SSF4 Fortnightly Ranking Battles - 26th Nov 2010

[CaptainHook]

If anything you should at least pick up some matchup knowledge from watching the other people play. Most of the dudes are pretty sweet so you can at least ask them "Why did you do (x) here?" and they'll usually give you a decent answer.

That still requires being able to understand what you're seeing. If for example you still haven't even learnt the move set of each
character, watching games goes right over your head. I don't even recognize if a match, or even if a player is good by
just watching the game yet. And for me i'm not saying i don't want to come, just i'm still not ready to play in the ranbats
and actually get something out of it.

I need people to talk to me during games like Lenny and Euan do on ST and be like "don't do that cause *****".
But even at casuals after i feel like i'm wasting everyone elses chance to play. And also playing one game, then waiting
another 10 minutes doesn't equal a lot of learning time for me. But with ST or HF it's okay because i've now learnt
enough about the game to actually learn something by watching others play. Well, almost.

Having said all that, i'll prob play in ranbats anyway. Cause i'm crazy like a fox.

[zos'la]

@CaptainHook,
Well I'll make things simple, and treat u as a new comer to the game, which you may or may not be.
Anyways!!!

From experience, I remember when I first started playing SF4, I saw stuff that I didn't know what they were.. such as Focus Atk... then I saw Focus Cancel... then I saw FADC into Ultra and so on. All these are ? to me at teh time, it was liek wtf you can do that? and liek what can I do when they do this? I start askign people questions liek you are now, but I didn't stop there, I moved on to watching videos of the top players such as Daigo as he mains the same char as I do. I try to understand and see why they do certain thngs at certain cituations, how can they get out of bad spots etc. As you watch, you can try it out at ranbats/ yifans etc. If it didn't work, try it agian and again until u find out more and more about ur char and how to use what at when. Once you lose a game, recap on why did you lose? to what? watch more vids, see how you can imporve in the gameplay and again try it at the next session whereever you have it. Play the people you always lose to, get use to the matchup and such.
There is much you can do to learn and get better, but do u have the heart to keep going? I personally work full time liek many of you and I use to go to Yifans eevry lunch time to play the arcade crew and thats where I learn majority of my current knowledge of SF4... which is next to nothing !!! technical no... hell I didn't even know what frame data is until Mason told me!!!But experience wise I did get plenty.

okay sorry for the wall post.. ><

[originaljulz]

If you say this then I don't really think you're approaching the game with the right mentality. Even if you don't learn much from getting smashed, there's a lot to learn from talking to people and watching the games. If anything you should at least pick up some matchup knowledge from watching the other people play. Most of the dudes are pretty sweet so you can at least ask them "Why did you do (x) here?" and they'll usually give you a decent answer.

Yeah but by you saying that, you're overestimating my skill and knowledge at SF lol. I don't actually play SF; I just randomly started playing it on and off at the arcade about a month ago to the point where I'm not quite "spam hadouken constantly with random shoryuken's thrown in" like all the kids at the fish and chip shops used to be, but I'm nowhere near being able to recognise moves for every character, or even combos and moves for Ryu, the nub that I use.

Pretty much just copy/paste everything that CaptainHook said, because it was perfect.

Esp the part about needing people to talk to you in game thing. Lenny did that for me once or twice, and those 50 seconds of training were prob more valuable than my 20 rounds of fighting against a retard AI Zangief which I couldn't even beat anyway.

[CaptainHook]

Lenny did that for me once or twice, and those 50 seconds of training were prob more valuable than my 20 rounds of fighting against a retard AI Zangief which I couldn't even beat anyway.

Haha, at least playing the AI on ST or HF i feel like i might be able to improve. Cause that shit it so farking hard to play against.
But the AI on SSF4 is pathetic. I set it to hardest when i first got it and still beat it to the end with random ultra's and flash kicks. What the hell?
Won't learn anything from that. Hehehe.

