You Forgot What It Was Like to Be a Beginner 

Are you Mexican? :O

She forgot to say, "I don't even play this game."

The Sheppard of the flock, Brian “the twitter guy” F leading his peoples to the promised land with e hondas, ex straights, and tegu stones.

This, this is one of the things I have to tell people the most: People forget what it means coming to fighting games from a blank slate. People take for granted that everyone is born knowing how to even do a simple fireball. Things that for people in this are the most basic of basics, for someone that's just jumping it, look like the highest of ceilings.

Easily the best discussion I have seen someone have coming out of the event. Instead of the conversation being "Are inputs too hard for a beginner?" more people like you should have been looking at these smaller details like Emiru's movement or how certain players gravitated towards certain moves/options.

5:19 _"LOOK AT HER NEUTRAL JUMP!"_ Made him waste the meter too jumping over an EX hadou! That's the thing, "hands go brrrr" strategy aside, her defense in neutral is pretty good! Can't execute any strategy if you're too busy face-tanking your opponent's! 5:43 OH SHE'S GOT THE FOOTSIES

She legitimately blocks better than the average fighting game player

The answer to "How do you teach fighting games" is right here. Emiru doesn't have to worry about fireballs, anti airs or doing literally anything that isnt mashing light punch. So shes thinking about if she should be pressing light punch or not. If shes not pressing shes thinking about how to get in range to press light punch, so she walks up and blocks. Developers need to take away most tools and make a long and involved story mode where the player gets A LOT of time to play with them one by one, not write up a novel-length tutorial message about the v system or vorpal or rc.

Watching a new player do the good stuff is priceless.

The part about Emiru shouldn't be apologising for her strats really speaks to me because I always dislike using "cheap strats", but I should be using them if I actually respect myself and the opponent.

This was the equivalent of spamming snake edges in Tekken against your friends. And I am here for it.

Someone has to fcking say it mate, people are going nuts about making the "entry" as low as possible, but as a new player u never worry about shit like that. I started with Rev 2 as my first game, getting 0-50ed for weeks wouldn't change if i knew what to do or game being "easier to execute". The biggest issue i was encountering was that there was no new players in my area and online sucked. Coming from Dota and Starcraft was a big change on player base numbers, and how expensive it was to even enter in the games with base game + DLC. As much as i came to love this genre, there is a special feeling of going into fightcade and enjoy any flavour of game I want to try for free cannot be compared with the way we have it now for online/offline PvP game. I hope this genre adapts like Starcraft 2 did when it became free (and we are talking about blizzard lmao)

I only saw clips of Emiru spamming light hands against the Falke until just now. The moment I saw that clip against Ryu, I was immediately blown away that she was able to walk forward and block, and do it pretty consistently too. Did she have any coaching besides Brian_F telling her to spam hands? If she figured that out on her own, that's pretty fucking godlike.

that basket ball analogy was so spot on. that shit was a chef's kiss lmao perfect 👌

The fact she was actually moving in and out of range and not just constantly jumping forward was really impressive. A beginner with footsies is crazy.

Idk how people took the clip of the guy getting salty that he sucks and said “New players can’t play fighting games they too hard noooo :(“ when the Honda clip from the same tournament exists lol

Watching the gears start turning for someone is so magical.

I remember how it was when SF2: World warrior came out. It was fireball/boom wars, hundred hand slap/lightning kicks spam, and jump roundhouse into sweep. There was that solid period of time where everyone was just playing, figuring things out. I remember amongst the local people I was hard to beat because all I did was sit back and antiair with blanka whenever someone would jump. And of course nobody ever stopped jumping. This was when the biggest concern in the game was how to stop Vega whenever he climbed the fence. Good times. It took a good chunk of time before you saw people doing jumping lights into tick throws (which got someone I knew beat up outside the arcade for abusing), and finding that rare person that knew how to do glitches like handcuffs (but wouldn't tell you how to do it). So yes, there is something magical about that discovery period when nobody knows what is going on and everyone is learning. Days long gone. /oldmanrant

