Here’s a question that’s been on my mind since I’ve started my training in SSF4. Does the success that a player has online reflect how good a person really is?
From my personal experience, I see people getting away with many things online that couldn’t be done in real-time. Partly bc of lag. I often lose to the scrubiest tactics online, such as option select tech throws not coming out, no okizeme (wakeup game) pressure, and wake-up ultras.
Can one rate their overall SSF4 skill based on their success online? I’m interested to know what you guys think…
I believe so. I’ve played SF4/SSF4 online 98% from not knowing much about the game. I haven’t entered too many tournaments but I can still hang at the arcade against most people. It’s mainly the atmosphere and mental game most of us who play online don’t really experience while playing online.
Lag is an issue to an extent, but I think most people will cherry pick lobbies/ranked matches with the best connection to play if they want the best experience. SF4 netcode isn’t GGPO quality, but it certainly is leaps and bounds better than MVC3 and MK9 combined right now. It’s sufficient enough to produce a lot of tournament killers we have been seeing the past two years.
Remember that GamerBee guy? If you read or watch some of his interviews, he plays online pretty much because there’s no arcade scene in Taiwan. The lag excuse can only go so far. Find some good players near your state and just friend request them if they have good connection.
Inb4 online doesn’t matter at all. Point boosters obviously don’t matter. But people who transition from online into offline gaming do. Online gaming nowadays is definitely a good starting point in getting better.
P.S. Practice, practice, practice. Even if you only have access to online.
It may be better than MvC3/MK9, but it’s not good…at all. I was able to get a lot better at ST by playing mostly on GGPO and HDR on XBL. With SF4, I’m able to level up online, but not nearly to the extent I could in those games. It depends who who play though and what your playstyle is. This game favors a lot of wait around, get a hard knockdown, run your shit. If you have that down and play a character that excels at that, online on this can help you level up a fair bit. If you rely more on footsies, reading your opponent, and responding to shit, then no…it kinda sucks.
Sure, but the online over there is good. In the US…not so much. Just watch the episodes of Excellent Adventures w/ Gamer Bee to see how awkward he feels playing online on our connections.
Depending of the connection, online is more anticipation than reaction.
Anyway, even offline,those things do work. Even in the big tournaments, you’ll see tick throws, wake up ultras, etc… Alioune threw Sako 3 or 4 times in a row on wake up at Beat By Contest…
It’s not the fault of the games netcode. It still works here for a lot of people. That’s the point. It’s fine.
Playing from Taiwan to Japan, the distance is about equivalent to me playing from NYC with someone in Florida. I’m fine playing people on the East Coast and and some midwest.
Don’t make stuff up. It’s not like they have magically better netcode over in Asia, they just don’t play people further out. So if you’re playing people from west coast while on that side of the states it’s going to be the same effect.
Most cases online gamers are just shit. That’s about it. If I’m better than them and they talk shit I would gladly remind them how worthless they are. Not how I prefer my online experience but that’s how things roll.
It comes down to simply savage bragging rights. Then you have your douche bags who provoke you then call you a nerd for winning. It just gets stupider dealing with these fuckers. Doesn’t matter if you care or not but if you lose even once, you’ll hear no end to their bull shitting pansy assed whining. You can’t even enjoy a game anymore.
When there’s a big enough difference you can say true skill, doesn’t matter. But there are a shit load of people out there, if you played the right games you would know there are more than a handful of really good players. But of course of you have a shit load more of nobodies who will remain nobodies.
The offline game is the superior game. It is the environment that the characters/movesets were evaluated in for balancing. It is an accurate representation of how the game designers meant for the game to be played.
The separation between online and offline gameplay is so significant that online SF4 deserves its own tier list.
Skill online only reflects how good you are online. It’s an entirely different game when you introduce lag into the equation. Timing for reaction windows shorten immensely under lag, which makes certain moves safe and punishing certain things impossible on reaction.
The only practical way to find out whether or not someone is good offline is to play them offline. While someone who’s good online can be good, even great, offline, you can’t know until you play them, can you.
It takes a while to get used to either if you only play in one or the other. Different strategies change their viability depending on the environment.
Speaking from my own personal experience, I get owned daily by certain players online over and over because I kept going for links and reactions that work only in offline settings. Even when I know they’re not going to connect in online play. When I finally got a chance to play the very same players at Evo2k10, those very same combos/links/reactions were at 98% accuracy where I was taking names and owning them instead.
At this point in time, I make sure I remind myself to steer clear of certain setups/combos/links in online matches. Especially if I’m trying to win.
Not really. Lots of shit don’t resolve properly online, even in a somewhat low-lag game. There are a lot of shenanigans that are a lot more effective online. Things that aren’t safe can become safe.
I wouldn’t say it dumbs down the game. Maybe that’s looking at it from a pessimistic point of view. Optimistically, it’s more of making yourself aware of the conditions that are being applied and making use of that knowledge in the best way possible.
Edit: In the end, it just boils down to one thing: How fast you are to adapting to whatever’s being thrown at you and how quickly you adjust to it.
When I can’t react to shoto jump in roundhouse + sweep. Or whiffed Ken LP SRK.
As for the real proper mixups if they work, will more than likely work online.
But I like reactionary play and hit confirms.
At least I can laugh it off in Marvel. But in SF? Nah. Still (very) fun to play if you’re not overly serious about it.
Lol @ online producing tournament killers. Gamerbee is a horrible example, not only does he have massive offline experience he has a much better connection with the Japanese then we do with each other. You level up playing offline like 50 times faster, if you have an offline scene there’s literally no reason to play online. Not to mention there are only a hand full of solid players that even play on PSN or XBL, so enjoy winning against a sea of scrubs it means nothing and gets you no better.
This is somewhat true. I find myself having to play some of the most retarded bait and punish games imaginable online, especially against Shoto characters. I KNOW that if I ever go to offline tournaments the player there aren’t going to be playing like that. Unfortunately for me online is all I have…
i know a guy who wins tourneys who would disagree with you. im not going to drop names, but ive watched this one player in particular go from average to running the midwest, dropping some heavy comp along the way
he got most of his exp playing online 24/7 and attending offline tourneys. i think he may have only been to 5-6 offline casual sessions outside of tourney play in the entire sf4 lifespan
you ask him how he got good, or how you can get good, and he says playing online. you cant dismiss that entirely
EDIT-not trying to call online an end all, but you can get better playing there