Not “scurred”. Just no where to play. Living in the Midwest(WI), We just don’t have a fighting scene. Looking in the regional thread the closest low key events are a 4 hour drive for me.
Yes you are. Well especially considering you use Sakura I’d be extra scared. Well…then again Sabre has been doing really well with her but maybe he’s just getting lucky. Or maybe he knows super secret unblockable resets. :lol: Seriously though just come on out. Or at least pretend you’re not scared.
LOL. It must have been real late last night when I typed this up. I was just going to post it in the fighting game thread but…everyone plays SFIV these days so I guess this will work.
Now that I think about it…I do believe in something that would allow people to play consistently before tournaments. It is one thing to go to tournaments but people still need that time to play before tournaments to experiment and brush up on common mistakes. I think that gives people time to level up before the tourney so they feel more comfortable at the tourney. I actually got quite a few new people into the tourney scene by having gatherings at a LAN center in the area before it closed down. It was like a weak arcade where people could come in any time of the day and play. Hopefully they’ll re open in a year and if they cut us a good deal (LULZ) we could get something going again.
Either way we still have once a week gatherings at the local college and I go to Perfect Sin’s place to play with Steve Harrison, Eric Kim and other local top players at least once or twice a month. Split the gas with my brother and it’s about 7 bucks for all day gaming with the best in the area.
In the end though I still believe if people don’t go to tournaments they’ll never really take their game to the next level. People who are nervous in tournaments are also nervous in casuals and just don’t realize it. You just don’t feel the nerves because your mind is just worried about playing the game and mistakes don’t matter to you. It’s like drinking excessively while playing someone really good. You’re making the same mistakes over and over but you won’t make as big of a deal out of it since ur just hanging with the guys. If you never go to the tournament though you’ll just always be complacent and never truly sharpen your game in a short time frame. That’s part of the reason why top players (especially the Japanese) stay sharp. They have 2/3 matches or 2/3 rounds to figure out the opponent and if they can do that in a tournament you know they are going to be consistent all around anytime they play.
J.Wong IIRC is like a year or 2 younger than I am. So that would make him like 21 to 22ish. Arturo is probaly in his mid 20’s. The really old top players are people like Alex Valle who is like 30ish and I hear Mike Watson is basically going on 40. They are still top players because of the type of mindset required to play fighting games. People see fighting games and think they are all reaction and button mash oriented. That is part of the play but then you watch SBO and you see guys clearly in their mid 30’s and 40’s coming off from work to participate in ST or 3S for SBO. Like still in their business suits and everything.
In a FPS competitive scene people usually retire after about 25 years old because a majority of the strategy is revolved around how quickly you can aim your fingers to a headshot position and click. Once you lose that just frame reaction to shoot at people you’re going to be a second rate player. Your reflexes peak at the age of 18 and degrade soon after that so once your reflexes aren’t super sharp you lose your ability to be a consistent player. They have programs to regularly test how sharp your reflexes are and if you aren’t just framing head shots you’re already fighting a losing battle. With fighting games it’s much more about things you have learned over time because there are so many positions and minute elements within the normals and specials and spacing game that experience weighs much heavier over pure reactions as far as who will win. If you’re in you mid to late 20’s…believe it or not fighting games are one of your last hopes for being a high level player in a video game.
Scared CAUSE I use sak. Lemme put ElF in the lab with sakura and ryu for a month while I get my license to go to one.
The average it’s 25 years old in tournament.
I don’t go because i live far (Montreal) … I still get beat by some john doe online so i don’t see how i could perform vs old school pro player.
Oh and i’m turning 30 soon.So don’t feel creepy about it.
Well Valle and Daigo are in their late 20’s or low 30’s . There’s plenty of old fart playing sf4.Don’t Worry.
You can use people’s inexperience with a certain matchup to your advantage. If you play the higher tiers it actually requires you to play insanely better than most of those very same players.
Also, don’t go afk when I challenge you on GGPO…lol I need makoto practice :karate:
I’ve never played a real offline match in any fighting game, let alone a tournament, but I’ll be going down to Miami to play in one, hopefully Justin shows up. I’m nervous as hell, but I love the feeling.
I join my local tournaments whenever I have the time, I think it is fun. I’ll be honest I was scared of my first tournament too.
My first was MWC. I was too nervous and got bodied for free.
My second was Crossed Fists. First match I just got torn apart by a really good player, also a tough match up character wise. Second match I shook it off and really got to PLAY. I lost by a narrow margin…but it was the first time that mental switch came on and I got to really freaking PLAY at a tourney. The feeling of knowing you are playing well and taking a round/match from someone (even if you lose the set) is one of the best feelings out there.
My next will be Season’s Beatings and yes, I do kinda expect to get knocked out early, but I have played better at every tourney so far…so if I just keep leveling up (I have some GREAT players/friends and we play multiple times a week) and keep going and getting that “tourney mode” mindset…I know eventually I will start winning.
Good thread!
**If you are “scurred”: Fuck that. Check your ego at the door and go enter. It will make you a better player, and give you a whole new respect for the great players out there. Plus, tourneys are fun and the people are generally cool as fuck.
