[0:00] folks fighting games have gotten a lot
[0:01] better over the years at teaching you
[0:03] how to play the game tutorials have
[0:05] gotten a lot more in-depth games
[0:07] actually teach you stuff like Frame data
[0:10] now but I still think that fighting
[0:12] games struggle in terms of teaching you
[0:13] the fundamentals of how to play the
[0:15] genre you know they teach you how to do
[0:17] your special moves they teach you how to
[0:19] do your combos but they don't teach you
[0:20] when and how you should be applying
[0:23] those in a real match so I think one of
[0:25] the best ways to improve at these
[0:27] fundamentals is to watch other people
[0:29] especially top players and see what
[0:31] they're doing and learn from them so
[0:33] today I think I've found for you a top
[0:36] level match where an extremely massive
[0:40] amount of fighting game fundamentals are
[0:42] displayed in only one game so the match
[0:45] that we're taking a look at today is
[0:46] Daigo versus CN this is from Capcom Pro
[0:49] Tour Asia finals 2014 in Ultra Street
[0:54] Fighter 4 and we're just watching the
[0:56] very first game
[0:57] the whole match is really long and it's
[0:59] a really really great match so I'll link
[1:01] that down in the description if you want
[1:02] to watch the whole thing but just in the
[1:04] first game I have identified over a
[1:06] dozen
[1:07] fighting game fundamental skills that
[1:09] you need to have if you want to be good
[1:11] at this genre especially with Street
[1:12] Fighter 6 coming out just over three
[1:14] weeks can you believe that you guys are
[1:17] going to want to know some of these
[1:18] Basics so that you can go out there and
[1:20] get some wins online so what do you say
[1:22] we start things out here Daigo with Evil
[1:24] Ryu versus CN with Ganon we're gonna
[1:26] watch the video through just one time at
[1:28] full speed
[1:30] just to you know soak it all in and see
[1:33] what happens then we'll go through again
[1:34] and I'm gonna do a bunch of pausing and
[1:36] pointing out all these little
[1:37] fundamentals but you know I go looking
[1:39] pretty good so far with the the
[1:41] knockdown but nice throw Tech from CN
[1:43] trying to poke with crouching medium
[1:45] punch but getting pushed into the corner
[1:48] getting knocked down by the repeated
[1:50] sweeps here repeated crouching medium
[1:52] punches as well
[1:53] the igo's pressure is looking crazy
[1:55] right now wake up Ultra though is gonna
[1:58] connect I don't know if you guys
[1:59] remember this Ultra only does gray life
[2:01] so you can see that's all recoverable
[2:03] life but Stan lands the throw so that's
[2:06] gonna take away all the gray life so
[2:07] this is a good outcome for CN here and
[2:09] he's got Daigo pushed into the corner
[2:13] not a super good position here for the
[2:16] Beast
[2:18] yeah I got a full screen to work with
[2:19] and there's a nice air-to-air jump Round
[2:22] House
[2:24] the red Focus Lewis loses the forward
[2:27] roundhouse canceled into ex Tatsu though
[2:30] that was sick from Daigo and then the
[2:31] fireball to chip out no chip kills in
[2:33] Street Fighter 6 but
[2:36] here in uh the Street Fighter 4 chip was
[2:39] very much a factor when you're low on
[2:41] life so already Daigo has the corner
[2:43] there's towards medium punch overhead
[2:46] standing medium kick poke from just the
[2:48] right range
[2:50] the sand in a very tough position here
[2:53] trade DP combo into another DP there's a
[2:57] throw Tech
[3:00] oh we're punished crowd strong into in
[3:03] the hundred hand slap but seeing on just
[3:05] the pixel ish a pixel and change and
[3:08] this time the raw Ultra is not going to
[3:10] work out Daigo hits him with the EXP to
[3:12] go through it and that's game one guys
[3:13] that's the whole game so would you
[3:15] really believe that there's somewhere
[3:17] around 10 12 ish fighting game
[3:21] fundamentals just in that one game alone
[3:23] so I'm gonna do my best to point them
[3:25] out to you and right when we start off
