Kata #24 v1.0

Difficulty Intermediate Kata

Focus Reactionary Spacing and MidRange Neutral

The intention with this kata is to help the players defensive reactions in neutral as well as understanding the uses for their heavier attacks in the midrange neutral game.

Since AbigailBot is designed to teach a different set of things, you will use the CPU at Level 8 for this kata. There is no need for any special inputs, and you do not need to alter your AbigailBot. There is also no specific need to understand, enter, or use AbigailBot before doing this kata, the two are almost completely unrelated.

This kata, as with many others, is greatly helped by knowledge of frame data. Some challenges mentioned in the various training situations will rely on frame data knowledge. There are many frame data apps and resources that you can use to aid you while training. We recommend finding the frame data source that you are most comfortable with to assist you with the more technical aspects of the kata.

Gauge Settings

Settings for 1P for Kata #24 are Health - "Auto-Recover" (when not in 'Full Focus Test' mode), V-Gauge - "Auto-Recover" or "Normal", CA Gauge - "Normal".

Settings for 2P for Kata #24 are Health - "Auto-Recover" (when not in 'Full Focus Test' mode), V-Gauge - "Normal", CA Gauge - "Normal".

Goals

Katas do not specifically have a point system, as they are intended to be a test of focus and endurance. Instead, this section will explain the why and how of the kata. Aims are still given below in a similar way to Bots and will be referred to as Aim A, Aim B, and so on when explaining.

• A - Respond to Abigail's Giant Flip by throwing him during the attack, just before it hits you (can only successfully be done from mid-midclose range)
• B - Use your long range Heavy attacks or Heavy Command Normals to keep distance from Abigail's long range Medium and Light attacks, while aiming to hit him occasionally without getting hit yourself
• C - After being knocked down by one of Abigail's attacks, use your forward jumping instant strike attack to counter him if he gets close for throw, or your antiair attack if he is jumping when you rise
• D - After striking Abigail successfully with your forward jumping instant strike attack, respond to his retaliation strike (which should generally be a light attack that clips you out of the air and cause you to be in an air-reset state, or alternately, be a command throw that occurs as soon as you land)

Situation One -- Throwing A Truck Around

Start with Aim A, though you can work in Aim B, try not to make that your main focus at this point. You should be able to get many chances at this against the CPU simply by holding crouching block and occasionally striking Abigail with your 1LK or 1LP when he tries to get close enough to throw you. The three Giant Flips that send Abigail into the air are all throwable, but have different timings and in the case of the Medium version, a different spacing from which it can be done. The timing also changes, or will feel like it changes, when Abigail cancels the Giant Flip from one of his other attacks. The spacing changes somewhat depending on the effective throw range of your character. Quite a few characters have moves like this, that allow them to get close safely but have a strangely 'late' active period which you can defend from by throwing.

While doing this, try to use a stage where you can easily measure Abigail's position, even if you need to move yourself into the corner and watch him from there. This entire thing can be done without releasing your crouching block, it will just result in a back throw instead of a forward one. An additional challenge, therefore, is to be able to do the forward throw or a command throw in this situation's tight timing, to improve execution and reactions. A further additional challenge would be to avoid being hit by Abigail's overhead attack. No effort should generally be made to avoid his command throw, as 'being grabbed by it' is part of the Kata, except in Full Focus Test mode.

If this is done correctly, the 'speed-lines' from Abigail's hands should be visible for a moment before the character goes into their throw animation.

Situation Two -- Punching Cars Since 1991

Now that you know the range at which you cannot throw the Giant Flip, focus more on Aim B at that range specifically, since many Heavy attacks, even those that do not have very long forward range, stop this move with similar timing to the throw. This will also often score you a Crush Counter. That Crush Counter may knock Abigail down as if from an air-reset if you hit early, but there are a few frames where you can get the grounded Crush Counter reel and go into a combo. It may not, however, be your best or usual one if your character does not normally dash up to do their combo, or if you had to use a different Crush Counter than usual. Experiment with this and learn what is useful.

The main part of Aim B, however, is learning how to keep your space from Abigail using Heavy attacks in neutral or after pushback. Use attacks with good range that are fairly fast and not too negative on block, as this allows you to sometimes use the same attack twice. Against opponents whose Medium attacks reach relatively far but aren't that fast, like Abigail, this can also result in Crush Counters. For some characters, using much slower Heavy Attacks is also good because they will result in whiff-punishing Abigail's counterattacks. This differs a lot by both your character's specialties and the spacing you use, so the aim is to learn these situations against a character who does not have a lot of other quick forward-moving threats. This will allow you to get started in terms of understanding the capacity of your own character before you try this sort of tactic on faster characters.

Whether it is against a further ranged Giant Flip or just Abigail's basic punch attacks, a Heavy Attack with the right hitbox is likely to do a good job of stopping him.

