Foxbot
[09] Warrior
VC...
Let me elaborate; VC is what killed the game. The game itself was good. Fast paced, a little more offensive (since that was the direction that namco was going into) X's 66A+B was overpowered, but not terribly broken.
Now asta's VC ability, lol. Let me explain it like this
Asta actually have 2A+K OR 2B+K throw. In which you can break. However, if you broke the throw, i can VC and get a FREE 4. Bullrush was pretty much unsteppable. His B throw was literally half life. And that was just asta's beefy nonsense. Sisters were good, X was good, Mitsu was upper mid, Zas was hella good (even tho he's only like 5 moves)
soooooo.....it wasn't terribly too bad. Just a few idiots tried to run a national tournamnet and failed us miserably.
Hmmm ... what?
To make sure we're all on the same page, let's talk about the US version of SC3 because all three versions are different.
The most ridiculous character-specific VCs are, imo, Lizardman's command throw VC (RO from anywhere), Setsuka's B throw VC (150+ damage, way more if you can do ag:B combo), and Mitsu's 22B VC (half life or a million + frames). The other ones are not close in terms of power. Zas's command throw is strong, but every Zas player would trade it for X's 66A+B~G. Then you have these VCs don't matter too much. Both sides can VC for Sophie's B throw follow-up break VC, and you can choose not to break Asta's 2A+K and 1A+G (by the way, I never understand why you guys were going for 4 when you can do 22B4 6B:236B+G easily ...) Lizardman's stance VC was cool because his stance game
Then you have these universal VCs, throw-break VC, GI VC, BT throw VC, Back throw VC, which are all technically stronger than character-specific ones but no one really took advantages of these except for maybe Omega and his lightning-fast reaction to GI VC then AA, but Omega could win without VC anyway.
I am not trying to say VC is a glorious thing, it isn't, and it did scare away many new players, but I wouldn't say it kill the game. SC2 was equally glitchy really, and it was very popular.
VCs are all bad but in practice, not as bad as poor character balance. I thought it was funny that you mentioned the sisters, Asta (and Zas !?) but not Setsuka ... even then, you see characters from top to mid tiers compete and do well in tournaments, so obviously poor character balance didn't kill the game.
And SC3 nats was much better than SC4 from what I read. Still then XCTU and DancingFightG were just trying to contribute without asking for too much.
In the end, what was killing SC3 is the same thing that is killing SC4 ...