[CSE] Rachel International Videos + Critiques

[TD]

all in all l was really just trying to read him instead of my usual gameplan (im trying to develop yomi you see).

l had some truly ingenuius moments during our fights, and some failed experiments, but l always learn something new when playing zeth. mind you, hes probably the only guy l can even play for that long without wanting to do something else, so l try to make our fights count.

once again thank you guys and l will process the crit some more later. also im gonna try to crit you kirbster when l get time this week.

[K2]

looking forward to read TD's

[Alex073088]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFqWwPb9JTk&feature=g-upl&context=G2ac6bbbAUAAAAMgAEAA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7SY2k1gK2c&feature=g-upl&context=G2733f1cAUAAAAMgAeAA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fGTSLdhycc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31PYdFQhSUg&feature=g-upl&context=G242c9b0AUAAAAMgAIAA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-0_KPwuxMw&feature=g-upl&context=G2c561a5AUAAAAMgAMAA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuB412n1Hfg

[tofurr]

Very solid play, Alex. There's really not to much to nitpick. You played very patiently and well against Lambda, and I agree, one of the best on Live. I like how your first objective in the Tager match-up was to get him to the corner and keep the pressure up and then backed off and played it safe when you got the life lead. Great burst baits.

Also, I'm surprised Neji didn't rage quit on you, lol.

Also, Also, what songs did you use in your vids? I recognize one as a boss theme for Final Fantasy.

[kotokot]

your opponents were too weak(

i'm very sad if this is one of the best lambda in american xbl(

try to summoning pumpkin safer, lambda could own you for your random summons. Play with tager less aggressive, your friend did wrong sledges in wrong places, was generally bad at blocking and neutral, and respect 360/720 and mtw.

[tofurr]

We don't really have a Severin on XBL.

[Alex073088]

Thanks alot tofurr, The songs that were used:

vs ached sphinx-frontline assembly-masterslave[wumpscut remix]

vs arcade fire87 lambda in cs1- biohazard lizard from sonic adventure battle 2 when shadow fought against the ultimate lifeform(same for neji)

vs bman #2- its jill theme from umvc3

vs bman the first one- night of fate form kingdom heart 1 whn sora fights the heartless for the first time.

The only reason why neji im sure didnt ragequit due to the fact that was a ranked match as for every match up there.

The burst baits were crazy espically against ached sphinx because i probabdly would have lost if i hadnt baited them.

[Alex073088]

@koko...

Dude are you trying to say that your some blazblue god? ached sphinx for one isnt weak.

2. im sure m friend bman can beat with his tager more time then you can beat him in a match-up thats in your favor.

3.my friend was not bad at blocking what so ever, rachel your guessing completely vs her. and he blocked consistently well even in those videos.

[kotokot]

@koko...

Dude are you trying to say that your some blazblue god? ached sphinx for one isnt weak.

2. im sure m friend bman can beat with his tager more time then you can beat him in a match-up thats in your favor.

3.my friend was not bad at blocking what so ever, rachel your guessing completely vs her. and he blocked consistently well even in those videos.

no, i'm still bad(

ached sphinx looks not good in this video, he whiffs to much and give you space and time to summon pumpkin or lobelia. Random whiffed 236C:psyduck:

2. :/ he is really forgives your errors, other tagers would ib fork and punish lobelias. Random spark bolts. He does not have ib and not actually playing this matchup.

3. Alot of eating 4B, random things after recovery like j.C and etc.

by the way isn't this "Critiques" thread?

[Herbal Grey]

no, i'm still bad(

ached sphinx looks not good in this video, he whiffs to much and give you space and time to summon pumpkin or lobelia. Random whiffed 236C:psyduck:

2. :/ he is really forgives your errors, other tagers would ib fork and punish lobelias. Random spark bolts. He does not have ib and not actually playing this matchup.

3. Alot of eating 4B, random things after recovery like j.C and etc.

by the way isn't this "Critiques" thread?

this.

just to put my own spin, you did a lot of unsafe things against the tager that weren't punished because he didn't/couldn't IB (winded 6cc...even scrubby tagers usually punish that...starting block strings with j.2c...etc) ... he took a lot of damage trying to chase rachel down instead of being patient, which is how tager has to play the matchup

i also agree you played too aggressively. you rushed down when you didn't have to and used up precious wind stocks, often til you had none left...a windless rachel against tager is a rachel in danger.

and as a side note...if either of you were going for yomi, it's gonna look weird to us watching it because you've already conditioned each other.

the litchi was a scrub. didnt block anything. nice ib'ing though on your part

the lambda player was too passive and didn't know combos. he let you get away with unsafe summoning. instead of punishing your failed block strings, he just continued running away (he didn't know when he had the advantage). you could have been hit by lambda's 3c many times but he wouldn't use it.... you realllly don't want to get hit by that (5k+)...and yea, good lambdas dont miss with that many swords...i know he's not severin, but just to compare, at the last tourney, i didn't see severin whiff "one" sword in about 10 matches i watched.

