It's not about how much you play or win. It's about how you play to win

Regional Matchmaking Northwest
1

I’m frustrated.

I’m happy with my performance and improvement in the game right now, but I’m frustrated because of the wall I’ve hit. I don’t feel like the majority of my matches are really street fighter, so much as beating a boss in Megaman: I’m just reacting to the same patterns you always do.

I’m making this post because I’ve realized this, as well as having numerous fellow new players come up to me and ask for tips or my thoughts on how I play this game…this is just a way for me to try to answer those questions while voicing some of my thoughts on our improvement as a whole.

I’ve been learning the game because I wanted to become good at it. My attraction to the game was from how important each and every decision was, and how decisive a victory can be when executed properly by a skilled player.

my story

Spoiler

I started out by going to the early gameclucks tournaments when Vanilla 4 had just dropped, and remember running into Mickey D in the bracket. I had beaten a few players and was really feelin’ my scrubby self… and then was utterly crushed. All my throws were teched, all of my jumps were shoryu’d, all of my pressure strings were broken, and everything I did was countered. On top of that, every time he was given an open opportunity, he made sure it hurt. I felt completely hopeless, yet inspired…and the only thing I could think was from that day forward, was

“I want to do that to people”.

I went through several phases of learning, improving steadily at some points, and feeling completely hopeless at other times. I started studying the game, browsing the boards and watching videos, looking up frame data and theorizing setups…and I lost, briefly, sight of my original goals with the game. I knew what I needed to do, and knew what my opponent was going to do, but wasn’t getting the wins I felt I deserved.

Part way through Tournament Wars season 1, my confidence had dropped due to tournament performance and ‘knowing’, but being unable to ‘do’. Cue Tanaka. I had been practicing at Gameworks several days out of the week, knowing that simply playing and playing with the best is a surefire way to improve. When Tanaka moved up here I came to him much like I went to Mickey, to analyze my game and teach me how to play. With his help I organized my thoughts and was able to transform all my thoughts and understandings into action.

I went through the most important phase of my learning, where I was taking my licks…and a lot of them at that. I wasn’t keeping up with my rivals, I wasn’t winning any tournaments, and hell, I still wasn’t winning any Twars matches. But I could feel everything slowly clicking. I became steadily more calm in tournament, and was able to play the game more in line to how I believe it’s meant to be played, even if i still slipped up at times…I was still learning.

After defeating Santos in a very intense set, and netting my first night of Twars wins…it all fell into place. I hardly remembered the match after it had happened, I couldn’t even hear the crowd…I remember the sudden realization that anything that happens in the match happens, and to get over it and return to that place in my mind where I could focus on the task at hand.

It was huge for my confidence, and the fact that I felt completely confident in every action and choice I made in the match, played the solid and smart game that I had always aspired to play, and it worked?

Things were looking up.

In learning the game, the first thing I had to do was stop saying “I know”. I had to step back and LISTEN to my teachers. Take everything they gave me and work it into my personal understanding of the game. I’ve since realized that this applies heavily IN GAME as well.

The game isn’t about what you want to do, it’s about figuring out what your opponent wants to do and having an answer ready. And these answers, more often than not, were not found in matchup threads, or in character specific combos, but rather simple universal options to counter what they want to do.

I began to focus on fundamentals and basics, and went back to attempting not the fancy combos or setups found in the training room, but on simply playing better defense and stripping you of your game; forcing you into what I consider street fighter to really be. The ground game.

So why am I frustrated? Well, why is it that I can play almost purely defense and win most matches? Because you let me.

**-----

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This is my approach to this game: *It’s not about how much you play or win. It’s about how you play to win. *

First of all, this is a launching pad for the players up here who have hit a wall. Where when up against certain opponents, they can’t mount a successful offense, and after that frustration settles in, cannot form an offense either. These are the very basic steps I took and the basis of the game plan that helped me get closer to where I was initially aiming. I understand that character differences will dictate more or less offense, but as a starting point to get the match set up at the pace required to really apply thought and work out how you plan to achieve victory; I feel these are the building blocks.

***All I want is a scene that can learn and adapt within a match without needing to know what to do ahead of time via lots of time and knowledge gained from others. One that can push each other to grow through true matches that are in the moment and naturally evolving, and not one with predetermined answers to your opponent’s actions…that’s not going to happen against any real contender.

*You always have an AA ready, take away any jumps they attempt. *
A jump in, even blocked, is a huge advantage to the offensive player. You gain frame advantage, momentum, mix-up, lock down, and meter; and we’re talking about when BLOCKED. Prevent this all from ever happening by ALWAYS being ready.

