I essentially memorize all the frame data I can so I know what my options are in as many situations as possible, then I just put in as much time into playing as I possibly can employing a very reserved and tactile approach, basically just to achieve what I call my "baseline," here defined as that point where no matter what character you're facing, you can't get gimmicked. Then I shift gears and start getting ballsier when I'm confident that I've got the game down enough so as to account for my opponents options at all time, I start working on character specific strategies to exploit whatever weak point they may have. Scouring the internet for any information you may miss is hugely key too. Just wish there were a way to make it go faster than... months.
I plan on taking Injustice to the next level. SCV made me realize that after playing fighters for the last 13 years, I'm pretty much too good for 75% of the crap you encounter online. Hopefully offline sessions with Injustice will make the process faster... Hopefully I can learn to enjoy being a scrub again too.
If only more people were down for this. I typically try and send requests out to individuals after getting bodied or a really good match but it seems like some people online take it the wrong way. They'll respond with dumb comments or just ignore you, especially if I win by a slim margin or something, they become salty and start texting as if they had tourette syndrome.
One can only get so much out of a RANKED MATCH, that's why I'm always down for some long sets in a lobby/player matches.
This. Like 98% of dudes playing fighters online straight up treat the game like a single match with two people who have NEVER encountered each other before determines who is better for all fucking eternity. It's especially annoying in games where there's a ton of variation in how each character can be played, and you run into some guy using a strategy you've never come up against before, get buttplugged, and when you send him a message like "hey, really solid -characterhere-. first to five?" and his response is to just crap out some wannabe badass comment about how he won't waste time or some shit.
Or hell, I remember this one time in SCV, I ran into some random with a decent win/loss and totally tore him in half, and he sends me this angry message about how I only beat him because I throw all the time, so I gave him a runback and promised to not throw once, and still won. We actually ended up spending like an hour playing and talking about funny YouTube videos in party chat with me feeding him tons of metagame info that he didn't really know about and tips on breaking throws and shit... then after a while I pick Voldo and the shit goes into the 5th round and I had full meter, so I just decided to landfish spam him into the dirt because I didn't really feel like losing and I figured he couldn't handle it. And I was right, in a couple of ways. He took this really shitty tone with me like complaining about me spamming and I really calmly just explained to him "nah man, it's just a gimmick. Super easy to get out of. You just -fullydetailedexplanationonshuttingdownlandfishgimmicks-" and his response to that was to scream "I DON'T FUCKING CARE, THAT WAS SUCH A FUCKING SPAMFEST. GET OUTTA MY PARTY [ban incoming]," then he kicked me, sent me a voicemail about how I suck dick and swallow or something and how I'm blocked.
And I really mean it man, for a good long hour up until that point, this total random and I were having a really good time. The point here is that if you're using online play as a main source of gaining match-up, setup your play dates on a fighter forum. Because fighting game randoms are the dumbest kind of randoms. Also wanting to point out that social skills are actually extremely valuable in not sucking at fighters. People tell you more shit if you're a tolerable human being.
...I miss arcades.
