as a first character hes doable, but when he starts the round off with a bar or 2 and some drivecancel bars hes pretty much op. one combo, your dead. only have to wait till times reaches the 50 something mark and its on. if you got a good raiden this is pretty doable, you only sacrifice your command throw and roll, blowbackattack.
Mind you, if he's starting the round with 2 bars and drive cancels, that means it is
2 bars and drive cancels that his first (two) characters didn't use. Realistically, by the time you got to Raiden you were in the lead, Raiden will even it up one character or two characters by burning his stocks/cancels, and you'll fight Raiden on even terms for the final round. A clearer example would be the people who have 5 stock and full cancel gauge by the last round is probably because his first two characters didn't use any or barely any.
It's hard to see how the stock usage dynamics come to play without playing the game...4leaf is very popular for doing Shen's 95+% combo on us in the 5th round (using 5 stocks, full cancel gauge)--
but it makes sense coz he doesn't use much stocks+gauge during the first 4 rounds so it kinda balances out. If you've played kof2K it was
somewhat similar with striker usage.
Just my 2 cents.