Hello this is Sabre =) This is a fun observation of the super "Matrix" moment. I can actually explain why I did tatsu over fireball. I'll break down the "Matrix" moment. It was dubbed the "matrix" moment by Dogface, who was commentating the match. Unfortunately, IGN fucked up and lost the direct feed footage of this part of the event. Shortly before evo 2009 even happened. The fgc was struggling to find the appropriate monitor with no lag that we could rely onm. Back then, it was INCREDIBLY HARD to find a fast monitor. The Cannons found the now legendary Asus 236h(?) AKA the evo monitor. And the rest is history on that. For some reason though, on the main stage, they decided to use a larger monitor that was unproven. My first match vs Auttomattock, it was immediately apparent to me that the monitor sucked. By the time I had to fight Gootecks and Valle, I had to start altering my gameplan as my confidence in tight links was very low. So naturally my confidence in linking s.short after light tatsu was not there. Normally i would short tatsu, s.short, into fierce dp. I was teetering on the verge of getting an ex stock. So instead of risking my s.short not linking and having my fierce dp blocked, i opted to just OS cancel into ex tatsu in hiping the s.short would net me enough meter to do ex tatsu, which would have comboed, and if I didnt generate enough meter, heavy tatsu would come out instead and I'm still safe, and while non EX will not combo, I still continue pressure, and if he interrupts with the wrong move, i win anyway. So yes, my decision was calculated, the outcome, was not. Valle was either smart, or didnt know the matchup. I'm betting on not knowing the matchup. He probably thought light tatsu on hit could not be comboed after and I was trying to just maintain pressure. He did dp me earlier in the match after a blocked light tatsu and connected. So this was his strategy Luckily, my s.short DID combo. Valle was trying to interrupt with dp xx super. If I had missed my s.short link, he would have gotten it. But since it linked, it ate his dp motion, and the super was next. And it just happened to work out in a sick finish. The corner tech i did on the round after, i had discovered that like 3 days before evo lmao. Sak was low tier as fuuuuuck in vanilla too. Her hard knockdown otoshi buff in ssf4 made her into a solid character that didnt need the mixups anymore
Wow never watched a videos like this where the player actually showed up and explained why he did what he did and where his head was at, that's awesome! Really appreciate the breakdown
The corner reset at that time was brand new and was henceforth called the “Sabre Reset” on the SRK forum Sakura community. You have inspired many players to pickup Sakura, including myself. Still rocking Sakura in SFV btw. 😀
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but NOT the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” - Sun Tzu Great example of knowing your self but not the enemy.
He knew what the enemy would do, otherwise most of those resets wouldn’t have landed. In this case he would’ve known both his enemy and himself, while his opponent only knew himself.
@@warriordinag3921 You just repeated exactly what I said, my friend. I'm referring to the underdog who used a low tier character that a lot of pros don't know how to properly counter since that character isn't meta.
Just the concept makes me says "Yes, more of that please." But the execution? Absolutely wonderful. I love how you explained the characters, the players, and rewound when necessary. Awesome video.
this right here, the added explanation is big. and if you ask me it's also short enough to not feel like it's taking too long. there for it's a good blend of info being explained and the focus of the video it's self.
@@WARCALIPTOLF Agreed. I'm not big into fighting games, but I play casually, and the explanation was simple and to the point enough to allow me to follow it.
@@SeanTheShinigami I mean I'm pretty in. I just meant back in the day there was pretty much just Max and Cross Counter and then you picked up pieces of lore from like SRK forum posts and FNF commentary. It would interesting to see JM follow this video up with Valle upsetting Bonchan with Hugo.
@BMO FYI IIRC he is referring to Shoryuken (the website, AKA SRK) and the RU-vid (YT) series about playing fighting games, Friday Night Fisticuffs (AKA FNF, by the channel "Super Best Friends Play", AKA SBFP). Hope this helps! LOL
@@drel_underheaven908 in the marvel vs games, magneto is a character that is known for his pressure and resets into difficult mix ups. The way Sabre's Sakura was resetting/mixing up Valle was similar to how magneto would do the same in mvc2
I was scrolling specifically for this mention. I couldn’t be there in-person but I was definitely watching via stream and that Magneto remark is, today, even more vivid than some of the visuals of this memorable match.
