Ok, what purpose does it serve, and when SHOULD you use it. I just watched Tone's IL for DJ and he said "I'm not risking delay fist" at the end, so I am wondering, when SHOULD you do it, and what does it accomplish?

Oh, I see why you're confused. There's two versions of "delay fist" depending on the situation.

One kind of delay fist is the one everyone should know, which is slowing the SECOND fist of a cycle down in order to push octavio back farther and get a skip. If you don't know what I mean by this, watch how I get the delay fist skip in phase 2 of any%, as it is very clear what I'm doing and how it works.

The other kind is normal delay fist, which is just a minor time save on fist cycles that are NOT meant to be used for a delay fist skip. Normal delay fist is just delaying the FIRST fist of a fist cycle, that way the second fist comes out directly in front of you. If you hit the first fist of a normal fist cycle quickly, Octavio gets knocked back before the second fist comes out and the second fist has to travel a longer distance.

In my DJ IL I did not "risk delay fist" on the last parts of phase 5 because they were normal delay fists. I didn't want to risk delaying the first fist too much (since NG+ they move faster) and having it hit the floor. I was having a good run of the IL and I'd rather take a couple seconds time loss than add a whole cycle if I missed.

Alright, thanks for explaining. DJ is probably one my worst stages right up there with splatforms and sponges. Also thank you for the dj guide :D