For anyone looking for more insight into different neutral tools, I’d highly recommend the footsies handbook: sonichurricane.com/?page_id=1702 As well as the mentioned video by hifight: ruclips.net/video/96MKkqOlpKs/видео.html
Coming back here to the vid just to let you know how much this helped me i already can clearly see how much better i am playing i was always good at whiff punishing but had ZERO understanding over covering space and attacking my opponent when they're not covering and whiffing, Thank you
Great video. How do I make a background like yours with the slowly moving command inputs on the purple background? I love this style but can’t seem to replicate it. Many thanks 👍
Downloaded some pngs from online, made them solid colour and made patterns which I copy pasted onto a purple background. The move effect was done in premiere pro, the rest is photoshop.
Bison Whiffing a scissor kick and getting hit by a Ken fireball is the most honest explanation of neutral I’ve ever seen. Both of those things were easily avoided mistakes but the mental consequences were huge.
I can’t believe Street Fighter 6 is the game where I would start taking all this shit seriously. Cause I’ve been playing fighting games online for years and just playing for years. This damn near the only game that got me trying to IMPROVE my game
This is probably the best tutorial on neutral i have ever seen. havent really found one that covers concepts such as established respect from top level gameplay, which makes it difficult for new players to know what to do against players who dont respect them
@@thiagoakira697 This is also true, and jokes aside now that you put it that way I am always either too nice or *very* shitty lmao. Must find the center to find the way forward~
This is the best video on footsies I've ever seen. It has the clearest explanation of the cycle and then tying in the neutral skips is so enlightening. Excellent video!
That's why in sf6 around gold all the way to diamond 1 or 2, there usually isn't any form of really useful neutral game to be good at since it's mostly about consistency, managing your mental stacks and being able to beat the neutral skips. Eventually being good at neutral becomes useful but until then, you gotta learn how to parry sumo-headbutt
I have been looking at guides for this stuff in a 2d context as a 3d player off and on for almost 15 years. From pros to casuals, no one has ever explained it this way. 99% are completely vague and will usually tell you to just do the thing you were trying to learn how to do when you clicked on the video without telling you how to do it. And I haven't given any 2d game a real chance because of it since I didn't understand what I was supposed to be doing, as well as the meaning of words like "neutral" or "footsies", again, in a 2d context. You've actually broken it down in a way that is actionable that I can start working on immediately. Thank you and well done.
We need more videos like this. There are a lot of new gen fighting game players that need to get in on the lingo. Even I learned something, awesome stuff 🔥
In a game, there are states. Like in chess, one can be up one or more pieces or have a better position of pieces and they're then at advantage, or conversely they could have less pieces, or a worse position and be at disadvantage, finally all things could be equal and they're in a neutral state. So what people call playing neutral is actually attempting to get out of neutral in a way that puts them into an advantageous state. This assumes of course your goal is to win. If your goal is simply to tie or time out your opponent rather than win or lose then you would want to stay in neutral as long as possible. It is also important to note that while we don't normally think of how much life each character has left or how much timer is left, it is a part of neutral and so is frame advantage. Again, if you have the goal of winning the match, one's goal should be to be in neutral as little time as possible. This either means pressuring your opponent constantly and changing up what you do enough to where they cannot predict what you're doing, or punishing mistakes from opponents with highly optimized punishes (punishes being optimized matter for how much time they take and what position they leave one in, not simply for how much damage is done). Since only playing offensively or only playing defensively can lead to predictability, good players will generally have a good feel for when to switch between the two. But, remember, there is no playing neutral if you aim to win but rather what are you going to do to leave neutral and go into an advantaged state?
My summation of this fine post: Your goal is to win, your objective to reaching that goal is leaving neutral in an advantaged state. Love the post, very good explanation.
Wonderful video! Taught me a lot about the sub-categories of neutral-game I didn't know about before and how to actually play a neutral game at a high level!
I like how u included “threaten with throw”, under block pressure. Another advantage you gain from making them block is you push them back towards the corner.
Thanks for the info the hardest thing by far is stopping neutral skips no one respects anything in the lower ranks until you get high enough to where people have some sense of
This a great video. As a legacy player, I am of the opinion that neutral skips in SF6 come with such a positive risk/reward ratio, that the neutral game is virtually gone.
Honestly brother you are very correct with that. I do think offence in this game is greatly favoured but if I said that in the video everyone would lose hope at learning neutral 😭
I'm trying to get back into SF6 for season 2, and I was getting frustrated with my neutral game. Namely that I was getting neutral skipped repeatedly with jumpins, DIs, etc and all my 'clever fundamental play' was getting me killed. I've seen plenty of videos before on footsies, but this is the first time I've seen one cover the concept of respect. People are jumping in on me and hitting me with DIs because I'm not anti-airing or countering properly. That isn't them being 'lol random', it's them exposing a glaring weakness in my skillset and targeting it. Thanks for making this. Hopefully I can internalise it and get better at enforcing respect. Or at least recognising when people WON'T respect me and anti-airing them to death instead. V:
Amazing video. I love that you used so many different characters to illustrate your points. I got to platinum after 60 hours in this game and I've been pretty much hard stuck since lol, I think this will help a lot.
