Media Notes / Fighting Game

Useful vocabulary and prominent persons in the Fighting Game Community.

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Basic Terminology

• AA - Anti-Air; techniques that are used to intercept an airborne enemy when you're standing on the ground.
• Block - AKA Guard. A defensive state that reduces the damage taken from incoming attacks, assumed either by holding a directional input away from the opponent or via a dedicated block button, depending on the game. Blocks usually come in more than one variety, such as "high" and "low." Each of which protects against and is vulnerable to different moves, and some games even allow blocking while airborne. Certain games may allow a second, more advanced kind of blocking that's usually better (such as by negating chip damage) but either harder to perform or coming with a cost. Examples include the Just Defend (seen below), Street Fighter III's Parry or Guilty Gear's Faultless Defense.
  • Blockstun - When you block an attack you are stuck blocking for a period of time, unable to use any other attacks or techniques.
  • Blockstring - A "combo" where the blockstun of the previous move lasts long enough for the next move to connect, preventing the opponent from responding. Pseudo-blockstrings look like true blockstrings, but can be escaped by attacking during the correct time, usually by taking advantage of the invincible start-up of DP (Dragon Punch) attacks.
  • Guard Crush - Where a character's blocking is "crushed", making the character open to another attack. Usually only occurs when one blocks too many attacks at a time, or when a character uses a specialized attack. Differs from unblockable attacks, which straight up ignore the blocking and deal direct damage and hitstun to the defending character.
• Chip Damage - The heavily-reduced damage that a character takes from attacks while blocking. In some games, normal attacks do not cause chip damage. Some games also prevent chip damage from being fatal in most or all cases.
• Combo - Short for "Combination Attack" (not to be confused with actual Combination Attacks, which some fighting games also have). This is a series of normal attacks performed back-to-back, usually capped off with a special move and/or Super Attack. The defining feature of a combo is that the player being attacked is largely unable to do anything while being comboed. Bursts or other combo-breaker mechanics notwithstanding.
  • Link combo - A combo where one move's animation must end before another move can be performed.
  • Chain combo - A combo where a move's animation may be interrupted with another move. Usually the attack must connect first (whether cleanly or blocked) in order for the interruption to be possible; some games allow cancelling missed attacks as well, depending on the attack used.
• Dash - When a character moves to a position faster than normal. "Dash" here could be a step/slide (or sometimes roll) with fixed distance, or a full run/sprint.
  • Air Dash - A dash move that's performed in the air. Depending on the game, all characters (with some exceptions) may be able to do this, or only select characters can. Usually limited to either air dash forward and backward, some characters may also be able to air dash in eight directions.
  • Command Dash - A special move that is basically a dash, specific to a particular character. Tends to have special properties separate from the universal dash, such as being able to be canceled from other special attacks or being able to pass through opponents and their attacks.
  • Dash jump - some games allow a jump after a dash, that usually leads to faster horizontal movement in the air.
• Dizzy - A state where the character is dazed, unable to do anything until either it wears off or (much more likely) the opponent hits them. Being attacked too many times in a short timespan is the most common way to become dizzy; other games may have more specific requirements, or even not have a dizzy mechanic at all. The game may also allow for the dazed player to reduce their timer by Button Mashing.
• Double KO - When both characters' health is depleted simultaneously. Whether this counts as a win for both players or a loss for both players varies from game to game, and in the case of the former, how the game handles a double KO in the final round of a match will vary as well.
• Hitbox - Invisible boxes (or sometimes circles) that serve as the character's "body" for gameplay purposes. For fighting games in particular, "hitbox" specifically refers to the boxes that will do a hit if it collides with the enemy's attack (which typically only appears in the move's "active frames"; see Frame, below), while the boxes for the body itself are called the "hurtbox". Usually, hitboxes and hurtboxes overlap (when the attack is not a projectile), in that attacking an enemy with their hitbox active will make them (and, depending on the case, you as well) take a "hit". See Stuff and Trade below for details. When the hitbox and hurtbox of an attack don't overlap, this is referred to as a Disjointed Hitbox, or more casually as a "sword normal" since these kinds of moves feel like the character is attacking with a weapon like sword. Notto be confused with the controller known as a hitbox, see Controllers below.
• Hitstun - When an opponent is hit, they are "stunned" for a while, allowing for combos. Amount of hitstun varies, with "heavier" attacks tending toward more hitstun than "lighter" attacks. Certain moves apply special kinds of hitstun, making it easier to continue combos.
• Invincibility - Some moves have certain frames where the opponent cannot hit the attacking character at all. This is distinct from Super Armor as the character cannot be hit at all (i.e no hit sound or flash). Some moves are only invincible to certain types of attacks (such as Zangief's Lariat making him immune to projectiles). Often, being invincible means the hurtbox of the character becomes inactive for the duration - see Hitbox above.
• Juggle - A combo that keeps the opponent in the air for the duration. Most games have few ways to recover from attacks while airborne, making juggling a key part of dealing damage. Often started with a Launcher Move.
• Meter - A universal term referring to the Mana Meter that almost every fighting game has. Can be presented either as segemented stocks on a single bar, or a bar that increases in level with a number keeping track of how much meter you have.
  • Meter gain - refers to how much the meter gets filled when something happens, such as attacking, defending against attacks, or getting hit. Different attacks (i.e a normal move vs a special move) may have different amounts of meter gain, and an attack being hit or blocked may also affect meter gain amounts.
• Mirror Match - Refers to matches where both sides use the same character(s).
• Normal - A basic attack, performed by press a single attack button.
  • Command Normal - AKA a Unique Move or, in Japanese, Tokushu Waza (特殊技, lit. Unique Art). An attack performed by pressing an attack button in conjunction with a particular direction. Distinct from Special Attacks because you only need to hold a direction to make the attack happen, rather than a complete motion such as a quartercircle. Depending on the game, they might have properties that basic normal attacks don't have, such as being able to be comboed into from normal attacks or acting as overheads.
• Poke - Normals that can be, assuming you are at the correct range, be tossed out without much worry of retaliation. Used either to open combos, hit-confirm certain attacks (see below), start blockstrings, or engage in footsies (see below). Related to the "raw X" term (also below). Performing unsafe moves (IE poor frame data or being unsafe on block) raw as pokes isn't recommended.
• Projectile - An attack where the character fires a projectile of some kind. As popularized by Street Fighter's Ryu and Ken, "fireball" (Hadouken) is also a common generic term for projectiles. Might be reflectable in some games, and might be able to be thrown up at different angles or different speeds.
  • Beam - Related to a projectile, but where the attack reaches the other side of the screen almost instantly and the hitbox of the attack covers the entire space from where the attack is fired to where it exits the screen, usually a straight line but exceptions exist. Unlike projectiles, beams typically aren't reflectable.
• Safe - A move which recovers fast enough that the opponent cannot punish your recovery. Unsafe denotes the opposite.
  • Safe on Block - A move which recovers faster than the opponent recovers from blockstun.
  • Safe on Whiff - A move which recovers fast enough that even missing with the move while near the opponent will not result in a punish.
  • Safe at X Range - A move which recovers fast enough when used at a specific distance (or position) that no move in the opponent's arsenal can reach far enough or fast enough to punish it.
• Snapback - In tag-team fighters, a move that forces the opponent to tag their current character out. Useful when an opponent tries to "save" a severely-injured character by tagging out, but this attack almost always costs meter. In Dragon Ball Fighter Z, this is not the case, though one of the easiest ways to land it does.
• Spam - To repeat a move over and over again, whether it hits or not. Tends to be a bad form, but when performed with more forethought than "I will shoot another projectile after I fire this one" it is a valid tactic.
• Special Move - AKA Hissatsu Waza (必殺技, lit. Sure-Killing Art) in Japanese. A move that requires a command input of two or more directions in length followed by an attack button.
  • Charge Move - A special move whose command input involves holding ("charging") either a direction on the joystick or button(s) for a brief period of time. This kind of move is most common in 2D fighters, although it is occasionally seen in 3D fighters (where it more commonly appears as a button press and release, rather than a joystick charge).
  • EX Special Move - Certain games have moves that are more powerful than regular special moves in some way. Usually by doing more damage than the normal move or having the best properties of the various versions of the move combined, but still less powerful than a Super Move. This can take the form of upgraded or exclusive special moves depending on the game and character. Typically requires meter, though normally less than required to perform a super.
• Super Move - AKA the Chou Hissatsu Waza (超必殺技, lit. Super Sure-Killing Art) in Japanese. A special move that also requires that the player expend some or all of their Mana Meter. Official names for the move type tend to vary, from "Hyper Combos" to "Overdrives" to "Desperation Moves" to "Blockbusters" to "Distortion Drives" to "Critical Edges" to "Eternity Specials."
  • Level x Super Move - In games with segmented Mana Meters, some super moves may require more than one segment in order to be used. X refers to how many segments are required in order to use the Super.
  • EX Super Move - Similar to EX Specials, some games allow the use of enhanced super moves in exchange for using more meter or satisfying another requirement (such as having the usual amount of meter and a low amount of life left at the same time). These EX Supers usually have similar benefits to EX specials, such as combining the best traits of other versions of the super or simply being the most powerful version available. This differs from the Level x Super in that (depending on the game) one doesn't need to spend more meter than usual or satisfy the EX-specific requirements in order to use the super, though they will not gain any potential benefits they would have by doing so.
• Sweep - A low attack that knocks the enemy off their feet. Usually uses crouching HK (heavy kick/roundhouse) for its command.
• Tag - In team-based fighters, tagging means switching the character you're playing with another on your team mid-fight. Usually requires you to be at a "neutral" situation, but some games are more lenient about it.
• Taunt - A move where the character taunts the opponent, often with a dedicated Taunt Button. Usually does nothing, sometimes serves practical use such as filling your meter or being a weak attack in itself, depending on the game (or the character).
• Throw - An attack dealt by grabbing the opponent rather than striking them, ignoring their block. Depending on the game, there may be a dedicated throw button, or throws may be performed by pressing two particular attack buttons in conjunction. In Smash games, the process of catching an opponent in a throw is called a 'Grab'. The actual process of tossing the opponent in a certain direction is called a throw. May be escapable, see Throw Tech below.
  • Command Throw/Command Grab - An alternate type of throw possessed by some characters, performed by a special attack input, and with the directional input frequently being a 360-degree spin. They typically cannot be teched, do more damage than their normal counterparts, and/or have some sort of a special effect.
  • Grappler - A character with a significant amount of command throws in their movelist. Tend to be a Mighty Glacier.
  • Pummel - In Smash games from Melee onwards, a character can pummel an opponent after a grab for a period of time before performing a throw. The opponent can still escape if the person that grabs holds on for too long.
• Wake Up - The time when a character is rising up off the ground.
  • Wake Up [Move] - Refers to a move done as the character wakes up (wake up Shoryuken, wake up Ultra, etc.)
• Whiff - Completely missing the opponent with an attack. Depending on the attack used, it may result in a player being vulnerable to other attacks.