[zos'la]

@ originaljulz
As stated, I jump into SF just as you guys did, not knowing anything blah blah blah.
U just have to put the effort in and say, okay I will start from here and then move on to here.
Don't expect to sky rocket in the first 3 months, it took me about 6-9 months to actually know what I was doing... and I think I am a really slow learner already. SO if ur anythign liek me thats teh most it would prolly take u
Also best thing is to stick with one character first and then move on when u think u are ready, jumping around on characters can be a + or - but if you're new, I recommend just stick with one first then slowly move on.

The AI might not be super great, but if u set it up on the hardest mode and maybe pick Akuma, Ryu, Ken as ur opponent, you won't dare to jump in :Pits good training to teach u NOT to jump

[[NIUE] BIRRY WONG]

You have to play to get better.

Smoof and Andy are right on the money. Its not 'underestimating your ability at SF' at all. The same rules apply to anyone across the spectrum. If you dont know what youre doing wrong, ask us. Ranbats are the BEST opportunities to do this because we are all right there. People can demonstrate stuff, explain stuff, even coach you through a round as youre playing it if you really really want. The bracket is just there for seeding purposes. Its a casual tourney. People seem to be blowing it out of proportion.

The best point here was when smoof said youre not approaching it with the right mindset. If youre worried about getting smashed in 15 seconds, then NOT playing is going to keep you in the same spot for longer. plain and simple. Youre much better off going and spending your games figuring out WHY youre getting smashed. Dont even go into it trying to win. Go into the tourney with the mindset that youre going to figure out what it is youre doing wrong. Go home, spend the next fortnight working on these things, and come back. Rinse and repeat if you like. But i can 99% guarantee that when you come back the next week, you will have noticably improved.

To put things in perspective, if youre worried that youre going to get beasted at ranbats, then Ranbats is the best place for you to be.

[geneterror]

Esp the part about needing people to talk to you in game thing. Lenny did that for me once or twice, and those 50 seconds of training were prob more valuable than my 20 rounds of fighting against a retard AI Zangief which I couldn't even beat anyway.

If we end up playing some Blazblue at my place soon we can jam some SSF4 as well if you want. I'm gonna have to hit up some Blazblue this weekend I think.

[CaptainHook]

The best point here was when smoof said youre not approaching it with the right mindset. If youre worried about getting smashed in 15 seconds, then NOT playing is going to keep you in the same spot for longer. plain and simple. Youre much better off going and spending your games figuring out WHY youre getting smashed.

Nah, my point wasn't that i'm scared of getting beaten in 15 secs. Just that it happens so quick, i don't even know what
happened so trying to "reflect on it" and figure out why i lost isn't helpful when i can't remember what went down.
It's like when someone does a combo, even if i'm not playing i can't remember the sequence of moves they did.
My brain can't process all the information yet cause it's all too foreign. If you think my mindset going into ranbats
is anything except that i want to learn and get more experience, you're crazy.

My point was, at this early stage of the game playing with people like Lenny who are really good at coaching you AS you play
is way more productive for a beginner like me than the competitive matches at ranbats. UNTIL i get a bit better. So i will just go for
the casuals after and try to learn. Why do you guys have a problem with that? I'm saying i want to play more.

You have to understand that it's like a bunch of sprinters saying "just run with us at our fortnightly races. You'll learn
by just running with us and watching us and talking us". Actually, i don't have the balance to stand or walk yet, and
need to learn the mechanics of shifting balance with my hips. So crawling on my hands and knees while you sprint
down the track won't help. When i can stand and walk, then it will make sense.

[zos'la]

@captain,
I fully agree with u not being able to determind what hit u and ur gone. I was at the same position as u
THats what videos do what I do is when I see a similar combo\ move set, I will slowmotion pause it and watch carefully as each move executes, if I don't understand it the first time, I repeat until I do or if I still don't then I will ask at the next ranbats or whatever
I know u want to play more and I understand fully where ur coming from, what I am saying is that u need to bring the right mind set when u do play and not randomly and 15 secs later, of damn I lost and move on.
ANyways, home time fo rme^^ cheers!!!

