Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez of Cross Counter fame has been logging his progress while playing SSF4 AE v2012, and sent in this article detailing some of the roadblocks he hit and points to look out for while playing.For no good reason other than the fact that I think going to Japan inspired me, I've been playing more. A lot of people might not realize, but I do know how to play this game. ^_^ Playing for a few days in Japan made me understand why I had not been playing as well as I used to when I was playing way more. Not practicing regularly of course is a big one (I don't have as much time as I used to due to Cross Counter duties, etc.), but the biggest factor was that I had the wrong mindset and was doing the wrong things at the wrong time. I'm going to attempt to outline a few of them here.
Going In Too Hard vs. Not Going In Hard Enough
I don't remember exactly when I realized it, but I now understand that I was being too aggressive with Balrog relative to my skill level and not hard enough with Rose. With Balrog, I'm not a frame trap/mixup/setup expert, I'm more turtly and footsie-based. I found that by attacking after knocking them down, I was frequently eating wakeup uppercuts. At first I was mad because I was like "why is this scrub uppercutting me every time??" Then I was like, "Oh wait, I'm the scrub for not respecting him enough to get up sometimes." I realized that especially with Balrog, I have to let them get up at least once or twice. This serves two purposes:
• If they uppercut I block
• I don't put myself at risk and continue pressuring with low Jab/cr. MK
With Balrog, it's critical to keep the life lead if you get it because he's not one of the characters that can make a comeback easily (i.e. the twins, Ibuki, Seth, Viper, Akuma). Therefore, attacking on their wakeup when I don't have a larger than 25-35% lead can lead to giving up more damage than necessary.
Meter Management Adjustments
This is more about what I do with Rose than Balrog, but I think it can be applied to most characters in most situations. Up until relatively recently, I would basically try to save my meter until I had full Super in order to land it in a combo after Soul Spiral. This is great when you hit it, but it sucks when you don't.
Another problem with saving your Super too long is that sometimes you end up with far more meter than them with nothing to use it on. Maybe you try hard to save your meter and start the second round with full meter. Obviously this is better than starting with no meter, but let's say you get an opening to land the Super after Soul Spiral early in the round. Now what?
You have no meter and chances are if you had a full meter at the start, your opponent probably had at least 2 or 3. Now you've done a decent amount of damage, but your options are now severely limited with no meter. Now you can't EX Soul Spiral FADC Back Dash to get out of a bad wakeup situation if you get knocked down. Nor can you fight EX Fireballs with EX Fireballs, nor can you EX Soul Throw to dissuade them from jumping.
So what's the solution? Keep saving it until you have them down to half life? No, that's not the solution either. The solution is actually to not necessarily be in that situation to begin with. The only reason you should be starting a round with full meter is if your opponent has 3-4 meters.
This is what I realized recently somewhere along the line as I've been playing more. I used to hoard my meter instead of using it to buy me things in the game such as:
• space
• chip damage
• getting out of bad situations with EX or FADC back dash
Now my goal is constantly be at par or ahead of my opponent in the meter race, because ultimately that's what the game is about: resource management. If I can stay ahead and yet not too far ahead, I know that I'm not missing opportunities to use my meter. The last thing you want to do is lose any round with significantly more meter than your opponent because you were saving it for next round. PyroZeroX from Shadowloo said it best once when we were doing commentary on the Shadowloo Showdown stream:
"There is no last round, there is no next round, there is only THIS round."
This means that if you died in the first round with three meters and your opponent has zero or one, you missed a few opportunities during the round where you probably could have used a meter or two to your advantage. Maybe it was an EX Fireball, or an EX Headbutt or an Uppercut FADC, who knows? The point is that you will accumulate more meter throughout the round whether you are attacking or blocking, so you might as well use it at a similar rate as your opponent rather than trying to save it for that perfect situation which may never come.
Waiting For The Right Time to Use Super/Ultra
This is something that is probably pretty obvious to a lot of people, but it wasn't to me for a long time. There's a reason that you get a big flash when you win with Super or Ultra and that's because the game is trying to reward you for doing so. Without saying so directly, the game is suggesting that you should be using your Super or Ultra to win the round.
This is useful to keep in mind because it can help keep you from spending your meter too early on a Super and from using your Ultra too early if it won't kill them. You see this all the time with inexperienced players; as soon as they get an opportunity to land their Ultra, they do it, even if they just have a Level 1 Ultra. Oftentimes it can pay off to wait until you know your Ultra will kill them or bring them within chip damage in order to use it. This especially ties into your meter management strategy because chances are if you've played it properly, when it's late in the round, you should have enough meter to land your Ultra or Super or both.
