Warning: this is a long ass thread, whoops didn't expect to write this much. Skip to "The Present Time" if you don't want to hear me ramble too much about why I picked a robot and struggle how to play a fighting game
Who am I?
Hi, my (user)name is Jawnsunn. I started playing Skullgirls during its free weekend last year and it was the first fighting game that got me into the genre at a competent level, instead of mashing buttons or pulling off shoryukens. I took a break from the game later down the line due to a number of things such as my start of college, life responsibilities, my initial frustrations with the game, and also as a player wanting to improve. I wanted to write this diary at the start of my skullgirl playin' career but during that time, I really wanted to play more and type less. Thankfully, I learned the importance of reviewing and reflecting, which is why I made this diary now.
So what have I been doing when I was supposed to be writing a training diary?
complaining about this game's fuckin vortex on my personal twitter account that's what hahahahahahaha
During this entire year(from July 2015), I have been steadily learning Skullgirls and about fighting games in general. I started off playing Fillia in this game because well, she was on the cover. I thought postergirls/posterboys were supposed to be the Ryu and Kens of fighting games, but oh wait no I was wrong. It all turned out well in the end though as I learned overtime that I enjoy playing a very aggressive playstyle(and I like winning). From there on, I picked up Cerebella and Robo-Fortune. Bella was initially a temporary pick because people told me to play duo and so I searched for the nearest easy character to pick up and pla- to win with. I really enjoy Bella's footsie and grapple game, but at the time I didn't really get a grasp at either of these aspects at first because I was still inexperienced in fighting games. After grinding a few months of the classic Fillia/Bella duo, I picked up Robo-Fortune not because I enjoy mecha anime(I do), but because I wanted a grasp at the neutral game in Skullgirls. The way Robo-Fortune controls the screen with lasers and catheads are what I really enjoyed about her game plan. She also has(or had because of a new SG patch that's incoming) a decent mixup game with double jump cancels and s.MP. And thus, we've now come full circle and are looking at my current team Robo/Fillia/Bella. Team composition and synergy is still an entirely new concept for me, but I'll write about that later in this thread.
Frustrations as a Player, oh and Street Fighter
The reason I took a long break from the game(although I did log on from time to time to beat people on my friends list up) was because I became increasingly frustrated with my gameplay. I didn't have a clue on resets other characters had, couldn't handle setups that specific teams did, and was just frustrated in how I was supposed to escape pressure in this game. After getting hit with many hitconfirms that led to my doom, I decided to stop playing. Although I wanted to come back, there were other obligations I had to attend to. Also at that time of when I quit, Street Fighter 5 released and at this point, I was ready to play a new fighting game. Although I did hit my frustrations with SF5, mostly with its community and the game itself not being very streamlined for competitive players, I finally understood how to play fighting games. I understood what frame data meant, what meaties were, what a setup means for you as a player and as an opponent, and learned the concept of footsies , although this may be debatable considering SF5 criticism, but I was also watching ST footage at the time. It was just last month when I decided to take another crack at Skullgirls, because after playing 200 hours Chun-li, sometimes you want to get back to what really matters the most: Fillia mixups
The Present Time
At the moment, I'm still playing the same Robo/Fillia/Bella, with H Laser, H Updo, and Copter respectively. The team is pretty fine, Updo gives Robo an existing anti-air, Copter provides lockdown and a way for Robo to summon catheads, and H Laser gives Fillia a tool to get in while it gives Bella a lockdown assist. Although the team seems pretty fine, I can't help but feel like I need something more out of it than assists that cover all of each others weaknesses. At most, I feel the biggest strength this team has is how confidently I can play them, though I'm not going to say I play them well though as I've been doing the same BnB I learned in the compendium thread 6 or 7 months ago. For example, my current Fillia combo I do does pretty alright damage and leads into a few high/low/throw/crossup/crossunder resets, but I'd like something that can lead into ambiguous resets and hard to block setups, with or without my assists. I guess my current dilemma is that I don't feel very creative with how I play this game I guess. Spending a good amount in the Training Room understanding my characters fully should probably be a priority at the moment. In terms of improvement, I finally understand what spacing and frame data mean to me as a player so that helped me alot when it came to learning about SG's neutral game more. I used to run around not knowing what the hell I was supposed to do during round starts when I had a Fillia on point and just made Lock n Load confirms to get in, but now I use IAD j.lp as an approach tool along with Robo/Bella assist calls. Speaking of assist calls, I'm really fucking bad at those sometimes. I end up calling a midscreen updo because I thought the guy was going to fucking jump but oh nice Fillia's dead good job me you killed your best character. I do love throwing Copter out because making them block means they aren't playing the game, which also means that I can get in. Although I still make shitty mistakes, I feel like the time I've put watching, playing, and learning various other fighting games really strengthened my skill and unlike 6-7 months ago where I felt frustrated and plateaued in terms of skill, I feel like I have a clear goal in mind in terms of getting better as a player.
There's also a video archive from my earliest matches from my latest I'm going to list in this post in case you want to see the bit of progress I've made in the time. I have still have lots of recorded matches sitting in the hard drive that I'd like to upload for critique, but I'll be away from that for who knows when due to school starting up again for me this week.
Side note: I love this community <3
Matches (that were recorded) So Far
Who am I?