Advanced Terminology

• Abare - In the West, this means playing aggressively, trying to land pokes/attacks at the smallest opportunity such as in between blockstrings. In Japan, this means desperately performing attacks (tends to involve Button Mashing) to cover oneself as self-defense. The word itself means "rampaging" in Japan.
• Auto Guard - Once a character is in blockstun, the defending player can let go of the block and their character will still remain blocking as long as they remain in blockstun, even if the attacker is doing multiple attacks. This allows players to input the commands for reversal attacks and is standard in most fighting games, with some exceptions. Street Fighter III 3rd Strike did not have it since that game allowed players to parry out of blockstun ("Red Parry"); meanwhile, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Skullgirls allow players to get out of blockstun by returning the joystick to neutral (no direction), but only after push blocking.
  • Also refers to the character automatically blocking high when there are no directional inputs, prevalent in 3D games like Tekken, Soulcalibur, and Bloody Roar.
  • Not to be confused with the term "autoguard" as used in The King of Fighters, which is Super Armor (see below) applied to frames of certain moves. Those properties are often referred to instead as "guard points" to differentiate.
• Assist - In fighting games with more than one character, the character(s) held back can perform a special move while the point characters are actively fighting. A common trait in the Marvel series as well as Skullgirls and Dragon Ball Fighterz. Not all games with teams have this however as is the case with the Tekken Tag series and Street Fighter X Tekken. The King of Fighters is the rare example with some games having this in the former of 'Strikers'.
• Baiting - Performing certain movements to try and draw an exploitable move or action from an opponent, and then punishing said action. (see also Frame Trap, below.) It's somewhat common for a character to have a feinting variant of one of their special moves for this express purpose.
• Bread n' Butter (BnB) - A standard, simple combo that forms the core of your character's gameplay or is otherwise very simple and effective. The combo you should be practicing or building muscle memory for first, before looking at longer combos.
• Buffer - Inputting a move while your character is busy doing something else (doing another attack, or being downed, or dashing, or blocking, etc). Key to performing a Reversal.
• Burst - A universal attack that creates a short-ranged burst of energy around the user, knocking the opponent away from them. Often has other special properties that vary based on the game. In some games, a burst can act as a Combo Breaker (often with different properties than if done outside of getting hit), but it usually has a mechanic that limits its use as such (such as requiring a meter to slowly refill before being able to burst again). A trademark of "anime"-style games such as Guilty Gear and Arcana Heart.
• Cancel - Cutting an animation short by inputting another action.
  • Attack Cancel - The most common type of cancel, and so is just referred to as a "cancelling." Typically, the hierarchy goes "normal moves > command normals (when available) > special moves > super moves". In games that allow cancelling normals into another, they also have their own hierarchy, typically from weaker ones to stronger ones. Some games (notably The King of Fighters) have a special way to let the players cancel a special move into another, usually by spending meter or entering a special state.
  • Guard Cancel - Canceling a blocking animation into an attack or evasive maneuver. May be so useful in some games that a meter cost is attached to performing it. Often called an Alpha Counter after the term for it in Street Fighter Alpha. Compare with Counterattack, below.
  • Jump Cancel - Is not canceling a jump into something else, but canceling an attack with a jump, allowing one to transition from comboing an opponent with ground attacks to air attacks. Usually done after a Launcher Move.
  • Dash Cancel - Again, is not canceling a dash into something else, but canceling an attack with a dash, allowing one to close in to opponents for easier follow-ups (or, sometimes, to dash backwards and retreat to a safer position).
  • Tag Cancel - In certain team-based fighting games, another character can tag in while the point character on their team is performing their own move. Usually carries a strict limit on what moves can be canceled into or out of (such as allowing super moves only). Various games have different official terminologies for this, such as Tag Assault, Cross Cancel, Delayed Hyper Combo/DHC, etc.
  • Roman Cancel/RC - Most instances of canceling require that the canceled attack is followed directly by another attack (in other words, canceled into another attack). However, certain games allow the ability to essentially cancel into nothing. This type of cancel is extremely powerful, as it completely resets the character's state and removes any recovery on their previous move, allowing the character to immediately do another action (such as dashing, jumping or another attack) but it has several limiting factors: it always costs some kind of meter, and it generally does not work with throws, projectiles or attacks that whiff. A hallmark of Arc System Works games (the term itself originates from Guilty Gear), but other games can have them as well. Some examples include the MAX Cancels in The King of Fighters 2002 and its Updated Re-release KOF 2002 Unlimited Match, Chain Shift in Under Night In-Birth and the Instant Charges in Eternal Fighter Zero.
  • Whiff Cancel - Most attack cancels require that the first attack hit the opponent in some way before the cancel is allowed to occur. However, some games allow moves to cancel into others even if they whiff. This type of cancel may be restricted to specific moves, specific timings, or move types depending on the game. Also called "kara cancel" ("kara" means "empty" in Japan).
• Combo Breaker - A mechanic that stops combos. Usually limited by a cost or a very high cooldown. The Burst above is one kind of Combo Breaker; there are multiple ways a combo can actively be broken by the victim. The name is most prominently associating with the Killer Instinct franchise, which made its name with its streamlined Combo system and the announcer calling out C-c-c-c-combo Breaker when someone breaks a combo.
• Conversion - A term to describe a makeshift combo that barely confirms before the hitstun ends. Often times, it starts from a distance before the player can continue the combo by more conventional means. Most often used in Mv C 3 and Dragon Ball FighterZ where unconventional combos are not uncommon.
• Counterattack/Counter Stance - A special or super move where the character briefly strikes a pose, during which any attack that hits them will be ignored and trigger a retaliating attack. Commonly overridden by supers or throws, and of varying effectiveness against projectiles; some counter stance may be able to reflect the projectile back at the thrower. Special counters usually require the player to predict whether the opponent will use a jump, standing, or a low attack (or occasionally a projectile) for the counter to trigger successfully by using the right type of button to trigger the counter, while super counters generally counter all melee attacks and have a much longer time frame during which they are active. Not to be confused with "counter hit"; see Stuff, below.
• Cross up - In games where blocking is done by holding back, landing an attack while jumping over an opponent may force them to quickly readjust their block to the other side. An ambiguous cross up happens when it's difficult to visually judge whether or not the attacker has crossed over the opponent (not helping with jumping attacks that hits behind the character), leaving defense up to mindgames or guesswork. Teleporters can also cross up ("Will he teleport in front of me or behind me?"). In games with assists, calling an assist before jumping or teleporting can be somewhat confusing. Called "mekuri" ("flip") in Japan, so called because performing this forces the opponent to flip their controls (to block).
  • Cross under - A setup where a character crosses up, but instead of jumping, they pass under the (typically jumping) opponent.
• Crumple: Used for a few different circumstances, depending on the game:
  • It's sometimes referred to a hard knockdown that triggers a special animation, showing the opponent collapsing slowly instead of being knocked straight down. The extended animation gives the attacker a further advantage, particularly in games that let you manually build meter, and prevents the opponent from "waking up" until the collapse is completed; however, in most games which use this definition, the opponent cannot be attacked while the crumple animation plays.
  • It's also referred to a similar situation in which the character slowly falls to the down position, but can be hit by attacks during the animation for big damage. Theses types of crumples are typically are either rare or occur only during special techniques/power attacks/counter hits. Notable examples include Street Fighter IV's Level-3 Focus Attack and Dead or Alive 5's Critical Burst.
• Damage Scaling - As a combo continues, each successive attack receives a decreasing multiplier to its base damage. Some games count a single multi-hit attack as one move for the purpose of scaling. Sometimes, some other factors may scale the damage, such as repeating a certain move over and over, or hitting the opponent with a certain move. Also called Proration.
• Delay - mostly comes up in combo parlance, delay means, well, giving a delay between the previous attack and the next attack in a combo. This is usually done to ensure that the next attack hits.
• Delayed Wakeup - The ability for a downed player to delay the time that they get up from an attack, usually with a specific command input. This prevents an opponent from perfectly timing a follow-up and may even leave them open for punishes. This term is typically reserved for games in which wakeup is automatic (most 2D fighters, for example). Some fighters, such as Tekken, the Soul series, or Super Smash Bros., will not initiate wakeup until the player presses a button. Compare Ukemi, below.
• Diving Kick - an attack that a character may or may not have where they dive downward from midair with a kick (or a punch or tackle in some cases). Often used for ambiguous cross-up.
• Empty Jump - In some situations, it may be advantageous to jump towards an opponent, but not use an attack while in the air, expecting the opponent to react to an attack that never occurs. Doing so is usually referred to as an empty jump. In Smash games, doing an empty jump to grab an opponent is called a 'Tomahawk'.
• Footsies - An advanced tactic where two opponents keep space between each other, purposely whiffing attacks to get the other player to make a mistake when punishing so one player can attack. Happens more in slower-paced fighting games like Street Fighter and Street Fighter X Tekken than faster-paced ones. May lead to Frame Traps and punishes.
• Frames - As in, "frames of animation." Modern fighting games run at sixty frames per second. Every action in a fighting game can be measured by the number of frames, or time, it takes to perform.
  • Start Up - The frames between an attack animation beginning and the attack becoming active.
  • Active - The number of frames of an attack animation where the attack can actually deal damage.
  • Recovery - The remaining frames of an attack animation. Chain combo, as stated above, cancels the recovery of the move into another attack.
• Frame Trap - A set of attacks, usually a Pseudo-Blockstring, that appears punishable to encourage the defending opponent to use an attack in the middle, but get interrupted by a faster follow-up attack. See also Punish and Stuff, below.
• Fuzzy Guard - Can mean two different things depending on the context.
  • The first is a defensive Option Select (see below) which involves timing multiple blocking options in such a way that you won't have to worry about the mixup—an example of which being to delay switching between standing guard and crouching guard in a situation where your opponent is attempting to mix you up with a character that has a slow overhead. Switching to stand block while the opponent's low has already connected will still keep you in the blocking animation, and ideally your timing would let you block an overhead attempt as well.
  • The other meaning, sometimes referred to by the Japanese term "fshiki" to avoid confusion, is an exploit in 2D fighting games where if your opponent blocks an attack that must be blocked standing, they're locked in the standing animation for a small window of time even if they're blocking low. During this window of time if the person on offense does a quick rising jumping attack that must be blocked high, it will connect in situations that it would otherwise whiff because it can't reach crouching opponents, leading to a true 50/50 mixup.
• Groundbounce - Exactly What It Says on the Tin, the opponent bounces off of the ground as opposed to being knocked down, making it easier to extend combos, especially in games where there are no/few Off the Ground moves.
• Hard Knockdown (aka Untechable Knockdown) - A knockdown that can't be Teched/Ukemi'ed (see below). This is advantageous to the attacker for several reasons, such as knowing the exact moment that the opponent will get up from a fall so that they can time their follow-ups. In some games, opponents can also be attacked while on the ground (see "OTG") for more damage or extended combos.
