Realizing when you are "free"?

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

Before I start, this isn’t a pity thread but a realization of things. I have come to the realization after playing fighting games for many years that I’m “free.” No matter how long I practice with my characters, study matchups, look at frame data, play against different people, I can never seem to progress. I have friends and acquaintances who have made it (one of them being the amazing RyRy) who make it look so easy that it’s hard to not be in awe of the things you do.

How I came to the realization that I am basically a scrub, was a few months ago at a tournament in Virginia Beach, VA. I had came with the hope that after playing SFIV and taking my skills from SF in general and becoming better in SSFIV, that I would make a better impact on the people who knew me. Low and behold, amazing guys such as Foomyjin and RyRy showed up along with some SOVA well-knowns. I was nervous but I kept my lunch down only to get ran on in my first round. Only thing left from the scene was the Pringles man in the background. Picking myself up for the losers bracket, I managed to get ran on for the first round and halfway through the 2nd round I literally quit and sat there with my stick in my lap. I was overwhelmed. Everyone stared at me and my opponent (Foomyjin) told me to keep playing but I was broken. I realized at that point I was “free.”

It brought me back to a warm summer night years back when I went to a hotel party where more of SOVA and NOVA players gathered in a few rooms to play fighting games. I was just a younger version of me with even less experience and confidence and I got ran on in every game I could think of: T5, SSBB, SFA3, MvC2, etc. While I had fun, while playing SSBB, O-NO (a SOVA player) came out and told me words I still remember: “You suck at every game that you’ve played tonight. Why are you even here? You are a scrub.” While I’m still friends with him today, I can’t be mad at words that were true and still are which brings me to this thread.

At this point, I’m sure most of you are thinking, “This guy is a scrub because he doesn’t practice enough and just wants attention.” Not at all. I want people to realize that there are people who want to get better but no amount of help can well… help them. Also, this was more of something I wanted to get off of my chest since I respect the words of Shoryuken over anyone else when it comes to fighting games. All I have is one question as to what I can do about my future: How do I build the confidence to not let past failures keep me from progressing my skill? I don’t want to be salty, pringles, or “free” anymore. Even if I don’t become so good I go to EVO and get even in the Top 100, I want to be able to fight someone and the person go, “Damn. That guy gave me a great match.” That’s all.

2

Unless there’s some physical or psychological handicap involved, I can’t see this as being true.

Roughing up a few online flowchart Kens always makes me feel better.

3

Wow.
I’d like to hear some more experienced members insight too, because i’m feeling rather free of late.
Yet last month i was at least OK.
I feel for you man, cos its fucking shite feeling this way. I got beasted on by a friend at puyopuyo last night. i wanted to rage.

How do you feel when you think about playing the game?
If you kinda feel like you’re just going through the motions that might be a reason.

I dunno man. Wish i could help. :shrugs:

4

Well all I can tell you is this man, good luck…

5

It’s like, “Ok I know this matchup and I know what it takes to beat them and I play to the best of my ability but even with my experience I get ran on by people I should be able to put a good fight up against.”

It’s a depressing feeling.

6

You know what I say? You’re free only if you think you’re free.

7

Well that’s the thing. I not only think I’m free, I believe whole-heartily I can never get better. Yes against your average player I do fine but I could never pinpoint what it was that kept me from progressing.

8

Ask your opponents what your weaknesses are.

9

You’ve already lost. That next fight? Lost. The one after that? LOST. Like anything in this world, SF is mental. At your job, when you are handed something you don’t know how to do, do you already accept defeat and just give up? I would hope not. You have the tools to to get it done, even though you may never have used those tools in that way before.

That’s what SF is about, too. Learn the tools at your disposal then fight people better than you repeatedly until you beat them. That’s how you learn. I have a 33% win ratio and I’m still out there every other day getting my ass handed to me.

10

this is the saddest thread i have ever read in my life

11

Fighting games aren’t for everyone.

12

Then that’s your problem. Training isn’t going to help you if you don’t think it is. You need to be more positive. Either that or kill yourself bro.

13

This is the same as fighting in the real world mentally. You will NEVER win a fight if you tell yourself that you’ve lost before you even get to the arena. You will find ways to lose, so the first thing you ABSOLUTELY have to do (notice use of CAPS)…is STOP saying you are free/pringles/blah blah blah. So what you’re training may take longer than Mr. X, you’re not them so stop trying to be them. You have no idea really how much training time and mental prep the people around you have actually put in, so put in as much of your own time as possible.

