FIGHTING WORDS – The Art of the Counter-Pick!
Like every week Fighting Words is here to bring you the news and strategies that can help you delve deeper into the fighting game community. It’s been awhile since we have hit the lab to give you the tools to compete at a higher levels. So this week we’ll look into a strategy that’s existed since Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the art of the Counter-Pick.
COUNTER PICKING
Counter-Picking is a strategy mainly used by non-Japanese gamers in tournament play. Not all players use it, but it can be a strong tool to help you get through some tough matches. In Japan it’s not used as extensively simply because of the format of the tournaments.
So what is counter-picking? Good question! My you’re astute today. Counter-picking is a strategy where a player selects a character that they believe counters their opponent’s character. The strategy sounds simple enough, but there are a lot of factors that have to be considered.
Nearly always your main character is your best character. So often it’s a good idea to stay with your character even if fighting against a particular character that gives you trouble. Sometimes however, it is a better idea to go for a more favorable matchup.
The Gamestop National tournament showed a great example of this, as Justin Wong prepared to face Daigo, the only international champ he had left to defeat, in the exhibition after the US Grand Finals. Justin Wong’s main character in Street Fighter IV is Rufus, a character who bases a lot of his offense around his EX Messiah Kick and his Dive Kick.
Daigo plays Ryu as his main character who because of his Hadoken and Shoryuken can control spacing quite well. He is especially good at punishing characters who take to the sky often because of the ability for him to focus cancel a shoryuken and perform his ultra.
Justin Wong would later say in an interview that if he was playing in a tournament and not an exhibition he would have switched to Balrog to face Daigo’s Ryu.
Ryu in this case is a natural counter to Rufus. Rufus likes to get in the air a lot, Ryu likes it when people are in the air a lot. For example even if Rufus changes it up and tries a jump in attack other than the dive kick and this Ryu’s shoryuken even though both characters will be hit Ryu can sometimes still hit Rufus with the ultra!
Balrog on the other hand can produce a lot of offense horizontally across the screen with his dash punches and can even punish Hadokens with his headbutt. This matchup is much more favorable if you play a strong Balrog.
Trains are a natural counter-pick to Cars.
This strategy works in non-Japanese tournaments because their format more readily allows you to counter. In those tournaments most often games are best two out of three. The winner player has to keep his character (which is a nod back to the day of arcade tournaments when the winning player stayed on the cabinet) and the challenger can select anyone they want. Players can take this to their advantage and pick a counter already knowing who there opponent is locked into playing! In Japan tournaments oft require the player to keep the same character, so if you’re trying to counter-pick another player you have to do it before you know who they will play-a risky proposition indeed.
Some games lend themselves to counter-picking more than others. So experiment but one thing is important to note regardless: you will face counter-picks! So you still need to practice hard against any character that you have trouble with or is considered a counter to your character.
Counter-picking is a tactic that extends to all fighting games. Characters all have their strengths and weaknesses so often it’s just finding out which character exacerbates your opponents weaknesses the most! Games like Smash Bros even have stages that are counter-picks! So use everything you can to your advantage and fight the good fight.
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