Situation Three -- Hit And Run

Inevitably, one or two of your throws will fail, or Abigail will get close enough to use his command throw and put you on the ground. Now it's time for Aim C. Abigail approaches after a knockdown reasonably often, and simply blocking at that point can lead to another command throw. Certain characters, Abigail specifically included, don't necessarily have really good attacks against the jumping option. They do hit you, but not always before you can get off the ground, leading to an air reset style hit instead of a full combo, especially in the lower ranks of the game. Since the CPU, despite its ability to read your inputs, cannot 'be sure' you will be doing a particular thing on the last few frames of your wakeup if you time it correctly, it can't always use a powerful move and must settle for just a light attack, so you won't take much damage even if you get hit since it also can't do the attack early enough to get you before you jump.

If it therefore tries for a slower attack or command throw, you can hit with the instant forward jumping attack. Note that this isn't the best tactic if you are fairly sure your opponent will go for a command throw, a neutral jump with a big punish on the way back down is better, but many characters can get you if they only used a regular throw. At least this way, you have a chance to stop that throw and escape, while dealing a tiny bit of damage, which can become meaningful in certain matchups (for example against Zangief or Laura when you have somehow built up a lot of grey health damage on them due to other things). The downside of this approach will be covered in more detail in Situation Four, related to Aim D. For now, ignore the fact that Abigail can turn and hit you after this regardless of if he blocks this attack or not, and just consider 'the attack making contact at all' to be a success. Not all attacks that work on Abigail work on other characters in this situation, so if you don't already know which to use for your character (a few don't technically have them against shorter grapplers) make sure to experiment so that you don't get surprised later.

Sadly what goes up, must come down, unless it's Dhalsim, so for now just focus on getting the 'up' part done correctly.

Situation Four -- There's No Escape

The problem with Aim C is that due to the short hitstun of the attack most characters use for it, and the relative ease and long, high reach of certain anti-air attacks, characters like Abigail can hit you after you hit them, but before you land. They can also, similarly, have a fairly heavy advantage if they let you land or almost land before doing their attack, and you have no tripguard if you attacked during your jump. Understanding how to use your own mobility, invincible moves, or when to make this tradeoff and take the damage, are all parts of the higher level of this kata. Abigail is 'kind' enough to normally hit if he can, and attempt his command grab on your landing if he cannot, but is also slow enough to not have too many damaging/knockdown related options. Learn whatever you can from this based on your character, there is often a lot to explore.

As the other part of Aim C, sometimes Abigail will use his very short jump to approach, jumping twice toward you. This usually means that he will be airborne on your wakeup, but with a potential incoming attack that you have to antiair correctly on wakeup, or for some characters, judge the spacing for and decide what to do and if to try to get out of the way or counter it in some other way. This is another situation where, if you input the wakeup late enough, the CPU won't be able to 'use that time to counter you', because its own attack should already have started. Try to save any special EX-Meter using attacks for Aim D, however, until you are comfortable with them, and don't change your Gauge Settings for this.

Some characters like Abigail can only 'clip' you a little or go for a grounded strike at this point, or both in succession. Learn your options here!

Full Focus Test Mode

When you feel as if you have a good handle on each situation and all the ways you could deal with the opponent, change 1P V-Gauge to "Normal" if that was not already the setting you had chosen to use. Both Health Gauges would then also be set to "Normal", but make sure that you go to the regular 'dummy' version of the Training Mode options and set Stun to 'Off' (this setting carries over to bots and CPU). The goal is now to defeat Abigail using the Kata as normal, and learning to stay calm and active on defense to do so. He has very few ways to pressure strongly for heavy damage when the CPU is using him, as it does not use most of his better mixups or combos. Therefore, for most characters, it is easy to play this Kata completely 'fairly'. Simply strike and throw whenever you can, and as you get more and more used to it, lessen the amount of times you do follow-up damage after your Crush Counters. Focus on repositioning for advantage after your throws and try to eventually win with just single hits and throws. If you manage this before he defeats you, consistently, pay attention to how it is happening, and consider if you could recreate any of the situations in other matchups, especially against opponents with mobility tools that often could be countered with intercepting throws, antiairs, or instant jump attacks. If you can succeed with this in mind, your focus is probably enough to handle this sort of situation in real matches. Repeat with familiar characters until you are satisfied with your performance.

Bot Information

This Kata uses the CPU, not a bot, and therefore you do not need to use the AbigailBot 1.0 page. You should use that if you want to deal with Abigail's Nitro Charge options more instead. We have tested this Kata with most of the game's characters and Abigail's behaviour does not change drastically. However, we urge you to contact us if you observe Abigail to behave strangely for your character, so that we can help out, or update this page with a disclaimer that the CPU does not allow this Kata to work for that character. If this behaviour changes due to any updates to Street Fighter V in future, this space will be used for notes on how and why.

In-Depth

In Progress.