Due to the current situation and circumstances in my regional area, the primary focus of this blog will be fighting games. For those who don't know me, allow me to briefly introduce myself. My name is Alex Yau but I'm known in most online communities as dakanya and I've been playing Melty Blood and Guilty Gear in the San Francisco Bay Area for a couple years now. For starters, I will be writing a short series of articles to help dissolve some common misconceptions people might have when trying to learn fighting games. After this, I will be moving on to document my own experiences and growth.
As I've been a relatively niche fighting gamer for sometime, I've come to realize that most players simply do not care enough or do not put in the proper time or energy required to truly become a stronger player. However, it is not entirely their fault. I've witnessed many people claim that they're hungry and want to become stronger and some have truly struggled to do so. But to become stronger at fighting games, there are many factors needed and to be honest, unless you live in certain pockets of the world, you probably do not live in the proper environment to grow stronger. The only solution to this is to create the proper environment yourself.
Obviously besides needing access to the game, you need people to play with. What if you have people to play against but you can only play once every so often? Here we already have the first problem. Maybe you only get to play once a month? As a result, maybe you aren't feeling motivated enough to practice on your own or study videos? When I started out with Melty Blood Act Cadenza, I was fortunate enough to have netplay so I just grinded almost everyday and that's how I learned. But during my training for the 2010 EVO tournament for Melty Blood Actress Again, I realized how much harder it is when you can't play as much as you want. Unless you have an amazing amount of raw natural talent, you're going to have to be extremely goal-oriented. When you only get to play every so often and you actually want to get stronger, you need to actively make goals and achieve them.
When I mean goal-oriented, I don't mean some abstract undefined goals like losing less games, get hit less, block more, mash less. I'm talking about goals like the moment they whiff a poke, I'm going to either punish it with my own or dash in and start pressuring them, I'm going to train my opponent to respect this blockstring, I'm going to sit right outside their effective range, etc. Obviously general things like getting hit less and losing less games are what you want to achieve but those goals are intangible. You might be thinking about it but how much are you really thinking about it? Drilling thoughts like "if I mash less and block more I'll lose less games" are meaningless and are empty thoughts. Think about exactly how you are going to lose less games, recognize your mistakes, and improve on what you could be doing better.
Thanks to the current level of technology today, you can also learn by engaging in discussions over the internet and watching match videos online. However, many players are often looking for the wrong things or overlook the subtle things that happen. Learning combos and mixups are important but what’s more important is to analyze the neutral game and to understand the reasoning behind every decision made. What’s the point of being able to run them over once you get in if you can never get in? For example, something fairly subtle is dashing forward a little before instant air dashing. Your opponent may react to your ground dash and try to stop you with a low and you’ll be able to get in with your instant air dash! You’ll even be able to get in from farther away than you normally would. When you watch a match video, don’t just look for combos and mixups, break down and analyze the neutral game as well.
As this has become quite long already, I'll stop here for now. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to write about next but I have a few ideas. As an afterword, I’d like to clarify that even though I can be considered to be someone who has risen to a competent skill level, I would not call myself "good" and I must honestly admit that like others, I'm guilty of being lazy and I've never truly given it my all. I've simply been blessed with some good teachers and I've put in more than others to be considered above average for my regional area, but never enough to reach the top. However, you don’t have to necessarily be a top player to understand how to play and I hope I can motivate others to find it in themselves to truly seek strength.
