For anyone looking for more insight into different neutral tools, I’d highly recommend the footsies handbook: sonichurricane.com/?page_id=1702 As well as the mentioned video by hifight: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-96MKkqOlpKs.html
Coming back here to the vid just to let you know how much this helped me i already can clearly see how much better i am playing i was always good at whiff punishing but had ZERO understanding over covering space and attacking my opponent when they're not covering and whiffing, Thank you
Great video. How do I make a background like yours with the slowly moving command inputs on the purple background? I love this style but can’t seem to replicate it. Many thanks 👍
Downloaded some pngs from online, made them solid colour and made patterns which I copy pasted onto a purple background. The move effect was done in premiere pro, the rest is photoshop.
That's why in sf6 around gold all the way to diamond 1 or 2, there usually isn't any form of really useful neutral game to be good at since it's mostly about consistency, managing your mental stacks and being able to beat the neutral skips. Eventually being good at neutral becomes useful but until then, you gotta learn how to parry sumo-headbutt
@@thiagoakira697 This is also true, and jokes aside now that you put it that way I am always either too nice or *very* shitty lmao. Must find the center to find the way forward~
Bison Whiffing a scissor kick and getting hit by a Ken fireball is the most honest explanation of neutral I’ve ever seen. Both of those things were easily avoided mistakes but the mental consequences were huge.
This is the best video on footsies I've ever seen. It has the clearest explanation of the cycle and then tying in the neutral skips is so enlightening. Excellent video!
I can’t believe Street Fighter 6 is the game where I would start taking all this shit seriously. Cause I’ve been playing fighting games online for years and just playing for years. This damn near the only game that got me trying to IMPROVE my game
This is probably the best tutorial on neutral i have ever seen. havent really found one that covers concepts such as established respect from top level gameplay, which makes it difficult for new players to know what to do against players who dont respect them
I have been looking at guides for this stuff in a 2d context as a 3d player off and on for almost 15 years. From pros to casuals, no one has ever explained it this way. 99% are completely vague and will usually tell you to just do the thing you were trying to learn how to do when you clicked on the video without telling you how to do it. And I haven't given any 2d game a real chance because of it since I didn't understand what I was supposed to be doing, as well as the meaning of words like "neutral" or "footsies", again, in a 2d context. You've actually broken it down in a way that is actionable that I can start working on immediately. Thank you and well done.
We need more videos like this. There are a lot of new gen fighting game players that need to get in on the lingo. Even I learned something, awesome stuff 🔥
I learned this process in real time fighting a zangief yesterday with a 25 win streak where the moment I stopped panicking and flailing around trying to force things onto them with gimmicky neutral skips like charge flicker which they DIed every time (which I remembered I can do charge flicker kill rush back to bait the DI) and patiently checking their approaches I managed to slow the game down and forced zangief to approach mroe slowly and cautiously, I felt like I had earned control of the game.
Wonderful video! Taught me a lot about the sub-categories of neutral-game I didn't know about before and how to actually play a neutral game at a high level!
In a game, there are states. Like in chess, one can be up one or more pieces or have a better position of pieces and they're then at advantage, or conversely they could have less pieces, or a worse position and be at disadvantage, finally all things could be equal and they're in a neutral state. So what people call playing neutral is actually attempting to get out of neutral in a way that puts them into an advantageous state. This assumes of course your goal is to win. If your goal is simply to tie or time out your opponent rather than win or lose then you would want to stay in neutral as long as possible. It is also important to note that while we don't normally think of how much life each character has left or how much timer is left, it is a part of neutral and so is frame advantage. Again, if you have the goal of winning the match, one's goal should be to be in neutral as little time as possible. This either means pressuring your opponent constantly and changing up what you do enough to where they cannot predict what you're doing, or punishing mistakes from opponents with highly optimized punishes (punishes being optimized matter for how much time they take and what position they leave one in, not simply for how much damage is done). Since only playing offensively or only playing defensively can lead to predictability, good players will generally have a good feel for when to switch between the two. But, remember, there is no playing neutral if you aim to win but rather what are you going to do to leave neutral and go into an advantaged state?
