Chibita busted out some AND1 mixtape shit in a FT5 earlier this week and it was extremely rude.

for those not familiar, Chibita is one of Virtua Fighter's all-time greats, who earned his nickname because he was about 13 years old when he started playing. as far as I know he was on a long hiatus until last year with the release of VF5 Ultimate Showdown (or "VF esports" as it's called Japan). now he's back and doing twitter combos in FT5 sets.

btw Mikado streams FT5s every week on their youtube channel. check 'em out:

...is how throwing out a 23-frame combo starter at a 9-frame disadvantage can be a brilliant idea under the right circumstances.

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(to wit, being -10 in VF5 Final Showdown/Ultimate Showdown means the opponent gets a guaranteed throw attempt. in the above clip, tarami (the Lei Fei player) steps back before doing a launcher that would normally be -10. the distance reduced the frame disadvantage to about -9 or so, but the Lion player immediately went for a throw, likely thinking the throw attempt was guaranteed. when a throw isn't guaranteed, strikes will always beat throws in VF, with few exceptions. in other words tarami's brain is wrinklier than a lifetime supply of raisin bran.)