Watch this 1 Daigo match to learn 14 Fighting Game fundamentals

[00:00] folks fighting games have gotten a lot

[00:01] better over the years at teaching you

[00:03] how to play the game tutorials have

[00:05] gotten a lot more in-depth games

[00:07] actually teach you stuff like Frame data

[00:10] now but I still think that fighting

[00:12] games struggle in terms of teaching you

[00:13] the fundamentals of how to play the

[00:15] genre you know they teach you how to do

[00:17] your special moves they teach you how to

[00:19] do your combos but they don't teach you

[00:20] when and how you should be applying

[00:23] those in a real match so I think one of

[00:25] the best ways to improve at these

[00:27] fundamentals is to watch other people

[00:29] especially top players and see what

[00:31] they're doing and learn from them so

[00:33] today I think I've found for you a top

[00:36] level match where an extremely massive

[00:40] amount of fighting game fundamentals are

[00:42] displayed in only one game so the match

[00:45] that we're taking a look at today is

[00:46] Daigo versus CN this is from Capcom Pro

[00:49] Tour Asia finals 2014 in Ultra Street

[00:54] Fighter 4 and we're just watching the

[00:56] very first game

[00:57] the whole match is really long and it's

[00:59] a really really great match so I'll link

[01:01] that down in the description if you want

[01:02] to watch the whole thing but just in the

[01:04] first game I have identified over a

[01:06] dozen

[01:07] fighting game fundamental skills that

[01:09] you need to have if you want to be good

[01:11] at this genre especially with Street

[01:12] Fighter 6 coming out just over three

[01:14] weeks can you believe that you guys are

[01:17] going to want to know some of these

[01:18] Basics so that you can go out there and

[01:20] get some wins online so what do you say

[01:22] we start things out here Daigo with Evil

[01:24] Ryu versus CN with Ganon we're gonna

[01:26] watch the video through just one time at

[01:28] full speed

[01:30] just to you know soak it all in and see

[01:33] what happens then we'll go through again

[01:34] and I'm gonna do a bunch of pausing and

[01:36] pointing out all these little

[01:37] fundamentals but you know I go looking

[01:39] pretty good so far with the the

[01:41] knockdown but nice throw Tech from CN

[01:43] trying to poke with crouching medium

[01:45] punch but getting pushed into the corner

[01:48] getting knocked down by the repeated

[01:50] sweeps here repeated crouching medium

[01:52] punches as well

[01:53] the igo's pressure is looking crazy

[01:55] right now wake up Ultra though is gonna

[01:58] connect I don't know if you guys

[01:59] remember this Ultra only does gray life

[02:01] so you can see that's all recoverable

[02:03] life but Stan lands the throw so that's

[02:06] gonna take away all the gray life so

[02:07] this is a good outcome for CN here and

[02:09] he's got Daigo pushed into the corner

[02:13] not a super good position here for the

[02:16] Beast

[02:18] yeah I got a full screen to work with

[02:19] and there's a nice air-to-air jump Round

[02:22] House

[02:24] the red Focus Lewis loses the forward

[02:27] roundhouse canceled into ex Tatsu though

[02:30] that was sick from Daigo and then the

[02:31] fireball to chip out no chip kills in

[02:33] Street Fighter 6 but

[02:36] here in uh the Street Fighter 4 chip was

[02:39] very much a factor when you're low on

[02:41] life so already Daigo has the corner

[02:43] there's towards medium punch overhead

[02:46] standing medium kick poke from just the

[02:48] right range

[02:50] the sand in a very tough position here

[02:53] trade DP combo into another DP there's a

[02:57] throw Tech

[03:00] oh we're punished crowd strong into in

[03:03] the hundred hand slap but seeing on just

[03:05] the pixel ish a pixel and change and

[03:08] this time the raw Ultra is not going to

[03:10] work out Daigo hits him with the EXP to

[03:12] go through it and that's game one guys

[03:13] that's the whole game so would you

[03:15] really believe that there's somewhere

[03:17] around 10 12 ish fighting game

[03:21] fundamentals just in that one game alone

[03:23] so I'm gonna do my best to point them

[03:25] out to you and right when we start off