At 7:25 Obama makes a good point, I think of the times me and the boys randomly load up a fighting game none of us have played and it's an awesome night mashing buttons, trying things out and finding stuff that works. But after a few hours it drags and nobody wants to play anymore until they get some solo practice. It's fun to drop in 0 prep at first, then there's a hump where you want some time alone to bite off some tech to chew on, then it's fun in groups again. Maybe you vets can get over that hump in matches but for us beginners it's killed a few party nights as we realize we've reached a point where we are hurting for some combos or system mastery we aren't gonna learn under fire and sometimes we never go back to that game. TBH for most people who pick up a fighting game I think that point is when they just stop playing it altogether. Sorry for the double comment, great video.

That random twitter guy gave really good advice it was nice to see it work out for her

Anyone who neutral jumps is no longer beginner.

I often say this a lot too but in the context of “you forget what it’s like to be a casual” when people assume levels of popularity and public reception of fighting games. There’s so many things people who play fighting games think are common knowledge like the jargon or hell even little things like Ken being significantly more popular than Ryu for people who aren’t fans of the genre and it just makes a wall of impregnability that keeps people from being invested.

I hope that *true* beginner tournaments become a bigger thing after this. I watched a few last year for +R but most of the beginners were decent at one other FG. It was fun to see hear what clicked for them and their thought process on the game

This is an excellent point that you brought up at 3:58. I didn't realize it until you called it out but damn. That is very impressive. People who typically play fighting games, still can't walk and block and you see her adapting to that during the tournament. Shit put a smile on my face.

I remember when i saw this live, i legit said, “thats a winner right there”

Dude this footage is really nice to watch. Like, they're having genuine fun with the game. No massive stakes, no pressure, no complaints about balancing or system mechanics. It's just people enjoying themselves when playing a fighting game. It feels so refreshing after seeing so much cynicism in the FGC.

Yo for real it took me like a year of playing until I realized the power of walk forward block and neutral jumping fireballs. She got the fundamentals on deck.

I went to a local the other day and I spent so much time watching people really new to the game and it was so emotional and beautiful to me goddamn

Watching beginners play fighting games, not just for fun but trying to win is so enterteining. It´s just amusing and somehow nostalgic because I remember the first time I learned how to do a new combo or special move or how to beat a specific move, and that feeling of discovery was great.

I think I found another video that makes me smile just as much as the bunny video, thanks obama

Obama is right about everything. She did such a fucking good job. Look at her at 5:55, after she fishes(!) for the hands and starts the EX(!) punish she checks the lifebar while she's "mashing" to see how much of a deficit she needs to overcome now that she's got him in her zone. She was playing the game like a pro. A pro who'd never played before, but a pro. Great job. And the way she jumped those fireballs? And whiff punished? She has a better intuitive understanding of fighting game fundies than I ever had. I had to read an essay and watch like 3 hours of youtube to get where she got in this tournament.

I think there are some takeaways about fighting game difficulty from this event, but I have to agree that Emiru's play was inspirational. At the beginning she was just mashing hands, but really level up during the whole event, walk and blocks, neutral jumps, spaced jump-ins, aggressively walking forward when the opponent was passive and the abare vs Gief were all beautiful to watch.

"You're not good! You're just picking Eddy and pressing random buttons" - Something heard by all noob Tekken 3 players when their friend with experience tried to body them in the game.

"My palms smash wood, stone, and pride! Guahahahaha!"- E. Honda

The chosen one type shit. I love how they only jumped when needed too as well.

I've said it once and I'll say it again - Down/forward on pad is not a natural input. Most of these zoomers have never hit these two buttons together before. And then we expect them to hit 623 like it's something normal and go like "what, you can't dp?"

4:16 you are so right, the smile of a new player DOING SHIT is just priceless. It makes me feel like they’re getting to the part that makes you love fighting games :)))

"Ride it to victory" --David Sirlin

The fact that she's saying sorry kills me. But I understand the newcomer mentality.

