Dream of becoming Pro in Fighting Games

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
61

Most of the important things here have been said, so I’ll chime in with some thoughts of my own.

Back when I was 17, I had no fucking idea what I wanted to do. I spent most of my time playing video games, and imagined I would be working in something related to programming or video games, because those things were the only things that interested me at the time.

Then, I found out what I wanted to study at the age of 18, purely by accident. It wasn’t a field that was even remotely on my radar before I stumbled over it, but long story short: I’m now delivering my master thesis in molecular biology this October.
And, also interestingly, I’ve also discovered several other fields I now think seem really cool, but thought seemed like a total waste of time back when I was a teenager. I thought mathematics, physics and finance all were really boring six years ago, but now these things actually seem interesting.

The point here? My perspective of what I think is interesting has changed completely over just a few years, and the same thing is probably going to happen to you. You’re a teenager. You’re practically still a kid. Things will change.

As for the fighting game-thing? I started playing SF a month or two before I made an account on SRK, and has spent a lot of time on them. I can honestly say I didn’t understand squat about fighting games before about 10 months ago. I thought I did, but I really didn’t. Yet I’ve already gotten better than I thought I’d ever be when I started playing, I’m still learning new things whenever I play, and I still know that I have practically no chance of making a living out of this. Nor would I want to. I love playing fighting games on my spare time, I’ve met a lot of cool people in the FGC, but making a job out of this would ruin everything.

My two cents on this.

edit: also, one last point: last year, I went to a CPT-event where Luffy was attending. This was in the post-EVO months where he was on a hot streak and won absolutely everything he entered, and made good money while grinding Pro Points for the CPT. One of my friends talked to him a bit, and at one point during the conversation he asked him “So do you still enjoy playing SF4?”

His answer was a straight-up “No”.

62

i remember back in the early 2000’s when i was in the top 10 in the uk at 3s ranking battles, i actually really didn’t enjoy playing 3s so i gave up and started playing what i actually liked and i never looked back. ultimately even if i had been number one, who was HKC at the time, it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference, so what i’m the best 3s, big deal rather not have wasted my time if i’m being honest

63

To put 90% of posts in a couple of sentences…

Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
As much as you think they won’t now, you’re interests are likely going to change over the course of the next few years.

64

Replying to everyone individually would take up an entire page, so I’ll do my best with this method instead.

Firstly, I appreciate you guys for sharing your own life stories. I suppose it shows a different perspective as well as shows what could have happened if you guys didn’t wise-up, and I get it. Competing in fighting games is not considered a viable career yet as very few people in the world are currently able to do it. And while I knew this before posting here, I believed I could make it happen if I worked hard enough to make a big name for myself, but everyone here keeps telling me otherwise. I also understand the fact turning fighting games into a career could “potentially” ruin the experience for someone. For myself personally, I think it would make it a hell of a lot more stressful when I lose than it is now if I’m not comfortable with playing at the top level, but I don’t think I wouldn’t have any fun at all playing them. As for my interests drastically expanding? I really doubt that would happen, and while I know many of you would disagree with me, I stand by my words. I wouldn’t exactly say I’m officially set in my ways, interests and beliefs, but I sure as darn well know the direction of things I take interest in within this world, and it would take almost the impossible to expand them to such a degree as Naeras brought up; much on the same level as it would take for me to make a living competing in fighting games, if that helps you understand better.

To clear up a certain supposed misconception, my OP wasn’t meant to be some “flowery post” on my dreams and goals, it was meant to be addressed to any kind soul that happened to have a lot of knowledge on street fighter and was willing to share their knowledge with me so I could understand what I’ve been doing wrong and effectively improve myself in-game. I only stated my ambitions because I thought people would be more willing to share their advice with me if they knew my back-story. I’m not here to get attention and try to “wow” people with my dreams and essentially be all talk while reaping the benefits before sowing them and quitting a couple weeks later. I simply want to get better and I’m pretty darn serious about that.

I’ve been thinking a lot on what everyone’s been saying, and perhaps I might try to go back and pursue one of the career paths I left behind. I’m not entirely sure yet, but if I were to do this it would most likely be Journalism or an Artist. I honestly feel like journalism is within my reach more, as I’m already a pretty competent writer(although my “fangs” have been dulled from not using them often, so to speak), and I’m also really interested in reviewing foreign games from Japan and Korea(meaning I would have to learn those languages as well) as a hobby, so those would go hand in hand. As for art, I’m really intimidated about even thinking about trying to be an artist. Seriously, it feels like it was a traumatic experience a few years ago when I kept trying to be an artist. I’m very scared to go back there.

And no, I’m not joining the Marine Corps.

65

Play constanly if you wanna be pro. I’m talking like 8 to 13 hours a day. But make sure you have a decent job as well in life. Don’t get a job that’s totally depressing but try to find one that you are interested in and you’ll be making money for yourself and playing games as a hobby. Just do that my man and if you make it, never quit your job btw. More money for you if you make it lol. Good luck

66

Glad to hear you’ve given it a bit more thought!

