ArsenalOfGlory
Noob
I posted this here because UMK3 is my preferred game, but I think this applies to every game.
When I was younger, I would just play my friends in MK. We would never block, and we would only two 2 or 3 hit combos at most. We didn't know what we were doing, just goofing around and trying to do animalities and shit like that. As I got older, I started taking the game a bit more seriously. I played some out of state friends over Kaillera, but I was never really that good at it.
Then we flash forward a few years to the 360 version of UMK3. I get online, and I immediately get destroyed by stuff I didn't even think possible. I remember specifically the first time I was annihilated was by a Stryker player. At the time I was thinking "wtf who would pick Stryker, and why". I soon found out why after I was double flawlessed.
So I dug around online a bit, found ultimatemk.com and was amazed. I decided that I wanted to play like that and I started devoting time to seriously learning combos and punishes and things of such natures.
Well, it didn't help a god damned bit because I still got my ass handed to me left and right. Certain players just annihilated me every time I played them. I'm talking about completely one sided matches. These are the kinds of people I should be playing? According to the vast majority of competitive players, the answer is a resounding "yes". They say in order to get better, you must play people who are better than you.
I disagree.
I think the only way to get better is to play people who are the same level as you. If both you and the person you're playing are roughly the same level, it's only a matter of time until one of you surpasses the other. The one who does gets to move on to a higher level and face those slightly better players, while the loser stays put and keeps up his practicing. This is a much more gradual slope to being better and I think it will be more effective long-term.
The main reason I think this way is because if a match is completely one sided, you gain absolutely nothing from it except discouragement and doubt. If you're constantly being beaten down over and over against someone and you realize you don't have a chance, all you have learned is that you don't stand a chance. You don't throw yourself into the deep end of the pool to learn to swim. Certainly there are those of you who manage to swim and save yourselves from a watery demise, but nine time out of ten, you just drown.
When I started MK9, it was new to everyone. Some stuff was certainly familiar, but it was all new. I learned with the people I played with, and they were the same skill level as me. Eventually I surpassed some of them, and eventually the majority of them surpassed me, but we all started at the same place. We didn't go out looking for beat downs to make ourselves better. We learned bit by bit how to compete and when we reached a new level, we moved on.
So basically, the point of my thread is why? Why are we told to play those who are miles beyond us instead of focusing on those who are our level? It just seems like really bad advice to me. You don't start out fighting the heavyweight champion. You start out fighting the nobodies with shitty records and you work your way to the top.
When I was younger, I would just play my friends in MK. We would never block, and we would only two 2 or 3 hit combos at most. We didn't know what we were doing, just goofing around and trying to do animalities and shit like that. As I got older, I started taking the game a bit more seriously. I played some out of state friends over Kaillera, but I was never really that good at it.
Then we flash forward a few years to the 360 version of UMK3. I get online, and I immediately get destroyed by stuff I didn't even think possible. I remember specifically the first time I was annihilated was by a Stryker player. At the time I was thinking "wtf who would pick Stryker, and why". I soon found out why after I was double flawlessed.
So I dug around online a bit, found ultimatemk.com and was amazed. I decided that I wanted to play like that and I started devoting time to seriously learning combos and punishes and things of such natures.
Well, it didn't help a god damned bit because I still got my ass handed to me left and right. Certain players just annihilated me every time I played them. I'm talking about completely one sided matches. These are the kinds of people I should be playing? According to the vast majority of competitive players, the answer is a resounding "yes". They say in order to get better, you must play people who are better than you.
I disagree.
I think the only way to get better is to play people who are the same level as you. If both you and the person you're playing are roughly the same level, it's only a matter of time until one of you surpasses the other. The one who does gets to move on to a higher level and face those slightly better players, while the loser stays put and keeps up his practicing. This is a much more gradual slope to being better and I think it will be more effective long-term.
The main reason I think this way is because if a match is completely one sided, you gain absolutely nothing from it except discouragement and doubt. If you're constantly being beaten down over and over against someone and you realize you don't have a chance, all you have learned is that you don't stand a chance. You don't throw yourself into the deep end of the pool to learn to swim. Certainly there are those of you who manage to swim and save yourselves from a watery demise, but nine time out of ten, you just drown.
When I started MK9, it was new to everyone. Some stuff was certainly familiar, but it was all new. I learned with the people I played with, and they were the same skill level as me. Eventually I surpassed some of them, and eventually the majority of them surpassed me, but we all started at the same place. We didn't go out looking for beat downs to make ourselves better. We learned bit by bit how to compete and when we reached a new level, we moved on.
So basically, the point of my thread is why? Why are we told to play those who are miles beyond us instead of focusing on those who are our level? It just seems like really bad advice to me. You don't start out fighting the heavyweight champion. You start out fighting the nobodies with shitty records and you work your way to the top.