Hello. I’ve noticed something pretty interesting in my local scene, many of the players I play with don’t want to become top players. I thought this was a common goal for many FG players but it turns out that at least in my small world that it isn’t. Of the dudes I play with, 1 wants to be a TO (Power to him, check out his Tournament Dustbowl if you’re in Upstate NY or watch the stream :)) and some of the other dudes either don’t have the want and/or the time to really become a top player, they mostly travel to events for social reasons and/or semi-competitive fun. What about you, do you want to be a top player in a FG?
If I ever had a chance of being a top player, it was when I was a much younger kid like 10 years ago with nowhere near the amount of stuff I have to worry about now at the age of 22. I wish I could go back to the year 2000 and get into fighting games really hardcore, that way I wouldn’t have missed out on MvC 2 in its prime. Now that I’m in college and about to focus on a difficult major (Computer Hardware Engineering), I know I will never EVER have the time to even think about trying to be a top player. I don’t even think I have the talent for it anyway. I will just the the guy who wants to get as good as he can get w/ the time he has and try to enjoy the games as much as I can.
In my local scene we have a meetup once a week and most of the time I can’t even attend. Personally I find that it’s difficult to level up online due to the lag and I find it very frustrating. Getting your training done online is an ineffective method because lag is always an issue and if you play a character that is very reliant on links/setups you will get affected the most.
If I could practice offline everyday sure I would want to become a top player, but i’m not willing to spend hundreds of hours playing online for almost no benefits.
Being profecient at a figher, instead of being the best, would go along way in helping the FGC no matter what game is being played.
I just want to be able to make a living doing anything related to the genre I love.
I just want to improve. Learning is fun. If constantly improving eventually ends up being a top player then that’s that. I guess in a way being a top player is the goal, since to improve so much that you can’t improve anymore is to essentially be a top player, but that isn’t the direct goal, it’s just a matter of course.
However they are distinct in some ways. For example, if you have been playing a character for years and then switch characters (let’s assume it’s a weaker character to strengthen the argument, i.e this isn’t a tactical decision to cover bad matchups or anything; it’s just because you want too), then you are impeding your way to becoming a top player. But you can still learn and improve with the new character thus keeping the original reason you enjoy playing but still diverging from the path of becoming the very best.
Just to clarify my earlier post. For me, the goal is to be able to wake up one day and see that everything I’ve got for myself came from this love of fighting games. Becoming a top player and winning tournaments and getting sponsored and shizz is just one way to achieve that. But if I can’t do that, there are other ways that I can do so and there are other places where the community still needs growth in both as a scene and as an industry.
I’m pretty introverted. The thought of going to FG events sounds very stressful to me. I’d have to deal with all those people on top of the pressures of the competition. Even if I was one of the best players, I don’t know if I could do that more than 1-2 times. I’m definitely not saying that as an excuse though, I suck at games and I’ll openly admit that.
I don’t necessarily want to be a top player. I want to be as good as I can be, but I know I just don’t have the talent, the time, or the money for being a top tier player.
And with this thread people suddenly realize that the FGC is mostly a casual scene. The big difference with it being that it is composed of enthusiast who take playing the game seriously and which hold tournaments once in a while.
We are, in essence, domino players with significantly less class.
You should try and go anyways, we’re all nerds and a lot of us do have the same problems as you - you won’t be alone!
Also yeah, it would be great to be one of the very best, but at what cost to the rest of my life? The effort put in would probably too much for me. I’d rather support the scene and help others get there.
Love the honesty of the answers so far. For myself, I would like to be a Top Player but I realize being a top player takes a ton of work.
This is common. 90-98% of most regular tournaments consist of just average players who enjoy being part of the tourney experience. Out of the whole of the community, only a portion is willing to dedicate the time and effort to become a high-level player, out of those people, only another small percentage will actually go through with it and succeed.
Hate or love F.Champ if you want, but there’s no denying his dedication. The guy moved into a house full of high-level fighting game players, and practices on the daily to maintain and improve his skills. There’s no surprise that he’s won majors, despite his persona or attitude.
Which is why it’s ridiculous that people think we should cater to top-level players and improve their experience to grow the community. It makes zero sense to focus on the minor, minor few, in order to improve the whole. Every other established or growing sport, including e-sports, has much skewed “spectator-player-top player” ratio in favor of the formers. Growing the scene is about making it enjoyable for the first two, and the last point gets benefit when the first two decide to make their events bigger, and more profitable by attracting sponsors and attention, which will in turn bump up the payouts.
I did at one point. Held onto the dream for quite a while too, but I only was ever interested in being good at 3s and I’m sure its too late for that now.
I still miss the fire I had in the 3s days. KOF XIII is the next best thing though, I’m trying to get more heads into picking that game up
Also, I owe Issei a double perfect from the last time I had a set with him, so I’m still ready to hop in the game at any time even if I’m out of practice. Bastard is one tricky Yun, always got the kara command grab 
My goal right now is to stop sucking. Maybe someday I’ll want to be a top player and be willing to put in the time and effort to become one. But for now, I just want fundamentals.
Well yeah, but I mostly like older games and I don’t have the time or scene to do it anyway. I make do and just try to be the best among the group of people I do get to play with regularly.
My goal is to beat the people that beat me.
I hate losing but I don’t hate it because I despise my opponents or something, I hate losing because I know that I lose because of my own laziness and I enjoy the process of practicing and thinking that results out of this realization.
If that craving to win ever leads me to the point that only top players can beat me, then sure I want to be one.
Until then I’ll try not to get beaten up by <1000pp players too much 
Do I spend some my down/off practicing yes
Do I love it yes I even went to a small tournament and it was alright but I mostly do it for the laughs.
I do it for the cliche that it helps reflexes and critical thinking and the people I hang out with on weekends
I always thought being a top player was meant for certain people situation wise and getting into it at a younger age though lately in the games I love I end up meeting the best/top players in my area.
Those ass kickings really make me want to explore the game. If that leads to a dramatic improvement and a top spot ill take it.
but eh I like playing my friends mostly cause the rematch button doesnt have a limit and hilarity ensues
I wanted to be a top player when I started with SF2 CE as a young kid. At that time I had the motivation and the time, I was obsessed with that game (and subsequently SF2 turbo). Now I just play for fun.