Possible cheating?

That is different. It’s called a Desync.

So you’re saying Evo champ and World Cup champ Rico has no skill and simply exploited his way to number one?

I know Rico is a great player, but yes if he picked his character based on what his opponent chose.

Ok. I will admit that some of the cross pickers have real skill. I just think it is a cheap way to win.

Some counter picks are community consensus - i.e. Glacius is good against Cinder. Some are obvious based on move set even before the character comes out. People had predicted that Hisako’s counters would match up really well against Tusk’s predictable and slow normal and for the most part this has played out. Similarly, most people knew that Spinal and Fulgore’s teleports would be problematic for Glacius, and they are.

As far as counterpicking as a strategy, it just depends on how you think the game should be played. If you are in ranked to win at all costs, then it’s pretty silly not to pick the character that gives you the best chance of winning. Some games, like SFV, don’t let you do this. You have to commit to a character without seeing the other guys choice. So, it’s a different philosophy. KI splits the difference. You can’t see your opponents pick but you can see who they were last time. So you can counter but you risk being duped (as has been amply demonstrated here). If it’s in the game, though, it’s a legit strategy for winning. I admit, I get tired of seeing the same matchups because people know who I’m going to play. I had an Aganos counterpick of my Kim Wu the other day…

It’s an interesting point you raise here. I know it might appear my disability is an excuse for losing and the like, but I try and justify my reasoning as to why these things happen as clearly as I can.

Those with sight can see the character their opponent played last. However, I and other gamers with no sight or not much vision don’t have that potential advantage. We have to just go in there, fight our hardest and if we win, that’s a bonus. However, the amount of Sadira’s I’ve seen, regardless of her being a free character, in addition to Jagos, Shagos and Rashes leads me to believe that people might be counterpicking against me though I can’t be sure.

I might suggest that the announcer speak who my opponent last picked, or if that’s not possible that the system could be removed all together to avoid counterpick attempts entirely. However, that’s a whole different topic.

Thanks for the clarification on the desync as well, I thought it could be related in a sense. I’ll try and put an example up when I can get the clips from Xbox dvr.