Here in Street Fighter 6’s first year Ken is a contender for absolute best character in the game while newcomer Manon has a hard time staying out of conversations about the worst. It’s clear that life is a good bit easier for Ken while Manon really has to work for her wins, so when she lands a perfect counter, you’d expect her to get paid out for it.
That’s not at all how things went down for Japanese Manon player Ory54904596, who sniffed out a Dragonlash from an opposing Master Ken player online during a crucial round three moment.
Heavy Dragonlash is one of Ken’s most useful techniques as it sees him leap forward at his foe with an advancing kick. This is great because it goes over low attacks, moves Ken a good deal forward, and leaves him +1 in your face on block.
You’ll see this move in just about every round that features Ken, and it’s one of the most prominently-highlighted attacks when it comes to discussions about individual moves that need to be nerfed.
Manon doesn’t really have anything like this. She can advance with her overhead kick or go for one of her cheeky, long ranged sweeps, but she’s forced to be a lot more honest than Ken in neutral, and must earn her openings via more work and thoughtfulness.
We jump into the action between the aforementioned Ory and their Master Ken opponent just a few seconds into round three of their match. Ory has already successfully reached level 5 with Manon’s grabs, and anticipates an inevitable Dragonlash initiation with a perfectly timed parry.
Instead of using the heavy version, however, the Ken uses the very unsafe OD version. The Perfect Parry animation slows things down for a few frames, and Ory goes for the obvious level 5 command grab punish for some well-deserved damage… only it never comes.
タイトル「残像だ・・・」
なにィ！後ろだと！？・・・じゃないんだわ(# ﾟДﾟ)#スト6 pic.twitter.com/tbfVGLBEVi— トス◯ム (@ory54904596) December 22, 2023
At -9 on block, Ken’s OD Dragonlash would have been punishable with Manon’s 8 frame OD command grab had Ory simply blocked or done regular parry, but had even more advantage thanks to the Perfect Parry.
Launching into the forward-moving OD command grab so quickly seems to have actually worked against Manon as it looks like Ken is still considered airborne at the moment the grab comes out.
This may or may not be technically justified if you were to look at the hit and hurtboxes in a frame by frame play, but from the perspective of one of the worst characters Perfect Parrying one of the best moves in the game by perhaps the best character in the game only to have them weasel away scot free, this totally sucks.