“Footsies” is oldschool slang for the mid-range ground-based aspect of fighting game strategy. The ultimate goal is to control the flow of the match, bait the opponent into committing errors, and punish everything.
When i first found the tournament scene back in CvS days, i remember it took me a very long time to understand what players like Valle and Choi were doing on the ground to control the match. At first sight it seems like a bunch of spontaneous normal moves and pokes, but there’s a clear purpose behind each of them.
Nobody really talks about footsies in concrete terms because it’s seen as a complex and elusive subject. Hopefully these articles will help change that perception, because anyone who wants to compete at tournament level absolutely needs to know this stuff. You don’t have to use it but you have to be aware it exists.
Each installment covers three or four specific tactics which you can integrate into your gameplan to achieve practical results. Think of it like one of those chess books showing common situations and how to solve each one. If you absorb enough of these pieces, suddenly you’ll have a solid gameplan.
The sonichurricane site goes very in depth and they explain footsies in about 10 parts. You can find it here
One very good example of footsies is the Ryu mirror match that happened recently @ Southern California Regionals between Daigo Umehara and Alex Valle
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