I was finally feeling good about myself.

[Raster]

I've been playing fighting games since 1992. I love them, but I've always been trash at them. Completely hopeless. I've had locals come and try to help, and I've trained, read self-help books, gone to therapy, followed hundreds of tutorials, and even when I put in the work, I never improve.

I put SF6 down for a bit and picked up T8 because the demo reminded me how much fun I used to have playing T6BR when I was in Japan back in 2009, despite never winning a single match. I was planning to play Victor before I knew he was pretty simplistic, and meant for new players, because I like his style.

I've been doing "well," getting up to high yellow, having a lot of fun, enjoying the journey. Even when I lost, I was having fun and picking up tech, getting a little better at reading things and knowing what to watch out for. I started to feel good, like I might actually be able to get somewhere after 30 years of struggle.

I never thought I was good. I never claimed to be better than anyone. But when I try any other character, even Bryan, who I used to main, I'm absolute garbage. It's clear that it's not me that's winning. It's Victor. I'm not an essential part of the equation.

Going back to SF6, I'm worse than I've ever been. And now when I sit down to play T8 and unwind, I can't even enjoy Victor. The wins don't matter. I'm not improving. Never was. I just had a character with great tools who you can mostly play on auto pilot.

Maybe it's time to finally give up and admit I don't have it in me, and that fighting games aren't for everyone. After this long, trying feels pathetic.

[JyoKun]

I think you haven't found your main before. You can use Victor not because he is OP, but because your way to fight suits his style. Choosing a main isn't just about taking who you like (design or moveset) but you need one you can use with success... for example, I like Akira in Virtua Fighter, I wanted to main him and I could never use him until now, too much difficult for me. In all fighting games, I like wrestlers and I can't use them properly, I need a character with fast and strong pokes and simple combos (2 or 3 hits).

[Rutabaga]

If your metric is only how "good" you are, then you are always going to feel miserable playing fighters, or any competitive game. There's always someone better than you out there.

If you can play the game and just have fun, independent of rank, that's both how you get better and lose that feeling of being pathetic.

Find friends that are better than you at the game to play and talk to, to improve more. Guides are good, but having someone point out to you what you are doing wrong in a match, explain how to deal with certain things and so on will boost your learning a lot.

As for Victor being a crutch. Well, kind of. He has plenty of very easy to do and hard to deal with moves. But that's not the same thing as you not being able to learn the game with him. Sooner or later you are going to start running in to players that will know how to deal with him and you'll have to step up your game as well.

[AvidExpert]

Originally posted by Raster:

I've been playing fighting games since 1992. I love them, but I've always been trash at them. Completely hopeless. I've had locals come and try to help, and I've trained, read self-help books, gone to therapy, followed hundreds of tutorials, and even when I put in the work, I never improve.

I put SF6 down for a bit and picked up T8 because the demo reminded me how much fun I used to have playing T6BR when I was in Japan back in 2009, despite never winning a single match. I was planning to play Victor before I knew he was pretty simplistic, and meant for new players, because I like his style.

I've been doing "well," getting up to high yellow, having a lot of fun, enjoying the journey. Even when I lost, I was having fun and picking up tech, getting a little better at reading things and knowing what to watch out for. I started to feel good, like I might actually be able to get somewhere after 30 years of struggle.

I never thought I was good. I never claimed to be better than anyone. But when I try any other character, even Bryan, who I used to main, I'm absolute garbage. It's clear that it's not me that's winning. It's Victor. I'm not an essential part of the equation.

Going back to SF6, I'm worse than I've ever been. And now when I sit down to play T8 and unwind, I can't even enjoy Victor. The wins don't matter. I'm not improving. Never was. I just had a character with great tools who you can mostly play on auto pilot.

Maybe it's time to finally give up and admit I don't have it in me, and that fighting games aren't for everyone. After this long, trying feels pathetic.

You played casually never to git gud.

To git gud requires a lot of innate talent or at least joining a group that knows what they're doing.

You've been couch gaming the entire time.

Watching videos and 8000x guides is something a lot of players say/do to protect their idea they were trying to git gud.

but then ingame you get hit by a humbling from someone who knew MU and it's always a hard hitter.

You wont git gud unless u have talent or at least join a group to help your ass get into gear.

Worst thing is still sticking to old habits and never trying to learn defence.

Everyone can mash 2,2,2,2,2, etc.

How many people can Duck launch between Yoshi df 1,2

Or sidewalk Dragonuvs WR and get behind him for full combo?

These aren't even advanced things either, they are simple.

But the amount of people who would prefer to spam +8 move into random 50/50 or into bugged grabs etc is insane.

Then they meet a good player and have breakdown.

[Raster]

Originally posted by Rutabaga:

If your metric is only how "good" you are, then you are always going to feel miserable playing fighters, or any competitive game. There's always someone better than you out there.

If you can play the game and just have fun, independent of rank, that's both how you get better and lose that feeling of being pathetic.

Find friends that are better than you at the game to play and talk to, to improve more. Guides are good, but having someone point out to you what you are doing wrong in a match, explain how to deal with certain things and so on will boost your learning a lot.

As for Victor being a crutch. Well, kind of. He has plenty of very easy to do and hard to deal with moves. But that's not the same thing as you not being able to learn the game with him. Sooner or later you are going to start running in to players that will know how to deal with him and you'll have to step up your game as well.

