From Scrub to Seasoned Player

There are a lot of gamers like me that missed out on the past 2 decades of Street Fighter. For us, Street Fighter 4 was our first Street Fighter game - so there is a lot of catching up on concepts and habits that seasoned players have. Execution, mindgames, and fundamentals are things that have to be practiced and learned over time. Many players are frustrated by the experience level of other gamers, and it can be really detrimental to their progress. So how do go from Scrub to Seasoned? Here are my thoughts and experiences on how I've been progressing in fighting games.

1) Play and experiment as much as you wish; getting used to the environment, speed, and flow of the game are just as important to mindgames and fighting game experience. This is the first step to getting your fundamentals on Street Fighter 4. The speed of Street Fighter 4 is a bit faster than Street fighter 2 and 3, so getting used to the speed of the game is important.

2) Training mode is your friend. This is your best chance to practice things such as execution, and figure out how certain attacks work. Although the Arcades are great, it is quite expensive to learn these things wasting a dollar per game. The arcade is for experience against competitive human players. It's hard to practice mindgames and match stress in training mode where nothing is happening.

3) Play against human players as much as possible rather than against the computer. The computer can't compete against broken code, and it won't let you progress because human players notice things about your play-style and adjust their strategy. Even better is to play next to someone - it allows you to occasionally watch your opponent and read their strategy. Xbox live and PSN are great, but if you can't take hype, pressure, and sh*t talking from the guy next to you, you'll fall apart pretty quickly. Human players can bring out your bad habits and things you need to work on as they try to exploit YOU as much as possible.

4) Watch match videos during your spare time when you can't play. This allows you to see what tricks the competition is using, as well as their methods, bad habits, and execution. The videos are all over youtube, and streams from EVO and Devastation are pretty easy to find as well. However, this DOESN'T replace actually practicing the game, so don't depend on it as your "practice". It becomes "Theory fighter" if you do.

5) Study the game mechanics and Frame data. Even though people call this "Theory Fighter", it is just as important to Zoning, and the fundamentals of Street Fighter. Zoning, Mixups, and Resets have their basis from Theory Fighter, so don't count it out. Understanding hit priority, safe and unsafe attacks on block, and even the characteristics of the characters' attacks makes you have an upper hand when placed against someone of an equal skill level, so why the hell not have it? A good example of this is David Sirlin's knowledge of the SF2 game - his knowledge usually lands him in the top 8. Ed Ma is considered a Street Fighter 4 scientist, and his knowledge of the game is visible in his matches as well as on Gootecks' podcast and Street Fighter Secrets CD. A combination of this knowledge and good playing ability will make you a formidable opponent.

6) Play on an Arcade stick. A key to playing well is to use what the tournament standard is - the arcade hardware. Even then, executing any of the more complex moves and combos are ridiculously hard without it. Going from Scrub to Seasoned for me couldn't have happened without it. Also, if you own a stick turn off the last 2 right buttons (that are usually a different color) so that there are only 3 x 2 buttons. This is the tournament format, and the arcade setup.

7) Practice Practice Practice! Nothing beats out hours you put into the game. Learn from your mistakes, and listen to others when they talk about the way you play.

Hopefully this helps if you were a struggling gamer like me.

-David