Capcom vs SNK 2/Balrog

Introduction

Health (at Ratio 2)
14400	Above Average
Stun
70	Average
Dash Length
15 Frames	Short
Dash Type
Hop	Corpse Hop=Yes, Proj. Hop=Yes
Run Speed
8.8	Above Average
Roll Distance
120 pixels	Medium
Roll Duration
25f	Medium
Wakeup Speed compared to Ryu
0f	Average

Story

Balrog, known as Mike Bison in Japan and Boxer worldwide, is an American boxing legend. Balrog was raised from a childhood of poverty in a criminal area, and made it out by training to become a boxing fighter. He took to it quickly, and was soon called one of the best boxing champions at the time. However, his upbringing made him more relentless and cutthroat, leading him to high violence in the ring and using illegal moves like his Buffalo Headbutt. After accidentally killing one of his opponents, Balrog was banned from any competitive boxing circuits. Still, he had plenty of money and was an amazing fighter. He enjoyed a life of fame and riches, until one day he joined Shadaloo.

He quickly rose the ranks of Shadaloo, and became M. Bison's personal enforcer. Throughout most of the games, Balrog enjoys his high position in Shadaloo, and carries out multiple hits for them alongside directing other grunt work. Not much is known about where Balrog is in the modern time of Street Fighter 3, but we know he lost to Alex in the grand finals of a tournament called Vale Tudo Eternal Fighting prior to the events of Street Fighter III: New Generation/

Gameplay

Balrog is a classic bully character, using his forward moving punches and long reaching normals to bust up opponents in neutral. In other games, especially Street Fighter 2: Super Turbo, Balrog is often considered a high or top tier character for his amazing offense and neutral. Balrog isn't as strong in CvS2 sadly, but is nowhere near weak, usually scoring in the mid tier somewhere. He still has his amazing dash punches, but Dash Straight can be crouched by a majority of the cast, limiting its use heavily. This sorta sucks, because Dash Straight is classically the main one you use in neutral for it's long reach and safety on block. This forces Balrog to rely on other dash punches, like Dash Upper and Dash Lower, or to simply play patient in neutral.

Balrog comes with plenty of benefits however. He has simple and good combos, Dash Upper is amazing for creating powerful guard crush strings, and his supers are incredibly useful. Crazy Buffalo is a high damage combo ender with good reach and invuln, and the level 2 combo from it is simple and powerful. The real juice is his level 3, Gigaton Blow. Incredibly fast, great range, and high damage makes Gigaton Blow a terrifying punish tool akin to Ken's SAIII in 3rd Strike, but with much scarier damage. Even without a super, Buffalo Headbutt can get Balrog out of a sticky situation, and RC Dash Straight makes opponents think twice about throwing that fireball or standing poke out. Balrog leans a lot more defensively in CvS2 in neutral, as a crouchable Dash Straight removes his most ignorant neutral skip. Once he gets to be aggro, he can overwhelm his opponents, and solid defense gets you there faster than a high risk neutral skip.

Groove Selection

Best - C: Balrog's best Groove is C-Groove. Easy access to a lot of meter for Crazy Buffalo combos or a Gigaton Blow punish with meter, air blocking to make his jumps a lot safer while he charges midair, and his level 2 Crazy Buffalo cancels easily into a Buffalo Headbutt for solid damage with meter. Balrog has a solid roll cancel with RC Dash Straight, and while it can still be crouched, using it as a fireball or standing poke punish makes this less risky. RC Dash Ground Straight is also a powerful tool, though the startup is worse and it is riskier if blocked. C-Groove is a very solid defensive Groove, and since Balrog needs good defense to win neutral, C-Balrog is his best Groove. N-Balrog

Useful - K/A/N: K-Balrog and A-Balrog are right behind. K-Balrog gets better movement and mixup potential to make his aggressive potential a lot scarier, and he does more than respectable damage with Rage. The real attraction of K-Balrog is that you get very consistent access to Raged Gigaton Blow, which is a massive damage punish tool and combo ender. A Raged K-Balrog is a lot scarier to fight, but in trade he loses the threat of a super without Rage. A-Balrog loses the threat of super almost entirely, but makes up for it with his Custom Combo. It's not the highest damage, but it is a very powerful tool, and his CC is actually quite easy to perform. Both A-Balrog and K-Balrog trade off consistent meter threat for these tools however, which is a hefty loss. N-Balrog maintains the threat of a level 1 Crazy Buffalo combo, and gets access to the movement of K-Groove and the rolls of C/A-Groove, but basically never has Gigaton Blow.

Worst - S/P: S-Balrog is a bit of a gimmick, just like any S-Groove character. Infinite level 1 Crazy Buffalo is pretty nice, as it solidifies his punishes a bit more, but he doesn't entirely need it. As a loss, he has to charge meter to have any threat of a super. Having to charge meter removes the threat of dash punches or Buffalo Headbutt in neutral, and leaves him open to punishment. This really sucks for Balrog, who can be a little more than reliant on a good super. Gigaton Blow is even rarer in S-Groove as well. P-Balrog is very hard to use, as you sacrifice charge to parry, meaning he can't get much of a punish. Situationally, you can parry a move and have enough time to charge for a Gigaton Blow punish, but this is rare and about the scariest thing P-Balrog has.

