Additional Topic: Preserved_Roses7 - Promising Dee Jay Contender or Diamond in the Rough? A Lengthy Analysis
As part of my research, I have periodically
watched videos featuring Dee Jay players to see how they fare and,
more importantly, to observe the things they do right versus the things they do wrong.
With the USF4 scene being much smaller in 2020, Dee Jay players are a rare breed
indeed, especially capable ones. Recently, however, I have come across a lesser known player on
Reizu’s regular USF4 stream that seems to make good use of Dee Jay’s
strengths, and it shows in his overall win rate.
I suppose you could argue that his opponents on stream don’t take advantage of his attack patterns and don’t counterattack with heavy damage options frequently enough, so it’s easier for this Dee Jay to score the win. That said, the player Preserved_Roses7 has shown some flair with the character and IMO some real potential. So, as a side post, let’s analyze the things that I like in his gameplay and the things that I don’t.
First off, it's worth pointing out upfront that Preserved_Roses7 generally does a decent job of maintaining the six fixes I mentioned earlier in this journal, at least to the point where he isn’t consistently destroyed when he deviates from them. With that in mind, check out the following video from Reizu's stream, starting roughly around the 1 hour 2 min mark (this is where Preserved_Roses7 confidently joins the fray):
I suppose you could argue that his opponents on stream don’t take advantage of his attack patterns and don’t counterattack with heavy damage options frequently enough, so it’s easier for this Dee Jay to score the win. That said, the player Preserved_Roses7 has shown some flair with the character and IMO some real potential. So, as a side post, let’s analyze the things that I like in his gameplay and the things that I don’t.
First off, it's worth pointing out upfront that Preserved_Roses7 generally does a decent job of maintaining the six fixes I mentioned earlier in this journal, at least to the point where he isn’t consistently destroyed when he deviates from them. With that in mind, check out the following video from Reizu's stream, starting roughly around the 1 hour 2 min mark (this is where Preserved_Roses7 confidently joins the fray):
a) His range game is solid, spending a lot of his time in that zone right around the opponent’s sweep range where Dee Jay fights best. Usually, he’ll mix this up with either Short Dread Kicks, Max Outs, or Jumping Short Knees for pressure. While he spends some time in ranges outside of this, the majority of his rounds are in fact dedicated to getting Dee Jay into that perfect range where he does the most damage. His first round against a Cody player (link) is a good example of this, where he spends most of the match in that sweet spot and only takes the majority of his damage when he doesn’t follow this plan throughout (he eats two focus attacks, for example, when he is caught jumping at the wrong time). Maintaining that footsie range is perhaps this Dee Jay player’s greatest overall strength and what sets him apart from most Dee Jay players in the best possible way.
b) You hardly ever see Preserved_Roses7 throw a Max
Out at that bad 2/3 screen range. Instead, he’ll throw it at a
range where he usually knows the perfect normal to counter an opponent who
jumps it. There are a couple of times where he does it at the wrong range (at this time stamp is one), but not enough that it would be considered a bad habit.
c) He hardly ever wastes meter on tricks like EX Maxouts
in fireball wars (I counted only one throughout the entire video). Occasionally, he does blow three meters of Super on wakeup or reversal doing an EX Dread followed by a focus cancel, but I imagine this is mostly to
make his reversal safe or to extend a combo when he actually gets a hit (link). Not the best use of meter but
sometimes it is necessary, I suppose.
d) He’s not afraid to turtle it out at the
beginning of a match using far off projectile play. Notice how he does this in
his first round against a Guile player, building almost two meters before ever
getting close to Guile (link). This is exactly what I would do, too, because you want
to have as much meter as possible for the fewer times you are likely to get a
successful hit on Guile (due to his great defense).
e) He uses high damage combos in many
different situations where most players would instead go for a less powerful option. Notice, for example, how he goes through a Guile player’s Sonic Hurricane Ultra with
his own Ultra after a jumping Short Knee (link). That’s an excellent punish that not
everyone would be aware of. Ditto for his cross up into Hyperfist/Super/Ultra (link) at the end of the vid (though he could have gotten slightly higher damage by
just doing the medium punch into the Hyperfist , but we are quibbling now).
f) His anti-airs and punishes are consistently
good. Not too many times that he misses an opportunity to mess opponents up with
them when he gets the chance. Check out this cute one with an EX Dread against Honda (link)
g) He knows some of the tricks to create the best
distance from opponents to maximize his offense and defense. As an example, notice
how he focuses an attack from Cody here just to reset the distance to a range which
is much more in Dee Jay’s favour (link).
h) He is one of a very few players I have ever seen
combo into Super from a normal. In his case, this is usually off of the Double
Hit Roundhouse after a jump in Short Knee (link) or after a low Strong Punch cancel in
the midst of a link combo (which he doesn't do in this particular vid but he has in others). He could land the Super in a lot more circumstances than this if he wanted to, of course, but it’s at least a promising start.
i) He consistently links low Jab into Low Strong
combos for good damage (link), which is a tight and challenging link. Even I
don’t use that one. What's more, in other vids I have seen, he sometimes cancels that linked Strong into the Super and Ultra for extra style points.
j) He does a good job of mixing up the Short Knee
and Cross Up Forward when opponents are standing up. In addition, he
consistently makes the mix up count by doing as much damage as possible when
one of these mix up hits lands.
