Street Fighter: IRC is still awesome and full of people who are awesome.

ChaosHat

OMG UPDATES?!

Yun and Yang are confirmed in!

List of Arcade Changes (take it with a grain of salt, this shit will probably change a lot)
New Costumes, pictures and complete release schedule.


So you wanna be a Street Fighter?
Step 1: Fundamentals
The information in the spoiler will help you get started!

Gooteck's Guide for Beginners
The Footsies Handbook
A list of common Street Fighter notations
A glossary of common Street Fighter terms
Shoryuken New Player Forum
What to practice in practice mode.
Sirlin's Playing to Win Guide- Deals with mindsets and strategy.
Know your character! - a bit shallow, but good for basics
Know your character some more! Getting a little deeper.
[vidurl="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onvtbvgU_Rk"]Vesper Arcade Guide[/vidurl], pretty good for total newbies, gets into more advanced stuff in later chapters.
[vidurl=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDMboPnznJc]Video on hit confirming.[/vidurl]
[vidurl=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHHoGHcgK9k]Video on option selects[/vidurl]
[vidurl=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBUe7HkRkNM]Video on spacing and zoning[/vidurl]
[vidurl=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFTvXXoDNRA]First in a good series[/vidurl] of videos on zoning, knockdown and something else good that I forgot.
Vesper Arcade shows you how to do the trials

Step 2: Getting more serious.
More information than you thought existed, and arcade stick info.

The Street Fighter Wiki page
Eventhubs.com
How to read frame data.
Shoryuken Forums - Character specific forums are great!
Why good players lose to bad ones.

The best thing you can do is play people better than you. Losing sucks but you learn a lot more than from people who you just steamroll. Get in lobbies with other PAers, since we run the whole skill spectrum. They're nice and will help you with advice and stuff. Furthermore, in Super, you can watch your own replays to see why you lost! How cool is that?

Step 2a: Getting a fight stick.
The Joystick Rant

Just buy a god damn TE. Don't ask in the thread, don't second guess it, don't read reviews online, don't poll your friends. Do you know what everyone is going to tell you? GO BUY A GOD DAMN TE. You know what people will say if you ask if you should get an SE? Save yourself the trouble and buy a TE. And then you'll be like "Why is the TE so much better than the SE?" and we'll all say "The buttons suck and you'll have to replace them and it just saves a lot of time and probably money just to get the TE." And then you'll ask us "But what about a Hori stick? I heard those are good." And then everyone will say "Yeah those are okay but they're not as good as the TE or even the SE because it's harder to mod" and then some silly goose will say "Hey, I like Hori's" just to confuse you but then someone else will be like "Yeah Hori's are fine but is it better then the TE?" and the original silly goose will be like "Oh no nothing is better than the TE" because nothing is better than the TE. And then you'll ask us why the TE is so good and the answers will invariably involve the modability, out of the box professional quality parts and the overall sexiness and build quality. But then of course because you have to make this difficult you'll say "I can't use Japanese parts because I need an octo gate, I can't use a square gate, also I need a bat top and some sort of adapter to make it work and blah blah blah" and invariably someone will come in and link you all the things you just mentioned above and tell you where to buy it from.

So I just saved the whole thread like three pages of people trying to be the first to recommend the TE and the ridiculous questions that come with it. JUST. BUY. THE. T. E.

Now that we have that out of the way, here are some stick related links:
The SRK Tech Talk Forums: Everything you need to know to mod or build your own stick.
Switching from a pad to a stick.
Arcade Stick Guide - Complete with reviews, faq and glossary!
Slagcoin's Ridiculously In Depth Joystick Guide
[vidurl="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsME37GrqjY"]Ways to hold a joystick[/vidurl]

Step 3: Watching the pros, learning the matches

Tournaments and matches:
SF4Tube
Arcade Infinity's Channel
FADC's Channel
Gooteck's Channel
Level|Up Series' Channel

Penny Arcade Competitive Battling - Now with 100% more teams!
RanBats!
RanBat Season 3 (Current)
Ranbat Season 2
Season 2 Finals
Ranbat Season 1 Spreadsheet

Okay, revised ranbat rules for added clarification.
First off, let's start with some definitions:

• RanBat - RANking BATtle. It's what you're reading about. Players compete in tournaments to earn points and get ranked based on how many points they have earned.
• Round - A single round. The announcer usually yells "ROUND X" before these start, with X being the round number. In between rounds, a player does not access any menus and cannot change characters.
• Game - A grouping of rounds, usually best of three or five rounds. After a game ends (online at least) both players are returned to the lobby ready screen and character select.
• Match - A collection of games against one specific human opponent during a single round or period of a ranbat.

