Kukgi

Ah kukgi… my best friend when I’m playing a scorer (usually that means a SF). Other than kukgi I really can’t do anything else to score points hahaha… There are many things you will need to learn before performing the perfect kukgi. Nonetheless, even if you learn everything needed to perform kukgi, you can still fail miserably without a good PG passing you the ball… 

SHOOTING

You need to learn how to shoot the ball without doing that weird long motion jumper animation… this is done by inputting the correct arrow key when shooting. Please refer to the diagram above when reading this section. For example, you will need to press and hold the UP arrow key when shooting if you are in the green colored area. Same idea if you are in the blue colored area; you will need to press and hold the LEFT arrow key when shooting. 

RIDING THE PASS

This is when you quickly change direction of your running when the ball is being passed to you. It can be achieved when you anticipate the pass and change direction as soon as the other person passes you the ball. This can be a lot harder than it sounds because if your timing is off, it can mean serious trouble. For example, let’s say you are running LEFT across the court; you anticipate the pass from the PG and quickly run DOWN as soon as the PG passes you the ball. The perfect scenario for riding the pass is you are changing direction while the ball is in the air. Once you touch the ball and dribble with it, you are no longer riding the pass.

The thing that distinguishes good kukgi users from the rest is how they ride the pass. Most people just do something predictable like changing from running UP to running LEFT; this is called single input. Experienced kukgi users can do all sorts of directional changes such as riding the pass in a diagonal line by using button combinations like DOWN&LEFT. You should not limit yourself to just horizontal or vertical directional changes but open it up to EVERYTHING! Some people even ride the pass in a circle pattern using three buttons: LEFT&DOWN&RIGHT. It depends on the situation that requires you to adjust the direction of your path.

RIDING THE PASS + SHOOTING = KUKGI

If you put what you have learned on how to shoot with how to ride the pass, you have kukgi. So let me run through an example of a kukgi shot for you (please refer to the diagram):

Start of possession, you are SF and start of the left side, you run up to the green area, you anticipate the pass from the PG, you quickly change direction and run diagonally down and to the left (using both arrow keys DOWN&LEFT), you get the ball and notice that you are still in the green area, you hold up and press D to shoot.

***some final thoughts***   

• Kukgi is not unblockable.
• The better you anticipate the pass and ride it, the harder it is for people to block your kukgi.
• If your PG passes to you using under hand style, your kukgi is harder to block.
• Kukgi does not make your shot go in 100%
• If you find yourself dribbling with the ball, you are no longer doing kukgi.