This week, I had the pleasure of reminiscing how far I've come as a fighting game player.
From a snot-nosed punk who mashed out Hadokens all match because it was all I knew.
...to trying to learn how to combo because I thought it was all I had to know.
.......to doing long 72-hit Painwheel combos from any hit from anywhere because I know it is the smartest thing to do.
I've gone to saying "that's cheap, you suck"
...to saying "that's cheap, nice!"
There are so many terms, acronyms, systems, ideas, etc. that I've learned. For example: Resets, While Rising, and DP. And those have nothing to do with NES, bread, or sexual interaction.
Alternatively, I could have posted a picture with "DP." Let's just say they have "Already Risen" and they're jamming it harder than any NES reset button.
Hell, just yesterday while playing Virtua Fighter 5, my first time playing any Virtua Fighter game, I understood the concept of trying to figure out what my moves were. Ask me a year ago if I could have figured out my moves and I would have been trying to do quarter-circle and half-circle motions expecting special moves.
Around a year ago, I dabbled in playing some Tekken 6, my first real exploration into the 3D fighting genre. From that alone, I learned how the 3D genre handles its move-sets. There are no "special moves" (at least, until recently in Soul Calibur V); it's mostly tapping or holding a single direction and pressing a single or multiple buttons, at the same time or in sequence of each other, to get the various moves of the character. I especially took note of my knowledge when I remembered "While Rising" moves: pressing a button(s) while standing up from a crouching position to get a specific move. This is all really recent knowledge, but it's there in my head. This gave me a far quicker grasp of what I was doing versus when I first picked up Tekken seriously.
Note: I still don't know what I'm doing in either game.
This chance to think about my accomplishments spawned from playing Skullgirls this past week. People are being surprisingly vocal after matches. Most surprisingly, it's all positive! Things like "GGs" "Your Painwheel is good", etc.. There's been a few souls brave enough to ask questions about what they need to do, or what things they should do to get better.
To my surprise, the questions are very basic. Even one guy asked me how he should set up his buttons. NOTHING wrong with that; I encourage them to ask. We all start from somewhere. Even with more technology and resources to learn from than ever before, there's nothing better than having a simple Q&A.
In one specific instance: a dude I met via Twitter and I sat down and just worked through some basic techniques and questions. Here, I realized that I know a lot.
I am a very "feel" player. By that, I mean that I can do what I've seen looks right, what feels right, and flow with my use of unconscious knowledge. If you ask me why something worked, I will not be able to tell you. If I can, it will be poorly explained. So when I had to articulate what I do, and what this guy should do, I had difficulty explaining it.
While explaining why combos are not exactly the most important thing to learn, the moment I said the term "reset" I knew I added a layer of confusion to his cake of learning.
Quick! Eat it before anyone notices!
From there, I needed to backtrack further, which lead to backtracking further...and further... It was more "backfiring" than "backtracking", and I'm glad he was so patient with me.
With my feel play style, I don't possess the ability to explain myself clearly. I'm still thinking about what I could have said different. Even now, I feel there was little I could change (except for the stumbling over my own words bit). Honestly, there's a lot of parts and pieces that go behind what a "reset" is; there is no simple answer for it. My best answer, to myself, so far has been:
Reset - When you purposefully stop short of the optimal damage of a combo for the sake of catching your opponent off-guard.
The reason you would do this is because for each hit further in a combo you do does less damage. If you start a new combo, you have the damage from the previously ended combo and the new combo. You are basically "comboing" different compilations of damage.
With resets, you can put yourself into a better position in the stage, bait attacks, or trying to stun the opponent's character; all of which can lower opponent morale if you can make them feel stupid or frustrated enough for getting hit.
I don't like the answer. It doesn't feel simple enough. I know it in my head what it is, but I just can't explain it. I do feel better after searching up how it was explained at iplaywinner.com. This is after I searched up two other fighting game glossaries that were missing the term completely. Iplaywinner.com used video examples, which shows that it's something that has to be seen and not-so-much explained.
