What motivates me…
I’m not sure if Alex really meant for us to get as in depth as I’m about to in this thread, but anyways, here goes:
There are so many things that motivate me to be the best. Being the best to be the best, having the respect of my peers, having the privileges in the community that top players have, being someone to look up to in the community, having people actually care about my opinion, and most of all, showing that I can be the best at what I do.
See, Street Fighter isn’t something I do just for fun. Street Fighter is a serious hobby. In all honesty, it’s already passed the point of “hobby” for me, and has become my lifestyle. I literally put aside time in my day, everyday, to practice. By practice, I don’t mean do a few combos in training mode and be done with it. What I do mean, is setting up the training dummy to real life situations and seeing what works. I do 10 reps of 10 for each of my combos, and if I mess up more than once, I start the whole rep over. I practice cross overs, combo set ups, and footsies/zoning. I do this every day, if not at least 5 times a week.
Also, I make an effort to play with my local community. If I don’t have a ride to a gathering, I walk. I’ve walked miles just to play for a few hours and then walked miles back home. It doesn’t matter if it means I have a chance to improve.
So that being said. I want to win. I want to win big, and I want to win convincingly. I play the way I do, because of people like you Alex. People that have been playing for what seems like forever, so I feel like I have to play catchup for all the year I missed out on playing and learning. And even though I’m not on your level yet, I do plan on being there. I play with some “top players” and keep up, but I’m not there yet. And that’s another thing that makes motivates me. I want to be better than them.
Bottom line, I have a competitive spirit, and Street Fighter makes it come out of me best. It’s not about money, or anything of that sort. It’s just wanting to be the best. And one day, people will recognize me as one of the best around. Bet it.