I've seen lots of people make longer videos than this (to give respect they were very helpful) and gave me less value. You did a great job explaining neutral. I think what I really learned is to observe what state of neutral my opponent will switch in when they get used to my playstyle and counter that. I only gained this insight because of the techniques you described later in the video. Thank you.
This video is so elegant. Masterful work! I will link this ad nauseam. I used to just study/link the handbook, but this is a perfect intro to footsies.
Having the video be cyclical and end the way it starts, just like the Neutral / Footsies loop, is excellent. You were short, sweet, and to the point. Great video!
I think the best advice in this video is the ending part about how a lot of lower level players who want to play the mind games don't force respect is really true. Even as a FighterZ player, a game that's about as "anti-footsies" as possible, it still held true for me because the mindset for newbie players still applied in different areas. FighterZ offense is instead more based around trying to break open an opponent's defense while they're blocking and you can make your turn last for a damn while in that game. The advice that helped me a lot is when another player taught me that the thing lower level players fucking hate blocking, and this means that they will try to mash out of blockstrings as much as possible. This means that rather than doing long, true blockstrings, the most effective thing to do is starting your offense with frametraps, because you're expecting the opponent to mash. In the game you can cancel 2L into 5L and vice versa, but only one time once per true blockstring. At the same time, L buttons can be cancelled into buttons of higher strengths, meaning you can cancel your light buttons into a universal overhead and low, and 5L can also be cancelled into the universal throw. Most characters in the game either have a light that hits low, or their 2L is safe on block and functions as a pressure reset tool. Because of this, 5L is the button that puts the most pressure on the opponent, because there are far more options they need to look out for after it. The threat of when the mix is coming next becomes much scarier than alternating between a 5M that hits mid and a 2M that hits low. Best part is, if you've conditioned your opponent to be really scared of mashing, it enables FAR more schenanigans because a lot of mixup options get shut down by mashing. Stuff that's normally untrue like IAD crossups isn't a problem anymore once you've gotten to the point where your opponent is no longer mashing. Further increasing the amount of potential answers to the multiple choice question of "how do I block this mix?" This DRAMATICALLY increases the amount of pressure actually being put on the opponent because now they have to ask way more questions about where to block. (Blockstrings are still useful, but they're mostly there for keeping yourself safe after using your mediums for a mixup attempt and tying your attacks into assists. They don't put nearly as much pressure on their own). Oh, and now that you've read this, you can now win games as Z-Broly. Most on his non-heavy normals will tick-grab into his unreactable light command grab. Once the command grab lands just combo that into his level 1. Midscreen it's 29% damage and in the corner you can make it do 33% damage. Anyways, the core principle here is the idea that lower level players are going up against other lower level players don't know how to force them into playing the "don't-get-opened-up" game. In Street Fighter, it's with whiff punishes and movement, while in DBFZ it's using assists to get in and then breaking open the opponent's defense like they're a clam.
Loved the video, loved the editing, loved the script, and you have a nice mic! Thanks for describing the reason most players can't just mimic top player matches. It's the respect part. Looking forward to the next!
I used to not notice the established respect and think I just understood their neutral. Then after some time I realized they play such a slow and simple neutral BECAUSE they respect one another, whole different world
Exactly, now that I know about this if I see somebody playing methodical that I know I've earned their respect. And I plan to earn their respect and force people into playing neutral and footsies.
As a silver sf6 player, the last section is something I feel all lower ranks NEED to watch. We aren’t losing because of not whiff punishing enough. We lose because we can’t counter neutral skips, plain and simple. Trying to implement whiff punishing and pokes will only hurt your climb at lower ranks since most people never respect you and will repeatedly do the same options till they die. Which isn’t to say it’s pointless to learn. But focusing on punishing unsafe moves and neutral skips is the only thing you really need to learn at low levels.
Okay, so the real answer in this video for the newbies who can't do neutral: step one in learning to play neutral is NOT playing neutral but lab out how to punish every single bullshit move that gets spammed. Got it.
I was worried I didn’t stress this point enough but the fact you’ve caught on means either you’re very smart or the video is good so I’ll just assume both. But yeah! No point trying to play footsies if you can’t even make your opponent play it with you :)
Bro where are these videos on the other topics you mentioned here?? Bro I look forward to seeing you explain these fundamentals and offense in future videos my guy. ❤
There is a lot of information newer plarys might find helpful in this video. The part about wiff punishing in footsies is particularly well done. I do have so critics though. A lot of these are just because It's meant to be brief and for an audience that's less familiar. - obviously neutral doesn't have to be grounded especially if characters have more air options they can still effectively play neutral. It usually is especially in street fighter but, it's a bad thing to get internalized in newer players. (Leads to the marvel has no neutral misconception) 8:14 If we consider "the three-structure" aka the neutral triangle (I'm not going to explain it here since the video kinda does. But if you found this video helpful you will find "Machaboo on fundamentals for those that want to become good at GG" quite useful doesn't matter if you play guilty gear most of it is universal.) we can more rigorous sub categorize these interactions. I'm going to use: Preemptive = Covering Establishing = Block pressure Passive = punishing I'm using these terms because they mean the same things but, are more connected to the mental rps. Many of the things commonly called neutral skips are establishing options but, so are preemptive options. The important things to consider is if it's reactable and if it's okay to block it. Options like light spin knuckle and midscreen di are both reactible and fine to block the only way they work is by by punishing an attack. And because they're slow, they can only generally do this on a read. I wouldn't even consider these moves neutral skips since in many outcomes they don't even end neutral. Consider Jumping, Dragon Lash, H spin knuckle, or a teleport like sim or kim. These work as both a preemptive punish as well as starting pressure on block. Because of this, they're all consistently interruptible, The harder it is to react to the higher the reward will be generally. I could understand these moves being called neutral skips since if an interaction occurs neutral will always end. The idea of respect is pretty silly but, I understand that's what it looks like. Think about it like this, when a match begins, almost all good players start with passive play by default this is because of simple risk/reward. Because most players play passive until they have enough information to make more risky decisions If an opponent overuses the last archetype of move which consistently loses to passive play they will simply lose the match.