• Hit Confirm - Using a normal or special to confirm that an unsafe special or super move can hit the opponent before committing any meter to using one and/or risking yourself to be hit afterwards if the move misses or is blocked. If the opening attack connects, then you can safely cancel into the special move or super. Related to the concept of poking and cancels, above.
• Hitstop (aka Hitpause or Hitlag) - Whenever any kind of attack with this property connects with the opponent through a blocked attack or a hit, both characters freeze in place for a set number of frames: generally speaking, the stronger the attack, the longer the hitstop, with some extremely powerful single-hit attacks pausing the gameplay for up to a second or 2. Long hitstops are commonplace in games like Guilty Gear and BlazBlue which have an emphasis on landing counter hits: this allows the players to react to connected counter hits more easily.
• Hitstun Scaling - As a combo continues, each successive attack receives a decreasing multiplier to its base hitstun. This makes combos harder to continue as they get longer. Also called Hitstun Deterioration or Hitstun Decay.
• Hop - in certain games, a jump at lower elevation than normal. Usually done by inputting the upward motion in as little frames as possible. Useful for quicker upward evasion, quicker aerial/overhead attacks, etc.
• Infinite (Combo, Loop) - A move, combo, or set of moves that can be repeatedly done until the opponent is defeated. Some games will forcibly end combos at a certain point in order to prevent infinites (for example, Street Fighter X Tekken will automatically cancel out any damage or hitstun from attacks when a combo reaches 99 hits). Some games also have Combo Breaker mechanics to prevent this.
• Instant Air Dash (IAD) - In games with characters that can air dash, there are ways to make those characters air dash almost immediately after they begin a jump (traditionally, this method is jumping in a horizontal direction and then hitting that direction immediately after the jump begins). Instant air dashes are useful as both a way to begin an offense and a way to escape after making a poor decision, but some developers have taken note of this and force characters to jump a certain (sometimes character-specific) distance before they can begin an air dash.
• Just Defend/Instant Block - Some fighting games give rewards to their players if they have the reflexes to block an attack just before it connects. One of these bonuses is usually a boost in meter, or reduced blockstun duration, though the specific effects vary based on the game. The term comes from Garou: Mark of the Wolves, where landing a Just Defend restored a small amount of health and allowed guard canceling.
• Just Frame - A pre-set follow-up special move or string that can only be executed by inputting the next command with strict timing. Alternatively, moves that always work, but have special animations or properties if the follow-ups are executed within certain frames of animation or if the command for the initial attack is input in a very specific way, usually extremely quickly. May also apply to other moves that don't require precise timing to fulfill their basic function, but timing them just right will enhance it in some way.
• Launcher - A move that lifts your opponent into the air. Games that feature these prominently often allow one to immediately jump after the opponent and continue the combo in the air.
• Loop - A move or set of moves that can be done repeatedly to continue a combo, eventually ending because of hitstun scaling, pushback, or some other form of game mechanic that prevents infinite combos.
• Macro - Pre-programmable command on a controller that lets the user perform complex button sequences by one button press. Originally banned in tournaments, but with the rise of regular controllers among even professional fighting game players, they have less of a stigma attached to them now, as long as the game has the macro option available on the controller setup screen.
• "___"-Point - As with many sports, fighting game competitions may require that a victor win a certain number of games to advance. In fighting games, a tournament Match is broken into two or more Games, which each require two or more Rounds to win. This means that a victor must be the first to win a specific number of rounds (usually between four or six) to advance, and when they only require one more victory or point, commentators will often call it out.^note In Smash Bros. games, there are no rounds, so the term "Stock" is often used instead.
  • Game-Point: The default, where one or both players only need to win one more round to win the current game which, while crucial, is not the victory they need to advance.
  • Match-Point: The last round that one or both players needs in order to advance to the next opponent in the tournament. The loser gets sent to a lower bracket or is eliminated.
  • Set-Point: While technically the same as "Match-Point", in that it will allow one player to advance or defeat the other, Set-Point is usually reserved for two situations: exhibition matches (such as grudge matches or money matches) or the first set of a Grand Finals in which the loser can force a "braceket reset" and require a second set. While the term can technically be used in place of "Match-" or "Tournament-Point", that would likely cause confusion.
  • Tournament-Point: When one or both players only require one more victory to win the entire tournament...in other words, the most intense round of the entire competition.
• Meaty - A preemptive strike against an opponent who is still getting up off the floor. The idea is to have the opponent's hitbox overlap with that of your attack the moment they regain control. Your opponent's only options become to either block or use an invulnerable reversal. May also be used to describe hitting an opponent late in the active portion of a move in order to increase the number of frames between the time when you have recovered from your attack and the the time when your opponent recovers from the hit. Sometimes, when an attack is described as "meaty", it means that it has a lot of active frames, which helps in performing meaty.
• Mind games - refers to the psychology involved for winning battles; a large part of Metagame comprises of this. This term covers baiting, conditioning, footsies, mix ups, outright changing your attack patterns, and many more.
• (High/Low) Mix up - In games where attacks can be "high" or "overhead" (must be standing to block) or "low" (must be crouching to block), attacking in a blockstring while regularly switching (or not) the kind of attack can throw off your opponent enough to land a hit. This also includes faking going for a hit before grabbing (in games where you cannot grab an opponent in block stun; see Tick Throw below) or faking a grab to go for a hit. It's also not uncommon to refer to cross-ups as mix-ups, though it's technically incorrect.
  • 50/50 mix up - situations where the offending character looks like they will either do an overhead or a low without being easily read; the chance of each happening is 50/50 in this case. Tends to refer to attack that looks like it'll hit low instead hitting overhead, or vice versa.
• Negative Edge - In some games, the release of an attack button can activate a special move just as well as pressing it would. It's usually used in combos that require you to press the attack button twice in rapid succession, such as when a normal attack can only be cancelled into a special or super if done early enough - i.e by holding the attack button for the normal attack and releasing it (after a command) for the special/super. Also a common way for puppet fighters to control their puppets, such as Zato-1/Eddy from Guilty Gear.
• Netcode - The implementation of how devices communicate game state to each other. While not specifically a fighting game term, the genre's focus on a solid multiplayer experience since its inception and historically awful online experiences means the topic gets brought up more often than in other genres.
  • Delay-based netcode - A form of netcode where, as the name implies, the game delays itself if someone has a poor connection in the game session to wait for the lagger to catch up to the current game state. In a fighting game, this often results in a poor online experience where inputs are usually not as responsive as offline play and laggy matches may feel like a Luck-Based Mission, even when attempting to capitalize on blatantly obvious mistakes from the opponent.
  • Rollback netcode - A form of netcode where the game's state is rolled back and corrected for all connected players when lag causes inconsistencies. You'll know if a fighting game uses rollback netcode if, in a laggy match, your opponent appears to be doing one thing but suddenly "teleports" into doing something else a few frames later. Core A Gaming has a video that offers a more detailed explanation of how rollback netcode works, as well as a comparison to delay-based netcode. While a select few fighting games have had this as far back as the start of The New '10s, its prominence was highlighted by a more vocal section of the FGC in 2019 and made louder when the COVID-19 pandemic forced many scenes online. Nowadays, it is seen as the standard by which a game's success is rated against.
• Okizeme/Oki - Refers to the many setups a player can perform while the opponent is getting up from a knockdown. Japanese for "waking attack". See Meaty above for one.
• OTG - An acronym that stands for either "Off the Ground" or "On the Ground", depending on the game and use. In either case, it refers to an attack that can hit an opponent even while they're knocked down. This kind of move is more common in 3D fighting games. (In 2D fighting games a knockdown usually gives a character Mercy Invincibility until they get up.) The distinction between "Off the Ground" is that it typically bounces the opponent back into the air for an extended combo while "On the Ground" (aka "Pursuit", taken from Darkstalkers) requires the opponent to remain down.
• Overhead - An attack that can curve or drop over a crouching opponent's head, going around their guard. As such, they need to be blocked from a standing position. In most games, all jumping attacks function as overheads, though proper positioning may be required. In 2D fighting games it's referred to as an Overhead or High attack. In 3D fighting games it's more likely to be referred to as a Mid attack. Contrast a "low" attack that must be blocked by crouching.
• Plus/Minus Frames - A term referring to the difference in frames after a character hits another. Can refer to whether a move hits or is blocked (i.e +X on hit, -X on block).
  • Plus X Frames (Frame Advantage): When this move connects as a hit or block, the opponent has X frames of hitstun/blockstun left after you finish recovering from your move. If a move is plus X frames on hit, a Link combo can be done with a follow-up move whose start-up is less than X frames. Moves with plus frames on block can be used consecutively to create a Blockstring.
  • Minus X Frames (Frame Disadvantage): When this move connects as a hit or block, you have X frames of recovery left after your opponent's hitstun/blockstun ends. If a move is minus X frames, it can be punished by a move whose start up is less than X frames.
• Point character - The first character of a team that will always be the first in play, in games where each player has a team of multiple characters. Some games allow you to change the point character through various means (such as holding the tag button while the match is loading).
  • Anchor character - the second (or third) character of a team that are expected to be able to do things by themselves (when the point character is knocked out), usually aided by extra meters or other mechanics. May tend to have powerful assist moves, whenever applicable.
  • Assist Character - Some players choose characters solely on how good their assists are in aiding the point character. These characters are usually worst at fighting on their own than other characters, but such limitations are rarer in modern fighting games. The most prominent example is in the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 series.
• Priority - determines which attack will hit out of 2 characters who are attacking simultaneously with their certain moves. This is a combination of multiple factors, such as the amount of active frames (i.e the attack's duration), the amount of startup frames (the attack's speed), the attack's range, each character’s hitbox during the attack, whether or not the attack gives invincibility (for how many frames), etc.
• Proximity blocking - A style of blocking attacks found in newer fighters: generally speaking, this determines if the distance from your opponent affects whether your character will try to block their attack. In games without proximity blocking, your character will go into a block stance if you hold backwards when their opponent performs an attack regardless of how far away they are from your character, while in games that have it, your character can still move backwards normally with an active enemy attack present and they only start blocking when their opponent's attack is close enough to hit them. Both systems have their benefits and drawbacks: characters in games without it have a more "solid" block at the cost of reduced mobility and movement options when avoiding the opponent's attacks, while games that have it allow characters to reposition themselves better if faced with attacks such as fireballs but might allow the player to fool the system in some way that causes their opponent to move when they meant to block and vice versa. However, all of the above mainly applies to a standing block, as crouching down prevents any unintended movement in most fighters. It also naturally doesn't apply to games that use a block button instead of holding backwards to block.
• Punish - To hit the opponent when a poorly chosen or missed attack of theirs has left them vulnerable, usually for significant damage as the punisher has a few precious fractions of a second where the punishee is a complete non-threat, allowing for otherwise impractical or risky techniques to connect without worry. To compare with Stuff below, Stuff happens when your attack hits the opponent during/before their attack's active frames, while Punish happens when you attack the opponent during their attack's recovery frames. The "counter hit" in some games may register either during a punish or a stuff situation.
• Pushblock - A move done by a character in blockstun that does no damage, but pushes away the opponent, regardless of where they are on screen.
• Rage gauge - A special gauge that fills by getting hit. When it's filled to full (or sometimes a certain percentage), a character may be able to either enter a powerful state, or perform an unique attack that consumes the gauge, or both. May exist by different names in different games.
• Ratio - A ratio system works for fighting games that do not require players to have the same amount of players in a match. If a player chooses to pick less than the maximum amount of characters, the ratio system balances the game so that the characters do and take more damage. Made famous in Capcom vs SNK 2, this system is also in use in Skullgirls and Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
• Raw (X) - performing a move without cancelling it from another attack beforehand; i.e doing it from a "neutral" situation. Contrast the Hit Confirm above.
• Reset - Allowing a combo to end in order to begin a new one, the point being to reset damage scaling. Though intentionally dropping a combo may seem counter-intuitive, players that intentionally go for resets try to set them up in ways that make picking up a new combo more likely than not. Compare Vortex, below.
• Reversal - A special move used after block stun or hit stun, or (most commonly) on wake up. They're typically done with a move that has invincibility on start up to catch the opponent off guard while they're trying to stay on the offensive.
• Robbery - A term originating in Street Fighter V to insultingly refer to characters who get outplayed for most of a match (leading to a massive life deficit), only to activate some sort of gimmick (such as a Comeback Mechanic, overwhelming pressure/zoning or massive mix-up potential) and quickly "steal back" a round based on the opponent's one or two bad guesses. "Robbery" is sometimes considered one of the most "fraudulent" ways to win a match or tournament, and characters who can pull it off reliably tend to become High Tier Scrappies. (See also: "Set Play" and "Vortex".)
• Rushdown - A style of play that focuses on being aggressive, taking whatever chance is available to get in close and force the opponent to make deadly mistakes via confusing mixups or forcing the opponent to block for extended periods of time, then punishing them when they become impatient.
• Safe jump - a jump-in attack done around the time the opponent wakes up from being knocked down. Usually timed so that the knocked down opponent can do nothing but try to block. See also Meaty above.
• Set play - A style of play that emphasizes preventing the opposing player from doing anything, usually by utilizing combos and mixups that lead back into very safe, nearly guaranteed mixups on knockdown. Guilty Gear is well known for this style of play and what many players call "vortex" in Street Fighter IV is actually also a form of set play. A common slang phrase for this type of gameplay is "putting someone in the blender."
• Stuff - To beat out an opponent's attack in its startup frames with a quicker attack of your own. Many games will register this as a "Counter Hit" and may reward it by giving the attack a boost to damage or hitstun or adding new properties that make it easier to combo off of.
  • Trade - when your attack and the opponent's attack clash, i.e "trading attacks between 2 people". This can either result in both characters getting hit and damaged, or (in certain games) a special kind of "blocking" occurs, i.e the attacks are thought to be hitting a blocking opponent in this case. They may or may not be able to immediately cancel the traded attack into another move after that. Some certain games will also do something special whenever a "trade" occurs.
  • Fatal Counter - Some games reward stuffing attacks with specific moves or move types with Fatal Counters, which may add additional properties on top of existing Counter Hit properties, such as boosted hitstun for every attack in a combo that begins with a Fatal Counter. These properties usually vary based on the game.
• Super Armor, Hyper Armor - A move that has the super armor property allows its character to take a preset amount of hits or damage during its animation without being interrupted. Moves with a hyper armor property let the character suffer an unlimited amount of damage without being interrupted.
  • Armor Breaking Moves - Some attacks can ignore the opponent's move's armored properties regardless of what they are. If these attacks are not counted as throws, they are referred to as attacks that break armor.
    • However, some types of these moves instead have "autoguard" or "guard points", which instead outright block the attack during the animation as opposed to still taking damage and breaking through it. Since they still function like normal blocks, they still are exposed to chip damage.
• Super jump - a certain kind of jump where you go up higher than normal. Usually done by holding down (crouching) before the jump.
• Tiger Knee/TK - The act of doing a slightly extended quarter-circle motion, similar to Sagat's original motion for Tiger Knee, rather than a standard quarter-circle motion^note Quarter circle forward, plus up-forward, before the attack button. The way most fighting games will read the input is that the character will do a tiny jump just before doing the move. Used to do air-only moves or air-versions of moves as close to the ground as possible.
• Tick Throw - Using a quick attack at close range to attempt to get an opponent to block it, and then throwing them just after blockstun ends (a game that allowed throwing of characters while they were still in blockstun would be horribly unfair). The throw nearly always lands if the opponent is not expecting it (they were expecting to block an entire combo for maybe a little chip damage, but instead they got thrown), but with nearly frame perfect timing, it was often possible to land the throw even on an opponent that is expecting it. Originated in Street Fighter II, and gained its name by the ticking sound of the repeated jabs. Was considered cheap when it was first discovered and named.
• Touch-of-death (ToD): A single combo that leads to a KO, because it dizzies on first use and deals more than 50% of the opponents lifebar in damage. The combo can then be repeated for the win. Fairly common in older versions of Street Fighter 2, with Ken's jumping fierce/roundhouse, crouching/standing fierce, fierce dragon punch (hitting twice) being the most famous.
• Triangle Jump, Triangle Dash - The act of jumping and then Air Dashing either down-forward or down-back. This is only doable by characters that have an 8-way Air Dash.^note Note that in Japan, "sankaku tobi" (means exactly "triangle jump") refers to the act of Wall Jumping.
• Turtling - A strategy where the player is primarily defensive, blocking/evading attacks coming at them and waiting for an opportunity for an attack, usually by punishes. Mighty Glacier characters tend to play like this, as their large pool of health helps. "Charge" characters also rely on turtling by the nature of their charge moves (usually by holding back/down, which makes them block). Another strategy apart from Rushdown and Zoning, which creates a trifecta of Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors (Turtling > rushdown > zoning > turtling).
• Ukemi/Tech - In many fighting games, if you are knocked down, you can avoid being rendered prone by hitting a button at the moment of impact. The character will catch themselves, roll immediately to their feet, or otherwise avoid falling down. The term "ukemi" (受身, literally "receiving body" or "passive falling") comes from juudou. Some attacks have as a special quality that they force the knockdown on you; in other words, they disable ukemi. (See "Hard Knockdown"; knockdowns that can be rolled/teched out of is called a "soft knockdown".)
  • Air Tech - Some fighting games allow an aerial version of teching, to escape juggles. This, again, depends on whether the attack that hits you can be teched out or not. Some games may also have automatic air tech, either when they're hit by certain (usually weak) attacks or when their hitstun has decayed enough.
  • Throw Tech - AKA a Break Away, Throw Break, or Throw Escape. In many fighting games, characters can attempt to escape throws that are being performed on them by their opponents. Depending on the game, this action can either completely negate or significantly lessen the amount of damage the throw does, but as a trade-off, command throws cannot be teched (except in certain game-specific circumstances).
• Unblockable - When an opponent is forced to block both high and low or left and right at the same time (which cannot be done), they are in an unblockable situation, guaranteeing you a hit (and usually a combo). Common in games with assists, as one character can hit high, while the other hits low - or, sometimes, the assist hits from the front while you hit from behind, confusing the opponent's blocking attempt. Certain games prevent this, requiring you to only block one. Often called "unblockable setup".
  • Also refers to moves (other than throws) that cannot be blocked at all. Almost always high damage, with a long windup and recovery.
• Vortex - The act of repeatedly resetting an opponent back into a combo by using a series of mix-ups in between. A vortex is not simply a mixup after a combo; it must be able to lead back into a combo leading into another mixup.
• Wallbounce - An attack property that causes the hit character to fly backwards into the wall behind them, where they bounce off of it, which makes further comboing possible and/or easier than normal.
  • Wallstick - A rare variation of the wallbounce where the opponent sticks to the wall for a short time before sliding down the wall.
• Wavedash - The act of dashing, interrupting the dash, and dashing again, usually done to either cover ground more quickly or to fake opponents out. This is usually done by performing a dash, canceling the dash by crouching, then dashing again. Not to be confused with the technique from Super Smash Bros. Melee; while it fulfills a similar purpose, the technique itself and how it's used is completely different.
• Zoning - The act of controlling space on the battlefield, be it through superior range moves or projectiles. More casually, simply refers to the use of projectiles (less generous people would call it spam) to keep an opponent out. The latter is sometimes referred to as "keepaway". To differ from spamming, usually the moves used in question are often laid out during a proper and favorable scenario at any moment as opposed to being blindly abused.

Lingo and Slang

• 1, 2, 3, and 4. In Tekken, these numbers respectively are designated for left punch, right punch, left kick, and right kick. The number 5 is used in the Tekken Tag Tournament subseries to represent the tag button.
• American Reset - The act of unintentionally dropping a combo, and then managing to hit the opponent anyway right after. In other works, an accidental reset. Depending on who's saying it, can be referred to as a Canadian Reset, French Reset, etc. Typically tied to the nationality of the player who dropped the combo.
• American Super/Ultra - A term popularized in 2009 after the American release of Street Fighter IV, months after the arcade release in Japan. For a time afterward, most American players (even pros) had no idea how to combo into Super or Ultra combos, thus prompting many to try a desperation attack or Hail Mary "read". Thus, this was called the "American Ultra/Super". The term stuck even after American players caught up to Japanese methods.
• Anime Fighting Games - A term that's rather murky and hard to describe; the term either refers to fast-paced games with special movement mechanics and (usually) combo breakers, or games with anime-like aesthetic. Popularized by Guilty Gear, as many doujin soft games (and some officially published ones) follow its style of gameplay while tending to use anime-style for their characters; ironically, Marvel vs. Capcom series (which has similar gameplay) predate Guilty Gear by years, but has American comic book aesthetics.
• Battery - In team games, the term given to a character whose main purpose is to build super meter, so that the other characters on the team can use them. These are typically characters who don't tactically suffer much from sitting on their meter. Similar to the term "meter engine" below.
• Bodied, Blown Up - Beaten by an overwhelming margin.
• Bracket Reset - If someone who entered from Grand Finals from the losers bracket won one set against his opponent from the winner's bracket, the two will face each other in a second set to determine the winner.
• Casuals - It is common to see pro gamers practice matches with opponents outside the competitive scene during a tournament. This can give players insight on how opponents will play in the tournament. Also known as 'Friendlies' in Smash games.
• Chicken Block(ing) - In games where you can block in the air, the act of jumping right before blocking to avoid a high/low mixup. Comes from being too "chicken" to try to block the high/low mixup.
• Chicken Wing - The nickname of Fei Long's Rekkuukyaku (lit. Rending Air Leg). Commonly attributed to the appearance of the attack's animation, it is also stems from a derisive nickname for the "eagle claw" style of holding an arcade stick.
• Choke - To have a victory well in hand, and somehow fail to pull it off. A player known for doing this constantly becomes known as a "Choke Artist."
• Churning Butter - The act of frantically spinning the control stick — probably more times than necessary — in an attempt to get off a command grab, or even moves that have directional inputs other than circles if you're banking on the game being generous with its input reading.