As a relatively newcomer to fighting games, highlighting important matches AND explaining their context is perfect. I hope you keep this series running for a long time! Fantastic idea and great work. thanks man
Yeah, only 10 seconds in and I have to say I’m so for this kind of content. It’s really awesome to hear your insight on fighting games, makes for more engaging content than just FighterZ matches (which have their place to be sure, but this, the fighting game hot takes, and retrospectives make for great content too)
I agree 👍 even though I previously didn't understand street fighter lingo..the way he explained it made me understand what what going on and I enjoyed it.. Great content.
You can practically feel the mind of the Ryu falling into disarray. Round one he's in control, reacting appropriately, and takes the win. Round two starts the same until a correct decision, the backdash, results in not just taking a combo but getting eaten alive by resets. Then the panic-super fails spectacularly, and he goes into round three backpedaling, trying to lean on Ryu's fireball to regain composure.
I personally think analyzing the spirit, heart, and intellect that goes into playing fighting games is so unexplored and underrated. You can absolutely tell who a person is when they play a fighting game, when they get hype off of getting a combo, when they even lose a match immensely hard. Fighting games show the journey. They can show what it means to work hard, and when you commit, you can achieve incredible results, sometimes beyond even your own comprehension.
@Papa Kim You have never played on a high level clearly. At a high level it actually works out your whole arm. While playing casually only uses your fingers and hands. Every top tier gamer is great at more than one thing because it is a mind set.
Back in the day I tried learning Saber style Sakura and played pretty much only it. This was my favorite video, idk how many times I've watched it. I'm glad to see someone doing it justice!
Sakura is absolutely my favorite SF character, so seeing her get a moment to shine like this is just awesome! **Edit** Sakura just took Evo 2020 against Karin! Wooooo! Yeah!
@@secoTheSonicFan My first time playing her was in Marvel vs Capcom 2 and found her to be amusing. But then I saw her background story in the anime-movie. No dead parents. No revenge plot. Nothing dramatic or complicated. Just her sitting on a bench, "I wanna do this... no wait I wanna do something else... no I wanna eat the world record in hotdogs. No wait..." Looks over, sees Ryu finish some thugs. "Imma do that." Then she does that by being Ryu's stalker. Instantly becomes my go-to main~ 😁
I must say I truly love the way you’ve structured this type of videos. As a casual gamer who enjoys competitive play I love that you’ve broken down something I like see because it looks like a high level play and you brake it down by strategy which adds a depth to the whole situation. Thank you.
He learned that Sakura strategy from the computer's Sakura in SFA3. If you play that in Arcade mode on the highest difficulty, that is exactly what Sakura does. She gets you in the corner and does her spin kick, of which there is little defense.
When Playing Fighting games Other people: I used x to combo this to the light jab to counter his Y as he falls 9 frames per second to use super 1234 negative 2.1 minus five degrees Celsius and an overhead right with 8 sets of reps while blinking nonstop as I am listening to his heartbeat to correctly deduce his next move. Me: What does this button do?
This reminds me of the days when I used to play fighting games, during the mid-late 90's. I and my circle of friends would usually gather at the arcade, or somebody's house, to play SF or some other fighting games. One of my friends had a younger brother, about 5 or 6 years younger than us. To keep him happy, my friend would let his brother take a few turns at the console as well, and like a lot of younger, inexperienced players, his usual strategy was just to button mash. What was surprising was that the button-mashing kid won a surprising amount of his matches against my friends (they were actually trying; I could see it from their expressions and their concentration), and I soon realized that it was because they were used to playing opponents with a basic level of experience with fighting games, the stage where you expect your opponents to use special moves, block, the occasional combo etc. They were not prepared to face an opponent who was largely random and their attacks therefore were quite difficult to guard against. Unfortunately for my friend's brother, my own playing style is quite defensive. I tend to go for characters that have long reach, but are also decently fast (like Blanka or Sagat). So my strategy against him was to use long, poking attacks to force him to attack in a direction I was expecting, and then counter it. I'd slowly drive him into the corner, and then just hammer down blows until he died. He very quickly didn't want to play against me anymore. XD (If you're reading this, James... Sorry kiddo!)