There is so much about the old FGC that wasn't ever good. There were (and sometimes still are) a lot of toxic ideas and attitudes. But bro, the *heart* of the old FGC is a pure love of competition, the same as in traditional sports. A constant pursuit of self-improvement even if you never think of it that way consciously. Getting hyped over success and salty over failures, but "leaving it all on the field" and still coming back win or lose. Run it back. Regardless of skill level. That's the heart of the FGC to me. If we could help people feel that feeling, that love and passion? Just a taste. They would get why it's worth it to try and learn.

She reminded me what I used to do with Chun vs other people during the alphas or SFII where I'd just mashed kicks all day and people at my level couldn't get in. Shit was so fun it made me love her and play more fighting games to get better when people started figuring it out

You know what that's why I think the next Street Fighter/Tekken/Project L will be hype. People from all kind of different backgrounds in gaming will discover fighting games and hopefully have a good ass time with it. The best time with fighting games was no grinding ranked, it was casually playing with friends. I've never seriously learned to play tag 2 (know the basics of my character but not the combos) so I can still enjoy it playing with my friends when we do 2 vs 2.

The overheating thing is a reference to Rumble, who can't use abilities after awhile due to overheating

It's very easy to forget that, though the game is probably largely balanced around high level play, it's mostly made for casual level play.

What keeps me grounded when it comes to fighting games is that I remember how goddamn frustrating they were when I first tried them and tried to get good. That's my link to remembering how these games are for beginners. Getting spammed on, trying to apply concepts but just getting overwhelmed by the detail of it all, playing online and lag screwing you over, but having those moments of fun that keep you going, and those eureka moments when you start figuring things out. I thankfully remember all that, and I hope it'll prevent me from getting arrogant.

I love how much variety we got in this event regarding perspective. From people who have a decent idea of where they're going to completely clueless and everything in-between. Some having a great time and figuring things out, and a couple of them being salty AF. I couldn't ask for more than that. Much love for Jalon, Lirik and Emiru, specially.

sometimes those under geared runs or under-knowledge/lower skilled matches are the hypest.

She’s low key better at Street Fighter than most bronze players (Me included 😢).

Worth noting that Emiru is Diamond in League, so she knows the importance of wiggling

I was just thinking “I need a new majinobama video” Thank you kind sir

This shit right here is why the most valuable part of any fighting game for me is always how satisfying the learning process is, regardless of what level I may be at. No other genre for me feels as rewarding when it comes to figuring out how to do a certain technique or combo, or figuring out how to beat a strat that my opponent is using

I swear to God if that Eggiru girl had anti-airs she would have taken this thing.

I started playing FGs when I was 5, so it is extremely easy for me to forget how hard fighting games are just from a blank slate. Something that I can relate this to is when I learned guitar to when I was teaching guitar. Especially with kids. They all have different basic aspects they can get easily, and other things that they struggle with for weeks to months. I was not a good guitar teacher, but it was a great experience because I got to see things from different perspectives, and I do know more about how to teach it too. It applies to FGs too.

I remember when I first learned to throw a fireball, and then realized I couldn't win by just throwing fireballs.

Honda holding up dynamite: "Hey, as long as it works!"

honestly nice to see new players just play, I feel like one thing fgc focuses on is combos and like if you ain't doing the most optimal stuff than why even try instead of just letting new players play unoptimally also for something like break the targets in smash thems fighting herds has a single player mode with platforming that requires players to do short hops and fight opponent cpus who do attacks you have to anti air it actually helps translate into playing against another person

Of course he uploads today....and how am I still missing MajinObama streams?

@5:13, on the basketball point, I think the issue is sometimes with fighting games is that you used to be able to just go to the rec center and play a casual pick up game with some people and have fun. Sometimes you'd get a really good player coming in and smashing everyone, but ultimately you could still get a game in that would be fun. The basketball equivalent of today's fighting game culture is trying to play basketball and everyone around has been playing competitively since they were 5. Fortunately games like SF, Tekken, and Guilty Gear of all games, have brought in a large community of new players. And that larger community of new players means you have people of your own skill level to learn and enjoy the game with, then in a few years when the next game comes out, YOU are the legacy player and have more people to enjoy the game with.

Obama invested in new players strats is too wholesome.