Seriously…put down your ego, lose that fear of losing in front of a crowd and GO GET HYPE.**
You just gotta get out and go to that tourney. Some may think that your not going to get better at the game, but losing in a tournament setting teaches you a lot.
I met all our local arcade players at the gamestpp round 2 and lost to each and every one of them. In casuals or tournament play, and afterwords I got asked if I wanted to start playing with them on Friday n Saturday nights at the arcade.
Needless to say after many losing months I can play matches with them and its fun as hell. Tournaments aren’t just for pure learning, you make friends and meet top players be it local or national and get the opportunity to play them again and learn from them in the future.
Since getting to G1 I’ve lost like 400 GP so I isn’t scared to lose anything
If there was a local tourny scene I would definetly but up for it, I know I would lose a lot but the comunity, the people, the whole spirit of the tourny scene would drive me to do better, which isn’t you get playing online
Shame then, that there isn’t a local tourny scene
Down in SoCal, AI has RanBat tournies, which are like a league season. I think the problem would be solved if more tournies were run like this. You could learn your opponents and the nerves can be a little bit lessened because you know there’s a round two next week. You can even start the season as crap, but maybe make your money back if you learn quick by the end of it.
The local arcade getting sf4 made me come outside and play and from there tournaments came into the picture. I made the switch from Online goon to Offline gentleman, You can too! :tup:
I’m the competitive type (I actually got a little pissed off the last time my girl beat me at Scrabble) and tournies are the only place outside of sports where I get to quench that thirst. Similar to arcades, beating a dude who is present in the same room gives me that Neanderthal rush I crave without getting thrown in jail. Sports (mainly hockey) is the only other place I find that rush.
Being scared of losing means that you’ll never win.
Well the Swiss tournaments I played in you had to get at least 3-1-1 to get top 8, and even then it wasn’t guaranteed. I suppose you were still guaranteed 5 games…but then after losing 2 you just play against the other losers and you know you’re not going to make it so what is the point? Might as well play casuals.
Swiss would be horrible for SF. Round robin could work though. I think double elimination works fine too.
As far as nervousness goes…it’s a good life lesson. It’s okay to be nervous and it is good experience to be in those situations. I had to be drunk before I played music my first time in front of people. Even after 100 times I still get that slightly nervous feeling before a big crowd.
Even though you only play a couple games at a tournament it serves as a goal, an end post. It helps to focus your non-tournament play, it is the exam at the end of the course.
I haven’t gone to any SF4 tournaments, I want to get my execution up enough to actually be able to play the game. That just takes some practice and I’m coming along.
I think my biggest concern will be over equipment. PS3 is standard and I have an xbox stick so it seems as though I’m out of luck.
I’ve only been going to DJ vest’s backyard tournaments for 2 weeks now and every time I get up to play, my legs shake so bad that I can’t hold my stick still in my lap.
:lol: I’ve still got a ways to go before I’m ready for a big tourney.
i just played in my first tournament and it was a really fun experience. it was at Denjin a couple weekends ago. after doing pretty decent in casuals, my teammate and i went 2 and out in the tournament, which i was hoping we would at least win one. But i really wasnt that upset. We hung in there and both our matches were close and it showed that i can hang in there with these guys and with practice, maybe do decent in a tournament. plus it was a lot of fun just watching matches and being around so many other FG buff’s like myself. Where knowing the frame data of something is actually cool, as opposed to “wow you spend way too much time on this game” and it was awesome to see guys like ultradavid and gootecks play. since then ive already been back to the arcade for casuals a couple times and done very well and had some great battles with guys there and am looking forward to the next tournament i can get into. really…whats the worst that can happen? you lose? still you have a chance to see some great matches, make some friends, be a part of the scene, play LAG FREE, and maybe even learn a thing or too. pretty much the good totally outweighs the embarrassment of being KO of the tournament.
Yeah I feel the same here, except I’m in Brazil, where we don’t even have SFIV in the arcades (and probably never will, yay), because arcades here are dead basically, although I’ve heard some people are adapting TVs + PCs + Sticks + SFIV for Windows to make their SFIV machines, but I’ve never seen it. I guess this is only taken seriously in the US and in Japan. Here, if you’re seen playing a game, any game, most people think you’re childish and an overall retard.
Even though I’d never do any good in a tourney, it’s something I’d love to watch and support anyway, I think it’s amazing how big these events actually are in the US/Japan, especially the guys who manage to travel around because of this. And also, why would anyone be scared anyway? Everyone loses now and then.
As for me, I have to settle for playing with friends and or online, and I’m not scared of that :p. Maybe I should just start organizing something here, like bring your pc/console/controller/stick/tv whatever and let’s play, but my chances are low given the fact that everyone’s more into first person shooters here. Then again maybe it’s one of those things that just need a little push, but if it happened, maybe we’d be representing Brazil at Evo 2030 Street Fighter VIII.
Good post again. That’s what I figured, so I wasn’t too far off on their ages.
I really like this. I’ve played FPS all my life, I had a few friends in CPL, although there is strategy involved, it really is point-and-click and how fast you can do it. I’ll always love making heads explode, but I’m glad to have made the switch, I’m definitely sticking with fighters.
Besides, it’s kinda hard to set up local FPS games, short of an internet cafe.
Well, the only good thing about fps games is that it’s viable to practice online in order to become competitive.