Knowing that I can feel my way through fighters is an interesting realization. I believe the feel comes from a compilation of gained knowledge that is put together in my subconscious. When I need to access that information to explain something, that pool runs a lot deeper than even I expect. It shows when I stumble over my words trying to stuff it all into an understandable package.
I think you, yes YOU the reader, should take a moment and realize where they are in their fighting game skill level, and why. Have you come a long way? What helped you learn? What was your drive to learn? Is there something you know today that you did not know yesterday, a month ago, a year ago?
Honestly, I want to hear about it. Leave it in the comments, shoot me an e-mail, chat with me at the next tournament, etc. It doesn't even have to apply to fighters, think about it for all things you do! Even if you don't let me in on your experiences: whatever it may be that you do, you've come a ways, I know it! Keep going strong and keep your drive alive!
Let me tell you the story of the time I was THE MOST salty from a fighting game match.
In the year of 1998, when I was 9 years old, I was out in California with my father. My dad was there for a business trip and decided to take me along for the experience. We went to visit my uncle's family while there.
When we get there, I'm pretty much left to be entertained by my older cousin, Bryan. He's probably around 17 at this time. Whatever was going through his head the time, he asked me "Do you want to play Street Fighter?"
FUCK YEAH I did. I was 9 years old, I had played the game a lot. Obviously, I was the fucking best thing since the goddamn Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
So we started playing, and I was bodying him for free. He couldn't get around my well placed fireballs, and my... well placed fireballs. It wasn't creative, but it was the best damn tactic since eating all the grain pieces of Lucky Charms so you could have a bowl of just marshmallows.
Not scumbag; just smart.
So after 5 or so matches, he turns around to me, smiles, and says, "Wow, you're really good! Do you want to do a match for $10, if you win?"
"$10!??! This guy is RICH!" My 9 year old mind thought. He's so easy to beat too! Of COURSE I'll take him up on his match!
We play another match, and just as the matches previous to this, I won easily. I mean, of course I won! I'm the best!
Then he turns around to me again, "Aww man! Do you want to play again? Double or nothing?"
Uh, duh! I was so excited, I nearly shouted "yes!" before he even finished his sentence! I was SO excited to have $20. I could buy some very useful, and important to my life, Gak with $20!!
The game begins again. I begin chucking plasma like a rap artist does with cash money and liquor. Nothing was hitting him though! He was...blocking and jumping? WHAAAT?! He jumped in, did a three hit combo, knocking Ryu on his ass and waking up seeing stars. Then he hit me a few more times, quickly ending the first round.
"Lucky!" I thought. But the second round ended the near same as the first.
Pretty much like this.
I was furious! I was upset! I got cheated! Swindled!! My anger rose as I handed him his $10 back. He took away my Gak, my McDonalds, and everything else important to life! I used to be a big boy! I needed that McDonalds!!
All this sexy doesn't feed itself! I need NOURISHMENT! And Happy Meal Toys.
He...
...I...
I WAS SO MAD I COULD...
...cry
I ran out of the room bawling like a real man. (He probably got chewed out for that one...)
The reason this is the saltiest match I've ever done is because I'M STILL MAD AT THIS SHIT. Who the FUCK does that?! Scumbag Bryan! Lets kid win on Street Fighter; only to shark them and crush their spirits.
If I ever find his ass, I'm going to body him 120%. If he wasn't such a scumbag son, his family would know where he is, and I would find him JUST MM him!
BRYAN! I WILL FIND YOU AND GET MY REVENGE!!!
(To be fair, he was playing on an SNES controller, so he's probably actually decent.)
ANY KoF footage is ???. Theoretically, the original KoF station was being recorded all day, so it should have non-grand final footage too, which I would love to watch and review. If there's any video for that uploaded, I can put it up later... but I don't want to talk about KoF, at least, less than Skullgirls anyway. hahaha...
For anyone who may not know the tournament system:
- Brackets are double elimination: You have to lose TWO sets to be knocked out of the tournament.
- Set = first to 2 matches won or best 2 out of 3 matches.
