While I agree with you, still need to learn certain match-ups and online gimmicks to win. You can’t just expect to beat up on D ranks all day to rank up…that shit would take forever at 1 BP per win. Also you get the occasional D rank troll that will whoop your ass sending you packing with a 80+ bp loss lol. 
So yeah, if you’re not on PSN (online local removes risk of losing) there’s not really an easy/quick way to rank up unless you know how to win consistently.
Oh, it gets better! You’ll get irritated over things you wouldn’t ever give a fuck about otherwise. Then comes the inability to adapt, then the hysterical laughter, …
…fun! 
Shoryuken exploded and I lost my original post. FML.
I’ll try to repeat it but it won’t be as elegant. >___>
…wait, me? Elegant? LOLOLOLOLOL
A couple things.
First… if your grades are slipping because of a game you really need to focus on that first and foremost. It’s a game man, it is not that big of a deal.
Second… Anything you enjoy enough to play to improve, you’re going to have to put in training time. I’m sorry but there’s just no easy way around that. Training mode sounds lame, but how else are you going to figure out how and why you’re getting beat by the same thing in a controlled environment where you can actually take a moment and see “okay, this can be blocked like this, but not like this” and such? It takes lab time to improve at some point, no matter how many matches you get in. How much lab time varies from person to person but if you’re at the point where you’re all salty and about to quit fighting games I think that qualifies as needing to go to the lab and figure out WTF you’re getting hit by and why.
In anything competitive you’re going to have to study up. It doesn’t have to be some lavish amount of training mode either - a half-hour to an hour a day or so just to figure out and test certain things will do tons of work.
I’m not even saying that as a “keep playing SFxT” kind of thing because hey, that’s personal opinion and I’m tired of having that discussion anyway.
But hell, even when it comes to single player games, there’s games that I put hundreds of hours into just to understand them, and then more hours still to get where I wanted. I spent a shitload of time in Disgaea just to get to the point where I could actually do damage to Baal. And there was no competitive reqard for that.
You can let fighting games make you miserable, or take each match/loss as a learning experience that makes you better and enjoy the journey getting there. I know that sounds all philosophical and corny but eh… that’s how I look at it.
That’s coming from a fellow “rager” too - I’m on a self-imposed break right now after I started to hulk out again Monday from losing* a lot* in both ranked and Endless (though I did sneak in some lab time and one ranked match yesterday). Sometimes you need to step away and let it all sink in - words of wisdom someone else gave me recently in this thread.
tl;dr - training mode ftw.
Yes. sadly I couldn’t figure it out with Google’s help, I just keep getting results like "omg I can’t load this SSF2 rom wtf omg omg"
Though I’d argue my face isn’t as cute, nor can I blush that much. 
keep talking like that and people are bound to start askin if you’re a girl on here too
but I’m no
Eh, perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate my vocabulary.
I really hate how my internet connection directly correlates to my skill progression. It is so frustrating it makes me want to quit.
skill progression? skill and lag have absolutely nothing in common
I’m not understanding this clearly so correct me if I’m wrong. You’re getting more lag as you get better? I think you might want to upgrade your internet service provider or get a better modem/router combo. I only noticed a little bit of lag during our recent matches but it was there. Luckily it wasn’t like a slideshow or input based lag…that would’ve been absolutely unplayable for me.
Edit: Fuck all, I hate fighting opponents with all defense gems. Damnit it’s basically an automatic loss! Especially when they have over 1000 starting health to begin with…fuck it.
