Knowing if you're Beginner/Intermediate/Expert

[Majeh]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums and SG in general, just got it a couple days ago. I was wondering how do you figure out if you've moved up from beginner to intermediate or intermediate to expert? Do you just judge it by your ability against other players? Does using a team play a factor as well? So far I've just played solo Filia and I've managed to beat some people who use teams of 2/3 (most of the time I get rekt though cause of assists). I can beat many of who I would say are beginners but I'm not sure if that would mean I've moved up to a somewhat intermediate level or not. Of course it's a lot easier for me to say I'm better or we're about the same or they're way better but I don't know, what are your guys' thoughts?

 

[PKStoopKid]

I would say it's by how you mentally play the game combined with your knowledge of the characters you use and the ones you battle against ,knowing an 80 hit combo doesn't mean your an expert it just means you practice a combo it doesn't mean you know how to get in to use or even when

 

[skull person]

Judging skill level is sort of hard to do, but if I had to figure out a way to do it on your own....
I'd maybe use something like this:

Beginner: You're losing a lot to simple things in beginner lobbies*.
0 - 50/100 hours. Really depends on how fast you learn and how hard you try to improve.

Intermediate: You can do combos without dropping them, you understand your character fairly well, you can win in intermediate lobbies, and rarely lose in beginner lobbies*.
100 - 300/400 hours.
*Some people like to troll low level players in beginner lobbies so it's sort of hard to go by this one.

Expert: You can play in expert lobbies and actually put up a fight, you understand match ups, can perform combos without fail and know how to reset and burst bait, and how to condition and read your opponent, and all that good stuff.
~400+ hours?: Hopefully Expert.

You could also participate in the weekly online Skullbats tournament:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/sklbatpc
There's good players and bad players alike, so you could see how you stack up against other people.

Also, you could just let people watch you play on Twitch/Youtube and top/good players will be able to tell you if you're good or not.

Hope this helps? <3

 

[Dime]

You are an expert if you can hold your own against established top players.

I'm not an expert. I can get my wins against anyone, but going even with the toppity top players isnt possible for me. So i call myself an advanced intermediate player... 1 step below expert. At this level once over 1000 hours have been accumulated or so... Its more about lacking certain fundamental qualities that keeps one out of expert level. I drop combos a bit to much, my reads against experts arent the greatest and my combos arent optimized for damage. Plus i rely on guessing more than reactions since i play online.

Intermediate is a person that is better than beginners but not quite good enough to break even against the big boys. Over half the players in any given community are intermediate, usually.

 

[RemiKz]

Chances are if you have to ask if using a team plays a factor, you are probably still a beginner.

 

[Luweewu]

I would define Intermediate as the point where you:

• Understand all of the basic mechanics of the game
• Are aware of and working to apply the more advanced mechanics (PBGC, AG, etc.)
• Have decent matchup knowledge of the entire cast including submatchups of different popular playstyles and assist types, and can adjust your playstyle/team accordingly
• Can find, adjust to, and exploit player habits before your characters are killed
  
• Can defend against high pressure successfully more often than not
• Know at least one combo that leads into different mixup situations that you can pull off successfully more often than not (the mixup, not the combo; you should nail the combo every time by this point)
• Can analyze match footage to a degree where you generally know why a person did X, why they're at Y position, if Z could have lead to a better situation, etc. and can go to training mode and practice what you've learned
• Probably more, but let's go with this

Expert is basically when you've mastered the above:

• Know all the mechanics of the game to a high degree
• Advanced mechanic use comes instinctively (AG and PBGC come naturally in your play. etc)
• Know your matchups well enough to exploit minute or obscure weakness and openings in your opponent's team
• Combos on deck for every situation, including happy birthday carries for several weight class combinations, character-specific mixups, damage options, sideswaps, reversal-stuffing options, etc. and can go between these instantly and execute near-flawlessly
  
• Neutral is the real warzone and doesn't look stupid (not "both players jump around aimlessly until someone hit with something stupid")
• Can Bella raw tag yourself to victory

If you hasn't achieved Intermediate's criteria, you're a beginner.