You don’t have to just limit yourself to just one career choice, either. Ill give you an example.

In addition to playing fighting games recreationally, I’m a published photographer (one of my pictures can be seen in my avatar) a hobbyist author, an Entrepreneur, with multiple streams of income and I also hold down a full time job.

My point is, that all of the things I considered secondary to my lifestyle choices, while growing up, have now turned into money making ventures. To be fair, I never would have thought that I do could half the things I do now If I hadn’t gone through the experience of bumming about in the FGC for a little more 15 years. You can learn loads about what makes you tick… if you meet the right people.

67

Yesterday you were set on betting your whole life on being a pro fighter. Today you’ve reconsidered your entire life plans. Tomorrow you’ll want to be a transformer.

God I’m glad I’m not a teenager. Too much drama.

68

If you want help at Street Fighter, first pick your character - if you don’t know the “Street Fighter” fundamentals I would pick Ryu. Go on YouTube and look up VesperArcade and see his Street Fighter tutorial, it is heavily extensive and well structured and covers a lot of aspects in the game.

Before you can run, you gotta walk. If you’re playing Makoto before anybody else, STOP. Makoto will not teach you the beginner knowledge required to “Level up” you’re gonna need the foundations of a solid game before moving into Makoto town, that’s when Makoto gets very deadly; when backed up by some solid fundamentals. Go watch VesperArcades tutorial, boot up training mode and train everything he covers until you feel 100% comfortable doing it. Also, make sure your inputs are CLEAN. Fireball motion? Make sure it’s D,DF,F exactly. Don’t get messy inputs, it breeds bad execution.

After you’re finished up with that tutorial head on over to the character sub-forum and work on match-up/character specific knowledge.

Next thing to do after you’ve got the fundamentals(This process could take roughly a week to really drill into your head, maybe longer) IT’S TIME TO COVER OPTION SELECTS AND FRAME DATA WOOHOO! Option selects are by far one of the most important defensive and offensive tools in SFIV, you’re going to need these to win literally any high level match. I don’t know any for Mak, but just look some up and figure out why they’re used and when. Next thing that’s important - frame data. “How many frames of start up does this have? How safe/unsafe is that on block?” You NEED to know these things to know when you should be pressing buttons, every single damn move in the game. If you don’t know how +/- something is you sure as shit can’t fight properly against it. I know that after Sakura does EX Tatsu for instance I can’t press a button because I WILL get counter hit, she’s got + frames on me. Learn as much frame data as you can, bit by bit. It’s the only way you’ll properly compete at high level(Like, the serious upper echelon of high level) frame data is boring, tedious and mundane but it’s a necessity IMO.

Take note that this is gonna be one hell of a training session if you do it right, I don’t know how you normally train but by god does this process get mundane. If you want to be fighting the pros(In such a short span of time) you’ll need to be training things like this that are progressively more advanced every day for around 2 hours and really drill it into your head. I doubt you’ll get good enough to fight any pros before SFV drops, you’re just too far behind at this point.

69

Or… Just play lots. Get out there and mix it up with those better than you, both on and offline, and be prepared to lose… You cant get salty about it though, because you simply have to learn how to win.

You’ll learn the same stuff that @Froztey mentioned through practical application, like many of us old heads did and still do. The only difference is that you’ll learn that a thing happens in a certain situation, just not the explanation of why it happens.

Either path will put you in the same place.

70

Going the traditional pathway about it is always a lot more fun, but if I mull it over in my head and think about what this dude actually wants he won’t get anywhere near good enough in the what, 6/7 month span we have left of SFIV? We’ll be on SFV at that point and he’ll have a whole new game to relearn. Not enough time on his hands to get “high level” through just playing, he needs a shortcut and efficiency.

71

This, all. Ten times over. had no clue at that age, went to school to study programming because hey games and it was the least alien-seeming thing. Didn’t pan out.

Now I’m doing logistics - something I thought would be terribly dull - and it’s actually an interesting and fulfilling job. I can play what I find fun, because I find it fun, not because I feel forced to. I love to teach people but I dread the idea of becoming a teacher or writer - I want to do instruct people because I want to, not because I have to. Seen all those craptastic websites? They’re full of people who write to write, not because they necessarily have anything to say. Their job is to write, they probably dreamed of writing. But they made it a job and not a hobby, so a certain genuine enthusiasm is just gone because of the financial realities.

72

What platform do you play on? You mentioned playing online so I’m assuming you have the capacity to do so. Keep in mind however that offline meetups are inconvenient in that you have to commit time to them but make you improve at least ten times faster than online. You can ask questions in person and those people share a drive to, if nothing else, play the same game as you. People have to go out of their way to meet up in person to play video games, that’s where you’ll find the most helpful people.

