigo, how do u get daigo from random online ryu? And ur average sim can anti air worth a dam and has a habit of randomly mashing fierce and jumping into the corner, easy to counter. These are the sims that u can gain a good lead on and run clock for an easy win(i do this all the time). But whatever, ryu is super free to sim, he has nothing he can use to win.
@chickenwings
A bad match up doesn't mean you can never win it, it just means it's harder. Also, match ups aren't based on how easily YOU can counter random Dhalsims online. That's ridiculous.
I thought you were just trolling, but now I know you simply don't understand what match ups are.
@76
So when i use average online players that doesnt matter, and when i use top level players it doesnt matter. It doesnt matter, everyone for dhalsim is free but cammy and rufus.
@78
Giving up is the problem. U say ryu sim is a bad matchup because ryu has a hard time geting in but then refuse to accept the fact that everyone else has the same problem with sim.
Please put up vids of Tokido vs Daigo and Valle vs Daigo.