Hi, my (user)name is Jawnsunn. I started playing Skullgirls during its free weekend last year and it was the first fighting game that got me into the genre at a competent level, instead of mashing buttons or pulling off shoryukens. I took a break from the game later down the line due to a number of things such as my start of college, life responsibilities, my initial frustrations with the game, and also as a player wanting to improve. I wanted to write this diary at the start of my skullgirl playin' career but during that time, I really wanted to play more and type less. Thankfully, I learned the importance of reviewing and reflecting, which is why I made this diary now.
So what have I been doing when I was supposed to be writing a training diary?
complaining about this game's fuckin vortex on my personal twitter account that's what hahahahahahaha
During this entire year(from July 2015), I have been steadily learning Skullgirls and about fighting games in general. I started off playing Fillia in this game because well, she was on the cover. I thought postergirls/posterboys were supposed to be the Ryu and Kens of fighting games, but oh wait no I was wrong. It all turned out well in the end though as I learned overtime that I enjoy playing a very aggressive playstyle(and I like winning). From there on, I picked up Cerebella and Robo-Fortune. Bella was initially a temporary pick because people told me to play duo and so I searched for the nearest easy character to pick up and pla- to win with. I really enjoy Bella's footsie and grapple game, but at the time I didn't really get a grasp at either of these aspects at first because I was still inexperienced in fighting games. After grinding a few months of the classic Fillia/Bella duo, I picked up Robo-Fortune not because I enjoy mecha anime(I do), but because I wanted a grasp at the neutral game in Skullgirls. The way Robo-Fortune controls the screen with lasers and catheads are what I really enjoyed about her game plan. She also has(or had because of a new SG patch that's incoming) a decent mixup game with double jump cancels and s.MP. And thus, we've now come full circle and are looking at my current team Robo/Fillia/Bella. Team composition and synergy is still an entirely new concept for me, but I'll write about that later in this thread.
Frustrations as a Player, oh and Street Fighter
The reason I took a long break from the game(although I did log on from time to time to beat people on my friends list up) was because I became increasingly frustrated with my gameplay. I didn't have a clue on resets other characters had, couldn't handle setups that specific teams did, and was just frustrated in how I was supposed to escape pressure in this game. After getting hit with many hitconfirms that led to my doom, I decided to stop playing. Although I wanted to come back, there were other obligations I had to attend to. Also at that time of when I quit, Street Fighter 5 released and at this point, I was ready to play a new fighting game. Although I did hit my frustrations with SF5, mostly with its community and the game itself not being very streamlined for competitive players, I finally understood how to play fighting games. I understood what frame data meant, what meaties were, what a setup means for you as a player and as an opponent, and learned the concept of footsies , although this may be debatable considering SF5 criticism, but I was also watching ST footage at the time. It was just last month when I decided to take another crack at Skullgirls, because after playing 200 hours Chun-li, sometimes you want to get back to what really matters the most: Fillia mixups
The Present Time
At the moment, I'm still playing the same Robo/Fillia/Bella, with H Laser, H Updo, and Copter respectively. The team is pretty fine, Updo gives Robo an existing anti-air, Copter provides lockdown and a way for Robo to summon catheads, and H Laser gives Fillia a tool to get in while it gives Bella a lockdown assist. Although the team seems pretty fine, I can't help but feel like I need something more out of it than assists that cover all of each others weaknesses. At most, I feel the biggest strength this team has is how confidently I can play them, though I'm not going to say I play them well though as I've been doing the same BnB I learned in the compendium thread 6 or 7 months ago. For example, my current Fillia combo I do does pretty alright damage and leads into a few high/low/throw/crossup/crossunder resets, but I'd like something that can lead into ambiguous resets and hard to block setups, with or without my assists. I guess my current dilemma is that I don't feel very creative with how I play this game I guess. Spending a good amount in the Training Room understanding my characters fully should probably be a priority at the moment. In terms of improvement, I finally understand what spacing and frame data mean to me as a player so that helped me alot when it came to learning about SG's neutral game more. I used to run around not knowing what the hell I was supposed to do during round starts when I had a Fillia on point and just made Lock n Load confirms to get in, but now I use IAD j.lp as an approach tool along with Robo/Bella assist calls. Speaking of assist calls, I'm really fucking bad at those sometimes. I end up calling a midscreen updo because I thought the guy was going to fucking jump but oh nice Fillia's dead good job me you killed your best character. I do love throwing Copter out because making them block means they aren't playing the game, which also means that I can get in. Although I still make shitty mistakes, I feel like the time I've put watching, playing, and learning various other fighting games really strengthened my skill and unlike 6-7 months ago where I felt frustrated and plateaued in terms of skill, I feel like I have a clear goal in mind in terms of getting better as a player.
There's also a video archive from my earliest matches from my latest I'm going to list in this post in case you want to see the bit of progress I've made in the time. I have still have lots of recorded matches sitting in the hard drive that I'd like to upload for critique, but I'll be away from that for who knows when due to school starting up again for me this week.
Side note: I love this community <3
Matches (that were recorded) So Far
some quick match thing:
matches w/ Aeroshire I think?:
Get GR8 7/23:
vs mad_man4:
Get GR8 7/30:
Get GR8 8/13:
Get GR8 8/20: