In order to become a better player, is it more condusive to play in Player Match rooms or do ranked matches? The more serious players may play in ranked matches, but in ranked matches, you also don’t have the ability to immediatly play your opponent again. If he was doing something to give you trouble, you can’t really test your counter strategy or solution after the match ends. What do you guys think?
I used to play ranked until I started getting cheated out of wins. My W:L is exactly what its not supposed to be, so I figured what’s the point. Your best bet towards improving is to join a player match room with some fellow SRK’ers, easily the most intense and fun matches you can have! Besides, its hard to improve when so many people in ranked pick Akuma and spam backwards-jumping air-FB’s.
I would say that the player rooms are much more useful than ranked matches for getting better. I’ve been in some rooms with absolute killers and it really makes you play your best. Spectator mode in and of itself is great as well.
You can run into some monsters in ranked, but getting knocked around for three rounds and booted out isn’t going to teach you much. Just my $.02, but being in a room with a bunch of SRK’ers offers way more opportunity to learn and get better.
Player Matches allow you to watch others play which is just as important as actually playing.
It gives you a chance to see something you might be doing wrong.
i think ranked matches are better for playing against all the characters. player rooms usually turn into matches with the same characters over and over which i myself am guilty of as i cant use anyone else good but ryu. but…
the player rooms are where i hone my skill in certain matchups. i sucked untill i got into a one on one room with ragingasain01, a much better ryu player than me. thats where i really figured out how to use ryu. ive found the most valuable player matches are one on one rooms vs better players.
i think watching other matches is tough to learn from as it always seems like you would win if you were playing. “oh, come on…how could he not DP that!”. but then when you’re playing, its all different. watching is good for picking up sneaky tricks and whatnot but you really gotta pay attention.
If you’re playing randoms, just play ranked. Randoms in player matches generally aren’t very good. And of course, the best way to go about playing the better players is to hook up with people in the PSN and X-Box Live forums on this site.
My opinion on this one is that for purposes of learning, player matches are better. Here’s why:
- No pressure of losing your rank means concentrating more on the fight than the victory/loss, and thus, better learning.
- You’re watching others. Their timing, reach, combos, strategy… in spectator mode, allowing you to learn different character strats. If other players use the same character, then you may learn by watching them in combat.
- They are watching you. They are learning your tricks, and since they come up with ways to deal with your usual strats, you have to come up with new strategies BY FORCE since they know your usual ones. Better learning.
Ranked matches have advantages though:
- Better mix of opponents, no cherry picking and fighting only who you want
- When you know that rank is on the line, there is more pressure to come up with strats.
I agree with most of this. Just know that when learning you should stick to one on one or 3 player rooms. Being 6th in line and waiting to get your chance,finally getti g it and not wanting to wait again can be more pressure than ranked!
theres a better quality of players in Player Rooms, in ranked I can some times go 30-0 thats not because Im so great but because most of the time 90% of the ppl I come across on ranked struggle to do a hadoken. All the great players I’ve met have been in player rooms. Plus ranked matches is where all the rage quitter are.
ps…speaking from a xbox live point of view
- It’s important to play offline. There’s still a lot of lag on Live and PSN that really doesn’t play out or feel the same offline.
- Only in ranked matches are games 3/5. This is a bad habit that gives you 2 rounds to get used to the other player’s style; you won’t have this luxury in a tourney.
- Ranked quick matches try to pair you with a player of the same caliber, regardless of their connection. If you play someone with a bad connection (like from EC to Japan), skill won’t be the determining factor in winning and you’ll probably learn little anyway.
- Just hunt down player match rooms filled with good players.
im not so sure about this. when i first started playing, i always played ranked just cause its the quickest way to get a match going. and many a times ive been paired up with the guys that are ranked in the top ten. haru teyjo, bruce askew, sirlin, fifth and some bud, etc. im ranked 403 the last time i checked.
^ So true. I had to face damdai and others when I JUST started. It was brutal.
The problem with ranked matches is that it will teach what works against most people, not the best people. Once you learn what beats 70-80% of the people on Ranked, stick with Player matches until someone shows you explicitly why those tactics don’t work. Learn from that and you’ll start adding real depth to your game.
That’s true LOL. I forgot to mention the pressure of being the “defending champion” in a room. That also counts since your defending your “title” as current buttkicker in the room.
I agree. I think the reason why there are so many strugglers is because beginners don’t have the patience to go into a room and “wait” their turn, most just want to play as quickly as possible which means "ranked"games are selected more often for the player that just has an “urge” to kick some butt quickly without the wait. I think there are a lot of rage quitters as well due to the fact that the matches are ranked and they want to sustain their rank, or are noobs that can’t take a buttwhooping like a man. LOL
price of xbox 360… 150.00,
price of HDR…15.00
the slight slowdown in game play that occurs when your opponant is about to rage quit…F***ING PRICELESS!!!
Another good point about player matches, if people are pwning too much they often drop down to a ‘less than main’ character to:-
A: Give you a chance and make it more fun.
B: Improve a character they need to work on.
People tend to stick to their main religiously in ranked, I think anyway.
Smoke.
or C: if a decent player in the room is getting “pwned”, they will instantly switch to akuma and start doing the air fireball crossup into low attack that seems unblockable, and the inescapable raging demon…i get this literally everytime i play on PSN for some reason.
i have 0.0 respect for anyone that uses akuma seriously.
I second that.
I start picking different characters if I hit a 5+ win streak in player matches with ken, forces a different kind of adaption and application for mindgames.
Third that about akuma whores.