Noticed a lot of people doing in in the past month, constantly AFKing on turn one, like they just hold/relax till turn 2?

Doesn't bother me much, still win/lose about the same amount of matches, just kinda a weird strat.

Discuss

Moved to off-topic. The topic doesn't exactly call for an intellectual debate.

Well, Since aikido/Aikido big dojo is not opener heavy, this strategy works very well sometimes. Especially for experienced players, they don't even care what they do on the first turn frame. Also, relaxing on the first turnframe in aikido can help you block a kick or a grab.

I agree in parts. But I also think that it is to surprise your enemy. A lot of the time, even me, will see the player AFK for turn one. And then think, oh, my kick won't mean anything since he is AFK. I'll just mess about. Then, SURPRISE! You attack on frame 2 and you they don't expect it. IT is kinda useful, but can get you stuck in some tricky situations.

It's a pretty hip move, man. No one cares about the kick-opener in (BD)aikido. It's all about relaxing all now.
But for real, it's a pretty legit strategy but it can be a gimmick at times. It almost always moves you into a defensive position, which is not always what you're aiming for. Just my personal experience.

It's really a matter of risk VS reward in my opinion.

True, and I don't see it going well for new players. I would recommend this technique for experienced players.

a lot of players who want to improve on their improvisation tend to do this because it can mean that you have to deal with being in a bad position, but at the same time holding/relaxing all can also stop opponents openers from being effective and can open up a lot of grab opportunities or torso hits.

the best example for this is tk where the majority of people will either open with a grab or a kick, if you hold all the first turn you can either counter grab and break their wrist if they grab, or if they kick you can either go for a knee grab or a kick that lands behind or under their kick which will usually break their leg. you just have to remember that this is very risky as some snap kicks will reach your lower torso on the second turn

I feel my opinion should be heard.

I actually do this quite often. It may seem like a new thing to you but I've done this on certain mods for about two years. I don't have a certain reasoning for doing so but it can help you. If you are more experienced and can tell what someone is going to do before they do it, that is a really good strategy. You can see what they are going after with grabs and if you relax you can lift them or push up to gain momentum. If you're talking about Aikido specifically, then there could be many reasons for going "AFK" on the first turn as stated above.

I don't play much toribash nowadays, but whenever I did I used to afk on the first turn, mainly because I found it was a great defense mechanism. It allowed me to see what the opposing player was planning to start off with, and the fact that I hadn't moved the limbs yet gave me time to dodge/defend their attack.

I'd still lose though.