Bottom line: If you want to get really good, you are going to have to put in a ridiculous amount of time and practice with your main(s).
That means…you should use a character that is the most FUN for you, because if they are even a bit boring to you at the beginning…they will be hella boring after six months in the lab.
Azrael is right as usual, even if your goal is to win EVO, you should use a character that calls to you. If that character happens to be high tier, well, lucky you.
I have the curse of finding top tier characters in SF games to be really uninteresting, so I almost always play mid/low tier. It sucks in tourney, because I have to outplay my opponent by a LOT if they are using top tier…but its still very rewarding.
…Theres also a certain stigma about those characters (sagat, ken, ryu, etc.) now that the game has officially gone online. Since many people use these characters, the general consensus from uninformed players is that the character in question is one that scrubs flock towards and therefore the character is shit. In all actuality, it’s not the character, but the player(s) that caused this mentality to happen. Go to any ranked match a see how those sagats and kens win. It’s a pretty predictable startegy that is easily punishable. I believe your friends are just being babies. After all, it is a fighting game. When people lose matches (more so under skilled individuals), they look for every excuse in the book as to why they lost. Every excuse except “what did I do wrong.” So in your case, your friends Chun-Li either A) just plain sucks, or B) Doesn’t know how to counter a Sagat effectively. Sounds like their problem, and not yours. So as everyone stated, play who you like. (Though i am curious as to how your friends approached your Sagat).
But then again, I (Personally) hate following tier lists. Instead, i look more towards match ups and stuff, for the characters I enjoy (Chun-Li/Sakura main here). Many times those match up threads are going to tell you more about the game then any a tier list will.
You should always play the character you have the most fun playing, since you will become the best possible player by playing more and enjoying the game. Picking high tier will allow you to play at a more competitive level however.
It really comes down to how hard you have to work. Low tier have to work harder to win, and high tier work less hard. It’s important to remember that does not neccesarily mean high tier to are easy to win with. Winning in high level competition takes a lot of skill to defeat top opponents. When you play low tier against top opponents, you end up fighting both them and your characters disadvantage. The differences between your character and your opponents high tier character will really begin to show through, even if you are playing equally.
Play whoever you like, its all about having fun. I hate Sagat but I don’t hate the players I just hate Capcom for making him so powerful. Hopefully, in Super Street Fighter 4, he will be toned down a bit (along with other characters that need a slight adjustment).
Here’s the deal… There comes a certain level, in which, yeah you can pick up sagat and you can whore a few rounds out, but unless you actually…legitimately know what the fuck you’re doing with that character, you’ll get face stomped.
I pick him up every now and then against some friends and they haven’t dealt with him for awhile, yeah, I’ll knock the first few games out just whoring out TU > FADC > Ultra or f.rh > f.rh > ultra and zoning and shit but that’s not all it takes. At a lower level, Sagat wins through sheer force, people who get overwhelmed easily or have this preset thought in their head that Sagat rules all will get fucking rolled. A lot of the Sagat’s that play online in the lower ranks who kind of perpetuate the “OMFG SAGAT!” mentality can’t even perform a basic 2x c.lk > c.lp xx TU, shit, I’m terrible with Sagat, I can’t even do that.
I guess what I’m saying is, you don’t win with Sagat just because you played Sagat, unless your opponent is so bad that tiers actually impact their ability to win. On the other hand, at very very high levels of play, while most tiers don’t impact games, bad match ups do–Guile VS Sagat is just a massive uphill fight for Guile, but it’s -not- unless you’re playing a Sagat like Sanford Kelly or Joe.
I mean, I played Viper at launch and Sim now. I just got rolled over with those characters by all of the Ryu and Akumas of the world (alot). I just got tired of it after awhile.
Sagat is strong, but he isn’t unbeatable. I had to beat a dead horse (actually, no I don’t) but your friends are scrubs. Not because they can’t beat your Sagat but because of their mindset. Skill does not determine scrubhood rather the mind determines it. He is beatable but they’re probably approaching the match up incorrectly. They will either learn, or lose.
I like the idea of playing Ken and whining about tiers if you lose. Or you could be a straight dick and tell them they can pick Sagat too or STFU.
If Sagat is fun, play Sagat. There’s all there is to it.
