Character Loyalty Part 1: Tekken: Ling Xiaoyu and Gogoy

For today's topic I would like to talk about how much a player's determination, creativity and (character) dedication would often lead to winning, be it in casuals or in tourneys. I'll also note how this changes people's opinion on their character of choice and some other players who are effective with the character highlighted.

In order to for me to explain and elaborate this concept,I'm going to highlight and breakdown three players (and their respective characters) from three fighting games:
>Cebu's Gogoy(Xiaoyu) from Tekken,
>Bullet Hell Maestro and reigning MahvelKing Chris G for Marvel3
>Xian with his godlike Gen for SF:AEver2012.

First, let's cover the character, Ling Xiaoyu:
In my personal opinion, she's got good pokes, her moveset is diverse and gives her easy and many ways to access her launchers and lows, has practical movement options both for evasion and for offense and she has one of the most nastiest setups/mixups in the game.

From what I've said up there, you could automatically assume Ling is top tier when in fact, she is not.

Looking at the character on paper, Ling is a counter hit/trick character. She gets her damage by confusing her opponent. One mistake would often lead to getting hit by either a launcher (which leads to juggles) or a counterhit (which also leads to juggles or guaranteed hits) and she does this very well by poking the shit out of you, accompanied by her ability to avoid certain attacks with her Art of Phoenix (AoP) stance or back turning.

Now in order for Ling to be able to do that, the player using her will need to use all of her moves and not only use them, the player should know when and where to use them. However, if the opponent knows what the Ling player is doing AND can anticipate what she will do, she's pretty much fucked. She lacks anything overpowering or really abusable, her movement is dependent on how well you can transition from her stances to standing (and back again) and you often need to commit to your moves with Ling which means she cannot be top tier. Korean and japanese tier lists often list Ling under the Mid-Low tier because of this very reasons. Trick characters can only go so far in fighting games.

This style of play is really dependent on the player using Ling. This is where Gogoy comes in.

I have played with Gogoy quite a few times already and my God, it is annoying as hell to go up against.
You going for a throw? >Lol AoP
Trying to hit with a tracking mid to the right? >Lol back turn
Playing defense and waiting what I'm going to do? >Lol confuse you with all my stances and end in AOP then punish.
Going on the offensive and dash right in?> Lol use CH b+1 to BT3 and juggle you to death or anticipate your move and
use AOP to avoid it then use AOP u/f3+1 and juggle you to death.

This are just a few of the mindfucks Gogoy does and they always haunt me in my dreams BUT this writeup is for him and Ling, not for my frustrations. That's in another article :D ...

Getting back to the topic and switching over to their (Ling player) side:
I feel Ling players must control the mid part of the screen so she can take advantage of her moves that transition to stances to always keep in motion and her good choice of moves that on counter hit, leads to insane damage. With Gogoy, he does this all so effortlessly and his ability to be able to think up different tactics on the fly and apply said tactic to the current situation when he either initiates the offense himself or when the opponent decides to rushdown or play a close game.

Now let me be honest here, I don't use Ling at all because I tend to avoid trick characters in Tekken and characters with large movesets so this concept is solely based on my experience going against her. Hell, the last time I actually made an effort to learn Ling was with DR Xiaoyu (right about the same time Gio, a good friend of mine as well as Gogoy's, was learning Xiao) and back then, even I noticed how she was both better from her T3/TTT/T4 incarnations and not to mention, more fun.

For her Tekken 6 version, Namco added even more tools, and there were ALMOST no places that I feel they really messed her up. These ALMOSTs though made me stop using her regularly altogether. What I'm referring to was the decrease of advantages from some of her pokes that leave her somewhat weak on the uptake and her godlike AOP stance is several frames slower and gets even hit by a well timed jab or some special mids like Bruce b+2. Namco also took away her cartwheel :(. I admit that this are very minor things and some of this issues were even addressed in BR as well as in TTT2. That's what makes Gogoy and Gio the good players that they are. They adjusted to the timing and the changes in AoP and her pokes, learned and adapted new ways to address Ling's shortcomings and they basically reinvented their style of play to suit the new engine for T6. That's just admirable dedication right there.

