Should I give up?

So after a year of trying to beat highly aggressive Ky players and at this point that’s with I-No, Baiken and Happy Chaos, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot do it. I cannot stop his spin kick, when I see that move it’s usually just about to make contact already. I cannot react to his slide, which means that even with Baiken, where the slide would mean a free Hiiragi on the follow up, it never happens as I always get hit by the slide itself. Lastly, for some reason I cannot backdash his tick throws. So as all of that keeps happening the entire match is me getting counter hit trying to 5P or 5K his spin kick, getting tagged by his slide at what feels like full screen, as I am looking for his spin kick, OR if I decide to block I am getting plus framed to death in shock state and eventually thrown over and over as I cannot back dash his run up throw. This last one really bothers me, it’s not like it’s not possible, I just can’t do it against him in a match for whatever reason. Even though this, as well as the tweet I put up, that eventually led to this piece, sound defeatist and like giving up, it’s actually a little bit different.

Salty much?

Sure, I am not going to deny that, when you’re getting beaten soundly for ten, twenty or even more matches back to back, by the same character, using the same setups, that you in theory know how to deal with, but keep messing up your attempts to retaliate, yes, salt does inevitably become a factor. It is more of a feeling of disappointment towards one self though, there’s usually no anger involved. While in my case it’s Ky, for you it might be Happy Chaos, or Zato, or some other character in another game that you simply cannot get around. It’s not that the character in question is some unbeatable glitch in the system, in a lot of cases the characters I used to have the most problems with are usually not even that high up on any given tier list.

Gunjack in Tekken 3, Julia in Tekken 5, Ryu in 3rd strike, Deejay in SF4 and he was technically trash, Claw in SF5, Metera in Granblue and now Ky in Strive. None of these characters are really all that difficult to deal with, so when you have questions about what to do about these things that give you such a headache and then just receive cookie cutter answers like, oh that’s easy, or you can just react to it, or you should never get hit by that anyway, you quickly learn that, ok, maybe asking questions isn’t the way to go. Asking questions on twitter about matchups is usually a waste of time anyway, for just about any topic to be honest. For fighting games it’s a 20/80 kind of deal. 20% of the time it’s actually useful and 80% of the time is just some scrub telling you things that are usually absolutely irrelevant. The numbers are made up btw. I am not actually tracking this.

Even those 20% can at times be rather useless to you specifically though. Even though the answer is accurate and you already knew that the solution would be exactly this and you would just have to grind it out, sometimes you simply cannot make it work. Which brings us right back to where you keep trying to deal with whatever is giving you problems in the first place, but you keep failing at it. So yes, salt can and most likely will accumulate.

Should I give up?

The short answer is no. There is some nuance to be taken into account here when you want to look into it a little deeper. As nuance can make things very complex, let’s create some broader categories to focus on and use them as examples why giving up in most cases isn’t the best solution.

You have the aspiring pro player, the improvement hungry online warrior, the casual who simply wants to press some buttons and lastly the scrub who just bitches and whines regardless of what’s going on. We can ignore that last one and you should always ignore those, they are really not good for anything other than comic relief… which is worth something though.

Aspiring Pro Player

If you’re in that first category, you already know the answer. You don’t really have a choice, you will have to iron out any creases and you better get it done before your next tournament is coming up. The amount of people this applies to is so very small though, that it hardly matters in this context. Similar to the scrubs, but for completely different reasons obviously, we can kind of ignore this group for now.

Improving Online Warrior

The second group is the one where I see myself. I have zero interest in going to offline events, I couldn’t care less about what people consider to be the FGC and I simply want to play the fighting games I enjoy and improve while doing so. When things don’t work out, it’s very frustrating for sure, but instead of giving up or banging your head against a wall trying to do the thing you’ve been failing at, even though you’re told that it is the correct answer, you shouldn’t let that frustration become an immediate reason to stop playing. You might be better off altering your approach before doing anything else.

For example, let’s say you struggle with a particular type of jump in that everyone seems to be able to anti air with ease, but fast forward 500 hours and you still get counter hit trying to anti air it. At this point in time you are likely less frustrated by the move you are trying to snuff out, but by the widely recognised answer not working out for you. It might be worthwhile to try and come up with ideas on how to avoid that situation in the first place instead. I am not saying that it’s going to be possible, or that you can magically move your character just enough pixels in one direction or the other to avoid the jump in, BUT trying out other, less orthodox ways might be better for your mental health at this point.

Casual Player

As long as you are having fun, you definitely shouldn’t quit, just keep playing and gathering information and you will absolutely overcome whatever you are currently dealing with. At this stage in the game it’s absolutely a knowledge gap and less of a reaction or execution issue. The casual player and improving online warrior categories are closely tied to one another in my opinion. Casuals naturally improve as they keep playing and as they are improving they are constantly confronted with new problems, which means more research and practice is required to overcome these issues. Which over time can lead to coming up against an issue like the one I am having right now. As long as you enjoy the game though, giving up and quitting the game would be a shame, as you are not only cutting out the frustration in one scenario, but also the joy from all of the rest of the game.

Btw.

You don’t need to share my lack of interests to fit into these categories. You might actually care about the FGC for some reason, go to tournaments and so on, you will still fit into the casual and improving online warrior categories. They are rather broad categories, very important ones I would argue, but still rather broad categories nonetheless.

Closing Words

If you ever reach a point where you are simply no longer having fun and just hate every minute you are spending with the game, then I think quitting is the best thing to do. I thankfully have never reached this point in any game I’ve played. Like most people I usually stop playing when I lose interest. If I were to find myself in a situation where I am just constantly angry and annoyed at the game I am playing, even though this activity is supposed to make me happy, yes, I’d drop it without hesitation. We are talking about video games here and unless you belong in that first group, where your livelihood might even be at stake, there simply isn’t any reason to subject yourself to that kind of torture.

In most cases however, where it is just an isolated issue, like a specific match up for instance, just stepping away from the game for a day or two and taking a break is enough to get rid of the salt and any lingering negativity you might harbour. In short, if you’re not having fun, stop, otherwise just take a break and come back later. I’ve had my break now, so I’ll give it another go.

Have you had any experiences where you simply had to quit the game you were playing for good, as it was just too frustrating? Or maybe a match up issue like mine, where it’s just this one thing that you seemingly can’t quite overcome? Let me know in the comments either here or the YouTube video. Also let me know what your own solutions to these types of issues are. See you next time.