The SC4 project
One of the reasons I'm doing this is because I am deathly afraid of getting scrubbed out. With only 16 days to go, I've got to get through quite a few cast members to go through, but I'm limiting my study to the characters I fear most. Those characters are:
Voldo: I got scrubbed out at NDK by a Voldo player. I'm pretty sure he was at least decent, but I lost mostly because I wasn't aware of my punishment options. Voldo is a really unpredictable character that could be really predictable if I could read his moves. I managed a halfassed attempt at Sakuracon (in 2006) which scraped me by (okay, I like OCVed the dude) but I could really benefit from a better than rudimentary understanding of Voldo.
Cervantes: Cerv is one of those characters I always manage to beat, even when I'm facing a player who seems pretty good at him. Still, he's got huge damage potential if he scores a hit. If he lands a mixup he can get a lot of damage, and if you can't read his mixups you're going to get hit by them, so knowing what he can do is really important. I've always somehow managed to beat Cerv players in casuals (never played against one in a tourney) just by maintaining offense and never really letting them play (I win a majority of my matches this way). I'd like to increase my odds should they actually score hits on me this time around.
Astaroth: I've been traditionally bad at figuring Asta out. With just a rudimentary knowledge of Asta, I took him against Jake's Mitsurugi and won, and narrowly lost to Jake's Amy (Asta doesn't have any answer to Amy, wah) just because Asta has really nasty, "unpredictable" shit like WS A and 6K. I will not lose to Asta this time around, especially because of how much he sucks. I'm pretty sure Cassandra's AA/BB can beat him all on their own, but I want big damage on every unsafe block.
Yunseong: Fuck him; I get raped by him practically every damn time I fight against him, and I -know- he's low tier. He's got stupid mixups that I have no clue how to guard. I will get fluked against him if someone in my circle picks him up and I know Dman alts him. In the face of that information he should be a priority.
Sieg: Most played character ever - fortunately, he takes like 30 seconds to learn his low/high game.
Other characters I might figure out:
Ivy: I want to learn her and I definitely will play her after K-con. I don't have enough time to learn her (2.5 weeks) so I have to run the risk of getting scrubbed out by her. I -highly- doubt a good Ivy will emerge in the month the game has been out and I'm confident I can read her low game, so she's put on the back burner, most likely.
Amy: In the desire to improve Scott's game I may mess around with her. I think the chances of this happening are moderate.
Taki: She's a whore. I hate playing against her, and there is a fairly good chance I will get scrubbed out by her since she can beat some of my pressure games at disadvantage. Still, I've been playing against SC3 Taki players for ~2 years now. I should be able to react to her mixup better than most of the priority characters.
Zal: He got a new game, and unless Jake figures it out hardcore I will have to practice some with him to get my counter-Zal up to snuff before tournament time.
Yoshi: I might alt him, but Cassandra is seriously so good that I'm doubting my need to alt anyone. Because I am for sure going to analyze Cerv, I might alt him instead. Yoshi is boss, though. Top tier material for sure.
Talim: I almost got scrubbed out by her 2 years ago; that memory is sort of fresh in my mind. Cassie beats her in frame data but I have to take fighting against her in a totally different light.
Algol: Everyone, and I mean everyone says I should alt Algol. I doubt it will happen before K-con. He's basically a crappy Cassandra with an interesting wakeup game.
Setsuka: I hate her, but I cannot read her lows. All I know is her 1A string is way slower (i14 at least) than I thought it was.
Cervantes is being tested right now. Go combo damage ftwz!
Voldo: I got scrubbed out at NDK by a Voldo player. I'm pretty sure he was at least decent, but I lost mostly because I wasn't aware of my punishment options. Voldo is a really unpredictable character that could be really predictable if I could read his moves. I managed a halfassed attempt at Sakuracon (in 2006) which scraped me by (okay, I like OCVed the dude) but I could really benefit from a better than rudimentary understanding of Voldo.
Cervantes: Cerv is one of those characters I always manage to beat, even when I'm facing a player who seems pretty good at him. Still, he's got huge damage potential if he scores a hit. If he lands a mixup he can get a lot of damage, and if you can't read his mixups you're going to get hit by them, so knowing what he can do is really important. I've always somehow managed to beat Cerv players in casuals (never played against one in a tourney) just by maintaining offense and never really letting them play (I win a majority of my matches this way). I'd like to increase my odds should they actually score hits on me this time around.
Astaroth: I've been traditionally bad at figuring Asta out. With just a rudimentary knowledge of Asta, I took him against Jake's Mitsurugi and won, and narrowly lost to Jake's Amy (Asta doesn't have any answer to Amy, wah) just because Asta has really nasty, "unpredictable" shit like WS A and 6K. I will not lose to Asta this time around, especially because of how much he sucks. I'm pretty sure Cassandra's AA/BB can beat him all on their own, but I want big damage on every unsafe block.
Yunseong: Fuck him; I get raped by him practically every damn time I fight against him, and I -know- he's low tier. He's got stupid mixups that I have no clue how to guard. I will get fluked against him if someone in my circle picks him up and I know Dman alts him. In the face of that information he should be a priority.
Sieg: Most played character ever - fortunately, he takes like 30 seconds to learn his low/high game.
Other characters I might figure out:
Ivy: I want to learn her and I definitely will play her after K-con. I don't have enough time to learn her (2.5 weeks) so I have to run the risk of getting scrubbed out by her. I -highly- doubt a good Ivy will emerge in the month the game has been out and I'm confident I can read her low game, so she's put on the back burner, most likely.
Amy: In the desire to improve Scott's game I may mess around with her. I think the chances of this happening are moderate.
Taki: She's a whore. I hate playing against her, and there is a fairly good chance I will get scrubbed out by her since she can beat some of my pressure games at disadvantage. Still, I've been playing against SC3 Taki players for ~2 years now. I should be able to react to her mixup better than most of the priority characters.
Zal: He got a new game, and unless Jake figures it out hardcore I will have to practice some with him to get my counter-Zal up to snuff before tournament time.
Yoshi: I might alt him, but Cassandra is seriously so good that I'm doubting my need to alt anyone. Because I am for sure going to analyze Cerv, I might alt him instead. Yoshi is boss, though. Top tier material for sure.
Talim: I almost got scrubbed out by her 2 years ago; that memory is sort of fresh in my mind. Cassie beats her in frame data but I have to take fighting against her in a totally different light.
Algol: Everyone, and I mean everyone says I should alt Algol. I doubt it will happen before K-con. He's basically a crappy Cassandra with an interesting wakeup game.
Setsuka: I hate her, but I cannot read her lows. All I know is her 1A string is way slower (i14 at least) than I thought it was.
Cervantes is being tested right now. Go combo damage ftwz!