How have you improved recently?

Thought it might be fun to hear what people have worked on and celebrate your recent leveling up of your game, and hopefully it can inspire others to improve/fill some holes in their gameplan.

For me? Recently I’ve just had more success in pressing/not pressing buttons, I feel like i used to press wrong buttons at the most predictable times, Sagat in AE doesn’t have the best buttons, but lately its been good to feel a bit more varied and not so predictable.

Also been stoked at making mid-match adjustments. They say stupidity is doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results, and I feel like I’ve done better at recognizing patterns and making smart adjustments instead of playing autopilot.

Finally, I feel like Im finally playing patient, and using good risk/reward decision makings. Sure it might feel good to rush down when I have him down to 15% life with 75% of my life remaining, but a patient win is no less of a win than bodying the guy, and the reality is he’s just waiting for me to get overaggressive to eat a stupid reversal ultra. I’ve been better about making them earn their comeback, knowing all I need is 1 mistake to punish for the win.

As you play more you acquire necessities. As you have more necessities, you become more frustrated at not finding the answers. As you find the answer to one of the many necessities you have, you realize that regardless of how hard it is, that is the answer and now you know it even if you can’t execute it. As you realize there are no other possible answers you tackle the same hard answer over and over again until you get it right. All the time you spend practicing also gives you even more clues regarding other necessities you might have, and therefore you end up having a lot of good stuff in your mind that isn’t even part of your gameplay yet.
As you find answers to your necessities, and you find more necessities, and more creative ways to tackle them, improvement has occurred, but it is of course a never ending cycle. This is the reason why many players can’t tell you if they’ve improved or not.

You might see me play through a long period of time, and see me find the answer to one of my necessities. You might also find me a lot stronger than I was before, and you might conclude that I’m improving, however, I might have a list of 20 necessities in my mind, so I can’t really feel improvement when I still have at least 19 to go.

The best way to know is you’re improving is to ask your training partners what they think about your style after a long period of time and go from there.
I don’t know. I can’t really tell if I’ve improved or not. I just play and practice a lot.

I can finally space my normals better with Sentinel

Some dude on PSN today said I had a nice Cable… that was my first ever compliment in MvC2 :sad:
I still can’t play against anybody decent to save my life though

did better today playin with a day 1 bulleta than a 2 year jedah.

Can finally fadc into ultra with Ryu.I consiered it a acheievement because I’ve only been playing fighting games for a year with a ds3. =)

Last year I at 1500-1800PP. This year I at 2000-2400PP. Ok I think that’s improvement even just a little

I have improved my Makoto, I owe it to re-reading and watching video guides and spending time in endless battles.

[media=youtube]Jnspm792URs[/media]

That video alone can do wonders for a casual Makoto player who is interested taking her on as a main.