You should not EVER be losing the match from FULL SCREEN.
Have answers to any long range specials your opponent has. Jump/focus fireballs, throw EX rushes, uppercut headbutts and balls…WHY would you allow your opponent ANY of these things?

Stop giving away free damage.
This is huge. Stop being careless with your jumps, stop throwing out random unsafe specials…this include ‘safe’(on block) specials from unsafe distances. Anytime you decide to risk an option like this, you’re risking the entire match. This game revolves heavily around who has the lead, and can pace with an opponent and keep it.

Think more about why you’re doing something as opposed to what you want to do.
By intending to do a specific setup or combo, you only reveal more of your intentions to your opponent, whether you realize this or not. Once your opponent figures out what’s on your mind, it should become nearly impossible to execute said ‘plan A’. Instead, by looking into your opponent’s actions and attempting to discern their goals, you gain the knowledge necessary to find a legitimate opening in their game to exploit and execute said plan.

…

Now lets assume that both players are doing this Then, and only then, does offensive thought get forced into action. You can HAVE an offense prior to this, but if your opponent isn’t even going to force you to exercise it, then why bother? I’ll gladly take your entry fee in the form of you jumping in and doing random uppercuts.

What are you left with? Your ground game.

This is Street Fighter. Taking away as many of your opponents options as you can, that are within your power to prevent, away from them. Forcing thought. The game isn’t about what you want to do, so much as figuring out your opponents intentions and taking control of the match when you can.

I’m a very strong advocate for learning to play within the moment, waiting for the opportunities you seek to reveal themselves to you, and not forcing them onto the match.

Getting into how to play offense is a whole different thread/post, but this is where you have to start.

:china:

Spoiler

Be water.
Be calm on the surface
Be free form and flowing, adaptive to the situation at hand
Be steady and strong, slowly and surely wearing your opponent down
Be explosive and decisive, when the situation provides an opening after the pressure has built

**-------------------------

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I highly urge everyone to take a look at their game, a look at true high level play, and ask themselves if they’re really trying to play and improve, or if their end goal is simply victory. If it is the latter, then I’ll be the one to tell you that just doing what it takes to attain victory here in Seattle, is simply NOT going to cut it when it’s go-time.

Thanks for listening ^^

2

I fully feel where Dugg’s coming from. I heard a couple disparaging remarks on the SNCR stream about Seattle, and while Frank said they were most likely in jest, you wouldn’t hear those kind of remarks about any other region of the US, especially if they’re strong. But I say that to say this…

The level of potential here is zany. There is endless talent here, to me that has never been in question, but when is that gonna become truly apparent? I often find myself as equally frustrated as Dugg is after different sessions because not only do I feel as if I’m not learning anything, but I feel as if the people I play with, aren’t learning anything either. Now maybe this is attested to the online experience, but as far as a local online experience, I don’t really think it should be that much of an issue with lag to where people are playing the way they are. I think people have to realize what it is they’re playing for. If you’re serious about it, your gameplay and HOW you approach the game should represent that. Or at the very least, you’d be all ears concerning concepts, ideas, and theories as to how you can improve.

I think it can be tough because, if something works, why would you ever stray from it? The problem therein lies because you know better than that, you know better is required if you’re ever thinking of leaving your neck of the woods. So how does one truly improve under those circumstances? This is what Dugg’s getting at, he isn’t being pushed at all. I think NCR for the most part has to be a wakeup call to us all. And don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for everybody that went down there and represented Seattle. I’m not gonna act like I would’ve lit the place up, because I’m sure I wouldn’t have, but I can say that I would be open minded enough to take things from the experience in order to better myself.

Hey, maybe I’m wrong, I know I’m not around very often, but I feel that people get the wins that they get, and feel as if they’re good, and they’re truly content with that. What is “Seattle” good exactly? We’ve seen time and time again what that is, and usually it’s in the form of two people doing really well while the rest don’t. I dunno about you guys, but I feel as if I’m very weak in the game right now and I think that’s a very brutally honest assessment of my current game. That’s due to me not being able to make it out to events. I think people need to focus on being the best they could be instead of being better than any particular person. I think anybody that reads this thread, should take a look at their game and honestly ask themselves if they’re content with how good (or lack thereof) they currently are. Because I can tell you in all certainty, that I’m not.

3

The Bison just on the stream that beat Marn and Gootecks won with absolute defense. It was crazy how solid his gameplay was and how he didn’t let himself get pressured and didn’t take any shit from either player. Just shut down all of their options on reaction. I am changed. Thanks for helping me guide alot of my thoughts on this game in the right direction. I think I’m beginning to get it.

