@Matt: Do you feel engaged in a match, mentally? I know this is something that I’ve really been trying to keep “turned on” when I play. I would be inclined to say that you’re spacing out and perhaps relying on your experience to bring you through. As you said, you’ve played GG a long time so you probably have some go to strategies that you sit back on. Perhaps breaking the mold is in order?
Matchup strategy is pretty clear, but maintaining focus throughout a match is what I find, for me, makes a whole lot of difference in play quality. You have this general idea of what you’ll be doing but you also need to be flexible, or malleable, in how you approach any match you play.
I believe what your problem may be is a lack of reflection upon your matches. This is due to you not remembering what exactly you were trying to do. So, if I were in your shoes, I would make a very conscious effort to remember what I’m doing in a match. Even if this makes me slow down at first and lose it would be worth it. This is because I would be gaining match experience while having my entire mind engaged; as more experience with the switch “turned on” is gained I will be able to speed myself up.
As far as you not being at a required intelligence level, I don’t think that’s the case. I feel like remembering your match is one type of intelligence that everyone can work on in fighting games. Some may just be better at it than others. If you just blow through without remembering anything, then you won’t learn anything beyond reflexive motions. Work on the fault, remembering and subsequently analyzing your match, and I think you’ll begin to find yourself moving to the next plateau.
@Kyle: I think having some more community unity on traveling would be a good idea. Players don’t need to sit in the same room all night, like you and Matt said, but it would be nice to be able to have a “travel group”. That way we wouldn’t have to rely solely on playing only the people around here in Cincy/Dayton (like Diego suggests) but travel to out of state events would be easier.
I’m actually trying to get something new off the ground to encourage travel between the Midwest states. We’ll see where it goes. I believe it would help the MW players level up by being able to increase experience and regional inter-competitiveness.
@Adam: I’m definitely interested in your community issue post. If you’ll be at the arcade this Thursday or Saturday I’ll probably just ask you what’s on your mind in person. I’m always down for that kind of discussion and hopefully it will lead to action.
@Quentin: How’d you make Gootecks ragequit? XD
And oh! Speaking of my match with Andre in SSFIV. I was actively engaged during the match, but he knew things I did not and outplayed me. I can look at the match and remember a few parts, but the most important things are: jumping in on Chun requires specific spacing and I need to learn better normals against Chun as Honda.
So I come away with a reflection for improving my gameplay! Just tying in with what I mentioned to Matt earlier. I know as a relatively inexperienced competitive player I should be learning things all the time, but even once I reach a plateau I feel like self-reflection and challenge are the best ways to improve.
And finally, my pre-game ritual is two-fold:
Make sure I go to the bathroom. (I am completely serious)
Take a few deep breaths after I shake hands with my opponent and then focus on the game and nothing else.
I actually had a very interesting conversation with Derrick as I drove him back from SBR. We talked about nutrition while at a tournament. Maybe dehydration or lack of food also affects your performance.