I’ve played Street fighter 4 for almost 2 years now. The first year and a half I hardly played at all, barely knew how to do SRK on pad. The past 6 months I’ve put atleast 8-16 hours a week to play and consistently practice and play online. On my off time and even during long drives I’m either watching videos, reading strategies, and/or listening to guides. I’m only now able to do FADC’s properly and execute everything almost 100% without choking. However, every time i play this game i end up stopping hours later 10x more angry and frustrated as before i start. I try to play with fundamentals, properly blocking, playing footsies and punishing. however, I often lose to dumb strategies such as people who mash dp out of block strings, people who are constantly jumping randomly and beating my anti airs, etc. I understand that losing to things like this makes me a total scrub but I just don’t understand. sometimes things in this game seem so random and things just aren’t working the way the seem they’re supposed to. 6 months of hard work in this game and i can’t even get 1000PP in ranked online matches. execution isn’t really the problem in this game, it feels more like i just guess wrong on everything in this game and don’t understand what should be going through my head in these fights and just getting hit by randomness. how do I get over this, and how do i stay composed after playing 100 games and losing almost 70 of them? I’ve even considered posting gameplay on youtube with live commentary so that i can get critiqued and even look back on my old games but i fear the 100’s of comments calling me a scrub and that i should just quit. It’s hard enough continuing as it is.
Getting frustrated often makes players “thirsty”.
Chances are you get angry at the guy getting cheap DP’s in on you and angrier still when you miss their obvious jump-ins etc etc and you get more and more offensive in playstyle the more their bad form gets the better of you. Your best bet is to learn to identify the moments when you’re doing this and just throw in a backdash, turtle up for a second and get your composure, rather than trying to “teach them a lesson” or whatever. Let them hop around and mash specials and pick your moments, rather than letting your ego get the better of you, and trying to punish everything you see.
There’s a whole thread on SRK for video critiques:
[Beginner match analysis / gameplay critique thread
Ignore the Youtube comments and focus on the SRK comments.
Ignore your 30/70 W/L (even though it’s actually not too shabby for a first 100). Your first 100 matches in a fighting game don’t count, even when transitioning between the likes of SFIV,SSFIV,SSFIVAE2012 and USFIV. It’s like a breaking-in period.
Also, getting better at the fundamentals should be a byproduct of enjoying, taking interest in, and being fanatical about the game. Don’t play simply to be good.
Relax. 6 months isn’t very much time at all. You are playing against people who have been playing between 5-25 years. You are still a pup.
If you try to use focus attack on everything your going to take a lot of damage. You could try using pokes, people think only Makoto has pokes for some reason. Overall you’ll have to block a lot, hopefully you don’t lose to chip damage alone and maybe the other guy surprises you with a hit once in awhile. It is just a game after all, there isn’t absolute equilibrium so play as you want to. It may take you a long while to learn how to simply preform the motions of special moves, that is something I can understand.
Play offline so online tactics don’t work.
I’m on my first month still and believe me, I know how you feel. Sometimes I feel like ripping the disc out of my PS3 and throwing it out into the yard. In those moments, you have to just walk away, relax and come back later. I play a little in the morning before work and a little in the evening after work, that way I can get over any frustration from the morning by the time I try again and any frustration at night is gone after sleep and my morning routine. I have serious issues with games and getting angry so trust me when I say, I know how you feel and I know it’s frustrating. You just have to dust yourself off, look at how the fight went and try to overcome whatever you did wrong through practice. For every hour I spend online, I’ve spent 2 hours in training. Just keep it up and don’t give up. When you finally get “there,” and you’re kicking ass, you’ll be glad you kept going.
Also, don’t look at your winning history. Mine is pitiful, I’m new to fighters all around so yeah, I’ve lost 70 and won 3 and when I saw that, I seriously got depressed and almost quit. It isn’t about winning anyway, it’s about throwing down and having fun.
I’m in a similar boat. I started playing SF4 when it came out and lost interest for whatever reason. I ended up getting into smash for awhile and after playing in some tournaments found myself interested in Street Fighter again. I play about the same amount of time you do and lose nearly every game I play. It’s just part of the learning curve. Difficult games take a long time to get good at. It might help to get connected with other players in your region for offline practice too. I’ve been driving around the state for casuals and it’s a blast. You not only meet new people, but also get the chance for critique of your play as well.
thanks guys, this is actually my first srk post, but I feel like your replies helped a lot. I’ll give a lot of this a try. this advice is why the fgc is so awesome
Although I’m still ridiculously bad, I can give you some advice, I think:
There is no shame in losing. Just try to figure out what you did wrong and once you have some sort of idea, make an effort to prevent yourself from making that same mistake. If you keep getting jumped in on while you’re shooting fireballs, try baiting a jump by moving back and forth, and then anti-air it. Something like that. Recreate tough scenarios in training, and practice dealing with them (I’m currently practicing absorbing fireballs using Juri’s store, against Guile).
As soon as you solve one problem, another will appear. It’s just how it works. But it feels really good to get over those problems. So don’t get discouraged, because again, there is nothing wrong with losing, especially when you’re really new.
Also if you’ve got Ultra, the points are still settling as it were, not everyone picked it up and grinded to high PP on the first day, so its quite common when you’re a relative beginner (like me) to hit same skill and search, only to find the people you’re playing are way way above your skill, because they are still grinding the points themselves.
