The elite of the characters in a game, a top tier that has no unfavourable match-ups.

Grapplers are characters designed around their command throws. They are generally quite large and not very mobile, have above average hit points and their moves deal a lot of damage, with good range. Choppers often have armour hits, and techniques involving 360s and 720s.

A technique that consists of removing small bits of life with special blows and/or furies carried in the opponent's guard, particularly useful to finish off an opponent close to a knockout.

The act of blowing up the opponent's guard by putting enough blows in, does not hurt the opponent but creates an opening.

Action to cancel during his Block Stun with another move to counterattack. There are many Guard Cancels in The King of Fighters series, cancelling the blockstun and allowing the defender to hit the attacker at the cost of a little Super gauge. The CD Guard Cancel (see Blow Away Attack) allows the defender to knock the opponent down, stopping the blocking animation to launch a low damage CD attack at the cost of an energy bar (which can be cancelled in some cases, allowing the defender to start a combo), while the Guard Cancel Emergency Evade allows the defender to roll forward or backward to evade and punish the attacker if he can hit him during his recovery time. In other SNK games and in the Street Fighter series, the attacker can overcome this defence by using special moves, Super, Alpha Counters and similar actions. Systems such as Guilty Gear XX add Dead Angle Attacks, in which the defender presses forward and two buttons (except Dust) to get out of the Block Stun and attack to push the opponent back (although Dead Angles are blockable against 50% tension [Super bar in the Guilty Gear series]). In the Rival Schools series, these moves are called Tardy Counters.
In some games, this is the action of an attacking player to instantly stop their attack using the guard button. This can be used multiple times to instantly switch to other attacks without recovery.

Literally offensive guard or Guard Impact. Defence, parry to repel an attack. The 6G or 3G command must be made within 2 or 3 frames of the moment the opponent is to hit. Recognisable by a green flash. An impact allows you to repel an attack without suffering any damage, but inflicting damage to the opponent's soul gauge.

This term has two meanings. The most common is that it is a gauge that decreases when the player blocks attacks and fills up over time and/or when the player goes on the offensive. When this gauge is empty, a player is Guard Crush and can no longer defend. In some games, if a player suffers too many Guard Crushes, then they can no longer block at all. Like low attacks, and overhead, this mechanic is there to prevent turtling.
In other games like Guilty Gear, the Guard Meter fills up when the player blocks, and the more it fills up, the more damage the player will take from all attacks (including Chip Damage).