- Usually, when at the last two people of the Winner's bracket (people who haven't lost yet), Loser's bracket (people who have lost once), and Grand Finals, a set will be composed of first to 3 matches won, or best 3 out of 5 matches.
i.e. In the Skullgirls finals, I'm in winners, Ruben is in losers. So I have to lose two sets to be out of the tournament. But if he wins the first set, even if the score is 3-2 sets at the end, the bracket is reset and the score becomes 0-0 to start over on the new set.
This past Saturday, there was a tournament in Colorado Springs for the games: UMvC3, KoF, Skullgirls, SCV, and SSF4:AE2012.
With more acronyms that you can shake an acrobat attending ACRO at, it was a good size tournament, which was really relieving compared to the last tournament's numbers. We even had number of new faces, mostly playing UMvC3 and SSF4. I don't think the tournament organizers expected that many people as the venue ended up too small for that many people.
It was so busy and hard to navigate, and because there was only one guy really running them, I started to help run tournaments between matches. I was Pac-Man moving through mazes of human bodies trying to find the Power Pellets, aka next people playing in the tournament.
(...Man, Pac-Man has a rough life; I wasn't even being chased! Why are ghosts so racist? Well I guess Pac-Man IS a cannibal and danger to society... is the society a majority of ghosts though? Do Pacs and Ghosts get along normally? Maybe Pac-Man is the last Pac alive?!?! Well no, because he finds Ms.Pac-Man, so... Maybe this is just a wrong part of town so-- okay, not important. Sorry...)
It makes you wonder about Pac-Man though. Admit it.
The tournament started with...
King of Fighters
Anyone following anything I do in King of Fighters knows I picked up a new character, Kim. I like Kim's rush down style, and he has the best music in the game. Ironically, I took Shen out of my team for him.
The first few people I played I was able to steamroll with Kim for the most part. He's a "get in there and FUCK THEIR FACE" character, and I thought I was doing fine in getting in my opponents' space and FUCKING THEIR FACES. Of course, I hardly ever get to practice KoF. I've been trying to play it online lately as it's all I have. Still, this gave me a false sense of security. When I had to face Pedro and Edgar, I realized I really am missing a huge part of my game that I don't know how to handle: getting zoned out.
Both Pedro and Edgar play characters that have great range on their normal moves, and fireball characters that I couldn't get myself around. It was frustrating, and damn embarrassing how free I was. Even Pedro said, after the tournament, that he felt like I had given up on my last match against him. I truly had not.
I was extremely upset and annoyed, and someone was patting me on the back which I really didn't want at the time and I, kind of, blew up at him a little, telling him to stop... which he followed up with another tap on my shoulder when he apologized (we laughed it off later, and I apologized for blowing up at him). I was so out of ideas that I started trying to be more aggressive in ways I didn't know how to be. It didn't work what-so-ever and I just got trashed on by the both of them, and probably why Pedro though I stopped trying.
When I picked up Kim I noticed my, previously, best character, Kula, is now garbage. I couldn't remember what to do with her because I wasn't forced to use her at the beginning of every match like I used to be. I HATE this about myself. It's the same reason why I have so much trouble playing two game competitively, I get way too caught up in one character/game, and I have trouble mentally switching to another character or game when it's time. My brain remains stuck on the last activity and I have no clue how I would even begin to work on this.
I crashed and burned with Kula because I hadn't be using her as much, and I crashed and burned with Kim because I'm inexperienced and not creative or solid enough. Two 3-0 losses later, I'm out of the tournament with a 3rd place finish for KoF and a sick feeling in my stomach.
I probably looked like this after KoF.
But...I had to get over it quickly and take a chill pill. Skullgirls started right after KoF finished.
Skullgirls
Most of my matches go pretty well. I'm hitting my combos, I'm opening people up with my set-ups, and I'm blocking extremely well. I spent a short bit of the first round of my first match getting into the Skullgirls feel of the game, nothing as bad as the previous tournament where I forgot I had 6 buttons. Most of the bracket I do well in. My most difficult matches are against Sexy Mike, a solo Parasoul player who has a general play style like me: Learn one or two strong combos and then spend the rest of the time trying to break open the opponent; and Ruben, the same guy I face in the finals, so I'll let his style speak for itself.