• Collusion - "To collude"; when two or more people who should be in competition strike a deal behind the scenes. This usually translates into two finalists in a tournament agreeing to split the pot, thus rendering the result of their match meaningless. This has a collateral effect of making said competitors not put much effort into said match or even blatantly doing goofy stunts, such as picking random characters, taunting all the time, etc. As you can probably guess, this isn't as amusing to the audience or the tournament organizers. Nowadays, collusion is widely frowned upon in most circles. Winners don't collude.
• Controllers - These are the most common controllers you will see used in fighting games, though they're not the only kinds (e.g. a steering wheel controller). Note than there is no true "optimal" controller in most fighting games nowadays, and the main reason to use a specific type is mostly what the specific player is comfortable with.
  • Arcade Stick (aka Fight Stick or simply Stick): A controller that mimics the layout used in the arcade setups that fighting games originated from, using a joystick you can grip with your full hand, and either 6 or 8 relatively large buttons (usually 30mm or so).
  • Pad: A typical console controller, named as such because the main reason most people use it is to use the D-Pad for movement rather than a joystick.
  • Keyboard: A PC keyboard. Usually layouts for this kind of controller have the directional input be three keys and the space bar rather than four keys, since as weird as it sounds it makes jumping less awkward for finger placement. Closely related is the "hitbox" (not to be confused with the term above), which is a type of controller that mimics the layout of a keyboard but uses the buttons typically found on arcade sticks.
• Crosshanded - The act of playing on an arcade stick with your left hand operating the buttons, and your right hand operating the stick instead of the other way around.
• Directional Inputs - the jargons that people use to describe the motion of the joystick/directional buttons to perform a move. The "numbers" refer to the positioning of numbers in a keyboard's numpad, i.e 1 is down-backward, 6 is forward and so on, and is most commonly used for the Soul Series, presumably to avoid confusion between "b" for backward and "B" for vertical slash. For the most common ones:
  • 236 or QCF (quarter circle forward) - down, down-forward, forward.
  • 214 or QCB (quarter circle backward) - down, down-backward, backward.
  • 623 or DP (Dragon Punch) - see below.
  • 421 or RDP (Reverse Dragon Punch) - backward, down, down-backward, basically the inverse of Dragon Punch motion.
  • 41236 or HCF (half circle forward) - backward, down-backward, down, down-forward, forward.
  • 63214 or HCB (half circle backward) - forward, down-forward, down, down-backward, backward.
  • 360 or Full Circle - forward, down-forward, down, down-backward, backward, up-backward, up, up-forward, forward. The 360 in this case refers to the turn degree, not the directions; 720 means performing the motion twice.
• Download(ing/ed) - The act of playing in a manner to reveal your opponents reactions to certain situations (for example, doing low pokes to judge if they will Dragon Punch or block). Sometimes involves deliberately losing a round or even a game in order to win the whole set. A "downloaded" player is one whose playstyle is easily read by the other one. (Also see Read, below.)
• Dragon Punch (DP) - Any special attack in 2D fighting games consisting of an upward rising assault from the input forward, down, down forward, and attack; they are mostly used as anti-air attacks. Has also been used in later games for charge-based Anti-Airs, such as Decapre's Psycho Sting, although this is technically a misnomer. Named for original localized name of Ryu and Ken's Shoryuken. Sometimes called "SRK".
• Dropped the Soap/Dropped the Baby - An exaggerated way of saying someone dropped their combo (messed it up partway through).
• Engine - A description for what type of role a character tends to play in a team based game.
  • Damage Engine - a character in a team whose main goal is to deal as much damage as possible to the opposing team's characters.
  • Meter Engine - a character whose purpose in a team is to build meter for the characters who're acting as the damage engines. See also "Battery" above.
• Evo Moments - Intense and often memetic gameplay occurrences from the annual Evolution Championship Series, the premier fighting game tournament series in the US. The numbers seem to be chosen entirely at random.
  • Evo Moment #13 - From Evo 2011, Poongko's Seth won against Daigo's Yun with a Perfect victory in the final round. Prior to the match, Poongko had worked up the crowd by removing his jacket and belt, then sloppily downing a whole energy drink.
  • Evo Moment #37 - From Evo 2004, the now infamous comeback from Daigo Umehara's Ken against Justin Wong's Chun-Li in the final round of match one in the loser's bracket finals. With Ken down to just a pixel of health, even chip damage would knock him out. By keeping his distance from Chun-Li, Daigo successfully baited Justin Wong into attempting to decisively end the match with Chun-Li's Houyokusen super move, a lightning fast 15-hit combo, thinking that Daigo'd be forced to block it and allow Wong to win via chip damage. Instead, Daigo proceeded to not only parry every single hit of the combo — a daring tactic which would allow him to weather the assault unscathed, but where a single mistake would cost him the match — he also parried the last hit in mid-air by jumping in the air in the middle of Wong's super, allowing him to position himself to land a jump-in combo ending in a super of his own, turning what would've been an easy win for Wong into the most infamous comeback in fighting game history. This moment has been recreated in official material, appearing as one of the trials in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition and at the end of the trailer for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3's Heroes and Heralds mode (with Ryu standing in for Ken).
  • Evo Moment #80 - From Evo 2010, a Street Fighter IV match between Mike Ross and Dr. Chaos for a spot in the Top 8.
  • Unnumbered Evo Moment - A match of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 between Dr. Ray and Mike Ross, both down to their last characters (Deadpool and Hulk, respectively). Deadpool has a move that allows him to teleport; however, every third time the move is used, the teleporter explodes, causing a small amount of damage. Ross seemed to have the advantage, but dropped a combo, leaving him open for Ray's counterattack. Unfortunately, Ray had lost count of his teleports and had only a pixel's worth of life left, leading to him killing himself with a failed teleport mid-combo.
• Exposed - When a glaring weakness in a player's abilities are made apparent by their opponent, such as not knowing an effective way to fight a particular character. See also, "Fraud", below.
• Flex - To 'flex' on an opponent is to perform a suboptimal, or risky, yet technical move in order to prove one's skills against an opponent.
• Finishing their Plate - When a character finishes a long, complicated, and difficult combo or move without dropping it, especially one that involves guaranteed death for the other character. Failing to "finish their plate" is typically the mark of an inefficient player. Compare and contrast (American) Reset, above.
• Four button fighters - fighting games with 4 attack button set ups. Used by The King of Fighters, Guilty Gear, etc.
• Fraud - A player who seems very strong, or who has made several great accomplishments, but when placed under tougher conditions or competition, cracks very reliably. They are thus "exposed" to be a weak player, and not the strong one they were reputed to be. Referenced in Divekick; if a player loses four rounds in a row without winning one, "Fraud Detection Warning" is displayed. (If they then win the next four rounds, "Choke Detection Warning" is displayed; see "Choke" above.)
• Free - Describes a wide variety of aspects pertaining to the game, including character matchups, the players themselves, strategies, etc., as though they were incredibly weak and easily beaten. Comes from "free win."
• Happy Birthday - In a game with assist characters, "catching" both the point character and an active assist character with an attack, dealing damage to both of them (and, in many games, allowing you to combo on both of them for even more damage). Sometimes adapts to the season, e.g. "Merry Christmas" in late December. Alternatively, "Merry Christmas" can refer to catching the point character and multiple active assist characters - essentially being a "Super Happy Birthday". The term comes from a match where one of the announcers wished a player a happy birthday just as two of his characters were knocked out simultaneously.
• Inputs - Early Capcom fighting game machines used the following button inputs instead of the standard light/medium/hard punch or kick buttons used today. Oftentimes the old terms are used by some older members of the FGC out of habit.
  • Jab - Light Punch
  • Strong - Medium Punch
  • Fierce - Hard/Heavy Punch
  • Short - Light Kick
  • Forward - Medium Kick
  • Roundhouse - Hard/Heavy Kick
• Install - a powered-up state that the player character can access, which may increase their damage output, speed, etc. Popularized by Sol Badguy's Dragon Install, although this type of move has been around for longer.
• Knowledge Check: The single tactic equivalent of a Skill Gate Character, a Knowledge Check refers to a move or tactic that can seem overwhelming when you first encounter it, but is easily beaten after enough practicing countering the move. These types of moves often are the type to filter out Scrubs who merely complain about the move and don't bother figuring out a solution.
• Level Up - To improve one's game by playing others and gaining experience against different characters and playstyles. Borrowed from the idea of Character Level.
• Maining / Subbing - "Maining a character" means you focus on a certain character in the game to master the character and bring the best out of him/her. "Subbing a character" means you give a secondary focus on another character, usually just for fun but sometimes in case picking your "main" isn't a good option.
• Matchup - (subjectively) theoretical measurement on how a certain character would fare against another certain character. More realistic numbers are usually 6-4, 7-3, or 5-5 (which is considered even).
  • Ten-Oh (10-0) Matchup - The claim that a battle is so heavily favored for one side that the odds are 10-0 in their favor; in other words, that there's no chance of losing. This is almost always hyperbole, however (as very few fights are completely unwinnable). Often, this is jokingly used after-the-fact, where a player is getting trounced so thoroughly that their loss is a foregone conclusion.
• Mental Frame Advantage - The act of manipulating your opponent into hesitating in situations where they would on paper have better frame advantage after a move. Usually achieved by performing a Frame Trap to scare the opponent and have them block instead of attempting to punish you immediately, giving you more time to perform moves that may have longer startup and might have been interrupted otherwise.
• Mexican Uppercut - The crouching heavy punch as usable by some Shotoclones as a makeshift substitute for a proper Shoryuken if the player's execution isn't at the level needed to perform them reliably. Originated in Southern California.
• Neutral (Situation) - The state in a match where neither character are making major moves or presenting strong threats to their opponent. This is usually the state that a match starts in (unless characters are able to move or do things before the match begins). Note that this is not exactly the same as spacing or zoning, because in those states, the situation favors one character at a distance.
• "Oh-Niner" (or "'09er") - A player who joined the FGC after the post-Street Fighter IV resurgence in 2009 (see the "Third Generation" in Fighting Game Community). Typically used as a derogatory term for new or young players that claim membership in the FGC, but have little knowledge or regard for its customs, or have "bad" gameplay habits from inexperience or over-reliance on newer game engines. In 2014, the term started to see decline, as many Oh-Niners still in competition have been acknowledged as strong players.
• One Character Victory (OCV) - in a team-based game, this occurs when one player manages to beat the other character's team with just one person at point without losing any of their team members.
  • Reverse OCV - When your team is down to one character left while the opponent still has their complete amount, yet you then manage to beat all of them and come out victorious.
• One-Player Mode - When a player hits another character with a combo or move that removes any and all control from the opponent. As long as the attacker finishes the attack or combo, the other player can do nothing but sit and watch it, effectively turning it into a "One-Player game." Also referred to as a "Movie", "Trilogy" or "Combo Video". See also Vortex above.
• Opened Up - To have one's defenses penetrated.
