The first time I ever played a Street Fighter game was in the arcade on one of the original Street Fighter II cabinets when I was a kid. I was instantly sucked in by all of the bright, garish colors, iconic character theme songs, and the different fighting styles of each of the characters. I remember when one of the older kids showed me how to shoot fireballs with Ryu. He had just summarily destroyed me by sitting across the screen and chucking them at me as I feebly tried to run up and punch him. I actually went home that day and drew pictures of Ryu shooting fireballs all week until I could finally get back to the arcade and get my ass handed to me by the older kids again.

When Street Fighter II was eventually ported to the SNES, I got my little grubby hands on it as fast as I could. Saturday mornings consisted of me sitting in front of the TV in my underwear, SNES controller in my hands, shouting “hadouken” and “shoryuken” as the pixelated sprites jumped around the screen. Of course, there was also the occasional screams of frustration punctuated by “that’s so cheap!” or “you gotta be kidding me!” My mom would just laugh in exasperation and ask “why do you even play that game if it gets you so frustrated?”

“Because I have to win, mom!”

As I practiced, I eventually got to where conquering the computer with most of the cast was pretty easy (I still to this day have no idea what to do with Zangief), and I turned my attention to beating the other kids on the block. Unfortunately, I had gotten good enough to where most of the other kids were not really a challenge either and they didn’t want to play with me anymore because I was “too lame” or because I was “cheating”. Faced with a lack of worthwhile competition, I eventually moved on. I still played other fighting games (the Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Brothers, and Marvel Vs. Capcom series), but it was a long time before I touched another Street Fighter game.

In 2009, I took another crack at it with Street Fighter IV (SFIV). The production quality was amazing: the same iconic music I remembered had been updated, the 3D models looked fantastic, and the action was flashy and eye-catching. The problem: I hated the gameplay. For my tastes, the inputs and mechanics were just way too complicated. Perhaps I had gotten too used to playing games like Mortal Kombat, but when faced with the prospect of having to do two quarter circles forward and then pressing all three punch buttons (how do you even do that on a Xbox 360 controller? not comfortably, that’s for sure) just to do one attack, I quickly got frustrated with it. This was further compounded for me by the extremely strict timing required by the game to execute combos and the excessively demanding execution requirements necessary to complete more advanced tactics. I like to approach fighting games as a fast paced chess game, where you can use your attacks to set traps for your opponent. For me, SFIV’s execution barrier was so high that it prevented me from reaching the point to where I could approach the game that way.

Even though I had been burned by SFIV, when Street Fighter V (SFV) came out a month or so ago, it caught my eye. Again, the updated graphics looked amazing, and from watching some streams on twitch.tv, I learned that the gameplay’s complexity had been significantly curtailed. Most of all: it looked fun.

After noodling around a bit, I found a discounted Steam key online and decided to pull the trigger. I was nearly giddy with excitement the first time the game loaded up. I was ready to blow some people away with those fireballs I had learned 20 years ago. I was ready for world domination!

Lesson 1: Prepare to Lose. A Lot.

There were bellows of frustration; there was gnashing of teeth; there was colorful use of profanity; but most of all, there was defeat. I just got pummeled. I felt like the same little kid that got destroyed by the older kids in the arcade 20 years ago. It was… humbling.

But it wasn’t all bad! The more I played, the more comfortable I became with the game. I started to be able to control my character’s movements without thinking about them. I started to learn the moves without having to look at the command list. I was still getting pummeled, but I was starting to get familiar enough with the game that I could understand why I was losing. I began to look at each loss as an opportunity to learn from my mistakes and learn the techniques of my more successful opponents.

I realized that it was ridiculous of me to expect that I would be able to just pick up the game and master it immediately. Many of my opponents had obviously been playing the game for longer than me, and had likely played quite a bit of SFIV as well. If I wanted to get better, I needed to build a solid foundation of knowledge so that I could compete.

Lesson 2: Learn as Much as You can.

When I first started to play the game, the only way to learn things was through trial and error, one quarter at a time. That simply is not the case anymore. There is an entire online community known as the Fighting Game Community (FGC) that has created an arsenal of online resources for fighting games in general, and even SFV specifically. For example, shoryuken.com has a wiki dedicated specifically to SFV that has all of the general mechanics of the game and character specific pages with moves lists and forums for character discussion.

Additionally, I have found that the /r/streetfighter subreddit has been a tremendously helpful place to find information about the game. I’d like to give a special shout-out to user Joe_Munday for his extremely helpful series of posts: Gief’s Gym (you can find the older posts in the comments of the post). His exercises and videos have introduced me to all sorts of concepts I previously had no idea about for slightly more advanced tactics in the game.

