That said, true tourney players will only rely on the console play for the online play.

@v-rated
You gotta go more than once a week, probably more like everyday. But yeah it’s not your imagination that you are falling behind, but at the same time you’re still ahead of the curve because you’re not waiting till console. If you make it a point to go early more often, you’ll start to see steady improvements.

@MYK
Too bad AI raised it to 50 cents again. Wah wah. But yeah Video 94 still has it for a quarter! SF4 spoiled!

This is great advice for anyone who’s looking to get serious about Street Fighter IV though. I’d be at the arcade any chance I got if I was so priveledged to have a machine within reasonable distance. Those who do should really take that opportunity… even if you’re not planning to be go to tournies. I say this because you really never know… you could try out the game and really get sucked in and that desire to want to get better could grow from that. The next thing you know it’s full-blown addiction and you’re searching for quarters between the couch cushions. lol

Basically I’m saying there’s no harm in trying out a game early… before it’s released on consoles and before you buy. Gives you a better idea of what you’re getting and if you’d be into it. And for any of those that do have an arcade with SFIV nearby… if you do start practicing, I’d say try encouraging others to play with you. Whether it’s your friends, or just others you see around the arcade. Ask them if they wanna have a go. If you’re both just starting out then you’ll probably be pretty evenly matched so it’ll likely not be as frustrating as playing someone more experienced. You can level up while helping to expand the community! That’s good for us all.

Remember kids,

Do Street Fighter. Not drugs.

And you’re right, I don’t mean to unfairly generalize a game I haven’t had the opportunity to play for myself. It’s more an internal “fear” that I’m expressing, and hoping isn’t true, but then again that’s my playstyle and others may disagree. Heh, it’s funny you mentioned the Chuns at Evo this year, because as I was typing my message I thought of that myself. Third Strike does have its boring and its unfair matchups, so it’s not realistic for me to expect that every character will have options against every other character. But when I see a classic Makoto/Dudley matchup, or something with a ton of offense, a ton of action, and a ton of options at any time, I’m a little worried to think that a typical match between high-tiers in SF4 might be a defensive struggle won with time-out, and offensive characters like Viper continue to move down the tier list. Maybe I’m alone in this.

@madriker
Time to take advantage of our head start!

@Infil
I agree that when you come into a game later after everything is already established, it’s easier to level up if you have a knack for that sort of thing because you have a higher jumping off point so to speak. But I don’t really think that that applies in this situation because I’m specifically talking about players not being able to catch up in time for Evo 2009.

Rumor has it Evo 2009 will be held toward the beginning of summer, giving players who wait until the console release approximately four months, whereas the rest of us will have been playing for approximately ten months.

Also, saying SF4 is defensive and static is a pretty big generalization. Nobody would say that 3s is defensive or static, but yet this year we had a Top 8 full of Chuns, which is arguably defensive and static. So to me it depends more on the tier list and how much the high tier characters dominate.

Part of the reason SF4 might seem like there’s a lot of waiting for mistakes is because we might be at a period where that is the best option for a lot of players because everyone has gotten comfortable attacking and defending, but not enough offensive options have been figured out yet that beat solid defense.

I was watching some older (SBO2-era) 3S videos this morning, and while the unpolished play was a bit more evident, the matches were still incredibly intense and exciting to watch. I’m a bit concerned that due to SF4’s more defensive, static nature, that these crazy ebb-and-flow, high adrenaline matches won’t really take place once the SF4 metagame really settles down. It will more or less come down to counterpicking and waiting for mistakes (limiting options, winning by time-out, etc), which makes for less entertaining matches to watch (imho). What are your thoughts on this, gootecks, since my understanding is that your first competitive SF game was also 3rd Strike?

I can safely say, starting late sucks total ass, playing early gets you a better feel for the game since you can progress confortably instead of pissing off everyone around you cuz of your scrubbyness.

Awesome read, Gootecks, I agree with you 100% here. Though, I gotta admit, I haven’t been goin’ to Super or JG as frequently these past couple weeks… Gotta step up, hahah.

@Bob
Thanks! And thanks for catching my typo lol.

@John Cosentino
Damn that sucks, but it’s good you’re putting the time in when you can, cuz it will pay off in the longrun!

On the other hand, I wonder if with time, they will release Sakura and the rest of the console-only cast on arcade.
It’s pretty dumb to have 8 extra characters, that will never be played in serious tournaments, therefore, become somehow “2nd line characters”.
This will be a problem for arcade version tournaments (which are the only choice on most European countries). Extra characters banned or not? Maybe they’re broken, or maybe people want to play sticking as much as possible to a real arcade experience…
I hope Capcom make the right move, and makes some kind of second version or revision to the original arcade, in order to add the new characters.

i used to take it for granted and i would complain about the nearest machine being 40 minutes away until i realized that the majority of the players in the country don’t even have access to the game at all.