• Option Select - A technique where one performs their input in such a way that the end result is context sensitive — the game selects the option that is better for you. An example of this would be pressing forward+punch+guard in Virtua Fighter when close to an opponent: if they throw out a slow attack, the punch will interrupt it, and if they try to block, they'll end up being thrown.
• Pressure - Placing the opponent in a disadvantaged situation and limiting their options. In rushdown, this comes with the threat of being "Opened Up", and being hit for big damage. In zoning, this is to keep control of space and may or may not come with the threat of damage. Another variation is chip pressure, where the opponent is successfully defending against hits, but Scratch Damage is still slowly turning it into a losing battle.
• Puppet Fighter - a character who controls another entity to fight alongside them. The other entity isn't the real fighter - the opponent may be able to hit them to take them out (if taking them out is possible), but a puppet fighter only loses if they themselves got KO'd. Tend to be Difficult, but Awesome.
• Ranbu - an attack (usually a super move) where the character unleashes a flurry of attacks onto the opponent. Japanese for "wild/berserk dance". Named after the Ryuuko Ranbu of Art of Fighting, a super move for the game's Kyokugenryu Karate practitioners.
• Read - The act of correctly predicting your opponent's reaction to a situation (such as being knocked down). Often used in the context during commentary to reads done in high-pressure situations or reading things that are not usually expected.
  • Umeshoryu - The "psychic dragon punch;" the nickname for Shoryukens and similar moves when used by Daigo Umehara, who's known for his ability to make them connect in high-risk situations with startling reliability.
    • The Umeshoryu is also the term for Ryu's Shoryuken -> FADC -> Metsu Hadoken combo, popularized by Daigo Umehara.
• Rekka - A special attack that can be extended by repeating its command, typically to a total of three uses, but for some it's technically referred to as a "multi-input move". Named after Fei Long's Rekkaken (lit. Conflagration/Violent Fire Fist).
• Respect/Disrespect - Usually denotes how much caution or lack thereof when playing against someone. For example, "respecting someone's X" means to play in a matter that takes the X (move, technique or playstyle) into account.
  • Keep (Someone) Honest - Playing in a way that forces someone to respect a certain move and/or playstyle.
• Salt/Salty - To be angry or irritated, typically over a loss. Actually predates fighting games by several decades, dating back to the 1930s.
• Sandbagging - When a player is purposely not trying as hard as they normally do. Usually this is because the person they're fighting is either a newbie or they just want to show disrespect to an opponent.
• Scramble - A situation where the all conditions of the battle are "ambiguous". No player has control or is pressuring, the battlefield is not "Neutral", and there are way too many variables for any player to know what to do. Being able to keep composure and quickly regain control of a match is a strong skill in this situation, but even top players often panic and become random, especially if the stakes are very high.
• Scrub - Someone who easily sees certain things in the game as "cheap/broken", especially if the person has low skill in playing the game. Mostly thrown as an insult, sometimes without using it right.
• Shell - A term used to describe the make up of the second and third members of a three-group team. Used for Marvel games, it describes the chemistry between the remaining teams in case the point character is eliminated early on. A good shell works as a functional team even at a number disadvantage.
• Shotos or Shotoclones - Characters who are usually well-rounded and easy to learn, and have a projectile attack and an anti air attack (a rush-forward attack is optional). Taken from Street Fighter's Ryu and Ken, who are said to train in "Shotokan Karate" (a case of mis-publication back in the days).
• Six button fighters - fighting games with 6 attack buttons. Popularized with Street Fighter.
• SNK Boss (Syndrome) - boss characters that are "unfair" in certain ways, such as having high speed, high endurance, high priority on their moves, being able to read the player's controller inputs, or when the game's system are giving them more advantage (such as infinite meter).
• Styling - The act of deliberately doing flashy, impressive, and usually impractical in some way combos, usually when you are very far ahead in a match, set, or skill in general, and can afford to. Usually considered disrespectful in a sense.
• Tatsu - refers to Hurricane Kicks, aka Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku, an attack that multiple Street Fighter characters have.
• Timer Scam - More than simply winning by time out, this is using a move with a long animation in the final seconds so that the opponent can't do anything except watching the move (literally) until the timer runs out. Usually done with a multi-hitting super move and forcing the opponent to block it.
• UNGA - A fighter who's characterized as having high raw damage, (usually) powerful mixup tools, (usually) strong/oppressive attacks that cover a lot of ground, and (usually) ease of use, which helps them overwhelm opponents; also called "UNGAboys". The name is derived from how playing the character is like playing a caveman or gorilla (who says "unga" and similar things). "UNGA" is also used as an adjective for things relating to them. Sometimes used as an acronym for "Unfortunately Neutral Goes Away" and referred to as "unga bunga". Originates from commentary on a Zidane (Leo) match in Guilty Gear Xrd.
• Yomi - The ability to know what your opponent is going to do, either by conditioning your opponent to think the way you want them to or by learning how they already think. See also Read, above.

Notable Creators and Promoters

• Katsuhiro Harada - Former producer of the Tekken series. In 2019 he was promoted to general manager of intellectual properties at Bandai Namco.
• Michael Murray - Veteran member of the Tekken development team. In 2019 he succeeded Katsuhiro Harada as series producer.
• Mike "Mike Z" Zaimont - Former lead programmer and battle designer of Skullgirls. Has a strong tournament history in Guilty Gear, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and BlazBlue, with a penchant for playing grapple characters. After becoming a controversial figure within the FGC for his demeanor regarding other fighting games besides his own, Mike would involved in a string of controversies in 2020, starting with a poorly-timed joke while on commentary, that would eventually lead to him being hit with harassment allegations by the majority of the staff at Lab Zero going back years in advance. After refusing to step down as head, the other members of the company underwent a mass exodus to form Future Club Games, forcing him to shut down the original Lab Zero and resulting in multiple bans from events.
• David "Low Strong" Sirlin - Former Street Fighter player turned game designer known for skills in Competitive Balance and games that strive for it. His blog is full of thoughtful and insightful articles on such matters. He would later go on to assist Capcom in developing Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Currently the producer of Fantasy Strike.
• Seth Killian - Former online & community advisor for Capcom. A former competitive Street Fighter player, he stopped playing at tournament level once trying to juggle his Capcom-related duties with staying competitive hindered his ability to do either. He has a PhD in Philosophy and, debatably more impressive, a Street Fighter character named after him. He would later be involved with the development of Rising Thunder along with two of the co-founders of EVO, before the project ended up canceled. Currently employed by Epic Games.
• Yoshinori Ono - Producer of Street Fighter IV and many other Capcom games. Even though he loves to tease fans, his energetic and playful personality makes him quite popular. In late 2018, Ono stepped down as the head of Capcom's fighting game division, though he still played a major role. In Summer 2020, Ono announced his resignation from Capcom, though he eventually ended up playing a role in the creation of Melty Blood: Type Lumina. Currently employed by DelightWorks.
• Ryozo Tsujimoto - Son of Capcom CEO Kenzo Tsujimoto, producer of the Monster Hunter franchise, and the current head of Capcom's fighting game division, succeeding Yoshinori Ono.
• Shuhei Matsumoto - Yoshinori Ono's successor as producer of Street Fighter V, and producer of Street Fighter 6.
• Takayuki Nakayama - Director of Street Fighter V and Street Fighter 6, and a longtime fan of fighting games as a whole. Has gained a following on social media for not only sharing many original prints of Capcom art from their archives, but also providing lore details about the Street Fighter world.
• Ryota Niitsuma - Producer of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD.
• Daishi Odashima - Former producer of the Soul series.
• Masaaki Hoshino - Producer of Soulcalibur: Lost Swords
• Motohiro Okubo - Former co-developer of Tekken 7 with Katshiro Harada and producer of Soulcalibur VI. In Summer 2021, Okubo announced his departure from Bandai Namco. Currently employed by Cygames, and is now a key figure in their American branch.
• Daisuke Ishiwatari - Creator, director, character designer, music composer, and participating voice actor for the Guilty Gear series as well as the composer for BlazBlue. Is a huge fan of Queen, and takes plenty of cues from heavy metal for his compositions.
• Takeshi Yamanaka - Brand manager of Guilty Gear.
• Akira Katano - Development director of Guilty Gear -STRIVE-.
• Ken Miyauchi - Producer of Guilty Gear -STRIVE-.
• Toshimichi Mori - Producer of the BlazBlue series, and considered just as much of a Trolling Creator as Yoshinori Ono, if not more so. Left Arc System Works in 2022 to form his own studio.
• Tomonobu Itagaki - Creator of Dead or Alive series, he is well-known for his frank personality.
• Yosuke Hayashi - Current producer of the Dead or Alive series and is co-credited by many for bringing the series back to respectability in the tournament circuit, alongside....
• Yohei Shimbori - Current director of the Dead or Alive series and the man behind responsible for designing the series' gameplay as of Dead or Alive 5.
• Ed Boon - Creative director of NetherRealm Studios and one of the two co-creators of the Mortal Kombat series.
• Adam "Keits" Heart - Creator of Divekick, and head of One True Game Studios. Also the host of the UFGT tournament series and former Editor in Chief of Shoryuken.com. Also worked with Iron Galaxy Studios to produce Killer Instinct (2013) from Season 2 onward.
• Yu Suzuki - Creator of the Virtua Fighter series, and a pioneer of 3D gaming who developed many of the concepts used in 3D fighting games which persist today. His co-producer on the first Virtua Fighter, Seiichi Ishii, went on to direct the first Tekken, and Suzuki actually gave Tomonobu Itagaki advice which helped him create the first Dead or Alive.
• Seiji Aoki - Director of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown. Notable for the efforts he's put in to keeping the series' legacy intact and getting Sega to support the game and series.
• Akira Nishitani - Director of Street Fighter II, and considered by many to be the godfather of fighting games as they are known today. Later left Capcom and founded Arika and developed the Street Fighter EX series. His call to leave the unintentional normal-to-special cancels in Street Fighter II essentially gave birth to the entire concept of combos in fighting games. Currently produces Fighting EX Layer.
• Akira Yasuda aka Akiman - Former top Capcom artist who was involved in the art direction and character design of many of Capoom's fighting games, from Street Fighter to Darkstalkers to Star Gladiator to Power Stone. An animator by trade, his skills were an important asset in the creation of the trademark visuals of Capcom's fighting games. He served as a mentor to many other Capcom artists of the time, even going so far as to create a book detailing the fundamentals of Capcom's stylized approach to character anatomy. This book remains in use as of Street Fighter V, after the transition to 3D.
• Norio Hirose aka Sailor - director for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Prior to that, worked as a programmer for various Capcom fighting games such as X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Project Justice and Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000
• Hidetoshi Ishizawa aka Neo-G - former designer at Capcom, most famous for the combat systems in Street Fighter III, Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Later moved to SNK to do the same for the King of Fighters XIV. With his dream of seeing a new Samurai Shodown game come to pass, he has since departed SNK.
• Yasuyuki Oda - SNK staff who worked on the later Fatal Fury games. Moved to Capcom where he worked on Street Fighter IV. Eventually moved back to SNK to become the lead for The King of Fighters XIV.
