True. If you don’t have confidence in your ability to break something consistently, it may be better to keep the opponent doing low damage stuff out of fear of breaking rather than make a wrong break and eat double the damage.
That being said, it looks like a lot of Top Tier players prefer to go for short, hard to break stuff for the near guaranteed damage anyway.
The only thing that bugs me is that their muscle memory is so down pat that I often see big tourney players not utilizing lockouts. They’ll get the lockout off of one of their ambiguous/manual/bait combo moves and then end the combo immediately afterwards without getting the extra damage. I suppose a lot of players (and characters) value spacing and control so much that they make absolutely sure they have things where they want that it sometimes keeps them from caching in on opportunities. That, or they want to do everything they can to avoid their opponent popping instinct as long as possible, and let the clock run down so they have a chance of just outlasting the opponent.
I loved these matches. Have been wanting to see high level Aria play.
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Yeah, Sleep’s got a fantastic Aria. I definitely don’t agree with how he manages her bodies in some situations, and I’ve seen tighter vortex setups with her, but overall I was super impressed with his Aria play.
I still don’t think he’s the best Aria out there (that’d go to ZeroMayCry or Seadragon), but he’s definitely in the discussion. Aria is super hype (and isn’t Kan Ra 
) so I was jazzed to see Sleep playing her in tourney.
My whole family enjoyed watching this replay, even my wife. They were cheering for SLeep after Thompson Tea bagged him. I think thats were he messed up… It was over at that point IMO.
I know Sleep hit the Taunt but I think it was accidental or type of fake out to bait a wind kick.
I think it was to Bait Sleep into something, or get him pushing buttons, but It backlashed.
Well, If they do up the KV meter in S3, Tourney players are going to get DESTROYED with someone who goes for long combos, manuals, and counter breakers.
LOL That’s why I do long combos.
.#Inb4ProMassExtermination
I had a blast watching this and seeing these guys go at it. Mindgames, teabagging, switching characters, etc. Also, really enjoyed these strong Jagos.
Meanwhile at UltraTech HQ
ARIA online
A.N.A.L.Y.Z.E.
iniate.upload.
update.ostrich.file
record: “I do long combos”
ARIA off
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Ok. I nearly died reading that. 
My firewall didnt work…Aww.
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yea, maybe its confirmation bias, but it seems early taunts almost always result in the opponent winning. I had a feeling it was over for Thompson the first time he did it. And Sleep showed me Aria can be a pain in the ■■■ (though ZeroMayCry shows you can go nuts with the character, IMO he’s better), I’ve picked up Aria to complete her achievements and I’m sometimes amazed by what these guys are able to do with her.
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I’m currently rebroadcasting the Top 8 now for anyone interested in watching it w/ an audience.
Of course, I focus on Aria and Sleep wasn’t really doing a lot of vortex. Not that he should, but I learned a lot from him.
I was really happy seeing all these Jagos trying to cope with the S2 characters. A year ago, I thought Jago was finished with all the tools S2 characters have, but that’s not the case at all. Still tough to deal with alk the Arias and Kan-Ras of this world, imo.
Another day at Ultratech HQ…
Aria online
iniate.upload
update.ostrich.file
record: “I nearly died”
record:“UT comment: mission failed”
Aria offline
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