This is a necessary video for the newer players because they really don't know but us OG sf2- to present players definitely know. I have not watched the video yet. I only heard the intro. I will make this post before then another after I have watched it. As defined by me: Neutral- controlling space using footsies, Anti-airs, grabs, supers, and etc to gain an opportunity to push yourself in a favorable position. Starts from anywhere where there is no clear advantage to either player (advantage, for example =knockdown). Footsies-self explanatory....includes pokes, counterpokes, whiffs, and whiff punishes. Utilizing your characters effective range with normals.
See, this is a very good video about how and why Footsies are important to understand within any fighting game to get a good understanding of how to deal with Neutral and Pressure. _...and then there's Happy Chaos saying "I don't skip Neutral, I _*_disrespect_*_ it."_
This video has confirmed what I already know. I'm an ape that you're locked into a room with and I will *not* play neutral nor respect you and your pressure until you *force me to*. Make me play neutral or die. ... that said I should probably also learn how to play neutral better for the people who actually can do that.
Thanks man this is great stuff. So essentially you have to show a person you can handle neutral Skip's. Earn the respect so they play neutral well. I'm going to check out your other stuff and I've subscribed.
What happens is characters that can cancle their low fowards end up with more chances to open up because they can just buffer drive cancel over and over. One thing I found odd was that they allow you to do drive impact right after a drive cancel.
So if a let’s say Ken is looking to do low forward drive rush, that means he’s in the “walk up and hit your opponent” range. You can cover his approach to stop him getting close for example. Regardless what he’s trying to do with his move, you should try and identify what level of footsies that puts him in, and try and beat him accordingly
They will inherently get more of a crouch medium then like, other characters, but that goes into meter management territory, which is another topic in itsef
This actually helps me so much. I just hit masters and am settling down in my more realistic MR, which will prob be somewhere between 1300-1400. I always wondered why my neutral was so bad, and that's because some of it I understood intuitively, and other parts I definitely misunderstood completely. I would rotate some options and try to spam one that I found to work. I can read people and adjust to certain patterns, but I would always try to poke with mediums and whiff, never thought about whiffing light normals like that on purpose, and sometimes I would just fail to open people up and not understand why. Subbed, thank you for the video, looking forward to more!
Check FilipinoChamp's videos for even more in-depth coaching and lessons. Example of something he taught is that if you're pressing high commitment buttons in neutral (mediums, heavies), then it will be harder or impossible to react to jumps, neutral skips, etc.
@@Jennifer-q7sYeah, funny thing is, it wasn't by choice. It just kind of happened over time. I've always over fighting games. And I've been playing KOF since it was in the arcades back in 94. I've been playing them as well as other fighters since then. But I've lived in Japan and Korea. And theyn gone make you learn.😁 I'm old Yuskue.😅
The mixing of neutral and footsies has been happening for years in the FGC, I just decided to make it clear that hey, these two words are used similarly, here’s what they mean
@fararjeh to an extent, but more experienced players will still call out classic footsie moments as footsies. It's also really hard to call the fireball minigame footsies.
@fararjeh it's a core aspect of neutral, and its a classic However the fireball game would not have called footsies, traditional footsies usually just refers to the low forward spacing minigame, which is encapsulated in your video nicely.
Playing Neutral is essentially the act of navigating the space where both players are at neutral (I.e neither player is at advantage, for example round start) to gaining advantage and landing a hit; this is done through a combination of spacing, whiff punishing your opponent, and choosing the correct response to what your opponent has done or is doing, through observation, reads and reactions.
Huh... Now that I look back on low-level play, and opponents of vastly different skill against eachother... Yeah, it's mostly being bad against neutral skips, and dying
That realisation right there is exactly why I made this vid, a lot of people think they suck at neutral, when really they just can’t deal with neutral skips
@@fararjeh Funniest recent one, for me, was in a match in a Lythero video with The Three Idiots (Rhymestyle, Seereax and Dotodoya). The 2 last ones fought eachother, and Doto absolutely rushed him with Zangief's ex run grab and air SPD
who do I play if I want to deprive my opponent of the ability to make me guess, rather than pursue situations where I force them to guess whilst in my pressure? Got sim to master but he aint rly working for me
That’s more of a playstyle thing than a character thing. Guile, dhalsim, or jp are all good options, but really unless you play perfect you’ll always have to guess at some point
Man I have watched this and the analysis video both were great u answered questions I have been struggling to find the answer to. Keep the good work, really cool videos.