The match with Sexy Mike was a tough one. His combos hurt as much as mine do and he's very smart with attacking with the right moves at the right time. The biggest flaw with Sexy Mike's is that he often seems to have controller issues. While I, and many other, think/know it's his mistakes, he never admits to it, claims it as his own mistakes, or otherwise. I think that may have been what really saved me in that match, his dropped/screwed up inputs. It was enough for me to come back, hit him with a full combo, and be able to win the match. In addition, he probably hasn't played many Painwheel players. Painwheel players are a rarity. I guess it's because she's "hard to learn"? I disagree, but that's just me.
In the Winners Finals against Ruben, he picked a team of Painwheel and Cerebella (After I just got done saying all that rarity stuff about Painwheel too...). His combos weren't as damaging as mine, but he landed them often. He used the Cerebella assist well, which kept me locked down for a lot of his pressure game. Fortunately, being a Painwheel player, I blocked a lot of what he threw at me, and threw stuff back at him that he could not guard. I landed full combos, played well, smart, and strong, and took it against Ruben, putting me in the Grand Finals.
I felt good the whole tournament, I was landing my combos consistently, doing good damage and pressure. I was doing very good, to toot my own horn.
That all changed quickly as I went into Grand Finals...
Ruben made it through his match in Losers Finals and made it back to Grand Finals. He actually decided to change his game plan up and picked Peacock/Cerebella. Peacock is a bad match-up against Painwheel as I've been discovering over the last week, but it was worse than I knew.
I've only played one good Peacock (thanks Pete), so my knowledge of her is limited. The fact I was having to learn on the fly (lol Painwheel jokes) shows in the Grand Finals video. For example: see how I respond to blocked Peacock supers as the matches go on.
I was doing good on punishing the assist, and maybe I should have done more with that, but I could not land hits on Peacock, Ruben's defense was too good and I wasn't being creative enough. When I did land a hit, I'd drop the combos because I was caught off guard or because it was from so far away. Still, I fucked up, and I lost a LOT because of it. I had trouble grabbing Peacock on ground, and I don't know how I missed the many opportunities to just jump and grab. Mental failures, I guess. Also, I didn't know Peacock's ground dash was that good. It gets her out of corner so well and I'm unsure if I can punish before or have to wait to after. Either way, it seemed really quick and hard to do anything against. It got him out of the corner so many times for free, and just made another cat-and-mouse game I had to play. I kept getting hit by Cerebella stuff that I really shouldn't have, too. Most of all, I kept choking on my combos (while being told in the background not to choke), and just kept losing, especially in fully winnable situations. Strangely enough, I kept my cool, despite losses.
After losing 4 straight and having the bracket reset, making the score 1-0 Ruben, I, finally, get a win against him. Barely. Had I not gotten all the chip damage on Cerebella's guard, I would have died from the resulting combo/command grab. This makes it 1-1. He takes the next one, then I take the next one, making it 2-2. The final match of the tournament.
Now this I don't understand. He decides he's going to change characters and go back to his original team of Painwheel/Cerebella. This confused me greatly as he was doing so well with his Peacock team. Now looking at it, the only comment on the video at this time agrees. None the less, I count my blessings, and go into the next match.
He's definitely just wanting to throw my game off using Painwheel, and it works. I'm blocking all the crazier mix-ups and cross-ups, but I get caught by simple lows. Fortunately his combo isn't as damaging as it can be and he drops a couple of them. Same with me though. I think we're both pretty damn nervous, it's the final game, tournament point for the both of us, and we're hungry like the wolf for the tournament victory.
Here's where I think possibly one of my biggest errors actually became my biggest life saver...
I actually thought the score was 2-1.
Yes, I didn't think Ruben was on tournament point, so I was playing a lot more calm than I would if the situation was 2-2. I did NOT figure this out until today when watching the tournament finals. While I made a lot of mistakes in the match I don't think I would have made if I was fully focused, I think the fact that I wasn't stressing over the situation of the match made me think more clearly and calmly, despite the ridiculous zero-life situation.
