I don’t think anyone can actually plateau in anything! Just like sports, love and hobbies there’s always room to grow. Even with SF there’s always something new that has me saying"shit I didn’t know that beats that or you can do that". Knowing a few characters and having them down pat won’t make you a better player because you need to know every characters strengths and weaknesses. Unless you can pick random and have a 95% win ratio I’d say we’re all pretty far from plateauing. Focus on your mental game, footies, combos, spacing. I’ve been playing 15 years and I STILL SUCK!!
^^
You can always plateau in something. Plateauing isn’t about whether or not you have potential. It’s whether or not your growth is stagnant. The best way to plateau in a fighting game is to keep playing people significantly worse than you. This is usually why scrubs stay where they are.
I think that there’s always new stuff to be learned. Right now, I’m not learning as much exponentially as I did in the past, but the few stuff I do learn and pick up has really helped me and made things fun. I just try not to be content, that is when I get complacent and it won’t be as fun anymore.
This is quite possibly the single best piece of advice i have read on SRK…ever!
There is no such thing as a plateau, just a lack of will to learn when the lesons become harder to find.There is ALWAYS, ALWAYS something you can do to improve your game, but the better you are the less people there are out there that can teach you something new.To me, that’s why SF is a unique game.It’s like chess, mastered over years and years, not weeks and months.There has never been someone who knew EVERYTHING in SF, and there probably never will be.Even the “Grand masters” have weaknesses.
If you’ve plateaued, DO NOT play against weaker players, you are wasting your time, and you’d be better off not playing at all, you will just be reinforcing the same old bad habits you have built up instead of repairing them so they work properly.Look for people who punish your mistakes.Seek out players who beat the crap out of you, switch on your mic and talk to them.Ask them about what their strategies were for the matchup, what holes they percieved in your arsenal, how they beat you, and then go about finding ways to plug the holes. and beef up the strong points of your game to make it ferocious.If you’re zoned out, figure a way to break the zoning, even if it costs you 100 losses, and when you do break it and get in for some damage, know how to crucify the bastard so he can’t zone you again.
If you’re having a problem with akuma, play nothing but good akuma players every chance you get till you have a handle on it.I love playing against akuma, because he’s fucking tough, and if i find a good akuma player and he beats me around all day but i learn one little trick against something he can do, then i’m happy.
Stick with it, there is always room for improvement.
I know many will not agree with me about my view on this, but I hate that F’n word.
I never said YOMI… You should cut your tongue out for even saying it. :chainsaw: OG players used the phrases “mind games,” or “Fake/ Fake out” to demonstrate the concept since the beginning. Which are pretty generic terms, used in may competitive contests. Using it now makes you look like a trend follower, and exhibits an inability to think for yourself, which goes against the concept entirely.
Suddenly we throw some name on the concept of ‘forward thought’ and ‘player predictability’ and it starts to phase into the competitive game lexicon? As if it is a totally new concept, just introduced to the community? :lame: Every time you use the phrase YOMI you act as if the concept of ‘forward thought’ and ‘player predictability’ is owed to the propagator of the phrase as if it never existed before.
You can always tell the ultra-scrubs by use of this phrase. Just search through the threads. You’ll see a clear trend line in the playing ability of the player and the use f the phrase. Try to find some old OG players that uses the “YOMI” term constantly, or uses the term with out mocking it in some sarcastic manor. (Other than Sirlin, in self promotion. Which is a great career move. You have to respect that). You find that skilled players will be in the minority group exhibiting the use of the phrase YOMI.
So please, I beg you! 
Never, use that phase and my name in the same sentence EVER AGAIN! :crybaby: PLEASE!
Anyway, thanks for reading my rant! 
~fatboy
Well said. This is exactly why I almost never get technical when I try to explain things. I use terms I can understand.
