A term which came from the Virtua Fighter community, but, for various reasons, including David Sirlin's Web Articles/Book on
Playing to Win, it has spread to all fighting games.
Yomi is a Japanese term meaning "Knowing the mind of the opponent", and is
essentially an
intangible asset required in fighting games. It's the ability to know what your opponent is going to do, and act appropriately. Whether you achieve this by "conditioning" the opponent to act one way, and then acting in another way, or simply work your way into the head of your opponent, yomi is just that: the ability to know what your opponent is going to do.
I got owned by an insane Akuma rushdown. He kept
hitting me with flip throws and flip kicks, so I decided to shut him up with a wake up Shoryuken. He parried it and
punished with a
Raging Demon! Talk about yomi.