Alot of thoughts on this post, too many to post right now. Either way, very nice post. I hope Seattle reads and understands this.

4

Same here. I cannot remember the last time I practiced. I have played the game, in both tournament and casuals but I have yet to practice. To improve, to train, to learn something. I have recently tried playing online and honestly I think the online aspect is worsening a lot of player’s playstyles. If it’s not a lobby with people I know, it’s a match with almost 100% reversals. Pressure can hardly be applied on knockdown because reversals just reign supreme. At best it becomes bait & punish which is something that can be practiced in training mode.

I’ve seen a lot of the less seasoned players making leaps of improvement - dropping bad habits, making better choices, thinking when they play rather than just getting panicked and always resorting to a pattern. I have bad habits, make bad choices, and I resort to patterns too. The idea is to recognize when you slink back to those habits. The more you recognize when you revert to bad habits, the easier you can change those.

There are things to be learned from online play (which I feel everyone is defaulting to right now) but it’s not like your normal match. I’ve realized that through playing online I can learn about myself as a player but not really the game, IMO. I’m learning how I react to different pressure situations and what my responses are and which are bad/good, and which need to be changed. I have random habits like pressing stand jab when I forget to anti-air 'cause I just want to stick out something fast and tap them. Terrible habit. Then again online is like jump city… but hey there’s an opportunity to practice anti-air. I learn how to punish random shit but I don’t really learn anything about playing against characters because most people just do random robot shit.

This is good. I learned this from my dad. I used to interrupt him with “i know!” every time he was telling me things. At the base of it, yeah, I knew what he was saying, but if I truly knew what he was saying and were implementing it, he wouldn’t be telling me. It’s hard to explain, it’s a kind of mental wall, or a hurdle. I used to not take criticism well, constructive or not. It’s kind of a defense mechanism.

Very true. I often find cool setups or combos and I get heartset on making them happen, which leads to a lot of bad choices, and a potential loss. Or another example is I would drop a combo/setup and that would frustrate me and I would get hung up on it. So he jumped and you didn’t crouch fierce. Try your best to, rather than think about how you didn’t crouch fierce earlier, be prepared for the next opportunity. Getting frustrated during a match guarantees your loss. Nolan’s also helped me with this in tournament by saying “Keep your head in the game!” which I found to be a good reminder. We all slip up but if we can recognize our frustration and set it aside, we can keep playing the match at hand. When you take your head outta the game you’ve mentally given up on the match because you’re not playing street fighter in your head, you’re pretty much playing mindgames with yourself.

Tanaka had a really good line once about not playing to our opponent’s pace of the match. I can’t remember how he phrased it but your opponent wants you play at a certain pace, to match their playstyle and character strengths. Don’t do this. I understand there are situations where you have to chase your opponent but don’t be too hasty. Mickey once pointed out you have 99 seconds for every street fighter match. Take your time. There are pressure situations where you’re forced to play at their pace, but I see a lot of matches where there’s no knockdown, and the opponent who is not winning is basically walking right into more attacks because they’re so eager to get that life lead.

I don’t mean to turn this into another like “PROTIP” topic where we spew knowledge and don’t read what one another is saying, these are just a few things that in the somewhat recent past have helped open my eyes toward bad habits I have as an SF player.

So simple yet effective. If I’m ever nervous/don’t know where to start, I start with anti-air. If they jump, I will [xx]. From there, they either jump or they don’t. It gives me somewhere to start. I see soooo many blocked jump-ins where perhaps a little premeditative thought could’ve helped. Knowing your anti-airs is almost more important than knowing your pokes. If you can’t prove that you can stop jumps, your opponent will not stop jumping. I remember trying to help duncan out with his rufus vs future’s balrog at gameworks - duncan was blocking jump-ins all day and letting him get free throw mixups. He asked for pointers and I kept it simple “stand fierce when he jumps! you’re just letting him jump in for free.” The next matches were exponentially better because he showed that he wasn’t gonna let him jump for free anymore and thus had to work for his pressure.

~~

I don’t know if anyone’s interested but I’d love to co-host an improvement session (bunker? :lovin:). Not a hey we’re hanging out and playing SF on the side, I want SF practice. We’ll play first to 3 sets, and give one basic tip to each player. Noticed bad habits, better anti-air choices, a punish they were perhaps not aware of, anything simple and constructive. I don’t believe that we’ll learn if we have a whole room of people giving us 4 critiques each - it’s too much information to digest. I’d love constructive criticism on my play.

Practice up your bread and butter combos before and get your execution on point and we should have a true practice session!

