idk about being EVO ready, but I want to be THE Shago for KI. Please my Shadow tiger brethren, feed me your energy!
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When I get home from my trip, I will start this, and maybe make some content from it.
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Zeniside is that you?
???
wha???
Nevermind. I thought you were someone else.
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Towards the end of Season 2, back when I held Killer rank, I may have taken up this challenge. Sadly, I am out of practice due to the fact that other games I like came out (Doom, Fallout 4 console mods, Dark Souls 2/3), and thus stuck in Silver.
Maybe once I work out the last of the kinks in my other gaming schedules (and hopefully find a lul in the upcoming Fall semester) Iâll climb my way back into Killer and take my chances.
I will, however, solute those who take up the challenge and applaud those with the tenacity to succeed!
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Honestly not sure. At first I was just playing Ranked to see if I could get a 90% win rate with at least 100 games. It was only then, with about 4 days left in the month, that I decided to actually grind for the star. I think in those last 4 days I probably played 4 hours a day or so (it was Memorial Day weekend). So definitely a grind, but also a backloaded grind. And again, I probably grinded harder than I needed to, since I wound up in 9th for the month.
At a certain point it definitely becomes deterministic, where itâs just playing enough matches to climb. But doing well, and making sure you beat those players with more points than you, makes it a lot easier. I certainly wouldnât have gone for the star if Iâd had to grind like that for the whole month.
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Thanks I asked as a possibility of spending 1 an hour or so just to try.
Well, new month, so I think Iâm going to try for a pro star. If you see me in ranked Iâll be playing GargosâŠlikelyâŠ
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Played an hour or so yesterday as the ranks reset. Was happy when I went 3-0 to Top-18. Was instantly distraught when I went 0-3 following the next few games and saw my points back to 66.
Ah, as much as I truly want a pro star, I donât think I will ever be good enough to compete against skilled players with gimmicky characters. I have a hard enough time mastering the fundamentals let alone trying to become intermediate in my knowledge against awkward characters.
Well, my goal still stands. Make it to at least the 100th mark!
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Iâd like you to unpack this thought if you donât mind. What do you define as a âgimmickyâ character?
Characters who revolve around the core fundementals but truly never regard them.
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Donât mean to be obtuse, but what do you mean specifically in this instance? What are the âfundamentalsâ you want them to respect, and what do you mean when you say they donât have to regard them? Feel free to use a character example if that helps.
Just genuinely trying to understand what it is that is tripping you up in these situations. Jago, as much as heâs known for being an honest and âfundamentalâ character, can actually be shenanigansy as hell at high level, and just gets away with it better due to meter (random unsafe special->shadow fireball) and instinct (âhaha now you have to kill me againâ). He isnât actually as honest as we generally give him credit for.
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I could do it but I just donât have enough time to invest in the game in a single month to ever get one of those fancy stars 
Well, when I consider players, I see Thonpxson as the best Jago. Sure everyone uses shinanigans right? But most characters follow the rules of fundementals. Neutral, combos, breakers, etc.
But, then you have players like Sleep using Gargos for instance. Who use minions to control the neutral game, use random moves rather than traditional combos to deal damage like diving overheads or minion pokes.
I guess when I say true fundementals I see a street fighter match whereas Ken and Ryu face off using normals and combos to win the match and the only shinanigans being fireballs or tatsusenpukens.
Character like Gargos, Eyedol, Cinder, Aria, etc. they all stray from the fundementals and use their explicit toolset to control and win a match. Itâs not bad but just gimmicky.
Coming from N64 the general rule of fighting games was really simplistic. Games like Smash Bros changed the whole thing up though by adding gimmicky characters who used a variety of tools to win in the later iterations.
Itâs rather difficult to explain but to me fundementals is the true background of universal fighting I suppose. Like math is a universal language but someone opted to use body language.
Hope that makes sense.
I think I get where youâre coming from. I think that mentality might be limiting you to a certain extent though.