• Nobuyuki Kuroki - Veteran staff member at SNK who returned after its revival, having formerly worked on titles such as Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Notably, he came up with the designs for several beloved SNK characters such as Rock Howard. Current producer of Samurai Shodown 2019.
• Tom and Tony Cannon - Co-founders and current heads of the Evolution Championship Series, and responsible for creating GGPO, the rollback netcoding algorithm which many fighting games use today. Currently employed by Riot Games as the heads of their League of Legends fighting game spinoff, Project L.

Notable Players

• Daigo "The Beast/Ume" Umehara: An extremely accomplished player of 2D fighting games, best known for his play in Street Fighter, particularly his use of Ken and Ryu, to the point of being regarded as one of the best — if not the best — Street Fighter players in the world. In Japan, he is regarded as one of the "Five Gods of 2D." He currently holds the world record for "most successful player in major tournaments of Street Fighter" in Guinness World Records. Currently sponsored by Cygames Beast.
• Justin Wong: That guy who got bodied by Daigo back in '04. Is somewhat less well-known for the wide variety of games he's done well in — between 2004 and 2010, he placed in the Top 8 in at least two Evo tournaments every year; in four of those seven years he made Top 8 in at least three events; and in 2004, he placed Top 8 in four events. Has his own well-known comeback, against Yipes in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 at Evo 2007, and holds the world record for MvC2 single-player. Currently creates fighting game-related content on YouTube, and co-hosts the Triple KO podcast alongside Maximilian Dood and Matt McMuscles.
• Chung-gon "Poongko" Lee: A Street Fighter and The King of Fighters player known for exhibiting the precise knowledge and execution necessary to dominate with Seth. He is often called "The Machine" after he practiced the game for several hours straight after flying in for an Australian tournament, as well as for his execution skills. Infamous for taking off his shirt when he gets really serious against his opponents. Formerly a member of Team Secret.
• Michael "IFC Yipes" Mendoza: A Marvel vs. Capcom player who has popularized more catchphrases than most people can even remember, such as the infamous "IT'S MAHVEL BAYBEE!" video. Well-known as a great color commentator on streams who also has deep knowledge of the games he covers and is probably one of the biggest fan favorites playing today. He also runs the "Curleh Mustache" and "Can Opener" tournament series. Formerly sponsored by The Steam Company.
• Christopher "ChrisG" Gonzalez: A Marvel vs. Capcom 3 player from New York who first rose to prominence at CEO, a major Florida tournament, in 2011, nearly defeating Justin Wong with a Ryu (a very uncommon character, at least offline) team. Has become somewhat of a villain, due to picking up a new team with a zoning playstyle that some have called boring, as well as his Twitter antics. For a while, he was generally considered the undisputed best Marvel player, both for winning almost every tournament he attended throughout 2013 and for making a team that has become an archetype unto itself. Though he is best known for Marvel, he also plays almost every game and usually places very well in all. Thanks to some Memetic Mutation, he has his own theme song. Formerly a member of Evil Geniuses. In mid-2020, Chris was fired by his sponsors over disparaging comments he made in 2016 and 2017 on social media.
• Kyohei "MarlinPie" Lehr: A Marvel vs. Capcom 3 player from New Jersey who is best known for his flashy combos, including his impressive Doctor Doom TAC combos. Before, he was known as a strong Eddie player in Guilty Gear. Currently sponsored by Panda Global.
• Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez & Mike "(insert nickname here)" Ross: The co-creators of Cross Counter Live, best known for "The Excellent Adventures of Gootecks and Mike Ross", where they showcase various battles from Xbox Live. Gootecks is known for his Balrog and Rose play in Street Fighter IV, and Mike Ross for his E. Honda. While initially they had a full Cross Counter team when they signed a deal with Complexity Gaming, it has since been disbanded. Sadly, as of 2018, Cross Counter's YouTube channel is no longer active, and Excellent Adventures has come to an abrupt and tragic end due to Mike Ross suffering a severe mental breakdown after EVO 2017. Mike took an extended hiatus from the FGC, making occasional appearances here and there to explain his reasoning for leaving so suddenly. He has since returned to streaming and occasionally entering offline events, now residing in Asia and hosting a new series with pro player Xian called Versus Vortex, a sort of Spiritual Successor to Excellent Adventures. Gootecks, on the other hand, would go on to become a very controversial figure on social media, resulting in the removal of his face as the popular PogChamp Twitch emote and the community at large considering him a Broken Pedestal and a Persona Non Grata.
• Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi: Known variously as "The Murder Face" and "The Ice Man", Tokido is one of the "Five Gods of 2D" in Japan, yet he has also won tournaments in 3D fighters like Tekken, and even in games HE'S NOT KNOWN FOR PLAYING (e.g. his tournament wins in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and BlazBlue). Most people nowadays know him for his legendary Akuma play in Street Fighter IV, and he is widely considered to be one of the best Akuma players in the world. Currently sponsored by Rohto Zi, which has become an official sponsor of the EVO Championship Series.
• Jo "MOV" Egami: A player famous for his exceptional skill in Japan, and also has some unbelievable comebacks. PV video here. Currently affiliated with Team Grapht.
• Kuroda: Known in the 3rd Strike community as "the true god." MOV once claimed that if the world's 3rd Strike players could be given "levels" of understanding of the game, MOV himself would be at Lv.7, Momochi (another great player) is Lv.3, and the rest of the world (including the famous Daigo) is at Lv.0-1. Kuroda? Level 100.
  • PV video of just some of his exploits.
  • To say nothing of how he nearly single-handedly won SBO (Japan's most prestigious tournament) — with a 2-man team in a 3v3 competition — with Q (3rd worst character in the game).
    • Kuroda has been known to go to Game Mikado — home to the strongest players in Japan — during SBO training season, pick a random character, and get 50-game+ win streaks.
  • And that time he made a laughing stock of Justin Wong at SBO...
• Peter "Combofiend" Rosas: One of the most famous players in the Marvel community, and the successor to Seth Killian, having been hired as Capcom's new Community Advisor. He is known for his ability to pick up any character, even those who are considered to be very bad or average, and use them effectively (as seen with his Guy and Oni usage in Super Street Fighter IV). Also known for his uncanny ability to make comebacks from even the most direst of situations, as shown with some of his more well known ones here. With his role as Capcom's community manager, he has been rechristened "Capcombofiend". In addition to being Capcom's Community Advisor, he is also now the Associate Producer of Street Fighter V. Formerly affiliated with Cross Counter. Unfortunately, his tenure at Capcom did not last. With the failure of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, in addition to the pressure behind its development and being forced to make an infamous statement regarding the roster that required he dance around certain terminology, Combofiend's reputation was shot and he eventually left Capcom. Now currently employed by Marvel Games.
• Alex "CaliPower" Valle: Also known as "Tio/Uncle/Papa Valle", Alex is the head of Level Up Live and one of the oldest American players within the FGC, having been playing since the early days of Street Fighter II. Considered a living legend, he has taken many players under his wing and taught them how to play competitively. Helped create Wednesday Night Fights along with fellow oldbie Mike Watson, and is currently the host of a new series called Rushdown Live, where he helps fellow community members understand the tools and skills that make a competitive player.
• Ryan "Filipino Champ" Ramirez: An up-and-coming player who is infamous for being quite polarizing within the community. While his skill is commendable, his attitude is sometimes viewed as uncouth, to put it lightly. In addition, his character choices have also come under criticism, as he is also infamous for playing Dhalsim and Phoenix, who are already well-established as being extremely annoying and difficult to deal with. Ironically, he is also given flak for sticking with characters that do poorly in certain match-ups, most notably against ChrisG. Head of the FGTV crew. As of early 2020, his professional career has come to an abrupt end after receiving an indefinite ban from all Capcom-related events, due to not only making an ill-timed tweet during the Black Lives Matter movement, but also breaking NDA with Capcom by leaking the contents of the development kit for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Though many major events have since lifted their bans on him, he remains banned from entering Capcom Pro Tour tournaments.
• Eduardo "Puerto Rico (PR) Balrog" Perez-Frangie: Making his debut in Evolution 2009, PR Balrog is, simply put, a triple threat. Proficient in Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Street Fighter X Tekken, his moment of stardom came when he clutched against Viscant at Evolution 2011 with Tron Bonne. Formerly a member of Evil Geniuses. Is known for the many periods of "semi-retirement" he has gone through, wherein he retires briefly only to un-retire soon afterward, to the point here it's become something of a community meme/in-joke.
• Loren "Fanatiq" Riley: An old-school Marvel vs. Capcom 2 player best known for his high profile money matches and his preference for playing on pad. Formerly sponsored by AGE. Has since mostly stepped back from playing to focus on a career in music.
• Ari "fLoE" Weintraub: If the term "Renaissance Man" could apply to any Western player, it would have to be Floe. A good friend of Justin Wong and Ricki Ortiz, he performed well in not only 2D fighters, but 3D fighters like Tekken and Soulcalibur as well. He became something of an internet celebrity due to his streamed playthroughs of I Wanna Be the Guy and its various fanmade spin-offs such as Boshy, and was one of the first top players within the FGC to pioneer streaming on Twitch as a side career. May also have unintentionally caused the invention of the "Salt Cam" on various streams due to his facial expressions upon losing a round. He was also known for "the Floe curse", in which any player he really wanted to win would end up losing. Formerly sponsored by Evil Geniuses. Starting in 2019, he mostly stepped back from competing and streaming due to health issues. Tragically, said health issues eventually took their toll, and he passed away on October 16, 2023 from a series of strokes.
• Ricki Ortiz: Also known as "Pretty Ricki," and the third main U.S. member of Evil Geniuses during the organization's prime. One of the most skilled Rufus and Chun-Li players on the planet, her abilities in reading and adapting to her opponents are top-notch. Once claimed at EVO 2010 that whenever she landed an EX Snake Strike, it would guarantee her the round or match. She held true to her word, even against Daigo.
• Seon-woo "Infiltration" Lee: A Korean Street Fighter IV player who rose to prominence after his performance at EVO 2012, where he defeated Daigo Umehara and Gamerbee. Considered one of the greatest Akuma players in the world, he has also begun using Gouken and Hakan, who are considered mid and bottom tier respectively, and performed successfully with them. Defeated Daigo again at the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Tournament, in one of the most hype matches of 2012 (Daigo beat him 3-0, but Infiltration struck back in the grand finals with a 6-0 upset), and later Tokido in Street Fighter X Tekken at the same event, in which he took the grand prize of $25,000 for each tournament ($50,000 total), and a Capcom-themed car. For a time, he was considered without question as "the one to beat" when it came to Street Fighter. When Ultra came about, he gained more notoriety for knowing how to play as and against the entire 44 character roster, while having no less than TEN characters he could play at an extreme competitive level. Has started streaming on Twitch since 2014. Formerly sponsored by Panda Global. In late 2018, Infiltration was the subject of a scandal involving a court case between him and his ex-wife. Due to this, he was forced to leave his sponsor and withdraw from the Capcom Pro Tour for the remainder of 2018 and the entirety of 2019, with Capcom issuing the condition that further controversy would result in a lifetime ban from the circuit. A condition that would unfortunately come to pass as Infiltration would later go on to be caught up in yet another scandal involving accusations of rigging a beginners' tournament in 2021. Due to this as well as the aforementioned case with his ex-wife, he was banned from EVO and several other major tournaments, which ended up resulting in another controversy when he made comments that included racial slurs. This proved to be the final straw for Capcom, who followed through on their initial warning and banned him for life from the Capcom Pro Tour.