Balrog (Boxer) is a versatile character with good defense and offense, but lacking neutral. If he gets a solid punish on defense, he can go into powerful guard crush strings against his opponent and secure a win. However, if he never gets these, and is forced to play neutral all day, he struggles hard. Balrog is best in C-Groove.
Pros	Cons
Defense: Between two fast punishing supers, Buffalo Headbutt, and RC Dash Straight/Ground Straight, Balrog has plenty of defensive tools Offense: Balrog has great guard crush ability, with repeated Dash Upper's and stringing together normals Supers: Crazy Buffalo is a solid combo ender and punish super, and Gigaton Blow is it's expensive beefed up cousin with massive damage and great reach Damage: You can output quite a lot of damage with Balrog, especially if you have meter	Dash Straight: Being able to crouch under Dash Straight is a weakness that cannot be understated. By design, Dash Straight is the center of Balrog's neutral, and he always played around how the opponent would answer it. When half the cast can easily answer with zero risk to themselves by holding down, he loses access to his best tool, and has to go at it with much worse and riskier options. Most of his weaknesses have to do with this Neutral: He has a few solid buttons, but would really like to be able to Dash Straight in neutral, and without it he is very weak Matchup Dependency: This leads back in to his Dash Straight weakness, and makes him unreliable, as you can play much better in matchups against tall characters but much worse against short characters. Watch your opponents team to judge if Balrog is going to help you or hurt you more Meter Hungry: Balrog really likes having a super to threaten with, and this is a big reason he's mainly a C-Groove pick

Special Moves

Dash Punch

• Charge Back, Forward + Punch

Dash Uppercut

• Charge Back, Forward + Kick

Dash Lower

• Charge Back, Down-Forward + Punch

Dash Lower Uppercut

• Charge Back, Down-Forward + Kick

Buffalo Headbutt

• Charge Down, Up + Punch

Turn Punch

• Hold 3P or 3K, release

Super Moves

Crazy Buffalo

• Charge Back, Forward, Back, Forward + Punch
  • Balrog rushes forward and starts throwing a barrage of punches. 2800/4000/5100 damage, Crazy Buffalo is not safe on block and requires a grounded opponent. It does not work like Chang, Iori or Kim's super that sucks you into it. It is worth knowing that unlike most supers, CB has invincibility frames at all levels (9/15/23).

Gigaton Blow

• Charge Back, Forward, Back, Forward + Kick
  • Gigaton blow is a level 3 or max super meaning it cannot be done in A-groove. It is probably the most dangerous super in the game. There are 2 reasons for this. First off, it does massive damage weighing in at 6800. Second, it is the fastest super in the game in terms of distance traveled. Gigaton will punish almost every single special w/ recovery and will punish nearly all whiffed fierces and roundhouses. It will blow through nearly all projectiles as well due to its immense speed. Worth noting that it also has a -10 on block.
  • Gigaton will punish
    • Whiffed HP/HK's
    • Iori Rekka's
    • Hibiki QCF slashes on hit and block
    • Blanka Balls, Psycho Crushers, Scissor Kicks, Headbutts
    • Yamazaki Serpent Slash
    • Badly spaced Cannon Drills
    • Almost every single projectile (may get pegged by iori and guile's lp version)
    • Hard Edge
    • Oxford Red on hit and block
  • Gigaton will not punish
    • Sakura Hurricane Kicks
    • Blanka Electricity
    • Vega Balls
    • Properly spaced Cannon Drills
    • Crack Shoot

Advanced Strategy

Guard break FTW!!!

Match-ups

Characters who can't crouch Balrog's Dash Straight

• Capcom

E.Honda, Eagle, Sagat, Zangief, Dhalsim

• SNK

Kyo, Terry, Joe, Benimaru,Chang, Raiden, Geese, Yamazaki, Rugal

Characters who can crouch Balrog's standing Fierce

• Capcom

Cammy, Chun-Li, Vega, Sakura, Morrigan, Yun, Maki

• SNK

Hibiki, Rock, Iori, Athena, Mai, Kim, Vice, Yuri, Nakoruru

Rule of thumb, most of the girls can go under it, with King being an exception. Then you just add the short guys.

I need to do some more testing. If anybody can confirm more characters, that would be awesome. --Eddosan 02:36, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Faster to use the height chart, in Buktooth's system FAQ. Rog's st. HP hits height 64 and higher. Dash punch is 68 and higher.

--Viewtiful Elvis 06:26, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

For smaller characters than can duck underneath the standing Fierce, you can use standing Roundhouse, though it's roughly 1/3 shorter than the Fierce.

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