State of Play: Neutral
Fighting Games can be very exciting especially those with explosive offence and crazy mix-ups. New Players tend to focus mainly on developing the best offensive and defensive strategy, completely oblivious to the fact that there are three major states of play in fighting games namely Neutral, Offense, and Defense. The Neutral game is a critical component of fighting game strategy. It enhances your offense and defense exponentially. It is often the last thing new players discover and develop because it is somewhat intangible and difficult to perceive for beginners. It may come as a surprise to some that every match starts in a neutral state before both Competitors transition to either offense or defense.
Neutral is the “state” where neither you nor your opponent is actively attacking (exploiting advantage/hitting) or defending (at clear disadvantage/being hit).
When in Neutral, both parties are at liberty to take their turn typically without being in imminent danger of being hit by the opponent. Both parties are neither at frame advantage or disadvantage. It is an opportunity to identify where you are on-screen relative to where your opponent is, what you or your opponent can do in the current position, contemplate where you want to be (or where you want your opponent to be) and how to get there. This positional and spacial awareness are critical elements of Neutral and fighting game strategy in general; to gain or regain physical or psychological ascendancy for offense and defense respectively you employ fundamental tools such as spacing, movement, space control, conditioning, etc.
Spacing
Spacing is consciously controlling/minding the distance(space) between you and your opponent. You can implement this by using your attacks at particular ranges where they can’t be punished,
back dashing(or just walking out of range) after striking your opponent to avoid counter pokes
or using a string or special with good push back in order to get out of range of your opponents' attacks.
While in the neutral state you should ensure you stay at an optimal range where your attacks will be most effective against your opponent (to apply pressure or at least be in a position to counter-attack) and your opponents’ attacks are least effective or miss altogether.
Movement
This requires a lot of purposeful movement either forward or backward (along X-axis) or vertically (along Y-axis) in 2D games and laterally (Z-axis) in 3D games like Tekken. You move purposefully to get into ranges that favour you or to make your opponent whiff something that you can punish. This can be achieved by successfully conditioning your opponent with your movement in the course of executing footsies, shimmies and zoning so that you can capitalize on their mistakes.
To Shimmy means using movement (moving in and out of throw range) and or a normal to bait whiffs or unsafe actions which are punished.
Footsies refer to a tactic used at mid-range where both Opponents just outside combo range probe each other with attacks (and or movement)in an attempt to bait whiffs or errors which are punished.
While playing footsies, assuming both you and your opponents’ effective attack range is close, you move between this range and Mid-range in a seemingly predictable pattern in an attempt to bait the opponent to act; You move from Close-range backwards into Mid-range, then, forward into Close-range, then backwards again to Mid-range, then move slightly forward as if you are moving into Close-range again but instead pause while still out of the opponents reach in Mid-range, then punish if opponent Whiffs an attack (in expectation/anticipation of you walking fully into Close-range where they can hit you)
Zoning/Space Control
Space control/zoning refers to a strategy used to intentionally pressure and keep the opponent at a specific distance/zone (typically with projectiles) that is tactically advantageous to you.
Positional Awareness
Positional awareness is knowing what range or zone you are in on the stage/screen, what attack options you have and those at the disposal of your opponent (within that range). The stage is divided into 4 distinct ranges namely; Close range, Mid-range, Far range and Fullscreen (grounded and mid-air). This applies to most 2D games (Mortal Kombat in particular) and to some degree 3D games. The Corner is a special zone where the balance is skewed heavily in favour of the aggressor over whoever has their back to the corner. Spacing, Shimmies, Footsies and Zoning are the transition tools used to initiate Offence and Defence.
At close range, all attack options (Pokes, Normals and Special moves) can connect. As such, within this range, you will be in Neutral state for very brief periods of time because both you and your opponent will mostly either be actively attacking or defending. You generally want to be on the offensive when you are within this range. Once your turn is over you should either try to extend your offence (maybe with a stagger, frame trap or poke) or at the very least return to Neutral as quickly as possible.
Mid-range also popularly known as Footsie range is just beyond the reach of your opponents’ Pokes and Normal attacks but just within Jump-in range. In this range, you purposely move in and out of your opponents attack range in an attempt to bait them into whiffing attacks which you subsequently punish or to condition them into a pattern which you exploit to catch them off guard (Playing footsies). You will probably spend most of the match in this range unless you play a zoning style character.
At far range, you usually only have to worry about far-reaching specials, projectiles and teleports. This might be your ideal range if you are spacing out your opponents or their far-reaching and tracking specials.
Full screen is the optimal range for a zoning character; the threats in this range are the same as the far range. There is a hidden threat here which you must always be wary of, the Corner. The corner is a very dangerous part of the stage because you can’t retreat or create space between yourself and the opponent. Once you notice you are being backed into the Corner your #1 priority should be to escape the Corner or reverse sides.
There are Corners at either end of the screen/stage. It is a zone of absolutes, you are either on the offence or defence, there is no neutral here because once your back is to the Corner you are always at disadvantage. Your ability to control space or play footsies is severely limited and more or less dictated by your opponent, forcing you into a defensive state. The aggressors' offense is oppressive and enhanced in this zone with more damaging combos, more setups & sustained pressure. Simply put, the corner is a special type of hell! Since you can’t retreat, you will most likely have to wait (or bait) for an opening (or error) from your opponent to escape.
General awareness
General awareness and concentration are critical at enhancing your reaction time to actions and the movement of your opponent. A key to achieving this is literally looking (or focusing) only at your opponent rather than your own character on screen(you already know where you are[position] and what you are doing) minding what actions the opponent is taking, the range/distance between both of you and their options/resources(Life bar and meter
available to them). Once you perfect this, your overall neutral play will improve drastically.
Conditioning in Neutral
Conditioning is an important component in neutral as it is used to keep the opponent in check and on their toes. This is why you should occasionally throw out moves even if you know they won’t hit. They serve as a reminder that “hey! I have this move and I’m not afraid to use it!”. Just the fact the opponent is now thinking about moves a, b, c, d, instead of just a, b and c, overloads their mental stack, which gives you more freedom and opportunity to do what would have otherwise had very little chance of success.
In addition to special moves and normals, movement is a fundamental part of conditioning. Will they dash forward? Will they dash backwards? Will they jump? Will they dash forward again? Good movement adds depth to conditioning and neutral as a whole.
Neutral Tools
Neutral tools like pokes and projectiles serve as a generic means of enforcing your space control. Some characters are privileged to have special moves and or extraordinary normals which can be used to control and sometimes dominate neutral. Subzeros slide, Kotals F2, Nightwolfs shoulder charge, Geras Sandtrap, Skarlets Blood Tentacle & Boiling Point, Fujins B2, Kanos Bio-Magnetic Pull, Sindels Shriek, Noobsaibots Shadow Slide, and the infamous Sheeva Stomp are prime examples of standout neutral tools. Fear and apprehension of being hit by these tools alone puts opponents on edge whenever they are within range which is sometimes… all the time!
In some fighting games (and against certain characters), though traditional Neutral exists, it is less relevant. For instance, a high mobility character like Kung Lao who has a teleport and dive kick or a game like MKX that has a run mechanic (and Anime games with air dashes). Those mechanics or characters can limit the efficacy of traditional measured and methodical Neutral, making it more difficult to enforce. Regardless, understanding and playing a solid Neutral game is one of the key skills that distinguishes seasoned Veterans from intermediate Players especially in games with more subtle movement like Mortal Kombat 11, Tekken 7 or Street Fighter 5 where every movement needs to be made with purpose and intent, and nothing is done by chance.
