The Road to Pro: Loyalty

As most of you know, I’ve been practicing hard lately in Super Street Fighter IV. I  feel like I have hit  a turning point. I  don’t  go all out because connection issues and lag means all sorts of nonsense happens but it’s a good place to practice using moves and set ups against a live opponent. Offline I give it my all and I must say I have seen an improvement. I feel more confident and have more options in terms of dealing damage to my foe. With Cammy online I’m fairly decent but with Hakan and C. Viper  I am terrible. As Daigo Umehara pointed out he feels that Hakan is the worst character in the game, so it is going to take a lot of work to even get him up to so-so and even then he has so much going against him it’s always going to be a uphill battle.  Which brings me to Viper, whom I love. I am working hard on Viper but I feel with some of the changes she loses to a lot of the new characters and the new stuff they bring to the table.  I think Viper is higher on the tier list than Cammy but even then that is still pretty low. So what is one to do?

Tier List
S: None
A+: Sagat, Rufus, Abel, Guile
A: Balrog (Boxer), Chun-Li, E.Honda, Akuma, Ken, Ryu, Bison (Dictator), Ibuki, Dhalsim
B+: Rose, Zangief, C.Viper, Dudley, Seth, T.Hawk, DeeJay
B: Juri, Cammy, Vega (Claw), Blanka, Gouken, Cody, Adon, El Fuerte
C+: Makoto, Fei Long, Sakura, Hakan, Guy, Gen
C: Dan’

I Play Winner: Bay Area based group, claims to utilize knowledge from players of both coasts. Their tier list also comes with a match up breakdown that can be found here.

May 2010
A+: Rufus, Akuma, Guile, Abel, Sagat
A: Dictator, C. Viper, Ryu
B+: Boxer, Chun Li, E. Honda, Dhalsim, Ibuki
B: Zangief, Blanka, Seth, Dudley, Cammy, El Fuerte, Ken, Juri, Rose
C: T. Hawk, DeeJay, Guy, Fei Long, Cody, Gouken, Claw, Adon, Gen
D: Hakan, Makoto, Sakura, Dan

Should I pack it up for my firey love and move up a few notches on the tier list and enjoy the easier victories that I’ll get?  Do I stay loyal? Either way I have to put hard work into the character I use. Granted a C.Viper player won East Coast Throwdown but that Viper player had a hell of a climb to do so. The Americans say Viper is A tier the Japanese say she’s B+ barely higher than Cammy. It’s so frustrating especially because  fighting games have so much more than other genres to over come.  In a sports game you can beat any team in with any other team with superior coaching, racing games weaker cars can beat high horse power beasts by tuning their gears for higher acceleration to beat their opponents into and out of turns. (That’s a free racing simulator tip for you, you’re welcome.) But with fighting games, even with knowledge of the other character, if he has a move that beats your move there’s nothing else to say you’re going to take damage.  At the highest level of play, players are always adjusting to each others strategies so what every psychological edge you may have gained is fleeting, it returns to the match up.

Decisions decisions…

Anyway this month  in addition to the fighting  I’m dabbling into the world of first person shooters. I am going to be training with Sol Lekz who is an up and coming pro. I’ll be entering into the 211  Halo boot camp. I am choosing Halo over Call of Duty:MW2 for the following reasons:

1)Halo will be always be Halo, meaning I don’t have to worry much about the next installment being majorly different from the previous version.

2)It is way more uniform. No perks, same maps, nothing special to unlock so it is easier to run tournaments in it.

3) I can have a bright yellow Spartan that sorta looks like the Fury from Metal Gear Soild 3: Snake Eater.

I am probably going to be on during the nights. I honestly have been doing pretty well with the Street Fighter training if you’ve seen me on.  So I am going to try to sneak maybe an hour or 2 of Halo in at night.

Interesting side note; there was a study done that say most ‘hardcore’ gamers spend about 48 hours a week playing. My question is, what are they playing?

When will I get behind the wheel?  When I can score a copy of Forza 3? Apparently that game is very hard to find.Used copies still go for 50 plus dollar while they are bundling it with Halo Odst to drive the price up .