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Long time no see. This is Nage again. It took a bit of time, but this article will also be about "What I Was Thinking During Toshin Gekitotsu" Please take a look at the videos below. (match videos linked) Today, I'll cover the second match. I already wrote about the first one, so please take a look at that one too. (blog post linked) *What I was thinking during the match I'll be using the Youtube video with the key display. The second match starts from around 2:50. 3:02 Blue burst -> Here I bursted against Volcanic Viper. I took damage, but I was being mindful of avoiding getting knocked down, so I used the burst here. 3:10 Drill cancel into drill -> To throw off his antiair timing, I used the drill cancel once here. Kazunoko's 6P ends up whiffing, and the drill hits him. Faust's ability to throw off antiair timings with moves like drill cancel and air bag throw (j.236P) is quite strong. After showing my opponents all these various air options, I'll even start going for things like jump forward j.P jumpins. 3:15 Dash blitz shield against the jump pad -> You can't throw items while the jump pad is active, so I used a dash blitz shield to get rid of it so I could throw items again. 3:16 Pogo -> It is a mystery... 3:20 Airtech j.K -> It's usually difficult getting return off of this, but you can use it to stop your opponent's dash like I did this time. 3:34 YRC -> Like I wrote in a past article, this was "inputting dead angle with 3 buttons." I ended up getting my turn back using this. (Link to article) 3:47 IAD j.K against Gunflame -> I feel like there are situations where you can react to Gunflame (not actually sure), but this situation was basically just a read. Faust can make Bandit Revolver whiff by crawling under it, but I think my reasoning is I felt sure he was going to do Gunflame, so I went for the IAD (not actually sure about this either lol) Usually I keep the IAD option in mind when my opponent has less than 25% meter, but this time he just barely got 25%. I didn't confirm it at all. After that, I was aiming for the [j.K > j.S > j.P > j.H > 2H > Pogo ... ] combo, but I was thinking I'd mess up, so I switched to an easier combo instead. 3:57 f.S into buffer YRC -> After I whiffed, I went for a 6P, but Kazunoko backed off. I feel like I overextended here and chased him too far. In the end he backdashed to put some distance between us and KO'd me. This was the first round. Overall, things weren't really working out, but I was able to do things that I'm usually able to do (like IADing over Gunflame), so I don't think I felt too nervous after that. 4:16 Burst -> Up until then, I was showing him that I burst after getting hit by certain moves [ed: he's talking about the Volcanic Viper burst point from earlier], so I foresaw that he wouldn't read my burst in that particular situation. (Link to another article: "Nage's Philosophy on Blue Burst") 4:32 Getting airthrown after airteching -> I knew this was a situation where he could pick me up with 5K after airthrowing me, but unfortunately I was just kinda mashing airtech here. Basically, since these two rounds weren't going so well and I was already up by a game, I wanted to see if I could challenge him with that airtech. These were a couple of reasons I did it. In this situation, I wanted to confirm if he could actually do the 5K pickup, but I wasn't looking at his meter, so it was a very "ah crap" moment when he did the RC. Seeing me suddenly stop spinning the stick around at 4:38 is kinda funny. The second match happened kinda like this. I got pushed into the corner, and even midscreen, I found myself kinda falling back and giving up my space. Bearing this in mind, I started the third match. I'll write about the third match onward in the next update. Until next time!

