When are you ready for Tournament play?

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1

So I am a bit new to this forum…

(My) Background:
… but I am not new to Street Fighter, I played pretty extensively from 1991 - 1996 playing pretty much at least 4 times a week, (sometimes more) constantly, within those years mostly at liquor stores and arcades. I don’t think I am a tournament player material by any means, but I do think I’m above average. I use to brake down the game just as most of the top fellow members here, researching counters and experimenting with new combos, etc… I can beat most of my friends pretty easily (doesn’t mean much) and there friends-friends, who supposedly are “Good players”. Like most old skool players with the release of SFIV, they seem to be coming out of “retirement” and finding that spark that they once had when SFII first came out. I just recently picked up a PS3 and have been playing SFIV only the last couple of weeks (I love it by the way). I haven’t started online play yet, because I haven’t got my Joystick in yet and since (back in the day) I use to always play at the arcades; playing on console game pads, just isn’t cutting it. My joystick is on its way and I should get it within the next week or so. Once I get it I’ll test out online play for more competitive play.

(Not specific to me, but in general for anyone else who wants to step up there game play…)

Questions:
How do I transform from an above average player to a contending “Tournament Player”?
How do I know I’m ready for Tournament play?
(I heard there is an online “ranking system”)
How accurate is it? Is it dependable?
Doesn’t the lag come into play vs. offline play?
If you consistently play online won’t your “rank” eventually go up anyway?
Does it necessarily mean if I can hang with the top guys online, I can hang in a Tournament?

andre80

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Question 1: It’s like puberty except your balls become even bigger.
Question 2: When you goto a tournament and make it past the first round?
Question 3: ONLINE ROFLROFLROFLROFL. Don’t compare online play to tourny play, trust me.
Question 4: See question 3.
Question 5: No, you can go down hardcore because of losing, but yes you can get alot easy wins to go up.
Question 6: No, HELL NO; GOD FUCK NO.

…:slight_smile: (Back to question 1, practice dude)

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How do I transform form an above average player to a contending “Tournament Player”

I’d say its half execution, half character match-up knowledge, and half overall fighting game experience ( I suck at math)

How do I know I’m ready for Tournament play?

Won’t know til you go to one.

How accurate is it? Is it dependable?

The ranking system in SF4 consists of Battle Points. Whenever you win, you gain BP relative to you’re opponent’s BPs, and when you lose, vice versa. So generally speaking, People with high bp are people that are consistently winning online.

however, bp online doesn’t really matter. There’s pro’s with 800 or less bp while there’s scrubs with 5000+ bp. Winning or losing doesn’t seem to equate to actually being “good” in the game.

Doesn’t lag come into play vs. offline play?

Unless your tv lags, then no.

If you consistently play online won’t your “rank” eventually go up anyway?

It’s not about consistently playing as it is consistently winning, that yor rank will go up. Given that you’re rank is based 100% on your Battle points.
D

Does it necessarily mean if I can hang with the top guys online, I can hang in a Tournament?

Yeah, for the most part. Unfortunately, most of the top players are from korea or japan, and thus, massive amounts of lag will ensue if you ever challenge them =.

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Thanks for the reply guys, just getting into this “Online Street Fighter” scene is quite different and I appreciate all the tips I can get. I did more searching around the forums and found this herethread in The Dojo section. A lot of good articles/columns in that section.

So from what I’ve heard so far… 1) practice, practice, practice… and 2) you can only tell if your ready for tournament play if you join one and see how you do…

andre80

P.S. I can’t seem to find the “Part 2: So, you want to be a Dominator.” thread, or is it just the Part 2.7 thread combined?

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Start going to tournaments immediately. Don’t wait for it. There is no reason to wait. You will learn a lot and have a ton of fun. :smile:

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Answer to most of your questions: Don’t forget to install the game.

Best way to improve is to play people better than you and learn from them. If you don’t got friends better than you available, go play online; it’s not the best experience due to bullshit droppers and lag, but sometimes you do play some rare great players and when they hand your ass to you, learn from it instead of raging.

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The key to getting torney ready is to constantly play tourney level players. I’ve noticed that beating scrub actually makes you worse against tourney players. The tactics used to beat a scrub don’t work against tourney players & strangly the tactics used against tourney players doesent work against scrubs. My advise is to find the names of some top guys here who live in your area & add the to your friends list. I say in your area dueto lag issues. Play friendly matches with them. If you can hang with them your pretty good. Playing random people on ranked is kindof counter productive. You don’t know the skill I your opponent & alot of people on there are there strictly to get BP.

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Depends, if you get anxious and nervous, it doesn’t matter how much you practice. You’ll fuck up. The best thing to do is just go to tourneys and earn your “Tourney nerves” keep practicing and try not to miss any combos. learn how to recognize your opponents style and counter it during gameplay.

look at it this way, if you were a pro boxer, would you go for the belt because you took some boxing in high school? Or would you spend a few months to a year training yourself? If you treat it like a game you are going to get played. Get serious.

9

I agree that just because I played Street Fighter in “high school” does not qualify me to go for the “belt”. So yeah, I am offically in “training mode” now. I also agree I need to compete with top players in order to perpare myself for the same type of high level play.

But how do I know I’m playing “top players” or “tourney players”? or just someone better then my skill level… Obviously I want gain experience and work my way up to the “top players”, etc… but how do I know when I’ve reached the top or who the top player are?

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when you get there, you won’t have to ask.

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How do I transform from an above average player to a contending “Tournament Player”?
Play the best players on GGPO everyday.

How do I know I’m ready for Tournament play?
When you start consistently beating or having very close matches with those people on GGPO.

(I heard there is an online “ranking system”)
How accurate is it? Is it dependable?
No clue, but I don’t care about online ranks. From what I’ve seen, they all are flawed in one way or another.

Doesn’t the lag come into play vs. offline play?
Play on GGPO and if you don’t, make this answer a “yes.”

If you consistently play online won’t your “rank” eventually go up anyway?
Does it necessarily mean if I can hang with the top guys online, I can hang in a Tournament?
Online rank doesn’t equate to tournament skills. If you consistently play good players on a very regular basis, you will notice quick improvement.

I wasn’t that nervous at my first tournament, but you will know when you are ready when you know you are. The tournament scene has many players (depending on where you go) that know how to play beyond a casual level. They will exploit any weakness you might have and use every tactic they know.

I dealt with the tourney nerves the best way I could- smoke up before I left and drank a 5 hour energy drink and it sure helped. :slight_smile:

As far as SFIV goes, that’s a whole new beast alright. The more I play it, the more I realize it’s true depth with all the focus stuff. It’s going to be quite some time before I go to an actual SFIV tourny, not some Scrub Stop tourney.

But, yeah, play on GGPO if you don’t already. That’s what honestly helped me get good enough to play in a tourney, at least I hope.

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kind of on a side note… since i am in training mode right now. when i train to do “supers” and “ex specials” should i practice pressing all three/two buttons or since on fight sticks theres the “binded buttons” for convenince. i think i remember reading somewhere some tournaments don’t allow ‘binded’ buttons. whats the standard/norm for that??? whats the best practice?

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always press 3 buttons instead of using a bind button, especially if you’re not sure if tournaments allow that.

And you should play in tournaments as soon as you can. You’re probably gonna be nervous as hell at your first tournament but you’ll learn a lot.