• Ryan "Prodigal Son" Hart: British player, and the highest-profile European player in the scene. The first fighting game player to ever be sponsored — he is currently a member of Falcon Arena. While well-known for his Street Fighter play, he is also highly proficient in Tekken.
• Kun Xian Ho: One of the hosts of Cross Counter Asia, the other being fan-favorite commentator Zhi. Xian is a KOF prodigy who started playing competitively at the age of 10. Nowadays, Xian is famous for playing the Difficult, but Awesome Gen in Super Street Fighter IV, a character who has placed consistently low in the tier lists since the original version, and winning many majors with him, including the SSFIVAE tournament at Evo 2013. He is widely considered to be the best Gen player in the entire world. Currently sponsored by Razer, and member of the Singaporean team Desperation Move. Alongside fan-favorite commentator Zhi, Xian was once the co-host of Cross Counter's Asia branch. In recent years, Xian has teamed up with fellow Excellent Adventures colleague Mike Ross to host Versus Vortex, a Spiritual Successor to Excellent Adventures and Cross Counter.
• Keita "Fuudo" Ai: Perhaps best known as the man who defeated Latif to win EVO 2011 with Fei Long, Fuudo is an accomplished Virtua Fighter player, and still plays it to this day. He is considered to be one of the best Virtua Fighter players in the world. Sponsored by Razer.
• Nicolas "KaneBlueRiver" Gonzalez: Chilean Marvel vs. Capcom 3 player, who gained notoriety for traveling around the world to fight the best in the world at the game. Famous for his Team Big Body (Hulk, Haggar and Sentinel), which is a fan favorite at many tournaments for its unpredictability and unorthodox team formation. Formerly a member of Team BlackEye.
• Naoto "Sakonoko" Sako: The third member of the "Five Gods of 2D." Sako is a highly-experienced player of many fighting games, and is legendary for his incredible execution skills. His execution is so great that there are certain combos which have been named after him due to being EXTREMELY difficult to perform. Sako's B.B. Hood in Darkstalkers 3 was unrivaled, and now in Street Fighter IV he has become notable for playing two very unorthodox characters: Ibuki and Evil Ryu. Currently sponsored by Hori.
• Naoki "Nemo" Nemoto: Japanese player who made a name for himself in 2013 as one of the few players from that country to play Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on a serious level, traveling to the United States to participate in tournaments and (more famously) defeat a number of top Marvel players in money matches, including ChrisG, Filipino Champ and Fanatiq, among others. His success (particularly in the aforementioned money matches) has led to a number of American players to imitate his team of Nova, Doctor Strange and Spencer. In late 2014, he decided to shift his focus from Marvel to Ultra Street Fighter IV, showing off what Rolento is capable of. Currently sponsored by Alienware Japan.
• Darryl "Snake Eyez" Lewis: Southern California player who has made his mark as one of, if not *the*, top Zangief players in the world. Among his accomplishments include one Evo title (in 2010 for Super SFII Turbo HD Remix), domination of many Wednesday Night Fights tourneys in 2013 and 2014, and a reverse OCV in a 5v5 exhibition at SoCal Regionals 2014. With his fourth place finish at Evo 2014's Ultra SF4 tourney, has established himself as one of the top players in the US. Currently sponsored by Red Bull.
• Olivier "Luffy" Hay: French player that has established himself alongside Ryan Hart and Alioune as one of the top players from Europe. A long-time Rose user since the original release of Street Fighter IV, he is considered one of the top players of the character, which was reaffirmed with his performance at Evo 2014's Ultra SF4 tournament, where he took first place. Currently sponsored by Red Bull.
• Sanford "Santhrax" Kelly: Known today as the man who made the phrase "pick a top tier" a meme, Sanford Kelly is a veteran from the days of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, along with the likes of Yipes and Justin Wong. His performances with his signature team of Storm, Sentinel, and Captain Commando have become legendary. In Street Fighter IV, he received much flak for playing the Game-Breaker known as Sagat, and continued to play the Muay Thai emperor for quite some time even though he was no longer top tier. He has since switched to Oni in Ultra Street Fighter IV, bringing explosive yet calculated gameplay to the table. Formerly sponsored by The Steam Company.
• Dominique "SonicFox" McLean: American player who has the unique distinction of being one of the best fighting game players who doesn't actively play either major Capcom game. Their^note SonicFox is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns specialties are games from Netherrealm Studios, where they've won Evo tournaments for Injustice: Gods Among Us and Mortal Kombat X, though they also play (and have won tournaments for) Dead or Alive 5, Under Night In-Birth, Dragon Ball Fighter Z, and Skullgirls. Currently a member of Echo Fox.
• Yusuke Momochi: Japanese player who is one of the top players from the country outside of the 2D Gods. Known for using Ken, he emerged as a major force in 2014, when he won the Capcom Cup, and 2015, where he made an early run of major tournaments off the Capcom Cup win that culminated in winning Evolution that year. After marrying fellow player Chocoblanka, he began tutoring the next generation of Japanese players. Fun fact: his ancestry contains ninja lineage, which inspired the name of his tutoring program "Shinobism". Currently a member of Echo Fox.
• Kenryo "Mago" Hayashi: A Japanese player who is known by the nickname of "2D God" (not to be confused with the Five Gods of 2D). Mago is known far and wide nowadays for his usage of Fei Long and Yang, both of them being rekka characters. Noted for being quite the party animal when drunk, as shown at several of Canada Cup's after parties, which earned him the nickname of "Mago-san". Formerly sponsored by Mad Catz.
• Ryota "Kazunoko" Inoue: One of the most legendary Guilty Gear players on the planet, from the early days of XX to the present days of Xrd. Most people know Kazunoko for his explosive and wild Yun play in USF4.
• Masato "Bonchan" Takahashi: Bonchan is an ex-Shogi player who was introduced to the world of fighting games by Daigo Umehara himself, as he used to frequent the shop that Bonchan owned. The two later went on to become sparring partners for years. In perhaps a rather fitting contrast to Daigo, who is known for playing Ryu, Bonchan has made himself known far and wide as one of the top Sagat players in the world, continuing to use him even in Ultra, where the character is widely considered to be at his weakest. Sponsored by Red Bull.

Other Notable Individuals

• David "UltraDavid" Graham - Popular commentator who is best known for being a copyright lawyer and a gamer. He used this by posting an editorial on S.978, which would have made streaming illegal if it were passed.
• James "jchensor" Chen - Runs the UltraChen stream, and is known for using Cammy in every Street Fighter game (even if she's low-tier). Also a known commentator... even if he gets things completely wrong. Also gets egged on for bad puns. Now available in Street Fighter 6 as a Combat Commentator.
• Maximilian "Dood" Christiansen - A former tournament player who has since become a content creator, livestreamer, and "professional hype man" for fighting games. He's known for producing videos that teach players the ins and outs of fighting games, most famously the Assist Me series centered on the Marvel vs. Capcom series, and was hired by Double Helix Games to produce trailers and story mode cutscenes for Killer Instinct (2013). His honesty and passion for fighting games has earned him the respect of big names like Katsuhiro Harada and Daigo Umehara (who called him "sempai", something Max found extremely flattering) and in 2018 he earned the Guinness World Record for "Most Subscribers for a Youtube Channel Dedicated to Fighting Games". Max streams on Twitch six days a week, either on his own or with his friends Matt Simmons, Kenny O'Brian and Steve Springer.
• Aris "AvoidingThePuddle" Bakhtanians - Former high-level Tekken and Soulcalibur player, as well as a fan-favorite commentator. Has provided many tutorials for people to learn about the Tekkenand Soulcalibur series. Was the subject of controversy in 2012 during the Cross Assault event stream after making sexist comments toward a female player he was supposed to be coaching. In recent years, he has taken to streaming and amassed a large following. Though he has mostly retired from commentating live at events, he instead hosts watch parties for those tournaments.
• Martin "Marn" Phan - Formerly known for his Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom play, he has since moved on to playing League of Legends, having created his own team "MRN." Due to a certain incident in which he mismanaged the brackets for a Guilty Gear tournament, he has become rather infamous in the FGC. As a joke, his likeness was used as the template for the character of "Mr. N" in Divekick.
• Victor "Spooky" Fontanez - When a big tournament in the FGC needs to be streamed, chances are, Spooky is on the job. Creator of Team Sp00ky, he is quite possibly the most experienced streamer of FGC main events. Ranging from the weekly Next Level Battle Circuit (where fellow Team Sp00ky member Arturo Sanchez occasionally helps out) to major events like Final Round, Spooky is reliable and consistent. Well liked and friendly, Spooky won the Cannon Award during EVO 2013 for outstanding service in the FGC. He finally got his big break in early 2016 when streaming developers XSplit offered him employment to promote and improve their services. After many years of running Next Level Battle Circuit, as of 2022 he has begun shifting focus to his own streaming efforts, taking an indefinite hiatus from the event.
• Arturo "nycfurby/TS Sabin/Art" Sanchez - Longtime associate of the east coast FGC and one of the main members and technical wizards behind Team Spooky's high quality productions. One of the USA's strongest Dhalsim players throughout the history of competitive Street Fighter, Arturo had been considered a community icon and figurehead for well over two decades. Near the end of 2022, however, he would end up mired in controversy and banned from events when accusations of "mishandling funds" by the tournament-organizing site Matcherino were levied toward him, followed by several community members coming forward making their own statements regarding the situation. He ended up dropped from Team Spooky and had many of his community ties severed, though the matter was eventually settled in early 2023, with his career as a player remaining unaffected.
• Steve "Tasty Steve" Scott and Stephen "Sajam" Lyon - The two halves of popular commentary duo "Tasty Jam". Tasty Steve is best known for his abundantly high-energy commentary, said by many to be on par with legends like Yipes. If Tasty Steve is the Large Ham Wise Guy of the duo, Sajam is the Straight Man, combining keen analysis with a unique sense of wry humor that perfectly bounces off of the other's style.
• Joey "Mr. Wizard" Cuellar - Former head of the Evolution Championship Series. Often called "McRibs" due to his love of the limited-time food item and notable for his infamous orange shirt. In June of 2020, Cuellar came under fire when allegations of inappropriate conduct were levied against him, going back as far as his earliest days within the community. After admitting himself that the allegations were true and multiple accounts containing evidence of his misconduct came forward, he was fired from his position as head of EVO, and the tournament itself would end up canceled that year as nearly every corporate sponsor pulled out of endorsing the event.

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