Posture, back to the opponent.

The act of making movements or actions in a very visible way in order to provoke a certain reaction in the opponent and to punish that reaction.

A derivative of the term Balance of Power used to refer to all the characters in a game, while seeing whether certain characters are stronger or weaker, based on a large number of criteria. A good balance means that most or all characters are on an equal footing in the game, and that playing one against another does not give a significant advantage/disadvantage. If one or more characters have significant advantages over the rest of the cast, then this upsets the balance of the game, and these characters become cheated/broken/OP (= Over Powered)/other synonyms. The larger the cast, the more difficult it is to maintain a good balance.

When a character blocks or guards, they are in a defensive state that prevents them from taking damage from their opponent (or reduces it significantly in some titles). Usually guarding is done by pressing the back key relative to your opponent's position, but it can be linked to a button. In most games, there are two types of guard, high and low, each blocking some attacks but letting others through (high guard vulnerable to low attacks, low guard ineffective against air/overhead attacks). On most titles, it is possible to counter any type of guard with a chop. The Americans use the term block more, while the Japanese prefer to say guard. Some games also use the term defence, but they remain in the minority.

The reduced damage a player suffers from taking an attack while on guard. The amount of damage is usually extremely small, and in many games normal hits do not do Block Damage.

Stun on Guard: A move that gives the attacker frames of advance, even if the opponent is on guard, allowing a quick attack afterwards.

Time during which a fighter cannot change guard after blocking a move. This also represents the window of time during which it is possible to input a tech-it or a Guard Cancel (in Vampire Savior), and corresponds to the frames between the hit and the blockstun, where the character still can't act but is not repelled by the opponent's attack anymore.

A series of attacks that are blocked. This can be a combo where the defending player will try to block all the moves while the attacking player will try to open the guard and then hit confirm his move to launch a combo. Blockstrings provide multiple opportunities for attacking players to attempt mix-ups, and are essential for pressing the opponent. If a Blockstring has no space where the opponent can recover from the Block Stun, then it is a "True Blockstring" and the opponent can do nothing unless they use actions that may be present, such as Guard Cancel. It is sometimes a good idea to try Block Strings with spaces, as these allow the use of tick throws and frame traps.

A particular type of normal move in the King of Fighters series, also known as CD Attacks. These attacks are performed by pressing C and D while jumping or standing, but cannot be performed while crouching. All characters can use CD Attacks except May Lee when she is in Hero Mode (she can just throw a standing CD and not a flying one, which works differently to other CD attacks). Most CD attacks thrown from the ground can be cancelled, in different ways depending on your character. For some, it will be by throwing a super, and for others, by using basic attacks. The Guard Cancel Blow Away Attack (Guard Cancel CD Attack) can only be used if someone is blocking while standing. They do less damage than Blow Away Attacks with often a visual difference, and cannot be cancelled.

A tactic that consists of overloading the opponent with blows without giving him time to react in order to push him to the fault. This term can also refer to the fact of frantically pressing a key to trigger its action on the first frame where the character returns to the neutral position.

Reference to a Bread and Butter combo or technique for a character. Generally, the use of this technique or combo will be ubiquitous and highly recommended due to its effectiveness, versatility and ease of execution. First applied to the Street Fighter 2 series, this term has been democratised over time, and can now also refer to the auto combos of certain titles.

This term can apply to both a character and an attack. A character or technique is considered broken if the majority or even the entire cast has no effective response to counter it. A broken character or technique may be banned from tournaments. Unfortunately, this term is often taken out of context. The first reason is that players use it as soon as a game is released when they just haven't found the effective answers to that character/technique yet. The other reason is that some use it when the technique/character is judged by a player to be broken even though it is not unbeatable (in this case, the term broken is synonymous with easy to use).

Allows you to enter a command while your character is performing another action, so that this command is executed as soon as your character can (all this with a certain timing). This allows you to enter commands in advance so that the sequence of actions can be carried out as quickly as possible.

Most of the time, this term refers to a defensive technique that a player can use by taking a hit or blocking. The Burst can stop most combos and blockstrings, and often has a gauge assigned to it, as in Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator 2.

Pressing all the buttons like a maniac. Some games, such as the BlazBlue series, have options to auto-combo with this technique. The term can also be used when you have to hammer buttons quickly to gain an advantage, such as the Weapon Clash in the Samurai Showdown series, or having to press Sean's punch like crazy to increase the damage of his Shoryu Cannon in Street Fighter III. Mashing buttons can also be useful defensively, to recover faster from a stun for example, or to avoid certain combos like Magneto's Magnetic Tempest in Marvel vs Capcom 2. When a player tries to mash, they often move their hand to mash all the buttons at once.