Recently on SRK, I made a thread in the Northwest section entitled “SF4:  Mentality and core fundamentals.”  In this thread, I wanted to create an area where I could lay down some knowledge concerning specific mentalities and core fundamentals that are important to understand in SF4 to become better players.  More or less, I didn’t want the thread itself to become a discussion point.  There are way to many people who like to chime in and throw in their opinions when in all reality, it’s not what the thread was created for.  In response to that, I have decided to make these updates HERE at SeattleVersus!

With that, these posts will most likely be thrown in the “strategy” section here at SV so if you’re ever looking for the archives of these articles just remember to check back there if you’re interested.  I also hope to have a few guests write articles geared towards mentality and general strategies in SF4 as well such as Seattle’s own “Deezo” and possibly NorCal’s “TanakaForce.”  With that, here was my first post in regards to free damage…

Stop giving up free damage

There have been many times where I see players lose when they shouldn’t have. In most cases, the statment above is the primary reason as to why this happens. The excuse of “he was plain better than me” can only go so far. In fact the correct school of thought should instead be “he out played me.” Skill can always be measured, however the extent of someone’s skill has to be questioned when you realize that YOU are killing yourself . This is a pretty obvious aspect of SF, however it amazes me how often players go off and essentially kill themselves based off of stupid decisions.

In many times these “stupid decisions” are quite obvious. Why did you jump in when he has 2 meters and an ultra stocked? Why did you jump in and give away three things…damage, a knockdown, plus potential mixup options! A lot of players don’t realize the gravity of their decisions. The fact of the matter is that you need to be able to make your opponent work for the damage he puts in instead of giving it away.

It’s surprising to see how much this school of thought transforms a player’s overall “skill.” Essentially they didn’t really change anything, however they started playing smarter rather than trying to play “better.” Players that don’t give away free damage require their opponents to out play them and work with their OWN skill, rather than fight with what their opponent GIVES them.

Try to take this mentality on for yourself and realize just how often you lose without truly putting up a fight. With a touch of “risk to reward” thought mixed with “stop giving away free damage” you’ll find the value in understanding the difference of “he was just better than me” compared to “he out played me.” Though the two are interrelated and some what redundant, you’ll find that often times when you lose, the true culprit is none other than yourself.

The moral of the story is to remain patient! Stop helping your opponent kill you. Before making a questionable decision, weigh out the risks and rewards and go from there. Stop giving up free damage and start making your opponent work for the win. When you stop giving away damage, you challenge your opponent to prove that he is a better playerthan you are. No harm in that. Pack up, lick your wounds and move on to learn how to win next time.

SV’s been extremely dead to say the least.  I’m sorry that updates haven’t been happening for all those that still view…I’ve been preoccupied with life and SV just hasn’t be a focus for me currently.  I’m planning to keep things fairly active here though by posting every once in a while (at the very least one update every 5 days).  I also would like to disclaim that I’ll probably get a bit more opinionated with posts and updates to keep things interesting, however I will refrain from trying to be overly crude with them.  With that, thanks for continuing to check out the site, and sorry to be so lame

In other news, Super 4’s official release date will be on April 27th here in the US.  Shockingly, Japan will actually be receiving Super 4 AFTER us (this a first?)!  To hype us up, 2 awesome trailers were released yesterday on the Nakky blog, one of which being an anime trailer and the 2nd being a standard promotional trailer.  Nothing new seen and nothing new heard…but seriously Capcom?  An anime trailer to hype us up?  Wow they sure know their fans.  A bit of new alternate costume information was released as well (lol at Blanka being in Dan’s gi).

In other news, Super 4 just needs to hurry up and get here.  Cut the anime trailers, let us know if the 3s characters are in or not!  Other than that, thanks for keeping on with SV and expect to see me update a bit more often!

Many of you new Tekken players have likely seen or heard of “the Notebook” that myself and other T6 fanatics have been carrying around. Well, our good friend Jon Frost was kind enough to scan and upload the whole thing to his website. You can find it here.

WARNING: It’s a pretty big .pdf file, around 40 megs, so you might want to right click and “Save As” instead of opening it, depending on your computer.

Not all of the information is up to date, but enough is to make this a great starting point for learning any character. Once you memorize the basics, be sure to visit the Tekken Zaibatsu character forums for more in-depth strategy and combos .