[3:26] here I want to talk to you about what I
[3:28] would consider the two main fundamentals
[3:31] of fighting games in general I think the
[3:33] first place I heard this was from David
[3:35] surlin on the uh Street Fighter 2
[3:38] Anniversary Collection tutorial videos
[3:41] he talked about the two main
[3:43] fundamentals of Street Fighter which are
[3:45] controlling space
[3:47] that's number one and pressing the
[3:49] advantage that's number two so to start
[3:51] out let's talk about controlling space
[3:53] and I think one of the most obvious ways
[3:55] to control space is with a fireball
[3:56] right so Evil Ryu Fireball you know that
[3:59] covers a massive amount of space because
[4:01] it you know it goes full screen so uh
[4:04] Evil Ryu is going to be trying to
[4:05] control this huge amount of screen space
[4:07] here with Fireball
[4:10] you can see he's doing a great job of it
[4:12] but now
[4:13] gen has gotten in here as CN and he's
[4:17] gonna be pressing the advantage so when
[4:18] we say pressing the advantage we
[4:20] basically mean if you're in a positive
[4:22] situation a situation where your
[4:24] character has the advantage over the
[4:25] opponent you have to kind of push that
[4:27] and try to get damage out of it and try
[4:29] to continue the situation instead of
[4:31] just like going back to neutral and
[4:33] getting back into a situation where
[4:34] neither player is at the advantage you
[4:36] should try to get as much damage as
[4:37] possible whenever you're in a positive
[4:39] situation and CN here is in a positive
[4:42] situation when he gets this Dash
[4:45] you can see Daigo doesn't press any
[4:47] buttons here so CN gets the jab and now
[4:49] he is plus I'm not going to talk too
[4:51] much about Frame data here but
[4:53] essentially when you're at plus frames
[4:54] you can act before the opponent which
[4:56] means you're at Advantage so that's two
[4:58] things right off the bat controlling
[5:00] space pressing the advantage those are
[5:02] the first two fundamentals and the third
[5:04] one here I'm going to talk about is
[5:05] frame traps so you can see he does stand
[5:07] jab Crouch strong and that is actually a
[5:10] frame trap so a frame trap is
[5:12] essentially a situation where if the
[5:14] opponent presses a button they're gonna
[5:16] get interrupted so you can see after the
[5:18] standing jab here if I press buttons I'm
[5:21] gonna get hit so there's a very small
[5:23] Gap there like a two frame gap which is
[5:25] not enough time for any of my attacks to
[5:28] come out so I'll get hit by the way I'll
[5:29] point out while I'm here that uh this
[5:31] Focus dash into jab is not actually real
[5:35] uh Daigo could actually interrupt there
[5:38] if you press the button but but right
[5:39] here Daigo very respectful he blocks
[5:42] here and then once again he blocks the
[5:44] frame trap attempt so he doesn't bite he
[5:46] doesn't get hit by pressing any buttons
[5:48] there so that's some good awareness
[5:49] there from Daigo but I want to talk
[5:52] about the next fundamental here which is
[5:54] poking
[5:55] so when we say poking and fighting games
[5:57] generally we mean using an attack kind
[6:00] of at the tip of its range that's kind
[6:02] of what we're looking for we're we're
[6:03] hitting the opponent with an attack from
[6:05] as far away as that attack can possibly
[6:07] be used so you know we have Daigo here
[6:09] poking with standing medium kick very
[6:11] solid poke for Evil Ryu and then we have
[6:14] Sian poking with crouching medium punch
[6:17] you can see these normals not quite
[6:19] interacting Daigo poking with crouching
[6:21] medium kick into Fireball and then
[6:24] poking with Fireball as well Fireball
[6:26] can be a very strong poke if you use it
[6:28] from close range where it's unreactable
[6:30] but once again CN is gonna get this
[6:32] Focus attack level one into the dash up
[6:36] and this time daigo's ready he steals
[6:39] his turn back with a jab because he does
[6:41] know like I showed you it's not actually