He does in SFV. Do an actual comparison of all the SF Ryu fireballs, they even buffed them in V-trigger one which people are calling outright annoying he has more fireball spamming he can do safely since meter won't run out anymore by throwing them. People use that and save bar for EX versions, so spam for days. Its other stuff you mean to cry about I think.
This series is amazing for someone that didn't have the chance to grow up with the scene. I have a lot of catching up to do on competitive technique, game plan, and history. You are really good about explaining why these moments are so substantial. I not only get to live a moment as if I was there because of the way that you build up to the climax, but I also learn a ton about fighting games due to your thorough analysis. Please keep them coming!
Sakura was honestly super underrated IMO throughout most of SF4's lifespan. I think in Ultra shes a pretty damn good character. She was supeeeerrr good in I think AE2012 when her tatsu on block was i think +4. She played similar to dudley and cody. just mix you up once or twice and reset you and die. The fact that she was + on block after EX Tatsu created a very yolo move. if you block it, youre safe, if it hits you get reset, and if you have ultra, you can land any of her three ultra choices. She also didnt suffer at all from the hard knockdown delay wakeup at all, where as most characters did. Pretty much all of sakuras offense revolved around offense off of resets, so it didnt affect her. Her neutral was always crap, but all she needs is one touch to get rollin
svpcharls people do this with every new street fighter. When 3S came out, lots of people said it wasn’t Street Fighter and were mad at the roster. Same with SF4 and now SFV. After a while though, people warm to it. A lot more people have picked up SFV again following CE
When SFV dropped people were saying "09ers where you at?! It's your turn now" talking about how all the 09ers were the new gruff tournament veterans ready to look down on the new batch of players.
There's validity to the dissatisfaction to the changes. At a visual level, the art style moved to an extremely exaggerated look, particularly with body proportions. Close to comedy-ish, at times. Looney Toon-ish, at other times. Then, there's the increased amount of hyper-sexualization, not seen in the old school days. This is a drastic change. As for skills-based gameplay, starting with Street Fighter 4 and up, skill-based requirements have been drastically reduced (Nerfed) in favor of appealing to the casual gamer; a conscious effort made by the game developers, and noted among the skill-based gamers. The input commands are far easier and more lenient in the current Street Fighter games, as opposed to the 'old skool' days. This frustrated a lot of competitive players from back in the day. Because of the leniency of today's fighting games (again, to market and appeal to the casual gamer), a larger number of players can become competitive with easier effort. Today's Street Fighter games are, by far, much easier to develop gaming prowess. Because of that, old skool competitive players, such as Justin Wong, for example, have been undermined for his gaming prowess in today's fighting game community, questioning if he's not really that good. It's not that he isn't good.....it's not that he got worse............it's that current Street Fighter games have been intentionally nerfed (for reasons stated earlier), allowing for more players to easily become competitive level. Hence, the "Old timer's" distaste for today's fighting games, particularly with Capcom (and perhaps, other fighting game developers may follow suit, if they haven't already, trying to appeal to casual gamers.....). There are a number of videos online that go into deeper details discussing further the points I mentioned.....
