Well, I'd like to try it, but I'm not sure who to use. lol

And none taken about the Ryu players. Ryu is just my favorite to use and I know how to use him decently. Not Daigo-like, but still, I think I can hold my own ok. Even DC thought I had a pimp Ryu. :)

Metamania

There are a few goals here. For one, I think it'll just be fun to commit to something that we know will put us out of our Street Fighter comfort zones. It's not like we're signing contracts or anything, but still. The notion of being told, "Okay, Shen, your main for the next month is ______," knowing full well that it might be a character I hate is, oddly, kind of exciting.

The reason I suggest it at all is because of my recent run with Sakura, who I still use fairly regularly. By learning her fairly well, I expanded my own skill set (much better at links, footwork, setups, patience, to name a few), expanded my roster of characters I can now play as to some degree (my Akuma, of all things, is better now), and forced myself to play a style that I would never have touched otherwise. The result has been, I think, that I've improved my ability to sort of "feel" what my opponent is trying to do, and I can work around it a bit better.

I'm hoping to kind of expand this experience to some more friends, and I think the best way to do it (or maybe just the most fun way) is for us to all choose a new main for each other that we don't drop for a month. Just a month. If you wind up liking that character, then great. If not, you stick with him/her till the end, and move on. Nothing to lose.

So, if I had the option to select a character for, say, Haterade (who only uses El Fuerte), I'd pick someone who A) will make Haterade play in a completely new style, and B) will hopefully leave Haterade with a better understanding of the game, and of himself as a player. Martial mostly plays Cammy, Gief, and some Chun - a pretty diverse roster as it is. I'd choose a character for him with those same two goals in mind. Mind you, it's not up to me to decide who takes which mains (we'll come to a concensus), but my nomination would have those things in mind.

Damn I get longwinded easy, lol. My bad. Anyway, what do you think? You down? And guys, you ready to kick this thing off, or do you want to wait till after the 19th?

hmm, I tend to get a mix of hate mail and praise. when its hate mail, I mostly ignore it, or sometimes if I am in the mode I will tell them that comments like the ones they send is what makes me happier, they end up telling me to piss off, PRICELESS :)

I do send a "gg" message to good players, whether I beat them or lose, and I get some of those as well. Btw, I think the type of messages you get depends slightly on the character you use: when I used to main Ryu, I used to get a lot more hate mail, but now with Fuerte I get much less of that, not sure why exactly but I think it has something to do with Ryu being overused, maybe?

games_soul

So guys, if I remember correctly, we've got me, Martial, Haterade annnnnd... I thought there was someone else... yikes... anyway, we've got a handful of us who are down for the Ground Up Project. For those who don't know what that is, it's simple: you let the players here in the forums who are also in the Ground Up Project choose the SFIV character that you will main for one solid month. The only catch is that you can ONLY use that character for the month, and you have to actually keep playing SFIV as regularly as you already do.

Well, I have the tournament on the 19th, and I'd prefer to either get this thing kicked of ASAP, so that I can get ready with my new main (be gentle :( ), or after the tournament. You guys ready? And uh... how's about we up the ante some? Unofficial, friendly, GUP tournament after the month is up? I might be persuaded to pick up an XBL points card as a prize or something. Let me know.

Alrighty, I just got done with a pretty cool Akuma vs. Honda set with my good friend Delo, right here in my living room. I recorded some of our matches, and yeah, those are going up on YouTube. Here's one.

Yo Martial, my bad about not accepting the game invites, man. I was actually rolling with Delo when you hit me up, so I couldn't just jump right in. My bad, man. Wasn't trying to diss you. But hey, at least you have a cameo in our vids! LOL

So I've been playing Street Fighter IV a lot, ever since its release. I love the game and I enjoy it. You can even read my reader review on Gamespot about it, if anyone's interested (shameless plug, I know, but couldn't resist! :P).

But the one thing that constantly makes me shake my head is the attitude I get from several players after I win the matches. For example, I fought against a Blanka player a few months ago and the guy really didn't do much except doing the Amazon River slide move or the rolling cannonball, which wasn't all that much, since I blocked it and just hammered him away with combos I know from Ryu, who I used. The first round was a perfect, but in the second, he didn't hit me that much and I dominated him in the corner. No problem, right?

Then I get a PM from the guy, telling me that what I did was unfair and cheap, kept on repeating myself in the process.

How is that exactly? I played against the guy skillfully in the only way I know how to with Ryu, who is officially my main in Street Fighter IV. ANd I think that's the problem that I see in some players online. They don't take the time to necessarily know who they really want to play as and get to know them like they know themselves and develop strategies that work for them.

Now I'm no master or expert, not Daigo or Justin Wong type, but I just know that you need to just take the character that you really want to learn and start training. Learn their attacks, their frame hits, etc. Not only that, but try to figure out what would you do in a mirror match or against another fighter. I think that everyone plays their character differently, so no fight ever plays out the same way twice, so you always gotta be wary of who they chose and what you have to do to defend them.

It's not that hard, I think. In any fighting game that I've played, they give their characters the right tool to suceed in the fights and it's up to you to decide how to use them. I've seen DC use Akuma in the best way that I can think of and then there's SLB that has the best Gouken that I know of so far. And they are that for right now because they took the time to improve their game.

So when people complain to you that you suck, don't give them their time of day. They just aren't doing enough to make themselves better.

/end rant.

