Incredibly High Risk Strategies are Very Common in Ranked But Can Be Hard to Stop 

Sometimes you gotta realize when you're thinking too hard lol. I have that problem too where I try to adapt too quickly but they insist on ignorance when I was doing just fine in the rounds before.

I have this problem too

This is literally me when I fight Leo. Punish DP 3 times in a row, they just do it again

The best mixup is the no mixup, mixup.

Once I got to Heaven and did the VIP challenge, I was basically free to play however I want with nothing to lose, which meant I could play as unpredictably Unga Bunga as possible with Sol and have fun. There's still some worry on who's going to win the set (since after a set, you're thrown back to the lobby and need to play someone else or wait), but it's pretty different compared to how I played before I got to Heaven.

@@leithaziz2716 that pressure to get in almost feels like what Sajam is talking about in regards to JP arcades. Once you're in you have a lot more freedom to grind once you find somebody you want to match up with.

I hope i wasnt that ky random rtls lol

One time I had a Ky that would burst then stun edge then RTL if he had a life lead. It never worked after the first time and he kept doing it. Long story short he ate a HMC and lost the set

Well the gunned down thing is a mindset. It’s just a number on a screen (the floor I mean) once you move past that you become an amazing player.

you perfectly described T7 ranked in one sentence

I love that stuff too, in games with infinite rematches I almost always just stay there until the opponent grows tired of me and leaves

just look at the replays later and analyse that so u dont make the same mistakes next time

Same, I've never really played a fighting game before and I decided to play this and I love it, I just got to floor 6

This is also my first fighting game, and I got to celestial. For me, getting better in this game is pretty frustrating, because it's very hard to improve from simply playing the game. I found that I had to look up frame data or lab reactions to even have a chance of learning what to do in a situation, even if the opponent spams something predictable. For example, Giovanna's kick (236K) looked like you'd be able to react after it, because in the animation she's dropping to the ground after a big kick. Nope, it's plus on block. Another example, the different variations to moves need different reactions (e.g. totsugeki, stroke the big tree, megafisto, etc), but as a new player if you don't know they're wildly different, it can be frustrating to find an answer, because of mixed results. Things like these make the game so opaque to figure out naturally, and really I'd rather just play the game than lab and dustloop-research stuff out, but doing so makes me play like one of the "ranked demons" described in this video. I thought strive would be the game to get me into fighting games, but really it just showed me why it can only be a niche genre without some significant changes that fighting game veterans would hate.

@@jehdawg that's why I like tekken. It's pretty obvious on the frame data cause of it's animations. The things you feel are plus on block are plus and the things that look negative are negative. Same with semi neutral moves. It's something I really like of that game.

@@jehdawg dont give up on the genre just yet, I personally found GG Strive to be one of the visually most confusing FGs in terms of framedata. Still love the game though.

Sorta this, but this is basically the story of every perma roamer, coin flip ganker going for random shit in case it works.

On the other hand, since I've made it to celestial before, I can't get demoted below floor 10. My Axl is celestial, but my Goldlewis should probably be floor 8 at best. It's much easier to learn when you can be ranked appropriately, including ranking down.

@@gamelord12 Yeah I wish there was a way to play down a few floors when learning a new character. I guess there’s the park, but you might end up fighting 10s and Celestials there anyway.

I gave up learning Axl and Gio because of this. My Nago probably deserves floor 8 but apparently being floor 10 once means you're good with every character

@@bageltoo Soul Calibur 6 does something similar to this. As you move up in rank with a singular character (starting from D or C rank if i remember correctly), all the characters you don't play move up a single rank starting from the bottom. That way if you want to switch characters you're not immediately thrown into the grinder but you're not 3-0 newbies/scrubs either.

Floors 8~10 are the best ones. Extremely fun and it has more variety of characters

I hover between floors 8 and 9 but I always try to play like I'm in the park where you focus more on adapting your strategy along with the sets. It always feels like I'm fighting for my life no matter where I play anyway.

I agree. I usually hang around floor 8/9 and I might get to floor 10 and then go on a losing streak to bots that just face roll their controller. I used to hate it but I've grown to tolerate it and hopefully grow to enjoy being an average guilty gearer, like my floor 1 fam that just be chillin

@@cherryboywriter6299 the most fun I ever had was playing a first to 20 against a random Ky at a park. Even though I was playing Leo, he beat my tail by 6. They were all close matches too and it felt like I was actually improving

Yeah I love floor 8-9. Feels like the safe haven from the gorillas

@@SolidFake if it helps my main game is +r and I play Johnny. I’m really trying hard to improve and I love the game so I don’t wanna end up like that 😅

Go to lots of locals if you can. The pressure of playing a bracket match makes for almost the exact opposite mindset as ranked. People will be playing much more safe, and looking to punish gimmicks as best they can. you'll build better habits pretty quickly

@@SolidFake yeah aint nobody adapting in ranked lol

I think it's different in Tekken tho cuz there's a much higher skill ceiling on defense. The movement system is so comprehensive you can delete most gimmicks without pressing a button. It's the knowledge checks that get you.

@@SolidFake Big facts. Tekken should most definitely adopt the first to 3 ranked model. I stopped playing ranked cuz of that. I'm good enough for other players to duck me but not good/knowledgeable enough to punish everyone's gimmicks on the first try.

@@SolidFake SFV is also full of players like that, sometimes they even quit after a win if they noticed you started doing better against them on the last round

The casual to competitive road is “alright, I’m the best in my friend group, I think I’m actually pretty good at this game. I’m going to go online!”. Get’s their ass handed to them online. Spends however long it takes to learn how to play well and how to deal with the strategies that need specific knowledge to counter. “Alright, I’m holding my own on the top level of Online. I think I’m actually really good at this now. I’m going to go to a tourney!”. Get’s their ass handed to them. Happens without exception, and I love seeing it every time haha.

I came from MK11, so the speed was really tough to adjust to at first for me too. I think in my first couple weeks of playing I had like a 20 percent wr vs Chipp because I just couldn't comprehend how keep up with his offense

I dont think its the fault of Strive at all. It just the mentality of the vast majority of people in a "ranked" enviroment. The precieved pressure to win makes you prioritize winning the current match(the short term) versus overall improvment (the long term).

They really are.

I never played Strive online, but my friend was on his GRINDSET. I was floor 7, they were celestial. I would beat them 41-3 in what was supposed to be a FT10. Sometimes people just straight up aren't where they're supposed to be, primarily because fighting games have strong offline scenes

You can't stop people from having a "win at all costs" attitude, but you can stop them from having access to extremely powerful tools that are very easy to execute and very difficult to counter. If there's a projectile that's easy to spam, has a tiny window for the opponent to dodge/block, and sends the opponent flying 50 miles every time it connects... that's just shit game design. There's no NEED to give players a tool like that.

here's a way to think about it: you know how in chess there are a bunch of classic sequences where you can win the game in a few turns against beginners? the problem with them is that if the opponent is aware of the sequence it doesn't work and will just put you in a bad position instead. now imagine someone only knows a bunch of these sequences but doesn't understand how to win if they fail to work because that's all they rely on, that's essentially a lot of higher ranked players. now say you are a beginner to chess and you only come across players like this. you'll eventually learn how to beat these beginner traps over time but when you come across a player who really knows how to play chess, you won't be prepared at all because you weren't learning how to play chess you were learning to counter gimmick strategies. hopefully that makes sense.