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Rivals: The Penultimate Resource

Nuuance

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Nuuance
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There's gonna be a lot more people coming to SG in the coming year or so & can only imagine the bursts after big dlc so I wanted to create a new segment touching on things to keep in mind time to time. Soon I'll make small scripted/edited videos as something a bit more entertaining & bingeable.

Rivals: What Are They?

As I'm sure a bunch of you can surmise already, I mean the people you play against. More specifically, people you often play with, to gauge your own progress. Apart from research itself, the primary way you get better is of course by other players. But...did you know the combination of types of players you game with are just as important as labbing itself? I'd argue even moreso in most cases. If you're not having engaging matches, why bother. Variety is the spice of life here. If you want to get better faster, taking this into account naturally is the key. After a while, who to play & when will be second-nature.

I'll be breaking this down into 3 segments: higher, true, & lower level rivals

Higher Level Rivals: A Gold Standard

The first people we usually see when checking out how hype a fighting game is. They're the reason why the game's fun in the first place. If there wasn't the challenge of surpassing limits, I probably wouldnt have much to say since that's the point of most games. Having reached levels most don't get to, relative to yourself, if you find that they're always one step ahead of you, it's likely they're simply at a different spot. Especially when you get stomped. If there's one thing I can attribute as being the single reason I got better, it was adding anyone i felt was lightyears ahead of myself, no matter how bad I got beat. everyone gets frustrated here & there, but never ragequit. I suggest really internalizing that. Always fight till last round. We all get our lumps around here.

Furthermore, I didn't just play them, I asked for constructive criticism & often it shed light on a lot I never would've thought about. Sometimes people just dont know how to communicate these things, so if it seems like some dont have much to say, try not to stress. Fighting games are complicated & it happens. If that's the case, take replays to people you trust & work that angle. Improving isn't always a linear path & your strengths/weaknesses won't often line up with other players. So don't think you're inferior because your defense or advanced mechanics arent up to snuff yet. the sum of parts is (much) greater than the whole in most player's cases. Take whatever criticism you get & focus on that. For the most part, your critiques won't include stuff too hard for you to do. So try to listen. The goal is to eventually become their an equal if not go even further in your journey.

Lastly, this groups amazing at showcasing new ideas for inspiration & ultimately testing your constitution. Not to mention crushing bad habits. There's no other way to really say it...you can run into some super cool nutty setups inspiring thoughts for your character. Don't just let that go to waste if you get styled on. Initially, stealing tech was the wave. These days I find tech is more uniquely tied to certain players, but there's nothing wrong with taking stuff others do for yourself. Just understand you'll eventually want to (and maybe even have to) find your own.

your mental hp meter is huge too. Namely in tournaments. You're often going to have to fight players who won't let you run away with the game if you're just going through the motions. There are ways to deal with people who on average are better, but in order to do that, it requires a cool calm in the face of doubt. If you've ever heard the term 'reality distortion field,' it came from Steve Jobb's I believe & it's when you get absorbed into the mental frame of someone else. As in they're in your head. Many players, myself included have given the opponent a huge benefit of the doubt they dont deserve. You should always fight with the belief youll win or be able to figure out a strategy to eventually win. You dont always have to play into the strategies of what the opponent is doing either. Remember...they're playing with the same rules you do...so that means if you plan enough, you can orchestrate the game in a way playing away from the opponents strengths or to their weaknesses. This won't always be 'optimal' play, which is more subjective than some would think. When you think of the game as a puzzle or Real time sRPG & properties as elements, things start appearing much more plainly.

The thing is though...being able to even think on how to adapt requires unclouded access. Getting tilted mentally makes people hesitate & react slower. When you're getting stomped, being able to mentally reset & say it's not over until it's over is important. Comebacks are very very common in this game. Don't give up. That's it for the most part here.

Downsides

Huh? How could there be downsides to fighting the best...? Well there are a couple actually. Of course nothing ever applies for everything but in general these things ring true: Raw Nerves, Loss Fixation & Playstyle Stagnation.