[Alex073088]

@koko,

there is critiquing, and then there is insulting. By simply saying all the opponents were weak on top of questioning my personal opinion on ached sphinx on the actual video i felt that you were more so insulting. In no means am i saying ached sphinx is god like, but he has greatly improved and is in my current opinion one of better xboxlive lambda's. I have other videos slaughtering lambda's that i didnt post because there was no need. I mainly posted the videos because of the endings for the most part.

@Herbal grey

I appreciate your critique. I know that either of us didnt play 100% perfect, if ached sphinx 3c'd more i would have adjusted but he didnt however.After making the mistakes i thought that the finishing of the video was a little hype.

Against tager,

1. Starting j.2c on tagers wake-up alone is a strong option. This baits any attempts to wake-up grab reversal and gives rachel a strong damaging combo starter on counter hit if a tager tries anything.It also catches wake-up backdash. Its also safe on block, the only things that could beat that out would be 2c on a late tech, or his magnetic tech wheel super. Both are punishable if i jump and do nothing which i did to bait counter assult.

2. 6c in blockstrings was a cs1 habit that i broke so very long ago i never do it now ^.^ espically since you dont have to.

3. I feel as though his spark bolts werent random they were all just baited or i conditioned him to use it. I almost never get hit by spark bolt outside of combos for extremely long time period going back to ct days. I respect the fuck out that move when full screen and when he has obvious time in close rane to do it.

4. I zone and rush down, thats what rachel is a hybrid of sorts. If your too passive against tager you will lose the match, he is one of the easier characters that can be placed in rachels rushdown/mix-up madness. I for sure that too much passive playstlyle isnt good because it happens against my friend bman, and any good tagers like axis. You only runaway will still allow him to place you in the corner. rachel's zoning no longer does sufficient damage, and when tager has spark bolt zoning becomes much more scary to do.

Finally the litchi, i will completely agree about, he is not good at all but you couldnt tell him that in cs1 when he was winning all the time for free against rachel using litchi. that particular video was honestly posted not only because of its ending, but also to expose him.

[Alex073088]

@tofurr just incase i didnt say so already, frontline assembly by masterslave was used alot for background music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCueQ3XmOeE&feature=g-upl&context=G2906893AUAAAAAAAdAA cs1 during my rough adjustment to cs1 rachel the match-up was super hard at first for me

These i could use some critique on =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xt-cWd5NFM&feature=g-upl&context=G2404d2fAUAAAAMgAFAA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdWJOjxI65Q&feature=g-upl&context=G2d65271AUAAAAMgADAA

showing a much less agressive side of my rachel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grKkdQUYl3I&feature=g-upl&context=G229fc33AUAAAAMgAJAA

zong one's lambda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IjmyTHGPmI&feature=g-upl&context=G2168588AUAAAAMgAKAA

Lordknight giving me my ass

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBdEgp2l6RE&feature=g-upl&context=G2e6f26cAUAAAAMgANAA

[Herbal Grey]

If he ib's ur j.2c on wakeup, you will get hit before you can 5b. Also, I'm not suggesting all you do is run, but you don't need to rush down tager for example when he is in the corner and you could use a few seconds to regain wind stocks, instead of using ur final wind stock/s to rush him down. And frankly, even if tager knows u're not going to rush him, there are no safe options for him to attack you. All he can do safely is walk forward. A very high level tager in my area says the lamer you play against tager, the better you will fare.

Ummm, my matches against tager end in timeout...who said anything about actually beating tager?

Lastly, the burst baits were correct, but honestly, good tournament players know not to burst in that situation, especially after you baited the first one. They were bad bursts.

[Sakaku]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzZZha1tSTs

vs Kiba (Tsubaki).

I wonder if gli's advice how to block Tsubaki's overhead had changed anything during these matches lol.