A scenario to think about is this: who is more dangerous? Player A with 15% life with Full Meter and Ultra or Player B with 40% life that just used an Uppercut FADC Ultra to bring Player A down to 15% and now is left with no meter and no Ultra? To me, Player A is more dangerous because if he lands both Super and Ultra, it's game over for Player B.
For a Rose-specific example, since seeing this awesome Ultra 2 Setup video, I've tried to integrate a lot of these into my game and this has forced me to wait until I get the right time to activate. This is a sharp contrast to before, where I would usually use Ultra 2 to stop momentum and get out of trouble. Now I almost always force myself to wait until I get an opening I know that I can set up an Orbs mixup after and not only that, I wait until I know I will be able to kill them with it if it hits, or have a high probability of being able to chip them with EX Fireball or EX Soul Spiral afterwards (assuming that I have the meter which I usually do).
If I never get one of those openings, then chances are I will just save it until they have less than 5% left and I have a few meters because then it's almost certain death for them.
Tracking Progress
I started tracking some of my progress in early December when I got back from Japan. Here are my Rose player stats on December 4th:
gootecks and his meter management is that all he thinks about
#3 goddammit I was JUST signing in to post that.
Also GOOOOOOOOOOTECKS, GET HIIIIIM
meh gooteks and mike ross have been a disappointment lately.... use to think gooteks was a great player but he's fallen off completely. I guess he's good teacher for beginners but other than that hes fallen off. His Marvelous adventures has been lame, his Excellent Adventures has gotten old. Is UMvC3 really that hard for them? They just want to keep playing AE good for them. It's just a shame they couldn't do anything in marvel.
id like it if he wrote more. I generally find i have a huge problem with aggressiveness (both lack of, and too much) :(
hmmm,actually, i don't agree with this. The only thing that i agree with is that, if you start a second round having full meter, your opponent has 2 or 3 meters and at an early point, you use your super, you MAY be in a disadvantage. Other than that, i disagree with everything else. i think starting a round with a meter lead is great. Just because i have meter, it doesn't mean i should use it somehow. It will all depend on the situation of course but take Yang for example (i main yang). All yang mainers know they have three options regarding meter usage: you either use it for sei ei enbu, use it for safety/hard situations, or use it for M kick mix ups. On the first round, i just let yang play it out with out using too much meter (i won't use mix ups, super). If i use meter at the 1st round, it'll be for safety purposes. At the 2nd round, i'll use my meter for whatever it's best. If i won the 1st round and i have 3 meters in this round, i'll go for a set-up into super if i consider that it'll be enough to win. My point is, i won't use meter if i don't consider that it's necessary; but i will only use it if i find myself in a hard situation or if i consider that the meter will give me the match.
fucing hilarious, do this in a major gootecks, then u can try to teach. zen master.. rofl
Just stick wit dat blue urien in 3rd Strike, SF4 made u soft remember?
For real guys!? C'mon man. Why does everyone hate on Gootecks so much? If there's a reason, please someone explain because I'm new to the SF scene. The guy went to Japan and had an epiphany about his playing. Felt that the information that he learned would be useful, not only to himself, but to the SF community. Keep the articles coming!!!
Put down Mike Ross out of his high horse, Gootecks. You are the better man.
@15
The reason for this is simple, MVC blows and they know it, I know it, as do many others including the top tier Japanese fighters.
Street Fighter is the main game.
As for Gootecks, funny thing is he would beat most of the guys making the negative comments.
@22 no one hates gootecks. It's the fact he constantly criticized people for "bad" meter usage without understanding the reason behind it. and Now he does...3 years later. Ain't that nice. Does it deserve an article with him posting online(lol) stats? ..no
Always plenty of hate to go around on eventhubs...whether you're trying to show off cool stuff you like finding (Desk) or trying to be helpful (Gootecks), lol. Sad really...always comes back to "did you win a major?" as if that is the only measuring stick of skill.
This is really interesting gootecks, thanks i wish to follow ur updates on this
Lol at people not getting how the gootecks and mike ross dynamics work
If gootecks is getting back into playing then thats cool. Am I expecting him to get really serious again? nah, not really. But if he mains Ibuki I'm sure we'll all be entertained. Do it 'tecks, for the f*ck of it.
also they need to make a character that requires meter management in its design just for gootecks.