I was seriously like this when I, belatedly, realized how close I was to losing.
Even after, stupidly, dropping my kill combo, I get to take home my barely acquired tournament win.
Aftermath
As far as KoF goes, I don't understand why I'm having so much trouble learning the game. I really enjoy the game and enjoy it more than Skullgirls. I understand that I don't get to practice it a lot as the online is garbage and there aren't a lot of gatherings for live KoF, which I am also at fault for. Still, it feels like other people are learning a lot faster than I am, regardless of the amount of time I put in.
I don't know if I'm missing something very basic, if I'm learning the wrong things, or what. It's frustrating that I can't learn this game. I wish I could sit down with someone really good and have them help me with what I need to work on. It's a huge list of basics, I'm sure, but I don't know what that list is. I watch videos, study tournament matches, read up on the Wikipedia and forums to find anything I can learn, but I feel I come out with less than I had before every time I go to a tournament.
I'm extraordinarily frustrated and disappointed at myself in my inability to learn King of Fighters. Especially when I don't have an answer for myself on how to learn.
As far as Skullgirls goes, I feel I'm doing, surprisingly, well with the game. I do end up playing it quite often because the online works with my shitty internet and I can practice whenever I feel like it. I think that's the main thing that's helping me with learning Skullgirls. After my matches with Ruben's Peacock, I've decided I need an assist on my team so I have more options again zoning characters like Peacock and Parasoul. I picked up Double and am trying to learn how to use her so she's more than just an assist. I am having a hard time with her, but it's only been 3 days since I've picked her up, so I need to be more patient. I think I may only pull her out in zoning situations, namely Peacock. I like Painwheel's solo damage too much and she opens up people well once she can get in. We'll see.
(And what of the Pac-Man!? Maybe he's actually Pruce Mayne, and under the guise of night, he becomes Pac-Man! It would explain why the stages are always dark. And he goes through the city, fighting crime and...)
Results:
KoF: 3rd
Skullgirls: 1st
Pac-Man: Waka Waka
This past week, I've spent a LOT of time during the weekdays on King of Fighters XIII. Saturday alone I spent at least 5 hours on Skullgirls. On both games this past week, I feel I've leveled up considerably. None the less, I now realize the amount of time I've had to put into each game. It makes me wonder...
How are people like Perfect Legend, Tokido, DJ Huoshen, and others able to play so many games AND place well?
I'm sure it helps that they have very active scenes with lots of, nationally, higher level players to assist in any one person learning any game. Combofiend had gotten SO good at KoF in literally ONE OR TWO WEEKS. In that one or two week span where I watched him, on major tournament streams, I literally went from thinking: "Wow, Combofiened is free."
to "Oh god, he's going to be at EVO, isn't he? I don't wanna fight him."
I've found it very difficult to wrap my brain around two games, competitively, at the same time. So I've been the kind of guy to cling on to one game and just focus on it. It's not a big deal, I don't think. If I'm a one game specialist, I'm a one game specialist. So why bring it up now?
With the arrival of Skullgirls, I've been finding myself enjoying that game quite a lot. Still, I love KoF a lot. So the obvious choice is to pick both games up and play them, for better or for worse.
One of the things I've noticed as of the last tournament is when I switched between KoF to Skullgirls tournament matches. Thankfully, KoF was completely done, because my brain remained really stuck in my first match against my opponent, Kanoleon, who got third at this tournament so he's obviously no slouch.
First, forgot there were 6 buttons instead of 4. When I remembered this after the match had started (and yes, this is even AFTER I had set my buttons), I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to rearrange my fingers on the arcade stick. Then the mental plague continued: I couldn't figure out what moves to use, that there was push-block or assists in that game, my combos, what I should be looking out for, how I should be reacting, etc. It all came rushing in a terrible state of "Oh FUCK, this is why I don't play multiple games" as I get bodied in the first match against Kanoleon.
