When I play someone I know a little bit I do play my game just fine and I play way better. When I play someone online I find myself trying to over analyse what they might do (especially the ones with free reversals) and I feel like I am kinda downbacking waiting for a mistake a lot more than I should, I play kinda scared and my main is Ken so it sucks. Since I am not a great player (super silver) I also analyse wrong quite a bit so all in all it’s kinda useless for me to do it but I can’t seem to be able to help it.
I have a lot of trouble with people doing completly random stuff (at least it seems random to me) because I can’t understand them.
Did/Does it happen to any of you guys? Do you have some tips?
Don’t play scared with Ken. Ken’s usually more on the aggressive side. Stick on your opponent like grass and go all out. If you find yourself in danger just push them away with a quick shoryu and use your spacing tools (crouching and standing mid punch have good range and decent damage, as well as combo potential).
It’s not really scared it’s more like “ok so what the hell are they going to do let’s wait and see”. Like I am trying to analyse them but I don’t much while I do that.
Stop taking the game so seriously and just play. It sounds like you over-analyse because you take it too seriously and “don’t want to lose”. If your palms are sweaty and you’re heart is racing when you’re playing… you’re doing it wrong.
I main Ken myself. The thing about Ken is that you have to set the tempo of the match. If you sit back and just wait for your opponent to make a move, you’re better off playing another character because most of the cast has a better neutral game than Ken.
For me, choosing between a rather passive or a more active style depends a lot on the opponents strenghts / weaknesses. Playing careful is not a bad thing in my book. I usually also start the match vs a new opponent slowly and analysing, trying to just walk him down to the corner without pressing a lot of buttons. during this, i can learn some things about the other Player without exposing myself to much risk. is he very aggressive with dashing / jumping ? Or can i just walk him down easily? i am often still surprised how quick lesser players jump themselves back into the corner within seconds. from there, they get predictable with their lack of options.
especially against low-level players, playing more reactive is the way to go for me. is nets some easy wins because the WILL jump, they WILL sweep al lot and they WILL stick out all kinds of unsafe random shit you can easily punish when you are prepared.
however against players with a strong offense, playing passive gets me killed real quick. if their offensive game is really good and unpredictable, you have to recognize this and Play more active / defend yourself better with your characters tools.
You’re being reactive. What you want to be is “proactive.”
That’s not to say there isn’t a time to be reactive, but if you’re in that mindset all the time, you’re never going to get through to your opponent.
being proactive is the fine art of acting first and making your opponent react the way you want them to. An example of this would be launching a hadoken, then uppercutting the guy when he jumps over it. This kind of tactic is impossible if you’re constantly waiting for the other guy to make the first move and slip up.
If you’re new to the game, it might help to look at some videos and see what characters are actually capable of.
I’m not really “new” although I guess consider the lifetime of SF I kinda am (playing since 1.5 years).
I think I am just way too stressed out in ranked. I’m loosing to silver players in ranked where I am super stressed out and when I play battle lounges I am way more chill and I hold my own against super gold players with their main. Yesterday for example I did 2 FT5 against a Chun and lost 5/4 and 5/3 so I don’t think it’s that bad and it kinda pisses me off to loose to silver players after in ranked.
So I stress, then I get angry then I get more stressed out. Bad.