If he were really game-ruining, he wouldn’t be tourney legal. Variety is the spice of fighting-game life, and well, that variety includes top tiers. I play Vega because he’s fun, not out of some misguided low-tier spite towards Ryu and Sagat, and I have no compunction about playing Sagat except that, like Kich, I can’t do his crouching BnBs into Tiger Uppercut. If you’re really loving Tiger Shots, Tiger Knee pressure, and Tiger Destruction juggles, then show your love and play Sagat.
If your friends are still salty, do your homework and explain to them how they can BEAT Sagat. He’s not god tier and honestly he’s not an ABYSMAL matchup for most of the game’s cast. (Vega vs. Sagat is definitely one of Vega’s easier matchups, in my opinion; Sagat’s pressure and spacing are a lot easier to to deal with than characters like Chun or Guile who can own him in the air and limit his ground mobility with super-slow fireballs, or characters like Ryu and Balrog who have much nastier close-range pressure and option select.)
If you really like playing as a top-tier character, and you think it’s honestly the best way to enjoy the game (let’s face it, a lot of top-tier characters are actually fun to play), then you shouldn’t be ashamed to pick them. Get your cyclops on and let them hear the thunder of your Tiger Shots. Haters, like it or not, gonna hate.
I dunno why people bitch about high-tier. I’d think its much harder to play high-tier effectively than low tier since everyone is going to be experienced against the match so it demands some pretty top notch level play from whoever decides to run with a top tier character. I find that playing low-tier lets me get away with a lot of shit because of inexperience with a character.
When I pick elena on ggpo, and play with my day one tactics its pretty damn easy :razzy:
anyways, your friends are retards. You don’t need to follow the hivemind PLAY TO WIN bs, also. Just play whoever you enjoy and feel passionate about since thats what matters when you play a game. This doesn’t mean you need to develop a deep seeded hatred for top tier like some people do or flock to top tier in every game, or even worse don’t play a character because of their tier placement. Since no matter what if the game has sound mechanics you can make the character work.
This let’s you skate by on a handful of victories. If you bring Gen to a tournament and are reasonable, you might pull it off. Yeb did well at West Coast Warzone and I remember that being the first time I saw a good Gen. He did not do so hot at LA Riots and I think it has to do with more people knowing the matchup. Speaking as someone who rocks almost exclusively low-tier characters, I think that squeaking by on confusion and gimmicks is ultimately hollow.
There’s nothing wrong with it, I just don’t like (IMO) to pick characters based on how high they are on the tier list…I go for lower on the tier list since winning with a shit character is so much more rewarding than winning with a top tier character.
Ive been playing Sagat in every SF game besides SFIII since 1994…I picked him in 94 because I was 5 at the time, and to my 5 year old self I thought he looked badass since he was 7’4 and had a huge scar and eyepatch, how was I supposed to know 15 years later that the internet scrubs would go crazy in rage over Sagat?
Just play who you like, but dont let the tiers influence your decisions.
The influence of tiers is greatly over exaggerated. Of the many top tier players I’ve met and played (not to sound braggy), any of them that knew secondary characters that are ranked lower in the tier chart were just as dominating with them. If you’re losing significantly more often than the matchup chart says you should be, you’re just a worse player.
Its not so rewarding when you are playing money matches, playing top tier is NORMALLY how to win tournaments but some people are better with certain characters than others. I only play Ken because its the only character I’m good with but if Sagat was a character that suited me equally as well, I would main him in a heartbeat.
SFIV Sagat just feels so slow compared to Street Fighter II Sagat(one of my favorite characters next Dhalsim and Fei although he’s somewhat broken in SF: 2 also).
its unfortunate that your crew doesnt want to level up with you, but just keep a friendly attitude while winning, and they can look like assholes while losing. Easy choice.
The fact is using him is a free win against non-pros (I don’t mean to offend any group) and people don’t like it. Its like you bring an elite special custom built super bike in all your bike races, and acting like its all skill when you win every round. Even if you brag or not, people won’t like it and call you out. Probably demanding you race with a normal bike to see how ‘really’ good you are.
I don’t like playing sagat because it feels like using a gun everyone knows is super strong. The characters are like weapons and i don’t like using the stronger weapons all the time because its not fun to me.
The phrase, “you just won because you used [insert stronger weapon/character/etc]” comes to mind. It got a bad rep because of these stronger tools’ domination in the lower level leagues (casuals and newbies)