Poor connection is preventing me from getting better. I am rarely able to practice anything in live matches because I can never get a game. I play like once a week if i’m lucky and like 70% I get hit with crippling lag. I am desperately trying to get better as a player but that can’t happen if I never get to play anyone. It also sucks because I find that I am a relatively fast learner, and when the times where I would play on someone else’s connection, I found that I would learn a lot in that short amount of time. I just want to play more people without outside interferences. The lines outside my house are outdated and i’m pretty far from at&t, they have been pretty unreliable and from what I have heard I would have to pay them to do something that I should already have(updated lines) and I can’t afford that. Switching to comcast isn’t an option either. Half the time it’s like I running on dial-u, actual the average speed I get is double the speed of dial-up. I’m like past the point of anger, it’s just sad.
wanna come over and play on my internet? Wifey will be outta town and I can pick you up from Fremont Bart. I’ll still have my kid i have to babysit but he’s pretty cool
Pause?
edit: lol thanks for clarifying. umm sure, sounds good. Let me know when what times are good. For me it’s pretty much anytime after 12pm on thursdays through sunday. I have morning classes monday-thursday.
Don’t you dare go local on PSN and let me catch you! I’ll have you on blast for that one sir.
I have 2 PS3’s… if that makes you happy
i got distracted and ended up clicking before i was finished typing lol…
i dont care… sat or sun (class on friday for me). Call when you’re like 15 min out and i’ll head over there.
I feel like local co-op makes more sense plus we can get you dat crown. 
rank doesnt really concern me. Contrary to what songi believes… just like in SF4 you dont need to be good to be high ranked. I’d be high ranked if i played more than on weekends
LOL I just don’t like losing 120 bp because I lost to a local co-op team. That shit makes me rage quietly.
To be honest dude, not to sound disrespectful and I am going to quote PR Balrog on this:
“People don’t have any idea how shitty my connection is. Puerto Rico has probably the worse connection in the world. I am sure USA’s ass connection is better than my connection”
Yup, everytime I hear Americans complain about their internet I kinda facepalm since they have no idea what’s like to have third world internet.
I would be a 1000 times better if my country had decent internet and I actually had people interested in the game. My local scene neglected it so XTekken has become an online community based game for me. Thank God Rollback kinda saves my ass.
I feel your point. I know you are trying to talk sense into me. I’ll admit this whole situation is kinda resemble that whole “I’m forcing myself to go to school type of thing and I really don’t want to type of thing”. That’s me when it comes to hitting the lab. I barely go there anymore. I feel practicing combos over and over is a waste of time unless your character is very execution heavy. (I pick characters with moderate execution requirements and solid damage. Being stylish and a heavy executionist as never been my interest) so I don’t need to practicing 1 frame links or tight juggles with any of my mains.
Now the I look back on today I can tell you three things:
[LIST=1]
[]Today definitely was a bad day overall. Today had a wack vibe. Even at my job some stupid rich kid wanted to pick a fight with me and was calling names just like the idiots online. So I will chalk it up to bad vibe.
[]I need to become hungry. I wasn’t hungry enough in some my matches. I have felt a little bit unmotivated about the game as a competition lately and that is showing on me not pushing my limits.
[*]I was just hella salty (as usual) today so that kinda made me a little bit blinded in rage. Just a little bit lol
[/LIST]
So I appreciate your advice and Songi’s advice. So yeah…maybe I also need to rethink my character choices (Ryu is starting to not be as effective as it once was) and my pocket Alisa is ass. So I don’t know we will see.
so in other words, if i were to set up a kick ass ISP down there it would sell? Could average PR people afford $100 ish a month? Cause it can be done.
Understandable. Sounds like a pretty bad day, know that feeling. take some time to kick your feet up and sip on some lemonade. Make sure to get that “breathe easy” time in. 
I’d also suggest really trying some other cast members (even better, try the one that’s giving you trouble). I think if I’d’ve forced myself to stick with King when I just wasn’t having that much fun since I was still learning the game, I probably would have remained frustrated and never improved. Going to Cammy and then to Julia (and back to Cammy) helped with understanding different play styles I constantly got beat by.
Not to say drop your character or anything - just sometimes a character change for a minute can get you out of that rut. The only problem then becomes that you may find a character you like to play even more and end up in a character crisis, lol. :-p
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