Another thing that is something I don’t believe most people do enough is to stop thinking about what made you lose right after the fight…don’t just THINK about it, watch the fight and SEE what you did and didn’t do. Chances are if you lost that fight it’s unlikely you will be able to think of why (beyond a move or two) you lost the fight, because you may think you did just fine. However if you actually SEE every second of that fight and pay attention, you’ll know exactly what you did and didn’t do. Match video is gold, stop watching other people fight to learn…they will never teach you more than you’ll teach yourself.

When you practice, don’t just practice your special moves or combos (which is great). Instead put yourself in the scenarios that you have trouble with until you get used to those situations. If you have problems with reaction based issues or spacing problems, it’s not a terrible idea to even use the cpu as a training dummy. Instead of immediately rushing online where you may end up intimidated and ruin your practice, go into either arcade mode or training mode. Set it to whatever difficulty level you’re comfortable with and DON’T beat on the computer…use it as a dummy. Don’t use ultra’s/supers/etc. just use plain 'ol basic strategy to keep it in whatever range you need. Practice keeping it at say sweep distance or low forward distance (shoto) no matter the situation. The cpu will likely end up having some sort of pattern you’ll notice after a while, use that to your advantage…humans do the samething. That may help you learn to notice patterns of fighters, when you do have your counter/punish at the ready and execute!

Don’t use every combo in the book, just focus on a single punish or two and use nothing but that. Do not allow yourself to use every little thing, only attack when you are using that specific counter/punish. That will help your reactions, once you’ve got that down pretty well you can begin to push and amp up that difficulty level. Eventually you’ll feel comfortable and get some confidence which you sorely need. The cpu doesn’t call you names, doesn’t make jokes, doesn’t do anything but shut up and fight. Use that, get used to things happening ON the screen, forget what happens OFF the screen. Slowly bring yourself back to fighting people again, and it’ll likey go better for you.

I could go on forever probably on this subject, but things will come to you anyway once you start. Few other things that will help you…

  1. Don’t learn how to do an ultra, and then try to jump in the ring with a specialist street fighter. Why set yourself up for failure from the start?

  2. Stop caring about what some dick said to you about your skill, they’re usually trying to make themselves feel better because they had/have the samething happen to them on a regular basis. If they gave a crap, they’d help you get better not try to make you feel worse.

  3. Stop watching combo videos and one sided fights. If you have to watch match video, watch it with a purpose not just because you want to copy. Pause the video a billion times and find out why Mr. X did move “y” at that exact moment, what’s the counter to that move, what else could he have possibly done, etc.

  4. Believe in yourself, because if you don’t…why the heck should anyone else.

  5. Have fun :slight_smile:

Hope this helps,

Kei

14

what character do you use?

do you play online?

15

not true. sometimes people just whoop your ass, BADLY. it’s not a mentality thing at all. it’s a character skill+player skill deal

OP I’m gonna need some real specific info. for one, what characters do you use? do you feel familiar with them? the most important one I wanna ask right away though is what it’s like when you play someone. Does it feel like you COULD win but you just don’t, or does it feel like that the opponent just presses any button and it will hit without fail & automatically keep them safe from attack?

edit: chromer get back to me on this if you can, this will help me out too. could give you direct help on what to do after you gimme the info i’m looking for

16

you are probably playing FGs like 1player games

you need to be mindful that you are playing another person whos trying to beat you, not fearful

stay free or step your shit up if you want to compete, wallowing in self pitty because youve been playing for years and know combos and frame data but still suck because you let someone get in your head is NOT the approach you need to take in these games

17

Free means your opponent doesn’t have to think to beat you. You’re so predictable that they can beat you on auto-pilot.

Try to think about this during your matches and starting making yourself do the opposite of what your instinct tells you to do. Try to mix up your gameplan.

There are some people I play where I know they are so much better than me I really won’t be able to win so I instead just try to make sure I’m blocking right and teching throws and punishing if I have a chance. I try to make them have to really work for the win. I don’t mean turtle. I mean more specifically that when your opponent is so good at playing safe and keeping the pressure on you, rather than doing something dumb like a random SRK try to match their game by only attacking if you’re positive you have an opening. It’ll at least put it in their mind that they are going to have to keep going after you again and again just to take the round even if you’re not posing a threat to them.