[6:43] gen's turn in that situation so Daigo
[6:46] pulls out the jab here and he does what
[6:48] is our next fundamental I want to talk
[6:49] about which is a tick throw tick throw
[6:51] is really simple it just means doing any
[6:53] attack
[6:54] and then throwing the opponent right
[6:56] after they recover from it so you can
[6:58] tick throw with a jumping that totally
[7:00] works or you can tick throw uh with
[7:03] buttons or whatever so tick throw good
[7:05] way to mix up the opponent catch them
[7:06] off guard so he gets the throw there
[7:09] with the tick throw and then what's he
[7:11] doing here he's pressing his Advantage
[7:12] guys let me just rub it in more a throw
[7:14] is a really good opportunity to press
[7:17] your advantage when you get the knock
[7:18] down especially in games like Street
[7:20] Fighter 5 and 6 you see people doing
[7:22] throw loops and stuff where they throw
[7:23] the opponent and then the opponent has
[7:25] to guess when they're waking up whether
[7:26] they're gonna get thrown again so press
[7:28] the advantage that's exactly what he's
[7:30] doing here he does the jab and then look
[7:32] at that
[7:33] CN back dashes and then gets hit by The
[7:36] Sweep this is our next little piece of
[7:39] tech here I don't know if I would call
[7:40] this actually a fundamental because this
[7:42] is pretty high level but this is an
[7:43] option select guide so an option select
[7:46] means you do one set of inputs and then
[7:49] depending on what the opponent does you
[7:51] can get multiple outcomes so Watch What
[7:54] Happens here if I block if I block he
[7:57] gets jab into medium punch which is
[8:00] pretty good it's a frame trap and you
[8:02] know he can start whatever pressure he
[8:03] wants after this but what happens if I
[8:05] back down to get away from that jab
[8:06] let's check it out look I got sweat and
[8:09] you can see this is a dummy recording so
[8:11] he's doing the same inputs no matter
[8:13] what
[8:15] but you can see if I backdash here a
[8:18] sweep comes out so again this is a
[8:20] pretty high level technique but
[8:22] essentially what he's doing is he's
[8:23] hiding the heavy kick input during the
[8:26] screen freeze if the jab connects I know
[8:29] it's a little bit complicated you don't
[8:31] really need this as a new player but you
[8:33] should definitely know that option
[8:34] selects exist especially when Street
[8:36] Fighter 6 comes out we don't know what
[8:38] all option selects are going to be in
[8:39] the game but it is a very useful concept
[8:42] to know and especially to recognize when
[8:45] your opponent is using them on you so
[8:47] that you can have stuff ready to deal
[8:49] with it alright moving on so he gets the
[8:51] knockdown once again he's pressing his
[8:52] Advantage he goes for another tick throw
[8:54] CN texts it this time good throw Tech
[8:59] okay did you see that that's another
[9:01] fundamental right there that I want to
[9:02] talk about that's called a whiff punish
[9:05] guys a whiff punish is so important in
[9:07] Street Fighter he whiffs the crouching
[9:09] heavy kick that's what we call it when
[9:10] an attack misses the opponent we call
[9:12] that a whiff and then there's the punish
[9:14] with crouching medium punch he probably
[9:16] tried to go into gen's hundred hand Slap
[9:19] Attack here but doesn't get the input
[9:21] but regardless that is a whiff punish an
[9:23] important part of footsies something you
[9:25] need to know if you react and see those
[9:27] slow attacks that the opponent sticks
[9:30] out so with punish is super important
[9:33] now he's uh controlling space and
[9:36] pressing his Advantage really because
[9:38] he's got CNN in the corner when your
[9:39] back is in the corner your options are
[9:41] greatly limited so this is another type
[9:43] of advantage that you can create in the
[9:45] match by cornering the opponent that is
[9:47] a huge Advantage for you to take here so
[9:49] he's pressuring him with crouching
[9:51] medium punches again pressing the
