Super Street Fighter IV AE:2012 XBox 360 league

[TurnupMidget]

IN-DEST-RUCT-IBLE!

Capcom are giving SFIV one final push before putting it out to pasture; how about we give it a good send off, too?

After three years of brutal beatdowns, unexpected upsets, and edge-of-your-seat comebacks, you'd be forgiven for thinking that SFIV is pretty much played out. However, the AE:2012 patch aims to refresh familiar matchups, tweaking all 39 characters in an attempt to give even low-tier heroes the tools to win against the top-tier beasts. It's a final thank-you to fans, and a great excuse to give this a go one last time.

You know the drill -- sign up below, and we'll kick-off after Christmas. I'm expecting a reduced turnout this time, so we might go UMVC-style and play each other more than once to make it more interesting. No character restrictions, no excuses, and no mercy. Let's go.

[TurnupMidget]

Rules

• Fixtures will be posted in this thread. Players are responsible for sorting out a time to play between themselves.
• One fixture per week, but it's okay to lag behind or get ahead slightly if you can arrange it with your opponent.
• Each fixture consist of 6 games, 99 second timeout.
• Post results to this thread.
• League points will be based on the overall result for the 6 games, with two points for a win, one point for a draw, and zero points for a loss.

Current standings

Code: Select all

                     | Gamertag        | Rating | P   W   D   L   | Points
---------------------+-----------------+--------+-----------------+-------
meu02136             | K1NG L33R       | 1786   | 7   7   0   0   | 14
Maryokutai           | Maryoutai       | 1675   | 7   3   1   3   | 7
TurnupMidget         | TurnupMidget    | 1629   | 5   1   2   2   | 4
Shadowman            | GOUKI16uk       | 1566   | 4   0   1   3   | 1
Joeey                | |I| IronMan |I| | 1385   | 3   0   0   3   | 0


What's this rating rubbish?
It's just a bit of fun. It's a vague measure of how good a player is (higher being better) using the formula that MyLeague and chess leagues use (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system). It doesn't affect your position in the league, but it might give you some idea of how good someone is based on their previous performance.

Your rating will start at 1500, and players who participated in the previous leagues will have their rating carried over. Ratings go up and down based on the games you win and lose. If you win some games against a someone with a higher rating then your rating will go up, even if you lose the fixture overall. Hopefully it'll give those of us who have no chance of winning the league an incentive to keep trying to win a few games off the top guys.

Fixtures

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Week 1: 08/01/12

meu02136            4 0 2       TurnupMidget
Shadowman           1 0 5       meu02136
TurnupMidget        4 0 2       Maryokutai
Maryokutai          5 0 1       Joeey

Week 2: 15/01/12               

meu02136            5 0 1       Maryokutai

Week 3: 22/01/12               

Shadowman           1 0 5       meu02136
TurnupMidget        3 0 3       Maryokutai
Shadowman           2 0 4       Maryokutai

Week 4: 29/01/12               

Joeey               0 0 6       meu02136
Shadowman           3 0 3       TurnupMidget
Maryokutai          5 0 1       Joeey

Week 5: 05/02/12

meu02136            4 0 2       Maryokutai
meu02136            4 0 2       TurnupMidget

Week 5: 12/02/12

TurnupMidget                    Joeey
Shadowman                       Maryokutai
Joeey                           Shadowman
TurnupMidget                    Joeey
Joeey                           meu02136
Joeey                           Shadowman
Shadowman                       TurnupMidget

Top two play-off:

Middle two play-off:

Bottom two play-off:


[Shadowman]

Sign me up. I've completely forgotten how to play the game again (thanks Marvel) so I really need to get back into the swing of things. Best start learning Blanka and Oni again...

[meu02136]

Ok. I'll try and win this bitch without going Bison once. Make it a fair fight.

[Joeey]

I haven't played this properly since September but why not.

I might concentrate on learning Sakura more this time.

[The Inquisitor]

I may as well give the game another round, also forgot how to play and didn't really try many characters in SSFIV as much as I did for SFIV. I may use this opportunity to try another few characters whom I don't know how to use.

[Maryokutai]

I actually wanted to pass this one, but seeing some new faces here somewhat makes it more interesting this time around. Count me in and oiled.

[TurnupMidget]

Fixtures are up, kick off tomorrow! Since there's only a few of us, I've doubled up the fixtures so you play everyone twice. If this is too much and people want to skip some games then let me know.

Having not played this for three weeks now, I'll be online tonight for some practice if anyone fancies a few...

[Shadowman]

Fixtures are up, kick off tomorrow! Since there's only a few of us, I've doubled up the fixtures so you play everyone twice. If this is too much and people want to skip some games then let me know.

