Why You HATE Fighting Rushdown 

When you stop a Ken players flowchart you can see their brain short circuit in real time it's very satisfying.

I am rushdown, so obviously I hate fighting people who fight like me.

Chaotic Gekko is the hero we didnt know we needed

The real challenge will be making 'Why You HATE Fighting Shotos' Since frankly, one never hates a shoto. They usually hate the player playing the Shoto.

1)Why you hate fighting Grapplers 2)Why you hate fighting Zoners 3)Why you hate fighting puppet characters 4)Why you hate fighting rush down 5)Why you hatin' dawg

Honestly, the biggest reason I hate rushdown is because that's all that seems to be acceptable anymore. Grapplers are getting worse. Zoners are getting worse. Rushdown keeps getting more tools.

People hate the risk/reward of fighting a rushdown characters. Like you stated, they're reward on hit is waaay higher than they're risk on block (if any). They can also usually outbox you and have tools to get into boxing range. If you ever wanna feel like you're good at a game just play a low execution rushdown character.

The rant about dedicated rushdown player's mentality was so cathartic. So many just refuse to even try to play the game any way that isn't their flowchart, and it almost makes learning their one trick and beating them less fun because of it. And god forbid they actually do know how to block and adapt. Those players are demons, waiting to steal your soul with their sick combo and absurd mixup, biding their time as you flail, desperately trying to make them crack before it's too late and it's their turn again.

The whole reason I kept playing zoners: it felt like I could get better with them faster since the players of those characters actually used their tools to overcome obstacles rather than complain about a -4 button that they can’t DP out of

Arguing with a rushdown player and hearing “just block” is my sleeper agent activation at this point

I love playing as a rush-down character! I mindlessly rush into 75% of my fights. This in turn goes to show why I lose a lot of my fights, but at least I’m going down enjoying the match.

Man I also agree that rushdowns are “nuances”

More accurate title: Why you hate fighting Millia and Chipp

I'm a person that loves to play zoners/grapplers all the time. Just getting into rushdown characters recently. I cannot tell you how many times I've asked "Wait? What do you mean that was a safe attack? What do you mean I can keep on attacking? I'm not going to get punished for this!?". Makes me feel like I'm cheating, and some of my friends are getting annoyed that they suddenly aren't finding opportunities to play the game anymore =p

I dont mind fighting against rushdown characters i have some respect for them as performing combos on block and keeping the opponent in block stun for a long time is hard af, BUT what i hate fighting against the most is rushdowns that have CROSS UPS as part of their game plan, sure every character can technically do cross ups but im talking about teleports and dashes that get you behind the opponent in an instant such as Millia Rage, those are the goddamn devil and i hate it

This was excellent. I think that it needs to be more widely considered that rushdown tends to be easier, at a lower/intermediate level, because 1: they tend to be pretty privileged characters, since they are cool, and more people think they're fun, so devs tend to be more comfortable letting them be good. 2: If you play the character correctly, and don't overextend, often you don't *have* to do anything commital, a luxury other archetypes don't always have. 3: you're far less likely to need to provide answers to problems, just be the one presenting the problems. In a real time game, providing effective answers while dealing with the mental stack is extremely difficult. Providing said problems can often boil down to the dreaded "flowchart." Full disclosure, there's a lot of bias from me here, I play a lot of neutral bullies and zoners, both of which often have a hard time dealing with 1 or more of the various flavors of rushdown you described.

Rushdown is the real glue eating playstyle, the real smooth brain archetype, the real whippit pounding characters , the real gorillas. You allways have the option to not get grabbed, millia or crackhead is going to be in there. You dont get a say

I do agree that the archetype of rushdown isn't difficult. However, it's partially which rushdown you're talking about. A character like Sol is super simple. But someone like C. Viper is one of the most technical characters in Street Fighter IV.

The problem isn't that rushdown is inherently braindead. It's that modern games have gradually leaned so far into that kind of mentality that it feels frustrating for everyone else. I get that most people don't like turtling and keepaway, but if these aren't decently strong options the only stable strategy is rushdown. This is what bothers me. You'd probably be surprised if I told you command grabs are a defensive option, because they arguably aren't anymore. Rushdown usually doesn't have any hard counters, and the only way to balance this is by designing every other character with a "if you can't beat em, join em" mentality. (See DBFZ) I don't hate fighting Rushdown in games with a wider variety of viable gameplans, it's just that that's not something I can say about most modern games.