Now playing people better than yourself isn't inherently bad, but it is when you take it too far. There are a few who are masochistic enough to primarily play high level people and eventually reach their same level & sometimes go further, but I've actually noticed most hit a wall. Doesn't have to do with skill or ability...it's mentally. It sucks losing. And when that happens, more often than not, people's playstyle defaults into a defensive, hesitant one. Already, you're defeated. "I keep forgetting the stuff i labbed." Sure thats true sometimes, but the real reason is it's actually very tough to think in a full capacity while under stress & trying to figure out the opponent. What makes it worse is the denial. People might not necessarily rage like everyone else, but almost just as bad, they'll get down on themselves. That's not the way to handle that.

Everyone has really good days & really bad ones. Sometimes it's just the way things work. But if you keep at it, your dice roll will eventually hit & youll understand how to make it happen more. In addition to fixating on not losing, people develop a raw nerve of sorts that if you happen to beat them a touch too forcefully, their will is suddenly broken. Again, comebacks are common in SG, but it is also easy to feel like the opponent has completely shut down every single option you tried to do. If you break up a match into strike types, you have stray hits, clean hits, counters, freaks of nature & legitimate input fails. You need to ask yourself which of these are happening & adjust accordingly. Many times it really is input fails. thats not the time to get more frustrated because it'll get worse. Just get in habit of zeroing yourself out & putting more energy into proper, but calm & firm execution.

Stagnation. It might sound counter-intuitive because playing better people forces you to evolve right? Well not really. Many times experimenting & going for an unfamiliar, yet effective route is the solution. But because good players adapt & know when to shut down certain options, it discourages players from trying new things even past that match. People attribute experimentation & creativity with something unoptimal or likely punishable. There's all sorts of weird stuff in game so if it works use it. All the stuff in game now was found because people experimented with weird things. Hop in the lab & also take the opportunity to keep going certain routes to learn -- not to win (or probably more accurately -- not lose).


Again, there's nothing wrong with this segment by itself, but if you're prone to steep periods of frustration, you might want to give yourself more mental breaks. You'll be able to quickly return for longer each time. Do NOT grind more, UNLESS you're good at re-centering yourself emotionally & looking at the game fresh as if you just started playing. The moment you can't do that & the frustration is too distracting, you need to give it a rest.

Think of your session 10 rounds at a time. If you know you're too tired to do another ft10 reliably, just take a bit. Semi-regularly you'll want to test way past your limit to strengthen more. But for the most part i wouldn't recommend over doing it, because subconsciously it'll instill bad habits from being tired. minimize unlearning, optimize learning. Leave a little in the tank so it recoup faster & try to leave on a good note.

Sometimes you gotta to cut your losses & regain peace asap, but this will improve tenacity while ending on positive emotion. When engaging with a game, you want to build positive associations. The way you leave & return to the game is vital. Might be hard to believe, but this is the primary issue of new players. Don't make this mistake. Goes for facing any skill level. including that accursed best friend.

Overall, HLR are for tempering what you already know & learning to access & adapt solutions quickly under increasing stress. In a word, help build fearlessness. Think BossRush.

True Rivals: A Real Mirror & Outlet for Flow

When it comes to getting better, technically you just wanna stick to tougher players right? Only makes sense. Well again...not quite.

The reason we play is to have fun. That's the entire reason. Not to make it a job. Might sound weird, but when you're having fun, youre relaxed. When you're relaxed you think better, when you think better you get better organically. This optimal state of thinking is called flow. You can only get to flow when your focus is very high on one particular activity &/or challenge intersects with enjoyment. In this case, challenge is getting hit & enjoyment is hitting the opponent. The idea is to be able to go back & forth, while adapting. When you hit flow, it's more like watching the game over your own shoulder & being able to observe patterns from a zoomed out view. This is where you develop fight sense & hard code it into your habits. Again...the ONLY way to hit this is high focus or skill level just manageable enough. Some might experience a burst of energy vs higher level players at some point consciously or unconsciously, completely coming back almost as if you downloaded them. That's because youve actually ramped up the focus & adapted without putting so much pressure on yourself.

