Counteracting salt

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

Hello reader,

I just clocked 100 hours of Tekken, and I'm an intermediate player at best. I was a green rank, I took a break, and now that Armour King is out I've picked the game up again and am learning from scratch. I've had frustrations in ranked mode of course - people quitting to avoid demotion, lagspikes at opportune moments, spammers, and all sorts~ But I've never actually gotten salty while playing until today.

I was matched against a Heihachi, and even writing this now I realise how silly it was to get angry over: This player was very much a 5-move-marvel: either beyblade spinny leg kick or superman uppercut mixup, knee of counterhit launcher, that chonky shin-smack he has, and the hard knockdown low kick. These moves were cycled relentlessly between, and while I did take some matches I ultimately lost again and again (I know, I'm bad. Still learning!). I found myself getting genuinely salty, resorting to jablocking and reducing my own movelist to the same sorts of moves: The db,4 knockdown, df,1 pressure etcetera.

I've never felt frustration in Tekken quite like it before, and I'm not entirely sure why. What do people do to get out of that mindset, and why do you think it happens?

[Pierun]

If your opponent uses small amount of moves, you have less to figure out. Most often you don't use your whole movelist for poking, just a few key moves, others go for specific setups or juggles.

Instead of getting angry, try to think what could you have done to win instead, if you don't come up with anything try going to practice mode, make dummy do what your opponent did and then try again. This is how you learn, it sure can be frustrating, but if you make it part of the fun you should mittigate the frustration a bit.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

That's a good idea, thanks!

[Dave]

It sounds bad, but... Salt is something that everyone has. There's not a single person in the world who hasn't become salty before. But you'll get over it in time. Instead of thinking "OMFG WHAT A STUPID PIECE OF ♥♥♥♥ WHY WOULD YOU DO YOLO RAGE ART LIKE THAT", think: "Maybe next time, I can counter it.".

[Kuriishi]

Haha that sounds exactly like the Heihachi I played, also green rank and in pretty much an identical situation.

Just don't take it so seriously, the reason people get is because they're focusing on winning rather than learning/having fun. I think people take the game too seriously and become obsessive over rank. Rank doesn't matter, just have fun :)

When I lost to that Heihachi I was having trouble against I kept rematching and rematching, eventually I learnt his setup and started to even block/parry his lows. You just have to keep constantly analysing everything and focus on how to improve rather than the fact that you lost.. I'm pretty sure most replies will echo this sentiment

[Wingman]

stop being a little ♥♥♥♥♥ and punish the enemies weaknesses improve yourself

[Dave]

Originally posted by Ka7zo:

stop being a little ♥♥♥♥♥ and punish the enemies weaknesses improve yourself

these people dont help.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

I suppose the reason I found it frustrating was that I didn't feel like I had the tools yet to know how to beat my opponent. I wasn't familiar or comfortable enough with AK's moveset to be able to come up with creative solutions to his repetitive tactics, and that feeling of helplessness was what frustrated me. I just find it puzzling that this one instance got to me when none of my other matches did, and for a Heihachi rather than the classic Paul. :P

[Eternal Wanderer]

Other times will come when you'll miss being helpless against an opponent who endlessly recycles only a few moves. You'll be pitted against players who will practice their entire moveset on you as may be necessary.

It all comes down to character knowledge. You should always seek ways of countering their various tools and adapt to changes in play style. If you find yourself in a similar situation where you feel helpless, my advice is to focus and learn instead of giving in to despair.

Like Kurisu said, try to squeeze fun out of it by observing your opponent. There is nothing like reverting the helplessness by reading your opponent inside out after getting asskicked a whole bunch of times and then eventually forcing him to walk in your shoes.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

I suppose the intelligent thing to do would have been to quit once I got into that mindset, then do what Rodmar suggested rather than endlessly hitting 'revenge match' and losing over and over while trying to experiment with which moves can punish etc. That way I have the time to actually think about it and learn for next time, its quite different to think "What can I do about Heihachi's shin smack?" over "how can I deal with this rando's bs?"

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

Thanks for the help peeps. Hit green rank this evening!