this.
edit: had a long drawn out post and it wasn’t even thought out that well. all you need know is what deadfrog said and this: http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=174085
Sure, he might play online, but that doesn’t mean he thinks it’s great practice. Does he? I don’t know. Maybe his connection is good to begin with and he only plays five bar fights.
Me personally, I find five bar matches here not good for much, but could be my connection. It’s not elitist to know that input lag changes SF for the worse.
The way I look at it if it’s 10am and you’re looking to play, it beats the AI.
Yeah, offline is better, but the opportunities you get to play offline is limited, especially if you work freaky hours, and/or have no arcade within 100 miles.
I think SFIV is degraded less by online then most other fighters- due to its forgiving inputs.
You’ve never attended an offline tourney and you dare to say that the Dutch community is shitty? How?
Let me refraise: As far as i know, there isn’t really much life in SF here. In my city, there are, like, 2 people who know who Ryu is. I have been searching for Sf tournaments, but there aren’t alot. And most of them are pretty far away from here. (Schiedam) Not saying that there aren’t good players here, i know for a fact that there are great ST players. But if am to be proven wrong, that would be great actually. 
http://drakenslag.com would answer your questions. There are tournaments being held in all parts of the country, and there are alot of great players from Den Haag and Rotterdam so it shouldn’t be hard to find good competition. Especially now that the community has grown since the release of SFIV.
offline so you can punch your opponennt in the face