Monroe

There are quite a few players in the Chicago area. May try reaching out to Tenguman (easier to do on on Discord). I think at least one 5-player team representing Illinois for a team tournament in St. Louis.

Try the El Blaze Dojo forums. Forums>Dojo>El Blaze
https://virtuafighter.com/forums/el-blaze.79/

You can't break catch throws, they usually slower and some have options to a follow up (another throw), but that one it is breakable and can beat attacks but it only works on the last frames of the catch throw.

I'm guessing this is exclusive to grapplers? Is there a way to tell which throws are catch throws in the command list? Are there any down sides to catch throws other than being slow? I'm a DoA player and we call them offensive holds, and similarly, they beat attacks. The downside is they are slow but also lose to throws.

Not grappler exclusive. e.g. Shun Di has several, mostly out of stances. Lion has one. If a stance has a throw option, it's almost certainly a catch throw. I don't think the in game command list specifies, though if you set the CPU to break all and they still get thrown, you'll know. The VFDC movelists classify throws as HT (high throw), LT (low throw), or HCT (high catch throw), etc.

ahh okay, thanks for the clarification!

https://virtuafighter.com/wiki/movement/#from-crouch-moves

Buffer a crouch dash, backwards or forwards works.

Here is Juicebox tutorial recently made - https://virtuafighter.com/threads/juicebox-vf5-r-e-v-o-tutorial-series.22195/

Approximately a year ago I went over the lazy throw escape method on my live stream. Edited video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdzszaQ_ycc

The important thing to learn is to "guard throw escape," otherwise known as "lazy throw escape" or "lazy tech."

Here is a link to the wiki section that describes it:
https://virtuafighter.com/wiki/throw-escapes/#guarding-throw-escape

Basically, in VF throw escapes are preemptive, not a reaction. You break throws because you did the escape before the throw hit, not because you entered the escape after seeing a throw.