@@ngubod16 There's a stark divide between the "old skool" days and Capcom fighting games made starting from Street Fighter 4 and up............. today's Capcom fighting games (SF4 and up) are heavily nerfed to appeal to casual gamers. This means a greater number of players can achieve "competitive-level playing" with much less effort in a quicker amount of time, as opposed to the "old skool" days. While this may be hard to believe, this is a fact that begins with the game developers, consciously programming easier skill-requirements in an effort to appeal to today's casual gamers (not just fighting games). There are a number of videos online discussing this in deeper detail. Of course, nerfing the skill-requirements has grieved "old skool" gamers, since they were accustomed to, and appreciated, the heavy skill -requirements needed to succeed, back in the day. But the frustration is a small sacrifice to today's game developers, since (from a business/marketing standpoint) they are more focused on appealing to the casual gamers, in an effort to broaden/expand the number of consumers into the world of video gaming / mobile gaming.
@@sssentertainment there is literally no possible universe that sf4 is "nerfed for casuals" FADC 1 frame links are still some of the hardest to execute combos of all time and plenty of staple pro combos utilized 1 frame links. Literally no game has links like this anymore, they all have buffers which remove timing from the question. Casuals couldn't even execute a proper FADC in a combo despite how mandatory they were. There is no fighting game mechanic that casuals cannot execute anymore. Complicated inputs are gone and even the basic ones like qcf and srk have heavily lenient input forgiveness.
This is one of my favorite matches of all time and really influenced my Sakura game in ultra. So glad you shone some light on it. Great commentary and insight.
4:15 Rare footage of OHT (One Handed Terror) and Sabre battling it out. I believe I actually recorded this footage at This is It, the last tournament I held for Arcade in a Box. I was pretty funny seeing that footage again :). I also remember this fight against Valle, we were going nuts back in AZ.
As an ex-video game player (family man now), and watching ufc, the commentary on this video was really awesome! Can't wait to watch more of your videos!
I remember watching this in a hype compilation from 2012. The moment Sabre started employing his tactic with Sakura against Valle, a random guy started screaming, "Is that Magneto (referencing MvC2)?"
Thank you for going over the history of these moves/characters/combos. I'm a newbie in every facet, but knowing why such moments are important makes it all the more impactful. I just appreciate you taking the time to discuss it.
I really dig content like this and hope you end up making more :D As someone who doesn't have a history in fighters, but has an interest in em- moments like this are extremely interesting, and I get so much more out of it with your demonstrations and explanations (like hopping to your gameplay to show light vs med tatsu) Fantastic format, thanks for sharing :D
I love watching fighting matches but can never really tell what moment or move was really good or just standard, so this was fantastic! Backing up the video or pausing to allow yourself time to really point out what we're seeing was so helpful. I never would have known about the medium Tatsu hop-over or the double crossovers even after they played right in my face. Thank you. I really hope you can do more of these!
This reminds me of that one dude from Japan on marvel using "log trap" from Rocket raccoon. Had no idea that tech existed until dude wins a tournament with it.
@@jmcrofts It was at the official SFA3 World Championship, at the old Nickel City in San Jose. Capcom flew Daigo out as the winner of the Japanese tournament. I attended (and participated), but A3 is not my game :/
Dude your videos are great. Thanks man. I love the rewinds and attention to detail. Its like in UFC replays lol. Great job. You could totally be an announcer at the Capcom Tournaments.
#jmcrofts Great video but just a correction. The video of Daigo and Valle playing SF Alpha 2 was in California, not Japan. Great videos and keep it up.
appreciate the detail that was done in a way even a novice such as myself could understand - great insight into what actually goes on and why it's so cool
I know absolutely nothing about fighting games or the fighting games scene. The last time I played a Street Fighter game was SF2 for the SNES (dear lord that was too long ago). But despite that I could follow along with your explanation and be enthused by your enthusiasm. Thank you for sharing :)
These videos are dope. Its pretty cool of you to go through iconic moments and add context so that some of us who aren't as well versed in the FGC can understand and appreciate them. Keep it up
Your commentary makes these videos interesting. If we didn't have the explanation of the moves, I'd be just like, huh? It's good to be able to go back and enjoy it with the crowd. Thanks, man.
