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During the last weekend, I attended the Tekken 6 Nationals in San Francisco. The overall event was interesting: private venue, RSVP only, lots of giveaways, and so forth. However, the one thing that really stood out during this event was the appearance of a certain MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter named Josh Barnett.

For those of you who don't know, Josh Barnett is one of the top 10 heavyweights in the world. Apparently there was an interview with him during the event, but as a guest there, I was unable to hear anything at all. Regardless, it was interesting to see a high profile athlete attend this event, which is something that should happen more often for two key reasons:

Move way from cultural segregation & creating social awareness of the fighting game culture. With that said, let's move on to this week's mailbag.

Tekken 6 competitors

Now that Tekken 6 Nationals has come to an end, what are your thoughts on the competitors? [/triforce voice]

Jonsf, Bay Area

To be completely honest, Jon, I'm only a hardcore player in the Street Fighter scene. I'm not really too sure what kind of thoughts you want to hear. I'm acquainted with players like Bronson and Emphy, and I know that they're both terrific players, but on a technical level, I'm stumped. What was interesting was to see some pad players in the event, and the fact that Fab wasn't on that list after doing really well at NCR, so from a casual fan and uneducated standpoint, there was at least one key solid player missing from the standout of competitors at the event.
 

Tech throwing in SF4

Sup Crackfiend,

so this is completely a scrub question but i figure i give it a shot and maybe you can help enlighten me. throw teching, i'm the worst at this. at present i've resorted to watching for player patterns and just doing the throw command when i think they will thow me. sadly it's just not good enough, with the better players they just mix it up too well, in soul calibur i was always okay at teching but in sf4 i'm just garbage. any tips would be appreciated, or even better yet how would you go about getting better at this.

zeroTWOeight, Maine

Look on the bright side, at least you have the gall to ask a question many people would be afraid to ask. The answer I'm about to provide is based on information I've done myself, and in no way am I claiming this to be the most absolute or accurate answer, so keep an open mind. There are two ways to tech-throw: Standing tech and crouch tech (also known as an option select). Both techniques have their advantages and disadvantages, for example:

Standing tech gives you 10 frames to throw, while crouch tech gives you 7 frames to tech a grab. However, if you whiff the standing tech you can get punished, while crouch tech will only whiff a crouch short which recovers relatively fast.

One of my suggestions to get better at this is to have a training partner who is adept at tick throws to help you out. Start it out with him just walking up, jab tick once, and then throw you. Once you start tech throwing those, have him start doing jab tick twice, three times, and then mix them up. One of the most important things to get used to is the visual anticipation of a throw. Also, head over to this thread on the iPlayWinner forums for a more extended explanation of this topic.

Fightpad vs Fightstick

Being a tournament player, the decision between pad and joystick is probably an obvious if not laughable choice for you. However, for a pad player such as myself who's never had the opportunity to play in an arcade, the decision to transition over to a joystick has proven to be rather tedious.  It's definitive that there are many tactics in SFIV (some character specific) that are easier to execute when playing on a stick, and that the majority of those tactics have zero plausibility on a pad.  In your honest opinion, would you advise a veteran pad player to stick with what they know best, or express to them that they're missing out by not playing on a stick? 

Anthony, Louisville

Anthony, I wouldn't consider that a laughable choice to be completely honest with you. I used to be a pad MvC2 player and was pretty good at it. My alibi for that would be Chunksta himself, who is NorCal's best Marvel player. Also, I recently just brought in a new face to my weekly sessions who is a PAD Zangief player. Check this out though, he can beat John Choi, me, LPN, Ricky Ortiz, basically any known name in NorCal with a certain consistency. I definitely think you should stick to what you are best at, but don't close the doors. If you feel somewhat limited by playing on a pad, keep an open mind and play on a stick. With that said, I've only seen people convert from control pads to a stick, and not the other way around.

Comments

[James Bardolph]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26juqc3cZOU

[FuriousRGD]

That's a pretty awesome vid James.