For example:
J. up FP = Pimp smack
C. FP = Punch them in the face
J. FH = Drop kick to the face
J. FP > S. MP > Throw = He dead
:nunchuck:
Whoa there. I put it in parentheses for a reason. I rarely use the word myself, but I thought that was what you were trying to convey. Every time I hear Sirlin say it in a video I kinda chuckle.
what I hate about yomi is that sirlin makes it sound like a guessing game. it’s a rock paper scissor game with different risk rewards.
but it’s not. ST mind games (and every good SF) are much deeper than just guessing high/low/throw on wakeup. there’s the baiting of certain actions i.e you whiff fierce over someone’s body to make them block/bait an uppercut and then react to their reaction with a grab/uppercut punish. that’s not a guessing game. it’s not even knowing the mind of the opponent. it’s a mind game.
and then the mind games go up. say I’m threatening ryu with blanka’s slide repeatedly consistently beating out fireballs. ryu’s best counter is to jump the slide, make it whiff and combo me to my death afterwards. but say I realize this and walk into slide range in the same way I normally max range slide. but instead of sliding I whiff low strong, ryu thinks I slid and jumps, but I mash out electricity and kill him.
there’s no rock paper scissors. there’s no guessing. it’s all mind games.
No! ~You’re~ overreacting! LOL! J/k… For the record I was just having a little fun with my post.
I still hate the current proliferation of the word. But, its all in good fun! :china:
If you want to fight about it, take me on! BIATCH! Have some fun!
http://scrotumismax7.mybrute.com
^^^
My “Yomi” skills allowed me to forsee this post…:china:
Hmmm…the first time I remember seeing the term “mind games” was when James Chen and I were discussing the components of skill WWWAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY back in the days of alt.games.sf2. That had to be 1995 or 1996. I wonder if that post is still out there…
I DIED!
Heh. I know you were joking. I need to play you in some HDR good sir.
Buy a cheap video capture device and record your matches. The best way to get better is to watch your losses over and over again until you figure out what your problem areas are. Playing with a new toy might get you back into playing as well.
To those defending “you can always improve!”, there does come a point where it isn’t worth practicing a game anymore, because the quality of your competition isn’t high enough. I mean, what’s the point of learning anything outside of j.rh, c.rh if that’s what works against everyone you ever play against?
So to that, I say, if you believe you’ve found the plateau, it’s time to find a taller plateau.
I think he realizes this; at least the way I interpreted it, everything you said was part of it, and that’s the point of the whole “layers” of yomi
I hate the term yomi though, I’d rather just say “mindgames,” it’s less cryptic to newcomers
If any of you are feeling down and want to reaffirm your HDR skills, feel free to send me a message on XBL… You’ll probably feel better after playing vs me for a while :lol:
Vance, that’s when its time to expand your horizons. The great thing about the internet is now we can connect players of all skill levels together… It’s no longer the way it used to be, where you’re the best in your geographical region, and there’s nobody to push you harder unless you make huge roadtrip or there is some huge event that draws in outside competition. I’d guess that just about anyone from anywhere can be a top SF player these days, which is pretty rad.
Is there any practical use for Claw jumping on the gate in Spain? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it used competitively. Doesn’t seem like you can control which way he climbs on it either. I might jump on it if I’m ahead, but the opponent will usually position themselves favorably to them so they can counter.
My head asplode.
A little update. After thinking about things for a little while I did come up with new ways to improve my game. Probably the best thing I did was (with Rog) learn to always cancel a crouching mp or mk with a low rush punch. 2x crouching MP xx low rush surprisingly dizzys a lot. That and I have been practicing holding down LK and HK for TAP with my thumb and pinky, which gives me all the dexterity I need for the punch buttons (I just can’t do it any other way). Nothing is more satisfying that getting a dizzy and releasing a 4-6 or using a 7-Final against a tough zoner!
Rambling a bit here, but I guess there really is always room for improvement!
Also, negative edging Honda’s ochio is downright sick. God I love that.
This is without a doubt one of the greatest posts on SRK.
Those of you know who have played me know what I can do with Hawk. I’m still learning what to do against others though. Hell, I’m even learning about the best times to walk-up Typhoon. Fatboy can tell you all the times I caught him off guard doing that to his Blanka. And I can’t tell how much I’ve gotten caught by someone doing the dumbest shit. Example. I join this game, this Ryu is 5-0, I’m thinking “Okay, this guy knows his stuff”, he beats my ass the first round doing nothing but jumping in with Roundhouse and crossing me up. After that round though, I turned the place into the slaughter.
In the end, I would advise anyone to take what Fatboy said very seriously. He’s right in every way.