My girl was playing neutral without even knowing what neutral is

"They're actually making street fighter 5 look fun?" I felt that in my soul lmao

Starting off with "hey if it's working, it's working. Don't apologize for that shit" Thank you, Bama. Edit: Also true, fighting games with people around your level tends to be more fun.

need more of these big streamers playing fighting games events

for a begineer she really like learn a fundamental, the punish, the footsies, and mindgames. yeah, good stuff. ameteur pulling competitive stuff is my kinda jam.

im such a simple woman, i see new Majin Obama upload, i immediately click like!

People seem to forget that the competitive scene they love watching so much are pretty much playing a different game than everyone else, including themselves, what's even funnier is that these same people are most likely closer to the new casual players rather than their competitive idols.

I don't understand mfs giving her hate. Yes, this is a low level fighting game strategy. It was a low level competition, most people didn't know how to react to it. It was working for her, and she was after that purse. If anybody who talked shit about her was in her position, they'd non-stop spam the easiest moves, pull out the flowchart Ken, etc. Appreciate the video telling people how it is.

The real fighting game is the friends we made along the way

I straight up forgot that coaching is a real thing. And this is despite my love for MMA. Well you'd make an excellent one because you can also see what a person is doing right- maybe even just learning on the fly while playing.

The basketball analogy was perfect lmao Also rq whats the music in the background? Edit: Found it, its 'Dome' Theme - Bloody Roar 2 OST

I do remember what it was like to be a beginner in old street fighters. My only combo was jumping heavy kick crouching heavy kick and spamming fireballs and pretty much nothing else. For Tekken 3 it was just spamming 3 and 4 thinking I was good. This was when I was a kid playing for the first time but I remember it vividly.

Amazing analysis as always. Really amazing takes here.

We need more events like this, Its super entertaining and interesting to see the different perspectives

Happy to see more discussions focusing on this aspect this time around. Always excited to hear your nuanced thoughts on this kind of stuff, Obama.

The fact is, if people want to learn and play the game, they will learn and play the game. If the game is fun, they will continue learning and playing. Even if the game is hard, people will learn if they want to. Even if the game is easy, if people dont want to learn and play, they will drop the game.

bro, those quarters were so precious to me when I was young and poor. I had to try so hard not to lose, and I still lost so much, because my opponents wanted to also not lose. I know we talk about fighting game etiquette and everything, but we ultimately play the games to win.

I think about that basketball analogy so much I linked this video in the bio of my stream. Such a powerful message. Thanks for helping me improve.

I agree. Playing fighting games around people your level is fun. It's what kept me from getting into the games for so long, because I sucked at fighting games and none of my friends who also sucked wanted to play fighting games. So instead I'd hop on line and get bodied without ever knowing what I did wrong. It was super frustrating.

Regardless of her strat just being "mash light", SHE WAS STILL PLAYING NEUTRAL! She might not have known it, but that's kinda nuts.

bro hearing you talk about casuals like this gives me strength, I've been on the sidelines my whole life and been trying to really grind and learn lately. it can be really rough to look up videos for help, and the basics being shown off are past what you're capable of. but you nailed it in this, the slow crawl of understanding and learning a fighting game is something you can only do once per game. even if all I did today was learn to follow a launcher, I could beat the me from yesterday and get bodied by me tomorrow great vid

Even in the abbreviated version, you can see her start to naturally internalize a lot of the core mechanics that goes into every fighting game. I wonder what is the alternate solution than playing with people of equal skill level because that might not always be available. I’m not 100 percent sure if CPU levels is the solution. I feel like AC’s new jumó in mode where you can watch a replay and hop in to react different would be the start of a great “problem solve “ mode where you can set up typical scenarios and allow them to more naturally discover the solutions

I thought she was the one getting hit watching that first clip the first time Good for her

I was expecting to see the other clip/meme where the girl is crying begging to stop when all she had to do was block.

To this day, after years of playing fighting games, I still can't do combos reliably. The expectation from the FGC that beginners to the genre should be able to reliably pull off Fireballs, DPs and Supers at bottom rank is mindboggling. When I was a kid playing KoF 2003 on my PlayStation 2, all I knew how to do was spam Terry's crouching heavy kick.