Out loud, I was laughing it off; in my head I was damning myself for my stupidity: I'm such a moron, how did I panic that much, I'm so free. Thinking back, maybe this is good. I, at least, appear confident, which is very important for someone who is psychoanalyzing you for any weaknesses at 60 frames per second.
Whatever it may have been, the break I had between finishing the first match and starting the second match, I got my mentality together, placed my fingers correctly, thought about the previous match some, and what I needed to do for the next match.
It worked well enough. I was not getting caught by the same mix-ups he was doing, and then punishing them properly later in the round. While I had been learning a more difficult combo, I went with the one combo I had down much better, though much lower in damage. I knew constancy would be far more important in trying to strike some fear in my opponent than trying to get damage off. I knew that if I dropped a lot of combos, it would show weakness and Kanoleon would keep rushing me down instead of respecting my play. I kept more to the combos I could do, simple damage, and eventually pulled a victory in the second match, making the score 1-1.
By this time, I was feeling much better. My brain was far more lucid and I felt the things I learned coming back to me. Set -ups, what good normals I have, etc.. I start the third match against Kanoleon, and it goes a lot better. There's much more of a gap this time and I take it more convincingly, winning the tournament round and moving on.
Finally! I feel the game is back in my head and I'm into it now. The rest of the matches show this. I realize what others are doing wrong, what I'm doing wrong, turning them into rights and making it through the brackets. I struggled in the Winners Finals and Grand Finals against Femoral's Cerebella, but thankfully all those matches against Tager back in BlazBlue gave me the knowledge of how I wanted to generally handle it, allowing me to take 1st place.
Even better, the struggling wasn't because I wasn't playing well; I used all my knowledge I had up to that point, but a good player is a good player. If anything had not come back to me at that time, I would have definitely ended up in 2nd or 3rd place. It was that small of a gap.
I respect those players that are able to move from game to game in the middle of a tournament and play very well. Chris G at the major tournament Civil War a week ago won three tournaments and placed at least Top 8 in whatever else he entered. The winner of each tournament got a Civil War replica sword. So at the end of the tournament he was looking like...
Some anime punk. Wait a second...
Oh...
Well then...*
Placing top 8 in multiple tournaments, let alone WINNING multiple tournaments is just impressive. He got second in Skullgirls and doesn't even own the game. Maybe the truth is that this sort of thing is based in natural ability, and it's just one piece of the pie I lack. Real talk.
None the less, quoting a person I super respect: "If you don't try, even if there's a 1% chance, you will fail 100% of the time." I will be trying my best on this, breaking down the walls hopefully and becoming some kind of Colorado Ryan Hart. Especially considering Persona 4: Arena comes out in a few months. Oh boy...
Can't be afraid of making mistakes now! Just have to make them, learn from them, and move on.
Tournament this upcoming Saturday, May 12, in Colorado Springs. So I'll have to test my flexibility there, again.
I've found something humorously interesting within my Colorado FGC: How I'm still relatively unknown, or not respected, by this community.
New Mexico seems to love me! As person, not as a player.
Arizona seems to pretty much dislike me as both. So we'll leave it at that!
Now you may be thinking "Really? How is that even possible?" "You rank high often in your games!" "You've done well in an out-of-state national tournament" "Shut up you whining ass bitch."
All the above are valid thoughts to think.
It shows the power between the aspect of games and how they're seen, then how that respect does play off to other players involved in certain games.
So if you play Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, people will know and respect you more for playing at any tournament level
If you play BlueBallz: Cuntinuum Shift at a skilled level, people will call you a faggot, or shrug because they've never heard of the game.
Similar to above: there will be the stream monsters, competitive players, and people in general complaining about how boring a game like BlazBlue is to watch and/or play, when they get crazy stupid hype for a game like Marvel. It doesn't matter if they know how to play one or the other. Hell, I'm the same. But just like sports, I enjoy a good match, even if I don't have full grasp of the game's concept.
I think a lot of it has to do with accessibility of the game's "pick-up-and-play" mechanics. I've had I-don't-know-how-many people drop KoF and BlazBlue, claiming it was hard to learn or keep up. I will be one to admit that in tandem with the learning-the-game aspect, they're not as fun of games to watch unless you know what exactly is going on. When you break it down each game to it's basest high-level play, you will see a lot of the same things occur.
