From casual to tourney player?

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

I’ve been playing ssf4 for awhile (almost a year?) and I’m surprised at myself to how drawn I am to this game. It’s to the point where not only do I enjoy it for the competition but, I actually want to step my game up more. Here are questions I want to ask;

  1. From a person that’s used to playing online how can you make that transition from casual to tourney player?

  2. My learning methods in this game is doing things on the fly and reading a bit of the threads here. What’s a good way to retain a lot of the knowledge especially match-ups?

  3. How do you work on consistency? I noticed that whenever I play several games I blank out and I do really weird mistakes and I lose my cool (not emotionally but, mentally).

I’m not going to lie I feel a bit intimidated asking these questions :confused:

2

The answer to pretty much all of these questions is the same - play lots of matches. Specifically, play offline, against tournament level players, preferably playing against multiple players of a given character whose matchup you want to learn. Playing vs. only one player per character will teach you that player’s habits, not necessarily how you should play the matchup.

If you can’t seem to improve your execution’s consistency in offline casuals, spend some more time in training mode getting things down. Making consistent good reads is something which can only come with time.

3

playing games(preferably vs someone who’s better than you).

4

I’m the type of player who enjoys understanding the theory a lot. I like knowing things like frame data, hitbox data, etc. But at the same time there are a lot of players, even pros, who go without really studying that sort of thing. Find what works best for you specifically.

I would suggest looking around quite a bit on SRK, either on your main character’s subforum, or on the SRK wiki. The way I’ve always seen it is, the more you know, the better.

Then there’s the application of that knowledge, which is just going to be repetition. Force yourself to utilize a new tool you learned about, whether it’s a combo, a normal that anti-airs, a zoning tactic, whatever. Get a feel for the way it works and the way opponents respond to it. That type of thing really only comes with time and practice.