Phil's whole deal with fighting games lately seems to be that he hates games with long combos now because he sucks at doing them and it sucks to be stuck in a long combo. Look how he plays Mortal Kombat. Low jab into throw all day. He can't combo to save his life even when it's dial-a-combos. You'd think Samurai Showdown's high risk high reward big single hits style would be perfect for him.
Oh wait, no he'd just bitch about people online always throwing out the big heavy slash that takes off a third of your life, and he can't react because he's a braindead boomer with shit reaction time you can't react to that attack online dood!
I don't know if you call this powerleveling, but I've played fighting games competitively for a while, so I can actually explain why he does that (it won't make him less of an idiot for doing it, but I figured I could clear it up for you guys):
This is called a "tick throw set-up". Basically, you use a low jab (or use a series of low jabs) to force the opponent to block, then surprise the opponent with a throw attempt that they're forced to break. The person performing the set-up has two options: low jab, then throw, or low jab, and continue to pressure with a safe combo. Both are high-risk-high-reward options, as you end your turn either way if the opponent can read the set-up.
But Phil's an autistic, so he does it incorrectly. He does one jab and then attempts to throw. This is dumb to anyone who plays fighting games because:
- It's very fucking telegraphed, meaning even Ray Charles can see the throw attempt coming.
- 1 low jab doesn't add that many guard frames in MK11, so the opponent can basically jump out after the jab, and the tick throw attempt has a great chance of failing
- He ends his turn either way, but since the throw is telegraphed, the opponent breaks the throw, and gets to do whatever they want, leaving Phil open to anything since (because this is Phil), he likely has no back up plan. And like Phil is want to do, he panics, mashes buttons, gets hit, and cries about it.
Tick Throws worked in games like Street Fighter 2 Super Turbo because you can't break throws in that game; you only had the ability to "tech" the throw and mitigate the damage. But fighting games have evolved since then, and players have far more defensive options then there were back in the day. Only problem is that Phil's a boomer. He's left that dry, rotting peanut he calls a brain back in 2008 and has never recovered it. He still thinks it's Super Turbo, so "DERP IF I ATTEMPT A THROW IT'LL WORK ACK ACK ACK".
This pretty much shows Phil's general ineptitude when it comes to fighting games and his lack of understanding of modern-day Fight game mechanics (or really, games in general). He can't acclimate to new systems, so he autopilots on outdated mechanics, even when the fighting games he plays doesn't utilize them whatsoever.
tl;dr: Phil plays fighting games like an retard.