Original Version by @nage_pink Translated Version by @_tenkaiRe-post of Translated Version Hi there. I'm Nage. This article will be about "My Thought Processes During My Toshin Gekitotsu Match" *Annotated version by Robot SheKeiB Original Video Here - What I thought about before the match - What I thought about during the match I will be talking about these two points. I'll be doing one match per article, so you can expect the second match onward in the next update. This article will only be about the first match! - What I thought about before the match I thought about exactly what kind of player Kazunoko was. *My Thoughts -> At key moments, he will use his invincible reversals. -> If he thinks that I will dash forward into his space, he will come forward and attack. -> He will aim for reversal gold bursts. -> He is very good at deciding whether to go for aerial attacks or ground-based attacks. (He's very good at making his jump-ins work) These are my impressions of him that I thought about based on the previous versions we fought in. Also, I really didn't want bombs from my item throws, but in the end, a ridiculous amount of them came out. I will write about why I didn't want them a little later. - What I thought about during the match I'll be using the timestamps from the Youtube video when writing the point-by-point analyses below. 0:33 Counter throw -> He ran towards me, so I went for a [low block -> throw -> low block] sequence. (I input it as 1 > 4 throw> 1) 0:37 Command throw -> Since I already aimed to throw him, I tried the same method of attack twice to see how my opponent reacts and deals with it. It worked, so I was able to quickly calm my nervousness a little bit at the beginning of the match. 0:50 Burst -> This is a guaranteed burst point against Volcanic Viper. Since it's guaranteed, I used it to keep the situation at even and neutral. 0:53 6HS -> Here, instead of aiming to actually hit him with it, this was a 6HS just to keep the current situation. Hit or block, all I wanted was to keep the current space. ("Man, it'd be even better if hits!" is what I thought) Also, this was a 6HS from pretty far away, so it would be difficult for him to commit to a Volcanic Viper reversal. And even if he did uppercut me, it wouldn't be that terrible of a situation. That's what I thought. *This was a 6HS where I would get counterhit by VV, but I predicted that the followup 214K wouldn't connect. 1:03 j.2K against 2D -> I actually talked with Kazunoko about this some time later. This is a move that counters his habit where he uses Sol's 2D to stop Faust's approach. The drill will end up hitting Sol instead. This is one point where I punished Kazunoko's habits. I didn't really aim for this specific punish, but I was pretty glad that it hit. 1:19 Antiair 5K into air IB ground throw -> This is where I react to his IAD with 5K. Then I confirm the start of the divekick motion and change my antiair plan to air IB land ground throw. I wasn't so sure if I would get the air IB in this situation, but it ended up becoming a situation where I was able to switch from trying to punish an IAD approach into punishing his attempt at baiting my anti-IAD antiair with divekick. 1:37 YRC -> I had the lifelead and I wanted to make it more guaranteed that he would have to block the meteors (the YRC would make it difficult for him to get out of the way). During the YRC, I reacted to his 2D and went for an FD. 1:41 6HS -> I wasn't actually aiming for this 6HS. If you look at the input display, I was aiming for an airthrow at 1:40, then I messed up and got 6HS instead. I'm not too sure what I was thinking here, but it was something like "Wait, 6HS came out... wait, it beat divekick...?" And then in the next instant I won the round! lol This was the end of round 1. Overall, I was paying careful attention to not retreat too much if possible. (I wanted to keep a mid-to-far distance from my opponent at the middle of the stage) Watching this match again, it looks like I spent a lot of time around the circular part in the middle of the stage. I was also thinking about the point I mentioned where if he thinks I'll move forward into his space, he'll come forward and attack me. So I feel like I was trying to keep my space in the middle of the stage more than I usually do. 2:00 j.2K against 2D -> The same as what happened at 1:03 2:12 Scalpel Pull RC -> Here I thought far slash > hammer hit > scalpel pull would hit, so I did an RC but it didn't actually end up connecting. I did dash into item throw after this. This was a situation it would've been difficult for him to counterattack me from a forward airtech 2:16 Forward crawl 2S against Bandit Bringer -> This doesn't come up very often, but this is a situation where as I'm throwing out 5P, I'm watching my opponent and the current situation, so I was able to get the proper punish. I think Kazunoko did Bandit Bringer because he was aiming for me throwing out a far slash. 