The player base is not divided into just pros and scrubs. There are a whole range of players with varying skill levels who are struggling with a huge variety of challenges. Anyone who puts in the time to articulate out solutions to any of these challenges that may end up improving someone's game is very much appreciated. Haters can go *#!@ themselves.
Gootecks and his obsession with meter...I know that meter management is important, but I don't think it's THAT important.
Look at Sako and Poongko. Both of them are really great and effective players and both of them are known for their 'almost non existing' meter management. Even with only 1 pixel left Sako is willing to spend his meter to make an almost impossible comeback...and it works out more often than you'd think. I really like that mentality.
@nero, exposed! Yang relies on meter for big damage,big chip and saving meter with Yang is a waste. He builds it fast and is explosive when using ex moves. Try again Noob, your talking outta ur ass and ur exposed.
I really like Gootecks as a person, he's really fun... but... I don't quite like this attitude. Some things he says makes sense but other things I don't agree with. Everything is about resource management? Bah... I don't feel that way. It's as if meter is generally worth more than actual health. Sure, if I have 99 % health and one meter then of course the meter is worth more than the 1 % health. But c'mon, landing a super in the beginning of a round is worth A LOT. I may have no meter left but my opponent only has about half of his life left. Isn't that worth more? I think it is. Meter? METER!? I'LL F***ING SURVIVE WITHOUT METER!
It's as if you're completely helpless when you have no meter. You're not, you can still manage most situations. I just try to adapt to how much meter I have at the moment and use it for things that will help sensibly... I think Gootecks said something like this so I guess we agree on that.
Anyway... I just think this is a bit too blown up. I agree with the one who said that sometimes it's all about genuine skill rather than analysis. Of course meter is good, very good, but you shouldn't depend on it too much. You should try to learn to manage all situations in the game, both with meter and without meter. Of course my "genuine skill" isn't enough to beat everything at the moment, but my mentality aims for something like that. It's most probably quite an unachievable fantasy, but I think it's the correct attitude to have when you play.
One thing I absolutely don't agree with being a "general principle" is the "ending the round with ultra"... wat? Why is that necessary? If my opponent has 40 % health left and my ultra will do 35 % damage, what's the difference between making the 5 % damage first and then the ultra, or doing the ultra first and then the last 5 %? Well... it depends on the situation after the ultra i.m.o.; Dan's U2 for instance is quite bad to not end the round with since he goes all the way to the other side of the screen and loses his pressure game, but most ultras don't end that bad do they? Anyway... if your opponent has 40 % health left and you get a good ultra opportunity, I don't think you should consider it a generally good move to NOT do it.
Why keep playing SF4? Game is hella lame.
Go back to 3S Gootecks.
Or pick up KOFXIII.
Too some of these folks on here Gootecks has won a major granted it was awhile ago but he did win one and players like J Wong,Marn,and Combofiend was there and played. I find it funny when a pro or even semi-pro gives advice all the trolls come out and talk trash. I would like to see some of these people give out stats on their tourney wins.
Also online is great for learning match ups and trying out new things, I don't think the man is saying online means he is going to beast a the next major or anything like that. He is just using it for a tool. Look at Krone and Latif sure they played in their local scenes but they also supplemented it with online play also. So some folks in here need to stop acting like they don't play online.
I would always go for damage, cause the lifelead is imo more important, because you can control the spacing and the pacing of the match. Wich doesn't mean to play lame, but its a big difference if i have the choice between pressuring and attacking, or blocking and countering, instead of being forced to attack. And thats what this game is about in my opinion. Options. And having meter is a big part of that, since you have more options with meter, but the control to limit your opponents options by having the freedom to not having to pursue the lifelead is very great in my opinion. But it all depends on the character.
With Makoto i dont care for exmeter at all, i use it if i have it but dont miss it if i dont, but like to keep her ultra2. In the first round i throw it out first chance i see to hit it, last round i keep it for strategy and only use it to come close or win. With juri i like to have 1 ex in stock for reversals, the rest i spent for mixups and pressure whenever, I dont care for the Ultra at all and only use it on dizzys and focus crumples.
With honda i like to have as many meters as possible in stock. And i use it for one purpose only. And i use the Ultra any chance i get, even if i wont get the lifelead.
With Rose and Guile i try to get 3 meters for reversals and only use it to preserve the lifelead, otherwise i just try to guess the mixup and get out or block.
But all that again depends on my opponent and the matchup, too. But those are the usuall strategies from me to use meter.