You are not wrong that some characters in KI can invalidate the neutral in certain situations. Gargos with minions, Arbiterâs gun one-chances, Fulgore with his DP pip cancels, everyoneâs vortexes, etc. But if you see those things, but fail to see the ways in which Jago invalidates certain fighting game âfundamentalsâ, then youâre nursing a blind spot about the ways in which he cheats âhonestâ play as well, and I think that can hurt your own game and mindset.
It is always Jagoâs turn. He can throw out a medium wind kick, get it blocked, and then choose to follow it up with a DP that on counterhit does 17% damage. If you block the frame trap DP, he can cancel the DP into a shadow fireball that puts him generally back into neutral unless your punish timing is immaculate. He gets to throw out stuff like this with some regularity, because itâs actually pretty strong, he nearly always has meter, and because the threat of it forces people to wait when it really shouldnât be his turn anymore. I block wind kicks all the time and get thrown afterwards, because I have no way to know short of a pure read whether or not Jago is going to follow up something negative with his stupidly damaging invincible DP. That is not âhonestâ play, or anything close to it.
If you move away from his âhard readâ frame traps and go into buttons, then youâre still looking at a character who has forward advancing plus-on-block pressure, a plus on block special move that opens immediately into combo, and a few standing buttons that are also plus on block, including the amazing st.MK. There is actually very little that is âhonestâ or âtrue fundamentalsâ about Jagoâs footsies game - it just happens to not be of the crazy mobile variety.
Jago has very interesting neutral play I think, and it is certainly true that it is relatively more sedate than that of the crazier members of the KI cast. But donât kid yourself that it is honest in anything more than the most superficial of ways. Jago is a monster because he has dirt just like the rest of the KI cast; it just so happens that his dirt lies in the data of his attacks more than in the spectacle of them. I played Thompxsonâs Jago at EVO, and got beat like I havenât been beaten in KI in a long, long time. I was incredibly impressed with his play, and would love to get a set in with him some time. But his gameplan revolved almost entirely around ânope, not your turn yetâ kinds of pressure, along with a smattering of nigh-unreactable resets into hard knockdown setups. Make no mistake, Thompxsonâs Jago is not very âhonestâ at all. Honest characters donât get to keep pressing buttons, walk forward after you block them, and then still counter hit you after you press a 6 frame normal. Thatâs Jagoâs variety of dirt, and itâs just as grimy as anything Gargos can pull with a minion on the field, but a heck of a lot easier to set up.
Donât mean to preach at you, and youâre certainly free to dislike fighting certain characters or particular playstyles (I personally despise Shago and everything he stands for), but also donât want you to develop a mindset that your character is a shining bastion of pure fundamentals and footsies in a cast of gimmicks and shenanigans. Just because Jago doesnât rely on tail flip doesnât mean heâs âfairâ - to be perfectly honest, Iâd actually prefer dealing with a straight-up gimmick than one hidden behind favorable frames on an otherwise unremarkable button. The latter is much, much more dangerous.
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PREACH!!! xD jago is godlike.
KI Is a nutty game. Honesty is kind of thrown out the window in favor of the game play mechanics. The most least dirty character to me is orchid.
I understand what you mean, just know personally I canât play against characters outside of the fundementals I described. Itâs nothing to do with what hidden potential Jago may have, I know he can be gimmicky too and I like to explore that for fun.
But, on a competitive level, itâs just my brain that wonât ever reach that level of competition. Sure like you said, Jago has frame advantages and he can invalidate the core rule of fundementals but I like the simplicity most players use while playing Jago vs what Hisako or Gargos can and will do. Most Jagos I meet follow the fundementals despite relying on frame advantages. Sure, I meet Jagos with crazy tech and Iâll generally lose but itâs fun to watch no doubt.
Thatâs just me, nothing against other players and how they perceive the matches/cast. Just how I work based on my short time with fighting games. I just enjoy the true fundementals based matchups with players.
Granted, every game has its odd mechanics that can be labeled as gimmicky, I guess I just have more fun following the mindset of simplicity in characters.