| 27 August 2010
If you're wondering who tipped me into charting EX meter in Super Street Fighter IV matches, it was Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez. He told me it was a great way to figure out how players play. At first it didn't make sense to me, but then I remembered a match he and I watched earlier that night we talked -- the finals of Super NorCal Regionals -- and there were times when the crowd would say "No meter" or "He's got meter," likely referring to Andy OCR, who uses Dictator.
I rewatched that match, and it became obvious that he was hurting badly when he didn't have EX meter, and he did well when he had some in the tank.
Since then, I've recorded about 6,000 rounds of tournament play in which players have had EX meter. The average player has 3.61 EX meters available to him or her during a round. That same player uses 2.16 EX meters per round. Now, that does not mean it happens everytime, obviously. Some players like to use EX meter the moment they get it. Others rarely use it, likely as a defensive tactic to stop a rush.
That's what Gootecks talks about in his commentary on the Cross Counter site. If you don't know what you're doing with your EX meter, it's time to think about it.
What goes through your head when you have EX Meter? Do you try to save it for a FADC? Do you try to save it for your Super? Or maybe you don’t think too much about it at all. If you’re not making conscious decisions with your EX Meter, you’re missing a huge part of your game.
EX Meter should be thought of as your “money” or “resources” in the game. Similar to your minerals and gas in Starcraft or maybe even a grenade in an FPS (I’m not an FPS guy, don’t shoot me lol). Or maybe you can think of it as going to the store in an RPG to buy a new potion! Your EX Meter buys you additional moves, setups and opportunities: options!
Gootecks breaks down different uses of EX, including how many and what characters, so be sure to check it out.