Having not played this for three weeks now, I'll be online tonight for some practice if anyone fancies a few...

I'll try and get online for some matches. Don't worry, I haven't played it for months so I've probably forgotten how to play it completely

[TurnupMidget]

Right. I haven't been able to get online this week, but I'll be on tomorrow night and Saturday if anyone fancies getting their games in. Let's get some scores on the board!

[TurnupMidget]

Well, there will be points on the board this week but they won't be mine. I managed to get my matches against Meu in last night, and failed to come away with anything.

First up was 'Gief vs Ibuki, a match up that I've never liked because Ibuki's gameplan goes out the window as you can't get close to 'Gief. Guerilla hit-and-run tactics managed to whittle 'Gief down in both rounds, but I lost the first by failing to keep him out at the end, and killed myself in the second by doing a stupid naked neckbreaker that was blocked and promptly thrown. D'oh.

Next up was Seth vs Ibuki, which was largely a combo exhibition. Ibuki is supposed to have a slight edge in that matchup, but I got stomped on (literally). To be fair, that's how it usually goes, but was hoping to at least get a round on him.

I managed to claw a win back next game, beating Meu's Akuma with Viper thanks to some seismo trades with air fireballs and the fact that Viper's EX seismo is awesome against mid-range footsies -- you're practically guaranteed to get it once or twice a round. I then narrowly lost the next one when Meu beat Viper with his Gouken. We've played that match up a fair bit and I usually lose, so it wasn't a great surprise, but it was reasonably close so I'm not feeling too badly done there.

3-1 down at this point, I broke out Rose for the last two games in the hope of salvaging a draw. I stomped to victory over Cody in the first game, and was feeling optimistic about my chances in the last match. So who did he pick for the last match? He only bloody picked Rose as well, the sneaky bastard! Just to show me how it's done, apparently. And he did bloody well win, and while it was only by a handful of pixels, it bloody well stung.

So, 4-2 to Meu. Revenge will be had in the rematch.

[meu02136]

LOL, I mean good games sir
You usually beat Gief with Ibuki. I liked how you said you'd lame it out, then lost with a random slide that I blocked.
Rose v Rose at the was a win-win, not my character, didn't expect to win. If I lost it was a 3-3 draw - but I didn't! I don't know how you remember all the games. I remember that Viper destroyed my Akuma, partly because I don't block those damn ex-seismos. And Cody got f*cked, I thought I was good enough with him, apparently not.

Played Shadwman too, ended up winning 5-1.
Thought he wasn't talking because he was concentrating, but he thought I was ignoring him when apparently his mike wasn't working.
Don't remember all the match-ups, I went Ryu, Juri, Hakan, E. Ryu, Ibuki (mistake) and someone else. I was up 3-0 then went Juri and got anti-air Ultra 1'd by his Ken. Got a bit worried there, but won the next one. The last match was E. Ryu v Oni, and it came down to the last hit, went about 20 seconds without anyone getting a hit in. Won with a throw in the end I think. It was all under control.

Joeey and Maryokutai next week then, I await your invites.

[TurnupMidget]

I managed to squeeze in my matches against Maryokutai last night and scraped a rare win to get me out of the starting blocks. Sadly, I think that's mostly because Maryokutai didn't break out Hakan much, but, hey, I'll take the points anyway.

First up was my Dudley vs Maryokutai's Ryu, a match up I've played LOADS of recently because I've been ranking up Dudley and there are endless hordes of Ryu players online. I think it's tough for Ryu because Dudley's tools nullify Ryu's usual game, and sure enough I managed to squeak out a win though the last round was right down to the wire and I had to resort to a dirty tick throw at the end.

Next up was Ibuki vs Seth, which again I think is another match up that I was lucky to have more experience with than Maryokutai, having played a lot of it against Meu's Seth. I managed to win that one fairly comfortably thanks to knowing how to counter Seth's various tricks.

After that I tried Viper against Maryokutai's Cammy and managed to zone her out for the win. I'm not sure what Cammy is supposed to do in that match up. Although she can DP out of most burn kick mix-ups, seismos are free chip for Viper and her DP is good enough now to kill Cammy's jump-ins. And once Cammy falls behind on life then you can just turtle up and let her kill herself. I'd love to know why people think she's top tier.

After that, Maryokutai staged a comeback and spanked my Makoto with Viper. I felt pretty confident going into the match, as Mak's improved DP can now beat Viper's burn kicks clean which wrecks some of her mix-ups. However, Maryokutai proved that Viper can still beat it by distancing her burn kicks correctly, and also took full advantage of the improved juggling of U1 to catch me a couple of times and take the win in convincing fashion.