Now here are the things that I don’t like so much in his
gameplay:
a) He tends to be overly aggressive in his approach, often jumping and pressing buttons with few pauses in between. That is a good strategy against players who are intimidated by this pattern but tends to get him in trouble against players who are not daunted by it. As an example of the latter, at one point he eats Dhalsim's Yoga Catastrophe and loses a round in spectacular fashion, partly due to this habit (link). A bit more selectivity in when and where he throws attacks would increase his unpredictability and, in theory, his overall potency.
b) He sometimes uses the forward kick, cancel into dash and link combo for damage and/or a mixup (link). While this is an OK way to extend his combos, I still think he would be better off saving his meter for Super options, particularly given that he knows how to do a number of them. Saving that meter pays off at the end of rounds in a way which is difficult through any other method (because of the number of options for damage into Super and Ultra that four bars of meter allow). And sometimes, that’s ultimately what you need to eke out the final win. As testament to this, notice that he performs variants of the above dread into link combo on a Honda player in two different rounds but unfortunately still ends up losing the overall match. Would saving his meter for Super have helped in the long run? Maybe.
c) He doesn’t always modify his approach in response to his opponent’s strengths relative to his. As an example, in this video, he eventually loses to a Honda player (link), a character I’ve noticed gives him more problems than most. I would argue that this is because Honda requires you to zone and stay slightly farther away from him than for most characters, due to Honda’s butt smash potential as an offensive and defensive tool, coupled with his unpredictable Ochio throw. This particular Dee Jay doesn’t take those quirks into account and therefore tends to take hits more often than he needs to as a result.
d) He uses the Forward Dread Kick as a poke and pressure tool a fair bit, which is a technique I generally don’t advocate. Usually, this is while opponents are standing up, so it is a little safer to do in that instance. I can’t fault him too much because he generally doesn’t get punished for this tactic . . . but it’s an area where he can definitely be countered for good damage if he’s not careful. Here’s a good example of where this gets him in trouble, though the Ken player could have done a lot more damage here with a little quicker reaction time (link).
a) He tends to be overly aggressive in his approach, often jumping and pressing buttons with few pauses in between. That is a good strategy against players who are intimidated by this pattern but tends to get him in trouble against players who are not daunted by it. As an example of the latter, at one point he eats Dhalsim's Yoga Catastrophe and loses a round in spectacular fashion, partly due to this habit (link). A bit more selectivity in when and where he throws attacks would increase his unpredictability and, in theory, his overall potency.
b) He sometimes uses the forward kick, cancel into dash and link combo for damage and/or a mixup (link). While this is an OK way to extend his combos, I still think he would be better off saving his meter for Super options, particularly given that he knows how to do a number of them. Saving that meter pays off at the end of rounds in a way which is difficult through any other method (because of the number of options for damage into Super and Ultra that four bars of meter allow). And sometimes, that’s ultimately what you need to eke out the final win. As testament to this, notice that he performs variants of the above dread into link combo on a Honda player in two different rounds but unfortunately still ends up losing the overall match. Would saving his meter for Super have helped in the long run? Maybe.
c) He doesn’t always modify his approach in response to his opponent’s strengths relative to his. As an example, in this video, he eventually loses to a Honda player (link), a character I’ve noticed gives him more problems than most. I would argue that this is because Honda requires you to zone and stay slightly farther away from him than for most characters, due to Honda’s butt smash potential as an offensive and defensive tool, coupled with his unpredictable Ochio throw. This particular Dee Jay doesn’t take those quirks into account and therefore tends to take hits more often than he needs to as a result.
d) He uses the Forward Dread Kick as a poke and pressure tool a fair bit, which is a technique I generally don’t advocate. Usually, this is while opponents are standing up, so it is a little safer to do in that instance. I can’t fault him too much because he generally doesn’t get punished for this tactic . . . but it’s an area where he can definitely be countered for good damage if he’s not careful. Here’s a good example of where this gets him in trouble, though the Ken player could have done a lot more damage here with a little quicker reaction time (link).
e) He walks around to cover ground more than he
needs to rather than find ways to better cover distance while maintaining charge. Not as often as most Dee
Jay players do. But it is another area he could be stronger on. This is what
costs him the round against a Ken when he walks forward in a very predictable way
that is easily countered by the opponent (link). Of all the ways I can think of to improve upon his game, I believe this tweak would be the most important one for Preserved_Roses7 and would make him an even more formidable opponent than he already is.
That covers my rather lengthy analysis of this particular player's style. Note that this post is not meant as a criticism of his unique approach. Rather, it demonstrates how it can be enormously beneficial to review another Dee Jay player's methods as a way of discovering new strategies to better your own game. In this respect, I feel Preserved_Roses 7 stands out as a particular effective Dee Jay player with a solid foundation of
skills. Potentially a dark horse in the making . . .
UPDATE: In March 2020, Preserved_Roses 7 was ranked the #1 Dee Jay on whatever system he is using, so this would suggest my earlier prediction was indeed correct.
UPDATE: In March 2020, Preserved_Roses 7 was ranked the #1 Dee Jay on whatever system he is using, so this would suggest my earlier prediction was indeed correct.