Next: generic ranbat rules.

• 99 second, best of three rounds, best of three games in a match unless otherwise specified.
• All characters allowed.
• Only the loser may switch characters, the winner may not switch characters, but is allowed to change ultras if desired.

Nextly, scheduling and signups!

• All ranbats @9pm eastern!
• Xbox 360 ranbats on Tuesday
• PM ChaosHat on 360
• Log onto IRC at the start time!

Anyways, onto the actual RanBatting.
There are two phases to a ranbat night, the pools period, and the playoffs period. The exact structure of these is up to the organizer, but here are some formats you can expect. First, the pools period. There are two ways the pools period is run generally, depending on turnout. On especially low turnout nights, it is not unprecedented to skip pools. The pools period is meant to select the players who will go to the playoffs period, usually a top 4 (but potentially more in the event of large turnout). Regardless of whichever method is chosen, it is vitally important that you record your match wins and losses, as well as the games wins and losses, as the games wins/losses can be used to break a tie in the event two people have identical match records.

The Pools Period!
When the time comes, the RanBat organizer will randomize the list of entrants and post this random list. You will find your name on this list and play the three people above you and three people below you on the list. You will (as of season three) earn two points per match win at this phase. After this, you'll report your record (usually in IRC) to the organizer who will compile the data and determine who moves on to...

The Playoffs Period!
Playoffs will now be a single elimination bracket of the top four players, mostly to save on time. Just for making it to the top 4, you will earn one point. You will also earn two more points for each match you win while in the playoffs.

At the end of the season, the top players will be put into a big asynchronous RanBat finals bracket to determine the overall season winner!

Team League!

The Teams!
Division One: PATL East

Chicago Conquerors 1 - 0
ChaosHat
MiseryDays
Remura

Pittsburgh Pugilists 0 - 1
Blackbeard7
Chamberlain
Pancake

Sol and Evil's Fucking Team From The East Coast Like Atlanta or Some Other Fucking Place 1 - 0
Solsovly
Evil Multifarious
BabyEatingJesus

Hiryu02 0 - 1
Masume
Fig-D

Division 2: PATL West

Carson City Juiceboxes 1 - 0
Kinderparty
Nick T
Grove

Auburn Button Mashers 0 - 1
Sivraj
AuburnTiger
Chessboxing909

Cleveland Steamers
Bizazedo
FolkenFanel
Iroh

New York Apple Fritters
Aumni
Blaze_zero
Coeurs

The Rules!

Every week, as per the almighty schedule, each team will have another team to face. This match can happen whenever is best for each team. In the event that the teams cannot figure out a time that works for all six players, players may be substituted for any willing player available. Please do not abuse the substitution by doing shady things. Then I'll have to change the rules.

Teams will arrange the match in the online team battle mode. Characters will have to be chosen beforehand, but can change between matches (not games). Both teams can set the player order however they want, and then play. That's game one, you'll play best of five. When setting up for subsequent games, any players who haven't played in the previous game must play first.

So, examples: Team Blue (A, B, and C) is playing against Team Red (1, 2, and 3).

First game, the teams are set up with A and 1 first, B and 2 second, C and 3 last. Blue team loses, players 1 played and lost, 2 played and won, 3 did not play.

So, second game, Blue can arrange their players however they want, since they all played and lost. This time, player 3 must go first since he didn't play in the prior game. The other two players can be arranged however they want. In game 3, any player who didn't play in game 2 must go first. Suppose in game two, player B pulls a one character victory (OCV), in game three, A and C can go first in whatever order, as long as player B goes last.