My summation of this fine post: Your goal is to win, your objective to reaching that goal is leaving neutral in an advantaged state. Love the post, very good explanation.
I'm trying to get back into SF6 for season 2, and I was getting frustrated with my neutral game. Namely that I was getting neutral skipped repeatedly with jumpins, DIs, etc and all my 'clever fundamental play' was getting me killed. I've seen plenty of videos before on footsies, but this is the first time I've seen one cover the concept of respect. People are jumping in on me and hitting me with DIs because I'm not anti-airing or countering properly. That isn't them being 'lol random', it's them exposing a glaring weakness in my skillset and targeting it. Thanks for making this. Hopefully I can internalise it and get better at enforcing respect. Or at least recognising when people WON'T respect me and anti-airing them to death instead. V:
I've seen lots of people make longer videos than this (to give respect they were very helpful) and gave me less value. You did a great job explaining neutral. I think what I really learned is to observe what state of neutral my opponent will switch in when they get used to my playstyle and counter that. I only gained this insight because of the techniques you described later in the video. Thank you.
Having the video be cyclical and end the way it starts, just like the Neutral / Footsies loop, is excellent. You were short, sweet, and to the point. Great video!
This video is so elegant. Masterful work! I will link this ad nauseam. I used to just study/link the handbook, but this is a perfect intro to footsies.
Bro where are these videos on the other topics you mentioned here?? Bro I look forward to seeing you explain these fundamentals and offense in future videos my guy. ❤
Bro, thank you so much for making the video. I saved it To my playlist I never got a notification for it. I just found out that you had made it LOL You the greatest@@fararjeh
I like how u included “threaten with throw”, under block pressure. Another advantage you gain from making them block is you push them back towards the corner.
1- this video is so helpful ive been improving my footies but this is pushing me in the right direction 2- also this video is funny as hell laughed a couple times. Good work
Amazing video. I love that you used so many different characters to illustrate your points. I got to platinum after 60 hours in this game and I've been pretty much hard stuck since lol, I think this will help a lot.
Thanks man this is great stuff. So essentially you have to show a person you can handle neutral Skip's. Earn the respect so they play neutral well. I'm going to check out your other stuff and I've subscribed.
This actually helps me so much. I just hit masters and am settling down in my more realistic MR, which will prob be somewhere between 1300-1400. I always wondered why my neutral was so bad, and that's because some of it I understood intuitively, and other parts I definitely misunderstood completely. I would rotate some options and try to spam one that I found to work. I can read people and adjust to certain patterns, but I would always try to poke with mediums and whiff, never thought about whiffing light normals like that on purpose, and sometimes I would just fail to open people up and not understand why. Subbed, thank you for the video, looking forward to more!
Check FilipinoChamp's videos for even more in-depth coaching and lessons. Example of something he taught is that if you're pressing high commitment buttons in neutral (mediums, heavies), then it will be harder or impossible to react to jumps, neutral skips, etc.
There is a lot of information newer plarys might find helpful in this video. The part about wiff punishing in footsies is particularly well done. I do have so critics though. A lot of these are just because It's meant to be brief and for an audience that's less familiar. - obviously neutral doesn't have to be grounded especially if characters have more air options they can still effectively play neutral. It usually is especially in street fighter but, it's a bad thing to get internalized in newer players. (Leads to the marvel has no neutral misconception) 8:14 If we consider "the three-structure" aka the neutral triangle (I'm not going to explain it here since the video kinda does. But if you found this video helpful you will find "Machaboo on fundamentals for those that want to become good at GG" quite useful doesn't matter if you play guilty gear most of it is universal.) we can more rigorous sub categorize these interactions. I'm going to use: Preemptive = Covering Establishing = Block pressure Passive = punishing I'm using these terms because they mean the same things but, are more connected to the mental rps. Many of the things commonly called neutral skips are establishing options but, so are preemptive options. The important things to consider is if it's reactable and if it's okay to block it. Options like light spin knuckle and midscreen di are both reactible and fine to block the only way they work is by by punishing an attack. And because they're slow, they can only generally do this on a read. I wouldn't even consider these moves neutral skips since in many outcomes they don't even end neutral. Consider Jumping, Dragon Lash, H spin knuckle, or a teleport like sim or kim. These work as both a preemptive punish as well as starting pressure on block. Because of this, they're all consistently interruptible, The harder it is to react to the higher the reward will be generally. I could understand these moves being called neutral skips since if an interaction occurs neutral will always end. The idea of respect is pretty silly but, I understand that's what it looks like. Think about it like this, when a match begins, almost all good players start with passive play by default this is because of simple risk/reward. Because most players play passive until they have enough information to make more risky decisions If an opponent overuses the last archetype of move which consistently loses to passive play they will simply lose the match.