I’d love to have like nolan… tanaka… kriangkrai… some smart, intuitive players out to offer insight. You guys make good choices during matches and have a lot to offer. We aren’t getting together and practicing at all and it’s pissing me off! My play is deteriorating. Come out to the bunker or something,** can we schedule a practice session**?

5

As strange as it may sound because I’m not exactly a sf guru i can be a huge mentality/patience coach for matches and on how to help you LEARN while you play, coaching is one of the things I’m best at in smash, and I’d say about 98% of what i coach applies directly to this game as well.

i know i know I’m new and I’m not supposed to be the guy who’s acting all high and mighty - and that’s not really what I’m trying to do

I’m actually working on a video series that might help you guys (and hopefully competitive gamers everywhere) that’s essentially a high level “how to improve competitively” tutorial

it’ll be something along the likes of this

[media=youtube]K9khDedACgY[/media]

but even more universal =D

also I’m hoping to host some gameclucks sf sessions during the week where we record matches so that we can all learn from watching ourselves.

one of the most important things that i ever did in melee was watch my own matches, good AND bad, in order to recognize my patterns.

also (lol @ this post btw) something i hope everyone starts doing more of (seems like people already do this) is TELLING PEOPLE HOW TO PUNISH YOU. Yes, that means when i’m playing people as dudley i don’t mind telling them that solid normal pokes and shorts put a MASSIVE stop to any offensive that i may gain - it really puts a halt to my momentum. You CANT punish light machine gun blow unless you have a command throw that’s faster than 3 frames, but you CAN punish every other one. Dudley has VERY little lag on his DPs but they have NO invincibility and I’m pretty weak on the wake up if I’m being pressured anyway, i’m also bad (but learning!) at dealing with cross ups. I WANT you to be able to destroy me. That’s how I improve! It was great to play jared, whom i was going pretty decently against until he started up his seth camper mode which demolished me BADLY for like 15 straight. That is EXACTLY what i want to play against. TELL people where they can get you, try to know YOUR habits and TELL people about them so that you can break them!

just let me know (or post in this thread as it may be a good place to post) what you think your main problems are and I’ll try to address them (along with others I’d imagine)

i haven’t really read much of these posts other than what i’ll summarize as “the Seattle scene has grown stagnant”

so basically what I’m saying is you got this don’t’ give up you can ALWAYS improve even if you’re the best in the world - there is NO peak and NOBODY plays perfect.

<3

6

Re: absolute defense.

Playing Honda helps.

Just kidding Dugg.

7

PLAY DUDLEY ULTIMATE DEFENSIVE STRATEGIES YESSSSsss

8

Thx mate, this was deff a good read!

oh &&

You so asian! Can I PLEASE call you Mr Miagi?
i lold

9

Good information! Will take into account and think about it all. I’m always down to give any advice I can, as well. I usually don’t say anything to people unless they bring it up though, because unless someone is willing to listen I’ll be talking to air.

Still got a lot to work on, lets go Seattle!

10

One of the things that the scene lacks is unity. I mean look at the the KOF,BB,Tekken and GG scenes the unity is there and all I hear about the SF scene is fucking drama.

11

My biggest problem right now is taking what i’ve been taught by better players and implementing it into my game. it’s so freakin hard. it’s like a mental block of mine. i don’t know what to do sometimes man. so damn frustrating. i know i need to get past the frustration, but i really don’t know what to do. any suggestions?

12

I would say to take one thing in to a match that you wanna improve on. Just one thing at a time. Keep it in your mind the whole match, but dont think too hard. Maybe try writing down things you know you should work on, just expressing them on paper will help you think about them more clearly.

13

That Bison I was talking about in my earlier post actually just beat Justin Wong in winners finals of NCR. Hmmmm :wgrin:

14

then sadly got destroyed in grand finals =(

15

I saw :sad:

16

Yeah, he totally crumbled in grand finals. I tihnk it is true that you get that emotional high from getting to grand finals and then it kind of makes you complacent or something. Definitely not something you can prepare very much for unless you are winning large tournaments on a regular basis.

17

^

^The solution is rather simple to me. What do you want to spend all your time getting better at life or a video game. It’s pretty clear that Seattle would rather be half ass at SSF4 with makes perfect since to me. I mean do you want to really be the best or just play and be part of a community. Do you guys really expect miracles at NCR( it was really dope seeing Peachy,Bowflex, and Bookin on screen!!props for sure), EVO, any other major events? Wong, Marn, Ricky, they all play SSF4 like it’s their job and it most likely is.