That sounds kinda complicated, but it's really not. Best of five games, anyone who didn't play in the last game has to play before anyone on their team that did.

At the end of the season, whenever that is, the top two teams from each division will advance through to the playoffs for season champions.

The Schedule!
Week 1:

Chicago Conquerors vs Pittsburgh Pugilists
Carson City Juiceboxes vs Auburn Button Mashers
Cleveland Steamers vs New York Apple Fritters
Hiryu's Team vs Sol and Evil's Fucking Team From The East Coast Like Atlanta or Some Other Fucking Place.

Week 2:

Chicago Conquerors vs Sol and Evil's Fucking Team From The East Coast Like Atlanta or Some Other Fucking Place
Carson City Juiceboxes vs Pittsburgh Pugilists
Cleveland Steamers vs Auburn Button Mashers
Hiryu's Team vsNew York Apple Fritters.

The PA Fighting Game Community!
We have a friends list, you can access it here!
First, enter your data here, using this form!
Then, you can view the list of players here.

If you're on the 360, you can add the metafriend: A PA SSF4

We also made a super cool IRC room! #PAFighting at irc.slashnet.org:6667 You can use this web client if you're SUPER UNCOOL. So people know, we are naming ourselves LFG_YourName in irc if you're looking for a lobby, and LFM_YourName if you're looking for more people! Simply use /nick to change your name in chat. You should use a non web client because sometimes the web client breaks while the server is still up for some unknown reason. If you need help configuring IRC, Blackbeard made this super cool guide:

Blackbeard7 wrote: »

How to get mIRC working

Step 1: Go to http://www.mirc.com/ and click Download mIRC and install it. Just do all the basic stuff and let it do its thing. It's pretty fast.

Step 2: Go file > select server. Under connect, click on servers. Then click the Add button that appears on the right. Under description, put whatever you want. Under IRC server, put irc.slashnet.org, ports put 6667, and for group put #PAFighting. Password leave blank. Hit ok when done.

Step 3: Click connect again on the left menu, and fill out the nickname box and other info (I had to also do full name and email before it stopped giving me shit. I also unchecked invisible mode in case it did what it sounded like). Click the connect button under those info boxes, and wait a sec. A box should pop up asking what channel to join. Enter #PAFighting and click join. That should do it. If you get an error at this step, you may have to reopen the server select menu, click on firewall, and add port 6667. I had to, but your mileage may vary.

Know anything I'm missing? Let me know and I'll add it.

Daebunz

Losing to a flowchart ken is a good way for me to start the thread (and end my night)

solsovly

The G4G match tonight was pretty fun to watch. More people need to do it for the IRC channels entertainment.

Fig-D

Q&A with Seth Killian wrote:

Why did you guys change Gen so much in SSF4? You nerfed his EX-Oga invincibility, Medium Kick to Hands loop, his jump arc and other things. What he got in return wasn't enough. Did you set out to make Gen low tier?

Seth Killian: While I see where you're coming from with Gen, I can at least tell you that the game balance and tweaking almost never starts with the idea, "we should nerf so-and-so," (so Gen wasn't somehow targeted for being made weaker).

During the course of balancing, all the characters go on a bit of a rollercoaster ride of being stronger and weaker versions of themselves.

For instance, the Abel that was shipped was one of the strongest versions of Abel that existed during SSFIV development. This wasn't part of a master plan, and there is no pre-set scheme to try and make the rankings look one particular way (like "Gouken should be #1, and Blanka should be 8th!").

When it came time to ship the game, Abel went out the door as a relatively strong version of his different incarnations. For Gen (always a tricky character to balance, given his large amount of moves, and unusual features), he was caught a bit on the lower side.

I certainly don't feel Gen is somehow hopeless (and lord knows I've done my fair share of losing to him), but I see the issues and am certainly unhappy that a lot of Gen-loving players seem to like him less than they did before.

Arcade version of SSFIV may have some surprises in store, so stay tuned...

Limed the important bit there. Possible balance tweaks in addition to the new characters for the arcade version of SSFIV?

Wearingglasses

I hope so. Hakan and Makoto need more loving.

Zombie Hero

As long as the new characters aren't Yun AND Yang. One would be okay, I guess.