Why would I play neutral when I can simply SCISSOR? I think what a lot of mid level players do, and I found myself in this category as well is that you learn how to play pretty good footsies but it becomes almost dogmatic. You stop just doing shit. The part about respect is absolutely true, you shouldn’t respect them until they give you a reason. ChrisG put out a video recently and it he’s like well if I throw you and you tech, why wouldn’t I try and throw you again. You tell me that you’re going to tech every time, surely enough on the second time he gets thrown and thrown again. This was revelatory to me because I had fallen in to a “ahh you have teched my throw. This option is now off the table- allow me to go back to neutral” Having good neutral is essential but you get better by layering in the bullshit on top of it
Keep in mind, fighters of the streets- you don't want to be in neutral, you want to be in an advantageous position. Don't play footsie with your opponents unless they make you
Footsies are pretty interesting to analyze, but you know what's something I find just as equally interesting? When both players disrespect each other and spam the heck out of neutral skip tools, in a tournament setting this probably would almost never happen, but it's funny to see it happening, because there's probably a whole meta behind which neutral skip tools beat which.
You don't have to respect other player, they have to earn is what he's saying. So you can spam neutral skips but once you realize you can't do that with a player then you have to respect them. And then you have to have a solid neutral. He's saying work on your footsies and neutral for when you're playing people that the bullshit don't work on.
For anyone looking for more insight into different neutral tools, I’d highly recommend the footsies handbook:
sonichurricane.com/?page_id=1702
As well as the mentioned video by hifight:
ruclips.net/video/96MKkqOlpKs/видео.html
Coming back here to the vid just to let you know how much this helped me i already can clearly see how much better i am playing i was always good at whiff punishing but had ZERO understanding over covering space and attacking my opponent when they're not covering and whiffing, Thank you
Man I’m so happy you’ve gotten so much out the video, it’s people like you I made this for 🙏
Great video.
How do I make a background like yours with the slowly moving command inputs on the purple background? I love this style but can’t seem to replicate it. Many thanks 👍
Downloaded some pngs from online, made them solid colour and made patterns which I copy pasted onto a purple background. The move effect was done in premiere pro, the rest is photoshop.
@@fararjeh thank you sincerely, especially for the quick response 👍
I know EXACTLY what neutral is all I have to do is press pierce
Blessed Pilipino ahh typo
Lol
@@deadfr0g not a typo my guy. Look at their pfp
@@chrisb8698 Oh ship! 😲
Maybe Pierce is not willing to participate. Poor Pierce.
Bison Whiffing a scissor kick and getting hit by a Ken fireball is the most honest explanation of neutral I’ve ever seen. Both of those things were easily avoided mistakes but the mental consequences were huge.
Bruh, i swear. No matter how many videos I've watched about Neutral or Footies. There's always something to learn.
Footsies and neutral don't mean anything
People make fighting games more deeper than they need to be
@@grph1t3z Hate to break it to you but this genre literally lives and dies by its complexity
Bro explained in 10 minutes what took me over an hour to explain to my homies lmao
The whiff
I can’t believe Street Fighter 6 is the game where I would start taking all this shit seriously. Cause I’ve been playing fighting games online for years and just playing for years. This damn near the only game that got me trying to IMPROVE my game
ok
Yo I feel that. SF6 had that effect on me too
Trash calls to other trash I suppose. Birds of feather-
@@thenewkalpa coo.
This is probably the best tutorial on neutral i have ever seen. havent really found one that covers concepts such as established respect from top level gameplay, which makes it difficult for new players to know what to do against players who dont respect them
Literally made this entire video just to talk about the respect part; it often goes underlooked when talking about neutral
This video is a gem.
I realized I don’t command respect in fighting games.
This video is me learning "I just have some high quality bullshit" and I'm not actually good in the neutral lmao
@@Jardonius lmao we’re forever going to be cleaning up our game. 😂
@@hazeyred3541 ayyy thats half the fun though. We can look back on our garbage neutral and just go "Yeah, glad I don't do that anymore"
@@JardoniusThe "bs" is also part of neutral, we just need to find the balance between politeness and then throwing shit at them lol.
@@thiagoakira697 This is also true, and jokes aside now that you put it that way I am always either too nice or *very* shitty lmao. Must find the center to find the way forward~
This is the best video on footsies I've ever seen. It has the clearest explanation of the cycle and then tying in the neutral skips is so enlightening. Excellent video!
Appreciate that bro hope you got something out of it 🙏
@@fararjeh Def did...one more question, would you consider Luke's Heavy Flash Knuckle a neutral skip as well?
Definitely, it completely skips neutral and puts luke point blank and plus in your face
@@fararjeh Gotcha, thanks man, just wanted to make sure I understood the concept properly.
That's why in sf6 around gold all the way to diamond 1 or 2, there usually isn't any form of really useful neutral game to be good at since it's mostly about consistency, managing your mental stacks and being able to beat the neutral skips.
