Some updates

Happy New Year!

I've been really binging on SF lately, more so than the usual. I stayed home for the holidays and had plenty of time on my hands to get down and dirty in training mode and get some matches in online as well as offline. I've read in more than a couple of places that to really get a combo down you have to practice it 100 times on both the 1 player and 2 player side. So I've been working this idea as best as my ADHD will allow and I've now found the ability to hit a crouching jab after a solar plexus strike which leads to all kinds of focus crumple opportunities for big damage with Ryu. So, its a small addition to my arsenal, but fighting games are about baby steps. I've also been fighting consecutive matches/sessions a lot more online. I feel like I'm starting to break through that 'losing' barrier that I talked about in one of my first blogs. I'm not getting down on myself after a loss, rather I'm shaking it off rather quickly, and learning from it. This has been my biggest hurdle as of yet playing street fighter. I think if someone already has the natural ability to not get angry or demoralized after losing multiple fights then they are one step ahead of probably the majority of us, but fact of the matter is, most of us are very competitive and they have to deal with this challenge. How have I done it? I had to shed the ego a bit. It's a tough thing to admit, and even though I knew I was bad, I guess I thought that I had a better aptitude for fighting games than most people. Where I got that notion I still don't really know for sure and while I do see the sky as the limit I know that I have to take my lumps like everyone else to get there.

I fought Chris Hu's Ryu online a few hours ago. That guy is a beast. I added him to MSN after a post he made at one point. He didn't have a whole lot to say when I told him that I can BnB consistently and FADC consistently into ultra (at least on the 2 player side, haha). He even went so far as to say I sounded too confident. That may be, I don't know, but anyone that knows me knows that I've been far from confident in my playing. We had a set of 5 in which he won all of them, all rounds, but I took heart in the fact that I was hanging in there. It didn't feel like total domination to me. It was, but it wasn't. There were some rounds that I could have clutched out had it not been for him clutching them out instead. In one instance he focus dashed through a close fireball and FADC'ed me into Ultra. It was awesome, not going to lie. I really appreciate Chris taking the time out to play me and hopefully when he gets some time he wouldn't mind breaking down for me some of the things I need to work on. After that I fought SHGLBMX in a first to five. SHGL has an awesome blanka and he kind of dicks around with some other characters as well. It was a good set that he could have ultimately won all matches off had he been playing blanka the whole time. It's very laggy when we play given that we are on opposite coasts, but I felt a did well, and I felt that I played better against his blanka than I have any other time I've fought him. I even picked up a round I think, so that was nice. Dude's a beast. So, I've been trying to up the level of competition online and only fight known players, or players that just blow me away in champ mode. I never really have played champ mode much until a couple of days ago, but honestly the level of competition there is better, and I can meet people to have player matches with later, so its win/win.

Offline I went to my first local gathering last night for casuals. It was really cool! I took a friend who is brand new into fighting games and we sat around on couches talking stick mods and watching fights for a few hours. It was nice to get my first real taste of fighting some of the local competition outside of the odd match here or there at a tournament. I beat a couple of people, and lost to a couple of people, but it was interesting getting advice while I was playing and it's just another rung in the ladder as far as experience playing in front of people as well as just meeting people to play with regularly. Everyone that I have met from the fighting game community thus far has been personable and willing to help. Only a little arrogance here and there, sometimes people take that approach when they are very good at something and someone is seeking out the free knowledge that they had to earn the hard way.

I'm in a quandry for SSFIV...do I stick with Ryu or move on? I actually really like Ryu, but it would nice to be a little more mobile. Time will tell eh? I read an interview with Kokujin and he said he kind of just picks his character based on how they feel. I might try that approach.

Until next time, keep at it.