I think it’s a combination of both. Natural talent helps a lot when learning fighting games, or even excelling as a top player, but nothing will ever replace hard work. You can have the best reactions and a God-given ability to work an arcade stick, but if you don’t put in the time and effort to understand the game engine, how to use your character, how to develop solid strategies, and how to fight your best and worst matchups, you won’t get very far. Hard work is the universal trait among top players. Nobody became godlike overnight, they all put in the work at some point to get to where they are now. Even Tomo, supposedly the best SF player in the States, had to dedicate most of his days playing fighting games in order to compete at the highest levels.
Whether or not it’s a “waste of time” depends on your goals. Now if you’ve forsaken your friends, family, school, and job to become the best, you’re probably correct in that its a waste of time. But so long as you’re able to balance your life in a variety of aspects, and still maintain a passion to become the best at fighting games, then it’s not a waste. We all know ways in which video games can actually be an extremely positive influence in our lives, and only recently are we starting to see more scientific studies in this case. I just believe that the older generation don’t understand video games, a majority of them didn’t grow up with it, and so when they watch us play, they see zombies staring at a screen and pressing buttons. They can understand things like investing time into playing the guitar, or playing sports, because they had that stuff growing up, and so they can relate to it. Video games are a fairly new phenomenon, and with all new forms of media and entertainment, it will be hated and misunderstood by the previous generations.
But Phelps’ been training since he was ten years old right?
Tonight we shall have a gathering. Anyone and everyone is invited. The more the merrier. I’ll be going around to collect the E fee. So please have it ready when I ask for it. Anyone new who wishes to join us please text me at 310 344 9367.
Not sure if sarcasm. Didn’t Phelps recently win gold over Lochte’s silver?
It’s not like Phelps is just some lazy-ass who decided to try out for the Olympics. He’s also put in the hard work as well. I think at the Olympic level, you’ll need a bit of genetic advantage + hard work in order to take a podium finish. Both athletes are competing at the peak of their physical fitness, regardless of their natural talet and hard work ratio.
No, it was definitely sarcasm if the “AMIRITE” didn’t give it away. I can feel for Lochte who had spent more time training for this Olypmic run than Phelps did. Remember, Phelps admitted to training for this years Olympics for only six months. Lochte spent more time, and I’d dare say that’s why Lochte had a chip on his shoulder about Phelps.
It’s just difficult to swallow when people go “I don’t need to train, I’m just that damned good” and then they actually prove it when you spend so much time practicing for it, putting in the time, and then just come up a wee bit short behind the person who didn’t train as hard as you did.
It’s still a huge argument, raw talent vs hard work + dedication.
Sarcasm is difficult to detect online, at least for me. Some people are serious but are actually joking, or joking and are actually serious, sarcastic but only playfully sarcastic and they’re serious.
Well, at the end of the day, you are limited at a genetic level as to what you can accomplish. That being said, hard work operates on the idea that you’re trying to reach the limit of your genetic ability, which is necessary of all top-level competitors, but at the very highest levels of athletic competition, some are going to stand out more than others.
It’s similar to debates on whether or not it’s better to counterpick in fighting games, or maintain loyalty with a single character. This line of discussion can also extends to whether or not everyone can be a top-level player, and if so, are they able to just will themselves into being the absolute best of their generation?
Oh I definitely understand where the debates lie and how it’s applicable to our community. I’ll flat out admit that I believe that there are just people who will not make it to the top, no matter how much time and effort they put in. Some people just get things better and see things cleared than others, and as you said, they will stand out more.
I try to make my sarcasm as obvious as possible. I just… forgot to put a random trolly emote to go with it this time. OOPS. And I’ll also say, some wills are just meant to be broken now how much they try to force themselves to the top. Will never happen.
In the 60 minutes interview I saw Phelps has been training since he was 10 years old. So that’s been 16 years of hard training. He’s definately burnt out. But all that hard training and competing for that long gave him good muscle memory. He definately earned it. But he’s bored and burnt out. Hence why this is his last run. Imagine all your life is just swimming for 16 years, definately bored by now.
Another example is Tony Hawk who never stopped skating. He even skated during the time it wasn’t cool. My Uncle use to skate with the Z boys and Tony Hawk was just a little kid in the scene. From then on he never stopped skating. My Uncle use to be good too and won some tournaments. He was way better than Tony Hawk but he gave Tony Hawk all the success he has today because he never stopped skating. When Tony Hawk became an adult, he never let real life take away his skating.
My point is, it’s just over a long period of time they’ve been training. And that training coincided with the development of their bodies. So everything became second nature.