Eventually being good at neutral becomes useful but until then, you gotta learn how to parry sumo-headbutt
Pretty much spot on man
I have been looking at guides for this stuff in a 2d context as a 3d player off and on for almost 15 years. From pros to casuals, no one has ever explained it this way. 99% are completely vague and will usually tell you to just do the thing you were trying to learn how to do when you clicked on the video without telling you how to do it. And I haven't given any 2d game a real chance because of it since I didn't understand what I was supposed to be doing, as well as the meaning of words like "neutral" or "footsies", again, in a 2d context. You've actually broken it down in a way that is actionable that I can start working on immediately. Thank you and well done.
This comment got me giggling on my stomach kicking my feet in the air bro appreciate that greatly 🙏🙏🙏
Amazing video. You delivered such high degree of clarity in what neutral is all about, while acknowledging the place for neutral skips.
Huge props.
As a noob player who just started playing seriously, this really helped understanding some important things, thanks👍
5:54 I regret to inform you that this is a whiff punish punish to a whiffed whiff punish, not a whiff whiff punish. 😔
😂 I whiff punished his whiffed whiff punish for a whiff punish punish
We need more videos like this. There are a lot of new gen fighting game players that need to get in on the lingo. Even I learned something, awesome stuff 🔥
Tryna fill the content gap that exists one vid at a time
The goddamn editing, the smooth audio, the video structure? Have my sub homie.
Goat activity
Bruh, your content is one of the best in the entire fighting game community.
It is informative and easy to understand and follow up for practices.
Certified banger 🔥 my man is spreading the gospel.
Love to see it. Extremely well edited too.
Aye man rob tv in my comments that’s how I know I did well 😂
Real talk though appreciate that brother 🙏🙏
In a game, there are states. Like in chess, one can be up one or more pieces or have a better position of pieces and they're then at advantage, or conversely they could have less pieces, or a worse position and be at disadvantage, finally all things could be equal and they're in a neutral state. So what people call playing neutral is actually attempting to get out of neutral in a way that puts them into an advantageous state. This assumes of course your goal is to win. If your goal is simply to tie or time out your opponent rather than win or lose then you would want to stay in neutral as long as possible. It is also important to note that while we don't normally think of how much life each character has left or how much timer is left, it is a part of neutral and so is frame advantage. Again, if you have the goal of winning the match, one's goal should be to be in neutral as little time as possible. This either means pressuring your opponent constantly and changing up what you do enough to where they cannot predict what you're doing, or punishing mistakes from opponents with highly optimized punishes (punishes being optimized matter for how much time they take and what position they leave one in, not simply for how much damage is done). Since only playing offensively or only playing defensively can lead to predictability, good players will generally have a good feel for when to switch between the two. But, remember, there is no playing neutral if you aim to win but rather what are you going to do to leave neutral and go into an advantaged state?
My summation of this fine post: Your goal is to win, your objective to reaching that goal is leaving neutral in an advantaged state.
Love the post, very good explanation.
Damn, this is the best and clearest explanation on footies and the neutral game that Ive ever seen and Ive been playing fighting games since 2008!
Wonderful video! Taught me a lot about the sub-categories of neutral-game I didn't know about before and how to actually play a neutral game at a high level!
I like how u included “threaten with throw”, under block pressure. Another advantage you gain from making them block is you push them back towards the corner.
Yup, and them being in the corner is great for so many reasons
This video is about to blow up.
Thank you man 😂
Premo instructional material.
I'm sending this to every beginner player of any fighting game. Good stuff man.
Means a lot brother 🙏
SF is such a humbling game. You either blame everyone else for your mistakes or you take a step back and and improve yourself by going back to basics.
pinning your shortcomings on yourself is the first step to geniunely improving
Thanks for the info the hardest thing by far is stopping neutral skips no one respects anything in the lower ranks until you get high enough to where people have some sense of
@1:04 to @1:09
OMFG BRO thank you for making that as simple as possible. I tried to explain this to folks many times.
This a great video. As a legacy player, I am of the opinion that neutral skips in SF6 come with such a positive risk/reward ratio, that the neutral game is virtually gone.
Honestly brother you are very correct with that. I do think offence in this game is greatly favoured but if I said that in the video everyone would lose hope at learning neutral 😭
I'm trying to get back into SF6 for season 2, and I was getting frustrated with my neutral game. Namely that I was getting neutral skipped repeatedly with jumpins, DIs, etc and all my 'clever fundamental play' was getting me killed.
I've seen plenty of videos before on footsies, but this is the first time I've seen one cover the concept of respect. People are jumping in on me and hitting me with DIs because I'm not anti-airing or countering properly. That isn't them being 'lol random', it's them exposing a glaring weakness in my skillset and targeting it.
Thanks for making this. Hopefully I can internalise it and get better at enforcing respect. Or at least recognising when people WON'T respect me and anti-airing them to death instead. V:
Amazing video. I love that you used so many different characters to illustrate your points. I got to platinum after 60 hours in this game and I've been pretty much hard stuck since lol, I think this will help a lot.
you better let me know when you hit diamond bro
I've seen lots of people make longer videos than this (to give respect they were very helpful) and gave me less value. You did a great job explaining neutral. I think what I really learned is to observe what state of neutral my opponent will switch in when they get used to my playstyle and counter that. I only gained this insight because of the techniques you described later in the video. Thank you.
This video is so elegant. Masterful work! I will link this ad nauseam. I used to just study/link the handbook, but this is a perfect intro to footsies.