2:20 Mashing 6P+6HS throw OS -> You can see I'm mashing 6P+6HS here from the input display. Whenever I choose to not block, I fully commit to whatever move I decide to do. 2:21 5P losing to Gunflame -> I was too close, so the Gunflame hit. If I was a little bit farther, I could hit 5P and still block the Gunflame. 2:25 Mashing j.6P+6K -> When I try to airtech forward, I'm mashing P and K. This makes it so when I actually tech, I can get j.P into j.K if it connects, so I can easily blockconfirm or hitconfirm into a combo. If you hit P and K at the same time, P takes priority, so j.K won't come out and instead j.P into j.K is what will happen if it makes contact. 2:28 Downburst after the VV>214K -> I was being wary of VV>214K into red RC, so I went for a downburst. 2:30 Blocked 2HS>Blocked Poison>Item Throw -> There are situations where if 2HS hits, poison into scalpel pull would combo. So I went for 2HS>buffer scalpel pull input. If 2HS is blocked, I hit the button for item throw. If 2HS hits, I hit the button for the scalpel pull. Don't mind my sloppy 9 and 8 inputs when I did the item throw. A similar situation also happened at 1:30. But in this situation, the 2HS hit at roughly the same time as the poison, so I don't think the scalpel would've connected. So I still did the scalpel, but it's a situation where it's like "There's no time to hitconfirm, so just do it! (It probably won't connect, though...)" I thought it wouldn't work out, but I just kind of did it anyway. It was a mistake. 2:34 I got airthrown -> This is the reason why I didn't want bombs. Kazunoko is very good at airthrowing Faust players who jump to escape the bomb explosion. Even during the match, after it happened I was like "Ah, yeah... I thought that would probably happen." 2:40 Scalpel Pull (Buffer YRC) -> Here I buffer YRC just in case he uses Grand Viper or IAD to get past my scalpel pull. It got blocked, so the YRC didn't come out. 2:42 2HS hits -> This 2HS is a frametrap. I think I just went for the scalpel after it without really confirming. And then the combo into RC into victory. The first match went kinda like this! (Writing it was more tedious than I thought!) The second match onward will be coming next. Until next time!

Original Post Translated Document Repost of translated document below Once again anything in italics are my own addons (@GREATFERNMAN) From: http://nage.hatenablog.com/entry/2015/08/13/183045 Hi, it's Nage. The topic of this report is "my GGXrd tier list". I will write about the details and important points of each character and what I think about it overall. I apologize as the preface will probably be long; after reading, I hope you will arrive at your own ideas. ■ Why I wrote this The biggest reason is that I wanted to try and see what would happen if I compiled my own thoughts (on all the characters). Conversely, one reason why I have not written about this yet was because I thought " I can't write all I want with Twitter's character limit. I want to use a picture and explain as well, and I don't l want to separate them into multiple tweets." These problems weren't an issue once I started my blog, and there was the added merit of "clearly establishing the fact that the information originated from me", so I wrote this. Also, really fun events like Arc Revo 2015, Toushin Gekitotsu and a-cho anniversary are coming up, so this could function as collection of information for people who don't play Guilty Gear but are watching it to reference, or as a way for people starting Guilty Gear to choose a character. In that manner, because of the various reasons... I am writing this. ■ Important Point When you get down to it, I'm a Faust player. I can't use every character, and this is just the opinion of one Faust player. This is just "me compiling my thoughts". I do not know every matchup in detail. However, I have watched strong players of each character, and have had many opportunities to play against said players; those is the foundation of my thoughts. ■ My Tier List It looks like this when compiled into a picture I thought of the grouping myself. There are also parts where I wrote more, so I apologize if it's hard to understand. ・Hard to use but the strongest characters: Millia, Zato →Elphelt, Faust and Sol are also considerably strong, but Millia and Zato's maximum potential control over the game is slightly higher in my opinion. It's not that they're by far the strongest. Because of their low defense and executional difficulty, the possibility of the momentum being snatched away because of one mistake is not low. They would have a high win rate over ten or twenty games, but in one or two games, it may be difficult ・Considerably strong: Elphelt, Faust, Sol →Elphelt's explosiveness in the corner is close to Millia and Zato's, but she has to get you to the corner from midscreen. She has strong hitboxes and an option to force the opponent to move (rifle), but she has to feel it out on her own, and she cannot prevent a 1v2 situation (she has to take risks). (Sorry I have no idea what Nage means by 1v2) Sol has excellent normals and specials, can turn the situation in his favor with an invincible move, and has