It's easy to say it's all about having fun when you win occasionally. Like how folks with money say it can't buy happiness.

I don't think you understand just how bad I am when I use anyone but Victor. Losing 100% of the time and learning nothing isn't fun. I don't know how to make that fun, and I've tried for decades.

[Rutabaga]

Originally posted by Raster:

Originally posted by Rutabaga:

If your metric is only how "good" you are, then you are always going to feel miserable playing fighters, or any competitive game. There's always someone better than you out there.

If you can play the game and just have fun, independent of rank, that's both how you get better and lose that feeling of being pathetic.

Find friends that are better than you at the game to play and talk to, to improve more. Guides are good, but having someone point out to you what you are doing wrong in a match, explain how to deal with certain things and so on will boost your learning a lot.

As for Victor being a crutch. Well, kind of. He has plenty of very easy to do and hard to deal with moves. But that's not the same thing as you not being able to learn the game with him. Sooner or later you are going to start running in to players that will know how to deal with him and you'll have to step up your game as well.

It's easy to say it's all about having fun when you win occasionally. Like how folks with money say it can't buy happiness.

I don't think you understand just how bad I am when I use anyone but Victor. Losing 100% of the time and learning nothing isn't fun. I don't know how to make that fun, and I've tried for decades.

If you actually want to learn and improve, i think you need to shift the focus from winning to learning. Let's say you need to practice punishing more. Go in to a session and don't focus so much on the result of the match. Instead give yourself a pat on the back every time you punish something properly. See that as the win. Because the more consistent you get at making the correct choice the more you will start seeing returns in win rate.

It's not easy, but that's kind of the mentality that you need if you want to improve. Being salty and emotional about losing 100% slows learning down to a crawl. I know, because i'm a salty loser too. It took me like a year of T7 to get past yellow ranks, then another year to hit Rulers and then another year to get Fujin, and that's with me playing since T5 on PS2. Then i got stuck, but that's ok. But i can easily say that rage and salt defo held me back a lot in that development, and still does.

[AvidExpert]

Originally posted by Raster:

Originally posted by Rutabaga:

If your metric is only how "good" you are, then you are always going to feel miserable playing fighters, or any competitive game. There's always someone better than you out there.

If you can play the game and just have fun, independent of rank, that's both how you get better and lose that feeling of being pathetic.

Find friends that are better than you at the game to play and talk to, to improve more. Guides are good, but having someone point out to you what you are doing wrong in a match, explain how to deal with certain things and so on will boost your learning a lot.

As for Victor being a crutch. Well, kind of. He has plenty of very easy to do and hard to deal with moves. But that's not the same thing as you not being able to learn the game with him. Sooner or later you are going to start running in to players that will know how to deal with him and you'll have to step up your game as well.

It's easy to say it's all about having fun when you win occasionally. Like how folks with money say it can't buy happiness.

I don't think you understand just how bad I am when I use anyone but Victor. Losing 100% of the time and learning nothing isn't fun. I don't know how to make that fun, and I've tried for decades.

You blocked me and I was giving good advice and willing to help.

You're doomed. you're right.

Lol I was gonna add you and ask you to stream while playing some quick matches and I could assess/help.

Nvm man.

[ｃｏｏｌｄｏｗｎ]

Sorry, but this is a little melodramatic. if you want to play cause its fun, cool but if you wanna be good do intentional, mindful, practice. Analyze your replays, figure out things you can change to do better next time. Don't be so fixated on winning.

[Spardacus]

You play video games to have fun, T8 have a looot of flaws but im still having fun.

[T1g3r]

I dont like Victor, and think Victor mains are carried hard (in lower levels), but what others think about your main or chars you like should not bother you... if you are good with Victor and have fun with Victor, then nothing to feel bad about actually... ideally you will learn the game better through Victor... you cannot expect to be great with every char after some weeks lol

but its probably bait anyway

[天佑中共🐥the strongest]

play to learn and style, and the wins wil follow

[KrossKounter]

Hmm it's probably true that victor won't make you a strong tekken player and eventually you'll hit a huge wall with him.
He's kinda build in a way that causes players to develop bad habits.
An easy fix is to play an side character like bryan.
Instead of being discouraged by losing with bryan it's a good challenge I think.
It will also make your victor play better.

[kiteless 凧無し]

I’m 44 and have two characters in the blue ranks and 6 master characters in SF6

I can still give the kids a run for their money. Just practice like everything in life

[C1REX]

Originally posted by Raster:

Maybe it's time to finally give up and admit I don't have it in me, and that fighting games aren't for everyone. After this long, trying feels pathetic.

Victor is good but not that good. I'm currently in purple ranks and I see almost no Victors.
You've probably found a good character for your style.

[00]

bruh any pro you see winning a tournament is because they mesh well with that char/char is cheap. When they change to another char they usually get destroyed. your fine man, enjoy TEKKEN. i will say something im not to proud of either...i play MODERN on sf6 and currently plat 3...lol have fun man dont worry about the small stuff.

[Messsucher]

Fighting games are for anyone. Even kids can have tons of fun with them, and have done so, long before those stupids ranks. Don't ruin your game with ranks. Only care of ranks if you enjoy that part of the game or they motivate you to try harder and do not frustrate you much.