GGs all. Can’t say that this evening was my best. Grant and Alax were playing really well, but I’ve played them hundreds of times, so nothing really surprises me with them, anymore. At the same time, every time I lost, I felt like I didn’t put in the effort. Even when I won, I felt like I didn’t earn the wins. I think now, with the amount of things I’ve learned from playing 3s and other games, I’m starting to notice that I don’t actually “know” what I want when I play. I don’t mean the reasons why I play, but how I play, in general. I’ll get the momentum/hit, but I don’t do anything with it. I improv mix-ups on the fly, but I don’t follow up with a plan to keep you locked in. I bait techs all day, something Grant doesn’t do as good as I can (throwing on reaction is his bad habit), but I don’t have situational awareness after conditioning. It’s a bit discouraging, I guess, because I don’t really know what to do, and my victories feel so incredibly hollow to the point where I want to quit.
What REALLY bothers me is my win/lose patterns. Lose almost 12 times in a row to Ken with Akuma, Ibuki, and Urien. Okay. Pick Ryu – take a game convincingly. What? Go back to Ibuki to play against Ken – 4 win streak. Uh, why I am consistent now? Play against Makoto with Ibuki, read 70% of everything, avoid the counter hits, streak once or twice, get blown up by shenanigans – the typical 12/Karafail metagame. This may sound like I got comfortable, but I never was. Again, Grants a great player. He works hard to improve, and beating him isn’t the easiest thing to do in the world. However, I let him get away with a lot, and I could never play off of his mistakes thoroughly. When I do, I usually win, and vice versa. Regardless, I had no rhyme or reason during this session. So what if he doesn’t block high one random time and eats 25% of his life? Doesn’t mean I have a plan if he blocks, especially if I’m burning bar. So my 50/50 gets him. Yay. How often will that land? Playing more people is the solution, I know, but I need to wrap my head around some kind of focus or intention. There’s a piece of the puzzle that I’m not seeing yet in the game that I KNOW is there.
tl;dr: GGs. “What am I fighting foooor?!” said Zero.
Thank you everyone for joining last Freitag. We had eight people. Interesting night. Half of the guys were playing while the other half was discussing hardware and looking into my machines. It was like a mini tech conventions lol. All good. I learned a lot.
Another good thing about last Friday was the guys are finally moving into the next millenium and getting into KOF. It looks promising and I hope it continues so we can have our own KOF scene. Look out Cafe ID, here we come.
Thank you ALAX, Mr.12. Karafail, John, Jason, Lee, Rufus, and Brian.
Thank you everyone and let’s try this on Friday again.
I don’t think there’s a “right way” to play a fighting game. IMO it basically comes down to two things: Developing your own style and winning with that style. There’s no such thing as a perfect style, you just commit to one and try your best to win with it. If you want a pretty style you develop it so you can win with it. If you want an easy style, you do that. Of course you’re gonna hit a wall and plateau but you got to play through it so you can further evolve your gameplay. And have fun too.
Tomorrow we shall have a gathering. Everyone and anyone is invited. The more the merrier.
KOFXIII is updated with all the characters and patches. But I don’t know if Mai, King, or Vice still have their patches:p
Well we have a group here that’s ethusiastic about KOFXIII. They were inspired after EVO. Hopefully our scene will get better and expand. If I see progress, I’ll add another KOF setup.
Tonight we shall have a gathering. Anyone and everyone is invited. The more the merrier. I’ll be going around to collect the E fee so please have it ready when I ask for it. Anyone new who wishes to join us please text me at 310 344 9367.
GGs all. I had a lot of fun against Ed’s Urien and company. Smart stuff. I also thoroughly, without any shame, enjoyed bodying you, Don. Thoroughly. I don’t care if you came back towards the end. I put you on notice HARD, son. Luckily, no small children were present to witness such a violation of another person. /ego stroking
Which one of you nerds texted me about going? I didn’t see the message till 1AM and I didn’t wanna reply and risk waking you up. LENIN, WAS DAT YOU? HAD TO BE, YOU SCRUB. >:[
… I’m sorry I didn’t see your message, forgive me!
Awww you made Dander miss out on a lot of weed. My homie from Palm Springs had Amsterdam in his pocket:P
Thank you everyone for joining us on Friday. It was fun and funny. We had twelve people. Thank you Dan, Karafail, Lee, Mr. 12, Jason, Brian, Cianar, Ryan, Amed, ALAX, and Muraz. Thank you all and let’s do this again on Friday.
Mr. 12: You don’t know it but you’re falling into my plan Moohahahahahahaha.