Emiru learned footsies on the fly :O damnnn

- absolutely no need to apologize!! that was really great gameplay at that level for sure! it’s so much more impressive than those who complain realize! - blank slate to beginner is such a big step, but it’s not incumbent on the game to make the player learn, just as it’s not incumbent on the basketball or the game to make the player learn ball-handling, dribbling, or shooting.. the incentive is on the player to work, learn, and come up with strategies. - regardless of the game, you can enjoy it with people at your level. when you have those, learning and improving is guaranteed.

You can hear the pride in his voice when the chat IMMEDIATELY gives the correct answer to "What did she do wrong?" lmao

Walking up and blocking? She is the Chosen One.

ima be honest when i first got into fighting games i didnt get to expierence what its like to just start off as one of my friends played fighting games comp(never got into the big scene but to me he was good) and hounded me on how to get good miss ya buddy

4:54 That makes me want to lab now (I hate it but you gotta do it if you want to get good) lol needed to hear this. Thanks, dood!

When the waiter asks me if i want more melted cheese to my chilli fries and wings. Me: 4:34

MajinObama never disappoints damn

Bloody roar 2 ost hitting hard bro

This vid hits so different in the best way after the vid you put up about CR Cup in Japan

Spitting nothing but the straight troof my man love it as always. Gotta say trying to speedrun Break The Targets! against my homies is where I learned most if not all of my melee tech skill. Now an avid Yung Link player because of those sessions xD

I think another thing about smash that works for beginners really well is that it's very easy to gradually change your play and end up at the "optimal" way to play. Attacking is so simple that you can focus on movement and neutral one step at a time with a pretty free headspace compared to trying to learn a fighting game which will the player trying to just remember the options they have available and how to use them taking up a majority of the headspace. For instance, if you take what emiru was doing and then have her play against a better player that just counters it every time or at least the vast majority of the time, she wouldn't really be able to have any fun, and naturally she would need to change her strategy, but that would lead to basically playing a completely different game, only being able to transfer a very small amount of what she was using. It makes you feel like you're starting over from scratch which is very demotivating and I'm sure a lot of players drop out at the point.

As someone who's fighting game experience is really only Smash Bros (pretty much just Ultimate rn), The FGC has always sort of turned me away from playing more traditional fighting games. They are games that takes a lot of time to learn, but everywhere I seem to look, people are always complain about everything! It's complaining that they can't do this right, or that the opponent's character is cheap or boring to watch, or that a character needs to be nerfed. There's always so much complaining, even from the people at the very top! And naturally, that reaches down to the new people. The problem with that is such negativity tends to push new people away from the game. Not to mention, it leads to people flat out gatekeeping newer players out of their game. I feel it's really important to encourage newer people on the things they did right, rather than complain about the million things they did wrong. To use your Basketball example: If someone was trying out basketball for the first time and they miss a shot, what do you say to them? You shouldn't say "Wow, that shot sucked. You should have went for a dunk you casual" or would you say "Hey, that was a good attempt! Try moving over here and try again." I sure as hell hope it's the second one. The point of what i'm trying to say with all of this is that if someone wants to learn a fighting game, be patient with them. Help them out. Let them have fun and encourage them when they do something right. These are still GAMES after all, and if you aren't having fun... then what's the point of playing? Despite what I said earlier, there's a lot of great people in the FGC who do a lot of good work! Be that role model and help bring that fun to new people.

5:05 100/10 quote

This is why I'm very interested in SF6's World Tour and maybe Modern Controls in general. I'm pretty intermediate but mostly play Tekken. But I feel like you can really get hung up as a newbie playing Street Fighter and finding it difficult to even pull off a Hadouken at first or why or when to use it. Like mashing light punch I feel like Modern Controls may help new players sort of feel like they're playing the game and then formulate strategies more naturally than getting stuck on how to do a DP, Fireball or Super which might ultimately put them off.

Seeing Emiru’s face reminded me playing Team Old Heads vs my friends in TTT2 and shitting on their low tier trash teams so shamelessly