As a grappler main, I accept that mixing people is fun, but (and hear me out) seeing someones trt to mix you up and just end up getting grabbed because of a gap I was waiting patienly is, IN MY OPINION, more fun

People play rushdown this days non-stop because morst of the time 70% of the damn cast is rushdown

I'd say having the defining characteristics of rushdown being preferring close range and strong pressure options is strange because that also seems to include grapplers. I'd say the key characteristic of rushdown needs to be their speed/movement options that let then cut through neutral the way a grappler can't. Since characters like sol/leo/slayer lose the high movent needed to "rush" in exchange for higher health and big damage, but don't have the longer limbs and armor of grapplers, I'd say they're a completely separate archetype of brawler. Slayer is more a pire brawler while sol has some fast neutral skip tools (albeit very linear/commital) that give him more of a rushdown element.

ngl, gotta love the editing on this one, absolutely sublime visual comedy moments from time to time 👌

I do like how Noel’s design and lore tells us that she peaked before high school. I do find that amusing

"you're only minus if your are a bitch" Sun Tsu, and every single rushdown player

i always play rushdown, i feel called out and 100% agree. BUT, counterargument, i didnt pay $60 to block. (i play may in strive and the tears fill the ocean my dolphins swim in)

Laughing like a maniac as you combo your opponent into next week is a special kind of joy

I’ve been adoring Guilty Gear Strive for a good minute, but several of my most hated characters have been rushdowns who can 1. Do some bullshit that launches their body towards me at Mach 1, and 2. Loop the same combo against my block and ask that I identify the 4 frame window in which I can counter. Oddly enough, fighting characters like Potemkin, Faust, and even some zoners like Asuka R have been the most fun I’ve had in this game, while rushdowns like Sol Badguy, Giovanna, and Baiken have made me give that uninstall button a second thought.

I believe the rushdown match up goes hand in hand with your defense skills. Most rushdown matchups consist of a lot of pop quizes being thrown at your face at really high speed. Of course, players and character matchups impact a whole lot in it, but once you have an active defense and the opponent won't catch you sleeping on any fake stuff they might try to extend their strings, the rushdown matchup becomes a whole lot more manageable.

One of your funniest vidéos so far XD Also you’re putting little Gekko in new backgrounds now, your editing skills are improving each video

As a Grappler/Shoto fighter I find this video relatable

I once said I play smash competitively in a fgc discord I literally got called slurs by an admin then got banned

Grapples: "Allow us to introduce ourselves."

I love fighting rushdown characters I prefer that over getting zoned out.

As a potemkin main, this video was CATHARTIC. Like most of my matches are: "HOLY SHIT IM SO FUCKING SICK OF YOU CHIPP GET OUT OF MY FUCKING FA-" (632146 + P).

I hate playing against shotos. I guess the best way to put it is that shotos are the archetype with the strongest ability to make their opponent play their game and they win not by enforcing a specific gameplay but by using their well rounded kits to prevent their opponet from getting any advantage. Shotos are like that annoying kid during recess that won't stop moving when they are tagged in a game of freeze tag.

This editing is too good man. Letting me know I need to get on it! Great video

As a Millia player, thank you for acknowledging us in a video

Love your videos man keep it up

Not sure how hot this take is anymore but yes rushdown is insanely easy only limited by how long you want to stay in the lab. The real difficulty in these games is, despite how hated, projectile zoners since in many cases they are still playing neutral when chucking projectiles at you which optimally for them is at a reactable distance. The exception being things like Vatista 235 Series form BBTAG (Under night inbirth rep) or severely overwhelming ones like Morgan form one of the Marvel vs Capcom games when the entire screen may as well be on big projectile from my understanding of it. I would explain the take in detail but this comment is already enough of a text wall as it is so leave it here.

HOLY FUCK, YOU NAILED PRETTY MUCH MY EXACT THOUGHTS! Whate everyone constantly forgets is that Grapplers, Zoners, and Rushdowns are like the Triforce of archetypes. These three need to coexist in order to have a balanced roster. They all have strengths and weaknesses that play off of each other. But in recent years, people keeping thinking that rushdowns are the ONLY archetype that matters, and so they complain about it! And then the devs listen, and only make Rushdown charatcers! There's an overpopulation problem! There's too many fucking RUSHDOWNS! Zoners and Grapplers are both archetypes with very nuanced gameplay of you just give them some time, but nooooo! These gorrilas gotta fucking shlap their meat together and breed even MORE Rushdowns like fucking rats! There's so much untapped potential for the other Archetypes, but no one seems to fucking listen anymore!