I ignore those games, if some guy gets a double perfect on me, they’re not worth me playing again, I make a mental note of their PSN ID and don’t play them again. If I find another player and we have a really good close game, those are the ones I’ll keep an eye out for and hope to play again, sometimes I’ll go 5 or 6 games with them, and because it’s close it can go either way and you actually feel like you’re improving =)
Personally…I would keep note of the players that double-perfect me.
I would use it as a motivator to get good enough to beat them the next time we cross paths online.
I haven’t gotten to 1000pp + yet either since Ultra came out. There’s still a lot of players with a lot of experience playing SF4 with low PP so it’s a bit more difficult for your PP to progress at the moment unless you specifically search for more skilled players to fight instead of risking PP against low PP veteran players.
I might heed my own advice and start searching for higher ranked players to improve my PP next time I play.
There are four links that I view as “critical resources” for players to have a sound conceptualization of Street Fighter.
Let me say this: 80% of Street Fighter happens in your head, 20% of it happens on the stick. Execution is rarely what holds people back. Execution can be grinded out; there is no magic potion or article to read that will substantially boost your execution, it only takes time. However, if you don’t have a proper conceptualization of the game, you will ALWAYS be spinning your wheels, because your head is not in the right place. Just the same, when something finally does “click” in your head, your game will improve immediately by leaps and bounds.
Two things are necessary IMO to making real progress. Truly, honestly understanding footsies is 100% necessary to achieveing success. Understanding what makes good reaction times is also important to improving.
Here are my four links:
Juicebox Footsie Video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQQCan5oo90
Footsies Handbook – http://sonichurricane.com/?page_id=1702
Reaction Speeds in Gaming – http://kayin.pyoko.org/?p=2047
Reaction Based Defense – http://shoryuken.com/2012/07/19/lost-strategy-series-quick-guide-to-reaction-based-defense-by-thelo/
Good luck!
these links are really good, I’ve been looking for videos like these. thanks so much
My pleasure man, if you play on PC feel free to add me – “bigpepper23” and I’ll show up on your list as Jester, I’ll answer any questions you have to the best of my ability.
It sounds like your fundamentals and execution may be okay, but you are losing the mental game. If you are getting beaten by DP mashing, don’t get mad… try to bait the DP and then block it for a punish. Or if you eat a brainless jump-in, on the next approach, space yourself for safety or an anti-air.
If you watch tourney matches, you’ll see that top players sometimes start a match by losing a round to an inferior player because they are in the process of figuring them out. Then they’ll wipe the floor with them, lol. The best don’t get frustrated or mad when they eat damage or lose a round to gimmicks…they adjust.
And even this is a habit or skill to work on. Lord knows I have been salty and frustrated A LOT. But learn to adjust to your opponent rather than getting pissed and you’ll come out much better for it.
You’re playing Sf4, frustration is part of the equation. shrug
Those links are amazing thanks been looking for some way to improve my overall gameplay
Those links fishchbs are a really good first step to being a truly solid player.
I came into SF4 with some experience in FG’s, but decided to take this game really seriously. Finding those articles really helped me out as a newbie to competitive Street Fighter.
A few extra things that are helpful:
Learn your match-ups. If there is a character who is bothering you, visit their boards to learn how the players think. You will be surprised how much insight this gives you in a match. Also, learn their moves and face them in training mode. Try to practice tactics to beat them, which is a little different from just learning combos and spacing. Make use of the recording function and try to practice countering specific situations.
If you can break your game down into little situations, you can start to develop consistency, and many aspects of the game will seem much less overwhelming. You can do this a number of different ways, like thinking about distances between characters - Full screen, mid range, close range - and learning how to be strong at each range. Think about earning your right to step forward by being able to counter jump ins from any range. If a character presents a different problem, earn your ground by being able to counter that specific issue.
The game presents some different problems, and it’s always going to be complicated because you have to consider your opponent’s ability to adjust and your ability to train them to expect certain things from you. One problem you might run into is beating reversal shoryken by Ryu (and reversals in general). This is a fundamental problem that everyone faces, so there is no simple solution but a range of acceptable solutions dependent on who you are playing against. You have to learn to weigh your options, and the first step to that is training yourself to have options in the first place.
One simple solution against players who will “always” mash srk on wakeup is to just get close to them, block, and punish. This is a simple guess, but consider risk/reward and know that blocking their reversal awards you more damage than they would be awarded by successfully hitting you. You can level up this tactic by understanding if you are blocking and they do not reversal on wake-up, that you are allowing them to initiate offense on you. So you can practice in training mode to get close enough to make them uncomfortable on wake-up, block for just long enough to be safe against uppercut, and throw if they do not uppercut. You will see this tactic used by many players as one option out of many to deal with srk. You can practice this by recording the computer to mash srk, sweep or throw the computer, and practice blocking just at the last possible moment.
I hope that was not to basic… anyway, the point is the counter to defeating reversals is baiting or otherwise doing something that is safe against those specific reversals. Patience and composure are necessary, but you must be able to consider multiple scenarios at once. So in training mode, practice block-strings but consider what the opponent can do during your openings. If they jump, I can react with this. If they reversal, am I safe? and so on. In many ways, this is a guessing game and you have to create situations where your opponent will guess wrong more than you will.
The fun really comes when you can command your opponent to keep blocking, or you play an opponent who is confident enough to block. Then you can really show off what you know.
I also suggest you learn to interpret frame data by going onto the srk wiki for street fighter. Learning frame data early on really helped me to develop my ability to make decisions. Just be careful not to be overly rigid about numbers as many frame data fanatics tend to be.