[[NIUE] BIRRY WONG]

Nah, my point wasn't that i'm scared of getting beaten in 15 secs. Just that it happens so quick, i don't even know what
happened so trying to "reflect on it" and figure out why i lost isn't helpful when i can't remember what went down.
It's like when someone does a combo, even if i'm not playing i can't remember the sequence of moves they did.
My brain can't process all the information yet cause it's all too foreign. If you think my mindset going into ranbats
is anything except that i want to learn and get more experience, you're crazy.

My point was, at this early stage of the game playing with people like Lenny who are really good at coaching you AS you play
is way more productive for a beginner like me than the competitive matches at ranbats. UNTIL i get a bit better. So i will just go for
the casuals after and try to learn. Why do you guys have a problem with that? I'm saying i want to play more.

You have to understand that it's like a bunch of sprinters saying "just run with us at our fortnightly races. You'll learn
by just running with us and watching us and talking us". Actually, i don't have the balance to stand or walk yet, and
need to learn the mechanics of shifting balance with my hips. So crawling on my hands and knees while you sprint
down the track won't help. When i can stand and walk, then it will make sense.

You missed the point a bit there. Im saying, come to the fortnightly races, and learn how to run. Basically im encouraging the bolded statement, but on a grander scale. Dont think of the ranbats matches as competitive, but use them as a gauge. If something doesnt work, ok. You lose. Think about it a bit. Ask how you can counter it effectively, get peoples insight on the matter. Come back the next week, use this knowledge in similar situations. See how you do. Compare it to last week. Where can you improve now? Etc. The great thing about Ranbats is that there ARE people there like Lenny who can help you out as youre playing. This is like 90% of what the point of them is. To help people to get better. The tournament, despite being the 'main event' if you like, is primarily there to give people tournament experience. (Playing tournament games and casual games are VERY different scenarios) The seeding element is just basically a 'prize' for winning.

This is what i mean when i say 'wrong mentality'. The 'Problem' i have isnt with people, such as yourself, who show up, play, learn, enjoy themselves (even if this means playing other games afterwards), its with people who say things like 'Im not gonna come because ill just get wasted' then they DONT come, and they complain that they arent improving. Ive seen it a lot over the last year or so (particularly with people down at yifans tbh) THIS frustrates me, because theyre going around in circles. Ranbats are meant to be fun, and theyre meant to help people get better, meet all of us etc.

The people that come to ranbats enjoy ranbats, because its fun, its casual, and its the BEST way to improve. Ive seen way too many people thinking its some nazi regime where they have to come and be as serious as possible. And naturally, they dont turn up. As you know, this isnt the case.

[HoneyBadger]

Don't focus on what combo killed you, focus on why you got hit by that combo. Was it an ambiguous crossup and you just didn't know? Ask someone and they'll tell you whether it's a guess or not. Did your dp whiff/get blocked? Did you wakeup with something dumb like jab/throw? Was it an overhead? Were you throwing something out that just plain got beat? If you know this at the very least, it's a bit of matchup knowledge.

tbh, there's no point in saying this if niggas don't practise themselves. Learn your punishes is #1 easiest thing to do and very effective. I guarantee you if you can do the maximum punish possible 100% of the time you will beat a good number of NZ players at ranbats. Learning the ranges on your normals, combos ect is all stuff you can do in training mode and if you're not even willing to do that then just come to hang out lol.

[originaljulz]

If we end up playing some Blazblue at my place soon we can jam some SSF4 as well if you want. I'm gonna have to hit up some Blazblue this weekend I think.

Lol yeah alright, you can be my SF sensei.

How are you for next weekend? Don't quote me on it, but that may be my gap before my uni stuff takes over for a while.

[CrazyMobius]

some stuff

My biggest advice (not sure if you're asking) would be learn to block and throw. Then you won't get beaten so quickly.

