playing with one character can get so boring sometimes and really takes the fun out of the game. but if i really want to play competitively, is just sticking to that 1 character, learning every match-up, studying his/her combos, frame advantages, and believing in it the best thing to do?
Well you should have a main, because there is almost always a part of your game that you could work on for each character. I’d say that even Daigo could get better with Ryu at this stage by practise.
However a big part of learning match ups = understanding the limitations of the other chars, this tells you exactly when you can throw caution to the wind and press the attack. The only way to learn the exact capabilities of a character is to play as them. So yeah you can and should screw about with other chars, but to be tournament viable you need to practise 1 a lot more than the others.
True beans. He said pretty much all there is to say. lol.
My main is Vega and sometimes I like playing Blanka, Sagat, Juri, Ken/Ryu/Akuma, Cammy and Guile, and sometime I hope to get comfortable with many other characters even the ones I suck at like Hakan, Dhalsim and Makoto. Definitely have a main for competition, but play others as well for fun and variety as well as insight.
Not really. As sappy as it sounds, Daigo can really only become a better Daigo. That’s just where he is as a player.
As far as sticking with a single character goes, the only real reason to stick with one as a main is simply because there’s one you like more than any other. And if not that, there are a few you like the same, but can only realistically devote the time to keeping one as your best.
Everyone messes around with other chars. It’s not a big deal to do the same if you feel yourself getting bored. In fact, i had a great amount of fun tonight online messing about with people on my friends list trying out eachother’s mains. Do what you feel like doing.
You’re probably bored because you only face “lesser-players”. If your main is your best character, and you constantly get challenged by great players, you’ll be more motivated to improve that character to know all matchups and strategies. On the other hand, if you constantly face horrible players, you’ll be bored winning because you know you haven’t really learned anything.
There’s 35 characters, there’s no need to stick to just one. Honestly, I can’t even stick to one, I’m sure it’s obvious by now, that I’ve been going all through the roster, I’m not looking for a main, I’m getting good with everyone.
The characters that I’ve never messed around with are consistently the ones I do worst against. If you want to play competitively you need to know your opponents options.
However, **mastering **a whole load of characters is also a bad idea, you’ll second guess yourself with counterpicking and dilute your matchup experience. There are 35 characters in the game, learning a matchup inside out takes maybe, 100 matches? So that’s 3500 matches to really know the matchups for ONE character!
If you pick a character with nothing worse than a 4-6 matchup, then you can probably main exclusively. If you pick a character with a 7-3 matchup or worse you will probably want to learn a counterpick character to your worst matchup . . and then learn them inside out!
Everyone messes around with other characters, but I’d suggest sticking to one in the beginning. Just because jumping around characters, you won’t ever really get into their advanced tactics. Stuff like frame traps and really good mixups. Once you can use every tactic one character has, you’ll be able to apply that knowledge to the other characters, and learn them much faster. For example, if you learn everything Ryu has…you’ll already know half or more of the tactics used by the other shotos, ken and akuma.
That said…if you’re getting burnt out on your main, it doesn’t hurt to mess around with another character for a few days or something. Everyone does. Just make sure you go back to that main, and don’t keep jumping around the cast.
switching it up is good. so is learning how to play your character in a different style. ryu isn’t all fb loops, he’s also pressure. chun can go any which way. dictator… egh he’s pretty much offensive although you can annoy the shit outta people with him punishing “turtle” style", waiting for them to make a mistake. even guile can play a few different ways. you can always take a break from sf and go outside too. it helps actually.
also, daigo plays multiple characters in every game. he was a gief, ryu, fei, and boxer in st. SHHH! IT"S A SECRET TO EVERYONE!
You can have a second. Daigo has one (guile). Tokido has one (Honda). Jwong has two, chun and boxer. mix it up.
A lot of bad advice in this thread
You want to stick to one character until you’re quite familiar with the character no matter which situation or match up you find yourself in. Then you can start learning another character.
If you’re just learning the game yes have a main. If you’ve played a ton already and you do just fine, all the time, with your main then you could start to develop your skills with another character but that doesn’t mean you should ever neglect practicing with your main
The idea that you have to learn other characters in order to understand how to play against them is completely fallacious.
This.
I’m rotating through 13 ( with ~10 alts ) characters due to obnoxious indecisiveness and suffering because of it
i use 2 chrs at a time and just alternate em online 
i dont think its good to run lets say seth, sagat and akuma but doing something like sagat, and some easy chars like bison blanka, dan doesnt hurt hehe
Could you explain this? Cause I get whipped by some of the lesser-picked characters and to me it seems like a big reason for that is because I don’t understand their moveset very well.
You don’t have to learn how to play a character in order to understand their abilities. There is a lot more to learning a character than learning what their moves do.
Any help choosing between seconding Ibuki vs Cammy? I am a chun-li player. I love chun’s methodical playstyle with her footsie game and pokes, but I must admit I get a bit bored playing a character whom I deal 75% of my damage from normals
That’s not chun-li, that’s street fighter
I was being figurative. I want to explore a character that feels (more) exciting to play
lol @ needing to learn another character to deal with some 7-3 matchup. man up.