18

@ Chromer

First off, you should of asked O-No to teach you the game or stfu about calling you a scrub. If he is your friend, he would help you.

Dude, alot of people, I mean ALOT of people get nervous when they play somebody like freaking RyRy. Hell, even some pros like Kurasa (not sure if I spelt his name right) and Keits and people like them.

Look, the most renowned person I played was Viscant online in SF4 when he was raping people with Blanka and Gief. When I saw his gamertag, I almost shited myself. I felt I couldn’t win and he perfected me once and beat me pretty bad the second match. I also felt I was free.

When i played him again like a week later, not any better than before and I had tons of confidence. I actually did ok against him. I got him down to half life both times. He still destroyed me because he is a great overall player, but I did better. Confidence is the key. and until you get it, you will be free.

Now to tell you the truth, I only been to one very small tourney with average players, if I had to play Justin Wong in person I would probably be so nervous that I would choke like a bitch lol

Guess what man? You are at a site that you can play some decent players and that can help you play the game. Use this to your advantage. I hooked up with Beats*, wentinel, Romneto, Preppy, THEKINGKINDRED, skitz, striderzero96, unknownSerg and other overall GREAT player in MVC2 and SSF4 respectively. And they smash me out alot, but I get back up and try to get some wins. When I win, they pat me on the back, send me a message saying good shit, and then destroy me the next match. Afterwards, they critique me, saying how I can improve my game.

Also, win against some scrubs dude. Moral is the key. when you rape these people, you get a false sense of confidence (it isn’t necessarily a bad thing) which can help you against decent to great player. I would try to write a thesis paper about how confidence can affect overall performance but I ain’t got that type of time lol. Just “win”. Also, make side goals. When I played against Preppy, I had 5 side goals. I forgot like 3 of them, but one was “Defeat Amingo” and the second one was “Perfect Morrigan/Gambit combo”. My objective, or motive was to at least get 4 out of 5 of those goals. I did those, and even when I lost all 10 games, i still had slight confidence, which was good enough to beat other decent players.

Just some thoughts about confidence.

P.S- it is also about your knowledge of the way you play. If you turtle up and play defensive, pick Sagat, or Blanka, or Guile, or E. Honda or some people like that. if you like to RTSD, pick Rufus, or Abel, or C. Viper or some people like that. If you do both, Ryu or Ken or Akuma will be good for you. You gotta pick the right character.

Hoped I helped :wink:

19

I completely agree with Dyz on this one, Confidence makes the man, or in this case, the player. If you go into a match with the mindset that you are going to get stomped then guess what, you’re going to get stomped. Whenever I challenge someone who I know is better than me I take it as a step to bettering myself, I know that in the end even if I lose I’ve gotten better from playing that match, and that alone will help build confidence, after the loss just go into another match screaming “I JUST LOST TO A TOURNAMENT PLAYER, NOW NO ONE IS SAFE!!!” lol, its all about having fun in the end anyway right?

20

I’ll tell you exactly what it is. If you can execute combos in training mode almost flawlessly, know the properties of all your normals/specials, and the range of all of your moves, yet you’re losing against good players, there’s only two things that are holding you back, unfortunately one of them is the hardest thing to learn:

  1. You don’t know how to apply these in an actual fight.

  2. YOU ARE NOT THINKING BEFORE YOU ACT! This is the biggest difference between top players and mediocre ones. You have to be constantly thinking, the game is like chess, you can’t just jump in and be like “I’m gonna do a combo yay!”, you have to wait and zone them out until you see an opening and then take advantage of it. No matter how well you know the match up, if you aren’t taking your time and thinking everything through, you will not succeed. Eventually this stuff all becomes second nature and you’ll be able to do shit on reaction all the time, but it takes a ton of practice.

  3. (I know I said there’s only 2 but this basically just combines the previous 2) Experience.

Unless you have some kind of handicap, there’s no way that you can’t improve. It’s possible though that you are not yet mature enough to compete with top players as far as the thinking part of the game goes, and understanding the complexities of the game.