I have been consistently playing fighting games for awhile, more into Tekken and Street Fighter, and I have come a long way from dominating my casual scene to being fairly consistent online. However, there is one major issue I am having that is hindering my progress to improve further, and it’s basically applying a “pro” player mindset.
My tendencies seem to become one dimensional after watching replay videos of my matches, in short, I play the same way every match because I fail to read my opponents or look at their tendencies in conjunction to what character they are playing. I choke MANY times simply because I can’t seem to have a good grasp of my opponent’s basic tendencies, which leads me to make irrational decisions and grim mistakes. I watch videos daily to see what kind of strategies I can apply to certain characters, often pausing and trying to do some analysis to why a certain player did this or why this player didn’t do that.
I am in a situation where I feel like I am so close to reaching a new level of depth in my fighting game skill, but the problem is that when in a game my mind is racing to all these conclusions and I can’t execute the best possible answer to certain situations or read my opponents based on their tendencies.
What you describe comes from auto piloting too much. See, when you win alot, it’s easy to get into a playstyle where you basically just do what YOU want as opposed to what you should be doing. My advice is think of the times you choke, and replay the exact situations you were in prior to it happening. Go over it logically and find a solution between rounds/matches etc…It’s worth trying to calm yourself too, so your thoughts don’t race around so much.
Coming from a 3s background I definately understand indecision though. Sometimes you have so many options available to you, that it’s very difficult to pick the appropriate response. Really though, the only way around it is to immerse yourself in the game, the engine, your character(s) and obviously training mode lol.
Finally, don’t be afraid of losing. Losing more just means you work out what you need help with faster.
Ask people. I know your asking now, but I mean be specific, use the character specific forums ask about specific matchups, ask people who are better than you to watch your matches, what you see might not match up with what they see.
Thanks for this reply. I had no idea how bad I was auto piloting all my shit, so now that I know what is wrong with my game I can surely start to improve by approaching the game at a different mindset rather than my knowledge of the game.
I played a good amount of 3S as well, and it is unforgiving when it comes to clutch situations, but because of that game I built a good foundation of good habits like patience, and whiff punishing.
No two players play the same, discovering tendencies about looking at the info your opponent have been giving u, like which range he likes being in, what he does after blockstring, what he does on wakeup, you have to train mentally more, as you watch matches look out for patterns and do you really best to familiarized yourself to scenarios that may occur in a match.
Also try and eliminate bad twitch reactions like crouching when balrog does ex special, or freezing and getting thrown
it’s just a natural symptom of primarily playing online. You cycle through opponents to rapidly that you get little reward from changing your style on their account, and you just sort of play your game regardless. You stick to one approach because it usually works, and one mixup because it usually works. Then you go to a tournament and fail to realize that you have been downloaded by the second game of your set. I only play 1v1 player matches if I have to play online, and it’s not really a sacrifice cause I’ve never found it fun to go into a lobby and not play for half the session.
You’re doing exactly what you need to do in order to improve.
You can’t automatically know that someone is a DP masher. Instead, good players just assume that their opponents are assholes and are going to do the incredibly dumb thing. They put themselves in low risk, high reward situations and wait for you to kill yourself. Ultimately, learning how to scrub bust is an important part of becoming a well-rounded solid player. Every cr.mk you do with Ryu isn’t a read - it’s a dominating strategy that you ride to victory. It’s like your item build in Dota/League, or your build order in Starcraft. Yeah, you can’t just use the right moves and automatically win, but if your strategy makes no sense, you’re putting yourself at a large disadvantage.
Some players like to view this exclusively in terms of risk/reward. You only do risky things when the reward is enough to justify, in order to compensate for the game’s “randomness.” People don’t actually choose from their options randomly, but if you assume that they do, you’ll understand solid play a lot faster. On the other hand, if someone always just tick throws, just tech the throw. Don’t make things more complicated than they have to be in order to take the win.
The only way you can make your tendencies less one-dimensional is to focus on specific things to improve. One at a time.
You’re not always going to pick the right option or make every play correctly. Even Justin Wong makes mistakes. The ability to bounce back from this is what makes Justin so freakishly scary - he’s unflappable.