So, I’ve been playing Street Fighter “seriously” (and I say that very loosely) now for about a year. ever since Ultra came out. I got a stick and been playing on stick for about 6 months I’m thinking, so yeah, I still suck. I’ve gotten a main and pretty much started just playing as much as possible. But my thing is this… is it even possible for a new player like me to “catch up” and be competitive? I always get bodied in my local scene, but I feel as though I’m getting better little by little, but what about the top echelon? the Justins, Daigos, Mimochis, etc… is it even possible for a new player to get that good?
Like are there top players who just started maybe with SSF4? It seems like all these guys have been competitively playing since MvC days. Has anyone just come out of “nowhere”? I’ll be quite honest… in my hood, growing up, the only combo that was done was jump HK to sweep lol.
So, I just really would like to discuss this topic. Thoughts???
Fighting games aren’t like shooters where you can be good at it in the first few weeks or so. They take commitment to learn the aspects of the game. Don’t get discouraged if you aren’t hitting people with one frame links or 50 hit combos within the first year. If I were to give any feedback I would say to find a tutor that can teach you about certain aspects of the game. He (or she) doesn’t have to be Justin Wong or PR Rog good at the game. He/she just needs to know what they’re doing. Learn from the right people and your game should level up quite well.
Oh P.S. Don’t settle on trying out just a couple of characters. Take a trial with everyone and see how they feel. You’ll be surprised with who you like to play.
On a more seriouse note, there are lot of young top player who started with sf4 (smug, luffy, valmaster, nuckledu, infiltration…). You can catch up with old school top player but it takes a lot of effort, the good mentality and time. Worry not you don’t have to play seriously since the golden age of fighting game to become a threat in tournament, but it’s tough no matter what.
really??? WOW! i didn’t know this! that’s encouraging. I’m not like whining about “wah wah waaaaaah I suck, when will I ever get better”. I’m more so speaking about that overwhelming feeling I get when I play. it’s crazy. Like everybody is so much better than me and I have no idea what they’re talking about most times lol. like I still don’t know exactly what plinking or option selecting really is. I just hear it and can look it up, but don’t know how it’s used or what it’s giving me, etc (just a couple examples)
everyone’s responses have been SUPER helpful! thanks
it seems like everything is a rush to input for me. like FADC. that is a complete guessing game for me whereas, from what I hear, people see if the move lands THEN execute the focus. that’s god like to me lol
No they don’t. Nobody hit-confirms a SRK>FADC, except with Ken.
You need about 2 moves to hit-confirm something.
In other words:
You do a little combo, see if it lands, if it does you FADC it into ultra or whatever, if it doesn’t connect you don’t do anything.
You also don’t need to think about hit-confirms, whiff punishes, FADC combos and 1-frame links, option selects, plinking and shit.
Pick a solid character like Ryu/Ken/Guile, and pretend you play Street Fighter 2. Just fight with your normals, dashes and special moves and try to bring them out consistently.
Learn to anti-air, how to break focus with your character, how to dash and how to poke.
I’m 33 and started playing the game about 3 years ago and not pressuring myself with useless combos and actually going online and playing the game just with normals and specials helped me a lot.
When you’re able to control your character comfortably, and matches do not totally overwhelm you anymore, then you can think about optimizing your damage in form of combos and shit.
For training maybe. But trying to apply SF2 strategies to SF4 will get you wrecked. Trying to do the opposite will wreck you even more!
Still, I’d never expect to be able to win a round with Ryu against a decent Boxer player in SF2T, yet would find it impossible to do in SF4!
I think there are a couple good players that are fairly new to Street Fighter. Knuckledu I believe is one.
I also asked JWong about this and he said yes anyone can be a top player if they put in a lot of work and play other top players to gain experience. Still, I don’t know. I’m 34 and recently got bodied by Native who is pretty young so it’s not like he has 14 years of SF experience.
Catching up? It depends. Keep in mind that even the new bloods like Smug, Snake Eyez and Knuckledu have been playing for years at this point and probably have invested thousands of hours into improving. Not to mention most new top players are quite young meaning they’re at an age where learning the mental side of fighting games as well as the motor patterns necessary to execute moves and combos will come easier. If you’re like 30+ with a career and a family and are just now getting into fighting games and have limited free time you might want to re-evaluate your expectations.