Watching this series on great fighting game moments as someone who has always been a casual observer of fighting games really has been a lot of fun. Major props to you Crofts for the time you take to explain the history, mechanics and matches while still keeping it interesting. Your genuine excitement and enthusiasm is what makes these videos standout from the rest and I appreciate the time you take to make these! I hope you aren't finished making this series!
Well, I mean. You can work hard to wring the most you can out of a certain character, but that character might still have comparatively worse options with lower yields for more work than other characters, which then makes it the relative worse character of the roster. But that's the character, you can still beat the other player.
I'm late but 3:57 was street fighter alpha 3, the game's title even appear in the shot haha. Further, if memory serves, that was a world tournament held by Capcom itself. Daigo was the Japanese champion and almost if not totaly unknown outside his country. Daigo was flown to USA to play the US champion (the footage shown in this video is of the moment Valle won and became US champion). I highly recommend everyone to look up the grand finals between Daigo and Alex and Alex's comments on it.
Sakura has always been my favorite character and I hate when a street fighter comes out and doesn't feature her like 5 she was dlc and I was pissed at that
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THESE COMMENTARIES! I don’t ever play street fighter , but this makes it so interesting when it’s broken down like this! I don’t even play fighting games 😭but this 🔥
Glad YT recommended this. Great commentary for people (like me) who are interested in fighting games but don’t have the in depth knowledge of the scene. Subbed!
incorrect, sabre calculated incorrectly (by the smallest degree possible, as he's at 99% of it) getting a full bar off of the stand short which would give him enough to ex tatsu. Simple miscalculation and lucky for him, Valle was mashing. Ironitcally he was probably mashing ex dp and got super
I know nothing about fighter games, thank you for the in depth explanation for the new comers other wise not knowing the explanation wouldn’t have been as impressive! 🙏🏼
I think I know exactly what happened when he did the medium hit tatsu. He was trying to do an EX which does combo off standing light kick, but didn't quite have the meter, so in pushing two kick (probably light and medium at the same time), medium kick tatsu came out. You can see he was very close to having meter so he must have thought the light kick would get him there.
At first I rewound the video a couple times to see a few moments again, but by the end I felt comfy knowing you would rewind it for me to break it down. Great video!
This is fantastic, giving spotlights to incredible, impressive moments that are either difficult to find or simply didn't pull enough attention to get noticed. The ultimate cherry on top is seeing Saber himself explain in depth the rapid thought process and background of the exact moment. Absolutely legendary stuff!
Thanks for putting this video together. I haven't kept on the Street Fighter series since I was a kid, so I don't know it like I do, say, Killer Instinct. Your commentary allowed me to understand easily what was going on. Great work.
JMcroft is my window into competitive fighting games, which is cool because they've always been something I've enjoyed, but only ever in a casual manner. Discovering this competitive scene is very fun.
Great insight. Awesome narration. As someone who has lightly played Street Fighter, getting walked through exactly what happened and why it happened was entertaining! Nice job!
I was there at EVO 09 and watched this match live. It was my first EVO (I went from 09 to 12) and I didn't know what to expect. It was unreal. The crowd went nuts when Sabre pulled this off. One of my favorite moments in the FGC.
I watched blood sport on vhs and saw van damme playing street fighter 1 . It was one of the reasons I began studying martial arts and playing street fighter. The nostalgia i feel with street fighter is just magical.
This video was awesome! I played Sakura in SF4 also and I remember seeing these set ups were possible and was BLOWN AWAY! Thanks for taking me back down memory lane!
You're the reason i'm into fighting games right now. I (re)started with db fighterz, and I hadn't played seriously any vsfg since... kof 98' (damn i'm old..) So i missed alooot of stuff like this. Please do more video like this!
for what this video is about, you really do a great job of building a narrative that someone like me (who hates fighting games really) actually enjoys to watch
Not a follower of the tournament level play of these games but I used to play these games a lot as a kid. This was a cool video, I could keep up. Thank you!
Keep making these. I love Street Fighter , it was my First fighting game however I don’t know too much of the history cause I’m only in my early 20’s I would love if you made more of these videos so I can see what I missed.