Here's where I would like to point this out: Character loyalty.
For fighting games nowadays, we are given huge character rosters to choose from. Players try out the whole cast and as the game ages, players tend to stick to the strongest characters available for easy winning and other characters tend to get left out. Players who truly love their characters always stick it out to the end and always bring out the highest potential of their chosen character and themselves as well.

In a game like Tekken where tiers don't necessarily matter because it's "actually" balanced well, it's always a nice breath of fresh air to see Xiao hanging around with the Mishimas and the Larseses.

Gogoy's Ling should serve as a basis on how trick characters should be in Tekken (or in any fighting game, for that matter.) As I said before, In order for a trick character to be effective, constant motion and spacing is required to keep the opponent guessing. Gogoy does this by always taking advantage of her stances, AoP and back turn. This not only give her more options to counter, some moves can be evaded completely and lead to devastating damage. Familiarity and knowledge of the character's movelist and having good judgement  on when and where to use them is also a plus for trick characters. This is where Gogoy truly shines. Not only does Gogoy know every good move that Ling has, but usage of moves like CH b+1 to BT, WR3 to AoP, d/f+1 to BT is so spot on that opponents always have a hard time reading his next move.

Even a backdash to raw BT leads to problems because you have to guess if he'll be doing:
BTb+3+4 for a juggle
 BT roll twice to grab
 Roll to AOP
maybe sidestep then BT3.
Now bear in mind two things: One, I am writing this from the comfort of my own chair and it's easy to think up what options he has but it's very difficult when you're actually facing him in a match because he moves so fluidly with Ling. Second, the options that I have listed come from the top of my head and I am sure there are tons of other options besides that.

As I mentioned, another good Ling player is Gio. These two are actually close friends and their playstle is quite alike. These two players are perfect examples of how rewarding character loyalty can be and how far a good amount of practice and dedication can take you.


Overall, Xiaoyu on paper is a good all around character with good points in evasion and trickery and she relies on counter hits for damage but in a game where movement (Mishimas) and powerful, dependable moves (Feng WR2, Lars u/f+3,etc.) seem to be the biggest key to success, I can safely write that Xiaoyu comes up a little shy and say she is mid tier because in high levels of play, I see her losing because top players are familiar and already have knowledge of her trickery.

However, in the hands of Gogoy, who is able to be play Ling in nearly any way he pleases, can evade most of your moves and has two to three different setups and mixups for almost every situation , I'd put her into lower high tier because of his abilities. It's all in the player yo.

Next up I'll try to cover Chris G's Morrigan.
-Shoutout to Gogoy for letting me cover his Xiao. 

Peace out
-Chady

One Motto at a Time

Coin?Step?Press? Arrghh...

I cannot decide what the main theme of the rebuilding of Bohol's FGC is... I know this can be very simple as to pick any of those words but this is a huge thing because it could be very well the thing that makes this project make it or gulp, break it.

Your opinion would really help.

Thanks in advance. Peace out.
-Chady

Bohol Arcadium Reopens!

So I just 'reopened' my little arcade back. I still have one arcade per se (with an Xbox 360 system)  but I also still have my PS3 with my dependable arcade sticks. As expected, business is starting slow but mostly because I still haven't 'really' to spread and advertise the shop as much as I want to. I want to see if how far rhe local "word of mouth" will get me because back in the day, this is how arcades grew to be popular. The place with competition and great atmosphere always gets attention and attention means customers.

 Yes, I know I am a hypocrite for saying this (Chard, we have the internet, and radio...and phones or Chard, you are the only one that has an arcade...or any interest in fighting games whatsoever) but meh, I'm trying to do things old school. An arcade, like any other business, is dependent on it's customers so what I'm trying to see here is if the current FGC (or Fighting Game Community for the confused, like Olivier) of Bohol has any interest of expanding their borders out of and on their own. Besides the current FGC, I would also like to see if there are new faces willing to join Bohol's FGC.

I know I will get to advertising soon enough but it's always a pleasure to see when a person's interest, drive and passion for fighting games (or just gaming, in general) causes him to come over and not only play, but share this love with other gamers like us.

So come on everyone. Hog singko are.


One Step at A Time.
Peace out.
-Chady