[originaljulz]

Nah, my point wasn't that i'm scared of getting beaten in 15 secs. Just that it happens so quick, i don't even know what
happened so trying to "reflect on it" and figure out why i lost isn't helpful when i can't remember what went down.
It's like when someone does a combo, even if i'm not playing i can't remember the sequence of moves they did.
My brain can't process all the information yet cause it's all too foreign. If you think my mindset going into ranbats
is anything except that i want to learn and get more experience, you're crazy.

My point was, at this early stage of the game playing with people like Lenny who are really good at coaching you AS you play
is way more productive for a beginner like me than the competitive matches at ranbats. UNTIL i get a bit better. So i will just go for
the casuals after and try to learn. Why do you guys have a problem with that? I'm saying i want to play more.

You have to understand that it's like a bunch of sprinters saying "just run with us at our fortnightly races. You'll learn
by just running with us and watching us and talking us". Actually, i don't have the balance to stand or walk yet, and
need to learn the mechanics of shifting balance with my hips. So crawling on my hands and knees while you sprint
down the track won't help. When i can stand and walk, then it will make sense.

You pretty much said it perfectly lol.

Basically, and this shoulda been pointed out earlier, I don't actually play Street Fighter. I never even used to like it.

I play Blazblue (before that, Guilty Gear), and Street Fighter is just something I decided I wanted to get into recently because I thought I may as well, since I started visiting NZism, (met a few of the guys who were all legit dudes), and everyone on here plays it.

As for Ranbats, in keeping with the analogies, who goes to a chess tournament before they even know how to play? You can't even say, watch these pros playing and learn, because you don't know how the pieces move, and you 're not at a skill level where you are able to pick out why people do things they do.

So with Street Fighter, when I say I don't play it, I actually mean short of doing quarter turns and 623's, for hadoukens and shoryukens, I have nfi what's going on when I watch a game. No combos, and a focus attack yet alone a focus cancel is a completely foreign concept to me. Like CaptainHook said, a casual 1 on 1 environment like when Lenny taught me some basics at the arcade (granted not with the character I use, but still) and told me how to actually play is a lot more useful than a competitive environment.

It's ok if you play against somebody, you know what you're doing and lose and you ask later, hey what could I have done?
I would't want to put people through me asking "teach me what each button does, which moves are anti airs, and give me some combos and 5 rounds to practice them." Because that's the stage I'm at with Street Fighter.


I needa learn how to play the game, before I can learn how to play the game.


It's not like I don't wanna play, like Hook I'm keen to learn. Will I never go to a Ranbat? No, but I learnt to count before I went to class to ask the teacher what trigonometry was.


So don't assume, Birry, that because people don't go to Ranbats, myself included, is because of any lack of will to learn. For me, the reason is I'd rather be at a level where competing, and yeah inevitably losing will actually teach me something rather than fly over my head - before I start coming along.

As it is I don't even have the game yet so it's not like I can go home and practice what I learnt that night :/ That won't happen till after uni is over.

Dunno if I agree with "these guys at Yifans suck and aren't improving, BUT IT'S THEIR FAULT FOR NOT COMING TO NZism RANBATS."


You also misquoted me. I said overestimating, not underestimating. 



But lastly, to basically the only point I wanted to raise was have some BB:CS going at the Ranbats lol. It's a pity NZism is so SF orientated (it is, even if you tried to deny it).

BB is 'my game' and it'd be nice if it were popular enough to be played there. Maybe in time, once it gets more accessible and out on xbox so another setup isn't needed. I actually made the decision to start playing SF to give me a reason to even go to Ranbats, because I do wanna meet more cool people like Lenny, Ben and Caleb err, Smoof (I think). And I look forward to meeting more cool people. Like Geneterror, who invited me to his house to play CS even though he doesn't know me at all and doesn't know that I won't scope his place out and rob it the next day.

[samurai black]

fuck that, just turn up and have fun. sf4 is boring as fuck to play on your own.

you folk are over thinking this shit.