Thanks for the info the hardest thing by far is stopping neutral skips no one respects anything in the lower ranks until you get high enough to where people have some sense of
Love the video, top quality. My thoughts on the topic is that there is no need to complicate terms. Neutral is just one state of many in constantly shifting environment and has nothing to do respect which is whole another topic. Footsies to me is just term for shifting of states since moment you engage in it then you are no longer in neutral.
I actually disagree. Making exact and precise definitions is better, although it seems more complicated and overexplained, when the definition is thorough the understanding becomes thorough, and it lets people not only get it but also understand every part of it
@@Jennifer-q7sYeah, funny thing is, it wasn't by choice. It just kind of happened over time. I've always over fighting games. And I've been playing KOF since it was in the arcades back in 94. I've been playing them as well as other fighters since then. But I've lived in Japan and Korea. And theyn gone make you learn.😁 I'm old Yuskue.😅
Man I have watched this and the analysis video both were great u answered questions I have been struggling to find the answer to. Keep the good work, really cool videos.
This is a necessary video for the newer players because they really don't know but us OG sf2- to present players definitely know. I have not watched the video yet. I only heard the intro. I will make this post before then another after I have watched it. As defined by me: Neutral- controlling space using footsies, Anti-airs, grabs, supers, and etc to gain an opportunity to push yourself in a favorable position. Starts from anywhere where there is no clear advantage to either player (advantage, for example =knockdown). Footsies-self explanatory....includes pokes, counterpokes, whiffs, and whiff punishes. Utilizing your characters effective range with normals.
Huh... Now that I look back on low-level play, and opponents of vastly different skill against eachother... Yeah, it's mostly being bad against neutral skips, and dying
That realisation right there is exactly why I made this vid, a lot of people think they suck at neutral, when really they just can’t deal with neutral skips
@@fararjeh Funniest recent one, for me, was in a match in a Lythero video with The Three Idiots (Rhymestyle, Seereax and Dotodoya). The 2 last ones fought eachother, and Doto absolutely rushed him with Zangief's ex run grab and air SPD
Okay, so the real answer in this video for the newbies who can't do neutral: step one in learning to play neutral is NOT playing neutral but lab out how to punish every single bullshit move that gets spammed. Got it.
I was worried I didn’t stress this point enough but the fact you’ve caught on means either you’re very smart or the video is good so I’ll just assume both. But yeah! No point trying to play footsies if you can’t even make your opponent play it with you :)
I used to not notice the established respect and think I just understood their neutral. Then after some time I realized they play such a slow and simple neutral BECAUSE they respect one another, whole different world
Exactly, now that I know about this if I see somebody playing methodical that I know I've earned their respect. And I plan to earn their respect and force people into playing neutral and footsies.
The construct of neutral is ultimately different methods of thinking about situations. I find the best approach for me is to empty the mind and feel out the situation to respond appropriately. If they jump, anti air. If they move in their range, move out of it. Deny the opponent their options while enforcing your own. That is neutral.
As a silver sf6 player, the last section is something I feel all lower ranks NEED to watch. We aren’t losing because of not whiff punishing enough. We lose because we can’t counter neutral skips, plain and simple. Trying to implement whiff punishing and pokes will only hurt your climb at lower ranks since most people never respect you and will repeatedly do the same options till they die. Which isn’t to say it’s pointless to learn. But focusing on punishing unsafe moves and neutral skips is the only thing you really need to learn at low levels.