Having the video be cyclical and end the way it starts, just like the Neutral / Footsies loop, is excellent. You were short, sweet, and to the point. Great video!
This vid popped up on my feed I’m a tekken guy but a lot of the principles here just opened my eyes up to things I was lacking great vid ❤
This video was absolutely amazing. You did a very great job. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Will do man
I drive a manual, I know exactly what neutral is and where!
i already knew all this, i still found the video incredibly well done. this will help me help my friends get better
This video should required watching for everyone who plays fighting games
I think the best advice in this video is the ending part about how a lot of lower level players who want to play the mind games don't force respect is really true.
Even as a FighterZ player, a game that's about as "anti-footsies" as possible, it still held true for me because the mindset for newbie players still applied in different areas.
FighterZ offense is instead more based around trying to break open an opponent's defense while they're blocking and you can make your turn last for a damn while in that game.
The advice that helped me a lot is when another player taught me that the thing lower level players fucking hate blocking, and this means that they will try to mash out of blockstrings as much as possible. This means that rather than doing long, true blockstrings, the most effective thing to do is starting your offense with frametraps, because you're expecting the opponent to mash.
In the game you can cancel 2L into 5L and vice versa, but only one time once per true blockstring.
At the same time, L buttons can be cancelled into buttons of higher strengths, meaning you can cancel your light buttons into a universal overhead and low, and 5L can also be cancelled into the universal throw. Most characters in the game either have a light that hits low, or their 2L is safe on block and functions as a pressure reset tool.
Because of this, 5L is the button that puts the most pressure on the opponent, because there are far more options they need to look out for after it.
The threat of when the mix is coming next becomes much scarier than alternating between a 5M that hits mid and a 2M that hits low.
Best part is, if you've conditioned your opponent to be really scared of mashing, it enables FAR more schenanigans because a lot of mixup options get shut down by mashing.
Stuff that's normally untrue like IAD crossups isn't a problem anymore once you've gotten to the point where your opponent is no longer mashing. Further increasing the amount of potential answers to the multiple choice question of "how do I block this mix?"
This DRAMATICALLY increases the amount of pressure actually being put on the opponent because now they have to ask way more questions about where to block.
(Blockstrings are still useful, but they're mostly there for keeping yourself safe after using your mediums for a mixup attempt and tying your attacks into assists. They don't put nearly as much pressure on their own).
Oh, and now that you've read this, you can now win games as Z-Broly. Most on his non-heavy normals will tick-grab into his unreactable light command grab. Once the command grab lands just combo that into his level 1. Midscreen it's 29% damage and in the corner you can make it do 33% damage.
Anyways, the core principle here is the idea that lower level players are going up against other lower level players don't know how to force them into playing the "don't-get-opened-up" game. In Street Fighter, it's with whiff punishes and movement, while in DBFZ it's using assists to get in and then breaking open the opponent's defense like they're a clam.
Loved the video, loved the editing, loved the script, and you have a nice mic!
Thanks for describing the reason most players can't just mimic top player matches. It's the respect part.
Looking forward to the next!
I used to not notice the established respect and think I just understood their neutral. Then after some time I realized they play such a slow and simple neutral BECAUSE they respect one another, whole different world
Exactly, now that I know about this if I see somebody playing methodical that I know I've earned their respect.
And I plan to earn their respect and force people into playing neutral and footsies.
"You do not understand what neutral means"...goes ahead to define what I previously understood it to be 😂
As a silver sf6 player, the last section is something I feel all lower ranks NEED to watch. We aren’t losing because of not whiff punishing enough. We lose because we can’t counter neutral skips, plain and simple. Trying to implement whiff punishing and pokes will only hurt your climb at lower ranks since most people never respect you and will repeatedly do the same options till they die. Which isn’t to say it’s pointless to learn. But focusing on punishing unsafe moves and neutral skips is the only thing you really need to learn at low levels.
Exactly bro, I’m glad you got something out the video 🙏
I know EXACTLY what neutral is. It's walking around like im trying to play footsies but im really trying to decide between sweep and h palm
Okay, so the real answer in this video for the newbies who can't do neutral: step one in learning to play neutral is NOT playing neutral but lab out how to punish every single bullshit move that gets spammed. Got it.
I was worried I didn’t stress this point enough but the fact you’ve caught on means either you’re very smart or the video is good so I’ll just assume both.
But yeah! No point trying to play footsies if you can’t even make your opponent play it with you :)
the way this video explains things is somewhat how philosophy works
incredible video quality, great work man
incredible video, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the sub count. Subbed
Bro where are these videos on the other topics you mentioned here?? Bro I look forward to seeing you explain these fundamentals and offense in future videos my guy. ❤
Offence vid is in the works, hopefully I’ll have it out in less than a week :)
There is a lot of information newer plarys might find helpful in this video. The part about wiff punishing in footsies is particularly well done. I do have so critics though. A lot of these are just because It's meant to be brief and for an audience that's less familiar.
- obviously neutral doesn't have to be grounded especially if characters have more air options they can still effectively play neutral. It usually is especially in street fighter but, it's a bad thing to get internalized in newer players. (Leads to the marvel has no neutral misconception)
8:14 If we consider "the three-structure" aka the neutral triangle (I'm not going to explain it here since the video kinda does. But if you found this video helpful you will find "Machaboo on fundamentals for those that want to become good at GG" quite useful doesn't matter if you play guilty gear most of it is universal.) we can more rigorous sub categorize these interactions.