[03:26] here I want to talk to you about what I

[03:28] would consider the two main fundamentals

[03:31] of fighting games in general I think the

[03:33] first place I heard this was from David

[03:35] surlin on the uh Street Fighter 2

[03:38] Anniversary Collection tutorial videos

[03:41] he talked about the two main

[03:43] fundamentals of Street Fighter which are

[03:45] controlling space

[03:47] that's number one and pressing the

[03:49] advantage that's number two so to start

[03:51] out let's talk about controlling space

[03:53] and I think one of the most obvious ways

[03:55] to control space is with a fireball

[03:56] right so Evil Ryu Fireball you know that

[03:59] covers a massive amount of space because

[04:01] it you know it goes full screen so uh

[04:04] Evil Ryu is going to be trying to

[04:05] control this huge amount of screen space

[04:07] here with Fireball

[04:10] you can see he's doing a great job of it

[04:12] but now

[04:13] gen has gotten in here as CN and he's

[04:17] gonna be pressing the advantage so when

[04:18] we say pressing the advantage we

[04:20] basically mean if you're in a positive

[04:22] situation a situation where your

[04:24] character has the advantage over the

[04:25] opponent you have to kind of push that

[04:27] and try to get damage out of it and try

[04:29] to continue the situation instead of

[04:31] just like going back to neutral and

[04:33] getting back into a situation where

[04:34] neither player is at the advantage you

[04:36] should try to get as much damage as

[04:37] possible whenever you're in a positive

[04:39] situation and CN here is in a positive

[04:42] situation when he gets this Dash

[04:45] you can see Daigo doesn't press any

[04:47] buttons here so CN gets the jab and now

[04:49] he is plus I'm not going to talk too

[04:51] much about Frame data here but

[04:53] essentially when you're at plus frames

[04:54] you can act before the opponent which

[04:56] means you're at Advantage so that's two

[04:58] things right off the bat controlling

[05:00] space pressing the advantage those are

[05:02] the first two fundamentals and the third

[05:04] one here I'm going to talk about is

[05:05] frame traps so you can see he does stand

[05:07] jab Crouch strong and that is actually a

[05:10] frame trap so a frame trap is

[05:12] essentially a situation where if the

[05:14] opponent presses a button they're gonna

[05:16] get interrupted so you can see after the

[05:18] standing jab here if I press buttons I'm

[05:21] gonna get hit so there's a very small

[05:23] Gap there like a two frame gap which is

[05:25] not enough time for any of my attacks to

[05:28] come out so I'll get hit by the way I'll

[05:29] point out while I'm here that uh this

[05:31] Focus dash into jab is not actually real

[05:35] uh Daigo could actually interrupt there

[05:38] if you press the button but but right

[05:39] here Daigo very respectful he blocks

[05:42] here and then once again he blocks the

[05:44] frame trap attempt so he doesn't bite he

[05:46] doesn't get hit by pressing any buttons

[05:48] there so that's some good awareness

[05:49] there from Daigo but I want to talk

[05:52] about the next fundamental here which is

[05:54] poking

[05:55] so when we say poking and fighting games

[05:57] generally we mean using an attack kind

[06:00] of at the tip of its range that's kind

[06:02] of what we're looking for we're we're

[06:03] hitting the opponent with an attack from

[06:05] as far away as that attack can possibly

[06:07] be used so you know we have Daigo here

[06:09] poking with standing medium kick very

[06:11] solid poke for Evil Ryu and then we have

[06:14] Sian poking with crouching medium punch

[06:17] you can see these normals not quite

[06:19] interacting Daigo poking with crouching

[06:21] medium kick into Fireball and then

[06:24] poking with Fireball as well Fireball

[06:26] can be a very strong poke if you use it

[06:28] from close range where it's unreactable

[06:30] but once again CN is gonna get this

[06:32] Focus attack level one into the dash up

[06:36] and this time daigo's ready he steals

[06:39] his turn back with a jab because he does

[06:41] know like I showed you it's not actually

[06:43] gen's turn in that situation so Daigo

[06:46] pulls out the jab here and he does what