This weeks video features Get Your Tournament’s own “SherryJenix” interview with East Coast top player Marn.  Rocky from beginning to middle…then just awkward and uncomfortable at the end, Sherry talks to Marn about his loss during Cicada’s house tournament thrown back in October.  Though only a 24 second clip, watch the godlike reactions of Sherry’s parry skills.  Take notes guy’s, reactions are a strong asset to have in the competitive fighting game scene, and I swear that these have to be the fastest reactions I’ve ever seen.

It’s been a very long and eventful weekend in the Street Fighter world.  Over the weekend a few large tournaments were thrown in New York, Montreal, California and even Sweden!  In Sweden, the “Dream Hack Winter” event was thrown, a massive E-sport event featuring numerous games like Counter Strike, Star Craft, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Tekken 6 and Street Fighter 4.  Aside from the huge Dream Hack event, California’s Denjin Arcade ranbat season continued as did New York’s weekly tournament, this timed named “Path of the digital warrior.”  Here are the results

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This week’s Custom Stick Spotlight features one of the most unique arcade sticks that I’ve ever seen.  Known for his unorthodox modifications, community member “phreakazoid187” brings to us his dual modded Vsmile arcade stick.  Originally used as a children’s play toy, the stick comes full equipped with LED light ups and a dual mod in order to use on PS3 or Xbox360.  So take a look into the zany mind of Clayton Knight aka phreakazoid187, and see some of his most ridiculous works.

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Just last night, Seattle’s very own Josh “Messatsu Orochi” Taton and I had a discussion with me about the world famous samurai, Miyamoto Musashi.  Josh went on to explain that Musashi was most famous for his unrivaled swordsmanship in numerous duels with other Japanese swordsmen.  In his life, he went on to write “The Book of Five Rings” each titled respectively towards elements entitled: “Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Nothing.”  The book goes on to talk about military strategy much like “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu.  So why does any of this belong here at SeattleVersus?  As Josh fired off quote after quote from Musashi, I could clearly see relevance from a fighting game perspective…the theory of combat directly correlated to a competitive fighting game player’s mentality.  The Book of Five Rings applied so much more than just martial arts.  Apparently business leaders have gone on to find that Musashi’s discussion of conflict seemed incredibly relevant to their own trials as entrepreneurs.

Musashi talks about the importance of positioning, adaptation, discipline and a variety of aspects concerning combat, all things that we as fighting game players strive to master.  In this column, check out how Josh and I break down quote after quote from Musashi’s “The Book of Five Rings.”  I introduce to you, “Seeing with the Mind’s Eye.”

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With Guy being introduced to Super Street Fighter 4 yesterday, a lot of questions are being asked as to how he’ll play.  I’ve personally been a fan of Guy since the Alpha 2 days and never understood his in’s and out’s to a competitive level. A few years ago community member “XenoZip” made a Street Fighter Alpha 3 tutorial on how to use Guy.  From basics to advanced combo’s, the tutorial does a pretty nice job showing Guy’s in’s and outs with his SF: Alpha 3 carnation.  Obviously the newer Super 4 version of Guy will be sure to be much different than the Alpha 3 version of Guy, what with an entirely different game mechanics system and all.  However to give you a primer and understanding of what to expect from guy, check out the tutorial!

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Okay, so the last picture I posted up was indeed fake.  But we got some REAL concrete information this time around regarding that big announcement that Seth Killian was talking about…NEW CHARACTERS!  So no more action figurine fakes here!  Three new characters from the Street Fighter Alpha series will be thrown into Super Street Fighter 4.  Adon, Guy and Cody have been officially announced in today’s Famitsu!

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New scans came in!  Fake?  Real?  Whatever the case it seems to feature what looks like Urien (from Street Fighter Third Strike) and Guy (from Final Fight).  Urien looks like he’s performing the Tyrant Slaughter Super from 3s days.  Guy on the other hand looks like he’s performing the beginning of his famous Final Fight chain combo (jab, strong, fierce, roundhouse).

Could this be the announcement that Seth Killian was talking about in recent interviews?  At the same time, I noticed that DeeJay’s face has a  ”G4″ logo on it.  Anyways, one thing’s for sure, this is some crazy news…DISCUSS!

EDIT: After “careful observation” we here at SeattleVersus have deemed this picture FAKE!  It just so happens that Urien and Guy are both photo shopped images of their action figurines, thrown into the Super Street Fighter 4 universe.  Sorry for the inconvenience guys.  On a lighter note, Guy however WAS confirmed shortly afterwards, however no sign of Urien.