I'm going to use:
Preemptive = Covering
Establishing = Block pressure
Passive = punishing
I'm using these terms because they mean the same things but, are more connected to the mental rps.
Many of the things commonly called neutral skips are establishing options but, so are preemptive options. The important things to consider is if it's reactable and if it's okay to block it.
Options like light spin knuckle and midscreen di are both reactible and fine to block the only way they work is by by punishing an attack. And because they're slow, they can only generally do this on a read. I wouldn't even consider these moves neutral skips since in many outcomes they don't even end neutral.
Consider Jumping, Dragon Lash, H spin knuckle, or a teleport like sim or kim. These work as both a preemptive punish as well as starting pressure on block. Because of this, they're all consistently interruptible, The harder it is to react to the higher the reward will be generally. I could understand these moves being called neutral skips since if an interaction occurs neutral will always end.
The idea of respect is pretty silly but, I understand that's what it looks like. Think about it like this, when a match begins, almost all good players start with passive play by default this is because of simple risk/reward. Because most players play passive until they have enough information to make more risky decisions If an opponent overuses the last archetype of move which consistently loses to passive play they will simply lose the match.
This is a necessary video for the newer players because they really don't know but us OG sf2- to present players definitely know. I have not watched the video yet. I only heard the intro. I will make this post before then another after I have watched it. As defined by me:
Neutral- controlling space using footsies, Anti-airs, grabs, supers, and etc to gain an opportunity to push yourself in a favorable position. Starts from anywhere where there is no clear advantage to either player (advantage, for example =knockdown).
Footsies-self explanatory....includes pokes, counterpokes, whiffs, and whiff punishes. Utilizing your characters effective range with normals.
See, this is a very good video about how and why Footsies are important to understand within any fighting game to get a good understanding of how to deal with Neutral and Pressure.
_...and then there's Happy Chaos saying "I don't skip Neutral, I _*_disrespect_*_ it."_
This video has confirmed what I already know.
I'm an ape that you're locked into a room with and I will *not* play neutral nor respect you and your pressure until you *force me to*.
Make me play neutral or die.
... that said I should probably also learn how to play neutral better for the people who actually can do that.
You’re right that’s why I spam fireballs and dps with modern controls
I just went to go look on your channel for more content and was surprised to see so little videos. Bro keep making videos this content was great.
I do it for people like you man 🙏
Thanks man this is great stuff.
So essentially you have to show a person you can handle neutral Skip's. Earn the respect so they play neutral well. I'm going to check out your other stuff and I've subscribed.
Stupendously great content.
If SF was a course, this would be a class.
aye man appreciate that😂
As an advanced player I can say it never hurts to go back to the basics
What happens is characters that can cancle their low fowards end up with more chances to open up because they can just buffer drive cancel over and over. One thing I found odd was that they allow you to do drive impact right after a drive cancel.
So if a let’s say Ken is looking to do low forward drive rush, that means he’s in the “walk up and hit your opponent” range. You can cover his approach to stop him getting close for example. Regardless what he’s trying to do with his move, you should try and identify what level of footsies that puts him in, and try and beat him accordingly
They will inherently get more of a crouch medium then like, other characters, but that goes into meter management territory, which is another topic in itsef
This actually helps me so much. I just hit masters and am settling down in my more realistic MR, which will prob be somewhere between 1300-1400.
I always wondered why my neutral was so bad, and that's because some of it I understood intuitively, and other parts I definitely misunderstood completely. I would rotate some options and try to spam one that I found to work. I can read people and adjust to certain patterns, but I would always try to poke with mediums and whiff, never thought about whiffing light normals like that on purpose, and sometimes I would just fail to open people up and not understand why.
Subbed, thank you for the video, looking forward to more!
Check FilipinoChamp's videos for even more in-depth coaching and lessons.
Example of something he taught is that if you're pressing high commitment buttons in neutral (mediums, heavies), then it will be harder or impossible to react to jumps, neutral skips, etc.
Glad you learnt a thing or two, I’d recommend the footsies handbook for some further reading
Top quality content.
Waiting for the second part.
Older KOF games back in the day taught me all of this.😅
You learned the right way.
@@Jennifer-q7sYeah, funny thing is, it wasn't by choice. It just kind of happened over time. I've always over fighting games. And I've been playing KOF since it was in the arcades back in 94.
I've been playing them as well as other fighters since then. But I've lived in Japan and Korea. And theyn gone make you learn.😁
I'm old Yuskue.😅
I kinda disagree with mixing footsies and neutral as much as you do, but the practical and actionable advice on this video is gold.
The mixing of neutral and footsies has been happening for years in the FGC, I just decided to make it clear that hey, these two words are used similarly, here’s what they mean
@fararjeh to an extent, but more experienced players will still call out classic footsie moments as footsies.
It's also really hard to call the fireball minigame footsies.
