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.
* Pictures gotten from: http://stream-monster.tumblr.com/
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