I’m sorry for the things I said, Chun-Li
I spoke too soon, before. It’s wasn’t you. It was me.
So I’m finally winning in Street Fighter 4 online. It used to be such a frustrating experience but that time has passed. What changed? Well, mainly my attitude. I came to the conclusion that I have to lose before I can win; that every match is an opportunity to learn, win or lose. I also realized a match isn’t over before the health bar is empty. You can still win with a pixel of health if you keep your cool and don’t act stupid.
I wrote before that I specifically had problems with cheap-ass characters like Akuma, Sagat, Seth and I couldn’t shake the feeling that Ken had somehow been engineered to fuck with Chun-Li players. Now my feelings towards those characters has turned 180 degrees. I’ve played against Ken so much now that he’s become like an old friend, returning ever so often to get his ass kicked. When people pick Akuma or Sagat it’s usually because they’re not very good players and plan to win by brute force rather than finesse.
There is of course a limit to my skills as a player, still. Occasionally I will face someone who is genuinely skillful whom wouldn’t even fathom a defeat against me. I have over 1000 online matches under my belt now and most of my skill comes from sheer experience. I can sort of predict most players and act accordingly, but that’s merely a short-termed benefit. I’m still not a very good combo wizard, nor do I know anything about frame data or hit-boxes. I will still lose horribly if I play against someone with actual knowledge of all this and can whip out a devastating combo. But when that happens I know it wasn’t because the game favors other characters than Chun-Li. It was because I fought against a better player.
