Okay, I'm sick to fucking death of fighting Lei. I'm about to strap on and learn this fucking match up already. From range, that fucking f,f3 picks you up all day long, and he has no trouble getting in your face with razer rush, which is incredibly difficult to interrupt, and then when he's in your face, it's mix up city with his stance transitions that make him more evasive than a regular sidestep. He even has a Kazama esque b3 that will go under everything! At least his doesn't launch I guess.
So yeah, if anyone has some legit advice on fighting this piece of shit, feel free to share. I will hit up training mode when I get a chance to find out some of my own shit later on.
Good anti-Lei strats require a decent knowledge of the character, but there are some general stuff you can do against average players that'll work well.
Against Razor Rush, you can sidewalk it at range (stepping is a bit trickier sometimes). However, if you are blocking the punches, don't panic. You can actually neutral guard while you look to react to what he does.
If you blocked RR punches and see a sidestep, you have a good advantage. A simple d+1 will stop almost anything he tries since there are no quick low crush attacks in any of his five animal stances from RR. Most times you can try something bigger - 15f hop kicks are nice since they punish low attacks, but might floated by quick highs if you react too slowly.
All of this anti-RR stance transition stuff only works if you block the RR punch before his SS. If you got hit, you still can sometimes interrupt but it is much tougher.
When you are ready to try advanced anti RR strats, focus on the stance he goes into and respond smartly. Just know that if tries to RR + 1 or 2 punches before a SS into a stance (Snake or Dragon), he is baiting to CH you with a quick or evasive high/mid that you can stand and block. The lows in those stances are pokes, and the Dragon stance throw looks like a 1+2 break, but is always a 1 break. So stand there, break the throw, and don't worry.
If he tries to RR + 3 or 4 punches before a SS into a stance (Panther or Tiger), he is going for slower but more powerful mixup. A hop kick easily stops all options except if he parries you from Tiger stance for a small advantage. You launch the sweeps and interrupt the mids.
Again, if a RR punch hit you, the mixup is tougher to handle. Against Panther, you might accept the low sweep since you don't get launched. If you block the uppercut launcher, be sure to i10 punish it. Against Tiger, the sweep is the most dangerous option he has - none of the Tiger mids launch without a CH.
If Lei does all 4 RR punches, he has the mid/low kick mixup. The low only hurts a lot if it CHs you for a juggle. The mid kick however can be sidestepped either side if you blocked the punch preceding it. Don't worry about the 5th animal stance (Crane) after a full RR + midkick option. It is easy to react to if you choose to block the midkick.
Against ff+3, the main defense is to block and i14 punish. Step and walk are possible, but inconsistent because of the f,f input. It tracks decently both ways, can crush jabs early on and crushes lows late. It is a good move.
Space him when his back is turned, looking to block and punish the slow sweep. If he is close enough to abuse his quick backturned, low punches (BT d+1), know that he has a very good advantage if it hits. He can continue to spam more of them, and because they are elbows they cannot be low parried. They also can't be launched (when he has +frames) by any except the fastest aerial attacks (like Asuka's Can-Can kicks - d+3+4). Lei's BT low punches also track both sides, so spacing is the best defense for this stance as his BT mids have weak range except for one kick with low damage.
He has a lot more options overall obviously (Phoenix stance, Drunken stance, four ground positions, his poking game, SS attacks, etc), but the tips above should help a bit.