Finally, youtube.com is your best friend. I started off with a particularly helpful set of videos for beginners by Gootecks:

The series is broken down into offense, defense, and throws and is designed to showcase the most basic mechanics in the game for beginners. It also introduces some beginner strategies for how to use these concepts in game.

Lesson 3: Learn How to Block.

Once I had a pretty good foundation of knowledge from the above resources, I decided to dive in to some online matches. Something quickly became apparent: I had no idea how to block. I would do pretty well when I could get into an offensive rhythm, but my tendency to to always press buttons left me open for easy counterattacks (this is something I am still working on).

One aspect of SFV that allows counterplay is the fact that many of each character’s attacks are “unsafe”, meaning that once the move has been executed, your character can be left in a helpless state for a period of time, depending on whether the attack was blocked or not. Many attacks will leave a character vulnerable for a long enough period of time that it becomes unwise to continue attacking. Some attacks (generally special moves) will even leave a character vulnerable for an extended period when blocked, leaving them largely defenseless to counterattack. Because of these vulnerability states, blocking, when used correctly, can actually be one your best offensive tools.

Once I began to learn which of my moves were unsafe, I found myself taking quite a bit less damage because I could halt my offense when I had left myself open by blocking. Blocking in this way also helped my offensive game because I could recognize my opponents’ vulnerabilities and capitalize on them.

Lesson 4: Learn the Counters.

SFV is like a complex game of rock paper scissors in that every type of attack can be countered by certain types of defenses, and every type of defense can be countered by certain types of attacks. For instance, blocks are strong against normal attacks, but throws are good against blocks, and some normal attacks can be used to stop throws.

As I progressed in the game, I began to understand what sorts of defenses to use against the different attacks from certain characters. This allowed me to frustrate my opponents’ attacks and open them up for counter-attack. As my knowledge has progressed in the game, it has become instinctual to defend against certain attacks in certain ways. I have found this helps preserve my life bar, but also gives me many more opportunities for offense.

Lesson 5: Learn to Vary Attacks.

Because each type of attack has a counter, it became important to vary the types of attacks that I used. It can be easy to fall into a predictable pattern of attacks because they have worked in the past, but if your opponent wises up to your tactics, you will have to change your angle of attack.

Keep in mind that you can attack from overhead, while crouching, and you can throw through blocks. Also, each button effects the speed and power of the attack you are using, adding an additional variable to your attack. Mix things up and keep your opponent guessing.

Lesson 6: Develop an Overarching Strategy.

It can be tempting to learn the most damaging attacks and just use them over and over again. When I first started on my journey, I played with Ryu. I mastered the most damaging combos and how to shoot fireballs. However, once I actually got into matches, I realized that, because I had no overarching strategy, I could not force my opponents into situations where I could use my combos. Shooting an endless stream of fireballs, it turns out, is a pretty good way to get punched in the face.

However, when I forced my opponent into a corner, it was suddenly much more effective to shoot fireballs at them because their methods of escape were drastically limited. Additionally, I could dive into them after shooting a slow fireball and use the fireball as protection to cover me from counter attack as I got closer. Once I was in close, I could use a barrage of various attacks in hopes of eventually knocking them down, at which point their defensive options were even further limited. If they rebuffed my attacks, I could simply back up, keeping them cornered and reacting to whatever types of counter attacks they attempted.

I had developed an overall strategy: force my opponent into a corner, using attacks that sacrifice damage in favor pushing them to the corner. Once I had cornered my opponent, I could use my positional advantage to initiate a more close ranged offense. From there, hopefully I close out the round.

Once I had developed a strategy, I quickly skyrocketed out of the rookie ranks to around the 1350LP Super Bronze level. From there, I switched to Nash, whom I felt better fit my tendencies as a player. I dropped back down to to around 900 LP while I was learning the character. I also started watching Infiltration’s stream to learn some tips and tricks from the pros. Finally, once I had developed a new strategy with Nash, I climbed all the way back up to 1350, and in less than a week, up to silver.

Now, I am not trying to say that Silver is some sort of huge accomplishment, and I certainly would not now consider myself “good” at SFV. However, it is nice to have an arbitrary marker to indicate that my efforts have not been wasted. I have, in fact, gotten measurably better at the game. Even still, I am always trying to learn new techniques. Since I hit Silver I have dived into learning other characters on the roster, trying out Necalli, and more recently becoming quite enamored with Laura. Hopefully I will keep improving and by the next time I write one of these, it will be about how i have joined the Gold ranks. Until then, I am going to keep street fighting in my underwear and trying to keep the colorful cursing to a minimum.

If you have any questions or comments please let me know. If you want to challenge me to a set of matches to show me just how much of a scrub I am, I welcome all challengers.