[Herbal Grey]

http://www.twitch.tv/xiei/videos

there's a few vids of "brkrdv" ;p .... execution is an issue for me after transitioning to stick.... as a forewarning

also, i fail at blocking

update:

sakaku, i watched your matches with the tsubaki, and there's a lot of solid gameplay. it's hard to critique because i think part of where you went wrong sometimes was just like not being able to block the stupid overhead. maybe do some more barrier guarding?

on a more specific level, i'll do a more in depth critique a few things that are situational and you may agree or disagree.

12:30 => you are at full screen with pumpkin while tsubaki is in the air. you decide to charge forward with the pumpkin which i think is a mistake because the pumpkin has a low chance of hitting your opponent (blocked or not) and you could be summoning george. i think if you wanted to punish something like tsubaki charging midair, a winded b or c lobelia would have been safer for that situation, but i still think i would summon george in that situation

14:38 => LOL. get owned

14:47 => 6a would have worked there (it would have been blocked, but your indecisiveness by just barrier guarding put you on defense rather than offense)

15:32 => this may have been an input error. but yeah, after tsubaki whiffs a dash under you, hit them with the pumpkin twice for a full combo into 3c george/pumpkin or 5cc

16:00 => this looks like a situation where you want to zone, since tsubaki was almost finished. you had pumpkin summoned above you so you could have 2d'd it down to hit tsubaki then continued zoning. this is especially true, since tsubaki had a burst even if you did manage to combo. when my opponent has low life and a burst, i tend to try to zone if i have the option (and i am aware enough of the situation lol)

17:31 => personal play preference. i would have counter assaulted in that situation. puts tsubaki in a bad situation in the corner (of course, counter assault would have looked foolish if tsubaki did an airdash instead of a full block string)

19:24 => hehe nice hit confirm with george. i think if you could have done 2 hits with the first 3c which would have let you resummon george

i'll stop there. that's a few thoughts

[Herbal Grey]

Some of the footage from the top 4 from the north America bbr qualifier. My matches are about 5 min in against kid viper and lord knight. My loss to spark is a little later, after norcal's team sends spark and xie to losers. More footage from bbr is also available on this account

Www.twitch.tv/leveluplive/b/309798480

Edit. I also played xie I think right before spark

[gamester]

I must apologize in advance for my Rachel game is terrible tbh but I've somehow manage to make it to 2 finals and loose, this is a local tourney I attend close enough every month.

The video's are on YT where I then use them to study my mistakes and try to improve from there, I do have a self-confidence problem but even so my Rachel game needs work and I was wondering if I could share these videos with fellow Rachel players and ask for opinions

Sorry about the long intro, still not sure how things work here quite yet.

First video is from December where I was against a Lambda player back on CS2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIF5RXKIa7Q

Second video is from last month where I was against a Bang player on CSE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95wOGTuwgbk

I've had great fun whenever I have entered though, which at the end of the day is the important part I say.

Sorry about my lack of skill though, I must make Rachel look bad. Part of the reason why I joined dustloop was to see if I could improve here and there and share my findings and experiances while playing as Rachel in general.

[[SpA]Relentless]

I don't even know where to start. This match was full of online tactics

In the match vs Lambda, both of you were on autopilot all the time.

Learn hitconfirming. You were doing stuff like 2B 5BD 5CC or even 6CD j.C 5B 5CDC 214A (...) without confirming if it even hit. This is a just a waste of wind and you give up momentum, and set yourself up for punishment. And pay attention to your wind meter, sometimes you hit with 5B and were out of wind, then still attempted 5CC. Learn to do high/low mixups (5B into j.2DA or 2B, occasionally 3C or 4B).

When you're in training mode, don't set the dummy to never block or after first hit, but to random. Now do mixups and if you hit, go into a combo. If he blocks, do something else that's safe (further mixups or back to neutral). It comes with more experience.

Winded 6C is a big no, seriously what's the point of this? Yes it's plus on block, but any decent Lambda player will punish you hard for attempting this. If you want to get close safely, try stuff like j9 3D with barrier.

Get used to canceling your dash with barrier. It's so much safer than just stopping normally or attacking.

Mash less. Calm down and just block patiently. It's not like the Lambda player was great at doing high/low mixups. 2C mash is bad against Lambda, she's pretty much immune to it due to her nature of being a long ranged character. Another example is 2:18, your opponent did a random burst, then you got nervous and just.... bursted yourself. In the worst spot you could ever burst.

Turn everything into damage. You landed a throw with 2 winds, and did.... nothing same with 2C CH, that shit was godlike in CS2, at least 5,5k + oki with meter.

