Turning the Corner stories

Classic Fighting Games SSF2T: HD Remix
41

I have had alot of epiphanies where i noticed my skills had stepped up a notch. But specifically I am going to discuss one I just had tonite.

My best Street Fighter buddy was over to play some games. We started in 3S because he wanted to show me his new Q game. My Oro had improved a great deal abd was giving him alot of trouble. I also found I was hit comfirming with Chun Li outa nowhere today and Kara Throwing much more reliably. I usually use Oro’s throw super and was countering and trapping with the d f d f + PPP version with insane accuracy, I connected with it in at least 80% of my rounds.

The second game we played on a whim was Samurai Showdown 2.

Some background. I have always loved the SS series but never really played. Aside from messing around at SS1 on the SNES with some really scrubby friends ages ago I had no experience playing against anyone, and the only experience playing at all was playing against the computer at work 5 years ago. To be honest, I can beat the computer but completely suck at SS otherwise.

My friend on the otherhand played SS2 heavy when it was in the arcade.

I recently started playing Super Turbo on GGPO. My game has really stepped up now that I have some really good players to play against. But I didn’t realize how much so until at this moment.

As we started playing SS my first character pick was Galford. I beat him five straight, it was as if I had been playing for years. I found I was applying tactics and mind games and traps I had picked up playing ST to my game play. I even squashed his Ukyo (his best character) with very little effort. As an example. When I played Ukyo against him sometimes i would force him to stand up into Ukyo’s multi strike sword attack. I figured out that by mixing it up a bit sometimes I could trow out his feint and get a free throw. Aside from goofing around I never used that feint before. I never even thought of it.

After my Galford streak I started choosing characters at random mostly for a while until I landed on Kyoshiro (sp?). I knew basically nothing about him, and never really played him. I figured out all sorts of mind games and traps and dominated at least 10 matches. A character that I never good grasp before suddenly I felt like I knew intimitately.

We moved onto KoF98.

In my friends defence he really is just learning this game. I usually beat him in it, but he is getting better. Aside from some really well played baiting there is little of note here (Aside from a funny incident where he was complaining he couldn’t do Kensou’s Bun super and insisted it was with Kick)

But onto Super Turbo.

In ST I have been practicing Claw alot and picking up some Dee Jay. My Hawk, Gief and Blanka have been in the works as well for when I want some variety. When I met this friend three years ago I had been without any real competition in fighting games for over 5 years. Even then while I was good I (realizing now) was very scrubby. When I met him, on a good day the best I could hope for was 50/50. ST has always been his game.

I play him with Gief, Hawk and Dee Jay and he comments on the improvement of my game. The Dee Jay/Guile matchup particularly pisses him off because Guile is his best character. Now his Guile cannot beat my Dee Jay.

Then I dominate him with Claw. Even against characters he plays that I usually cannot beat on my best days reliably (Such as Honda). No matter who he picks it is the same. He turns to me and tells me that I am baiting him perfectly and that my Claw is giving him rediculous amounts of trouble.

In the last few months my game has really stepped up a few notches and I have learned some really valuable skills. I have learned much more reliably and effectively how to lead a match in a specific direction. My choice of the right normal attacks to use and when has greatly improved, my judgement of what really is a good move and a bad move has improved, my timing and ability to direct my oponent to my desired outcome has really stepped up.

Against an oponent whom on the best days I can hope for is 50/50 who himself practices almost daily I found I was now coming out ahead.

How? I have been playing on GGPO alot and watching peoples matches. I have also changed a great deal how I look at these games. The big epiphany though was when suddenly all I have been learning on ST was suddenly transfering over to other games. My sudden out random expertise in SS can be thanked to what I have learned in ST over the last few months.

42

this is a great thread.

my contribution is this: i still haven’t turned the corner with my “main.” i’ve loyally played Ken my entire life. SF2~3S. always Ken. however never against good comp & never online: until HDR. i had built up a lifetime of bad habits that i’m finding nearly impossible to break. after every game i lose, i usually know exactly why, but i can’t stop myself. my instincts are too ingrained.

so i changed characters & started playing Blanka. now, i’m a casual player & not that great by any means, but my win percentage is noticeably higher with my new character. and my reasoning is that i’m approaching this character without a decade of baggage. i’m cutting my teeth against players who will punish my mistakes & reward my discipline. and the result is probably that my “2nd” has become better than my “main.”

everyone is saying it, but its worth repeating: this game is all about adaptation. when you can learn from your mistakes & make adjustments - that’s when you turn the corner. and to be truthful, i’m not sure that’ll ever happen with me playing Ken. this old dog is having a real hard time learning new tricks.

and it was that realization & switching to a new character which i’d say was my own personal turning of the corner.

