Regarding El Fuerte- Advice Part 1

Sup guys.  

Today I wanted to start my "Advice" postings for all of you to level up.  Now you might ask what qualification do I have to give out advice, well... I've been playing Super Turbo for 15 years and am considered by some as one of the best players on HD Remix for PSN. (Shoryuken.com Best of PSN thread)  I have been playing SFIV in Tokyo for a bit over a month now but am getting the hang of it quickly.

Anyway enough about me, let's talk a little bit about Fuerte.

Pros:

Body Splash can hit as a crossup

Ultra can be used as an anti air and does decent damage

Has a strong punisher in Run Stop Fierce (RSF, Punch Loop, El Fuerte "infinite" etc)

Very tricky and mobile.

Decent Focus Attack

Cons:

Punch Loop is very difficult

Has few decent punish combos besides Punch Loop

Takes a lot of damage quickly (900 stamina)

My main advice to anybody who wants to play Fuerte is that you NEED to learn Punch Loop 100% at least until 5 hits.  It is his most damaging combo, causes dizzy and can do a lot of things for you in terms of wakeups.  If you cannot do the Punch Loop either PRACTICE HARDER or play a different character because you will not get very many wins without it.

That being said lets take a look at what it can do for you:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdmBS7V6DI0  19 Seconds, Tokowa hits Focus Attack 4 reps of RSF and a Slide Kick to bring Ryu down to 50% life.  The Ryu player starts frantically jumping as he knows a couple more hits from Fuerte will stun him and he will likely lose the round.

2:24 Fuerte throws the Ryu player, baits him into wakeup shoryu then lands 2 reps of RSF cancelled into Super for the win.  If there were another match I'm sure the Ryu would think twice before wakeup Shoryu.

After the Ryu player loses, the Rufus player is completely dominated in the first round by Punch Loop.  2 hits after the loop he is dizzy and eats 5 more fierces and a slide trip.  2 combos a wakeup trip and an overhead bring Rufus down to 15% or so.

We see the wakeup uppercut bait again in the next match though he fucks up the combo.  Having such a damaging option at your disposal for one relatively small mistake makes them not want to uppercut as much on wakeup, leading to more crossup opportunities, slide trips, body splash tricks and other thing.  What happens usually when a DP is whiffed?  Sometimes a throw or a short punisher combo maybe topping out at 25%ish, with a good Fuerte that punishment becomes around the neighborhood of 40+% with an incredible stun percentage and no use of meter to boot!  What about characters like Akuma, Seth (console, human select), Chun etc who have low stun meters/life meters or both?  Their lifebars get OBLITERATED.

Another way to connect it that I didn't mention yet is the focus attack.  Fuerte's is relatively quick.  Think about it this way, when most characters focus what do they do?  They will attempt an Ultra or some large SADC combo, this usually does around 40%ish at most (for Gief a bit more obviously) Fuerte has this option but his other option costs NO METER allowing one to save EX meter for Runs, Air Grab, Super or in the case of Ultra as anti air.

You NEED this combo.  Unfortunately it is probably the hardest in the game, discovered so far, to learn.  Theory fighter and Street Fighter are two very different things.

That's all for now, I hope I convinced some people to hit up training mode.   I'll be doing another installment of El Fuerte advice as well as some other characters I want to cover.

My next article will regard practicing and mindset.