A while ago, I decided I was going to dedicate a significant portion of my life to getting good at fighting games. Specifically, Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes].
I’ve been into fighting games proper since about 2012, maybe. Smash Bros. has been a staple in my life for as long as it’s existed, but I didn’t go to a real tournament until after college. My first venue was The Bigger Balc in 2017. I got completely stomped in pools by the (at the time) second best Project M player.
The experience truly was something else, and it sort of kick-started my fighting game “career.” I became interested in other fighting games for the first time. Finally getting over my years of complaining that “combo based fighting games are stupid,” ignorant child that I was. (After writing this, I realize I played an unhealthy amount of Soul Calibur II.)
Skullgirls, to BlazBlue CF, to Pokken Tournament, to Tekken 7, to UNICLR, to Melty Blood, to Guilty Gear Strive, to Melty Blood TL, to UNI2.
I played a lot of games but never was skilled enough to feel like I could confidently say I’m “good.” Very routinely I would get bodied by randoms or friends that just started playing too. Fundamentals, spatial awareness, etc never seemed to help me when I thought I should be better just because I’ve played longer. It wasn’t until I gave up any idea of being “good” or “doing things the right way” that I actually started improving. This happened super late. I loved Under Night, so the announcement for Under Night 2 made me super excited. That’s when I decided I would just play because I like the game, not because I want to be good.
It’s funny that I see myself as having a growth mindset, feeling like it’s a superior paradigm to a results mindset, and then being held back by it in the end. It turns out that putting pressure on yourself to achieve results in the name of growth is practically the same thing. I was still looking for results to prove to myself that I was growing. Since realizing that, things have been going much better.
I joined a beginner lobby Discord server for UNI2 (UNI2BL for short). Best decision I’ve ever made when it comes to fighting games. Friends came naturally; we bonded over a shared passion for the game. This pushed me to keep playing because I wanted to spend time with them and be able to talk about the game. Improvement came naturally as I got comfortable with the game. Cool things would happen on the screen and I’d think, “How do I do that?” I’d test it out and now I have a new tool.
It’s a completely different feeling from, “I need to be able to do X. How do I go about it? What’s the best route to it? What should I be ready for if blah blah blah.”
The difference between reading about the smell of a rose and actually smelling the damn flower.
None of this is news to me, I guess. It’s stuff I’ve been saying for years. Very often, I feel like Alice Liddell (yeah, I looked up her last name).
Anyway, the topic was supposed to be about Phonon, and my decision to become a good player. But a different good than the good I had been talking about. I started taking videos of my journey, editing things together and making it a part of my life, not just a game. I went to tournaments way out of my league, I helped new players, I spoke combo theory with peers. Just getting involved was the biggest step in my journey towards good.
The videos I made aren’t very good, but it has been a source of motivation for me to play and keep going.
At the time of this post, the latest video in the playlist is “Phonon: 66C 623B 66B 236[B] timing,” which was made 4 months ago. It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago…
Since the first video, I’ve climbed past D, past D+, past C, and am now firmly in C+. I had a hard time getting out of D back then, but a lot has happened since then. Jumping back into the game with a UNI2BL Crew Battle after a two month hiatus due to shingles (ugh) was definitely an experience. I grinded for a week to get my muscle memory back and did okay. I was actually very proud of myself and even managed to learn some new tricks. My friend and amazing player, Edea, said they noticed my improvement. That gave me too much of an ego boost, to be completely honest. But it was nice and I had a great time getting my ass beat in the crew battle. (Go Team Lavender 💜)
You know that famous Bruce Lee quote?
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
Yeah, so. Again, I’ve known it for so so so long but never really grokked it. I play guitar and know that, if I practice the same thing over and over really slowly, I’ll get it down. For some reason, I didn’t apply that to fighting games.
I had an entire epiphany during the week of practice before the crew battle. I don’t need to learn 10 combos. I just need one reliable combo and 10 ways to start it. This is even written out numerous times in guides, wikis, etc. Why didn’t it click sooner?? It’s been said to my face before, I’ve said to people before. Am I stupid??
Well, finally, for whatever reason, it’s clicked. I’ve reduced my mental stack to a simple “just block and hit your combo.” That was enough to get me out of D. That left room for me to think about GRD a little bit. So I made it to C. That became kinda normal which led me to start thinking about adding more damage to my one true ol’ reliable bestest most favorite combo. Now I’m in C+.
If things keep going like this, maybe I can confidently say I’m “good”?