 

[Tomo009]

I would define Intermediate as the point where you:

• Understand all of the basic mechanics of the game
• Are aware of and working to apply the more advanced mechanics (PBGC, AG, etc.)
• Have decent matchup knowledge of the entire cast including submatchups of different popular playstyles and assist types, and can adjust your playstyle/team accordingly
• Can find, adjust to, and exploit player habits before your characters are killed
  
• Can defend against high pressure successfully more often than not
• Know at least one combo that leads into different mixup situations that you can pull off successfully more often than not (the mixup, not the combo; you should nail the combo every time by this point)
• Can analyze match footage to a degree where you generally know why a person did X, why they're at Y position, if Z could have lead to a better situation, etc. and can go to training mode and practice what you've learned
• Probably more, but let's go with this

Expert is basically when you've mastered the above:

• Know all the mechanics of the game to a high degree
• Advanced mechanic use comes instinctively (AG and PBGC come naturally in your play. etc)
• Know your matchups well enough to exploit minute or obscure weakness and openings in your opponent's team
• Combos on deck for every situation, including happy birthday carries for several weight class combinations, character-specific mixups, damage options, sideswaps, reversal-stuffing options, etc. and can go between these instantly and execute near-flawlessly
  
• Neutral is the real warzone and doesn't look stupid (not "both players jump around aimlessly until someone hit with something stupid")
• Can Bella raw tag yourself to victory

If you hasn't achieved Intermediate's criteria, you're a beginner.

I fit all your expert criteria (especially the last one) but I don't feel like I play at an expert level.. I feel very, very, very few Skullgirls players in the world do.

 

[Dime]

Agreed. I also fit all or most of those and I'm no expert. We gotta remember that true expert players are guys like duck and dekillsage and tj. In other games it would be guys like... Daigo, nuki, kuroda, j wong, infiltration.... Etc etc. Tbqh that last list of qualities is mostly intermediate stuff.

Yes, being intermediate is no "easy" thing. It takes time and dedication to get to intermediate. It takes no life to get to expert.

 

[Zidiane]

I started putting myself exclusively in expert rooms cause no one who would join a casual/intermediate room would be able to really fight back against what I could do. Just do that for the others, if you reck everyone who joins your beginner room, move up to intermediate, and if you start recking everyone who joins that room move up to expert. Don't think you need to consider anything else in your decision on room making, really.

 

[Duckator]

I played in unlabeled rooms for a very long time until someone sent me a message asking why I didn't set it to expert.

So when someone sends you a message like that, then you'll know.

 

[Mr.NiceGuy]

Or... You can just play the game. Win or lose, you'll still learn. Personally, I play arcade with solo and tag' at ridiculous to nightmare difficulty to improve.
Edit - Sometimes as a practice run before playing online.

Like they say; "You must master yourself, before you can master your opponent."
... "Too quote a certain someone." - Boss (If you get the reference, you've got interesting taste.)

 

[dragonos451]

Agreed. I also fit all or most of those and I'm no expert. We gotta remember that true expert players are guys like duck and dekillsage and tj. In other games it would be guys like... Daigo, nuki, kuroda, j wong, infiltration.... Etc etc. Tbqh that last list of qualities is mostly intermediate stuff.

Yes, being intermediate is no "easy" thing. It takes time and dedication to get to intermediate. It takes no life to get to expert.

I don't think we can consider expert players and top players being the same thing...

 

[Uzu]

• Can Bella raw tag yourself to victory

 

[Tomo009]

I don't think we can consider expert players and top players being the same thing...

No, because most of the top SG players aren't yet expert. Skullgirls has a lot of growing to do yet.

 

[IsaVulpes]

There's a notable difference between "Are you an Expert" and "Should you open an Expert level lobby".
I dunno which of the two the thread is about, but .. yeah.
"Being an Expert" is the toppity top of a game, and in SG it's quite possible that nobody even has reached this level (yet).
"Opening Expert Lobbies" is roughly 100 levels below that, cus it's obviously silly to have a lobby option in which 0-5 people can play.