House of Paincakes

Biz - good games man! Although I was usually taking quite a beating, I manged to squeak some wins out.

Give me tips! Although I can already guess the following:
-I focus too much.
-I jump in too much (and predictably).
-I wakeup cannon spike too much.
-I need to not drop the c.LK, c.LP, c.LK xx HK spiral arrow link.

Anything else I'm doing wrong? Anything I'm doing right that I need to do more of? Even though I know I'm doing these things wrong, I still do them which makes me smack my head a lot. The wakeup cannon spikes are usually when I'm flustered and kind of losing my composure though.

Dropping that link is really frustrating though, so much lost damage. Supposedly it's a 2-framer but I have zero problem with Bison's BnB 2-framer whereas this one gives me fits.

I'm still super surprised at how good our connection is when it's showing 1 bar.

FuriousJodo

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/dojostats

Stream up - not mine anymore another guy is running it on his stuff. I kind of abandoned my SSF4 peoples. :P

blaze_zero

I'd probably play in the team thingy. School is kicking my ass right now though.

DaSniper91

It seems like I'm the only person excited about Yung/Yang heh.

ChaosHat

DaSniper91 wrote: »

It seems like I'm the only person excited about Yung/Yang heh.

I'm pretty convinced it's a hoax designed by Ono to determine who all the awful people are so they can be denied access into Fighting Game Heaven when he comes to rapture the faithful.

In Fighting Game Heaven there's no such thing as lag. And your links are always spot on.



I don't care what eventhubs says, the skateboard means Lucas Lee will be DLC.

Kevin Crist

Anyone know Japanese?

http://www.capcom.co.jp/blog/sf4/saikyo_blog/2010/09/03_2614.html

Bizazedo

House of Paincakes wrote: »

Biz - good games man! Although I was usually taking quite a beating, I manged to squeak some wins out.

Give me tips! Although I can already guess the following:
-I focus too much.
-I jump in too much (and predictably).
-I wakeup cannon spike too much.
-I need to not drop the c.LK, c.LP, c.LK xx HK spiral arrow link.

Anything else I'm doing wrong? Anything I'm doing right that I need to do more of? Even though I know I'm doing these things wrong, I still do them which makes me smack my head a lot. The wakeup cannon spikes are usually when I'm flustered and kind of losing my composure though.

Dropping that link is really frustrating though, so much lost damage. Supposedly it's a 2-framer but I have zero problem with Bison's BnB 2-framer whereas this one gives me fits.

I'm still super surprised at how good our connection is when it's showing 1 bar.

You know it's weird, you always so green to me, full green, for one match, before it dips to orange. But, it always plays like it's green.

/shrug

Anyways.

I don't think you focus too much, honestly, I've just played Sol so much that I am looking for it to punish nowadays.

I also think you jumping in is fine, just don't do it immediately after I light scissor kick..you ate a lot of standing HK's due to that predilection. Jumping in on Bison is still mostly safe, though, just do it on your own timeframe. There's no rush (to eat a standing HK).

Yeah, wake up cannon spike bad .

I think your biggest issue with Cammy was being predictable on the throw attempts. You started mixing it up near the end to good effect, but if you can't work the throws in effectively, her pressure is a lot less scary. I tech'd the shit out of you the first portion of the matches.

Imo, from playing other Cammy's, pressure me more, never let up, but begin the attack on your timeframe so you don't eat HK's. That and work on links, but we all need to do that (I was amazed I hit almost every single one of mine tonight, it was crazy).

Tangent -

KINDERPARTY.

Was Turbo Ken, was he makavelis123? If so, I have a replay for you .

My play was shit, my execution went downhill a bit after I played Paincakes, but I think it's the same Ken in all his turbo glory.

Kevin Crist

I'm not a fan of the brothers, but I don't mind as long as they are not the only additions.

Wearingglasses

Kevin Crist wrote: »

I'm not a fan of the brothers, but I don't mind as long as they are not the only additions.

Yeah. I'm a Yun fan, and I don't mind Yang at all, but I hope that they won't hog the character slots if only two guys will be added.

The new character circle colors doesn't look like Elena at all.

Antihippy

How can you even tell?

If it's yun and yang though I don't think it would be both in one slot. They're both pretty different characters.

Wearingglasses

I'm wearing glasses, see? That and the two circles are too pale.

I don't know any Photoshopology, so take my musings with a grain of salt.

Antihippy

Oh yeah, I can see that.

Sladvan

I just want to say that Remura and Chamberlain are cool dudes.

Kinderparty

Yes, Biz. That's the Turbo Ken.

chamberlain

Sladvan wrote: »

I just want to say that Remura and Chamberlain are cool dudes.

Remura's Cammy just drives me crazy because I fall for the same shit over and over.

"That cannon spike hit me every other time I tried to do this, but surely this time it won't!"

CANNON SPIKE

Fuck.

Was I breaking up really bad? I think I need a new mic.

aBlank

flow chart ken > thread.

Lars

Guh, if there are only two new characters and it's just yun and Yang I'm not going to be pleased.

chamberlain

On the plus side, Blanka has a pretty sweet hat.

Kazaka

Flowchart Dan dudes

Actually at a recent tournament I just yelled "Flowchart [Character]" at whoever was winning

solsovly

Sign me up for team battle. I want to pick people who play really annoying characters like Blanka or Adon on my team or people with terrible connections so I never have to play against them.

Nick T

I would like to team battle.

AuburnTiger

I want to be part of a team.

ChaosHat

You fuckers are the worst at PMing.

inlemur

chamberlain wrote: »

Sladvan wrote: »

I just want to say that Remura and Chamberlain are cool dudes.

Remura's Cammy just drives me crazy because I fall for the same shit over and over.

"That cannon spike hit me every other time I tried to do this, but surely this time it won't!"

CANNON SPIKE

Fuck.

Was I breaking up really bad? I think I need a new mic.

It's a pretty dumb and dangerous trick that was doing, but it usually works, so until I see someone adjust I tend to overdo it. Most people don't realize that spiral arrow can be spaced in such a way that it's safe, so reversal cannon spike afterwards tends to catch people. Moves like that drive me crazy too; I hate when I play a Rose who has perfect timing and distance on her soul spirals.

ChaosHat

People for teams:

1. ChaosHat
2. inlemur
3. Folken
4. Solsovly
5. Nick T
6. AuburnTiger
7. MiseryDays
8. Masume
9. Pancake
10. Grove
11. Chamberlain
12. Kinderparty
13. Bizazedo
14. Evil Multifarious
15. Hiryu02

chamberlain

I'll play on a team, but just to throw off your nice even number of people.

Grove

Yo hat, when's the first round of team games?

I have to say I love the team idea. I've never participated in ranbats because going solo doesn't really interest me, but the thought of having to play well for a team is where it's at.

ChaosHat

Teams are of 3 anyways Chamberlain. I guess we could go down to 2 if the signups are low.

Grove wrote: »

Yo hat, when's the first round of team games?

I have to say I love the team idea. I've never participated in ranbats because going solo doesn't really interest me, but the thought of having to play well for a team is where it's at.

Teams will start up maybe in a week when we get a bunch of people signed up (aka a lot of teams). If we get a bunch of people I'd like to set out say, a weekly schedule and have divisions for rivalries and shit like that. You know, NFL style.

nstf

Yun and yang o_O was hoping for geki or rolento :x

Evil Multifarious

I'm in for team games. Sounds fun.

My team will have bizazedo and solsovly, just FYI.

Folken Fanel

I'll do this until I run into a team bison.

Because fuck you guys.

cj iwakura

Man, it's like the PS3 clique doesn't even exist anymore.


And you can't have Yun without Yang. It's like Sakura without Karin.



Oh wait.

solsovly

Evil Multifarious wrote: »

I'm in for team games. Sounds fun.

My team will have bizazedo and solsovly, just FYI.

I'm willing to use Bison if this is true.

House of Paincakes

Hey Sol, were you lagging last night when you joined my lobby or something? You beat that boxer player and then left when I was up, but I'm pretty sure you were showing green on my end.

I was looking forward to getting thrashed.

Hiryu02

KP, how did you end up doing on that online tourney thing?