How do you cope with losing?

Related to losing, I have been intrigued by a related phenomenon which is after emotions have died down (or at least I hope so). Something that I suspect happens a lot when losing badly or for long stretches: picking the strongest character in the game.

It seems legit that when you are losing a lot even after putting in the hours, and you analyze why and then can end up blaming the character you play :smile: Some of us might come to the conclusion that a character is too weak or it would take too much effort to win consistently. When I was much younger and couldn’t beat Bison, or Akuma in SF games, I would give up on my favorite character and pick whoever thought I figured had a better chance (thank you Guile, Dhalsim, Ken and Ryu, lol). A more recent example would be the unlocking of Omen’s stage, where nothing would work except a Jago DP and I don’t even play Jago. I raged quit a few times offline :laughing:

Back to the OP, since SFIV’s release I just play for fun. As a Deejay player I lost a whole lot but I enjoyed every single match I played (or lost, lol). With KI I have the same mentality, picking Aria and just enjoying the game. It keeps the pressure off. But as soon as I start playing to move up to killer rank, that’s when the stress and anger comes back for sure. So a combination of fun and practice is good IMO. Winning is fun but for me fighting with style is also fun. I think Max does that a lot in his vids where he just does cool stuff even if he loses.

@ToxicVampire1
I’d be happy to fight you if you ever want a match or several. Not that I could probably help you much, but who knows. I’ve poured I don’t even know how much into this game online and offline. However, due to the inaccessibility of most move lists and even tech videos (even ones that are voiced don’t help probably as much as you might think), I just end up learning from tips I’ve been given by the community and not really practicing in lab either unless I know what I’m doing. Who knows, with the NXOE coming soon, there is speculation that this state of play might be about to change, but we’ll have to see what MS says on the matter.

As for how I cope with losing, it seems to differ based on whether I know who I’m fighting. There are players on this forum and off who can attest to this, as it goes generally like this:

If I know who I’m fighting (exhibition sets with Ultra-combo.com forum members that have been arranged ahead of time), then I don’t mind losing as much as we’re normally chatting whilst we play to talk through strategies, technical aspects or just have a general conversation of sorts. If I lose to these people, there’s normally a reason (be that a series of lucky hits, a good strategy that I can recognise, or even an apparent glitch in the game, right @TheNinjaOstrich). Moreover, there is normally an ability to discuss this reason as well and learn how to improve upon it if there is improvement to be made. There is one notable player who I lose to quite frequently, namely Xf1nal Bossx, he’s good with pretty much every character on the board and it’s rare that I get through his defensive strategies. losing to him I just take as a normal convension - I go in pretty much being prepared/expecting to lose and if I win, yay for me. :smiley:

If I don’t know the person I’m fighting and there’s no way to talk (ranked, exhibition against unknown opponents), I can get very salty simply due to what I will perceive, in the heat of the moment or even in looking back, as “cheap tactics”. Regardless of what level they are (since I can’t see it to begin with and so can’t judge on it), everyone can appear as though they just want to be cheap and win by whatever means they have at their disposal, unfair or otherwise. Things like not realising a player has jumped over my head only to be hit by an HP/overhead that I couldn’t block due to relatively inaudible sound cues to indicate the player had switched sides is a problem I’ve come across a fair amount. The reason it makes me salty is not only because I know that if I had sight I would have a higher chance of blocking it (seeing the jump as it happens, then knowing the character has switched over to the other side) but also because in the heat of the moment I feel helpless and powerless to stop it, regardless of the character I play.

How do I cope with this latter style of play? I simply try to count my blessings and hope I never have to face that player on ranked/exhibition for a long time. Sure, I’ll have a yell at them sometimes (which I do sometimes feel stupid for afterwards admittedly), but it lets the rage out to a certain degree. If only there was a recognised database of Ultra-Combo forum members, maybe the game could say “ultra combo challenger” (if you had the accessibility option turned on) and Narrator could read the username… That would be an interesting concept, if Microsoft reveals a way for apps to hook into the screen reader, but as stated earlier, we won’t know for a little while yet if that’ll be possible.

It would certainly make it easier to temper any rage I have if I know I can find the challenger on here and ask for a formal set to talk things through and battle to the best of our abilities.

But for now, just learn to live with the rage/losses in fighting games online and carry it through. To put it the way @TheNinjaOstrich pretty much told it to me during a match, maybe paraphrasing a little: “In Killer Instinct, you never give up, don’t ever surrender”. (after he said this, I promptly finished his character off in spite of being in danger, and we both laughed and I said “because things like that might happen”. If you guys want to see the event of that clip, without the chat, let me know and I could always upload it).

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Pretty much. If you would like to know the actual wording, it was:

“Don’t ever give up in Killer Instinct, and never surrender, as you can always make a comeback. I’ve made tons of comebacks from being a pixel away from death, and the other person has a full health bar…” Then after that, that’s when you made the comeback and said, “Because things like that might happen.” Lol

Pretty much, losing is a standard in fighting games, without losing you can’t ever learn.

Lol I’ve heard my niece sing that song enough already but the thought makes sense, I will try to find a humorous way to take the loss.

I will send you an invite as soon as I get a chance, I’ve been busy and rather fatigued to commit to matches, I need to be in a clear state of mind to play my absolute best.

I have came across those scenarios where I would just feel impartial to Jago. I started KI with Jago and I intend to ride it out with him. But, as you stated, blaming the character for their “lack” of tech is not only the easiest thing to do, but the most likely.

True, I have seen him done it and understand why he does it. Apart from him genuinely enjoying the game, that is his way to not let a loss phase him, not to say he doesn’t learn from it. Max respects the competition enough, he will just look at what he did right and what cool tech he was able to pull off while seeing the negatives in his playstyle. It makes sense considering he has been playing and competing in fighting games for several years.

It usually goes something like this. LOL

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That gif totally caught me by surprise! :joy:

LOL!!! I know right!

You have to think about it like this. In anything you do, you’re going to be terrible at it. But the more you practice, the better you get

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Unless you’re Rico Suave… lol no I’m kidding.

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LOL I got that XD

Man you are so right, I still suck at Manuals, but I’m determined to master them.

Which is a great attitude. There may also be value in saying “I play this game for fun. Manuals are too much work for me. So I accept that I am not going to achieve success beyond a certain level and that’s okay.”

I have a sort of aptitude for getting decent at any new game very quickly. But that doesn’t mean I don’t loads of practice. I’ve had the game almost since launch, but I’m not done yet. I’m not resting until I rival RIMZ and KlassiqueSkillz.