Metamania

Good job on winning. Most of the scrubs have been filtered out of SFIV, so you don't have to worry too much about getting those poor sports anymore. When you do, though... I say make the most of it. They're mad, and they want to talk ****. Reply back and make 'em furious.

[QUOTE="ShenlongBo"]

[QUOTE="LikeHaterade"]

Good looking out partner. 8)

LikeHaterade

You got it buddy. You and DC just keep up the good work.

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The crazy thing is, DC and I have already agreed that we need to NOT post every single match we capture. So far, I've uploaded FIVE matches, and I still have about an hour's worth left to look through. We keep talking about how we need to STOP doing that, since, let's face it, nobody is going to watch that many Gouken vs. Akuma matches.

So, I invite all of you to check out the channel and, if you're interested, tell me any TWO Gouken vs. Akuma matches that you think are worthwhile. I'm gonna be trimming the channel way, way down, so if any of you have some footage you'd like to see salvaged, feel free to speak up. If not, cool (not trying to promote my channel, I promise), I'll just consult with DC and we'll work it out on our own.

EDIT: I'm going to add an AxxesS (KE) vs. DarkCatalyst (RY) "exhibition" match, of sorts. DC accidentally picked Ryu, so I went with Ken, just for the lulz. Neither of us is particularly good with those characters, lol, we just decided to roll with it.

Ken vs. Ryu lulz match.

Martial Bullet, it was a lot of fun going against you and a new challenge for me.

He and I went at it several times, using different characters. Some of the matches were new and refreshing, although I've did my best with Sagat, surprinsgly, so it was good times man. I was using the XBox 360 controller for these fights, believe it or not. I no longer have the standard edition stick to use, but once my tournament stick arrives, I should be in MUCH BETTER shape than I was before. So thanks very much for the challenge man. It was good times! I wasn't sure if you could hear me at all, but it was great taking you on and would love to do so again.

The XBox 360 controller is definitely not something to be use for fighters. Half of the time, I'm holding back or crouching back and the game doesn't recognize me blocking after I get hit with three short punches or kicks. Really aggravating, but I was surprise to manage my own for my fights against Martial Bullet.

Don't know what're your thinking, but let me know. :)

Metamania

Can't wait till that TE comes in, I bet. I love mine... probably gonna buy another, in addition to an SE that I'll mod for PS3.

[QUOTE="DarkCatalyst"][QUOTE="LikeHaterade"]

ShenlongBo and DC are playing right now. Thank you Capcom for not including specator mode. :D

LikeHaterade

Good looking out partner. 8)

Wow, Ed Ma out of the blue? thats awesome dude, wish I had such a chance to get beaten up by a pro :P events like these really make us feel that we all need to practice a lot more, there is always more to learn. hopefully next time you will be able to squeeze a win at least, that would be sweet.

regarding your suggestion of changing players for a month, I would have loved to do so, but I really cant because of my very bad internet connection. I have been suffering from a horrible ISP and I recently have not been able to play online properly even with my main Fuerte. I haven't played with any of the regulars here, and I cant do that as long as I suffer from this lag. Being far away from the US (which I assume most of you reside in right now) doesnt help either, as I barely manage to get a 2 bar connection with anyone from there. I have been practicing offline mostly, with a few online matches with friends that have 3 bars or more. I am hoping that either the ISP pulls itself together soon or that SF4 Dash will have a much better netcode to overcome the limitations of my connection. I am not sure if my router is ideal too, so if anyone of you is using any kind of special router that can help with a bad connection, please let me know, I really want to play with you guys so bad :cry:

games_soul

Well, I'm putting a tournament together, the main point of which is to draw out any and all talent in this town and build a community. I had 19 matches with a pro, and was only able to pick out a few rounds. I came close to winning a couple times - just a breath away - but that doesn't matter. The only thing that matters in the end is the W. Everything that happens in between is just details. I should have been able to get ONE win out of 19, I feel. No doubt about it, I now recognize first-hand that Ma is extraordinarily good at this game, but I'd like to think that's not an unattainable level for me. Solid local competition can only help matters, I feel.

Well, enough of that. Too bad about your connection, bud :( I wish I had some advice for you, but I got nothing. I have a so-so connection myself (3 with Ma, and it felt A-okay to me. Plus, he didn't quit for 19 3-round matches, which meant it must have been more than "bearable" by his standards), though, so I'll try hooking up with you and see what we can put together.

EDIT: I said I "only picked out a few rounds," but I should clarify. I won at least 1 round in almost every match, and often 2. Ed only shut me out completely, oh, 3-4 times. Not too bad, I guess.

So, you ever watch those match vids of the pros and wonder how you might fare against them? Yeah, me too. I just went 0-19 against Ed Ma in random player matches. The whole time I was thinking, "damn, this dude is just... exceptionally good... I wonder if his name (EdMastersB) could possibly mean..."

But, that would be silly, right? Wrong. It was him, and he beat me like a baby for 19 straight matches. I looked sorta almost not-too-bad a couple times, but for the most part, it was savagery.

Before I'd googled the gamertag, I made a short vid that shows his GT, his icon (which, coincidentally, looks a lot like ED freakin' MA), and our results. Sorta. Anyway, I'll post that up later. Just wanted to let you guys know I got a taste of what it's like to play a pro. It was dope.

Hell, I'm totally in for that!! :D

I just need to pick up a XBL Gold card to get back into the action....

martialbullet