BlazBlue is the most extreme violator of this. There are combos from every portion of the screen that you will want to land depending on distance from the corner. Considering how far most combos carry, it'll take one or two of these combos to get into the corner, where then the corner combos begin. There aren't a ton of mix-ups or variety one can throw into their game, IMO Platnium's floaty-animal thing being the most tricky in late Continuum Shift 2 time. They're a lot of the same moves, and a lot of creativity, I feel, is punished and removed by the game's systems and revisions.
In Guilty Gear, if you opened up someone with your ridiculously retarded quick overhead, you got a full combo and you just held that shit! If you open someone up with your ridiculously mediocre overheard in BlazBlue, if you have 50% of your super bar you can cancel into something decent (specific example, Litchi). Otherwise you're just twiddling your thumbs. The variety is limited in both rewards and attacks.
The variety of attacks that one can chain and link from one to another are becoming so painfully cut down that you cannot do nearly as much as you could before. And they're so specific, you'll see a lot of the same ones done over and over and over with small deviations here and there. Continuum Shift had a lot of options in characters, various special move cancels and tricks that made a lot of the game play more risky, and thus more fun. This is one thing that Marvel feeds greatly off of.
Also, BlazBlue is pretty damned slow as a whole compared to other fighters.
Marvel has options everywhere. It also helped that the game wasn't given to Japan for half a year where they force a lot of the, will be, future metagame out before the rest of the world gets the chance to. People are coming in with all sorts of new teams, idea, technologies in Marvel. The game opts for that random idea to be used, and in many cases abused.
With many options, of course, comes with a large random factor in the game, just like a game of Roulette. There's so many options, and while there are better, and more commonly selected options that will more likely win, there's the high gamble factors like single numbers, 00, or green bets that will be FAR more exciting if someone wins on the table.
I would say BlazBlue is akin to 3-coin slots. The best option is there: pulling the lever. So you just do it. A greater gamble comes every now and then with more coins added to the machine, making it a little more exciting. In all seriousness, you don't watch someone play slots, I mean really... What kind of idiot are you?
Seriously, what's so cool about Vs. and Street Fighter fans... Oh... it's the shades, isn't it?
Fuck.
So I feel the lack of love for a game that most people don't understand, or even know exists, is really what affects my "unknown" status. The community's favorite two jokes with me are "Who the fuck are you?" and "Has Devastation paid you yet?" (Devastation = major tournament I got second in Blaz FYI.... No, I haven't gotten paid yet). While I do talk about my unpopular status, even somewhat within the own community, it's fine that I'm not a part of a certain "group" and go solo. Most people don't include with "Denver" when speaking about Denver vs Springs though I live in the same area as most of them. Then they have their sub-sets of groups like The Embassy (group of people who play even MORE unknown games at a decent level), Strike First CO (the more want-to-be-like-Cali side of Extra Fresh League that runs many ranbats and tournaments), and others.
I'm just... me. While it feels good to be included, acknowledged, and respected for what I do well: I'm not.
I'll just have to go vigilante!!
There can only be one!
Some people definitely look at me and respect what I've done and do, and I appreciate that more than they probably even care to know. But I definitely respect it a lot.
In tournament news: Pedro has put up $100(!) dollars bonus for the next King of Fighters 13 tournament. The money, while I want it, doesn't matter. I just want to win. Especially getting some decent KoF ability going before EVO in July.
(Fuck Pedro.)
I've been practicing a lot, and I believe the addition of Kim on my team is working out well, as he fits my wanted play style a lot more. I've been playing with KoF's terrible online, but finding decent connection games to play. I feel I've been getting better already. A person I played a couple days ago which our matches went maybe 8-2 his favor was a lot closer to 6-4 his favor today. If I can keep this practice up, hopefully I can translate it off line and TAKE THE CROWN.
I've practiced Skullgirls for a total of 10 minutes. Every time I start that damn game, someone wants something and I have to stop. Talk about a cock tease!