Thats a level that Seattle won’t be at, the mentality isn’t here. Not only the mentality but the quality of player. I don’t really live a pipe dream it’s clear who is a force in this game and who’s just playing to have fun. There is nothing wrong with just playing the game at all.

Seattle had a dominate Marvel scene with high quality players. The top players always stood out, they all played each other and learned. I’m sure they all decided that’s what was important to them at the time. They spend hours upon hours learning what every character could do, combos, setups, the works.

I’m never really surprised about the outcome of what Seattle does in majors. I mean what do you really expect? If we were a collective unit with the same goals, you would know we were traveling to win not to spectate.

It’s not even a matter of being upset. I completely understand people have other shit to do than play video games all day long. I could never be mad at that, it’s life. Just realize other regions completely dive into SSF4 and play to win always. Don’t be salty when they win constantly.

18

@Dugg fantastic post. A lot of really good advice that I will make sure to keep in mind as I continue to try and improve my game. I play Honda and T.Hawk so this is some advice that I feel I really need to pay attention to.

Some of whats been talked about are things that I was hoping to see come out of the online players list. It’s an easy way to play people who are better than you and hopefully learn some things. Playing randoms online can make for some bad habits for sure though. What I would like to see is people playing others and posting things that they need to work on. But the whole online thing is relatively new so hopefully things will continue to improve. I know that my games with Mikhael(I can never spell his name right), Dusty Blastoise, Zafo,Josh and others have taught me some things and I always walk away from it at least thinking of things that I can work on whether I’ve won or lost.

I really like Elias’s idea of having a practice day, though I doubt it’s something that I would ever be able to make it out for(I really hate having to work all the time and only being home late nights. FML.). It’s still an awesome idea that I think others could really take advantage of.

Anyway, good shit guys.

19

[quote=Thefuture;8982792Thats a level that Seattle won’t be at, the mentality isn’t here. Not only the mentality but the quality of player. I don’t really live a pipe dream it’s clear who is a force in this game and who’s just playing to have fun. There is nothing wrong with just playing the game at all.
[/quote]

If you’re actually playing to improve (this is not directed at thefuture) then do NOT let this poisonous and extremely infectious self-limiting attitude get caught up in your brain

The ‘quality of the player’? the quality of the player is based purely on the mentality, and almost every player is capable of great things. I’m not implying that in a year somebody from Seattle will be the next Justin Wong or something dumb like that, but that’s just stuffing players potential. I understand where you’re coming from, and I totally get it, but that’s not how everyone in this scene is. I can tell that and I’ve only been in the scene for like a month. People like Dugg Elias and Riki (among others) really are striving to improve constantly. At the point they’re at it’s not completely ridiculous to have a “bad day” and a “good day” - to not be 100% consistent, but through hard work and maintaining the proper mentality almost ANY player can reach a high level. Seattle has the players with talent and a very active good scene.

I’m not posting here to say “you got this” and send you on your way - it takes a LOT of work and a LOT of patience and a LOT of creativity to play competitively at a high level, I’ve been there, able to hold my own with some of the best in the world, believe me - it is NOT easy and you can’t lose focus for even one moment when you’re at that level.

Don’t give up if you actually want to improve, you’re capable of more than you think.

When I first started my player-hero was a player named Arash, a SoCal player. He was the best Bowser main at the time. I played and played hard so that one day I could be somewhere near his level. He dropped Bowser at one point because the character wasn’t good enough and picked up Jigglypuff - he continued to strive to improve. When I moved down to California on the FIRST player power rankings update I was ranked above his jigglypuff with my bowser, and I only went higher - I never thought I’d be where he was let alone better than him during my career. You can accomplish great things if you believe in yourself and work hard for it.

20

I believe what The future is saying is that time is important. The amount of time the cali and ny guys put in is ridiculous. They treat ssf4 like it’s a job and they really have limited time for outside life. Seattle doesn’t have those people who just play SSF4 all day. If you decide “I want to be the best, I’m going to practice and win evo” then you have to find several like minded people with time on their hands who have the same goal in mind. Seattle doesn’t have that. We practice maybe once a week and go to a tournament maybe once a week. Online doesn’t count, it just makes you worse. We need those hardcore sessions if we want to be serious about this game. Being comfortable with your options is one thing, but knowing your opponents options comes with time and practice against others who are as comfortable with their options as you are with yours. With the scene as unserious as we are right now, it really is intangible to beat the best in the world. But then again, I respect everyone who comes out and plays regardless if they want to be the best or are trying to play for fun. Seattle needs to just realize, it’s true. "You think your hungry…

You’re not."