Three-one down, Maryokutai brought out the character I was most worried about playing -- Hakan. He's got some dirty mix-ups and can often come from behind to win because a few good mix-ups can change everything. I picked Rose, hoping to use close s.MK to counter tick throw mix-ups, but unfortunately that didn't work out too well. The first round was incredibly close; I got cornered and lost most of my life when Maryokutai made a bunch of great reads in a row, but managed to fight my way out and eventually won with a random sweep as Hakan backed away. The second round I did much better with, but the game suddenly lagged out at the end and I killed Hakan. We were going to rematch, but Maryokutai graciously let me have the game anyway, which was nice.

For the final match I broke out Makoto again against Maryokutai's Rose and was absolutely *thrashed*. I didn't even come close, and was killed in the second round by an U2 setup that looked like it took half my life. Ouch. I need to practice doing those, and practice how to get out of them.

So, final score 4-2 to me. It was tense, close stuff, though -- always nice to see smart option selects and solid teching. I think the scoreline would have been different had Maryokutai broken out Hakan or Rose more often. GGs!

I think Maryokutai and Joeey had their matches this weekend, too, so I'll wait for that scoreline before updating the standings. This week I've got The Inquisitor and Shadowman; gimme a shout when you're on, guys.

[Maryokutai]

Yep, nice games. But I guess I’ll use one of my better characters twice next time instead of going for six different ones, as you showed me quite convincingly that you know the Seth match-up pretty well now, after playing Meu so often (whose Seth is of course miles ahead of mine).

The other games were really interesting though. I don’t really know what to do against Rose with Hakan as she has so many good options to avoid grapples (normals where she’s considered airborne, good backdash etc.) but I suppose it’s not that bad for him after all. Just have to do more silly stuff.

Cammy-Viper was horrible though, mostly because your Viper is extremely good these days (sooo glad we avoided the mirror match somehow). It’s a shame there aren’t many people online using her so it’s quite difficult to get experience against her. Of course I know her tricks because I play her as well, but it’s still important to know the match-up from the other perspective.

Well, anyway, it was good fun and I’m happy I could get two wins after all. Didn’t look too well for an instand after the first three games.

I think Maryokutai and Joeey had their matches this weekend, too, so I'll wait for that scoreline before updating the standings.

Yes, we did, and I won 5-1. He killed my Seth (again... that guy just dies on me) quite convincingly with a shoulder -> Super combo to tell me I’m abusing the Focus Attack.

Tried to play Meu afterwards but it was laggy as hell so we stopped. Not that it had any impact on the outcome of those three matches, but it wasn’t enjoyable at all.

[meu02136]

Well we got our lag free games in today, I scraped a 5-1.

First game was a recreation of Lamerboi and Daigo from Evo, this time Lamerboi stepped up and didn't choke. Cos I was Guile this time
No combos to be had, just how it should be in this matchup. Difference being I managed to jump in on a couple of thrown fireballs and got a nice bit of damage.

Then I went Vega against Maryokutai's Viper. Came through mainly using the air shenanigans and c.mp. Got destroyed in the second round (got stunned and hit Viper once), but I had a nice bit of meter for the 3rd and mainly stayed out trouble.

Then I went El Fuerte against Cammy. Got a bit messed up there. Got Cannon Spiked any time I got close, ran into her Counter Ultra 2, and got killed by a nice combo. Almost had the second round but it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Then probably the turning point, Makoto against Hakan. Started the match horribly, missed a couple of punishes and got command grabbed for my troubles. Had about 40% health then went on a nice run involving some cross up and strong punches that got me a stun to take round 1. Round 2 started the same way, got hit by everything - including that wakeup air grab thing - to be put on zero life, literally nothing. Then after some back and forth I had a chance, Ultra a slide, which wouldv'e chipped me, and could've been FADC'd on block. Then after some standing strongs and crossups I managed to take that game.

Next In went Sagat against Hakan. This was a matchup I liked. Tiger shots forever! Got caughts with one ex-slide in round one, burned the meter to FADC into a throw. Nothing else Hakan could do after that. Second round went even better, zoned to death. Any time he got half screen, jump in attack, then throw full screen again. 4-1 up, party time!

So then naturally I went Dan against his Rose. But Dan's good now, so I was pretty confident. Round 1, once I got in it was looking pretty good. His hurricane kick are lethal, same with most his normals. Got a stun and took that quite comfortably. Second round I got in, but great defence kept me out, which eventually forced me into a wake-up Ultra, saving my Super meter for round 3. Round 3 started with me eating about 6 fireballs, losing half my life. Then after some shedanigans I had a life lead, and was determined not to jump into Ultra 1. Wasn't much health in it by the end but another cross-up won the game.