sigh I haven’t posted in about a year and I hope this post shows why.
To touch on stuff that was posted earlier, I have always considered low tier to be what people aren’t playing. It’s that dogmatic; it’s that simple.
I’d also venture to say, “What isn’t winning” or “What isn’t winning tournaments.”
Since the days of SHGL (when WC was always claiming the best players), things were so wound up that people that didn’t go to SHGL (including myself) got laughed at. That kind of elitism has always eliminated new interest in Street Fighter, and I’ve always fought against it. Conversely, I’ve always advocated creating forums of your own to play.
“What isn’t winning tournaments” is a definition I’d only use because people don’t have a better forum to find gameplay in. Whether they access that forum by going to the major or “once a year” tournaments or by getting match vids of such from the internet, it gives a very limited sample of what is possible in each game included.
“What isn’t winning” is a lot better because it doesn’t posit tournaments as an end-all-be-all experience for the game. Your and everyone else’s experience ends where you want it to. If you think low tier sucks, it’s because you don’t want to play low tier. You can say it’s because “Storm is fun” instead of admitting that you want to win as easily as possible, but that is basically the bottom line: you don’t want to lose.
If you play to have fun… or play to play, you’d play low tier.
The only remaining argument that holds water is that if you “play to play,” you would do whatever you can to stay on the stick… in other words, play what guarantees victory for fear of having to give it up as a loser. In this case, I suggest finding a single (single as in not plural fags) sparring buddy that’s as committed to simply playing as you are. It will not work if he wants to win because even the most hard-headed person (I’m one of those idiots) will eventually adapt and start kicking that sparring partner’s ass with, say, Wolverine. If he plays to win, then he’ll stop playing with you. Dasrik was that person for me, and he stopped playing me regularly around 2001. Since then, I haven’t been able to find someone who doesn’t “just want to win” or “have fun” as they so pitifully attempt to mystify me. It isn’t their fault: competition taken to an extreme does this to you. Ironically, a little bit of cooperation and insight can raise the game for everyone else… but most people aren’t interested in everyone else.
My experience with Wolverine didn’t end with Dasrik, obviously, but because I haven’t been able to find equally committed people, I’ve been remanded to what I do know: going to arcades and playing random people. Good people show up every now and then… I tend to avoid them because they hate losing to me so much and fighting those kinds of people is just a waste of time… and I truly shrug about that because no matter how much they can brag about how many times they’ve beat me, they can’t say they’ve pit low tier versus **my **top tier with any sort of success… and that’s the kind of success?though it may be few and far between?that I have. And no, I don’t have to prove it. You want proof, *you *come watch me. Nothing further on that note.
Although low tier experience can extend beyond a sparring partner, it is very limited, tiring, thankless, lonely, and cruel. It isn’t hard to tell where I stand in the SF community: I’m a freak-show for SF rightists (…people who desperately want me to come to major tournaments, hoping I can still play well enough to showcase a little which garners new interest in Street Fighter for them; money makers who look for sponsors, new players to leech off of and will eventually sell power gloves like Fatality does for 3PSs?No, I’m not talking about the Cannon brothers or anyone affiliated with SRK. If you must know, I’m talking about all the pitiful attempts at tournaments by the people who coincidentally surround SRK… they sound like ‘Wanna come to my tournament?? SURE you can win, dude!!’ and end up kicking your ass and taking the pot without explanation when you show.) and a “Joe Zaza? Nigga PLZ” for SF leftists (hardcore gamers; people who only try to spark interest within other existing hardcore players?heels and the people who make bets on them). Apart from their existence and the elimination of which, neither of those philosophies matter to me.
Just remember not to hate winners *too *much, because “win freaks” are as useful as people who “just play.” Without them, you wouldn’t be able to say what I’m saying, which is that you can beat “good” people with “bad” shit. In fact, that comes part and parcel with what I’m saying: The ability to vex people and play “devil’s advocate.” Not that I take advantage of that… I used to. But if I did now, I’d be coming out of the middle, going towards the left, and hiding back in the middle like just about every-fucking-body that posts or ever placed in an American Street Fighter tournament… and as you can clearly see from my lack of presence at them things, I’m comfortable where I am.
I am good… and unlike so many insecure fucks who keep trying to raise their hand to get recognition from someone who fought just as needlessly to get the props they never “deserved,” I don’t need anyone to tell me that I haven’t kicked a good person’s ass to believe that I have. No name dropping, plz? K thx.
…and that is the kind of attitude you need to play low tier. Before I played Wolverine, I never needed or had videos, so again and unfortunately half of this thread is automatically useless.
Contrary to the standards of communication that people use in SF culture (all culture is a collection of symbols; in other words, LANGUAGE), it is NOT automatically assumed that we all “play to win.” OR that YOU (the reader) does. It’s just part of a collective unconsciousness that permeates language and therefore discussion… and even THOUGHT. The moment you stop taking that for granted is the moment you can begin to constructively think outside the box for yourself.
Don’t let someone else’s perception of you change you; the moment you act with justice to yourself, you begin to see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears.
I’m so far from the left and right that I barely play anymore. Don’t forget about that eventuality, too. Once you clearly realize where you stand, playing to validate your existence become less and less of an issue. People have to beg me to come play them now… and I usually don’t answer their calls or show. It’s life. Go figure it out for yourself.
