Why didn't Knee use Bryan or Devil Jin against Dragunuv?
Bad matchup?
Bad player match up maybe!
I just can't stand Feng has a character. Bleh.
Knee's so much more exciting with the other two anyway.
He was trying to use backwards kenpo step to avoid running 2 pressure. He has tried Devil Jin against top Dragunovs before but he gets mauled too much
https://www.reddit.com/r/Tekken/comments/6mf8wl/a_korean_players_analysis_on_knees_feng_pick_for/
Feng is a good character. It's not as insane as Leo and Paul where you are filled with OP moves or that crazy bitch [refers to Xiaoyu] where you can spam one stance to play 50/50 while dodging high and mids. But Feng certainly is one of the best character at close range combat.
He has u/f+2 and b,f+1 which both allows him to take advantage by it's insane evasion either backwards or Clockwise [SSL].
b+1 has insane synergy with df+1 making jabs after blocking df+1 a very risky choice for opponent.
1+2 which is the best punch parry in the game.
b+3+4 is allows him to play tricky and control the distance in his favour.
d+2 is a unseeable low that does massive damage on CH with high crush.
qcf+1 which cannot be parried and sometimes even crush mid and CH launch with only -14 on block.
The SS moves are also insanely good, almost as good as Leo and Paul's 50/50. On the wall, these moves cannot be answered with back steps which allows Feng to be one of those 50/50 mind game characters from a honest character.
Back turn 2 throw and 1+2 throw is not seeable to distinguish and does 50 damage for 1+2.
Some of these pros will help us to understand why he specifically picked the Feng in this tournament.
First of all, Knee plays Feng very well. You might think of Yuu or Hao for a Feng player, but actually Knee's arcade rank was higher for Feng. (just like many other characters) [Knee literally play every single character in the game, and they are all on very high ranks for arcade]
Secondly, Knee is a type of person who often change his pick to counter certain characters. For examples, he brought Shaheen and Kazumi to defeat Goattack's Master Raven. He also used Yoshi and Kazuya to fight Hao's Feng. He also talked about this counter picks in his stream. I wouldn't go into the details of why these are specifically the counter picks, but I'm sure you will know if you played game to certain level.
Knee knew that some players will pick Dragunov (Nobi, JDCR, Kkokkoma) and also kkokkoma only really plays Dragunov and Kazumi. The thing with Dragunov and Kazumi is, they have much better close-combat moves compared to Bryan and Devil Jin. Which makes it very tricky to fight. However Feng has similar moves (e.g. d+2 for low poke, good standard moves like 1,2 or df+1), even better on some aspects (e.g. b+1, b,f+1). This allows knee to fight in the same style as those characters and with the same style, the skill level itself will matter more than other variables, which would favour Knee as long as he knows he has better skills than other players.
Also moves like b+3+4 stance and u/f+2 are really nice to create unexpected variables in the play with relatively less risk, which fits to knee's style. These moves were actually crucial to limit Kkokkoma's intention to pressure, and was actually useful in important moments. (Like the last moment where he went b+3+4~2 by reading Kkokkoma's aggression to end the round)
Knee played "Knee's Tekken", but Kkokkoma didn't adapt to it. This doesn't mean Kkokkoma didn't know how to fight Feng.
Knee probably has the most safe play style as JDCR plays more offensively now.
If you play against those normal Fengs in the rank (including myself), you will almost always see Feng players use SS+4 on the wall or in the chance for SS mix up. But Knee never really used this move.
Knee always used SS df+3 instead, which is safe [-7] on block and launches on hit. It also limits opponents jab choices with 1+2 parry. It fits perfectly for his play style. No matter how short this move is, he always found opportunities to use this move.
Because Feng players generally use more SS+4 instead of SS df+3, Kkokkoma couldn't get rid of doubting low moves and ironically got hit by the more safe choice from knee. In fact, this shows that Kkokkoma actually knew how to fight Feng. If he didn't know about it, he wouldn't have ducked at these SS mix up timings, but he was aware of the SS+4.
If any of Feng players watched this match today, you would probably agree that Knee's Feng style is somewhat different from general Feng players. Knee played with almost no risks. But Kkokkoma didn't adapt to it quick enough and played as he would be playing against mediocre Feng players.
Knee's only risky moves were d+2s. But then if you look at it carefully, it's the best low move to use with minimum risk. First of all the move itself is really good as I mentioned above, Secondly, it is -12 on block and unseeable. This means it won't be launched on block and will be hard to punish by reaction. Especially Dragunov's -12 ws punish is very dangerous if he executes it bit too late. That's why you can see Kkokkoma use ws kick for punish instead to be more safe. He lacked the confidence for the perfect punish there. Whereas Knee almost punished Dragunov's d+2 perfectly with ws+1,2 with confidence.
And Overall, Knee managed to play in close-combat style, which was what he intended in order to counter pick something like Dragunov and Kazumi. It's quite impressive how he removed the risky part of the Feng's playstyle to make it work like that.
Apart from that, I do have to say Knee generally played better in terms of defence and distance control too.
Translator's personal comment:
It's impressive how JDCR quickly adapted to Knee's Feng style and managed to win with his Dragunov. Especially the last moment where JDCR blocked wr+3, and Knee had the perfect time for wall SS mixup, JDCR just committed to delayed ff+1+2 because he knew that Knee won't use the high crush low and will counter throw the mid choice, while knowing that other moves like 2,1 or df+1 will be avoided by that side step.