[06:48] is our next fundamental I want to talk

[06:49] about which is a tick throw tick throw

[06:51] is really simple it just means doing any

[06:53] attack

[06:54] and then throwing the opponent right

[06:56] after they recover from it so you can

[06:58] tick throw with a jumping that totally

[07:00] works or you can tick throw uh with

[07:03] buttons or whatever so tick throw good

[07:05] way to mix up the opponent catch them

[07:06] off guard so he gets the throw there

[07:09] with the tick throw and then what's he

[07:11] doing here he's pressing his Advantage

[07:12] guys let me just rub it in more a throw

[07:14] is a really good opportunity to press

[07:17] your advantage when you get the knock

[07:18] down especially in games like Street

[07:20] Fighter 5 and 6 you see people doing

[07:22] throw loops and stuff where they throw

[07:23] the opponent and then the opponent has

[07:25] to guess when they're waking up whether

[07:26] they're gonna get thrown again so press

[07:28] the advantage that's exactly what he's

[07:30] doing here he does the jab and then look

[07:32] at that

[07:33] CN back dashes and then gets hit by The

[07:36] Sweep this is our next little piece of

[07:39] tech here I don't know if I would call

[07:40] this actually a fundamental because this

[07:42] is pretty high level but this is an

[07:43] option select guide so an option select

[07:46] means you do one set of inputs and then

[07:49] depending on what the opponent does you

[07:51] can get multiple outcomes so Watch What

[07:54] Happens here if I block if I block he

[07:57] gets jab into medium punch which is

[08:00] pretty good it's a frame trap and you

[08:02] know he can start whatever pressure he

[08:03] wants after this but what happens if I

[08:05] back down to get away from that jab

[08:06] let's check it out look I got sweat and

[08:09] you can see this is a dummy recording so

[08:11] he's doing the same inputs no matter

[08:13] what

[08:15] but you can see if I backdash here a

[08:18] sweep comes out so again this is a

[08:20] pretty high level technique but

[08:22] essentially what he's doing is he's

[08:23] hiding the heavy kick input during the

[08:26] screen freeze if the jab connects I know

[08:29] it's a little bit complicated you don't

[08:31] really need this as a new player but you

[08:33] should definitely know that option

[08:34] selects exist especially when Street

[08:36] Fighter 6 comes out we don't know what

[08:38] all option selects are going to be in

[08:39] the game but it is a very useful concept

[08:42] to know and especially to recognize when

[08:45] your opponent is using them on you so

[08:47] that you can have stuff ready to deal

[08:49] with it alright moving on so he gets the

[08:51] knockdown once again he's pressing his

[08:52] Advantage he goes for another tick throw

[08:54] CN texts it this time good throw Tech

[08:59] okay did you see that that's another

[09:01] fundamental right there that I want to

[09:02] talk about that's called a whiff punish

[09:05] guys a whiff punish is so important in

[09:07] Street Fighter he whiffs the crouching

[09:09] heavy kick that's what we call it when

[09:10] an attack misses the opponent we call

[09:12] that a whiff and then there's the punish

[09:14] with crouching medium punch he probably

[09:16] tried to go into gen's hundred hand Slap

[09:19] Attack here but doesn't get the input

[09:21] but regardless that is a whiff punish an

[09:23] important part of footsies something you

[09:25] need to know if you react and see those

[09:27] slow attacks that the opponent sticks

[09:30] out so with punish is super important

[09:33] now he's uh controlling space and

[09:36] pressing his Advantage really because

[09:38] he's got CNN in the corner when your

[09:39] back is in the corner your options are

[09:41] greatly limited so this is another type

[09:43] of advantage that you can create in the

[09:45] match by cornering the opponent that is

[09:47] a huge Advantage for you to take here so

[09:49] he's pressuring him with crouching

[09:51] medium punches again pressing the

[09:53] advantage by going for the jump in and

[09:54] then using the frame advantage on

[09:56] crouching medium punch to really apply

[09:58] 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