This a great video. As a legacy player, I am of the opinion that neutral skips in SF6 come with such a positive risk/reward ratio, that the neutral game is virtually gone.
Honestly brother you are very correct with that. I do think offence in this game is greatly favoured but if I said that in the video everyone would lose hope at learning neutral 😭
after u showed the image with patrick as a way to berate neutral skips i became sceptical of this video but u mentioning mental stack at 10:10 redeemed it. solid video, well edited
I think the best advice in this video is the ending part about how a lot of lower level players who want to play the mind games don't force respect is really true. Even as a FighterZ player, a game that's about as "anti-footsies" as possible, it still held true for me because the mindset for newbie players still applied in different areas. FighterZ offense is instead more based around trying to break open an opponent's defense while they're blocking and you can make your turn last for a damn while in that game. The advice that helped me a lot is when another player taught me that the thing lower level players fucking hate blocking, and this means that they will try to mash out of blockstrings as much as possible. This means that rather than doing long, true blockstrings, the most effective thing to do is starting your offense with frametraps, because you're expecting the opponent to mash. In the game you can cancel 2L into 5L and vice versa, but only one time once per true blockstring. At the same time, L buttons can be cancelled into buttons of higher strengths, meaning you can cancel your light buttons into a universal overhead and low, and 5L can also be cancelled into the universal throw. Most characters in the game either have a light that hits low, or their 2L is safe on block and functions as a pressure reset tool. Because of this, 5L is the button that puts the most pressure on the opponent, because there are far more options they need to look out for after it. The threat of when the mix is coming next becomes much scarier than alternating between a 5M that hits mid and a 2M that hits low. Best part is, if you've conditioned your opponent to be really scared of mashing, it enables FAR more schenanigans because a lot of mixup options get shut down by mashing. Stuff that's normally untrue like IAD crossups isn't a problem anymore once you've gotten to the point where your opponent is no longer mashing. Further increasing the amount of potential answers to the multiple choice question of "how do I block this mix?" This DRAMATICALLY increases the amount of pressure actually being put on the opponent because now they have to ask way more questions about where to block. (Blockstrings are still useful, but they're mostly there for keeping yourself safe after using your mediums for a mixup attempt and tying your attacks into assists. They don't put nearly as much pressure on their own). Oh, and now that you've read this, you can now win games as Z-Broly. Most on his non-heavy normals will tick-grab into his unreactable light command grab. Once the command grab lands just combo that into his level 1. Midscreen it's 29% damage and in the corner you can make it do 33% damage. Anyways, the core principle here is the idea that lower level players are going up against other lower level players don't know how to force them into playing the "don't-get-opened-up" game. In Street Fighter, it's with whiff punishes and movement, while in DBFZ it's using assists to get in and then breaking open the opponent's defense like they're a clam.
It’s really just how you choose to get on based on what you decide to do and what decided to do. Whether you’re throwing out a move or not you are looking for an outcome and you a set of options to be able to achieve that. That’s having a game plan. Some people do it and think it’s advancing their game. But all it’s doing is giving you an option that makes you more prone to a mistake or making an opening, Most people learning at that point won’t even know how to convert once they make their connections.
What happens is characters that can cancle their low fowards end up with more chances to open up because they can just buffer drive cancel over and over. One thing I found odd was that they allow you to do drive impact right after a drive cancel.
So if a let’s say Ken is looking to do low forward drive rush, that means he’s in the “walk up and hit your opponent” range. You can cover his approach to stop him getting close for example. Regardless what he’s trying to do with his move, you should try and identify what level of footsies that puts him in, and try and beat him accordingly
They will inherently get more of a crouch medium then like, other characters, but that goes into meter management territory, which is another topic in itsef
The mixing of neutral and footsies has been happening for years in the FGC, I just decided to make it clear that hey, these two words are used similarly, here’s what they mean
@fararjeh to an extent, but more experienced players will still call out classic footsie moments as footsies. It's also really hard to call the fireball minigame footsies.
@fararjeh it's a core aspect of neutral, and its a classic However the fireball game would not have called footsies, traditional footsies usually just refers to the low forward spacing minigame, which is encapsulated in your video nicely.