Analyze
verb [an-l-ahyz]
1. to examine carefully and in detail so as to identify causes, key factors, possible results.
For this entry, I will be analyzing a match video from the JaX Money Invitational at the DOA in Dallas 2 tournament. For my first Match Analysis, we have Drdogg vs Arnell Long. I will mainly be concentrating on Drdogg's Helena. Drdogg is a well known Helena player from back in the day. One of the forefathers of Helena technology that you see today. So in this best 2 out of 3 tournament set, I will explain what went right and what went wrong using a format where I point out certain times of matches and make a note.
TIMED ANALYSIS:
@ 0:11
Here is a basic setup with Helena. He used a safe move like ppp, baiting his opponent to go on the offense, and then throws out p+k to crush his throw for a juggle to take off a pretty nice chunk of health.
@ 0:35 - 0:48
Drdogg went for the ppp string again, but this time got countered in the middle of it. the string is a high-mid-mid. The second and third mid punches gets countered more often then you think. Getting countered in general is a momentum killer. I think it would have been better to use pkk in that situation. After that, Arnell did a good low throw punish to continue the momentum shift and win the round. All that could have been avoided with pkk instead, but we're not here to play Theory Fighter and throw out "What if's" like that. What's done is done.
@ 0:51 - 1:07
Drdogg really bounced back from that last round with perfect play! Starts the round with pk, scores a CH, and goes straight into BKO throw to 1kk. Now, this level heavily favors Helena due to the electric floor danger zone. Going for the untechable on a danger zone floor does more damage than actually doing the juggle, which the juggle would normally do more damage on a non danger zone level (not to mention the great mix up you get after getting the better damage from the BKO throw to 1kk on the DZ floor.) Though most of the time, Helena players will go for the mix up regardless if there is a DZ floor or not, it was still the right thing to do. Drdogg did yet another safe move to p+k and juggle, punished Kasumi's 6kp and winds up winning the round with a Perfect. This round is a good example of not letting previous missteps get to your head and adapting.
@ 1:09
Helena's pkkk is unsafe on block, yet it wasn't punished. A blunder from Arnell.
@ 1:24 - 1:33
Drdogg uses p+k to crush the last mid punch in Kasumi's pp6pp and stuns the opponent. From here, it's just stun mix ups, to a launcher, to a juggle. At this point, Drdogg doesn't need to take any risks at all, so he uses 6p+k because it is safe on block and will kill the opponent if it hits. The move connected and Drdogg wins the first match. The lesson here is if you have a huge health lead, don't take stupid risks. Play it smart and safe.
@ 1:48 - 2:10
Start of the second match, and so many things went wrong... Started out good with Helena's pkk, but went right into BKO 4pk and the mid kick getting countered. BKO 4pkp is a string you want to avoid most of the time because you will rarely get away with using this. So easy to counter. Here is the next mistake, and a big one! After Arnell counter the mid kick, Helena hits the ceiling and could have got a juggle from hitting the ceiling, but Arnell doesn't take the juggle... he could have taken the juggle AND knocked him down the stairs for big damage. This misstep leaves Drdogg able to tech back up and start his assault of more baiting into p+k CH juggle setups and ultimately causing Arnell to lose the round.
@ 2:20 - 2:43
Helena's p+k,p string is unsafe, yet it isn't getting punished. Drdogg seems to be the only one punishing anything this entire match. Towards the end of the round, Arnell has a spec of health left and Drdogg still has half a life bar. Arnell begins his offense, gets a stun, launch, juggle to even up the game. Arnell then connects 4p+k with Kasumi and wins the round. Though he won the round, 4p+k was a really risky move to throw out. I think he should have been more careful at the end, but his risky move did however pay off.
@ 3:01 - 3:07
At the end of the round, Drdogg uses the BKO throw untechable mix up and goes right into another BKO throw to 1kk to win the round. We didn't see too much of the BKO throw in this match, and I will explain why later.
@ 3:10 - 3:34
It's Match Point and this round pretty much went into Drdogg's favor. At this point, Arnell is scared and mentally given up and just starts throwing moves out for no reason. The finishing touch, Kasumi's pp6pp string gets interrupted by Helena's pkk and the good doctor wins the match.
CONCLUSION:
All Drdogg was doing was playing off Arnell's mistakes. Arnell played too reckless and scared while Drdogg kept his cool. Arnell pretty much beat himself in this match. Too much bad offensive aggression from the Kasumi player. What he should have did was play a little more defense by spacing more. This would have slowed down the pace of the match and let Arnell collect himself and come up with a better plan of attack. Moves going unpunished didn't help him either. Drdogg made the right choice of not doing as many BKO throws as, in the book, he should have. Playing against someone so reckless would have made BKO throw too risky to throw. Drdogg probably could have done more BKO duck though.
Video courtesy of Drdogg
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