 

[Horseman]

No, because most of the top SG players aren't yet expert. Skullgirls has a lot of growing to do yet.

Expert is a relative term. When you say someone is an expert when it comes to physics, you don't mean that they have cracked the code to life itself and know everything there is to know about the inner workings of the physical world, you mean they know more than an awful lot of people.
So yes, top skullgirls players, the players who know a lot about the already discovered intricacies of the game, are indeed skullgirls experts.

 

[Dime]

Hmmm really depends on how you look at it I guess. That is a functional
Definition to be sure but it broadens the horizon for most people on this forum to be experts.

 

[View619]

I think you want to use Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced. Expert is above all of those, and I doubt any player has really reached that level yet.

 

[Erreip199]

Button Masher
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
Expert
I get payed to beat you

 

[RemiKz]

Button masher applies to all of those

 

[Erreip199]

oh right, this is SG were talking about

 

[alexpi]

I assume I'm a beginner because everyone on my Steam friend's list beats me like a drum.

 

[Ninja]

Oh come now, you're good at the game. You're underrating yourself here, you are better than you think. Besides I view myself as intermediate and we're head to head in skill, so you know. I don't think you're a beginner.

 

[Dagwood]

i always considered it:

beginner = bottom 33%
intermediate = middle 33%
expert = top 33%

for online matchmaking anyways....
I mean if expert only means "Evo Top 8 material" then there's not much of a point having it in the game.

 

[Hurumi]

I assume I'm a beginner because everyone on my Steam friend's list beats me like a drum.

Really? They could just be lucky don't think your a bad player they just find the right chance to achieve victory.

 

[Hilary]

For in game lobby labels and matchmaking purposes, Skarmand has it right.

Outside of the game, it really depends on the individual's performance and knowledge on a case by case basis.

 

[Cynical]

It's not really that simple; there's a huge gap between what you'll usually find in intermediate lobbies and what you'll usually find in expert lobbies.

For me, and a lot of the people on my friend's list, if I go into an Intermediate lobby, I'll beat damn near every player in there with very little effort. If I go into an Expert lobby, I'll get completely fucked without my opponent putting forth any effort.

 

[RAT__BABY]

I never became a god.
I was born a god.

 

[Sync Karma]

From that list, seems like I'm a high beginner but not intermediate.

 

[Clawsome Bombs]

I've held my own against and sometimes beat top/expert players (Duck, Mike, etc.), but I can tell just from playing them that I'm nowhere near where they are. Of course, I'm a masochistic crazy man when it comes to this kind of thing (I'll play someone 999-0 if I can learn anything from it), so I guess like a lot of people have said: practice, practice, practice

I consider myself with my foot in the Advanced category, just right above the top intermediate level

 

[D.R.E.]

I know im lower level intermediate. I mop most beginners due to my knowledge of basic mixups and pressure, resets and high damage combos from being apart of the FGC for so long i try not to mash and i take an overall "heady" approach to my offense. ..the hole in my game is defense. .I know the importance of blocking, but pbgc, and the minute' high low mixups from quick normals and assists or tricky air dash crossup pressure I.e Fillia or Val, leave me salty and with a dead parasoul more quickly than id like more often than not. But im only about 50 ish hours into the game so im learning. ..

 

[erkicman]

I assume I'm a beginner because everyone on my Steam friend's list beats me like a drum.

It took me all night just to kill one of your characters, and I think that was just luck. You're not a beginner.

 

[ImAnOmen]

By all of these standards it seems like I'm either a low intermediate or in between intermediate and beginner... I actually considered myself lower even though I put up a fair fight against POS the other day (probably just luck) and got wrecked by Shade (probably cause I suck) when I found him about 10 times the other day... Time to practice

 

[Boosheroo]

I have 15 hours in game, I'm a beginner yayyyyy!