[9:53] advantage by going for the jump in and
[9:54] then using the frame advantage on
[9:56] crouching medium punch to really apply
[9:58] pressure here and then he gets that huge
[10:00] walk-up throw he's got another knockdown
[10:03] but
[10:04] guess what if the opponent is pressing
[10:06] advantage on you you might want to try
[10:09] to use a reversal to get out so that's
[10:11] our next fundamental is reversals so if
[10:13] you're really annoyed that you know the
[10:15] opponent basically has you in like this
[10:17] forever blocking situation and you're
[10:19] getting frustrated that you don't know
[10:20] how to get out you're just stuck sitting
[10:22] there while the opponent does their
[10:24] thing a reversal is a good way to get
[10:25] out so a reversal is going to be an
[10:27] invincible move that you can use either
[10:29] on wake up or uh on blocks so you can
[10:33] see here I can use my ex Up Kicks as a
[10:36] reversal that's Invincible or I can use
[10:38] you know stuff like super and Ultra as
[10:40] well those are going to be invincible so
[10:42] in Street Fighter 6 ex Dragon punches
[10:44] are invincible reversals as are a lot of
[10:47] supers so again you can do that on wake
[10:50] up or you can do it on blocks so here's
[10:52] an example I can go right through his
[10:55] crouching medium punch with my ex Up
[10:58] Kicks my ex uppercut plus kick will get
[11:01] me right through so uh reversals they
[11:03] are punishable if blocked that's going
[11:05] to come up later but they're a good way
[11:07] to get out of the opponent's pressure
[11:08] all right so if my if my count is
[11:10] correct here we're we're up to eight
[11:13] fundamental pieces of fighting game
[11:14] knowledge already but let's keep going
[11:17] so sand does empty jump throw there and
[11:19] here a nice cross-up that's another
[11:22] important fundamental guys that is
[11:24] another way to press your advantage most
[11:26] characters in Street Fighter have a
[11:28] cross-up but not all so if you can knock
[11:30] the opponent down
[11:32] and then you can go for a jumping attack
[11:34] that hits them on the back they have to
[11:36] switch the direction they guard so just
[11:38] to show you I'll let the dummy do this
[11:40] to me here so I'll hold back on wake up
[11:43] to block and you can see I get hit
[11:45] because back becomes forward because we
[11:47] switch sides so to block this you have
[11:49] to switch the direction you block and
[11:51] you actually have to block forward so
[11:53] this time I will block forward
[11:56] and there you can see I successfully
[11:58] blocked the cross up so cross-ups are
[12:00] especially effective against new players
[12:02] because they're not going to see it
[12:03] coming experienced players are going to
[12:05] be pretty good at blocking them but
[12:06] there are additional ways to make it
[12:08] trickier like if your character has a
[12:10] dive kick it can be very confusing
[12:12] whether they're going to hit on the
[12:13] front or the back or other ways to alter
[12:15] their sort of air trajectory like if
[12:17] they have a hurricane kick or something
[12:19] they can do in the air you can make your
[12:20] cross-ups even more tricky that way but
[12:22] cross-ups are a super good way to press
[12:24] the advantage when you have a knockdown
[12:26] and the other nice thing about this is
[12:28] you know after the cross-up even if they
[12:30] block it
[12:31] you're still in an advantageous
[12:33] situation because you land and you can
[12:35] act quickly so this is a really great
[12:37] way to press your advantage like I said
[12:39] that's one of the two main fundamentals
[12:40] controlling space and pressing Advantage
[12:42] I really want to hammer that home for
[12:44] you guys make sure to look out for those
[12:46] situations all right let's keep moving
[12:47] on here
[12:48] so sand poking with crashing medium
[12:50] punch there we love to see the pokes
[12:54] neutral jumping the fireball but you
[12:56] know Evil Ryu controlling space really
[12:58] well here huge walk up and then
[13:00] check this out the air to air jump
[13:03] roundhouse I think he could have comboed
[13:05] off this I know for sure gen can go into
[13:07] like super and Ultra office but uh CM
[13:10] didn't have uh super ultra meter so
[13:12] maybe there's nothing he could have
[13:13] commented with there but regardless
[13:15] hitting the opponent out of the air in
[13:16] Street Fighter is so essential because
[13:18] in most Street Fighter games including
[13:21] Street Fighter 4 and Street Fighter 6
[13:22] you cannot Block in the air so if you
[13:25] jump you're opening yourself up to being
[13:27] anti-ared whether it's from the ground
[13:29] or with what we call an air-to-air when
[13:32] you jump up to hit the opponent out of
[13:34] the air so this is a super essential
[13:36] skill especially at low levels because
[13:38] everyone just jumps all the time so make
[13:40] sure your antiers are on point let's
[13:42] continue here so he gets the knockdown
[13:44] with that anteater he goes for the red
[13:47] focus and gets gets Focus breaker that
[13:51] is so crazy from Daigo that is that is
[13:54] one of the all-time Daigo skills there
[13:57] is getting those Focus breaks but let's
[13:59] move on oh
[14:01] Daigo gets the fadc into the full combo
[14:04] and he just displayed a really important
[14:06] fundamental which is hit confirming so
[14:09] Daigo he did crouching medium kick into
[14:11] Fireball Focus attack Dash cancel into
[14:14] like a full ridiculous combo so you're
[14:16] going to want to hit confirm this so
[14:18] that if the opponent blocks you don't
[14:20] just waste your meter for no reason and
[14:22] not get any damage off it so hit confirm
[14:24] means basically you wait and you see
[14:26] confirm did it hit and if it hit you're
[14:29] gonna finish your combo but if they
[14:30] blocked it you're not going to finish
[14:32] your combo you're going to do something
[14:33] else so if it was blocked Daigo probably
[14:35] would have just done you know crouching
[14:37] medium kick in the Fireball and that's
[14:38] it another example could be like if you
[14:40] want to do like this Evil Ryu combo
[14:43] light kick light punch medium punch into
[14:45] hurricane kick if the opponent blocks
[14:48] this you're not really happy because
[14:49] you're probably going to be punishable
[14:51] you're going to land right in front of
[14:52] them and you know eat a big punish and
[14:54] not get any damage so you can make sure
[14:57] that it's actually going to hit a good
[14:59] way to practice this in training mode
[15:00] set the dummy to random guard I see a
[15:03] lot of people have never used the random
[15:04] guard feature it's super important
[15:07] you know you can see I'm checking
[15:11] there it hits so I'll finish the combo
[15:14] and the same thing with this you know
[15:16] like if this hits I'm only gonna do the
[15:20] fadc
[15:22] like that so yeah you only want to spend
[15:25] the meter and you only want to do
[15:26] something that might leave you unsafe on
[15:28] block if it's actually gonna hit so
[15:30] practicing hit confirming I think is one
[15:32] of the most important things that you
[15:34] can do when you're picking up a new
[15:35] fighting game learn your character's
[15:37] Combos and learn what combos you can hit
[15:39] confirm into all right so he got the
[15:42] very nice fadc hit confirm there now
[15:45] he's got the knockdown he's pressing at
[15:47] his advantage and for the first time
[15:48] this set we see high low mix up guys
[15:51] that's a fundamental of course so we've
[15:53] already seen lots of throw Mix-Ups you
[15:55] know going for like tick throws and
[15:57] stuff like that or like empty jump throw
[15:59] you know throw is a really really good
[16:01] way to mix up but in fighting games
[16:03] there's also high low Mix-Ups because
[16:05] you know there's standing block and
[16:07] crouching block so there are certain
[16:08] moves that can only be blocked standing
[16:10] so generally in Street Fighter it's rare
[16:13] to get a combo off of an overhead this
[16:15] is called an overhead in case you didn't
[16:17] know a move that can only be blocked
[16:19] standing is called an overhead it's rare
[16:21] to have combos off of overheads there's
[16:22] some some exceptions like Dudley but for
[16:25] the most part overheads are just going
[16:27] to be like a little bit of damage just
[16:29] one attack's worth of damage but this is
[16:31] kind of like free damage for Daigo
[16:33] because you know obviously crouching
[16:35] medium kick is such a threat he gets
[16:37] such massive damage off crouching medium
[16:39] kick that CN in this match is going to
[16:41] be blocking low the entire time so uh
[16:44] yeah overheads like this can be a great
[16:45] way to eke out extra damage and meter
[16:47] build and make the opponent think twice
[16:50] about what to do on defense so don't
[16:52] neglect the power of a high low mix up
[16:54] all right we're at if my count is
[16:57] correct we're at 13 fundamentals so far
[17:00] but I think before we get to the end
[17:01] here I think we can even find one more
[17:03] so I'll keep pointing everything out we
[17:05] got poking we got footsies
[17:08] oh okay we got pressing the advantage
[17:10] here in the corner we got reversal to
[17:13] get out there with the Invincible Dragon
[17:14] punch
[17:15] we got throws okay not a tick throw but
[17:17] a throw Tech we got whiff punishing
[17:19] again
[17:20] there's a tick throw off the jumping now
[17:22] he's got the knockdown in the corner
[17:24] nice throw Tech from CN and here we see
[17:27] another the last on our list today of
[17:29] fundamentals is the bait and punish so
[17:32] of course we talked about the power of
[17:34] reversals you know if the opponent's got
[17:36] you knocked down they're pressuring you
[17:38] while you're waking up or just
[17:40] pressuring you on block as well an
[17:42] invincible reversal will get you out of
[17:44] the situation and get you the turn back
[17:46] so that you can be the one pressing your
[17:48] advantage all of a sudden but the one
[17:50] big downside of course is that you can
[17:52] be baited and punished because pretty
[17:55] much every Invincible reversal is going
[17:56] to be unsafe on Block in most games so
[17:59] you know like that ex Up Kicks we saw
[18:01] earlier you can just get a huge full
[18:03] punish if you block that or like we saw
[18:06] die go through you can be even more
[18:07] disrespectful with it and you can use
[18:09] your own Invincible move to go right
[18:12] through oh and in this situation we
[18:14] actually
[18:15] oh there we go okay yeah we beat him
[18:17] clean yeah so you know whoever does the
[18:20] Invincible move second is generally
[18:21] gonna win but it can be a little risky
[18:23] to go for that so most moves that are
[18:26] punishable on block it is gonna be safer
[18:28] to just block and punish that way so
[18:31] yeah baiting an attack baiting them to
[18:34] do something and then waiting for it so
[18:36] that you can punish it super important
[18:38] skill once again especially at low
[18:40] levels people are doing lots of unsafe
[18:42] stuff so you're going to want to have
[18:44] your punishes on Deck all right so with
[18:46] that I've counted up a total of 14
[18:48] pieces of knowledge in one match man
[18:53] this is crazy I absolutely love watching
[18:56] these players go at it two of my
[18:58] favorites Daigo and CN and once again
[19:00] I'll link the full match in the
[19:01] description if you want to watch it it's
[19:03] like a 30 minute video so there's a lot
[19:05] to enjoy here so make sure to check that
[19:07] out and I hope you guys enjoyed this
[19:09] little breakdown let me know if there's
[19:10] other types of breakdowns or other types
[19:13] of fighting game fundamentals that
[19:15] you're curious about and what learn more
[19:16] about hit me up in the comments and I
[19:19] will maybe make a future video about it
[19:20] so let me know about that and I hope you
[19:22] guys enjoyed I'll see you in the next
[19:23] one bye everybody