Mindset and Goal
Having a good mindset and knowledge of your character(s) is the best way to win in my opinion.
Develop a specific game plan for your character and layout some simple goals. Here are examples:
[LIST]
[*]Balrog - I want to push my opponent all the way to the corner and apply pressure
[*]Guile - I want to keep away while countering my opponent’s eagerness and mistakes
[*]Rufus - I want to get close and put myself in a position where I can either grab or punish my opponent’s techs
[*]Dalhsim - I want to keep away.
[/LIST]
What I would recommend is to write down your specific game plan for your character. In one sentence just like I did above and have it in front of you while you play online.
As you get better you will add on to that list, making it more complete plan. For now, you only need to have one goal and one goal only.
Combos
In training mode, you want to develop and master 2 types of combos.
#1 - Combos that are easiest to do and does the most damage (Bread and butter)
Balrog example: Jab, Jab, Short, Headbutt
Medium Punch -> Headbutt
#2 - Combos that don’t do as much damage but sets up a better positioning for your character (Your goal mentioned above)
Do them 30 times in a row or until you can do it on command with no errors, this will create muscle memory and improve your execution.
Playing Online
Once you have done the 2 tasks I have mentioned above, you can now test it online.
Round 1
Don’t do anything stupid (or at all if you want) for the first 15 seconds. Feel your opponent to see what he wants to do (figure out his game plan before you apply yours). Just dash back as soon as the round starts and look at your opponent.
By not doing anything for 15 seconds, you can really see what your opponent wants to achieve.
- does he want to just sit back and throw fireballs all day?
- does he want to rush and apply pressure early?
- does he want to turtle and do nothing?
- ETC…
Once you figured out what he wants to do, you can figure out ways to counter it.
Another major benefit of not doing anything for 15 seconds is that you put your opponent in a very difficult situation. He has not idea what your goals are and he will get eager, agitated and annoyed. Often he will make fatal mistakes like jumping at you and you can just counter it.
It’s like an awkward silence on a date. Someone will break the silence and start talking.
You will not always win in your first round. In fact, you will most likely lose the first round. But it gives you valuable information about your opponent, his habits, combos, set ups.
Round 2
Now that you have all your information, you can now play to your game plan. Do not wait for 15 seconds in this round to do something. Start strong and apply pressure early.
This is good because you changed up the pace of the game. It throws your opponent off and it really mind fucks him.
If you have won both games, congrats…GG
If you have lost, try to figure out the following questions:
At what situation did my opponent caused the most damage to my character?
At what situation did I lose my positioning of my character and my game plan began to crumble?
Write it down to the sheet in front of you.
Rinse and repeat this process while playing online. You will level up and get better faster than you can imagine.
Always ask questions if you don’t know something, we are all here to help. If you want any character specific information, then just ask the pros that are masters of these characters.
[LIST]
[*]Rufus - DaFlipMasta, Blitzman
[*]Balrog - Js_Master
[*]Sagat - Spiral_Guy, Quan
[/LIST]
Feel free to ask me anything and I’ll try my best to help.
**Oh and don’t do what I mentioned above to me and expect to work. It won’t! It’s like showing a magician a trick that you just learnt.
**
The above is what works for me and it might not work for you. It’s a general guideline of what I do. If you want to be pro, you will need to create something of your own.
Watch videos online and see what the pros do…that should help. Keep in mind of what I have written here, you will be able to analyze pro videos and look at some of the key elements that I talked about.
Good luck and good game,
-Jack