Jump scare Drive Rushes from neutral are so last season as Street Fighter 6 players identified a more nuanced tool that’s helping certain characters thrive in the meta: light string privilege.
What exactly is light string privilege and how does give advantage? YouTuber I Am Hermit has put together an excellent video filled with explanations and answers, and you can watch it below.
Traditionally in Street Fighter games, most characters have been able to apply pressure strings on their blocking opponents with a good bit of confidence thanks to normal attacks that leave the aggressor with plus frames on block. Street Fighter 6 widely departs from this, however, as most normals do not give advantage to the attacker when blocked.
This does include light attacks, technically, as most are -1 or -2 on block. Light attacks, however, can be cancelled into one another (you can interrupt the recovery frames of one jab with the start up of a quickly-inputted second) thus creating traps for those who would try to mash through light strings.
If you’ve played much Street Fighter 6, you’re familiar with these situations as they’re extremely common. The mix up in terms of whether or not to interrupt the light string is widely fine, and a point where players have to make informed decisions as they vie for advantage, but it’s the situation immediately after that has players perplexed.
Some characters, you’ll notice many of those who frequent the tops of recent tier lists, push themselves to an especially advantageous distance when they perform their go-to light strings. They are truly at frame disadvantage at this point, but they’re so far away from their foe that said advantage cannot really be capitalized on, in fact, trying to do so is exactly what these characters want you to do.
Other characters, like Kimberly, remain close enough so that if they go for an additional attack after completing a light block string, an opponent’s return attack will counter hit them.
This means that characters like Bison, Akuma, Ed, Cammy, and others enjoy safer pressure in more situations, and have the freedom to disengage or threaten more freely following light strings.
The video below depicts this all with both text and visuals, even going as far as to show examples of how this was notably not the case in Street Fighters of old.
It’s not to say this kind of situation is necessarily good or bad to include in a game, but if it’s not global to the roster, you do risk giving certain characters powerful advantages.
Give Hermit’s full video a watch below and share your thoughts on the current state of Street Fighter 6’s meta (and how much you feel light string privilege affects it) in the comments afterwards.