The fireball game is actually a core part of footsies
@fararjeh it's a core aspect of neutral, and its a classic
However the fireball game would not have called footsies, traditional footsies usually just refers to the low forward spacing minigame, which is encapsulated in your video nicely.
sonichurricane.com/?p=1510
Playing Neutral is essentially the act of navigating the space where both players are at neutral (I.e neither player is at advantage, for example round start) to gaining advantage and landing a hit; this is done through a combination of spacing, whiff punishing your opponent, and choosing the correct response to what your opponent has done or is doing, through observation, reads and reactions.
Huh... Now that I look back on low-level play, and opponents of vastly different skill against eachother... Yeah, it's mostly being bad against neutral skips, and dying
That realisation right there is exactly why I made this vid, a lot of people think they suck at neutral, when really they just can’t deal with neutral skips
@@fararjeh Funniest recent one, for me, was in a match in a Lythero video with The Three Idiots (Rhymestyle, Seereax and Dotodoya). The 2 last ones fought eachother, and Doto absolutely rushed him with Zangief's ex run grab and air SPD
Holy shit this is one of the best videos to explain to me this topic
Appreciate that man 🙏
Did I just learn something after having played SF6 for 500 hours?
I hope so 😂
Just with this knowledge you shared with me I think you might have helped level up my neutral play. Thank you GOAT! 💯
The set ups at 0:46 are nice
this Fararjeh guy doesnt miss. great video man
Appreciate that brother 🙏
Drive Rush... here you go, no needs for footsies...
Really solid video!
Keep up the good work
2:42 as a former Kim main, that combo was so suboptimal it made me cry.
😭😭😭 forgive me brother I don’t play Kim
@@fararjeh you should be ashamed. All jokes aside great video lol
I’m definitely gonna rewatch this video a few times, I need to better my actual street fighter play this helps
Superb video my friend! And great editing style. Can't wait to see more.
who do I play if I want to deprive my opponent of the ability to make me guess, rather than pursue situations where I force them to guess whilst in my pressure? Got sim to master but he aint rly working for me
That’s more of a playstyle thing than a character thing. Guile, dhalsim, or jp are all good options, but really unless you play perfect you’ll always have to guess at some point
I was wondering why I recognized you. I'm not even joking I decided to watch through this video to clean up my neutral in multiversus LMAOO
Thank you brother 😂🙏
This is a great video definitely what I needed to see
The jazz in the background goes hard
Skullgirls ost man it’s so good
@@fararjeh Also, I didn't mention but this was an excellent informative video.
best explanation i ever seen bro time to lab thank you
Welcome brother 🙏
I don’t even play sf and this was still so entertaining
appreciate that man!
Man I have watched this and the analysis video both were great u answered questions I have been struggling to find the answer to. Keep the good work, really cool videos.
Why would I play neutral when I can simply SCISSOR?
I think what a lot of mid level players do, and I found myself in this category as well is that you learn how to play pretty good footsies but it becomes almost dogmatic. You stop just doing shit.
The part about respect is absolutely true, you shouldn’t respect them until they give you a reason.
ChrisG put out a video recently and it he’s like well if I throw you and you tech, why wouldn’t I try and throw you again. You tell me that you’re going to tech every time, surely enough on the second time he gets thrown and thrown again.
This was revelatory to me because I had fallen in to a “ahh you have teched my throw. This option is now off the table- allow me to go back to neutral”
Having good neutral is essential but you get better by layering in the bullshit on top of it
Correct. I like doing combos, so I do those. If they don’t get hit the game is bad and unbalanced.
8:25 BRAZILIAN KEN MENTIONED LET'S GOOO BRASIL CAMPEÃO
I just commented how I would love the videos on capcoms channel to be more in-depth, and this is exactly what i meant. Really good video
This is amazing, would LOVE more tutorials like this. So well made
On it brother
Such a great breakdown
Keep in mind, fighters of the streets- you don't want to be in neutral, you want to be in an advantageous position. Don't play footsie with your opponents unless they make you
Ultimately you want to win, whether it’s by playing footsies or by overwhelming your opponent
Footsies are pretty interesting to analyze, but you know what's something I find just as equally interesting? When both players disrespect each other and spam the heck out of neutral skip tools, in a tournament setting this probably would almost never happen, but it's funny to see it happening, because there's probably a whole meta behind which neutral skip tools beat which.
Definitely
You don't have to respect other player, they have to earn is what he's saying. So you can spam neutral skips but once you realize you can't do that with a player then you have to respect them. And then you have to have a solid neutral. He's saying work on your footsies and neutral for when you're playing people that the bullshit don't work on.
@@masterscrubaiter Or, alternatively, you can attempt to find a different type of bullshit and keep the match funny-looking 🤠
If can't punish your opponent when he disrespects you, u'll never play neutral
Greate video. Looking forward to more.
Neutral skips are tougher to dill with and punish online. This is why everyone is abusing em
Great content. Subbed. Hoping for more.
Nah, full screen palm is all you need
This is why you’re the goat
This video is a banger.
This vid is 🔥🔥🔥. I lose to neutral skips all the time. Thx for helping me understand how to deal with them now.
Your welcome brother 🙏
Yeah, I already know I can’t! But that doesn’t mean you had to make an ENTIRE video about me!!
Well now you know what to improve on.
Is this neutral.mp4 v2?
Amazing video, can't wait to see what you do next.
I really appreciate this content. I am new and this breaks down the mechanics. Keep this content going
For you man ima keep making stuff like this 🙏