After hitting 2k BP a couple of days ago, I hit a major fucking rut. Last night I played like complete shit and lost a bunch of matches. I started getting frustrated because I was whiffing all of my charge and EX moves, and that made me play worse which made me lose, which made me get more frustrated which made me start doing stupid shit. It was a terrible feedback loop, and for some reason I couldn’t just walk away. So I dropped about 600 BP and then made 300 of it back, which is awful. Tonight continued the trend, where I dropped another 400 BP before finishing slightly up from where I started. I lost four in a row to people I knew I was better than, but I just kept fucking up and let myself get taken out of the game. Not fun.
So yeah, I’ve hit a wall. It’s a terrible feeling and I know I should walk away from the game for a few days (I intended to tonight, but I ended up playing for a couple of hours) to clear my head. At least I finished up tonight, even if it was only by 30 points or so; that means I ultimately won more than I lost.
Along the way I played a guy who had a fierce Abel. I had to fucking bust my ass, but I ended up (barely) prevailing. I sent him a message complimenting him, and he sent me a game invite. Only I was already in a game, so I missed it. I replied and apologized, but he was in a game so when I sent me another invite, I missed it again because I was in another game. Then I started a server and invited him, and we played eight really fucking intense matches before my wife started uploading her podcast to libsyn, hosing our connection in the process.
But yeah, he was fucking relentless. Easily the most aggressive player I’ve ever faced, and doubly scary for me because my normal shenanigans would get me killed since getting in and staying too close to Abel is a bad idea. I ended up playing a really aggressive defense and we each drew four matches out of the eight we got in; each of them ending pretty fucking close. I hope he feels the same, but I had a blast. Easily some of the most fun matches I’ve had since the game came out.
I actually learned a lot about applying and dealing with pressure, so hopefully I’ll be able to use that elsewhere in my game. All I know is that something has got to give, and I really need to start leveling up if I want to continue to progress. I spent some time in training mode last night working on some basic combos, and I was going to tonight as well until I got sucked in to Ranked. I managed to land a few of the things I was working on last night, but the c.lp xx c.lp ~ c.lk xx hp.headbutt only came out a couple of times as an actual combo. The timing on the link is still giving me trouble. I also hit j.hp xx c.mp xx hp.headbutt once or twice, but to be honest I’m not used to jumping in on people so I didn’t go for it very often.
Anyways, shit to work on:
1. PATIENCE. This applies to getting frustrated as well. Fucking up and losing due to poor execution sucks, but I can’t let it get to me.
2. EXECUTION. Man, it’s been pretty shoddy lately.
3. M.Bison. I have a really hard time against him.
4. Blanka. Ditto, though I beat two in a row tonight.
5. Combos.
That’s it for now. Man, I’m tired. Time for bed.