This feels different
I put in and have out in an obscene amount of hours and effort into performing well in this game just like I did mk9. Despite my efforts when I sit down in a chair in injustice tournaments I ALWAYS never play the way I train or can play. I play like someone who has never played or trained like I have
It's like training for a musical audition for 4-5 months 20-30-40 hours a week and then when u sit down to perform at that audition you forget every single thing you've ever practiced and every single approach you had planned but 2 hours after auditions you grab your instrument and play lights out
That's how I am in INj and it's infuriating to me. Even matches I win I just question "wtf am I doing"
I have some ideas but that's all they are right now. My whole point w taking a long long break or just eventually deciding to stop is related to whether a boxer feels he can perform still. Same thing, if I'm putting in all this time and none of it shows when it matters due to mental or some other unexplained happening then I look back at time spent as wasted and question if I should still be doing this.
I feel like I understand a bit better now.
I can make two quick suggestions on where your issues might be coming from. Correct me if I'm missing the mark, but this is what I think I've picked up from your discussions lately.
(1) Self-pressure causing you to crack. In MK9, you probably went to your first tournament just to see how well you do. Then you got excited by the results, and that motivated you to keep getting better. Every time you did better, it was a new victory to get you going for the next round.
In Injustice, you're working from the opposite angle. You know you can perform at X level, and whenever you dip below that level, you feel like you've suffered a defeat. That defeat hangs over you and forces you to work out of fear of placing below X again. Every time you don't meet X, even if it's significantly better than what you've done before (such as getting 13th out of an 150-person tourney rather than 15th at an 100-person tourney), you feel like you've suffered a new defeat that looms over you until the next major.
tl;dr - In MK9, you played to win. In Injustice, you're playing not to lose.
(2) You've made some comments about your age. They're entirely misplaced. Yes, there's a lot of talented young blood at tournaments right now. That's just due to where we are in the development of competitive gaming; it's new, so younger folk can pick it up quick, and they tend to have more time than adults in the workforce.
The average age of competitive gamers is continually going up, even in games like starcraft where you have to click the mouse 200 times per minute. There's absolutely nothing to indicate that there's an age cap for competitive gamers that you're anywhere near.
Hope this helps you get some leads. If I'm entirely missing the mark, feel free to ignore.