If you don’t like fighting rush down characters, you should see dragonball fighterz. Almost the entire cast is a rush down character and even the zoners and grapplers are rush down characters. Hell, there is a designated button to rush down your opponent.

As someone who likes to play zoning, with fireballs more than limbs, any projectile on any character has my interest. The way it plays against any other projectile, or against a neutral, or how it can be avoided by a kit is very interesting to me... Arcing projectiles from item characters, traps, fireballs of different speeds, fireballs in general, fireballs with gimmicks...they all have my interest and my goodness I love them all! Faust's bag bomb, Anji's butterfly birdy, I-No's note...the minions... I don't even play Guilty Gear, but I know how I would play it. What I *do* play is Fantasy Strike though...and I know my favorite archetype there.

can't wait to see the zoners ! great video

Bro, your attitude and tone is legit why i subscribed. Your confidence, and willing to backtrack (Guilty Gear Theme revisits) shows serious ingegrity. Keep it up homie 🎉

Finally, I didn't expect that video to come up this early or at all I expected to make a "why you hate zoners" before Now let's hope the next guilty gear will be less like strike and more like+r because strive is made for people who complain about everything that isn't rushdown

I feel like rushdowns are so hated because fighting them requires a lot of defensive play once they’re in, and I feel like earlier fighting games did not have very elaborate or fun defensive options. It is much more tolerable now that I’m playing strive, which has a lot of good defensive options, both universal and character specific

As a grappler, Rushdown is fun. And I don’t blame Rushdown players for complaining! They’re tools often get toned down so they don’t become too strong. And if they become op even once they get their legs broken.

Got to disagree on what's the most fun to do in Fighting games. Putting the fear of god in your non-believing foe before breaking their back with a Grappler is easily the most fun I have playing them.

Rushdown characters are safe on literally everything compared to zoners. The risk of a zoner getting caught in a mix up by a rushdown is greater than the risk of a rushdown getting poked across the screen (easily blockable).

Please keep this same energy for the rest of the videos in this mini series

15:26 i felt this in my soul

Been looking forward to this.

7:03 this entire edit hurts my soul why did you do this to me

This video was fun, andt it also got me remembering the "introducing Ken Masters" AMV from the early days of SF4. Good times!

"Just play grapplers lol" - Me, 2 seconds before getting blendered for the next 13 seconds

0:15 i subbed to see this animation on a consistent basis

I don't like rushdown because while playing them it's super automated AF and grossly repetitive while being highly rewarding for little to nothing. Meanwhile fighting rushdown is unfun because it's all at their pace (they set it), in plenty of bad examples just means playing defense most of the time vs players that act pretty toxic about losing to others that need to have significantly better defensive play and actually think about how to attack. And the irony that most of them get mad about zoners not being "punished for push button" when that's was typically is the most common trait of playing a rushdown is grossly safe offense. Or getting pissy they get punished hard by someone that reads 3+ mixups right for maybe 1/2 or 1/3 the HP. Mixup character are designed for people that aren't great to safely hit the same 2 or 3 combos but they make you hold block most of the time and it's boring overall. I don't think it's bullshit. Plenty of rushdowns are good and bad depending on the game and balance. But playing a rushdown we'll just takes knowing your moves most the time vs learning other character requiring you to learn the matchups on top of that for the same performance.

I love baiken in GG Got to celestial with her and had an absolute blast mixing everyone like a fucking turntable >:)

You know.... this funnily enough made me think of a match up I had just yesterday. Was running Bridget, and a Pot challenged me on the floor I was practicing on. Normally......... I'm full rushdown with Bridget. Knock my opponent around with yo-yo flourishes and stay in their face at all times thanks to Bridget's mobility options...... quickly learned that this wouldn't work with the Pot I was fighting. He WANTED me to get in his face (as a grappler tends to do) and had a solid enough defense that getting in his face was a bad idea on my part. So..... I remembered in this moment that Bridget can also zone her opponents...... so I did..... suddenly he had no idea what to do with me because I wasn't playing into his hands anymore and staying juuuust out of his range. He eventually rage quit on me after a few rounds of this, and me throwing out a taunt once in a while when he was too far to dunk on me. =-p What does this have to do with the video? Very little. But the video did remind me of this little story!