Bait rolls. If you know the opponent likes to roll or delay their tech, do 2A 5B. If it hit, you can go into an aircombo, if they teched, only 2A will whiff and you can still apply pressure. Don't just mindlessly dash towards them, this is one of the worst beginner mistakes ever. You can train this by setting the traing dummy to random tech on everything.

Seems like you mostly need to get used to Rachel and the game. Try to find a player that can consistently recognise and punish those mistakes, and play him a lot. Most of these tips are universal to all fighting games, so if you play something else too, try to learn it in those games too - it will transfer over to Blazblue. Good luck.

EDIT: Just watched the video vs Bang and that player was fairly good. Watch it and try to understand how he abuses and punishes your bad habits.

[Herbal Grey]

i actually thought you did a pretty good job in neutral game for the level you are currently at. i thought most of the problem was that you need more practice with combos and gatlings. you weren't always sure what you could and couldn't combo, which often led to some wasted wind and counterattacks (at least in that bang match i watched). you should either visit the combo thread of the rachel forums or watch and see the kind of combos the japanese rachels use and practice those. this will dramatically increase your rachel's power level.

also....no one has told me why i'm getting pwned by spark yet

[[SpA]Relentless]

I don't think anyone feels like criticizing a player that's better than themselves : D

Nah seriously, it's Hakumen, and it's Spark. I generally think you were just too nervous (understandable) and too aggressive because of that, missing opportunities to summon a pumpkin (for example, beginning of 2nd round, when you winded fullscreen and Spark whiffed a 4C) and dashing in instead. Stuff like dash up 2A with no backup, Hakumen's normals are just way better and they trade heavily in his favor.

Zoning with lobelias is hard against him, but there are still some angels he can't cover properly. And I believe even if he cuts them, based on the situation, it gives you a chance to summon pumpkin or frog.

Really it was just your nerves that got the best of you, at the end of round two you were trying to tack on a 2nd BBL when normal oki would have been the better choice. Those things simply don't happen when you play someone you're familiar with. If you played him a few times in a row, you would've definitely gotten quite a few rounds.

[gamester]

Thanks [sPA]Relentless and Herbal Grey for your feedback on where I need to improve as a Rachel player, I'm glad I asked here for advise for I couldn't seem to see where most of my mistakes were and everyone else there at that tourney doesn't play as Rachel at all. It seems odd as well for I've been playing since CT, mind though, only been playing BB itself for about a year and 4 months but didn't realize I've been making these mistakes all along. BlazBlue is also the only fighting game I've actually wanted to put more time into than others so I'm glad I've joined up here and got some advise for I love this game, mainly for the story and Rachel

I'll mess around on training for a good while in my spare time with the settings mentioned and work on my mix-ups and how I control myself generally. Combo wise, I went back to CS2 recently and kept practicing challenge 9 as that utilizes the J.2C lvl2 technique that I've seen been performed of various counterhits, it looks useful midscreen and in the corner but need to get used to it. I'll be sure to check out the Rachel combo thread and read/see what I might be able to do and work on. I'll try to sort out my confidence, concentration and patience as well for that would probably help with all of the above advise.

Thanks again, I'm glad I can talk with fellow Rachel players here

[DSveno]

Relentless;1286790']

When you're in training mode, don't set the dummy to never block or after first hit, but to random. Now do mixups and if you hit, go into a combo. If he blocks, do something else that's safe (further mixups or back to neutral). It comes with more experience.

Wow. Why didn't this one occur to my mind even once before, I wonder. I spent most of my time learning hit confirm by playing real match instead. It could save me a lot of unnecessary beating.

Thank for the advice.

I've noticed my Rachel spend a lot of time in the air, thus my wind didn't get much change to replenish. What's the good way to approach your opponent on the ground, and defend against their pressure without flying? Is practicing blocking the only way?

[[SpA]Relentless]

You don't really want to approach without wind. Just sit back and wait for it to fill up.

If you want to recover wind, have a frog out, it makes the enemy want to approach you by jumping or airdashing. 6A

them.

If you don't have a frog out, running in carries much less risk for the enemy. Be prepared to either 6B, 6A, jump or block depending on the situation and matchup.

Jumping a lot isn't really wrong in BB because of barrier, but you still shouldn't overdo it.

[TD]

lk(litchi) vs td(rachel) ft10

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5CB1A62947489516

it was a fun set. lk won (score was 10-7)

all critique is welcome. also, thanks to kurushii for streaming and jourdal for uploading.

[kotokot]

good shit%)

have learned some things like frog shield from staff)

can't critique much, dropped combos, AA, hitconfirm, ib. And it was netplay :\