The 16-year-old Ryu player, Paladin, made quite a name for himself when he defeated XSET|iDom and eliminated FLY|Punk at Capcom Pro Tour 2023 US/Canada East about a week ago. He ultimately placed fourth overall at the event which is impressive considering that there were almost 650 participants registered to compete.
Paladin recently uploaded an interesting clip that really showcases just how well he understands Street Fighter 6 and Ryu. As it turns out, there’s a benefit that Ryu can have by slightly delaying his special cancel into a fireball.
In the clip, Paladin demonstrates what happens when Ryu special cancels his standing heavy punch into a heavy fireball as fast as possible as opposed to a delayed variant of the same sequence. All of this happens while Ken is programmed to block.
Either way, Ryu is indicated to be -7 after the sequence. However, it’s noted that the pushback on block that Ken suffers from these attacks is very slightly greater with the delayed version of the block string.
It may not seem like much, but this is the difference between being in range of Ken’s standing heavy kick and not. In other words, Ryu is able to easily whiff punish Ken’s standing heavy kick if Ken attempts this button after blocking Ryu’s standing heavy punch cancelled into a heavy fireball, but only if the special cancel is delayed to the later parts of the normal’s cancel window.
Check it all out below:
If you delay your fireball cancel, your opponent is pushed further away pic.twitter.com/6meoD9dRap
— Paladin Ryu (@paladin1019) January 21, 2024