I - You Can't Play Neutral 

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

I know EXACTLY what neutral is all I have to do is press pierce

Bro explained in 10 minutes what took me over an hour to explain to my homies lmao

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

Bruh, i swear. No matter how many videos I've watched about Neutral or Footies. There's always something to learn.

This video is a gem. I realized I don’t command respect in fighting games.

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!

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

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.

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

Amazing video. You delivered such high degree of clarity in what neutral is all about, while acknowledging the place for neutral skips. Huge props.

As a noob player who just started playing seriously, this really helped understanding some important things, thanks👍

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 🔥

The goddamn editing, the smooth audio, the video structure? Have my sub homie.

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.

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?

Certified banger 🔥 my man is spreading the gospel. Love to see it. Extremely well edited too.

This video is about to blow up.

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!

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.

"You do not understand what neutral means"...goes ahead to define what I previously understood it to be 😂

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.

Premo instructional material. I'm sending this to every beginner player of any fighting game. Good stuff man.

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.

Damn, this is the best and clearest explanation on footies and the neutral game that Ive ever seen and Ive been playing fighting games since 2008!

This video was absolutely amazing. You did a very great job. Thank you and keep up the good work.

@<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="64">1:04</a> to @<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="69">1:09</a> OMFG BRO thank you for making that as simple as possible. I tried to explain this to folks many times.

As an advanced player I can say it never hurts to go back to the basics

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

what a cocky, mean spirited video title holy shit

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="162">2:42</a> as a former Kim main, that combo was so suboptimal it made me cry.

I just went to go look on your channel for more content and was surprised to see so little videos. Bro keep making videos this content was great.

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:

Loved the video, loved the editing, loved the script, and you have a nice mic! Thanks for describing the reason most players can't just mimic top player matches. It's the respect part. Looking forward to the next!

incredible video quality, great work man

Superb video my friend! And great editing style. Can't wait to see more.

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!

Just with this knowledge you shared with me I think you might have helped level up my neutral play. Thank you GOAT! 💯

This vid popped up on my feed I’m a tekken guy but a lot of the principles here just opened my eyes up to things I was lacking great vid ❤

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. ❤

incredible video, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the sub count. Subbed

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="354">5:54</a> I regret to inform you that this is a whiff punish punish to a whiffed whiff punish, not a whiff whiff punish. 😔

This video should required watching for everyone who plays fighting games

The set ups at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="46">0:46</a> are nice

Really solid video! Keep up the good work

Top quality content. Waiting for the second part.

I drive a manual, I know exactly what neutral is and where!

Holy shit this is one of the best videos to explain to me this topic

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.

this Fararjeh guy doesnt miss. great video man

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.

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!

the way this video explains things is somewhat how philosophy works

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.

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) <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="494">8:14</a> 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.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="505">8:25</a> BRAZILIAN KEN MENTIONED LET'S GOOO BRASIL CAMPEÃO

This is a great video definitely what I needed to see

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.

I know EXACTLY what neutral is. It's walking around like im trying to play footsies but im really trying to decide between sweep and h palm

I’m definitely gonna rewatch this video a few times, I need to better my actual street fighter play this helps

Great content. Subbed. Hoping for more.

Awesome video, you deserve way more views!

Greate video. Looking forward to more.

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.

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 amazing, would LOVE more tutorials like this. So well made

Banger, looking out for more like this!

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.

You’re right that’s why I spam fireballs and dps with modern controls

Older KOF games back in the day taught me all of this.😅

Such a great breakdown

The jazz in the background goes hard

I really appreciate this content. I am new and this breaks down the mechanics. Keep this content going

Awesome video ! Looking forward to the next ones 🙏

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.

Him: You Can't Play Neutral Also him: Instantly drive rushes when round starts 😂😂😂

This video has confirmed what I already know. I'm an ape that you're locked into a room with and I will *not* play neutral nor respect you and your pressure until you *force me to*. Make me play neutral or die. ... that said I should probably also learn how to play neutral better for the people who actually can do that.

Nice vídeo

first video of urs I've seen. gotta subscribe!

Amazing video, can't wait to see what you do next.

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 <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="610">10:10</a> redeemed it. solid video, well edited

Drive Rush... here you go, no needs for footsies...

I was wondering why I recognized you. I'm not even joking I decided to watch through this video to clean up my neutral in multiversus LMAOO

This video is a banger.

This vid is 🔥🔥🔥. I lose to neutral skips all the time. Thx for helping me understand how to deal with them now.

Your voice is soothing

This is a cool vid, that goes in depth on traps n stuff, the only thing id personally change is 'whiff whiff punish' with 'whiff bait', mainly cuz it rolls off the tongue player but its prolly what annoys me bout SF the most, haha

Fantastic video!

I just commented how I would love the videos on capcoms channel to be more in-depth, and this is exactly what i meant. Really good video

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

See, this is a very good video about how and why Footsies are important to understand within any fighting game to get a good understanding of how to deal with Neutral and Pressure. _...and then there's Happy Chaos saying "I don't skip Neutral, I _*_disrespect_*_ it."_

Very well-informed and easy to understand video

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

Why would I play neutral when I can simply SCISSOR? I think what a lot of mid level players do, and I found myself in this category as well is that you learn how to play pretty good footsies but it becomes almost dogmatic. You stop just doing shit. The part about respect is absolutely true, you shouldn’t respect them until they give you a reason. ChrisG put out a video recently and it he’s like well if I throw you and you tech, why wouldn’t I try and throw you again. You tell me that you’re going to tech every time, surely enough on the second time he gets thrown and thrown again. This was revelatory to me because I had fallen in to a “ahh you have teched my throw. This option is now off the table- allow me to go back to neutral” Having good neutral is essential but you get better by layering in the bullshit on top of it

really liked this video

This was a very informative video. Thank you man

Excellent video!! Well done brother!!

This was a very helpful guide to understand and play footsies thank you imma look back at this a lot 🙏🏻

Amazing video.

Amazing video man!