explosiveness in the corner, but he has to work to get in. Faust has the strength of his suppressiveness, his mixup, pokes, and antiairs, but compared to the other four characters, he doesn't have as many opportunities to do that kind of damage. He also the "random factor". ・Sufficiently strong: many Bedman has his setplay and confusion of his 8 way dash from his float, and his defense is high. However, his hurtbox is big, and if he gets caught it's hard for him to get out. Ky has all the standard moves. His pokes, antiairs, and frame traps are excellent, and he can continue his offense with Dipper RC or Stunedge YRC. However, in this game where many characters are strong, it's hard to have to act without ever breaking your concentration. Ky is not deceptive. I wrote the above, but even when compared to characters like El, Sol and Faust, Ky is a good character. Sin's strength is the damage he gets from his pokes. He also can gain momentum with his backdash and dp. After doing big damage, the opponent has to deal with Sin's pokes and antiairs. Calorie gauge management, lack of strong jump-ins (he has an anti-antiair), and his trouble with small movements(more detailed space adjustment I think, not sure about this) seem difficult. May can engage in both zoning with her set projectiles, or the close ranged battle. Her backdash is also excellent at getting out. However, it seems easy for her to lose momentum even after establishing it. When she competes against other projectile characters by zoning she loses because of the rate at which she can shoot her projectiles, and she has to work hard to get in close; she seems to have tough situations. She covers this by having damage, setplay and strong jump-ins. With his corner okizeme, find me, teleport YRC, alpha blade, jump-ins, and supers, Chipp can dictate the pace of the match with his strong options. In spite of that, if the opponent gets him once it hurts, and he has many situations where he has trouble getting the knockdown midscreen. He also has to deal with whether or not the opponent will blitz more than other characters. Axl has strong pokes, and an invincible reversal for when the opponent gets in. He has strong moves to force the opponent to act in the mid to long range battle such as Rensen YRC and Haitaka(sparrowhawk stance). However, he has trouble opening up the opponent, Axl's pokes are strong, but he has to get close to open the opponent up with not-so-great options. He also has trouble following up after running away, and has a problem when the opponent forces him back. I-no's specialty is her explosiveness after she sets up an extremely hard to escape situation (her setplay). Even if the opponent doesn't get opened up, after I-no builds meter on her offense, she can continue her offense with her super or note/HCL YRC. However, I-no uses her meter in neutral to catch the opponent and she cannot continue her offense if she doesn't have meter, so she can be meter dependent. Her dash is a hover, so it's hard for her to adjust space. Venom's stronger neutral thanks to YRC, ability to push the opponent to the corner after a knockdown and setplay, ability to use the meter he built up in neutral even if the opponent gets out... these are his strengths at setting the pace of the match. However, no matter who the opponent is playing, Venom has to keep the game in neutral (furthermore, in a slugfest, Venom's strengths are hard to demonstrate), and in situations where he used his meter in neutral but then gets caught, he has trouble getting out. ・Characters that have destructive power off one attack: Leo, Ramlethal, Slayer, Potemkin Leo is the only character with a meterless reversal in this group, and he also has high damage, so he's a little stronger than the other three characters. His jump-ins and rushing move is strong, and he has many options to open up the opponent. He has two different projectiles to use, and has considerably strong pressure with his very active moves. He has trouble getting in, and while his mixup in stance is strong, he always has to take risks. I think that while the opponent cannot relax, Leo is limited by the fact that he too cannot relax. Ramlethal, Slayer and Potemkin each have their strengths (Ramlethal has high low setplay and the option to set or not set swords, Slayer has high damage, invincible jumps (presumably from bdc) and making the opponent whiff with dandy step, Potemkin has his high single hit damage and his decisive power in the corner), and they can use those to decide the match. However, compared to the other characters, I think that there are many situations where they get dominated in a matchup. Because of that, they have to take risks alot, and having a stable win rate is hard. Leo is close to them, so he seems like he's just hanging there (on the tier list picture) ■ Overall thoughts I think every character has strong points, and hard points that can become a challenge. They're all worth playing. ........ That was my tier list, that's about it. Thank you very much for reading up to now. Bye.