When you hit flow, you're also much more likely to experiment and try weird stuff that might completely win games. Unless it's a tournament, take any opportunity to try out experiments. You should be able to do so more freely because stress level isn't as high. Lastly, quick adaptation comes from this segment in spades. High level players often move in inexplicable ways or have weird rhythms compared to what you're used to. But for the most part people around your level move in expected ways. This allows you to take focus away from tracking the player & putting it towards new strats. By the time the opponent adapts, you will adapt again.

Something i almost forgot, these people will most likely be the ones rooting for you when you compete. Cliche as it may be but just like anime or any show, the people who you spend time playing with want you to get better too. They make the game fun & shouldn't be taken for granted. So so so many people dismiss players of their own level, thinking they're not learning anything when that's completely false. Just make sure to keep notes of new habits staying clean & verifying them.

Downsides

Should be fairly obvious, but bad habits is the primary downside. I mean the deeply ingrained bad habits taking forever to unlearn. Yeah, you definitely don't want that. Can be harder trying to unlearn something than it is learning in many cases. Requires 2 different directions of thinking and can slow you down a fair amount while requiring more focus. Core-A Gaming made a video a bit ago about playing fast & slow, he mentioned a stamina bar. He's absolutely right. We all have a stamina bar & depending on how we play, ours & the opponents will drain at different rates. If you're especially devious, you can antagonize someone so much they lose all sense of how to play. If you get locked into only playing people around your level, stamina will suffer when skill increases suddenly.

You have to think about stamina bar in terms of amount & intensity. In order to adapt, it takes a lot. Not get tilted? Takes even more. Your stamina bar will never grow if you don't keep pushing yourself. Long games? Requires a lot too. What if you have all these factors at the same time, including stress? Rounds will seem utterly hopeless & mistakes will increase. You wouldn't want to train with only sprinting, but definitely not jogging either.

Overall this is where you'll learn the most in terms of battle sense & teaching yourself how to adapt on large & small scale seamlessly.

Lower Level Rivals: Experimenting & Paying It Forward

Comparative to yourself, you have a lower level rival if you defeat them significantly more than they defeat you even on bad days. There's not much inherent benefit to playing against this group as the 2 before it, but it shouldn't be ignored in the slightest either. This is where you REALLY want to experiment. Moments where CPU is too weak, but higher level players are too oppressive. It sounds a bit jerkish, but it's nothing to be upset about from any side. you're helping someone else improve by being around to play. And experimenting is something good for getting people used to wild cards.

The final benefit is no small one: passing it on. Complete the circle. The only way any of us got better was playing people better than ourselves. The same goes for others. I've found even as a decent player, it's important not to divorce yourself from the beginner mindset. You don't view yourself as one, you maintain the same growing habits as an eager beginner would. Showing what you know not only helps but also cements the game in your mind in a better light. Forcing yourself to look at concepts to break down is healthy. So don't forget about taking one or two people explicitly under your wing. They'll be better in no time.

Downsides

This should be obvious: very very bad habits & even diminishing your stamina meter. Now don't misunderstand. This doesn't mean you cant play a lot of beginners. Means they can't be the primary segment you face. That's all. Most people dont need to be told this, but you'll get some people here & there who only beat up on people not as practised as themselves & get an attitude at anyone who beats them. For the most part I feel the SG community doesn't suffer from it too much, but you have a few just like any game would.

Overall when you want to test spacing X niche setups in combination to create new tech. Additionally, breaking down aspects of how to beat you & improve will in turn help you understand better. Wanting others to genuinely improve will help you in return.

In Closing:

Wow that was a lot! I hope it made sense. Overall, the point is you never want to only play a specific type of player no matter who they are. At times you'll lean more to one or another but more than likely, youll gravitate towards 2 at a time in distinct chapters of your journey. Don't forget to take breaks & keep improving! It's not always about 'not being good enough.' Sometimes you just need a change of scenery.

Great video talking about the mental stamina bar we all use
 
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