43

I’m having the same experience with Blanka. I’ve come to the conclusion that he has a very small learning curve in comparison to other characters. He’s quick on his feet thanks to his hop and slide. He has a great air game, a great throw game (or bite game) and some of the best pokes in the game. His ball is ridiculously fast and can’t be punished after a block. He’s probably the most forgiving, user-friendly character in the game now.

44

you might be right, but i think that’s selling short my point.

life-long bad habits are hard to break. learning a new character from the ground up, online, is the best way to cultivate good fundamental strategy. this worked for not only me, but my brother who gave up his historical main & now is quite good with Gief - a character he just started using in HDR.

45

my actual street fighter experience amounts to about three or so months on ggpo, but those three months were so goddamn valuable. competition makes you learn really, really, really quickly.

one of the hardest things, at least for me, is failing to fix problems you know you have. case in point: I facepalm myself every time I do dumb shit like, say, going for reversal dp even when the opponent’s like out of sweep range or jump back -> hadouken, yet I manage to keep repeating the same dumb tactics. quelling those unconscious scrub demons is mentally demanding. bad habits and shit, I guess.

fuck, I really want hdr now.

46

GGPO is some tough competition sometimes.

47

a “corner” moment for me was making the realization that instead of a specific best move in a situation, there’s a best mixup of moves for a situation.

A basic and obvious example of this is, you’re playing dictator and done a crossup forward, stand short x 2 which was blocked. At this point there isn’t one best move to do. The best way to proceed is to mixup either throw or low forward -> torpedo.

Formally realizing this applies to almost all situations really helped me improve my game. I used to really be hung up on finding the best move for a situation (what do I do if my opponent jumps in at range XXXX, or what do I do on wakeup in situation YYY). Now, I try to look at all the options in a situation, and pick and choose the best subset of options which puts my opponent at maximal disadvantage.

In order to select that subset, I usually look at factors like expected damage, how different situations must be blocked, and my ending position afterwards.

I don’t know if that makes sense or if I need to go into more detail, but doing that was definitely a turning point that helped me improve my game.

48

That was kinda the point. For the first time ever, dedicated ST players and peepz who wanted to be good ST players congregated under the fantastic GGPO to pretty much do nothing but level up and have fun. The comp was insane but it also instilled lots of confidence. Going from losing to a rival to beating him or watching players you wasted turn into decent competition was just awesome. I pretty much started playing ST when GGPO put it up after Alpha 2 (coming off fresh from HF) and got basted for about a month. Then I started watching youtube videos and pinned down my mains. Several months later HDR comes out and I’m honed to a razor edge.

The comp on HDR (understandably so) sucks compared to GGPO/2DF, but that’s because we went from something pretty much only enthusiasts played to something the unwashed masses and enthusiasts play. That and the install base is split between PSN/XBL :frowning:

49

^ Everything he just wrote is what I want to say. Please just read his post again but imagine I’m typing it.

50

Wow james, Valle has you bad.

Although, I think aan important point in there was the reference to combofiend, and how he would keep focus on what he wanted to do, and what would make him successful.

51

I get better at this game, I just don’t know how or why.

The other week, I was practicing Ken’s C.LKx2 xx Shoryureppa and I couldn’t hit the renda cancel. It was like, 1/20. Nor could I do Guile’s C.LKx3 xx RH Flash renda cancel. The next week, I picked it up after not specifically practicing and I got a lot better. Maybe not super perfect but it was now 8/10. I learned Deejay’s crossup J.MK - C.LPx2 - S.MP - HK Sobat in 30 seconds. You just begin to get things.

There’s even subtle rules that I embedded in my mind, like the rule of threes. If something works twice in a row, it’s really rare that’ll work a 3rd time. So for Ken’s throw loop, I can catch so many people with Knee Bash - safe J.LK - C.LK - Knee Bash - safe J.LK - C.LP - wait - LP Shoryuken, because their pride doesn’t want them to get caught by another knee bash.

Learning is a steady, slow process. We’re so captivated with TV and their quick fixes and lucky breaks that we forget the pace at which we learn things in real life. In Go, the biggest advice they give is to lose your first 100 games as fast as you can. After that, you start to see patterns before they form and you can begin to appreciate the game. In Chess, they say it takes 10 years of deliberate practice and competitive playing before you can achieve Master level. I’m beginning to see what they mean; a healthy diet of HDR matches and I find myself improving slowly, steadily, and learning how to punish, when I can’t punish, and subconsciously learning footsies.

I’ve also noticed one thing: the better player wins 90% of the close matches in ST / HDR. It’s just the way it works.

The only other thing I wish I could do was to film my matches so that I can good players to critique them.