#2 I agree. I think he over-thinks the meter management factor of the game. This game is not ultimately about resource management, it's about reading the opponent. If you land a Super early in a round, it's a not a bad thing because you get an early lead, so know you get the chance to command the flow of the match, since the player who needs a comeback is usually more ruthless. Sure, in some situations it's better to save it for the kill, but early in the match I don't think it's a bad thing as long it does considerable damage and you can avoid being in tricky mix-ups.
I would manage his meter... If you know what I mean.... Wait.... What the hell did I just say?
You dont have to like Gootecks but you can give him credit for posting his thoughts for the community to read or use as an informative tool to help better their game. Its funny how everyone is professionals or high ranked tournament players when someone is trying to give their input, and most of the people thats bashing isn't doing anything to help the community at all. Why don't you post some articles or give advice, host tournaments, or anything that can benefit the players in the fighting game community.
MugenLord most people are just talkers and not doers,folks wonder why most players don't like to give tips or pointers out online. I remember Art doing that on srk and boy did the trolls come out and act a fool. You can't win for losing sometimes.
@22
While I respect what he tries to do for the fighting game community, I don't like him because the more I follow what he does, the more he seems like a dick irl. Getting mad and throwing sticks, talking smack, telling Poongko in a very serious tone that he was going to punch his face for touching his camera, to name a few. Everyone knows someone like that and those people aren't pleasant.
His real personality shows through no matter how much he tries to seem like a likeable guy in those excellent adventures and cross counter videos.
yeah, Gootecks won some tourneys sure, back when sf4 was in it's infancy stages. but now that everyone has the game at their home, he has done next to nothing in the competitive scene and in my eyes i see a decent player surrounded by amazing players so he comes off knowledgeable but he's not someone gonna be making tech any time soon . Gooteks and Mike Ross use to be interesting to watch but i find Maximilliam show more entertaining as a youtube series now... because it's fun, serious and knowledgeable. While it's painful to watch gootecks play UMvC3.
Anon Gootecks never threw his stick lol. You falling for a made up meme man.
It's funny reading all the Gootecks hate found in here. As if any of you have ever won a tournament. No majors or minors won. And yet you all criticize with such passion! Win some tournaments then downplay a player who is actually making money off SF. ;)
over thinking and over analyzing can lose u the game. as long as your meter is being used to deal dmg or get out of situations and not wasted then there is no wrong or right way to use the meter, beginning, end or middle of the round.
@45 DSP won an evo tournament would you follow his advice?
damn, it turned into the player haters ball in here for a minute. chances are if your hating, you probably can't beat gootecks.i agree with 56. in other words, you haters that love to be hating.....go and try to beat someone who's big in the scene then talk. Otherwise? stay in the forums lol
I really don't get why Gootecks gets hate from this incredibly vocal minority group. People bring up things like throwing sticks, the poongko thing, etc. Most is either made up or exaggerated. Who honestly here has never had an angry moment of overreaction in life, or said something in panic, or anger? You are a liar if you say otherwise. Many players have done or said something in situations. No one is perfect.
I dont know Gootecks personally, so I'm not going to make all these judgments based on one or two observations, because i'm not perfect either. I do know that he has a strong passion and a healthy work ethic that follows it, as evidenced by all of his work in the fgc and cross counter.
As far as this article is concerned, it's a well-written opinion piece. He is simply giving his observations on what increased his win-rate. You can disagree if you like, but the argument that "he hasn't won a major in forever" is stupid. Being out of practice does not mean he cant teach. On the same token, there are MANY great players that couldn't teach worth a damn. Skill in a task and the ability to teach it do not go hand-in-hand. Gootecks is actually rather knowledgable about the game system in general, and he was right on in most aspects about meter management....for Rose. Alot of you missed that part where he said that was his system for Rose, and that alot of other characters could be used similarly.
@36
You named Sako and Poongko as people that don't manage meter, but look at their playstyles. If you are constantly on the attack like those two, of course you don't need to worry. If you are constantly on the attack either connecting attacks or connecting blockstrings, you are building meter quickly. That's far different from the playstyle of rose, who is more of a footsie character that doesn't have blockstrings to rely on for meter.
Meter management isn't one size fits all.
Some good points overall, but meter management really depends on the character/play-style you have. I won't hesitate to use my ultra because I know I can do a safe jump after it. And if I happen to focus some fireballs or something I might end up getting another ultra (I guess this is just a different kind of meter management).
Good luck Ryan.