Nage's Twitlonger Translated Document Credits to TENMA for the translation Here I compile how I analyze ‘Why I Lost’, and what I do to fix them. I divide this note to: figuring out ‘Why I lost’; ‘when do I think about it’; and ‘philosophy on how to fix problems’. This is my thought as a ‘Player who wants to leave results at a tournament’. It’ll be great if this note can inspire other theories. Figuring out ‘Why I Lost’ I’m ‘continuously digging for reasons I lost’. Why I continue searching is due to these 3 points: What leads to ‘losing’ is due to multiple factors within a single match, and I want to find as many of those factors. To avoid difficult situations, theorize tactics that can prevent said situations. By determining the fine detail of the problem, be able to find counter tactics easier. For example: ‘First round, got setplayed to death and lost the round’. ‘Got setplayed to death’ = ‘got knocked down and lost’ -> What move caused me to get knocked down? -> Why did I get hit by that move? -> What can I do to prevent getting hit by this move? ‘Got setplayed to death’ = ‘Couldn’t get out of the setplay situation’ -> Why couldn’t I get out? -> Was there anything I could do get out? -> Where should I have used the burst? -> How did I use my meter? -> Could I have changed the situation if I prioritized on getting meter? Like so, even in a round that finished quickly, I try to think of multiple points that could have been improved. If the round didn’t end instantly, then there’s more to think about. Before analyzing ‘what to do in a difficult situation’ I think of ‘what to do before I’m in a difficult situation’. This example goes outside the game, but if you ‘overslept and got to work late’, before thinking about ‘how to prepare faster after waking up’, it’s better to think ‘how to avoid sleeping in’. Which then you can think of what to do after sleeping in, which may calm you down a bit too. I think about how to avoid dangerous situations, and then think of what to do when you’re in the dangerous situation. After generating few points, I pinpoint what should be fixed first, and then consider what the protocol should be. There are limits to how much I can think at once, so I prioritize on what I think are effective. When to think about ‘Why I Lost’ During the match (be aware). When re-watching the match to discover. Regardless of time and place, idea comes out of no where. Have someone else tell you. For me it’s just those four. (1) happens during a match, so usually leads to a loss. With (2), I find being able to watch yourself from 3rd person perspective is beneficial. Watching your own matches allow you to realize ‘what I should have done instead’. (3) happens randomly. When it does I take notes so I don’t forget, and when I get the chance I test it out. I do my best to come up with the solution(s) myself, but if you think your perspective is narrow, have a trusted player watch over your back. Also there are times losses cumulate (and become depressed about it), and you won’t be able to logically think of ‘Why I Lost’. When this happens (1) becomes impossible to do. When aggravated you can attempt to calm yourself by digging for reasons, but if that doesn’t work I take a break. Do other things to calm down, then think of ‘Why I Lost’. Even if I’m winning, I sometimes think about ‘If I do this and they do that I might lose, so I should think about what to do when they do that’. What I’m Conscious of When Fixing the Issue First, fixing the reason for losing does not directly lead to ‘winning’. As stated earlier, “What leads to ‘losing’ is due to multiple factors within a single match”. Even if you fix one problem, sometimes you’ll lose due to different reasons. Winning is great, but even if you lose again it’s best to tell yourself ‘I’m able to do something I couldn’t do before’, and appreciate your own development. I think the mentality of ‘I’m grinding but doesn’t feel like I’m improving’ comes from the disruption of the core motivation of ‘fun’, so regardless of win/loss, being positive about your improvement is key. If you eliminate reason of losing one by one, even if the results don’t come immediately, in the future your win rate stabilizes, and you become more confident in your decisions (have wider perspective). Think “You can’t never lose” No matter how much you fix, if you are facing a human, it’s impossible to have a 100% win rate. (This will be discussed in detail on another day). With that in mind, to be able to win at a tournament and other high stakes moment, it is important to eliminate uncertain situations (have countermeasures) one by one. My goal is to ‘leave results at a tournament’, so to achieve that I practice critical thinking during casuals, and be able to make confident decisions during tournaments. That’s about it for this time. TLDR: ‘I play games with longevity in mind’. Thank you for reading!