What a great thread. What is the best way to introduce new players to the game and help them improve?
First of all, if I am in ranked mode I just play to kill the other guy. I occasionally feel bad, but if they want to have friendly games then they should play exhibition. That’s what exhibition means. I have learned the hard way that you can’t mess around in ranked. You will get paired with some qualifier who is really a tournament pro trying to level his buddies account. If you derp around you get squashed.
But exhibition is completely different. Let me lead off by saying that this would all be a lot easier if everyone used their headset. I used to always talk to everyone I was playing and I could identify a newbie right away and then respond accordingly. But I finally got driven out by the number of complete assbags online - playing music, fighting with their girlfriend, making deliberate weird noises into the microphone, that now I just use a mic if I’m playing against a friend. Sad.
Anyway, the first thing I do is pick a character I’m not expert in. This makes it a little more interesting for me, while giving the other guy somewhat of a handicap. Then, if it looks like I am running away with the match I will cool my offense and give the other guy a chance to attack me. Show him some good blocking, punish with a single jab etc. Just to see if he picks up on anything. This may or may not be helpful. I did go a few rounds with a guy last week who was clearly new. At some point (I had picked Wulf, who I rarely use) I just spammed low fierce punch to trip him over and over and see if he would block. He didn’t. Eventually he just jumped out of range. If I had a headset on, I could have helped him out. Anyway, he didn’t seem to take it hard and we exchanged pleasant messages after the set.
When I know I’m dealing with a beginner in an exhibition set, I will do as most above stated and pick a character I know little about but still have fun playing with. Occasionally I’ll still run with my main, but challenge myself with a handicap (for example - “no Tiger-Knee’d ORZs” or “No command grabs on the opponent’s wakeup”).
I mirror @BigBadAndy’s feelings about the headset. Too many times have I been met with blaring televisions, loud music, crying babies (yo, go take care of your kid), heavy apnea-sounding breathing, trash talk, or someone who is totally quiet from character select up to the point of my getting a life lead but then proceeds to squeal or scream as I attempt to seal the win. It’s really a shame; anyone who’s had me on voice chat in KI can attest to my satisfactory demeanor (save for, perhaps, my casual usage of profanity in a comedic context… though I generally won’t use it with complete strangers).
I generally won’t assume the skill of a player based on their rank. Usually the first few things they do in a match will tell me what I’m going to be up against, and by the first two or three interactions I’ll know what I’m dealing with. You never know when it’s someone like, say Sajam, on a new account doing a ladder climb…
That said - if I’m looking at a playercard that displays Qualifier and a low player level, I’ll usually start the match expecting a newcomer.
That’s hard for me to do. I don’t think I can go easy. I go all out. I can’t purposely play bad to help another player, but If you ask, I will share anything. So only the people that are willing to learn…Will suceed.
That’s why I’ll most often pick a not-often-practiced character when I’m expecting a newcomer; that way I can honestly try to win, but they have more of a chance to beat me. It’s not often that I’ll do the “handicap my main” thing, but when I do, it’s kinda fun. I think of it kind of like a MK trial.
I always have to play nice with my girlfriend. She’s not THAT bad, (she can still pull a win plenty of times in MKX) but it doesn’t help that since she chooses her characters solely on style, the characters she gets attached to in KI are always the ones that are more difficult to use (Hisako mainly, occasionally Sadira).
It also doesn’t help that she KNOWS I’m going easy on her when we do play, so we don’t play KI together very often anymore.
My little brothers have tried on and off to get into it, and have gotten pretty okay with charge characters (and Jago for the older one) but I’m still the only one in my area that I think knows matchup stuff or manuals etc, even at Silver.
On topic:
It can be respectable to go easy on newer players of course, especially with friends. But if you’re playing online, it’s probably best to give them a little bit of a beating. Not so much that it destroys them, but enough to show them that they need to improve.
I do this, but the only thing I sometimes don’t like is they know I play Jago & a Killer. So I pick someone like Hisako, where I have NO idea what I’m doing. Then they beat me and Tbag. Then I see them again, Body them with Jago, and get a message that says:
“Lol Scrub you had to get your main on me to win, you suck with jago anyways. I still beat you last, stick to chess bro lol”
Interesting. I really enjoy KI and have since day one. Having said that I’m not an amazing player so I rarely play online. I’ve found you can’t really trust levels of online players. They don’t necessarily equate to skill.
For this reason though I do enjoy Shadow Lab- Survival Mode, it gives players like me a challenge beyond playing the normal cpu, but I’m not constantly wrecked.
Hmmm… I don’t have anyone on my friends list that plays KI. Maybe that’s my next step. I dont really know much tech. Anyone want to team up and play? Maybe I’m a noob, maybe not. I don’t know. You can tell me. Ha.
She main’s Thunder and some Jago. She is far from competitive level. Right now i’m just helping her learn the fundamentals. She’s got a way’s to go, plus she doesn’t have all that much time which makes it difficult to retain lessons and whatnot.
this thread inspired me, was playing against a qualifier earlier today, completely destroyed him, I know im a douche but wait till the end. what happend was he was always doing an ender after the opener and in the end I messaged him why I was breaking all his combos and how to avoid it, I know its a small help but maybe the kind of help and the community friendliness he needed to not give up already.
As a new player I’d personally prefer that experienced players just play the way they play against me in random match-making. Going easy on a new player isn’t really teaching them (us?) anything and it gives them (me?) the opportunity to pick up some new techniques and tricks, along with learning to deal with constant pressure. Losing is part of the learning experience and as long as I’m not hearing all kinds of crazy trash talk through the mic during the match, I’m learning from each and every match to be a better player.
The problem is a lot of people don’t have that mentality, some people will go online, get destroyed, then never touch the game again because of it. At least if you go easy on someone that doesn’t want you to go easy on them they’ll just be slightly annoyed but they won’t quit the game over it.
I sandbag ALL the time against low level players (like Bronze level 1s, or someone I can clearly see is new to the game based on their gameplay). I’ll make it look like they’re almost able to kill me by keeping the match close on purpose, then probably sneak out a win in the end (sometimes I let them win a close match though).
I just feel the benefit of doing this is better than murdering them mercilessly. Maybe they’ll play the game a little longer because of it.
If I “accidentally” lose, or if it’s a high-level player on a smurf account and I lose by playing nice, I really don’t care either. If they send me a message telling me I suck, I don’t respond or care.
I had the same attitude as a beginner, and found out quickly that we’re in a minority. A lot of beginners will blame the game for their losses before they blame themselves.
That said, I of course love your attitude, and I’ll go at you full throttle should we end up playing matches together.
But I don’t know who she plays.