73

When I was in college I really wanted to go out and prove my potential to be a great player (while also still pursing an actual career, of course). Then, I realized that it would mean a great deal of travel and time and that I might have to sacrifice my other hobbies and interests to keep traveling to tournaments. I didn’t want that. Also, I’m not willing to play FG’s I don’t like much, just because they’re more popular.

What happened that makes you think you can never pursue art again? Unless you have some brutal hand injuries, it is likely within your grasp if you’re willing to keep working at it.

Really, I think you try to get into a decent college/university and study both journalism and art. Or maybe you can just major in journalism and minor in illustration/drawing. Even if you end up wanting to study different things you’ll be in a place where can actually try to study something else (many people switch programs during college. I certainly did.).

You will have a blast being a university student, you will meet tons of interesting people, you will learn a lot, you will learn things about yourself you never imagined and you’ll probably still find time to play some fighting games. This difference is, this way you will develop a skills that you can actually live off of, rather than ruining you life trying to support your hobbies with minimum wage work.

Seriously most low level jobs can really be hard on you financially and mentally. Some of them can be really dehumanizing as well. Trying to live the way you’ve been thinking would mean working some job (or two) that makes you feel terrible and doesn’t actually pay well enough for you sustain your hobby.

74

It’s not like I’m reconsidering career choices because I want to, it’s because I actually might have to, based on the stories these guys have been giving.

I know you guys have been saying I don’t have to pick just one career path, but I don’t think I can handle any more than just one. Learning Art and Journalism along with my fighting game hobby as well as streaming and all the other stuff I would want to do is just too much.

I’m a Ps3 player, and while in my OP I did say i was inspired by Haitani’s Makoto a couple years ago, that’s not the character I currently want to get good with. My favorite character is Juri, but I’ve always found her really confusing to use and I can never get used to her. For some reason she just doesn’t click with me; it feels like she has too much going on with her for me to grasp and implement into my gameplay, but she’s still my favorite by far.

Now a lot of you might find this really silly, but in video games I usually almost never use male characters. For some reason I find it difficult to find the motivation to get better with them if I do try to use them. Perhaps it’s because they aren’t aesthetically pleasing to look at, or perhaps it’s because of my inner feminine-side, but that’s just how it is. This means I never learned Ryu for the two years I’ve been playing fighting games, until a couple days ago. I was reading online about whether certain characters like Juri were okay to learn fighting game fundamentals with, but a lot of people said Ryu is the best choice to learn said fundamentals. Even though some people said to just stick with the character you actually want to use and learn the fundamentals with them, I sucked up my preference and started learning Ryu. I used him in training mode for a while to get used to his moves and a couple bnb combos etc, then played against the cpu, and soon after against other players online. It’s really difficult, and I remember getting rushed down and blown up over and over by this really good C. Viper player last night, but I’m trying.

I’ll head over to Youtube and check out this tutorial Froztey is talking about, and afterwards should I start committing to learning Juri? Also, how do you memorize the option selects and drill the frame data into your head? Do you literally just read them online until you memorize them? I’m willing to train as progressively advanced as I need to in order to get good efficiently, I just need to know exactly how. Just playing the game a lot and/or training with my own methods doesn’t work apparently. I need effective ways to improve. And I hope when I actually have good fundamentals and get good at this game I can transition to anime fighters and learn them with relative ease.

I’m also in one of the best areas to be in for the North American FGC(SoCal), so I’ll be checking places like Dustloop to find out when local events and such are happening and I’ll try to attend them. I’ve been to one local in the past for anime fighters and everyone was so much better than me, but they were very friendly and helpful.

75

Just promise me you won’t be another 50 post wonder like Igloo said and push to be competitive in some tournaments.

SFV is coming soon and will have some strong netcode so you’ll have a lot of ways to train to get gud without even leaving your house. Getting gud starts nao.

76

You have my word, but I’d rather just prove it with my actions.

77

I don’t see anything wrong with OP not going to college/uni. He’ll actually be better off than a lot of people without all that student debt and a useless degree. My only issue with his “plan” is competing in fighting games where the money is garbage. As many smart posters have already mentioned, become good at games where the pay out is decent. Many pro FG players are already making the transition, however, their skills don’t always translate into other games.

78

Curious question @RECESSIONTIME What would you recommend instead of going to college?

79

Learn a trade…

A lot of them have said that too before quitting within a year.

80

Get a job or set up your own business.

Yes, I’m serious. Going to colleges not only wastes half a decade of your life but it costs an atrocious amount of money in the tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is also the huge opportunity cost of 4-5 years lost where you could have been earning money and learning skills. Let’s not forget degree inflation which continually diminishes the value of your education.

Obviously there are winners that come out of college. However, for every winner that comes out of college there are hundreds of losers, people tend to ignore that.

As for the OP, let this boy sink or swim, get a life experience out of his adventure. It’s great entertainment for me. Let him struggle and blog about it so we can taste his salty tears. Who knows, maybe he’ll get smart and pull a pewdiepie and laugh all the way to the bank.