Can you do a video on 'big spacing' archetypes? Some examples are T7 Gigas, MKX Kotal Khan, Melee Ganondorf, DNF Crusader. Aka big characters with big normals that hit hard but are generally slow. These are the characters im drawn too.

Me, who plays zoners: "Hehe look at the monkeh players getting roasted" Gekko: "Also zoners you're fu**ing next!" Me: *sweating*

As a Braindead Bridget player, I agree that rushdown is both fun and frustrating af

I honestly have more problems with zoners than rushdown

The intro got me laughing evily as well. Good stuff.

I play zoners and Rushdown. I understand the sentiment, but I can't stop

"Also Zoners, you're fucking next" YES! YES!!!! YESSSSSSSSSS!!! As a filthy Zoner myself, I am so excited to get the roasting my ass *deserves*, I'm so glad this is turning into a series!

So there’s a grappler cult and a unga bunga cult, does that mean there’s a zoner cult to?

Zoning? Grabbing? Fair? HAHAHAHA NO APE IS FOREVER

4:50 I guessed all of this correctly, lol. But I also know how Baiken works, so... I probably would have struggled to block the crossup in an actual match, though. Probably would have accidentally input a jump and got hit even though I guessed right. That's what makes rushdown scary. The speed. Maybe you can guess or react to them, but can you execute your response as fast as they can run you over? Chipp is on his fifth coke binge of the day, he's not having problems keeping up.

Zoner player both projectile and normal based more so the latter, because hitting the medium button and covering half the screen with my big ass sword or object is easy, so I can spend my time learning how to block mix as I hit you with the 6th consecutive 2 hit combo. In that mindset yes rushdown is toxic a character that can jump the entire screen in the time it takes me to throw a fire ball is annoying compounded by the fact that they tend to not only have more health than me but also do infinitely more damage per interaction is, when it is good, not very engaging. And it becomes the most popular play pattern because people think “fighting” game so zoners are less intuitive and grapplers feel clunky even with there far wider margin for error. (Perspective of a BBTAG, Type Lumina, Gran Blue Fantasy player). Can’t wait for my turn to get shit on even if it is likely things I have heard at nasuem. And yes, I play Smash and Rushdown is optimally suited to the time out win con in that game. Key point the blue hedgehog. But it is more fun to run at people and you know kill them yourself.

rush down players are just hit grapplers that think even less.

amazing video Gekko S. Quirrel it was so effective that it made my baiken main friend apologize to me

This is the best archetype! Something I won’t say about grapplers and zoners

We appreciate your dedication to fairness in making one of these for the other archetypes lol

I play grapplers in platform fighters and I would love to play them in traditional fighters but I’m just better at rushdowns in traditional fighters

When you do the Zoner video, you gotta pull up some MK9 Freddy or Kenshi, or MKX Hish Qu Ten Predator, Pyro Tanya, Kenshi, or Summoner Quan. Injustice also has some good ones. Zod in 1, Deadshot in 2, especially

As an Axl player ( who's friends hate that I play Axl ) I am so excited for the eventual, probably Why You Hate Zoners

Playing rushdown characters is like playing 2D Ultrakill

I am a rush-down since the first contact with a fighting game. I would pick them unconsciously even before I knew what a DR is. I must admit that it amuses me to see when my buddy loses patience with every beating I give him lol. That's why I prefer presence over online play, although I enjoy everything equally, even when I get beaten.

Rouge takes shaken not stirred to a whole new level

The beginning of the video gekko sounded like a may main from ggst

"The moment they figure you out you crumble" Me:-sweats in ushi-

This is why I play Rushdown, just mixing people as Chipp is so fun when they have no idea how to stop what I'm doing and I can just run combos on them

I actually love fighting rushdown. Me and my mate always pick up rushdown characters, and each of our game sessions end up hype as fuck.

I wish I could upvote this twice for the amount of Salt on these Fighterz Friez

I feel so called out by this video

as a naoto k player this was music to my ears geting in the enmey face and beating them senceless feels so good

11:37, I felt this lmao🤣

HELL YEA GEX

That persona 5 ost tho *chef's kiss*

incredible

I may hate fighting rushdown but I sure do love this thumbnail

As a puppet char player i cant wait for one of those videos on my kind

Insanity. The chaos agent is here, and he is sponsored this time. Jeez

9:48 *CLEARLY* You've never played Noel 😎

so true batsie

I am fine with rushdown but grapplers are the bane of my existence

*The Thumbnail* 😩

Rule number 1, if they unga, you bunga.