The Mental Game: Simple Adjustments Explain Big Bird’s Meteoric Rise In Street Fighter V At Fight Club NRW X Ryan Collins Follow Aug 29, 2019 · 4 min read

The storm is coming.

It would be fair to assume that, after reaching 2nd in the biggest Street Fighter V bracket of the year, the Red Bull athlete would eagerly resume a schedule of deep grinding to retain such a hefty momentum.

Riding the wind from the runner-up slot at Evo 2019 to the next tournament was imperative, and the professional player would need a method to stay fresh.

But he didn’t seek out strong training partners for long sets to stay in peak condition, nor did he spend sleepless nights minutely dissecting both his play and his upcoming opponents. In reality, NASR’s Adel “Big Bird” Anouche preparation for Fight Club NRW X was a more minimalistic approach that opened the path to take the trophy.

“I actually didn’t play the game since Evo,” Big Bird says, remarking that he couldn’t find much time to play before the event.

Photo by Spininfinite.

The morning of the tournament was nothing special for the Rashid player. He ran a couple of sets with his friend and fellow NASR teammate Amjad “AngryBird” Alshaslabi, and warmed up in a few casual matches with other players for muscle memory. He brought his cans of Red Bull with him as usual for an extra boost. Nothing that deviated too much from his usual pre-tournament routine.

What differed from other bracket runs earlier this year, though, was his mentality. Before the start of Evo 2019, he decided to make some changes, which ended up being a deciding factor for his placement.

“I’ve always said this game is more about how mentally ready you are than anything execution related, sometimes you don’t even need to play much to be ready,” Big Bird explains.

“It’s mostly just decision making and awareness, at least for me. So nothing major has really changed in what I’m doing, and it’s actually best if you do that sometimes.”

Big Bird used the same plan he the had at Evo 2019, and kept it simple. He knew the matchups. He knew what was optimal in terms of combo, movement, and meter management with his character. He had a gameplan where he could outpace his opponents. It just required some tweaking.

“There was a slight change in my mindset while playing,” he notes.

“Most of my losses before that haven’t really been convincing, so I had the right idea but there’s always an area where I fall short in, like defense or an opportunity not taken advantage of, etc.”

He cut down on unnecessary risks. Even if he knew exactly what his opponent wanted to do, getting put into unfavorable positions wasn’t worth it. But that safer style of play, paired with his newly found confidence, fed well into his drive for consistency throughout the tournament.

Big Bird swept the competition away in the winner’s side of the bracket until he reached the grand finals of Fight Club NRW X against Mouseports’ Lord Benjamin “Problem X” Simon. Both players were training partners, and both were more than familiar with each other’s mannerisms

Their past sets have always rotated in terms of who emerges as the victor. This time, Big Bird switched V-Triggers, using Rashid’s V-Trigger 1, Ysaar, to box in Problem X’s Bison.

Big Bird’s biggest alteration in his toolkit was utilizing Rashid’s V-Trigger 1 tornado, Ysaar, to box Problem X’s Bison against the wall.

“I’d say changing from V-Trigger 2 (Easifa) to V-Trigger 1 helped a lot because lets me do what I wanna do, but faster, which is put you in the corner just from activation,” he says.

“And corner is really where Rashid shines against Bison, as in the neutral it can be a bit annoying for Rashid.”

Problem X couldn’t withstand the pressure, and Big Bird took Fight Club NRW X from the winner’s side. Sitting on a comfortable 1055 points in the Capcom Pro Tour 2019 leaderboard, he’s well prepared to take on the Capcom Cup 2019 finals later this year.

Big Bird’s adjustments are seemingly small in a vacuum, but it creates a larger ripple effect when applied to the game. Taking oneself out of riskier situations by not over-extending allows players to avoid deadly scrambles, letting them live longer. And being confident in your ability might be the final piece of the puzzle to climb out of a plateau.

For some of us, that reassurance comes from self-analysis, marking down milestones of all sizes to recognize improvement. In the case of others, cheers from the outside, win or lose, can be the push that keeps us readying up for the next battle. Big Bird’s incredible run at Evo 2019 was his validation.

“Mentally, I’m the best I’ve ever been.”

You can catch more of Big Bird antics on his Twitter.