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I'm not good at thread titles, but I need some help. I might need a coach.

ZeroSymbolic

Social Justice Barbarian
Here is my situation, I've been playing video games for a long time, and particularly love Mortal Kombat. My problem is that I find myself in this situation; I am better than most casual players, but I am trash against other players that take it a bit more seriously. The result is that I rarely if ever have "good" matches. I feel like I am either just smashing somebody who doesn't understand the game, or I am playing against somebody who is smashing me as if I don't understand the game. I don't know how to cross the bridge, because I don't learn from the games where I am dominating my opponent, and I don't understand how to learn from my losses, because my games feel so far apart in terms of level.

I feel like a club chess player who is either playing against novice jrs, or grandmasters. What I think I need is a mentor, somebody who has time to explain things to me, and work with me a bit. Anybody willing? Anybody have a way for me to teach myself better?
 

Vslayer

Juiced Moose On The Loose
Lead Moderator
I don’t think you need a teacher, just a training partner who is better than you and who you’ll learn from playing them. You need to play long sets too, like 15-20 games every day if you can.
 
When you get destroyed by serious players, what are the situations where you get in trouble? Are you not respecting your opponent's turn? Do you never block? Do you do the same "trick" over and over so that it works once or twice, but not again? I think the thing about playing really bad players is that some of those players don't even understand how to do a combo, so if you even know how to do one string you feel like you're good, but you're really missing everything that makes the game what it is. I know you said you watch your replays, but every time you take damage in a replay, ask yourself what you did to lead to that and what you could have done to avoid it. A big revelation for me personally was learning about what makes opponents better than me in different situations and realizing that it's not just that they memorized more combos and pushed buttons faster. It's usually that I used an inappropriate option for the situation and my opponent capitalized on my mistake/ignorance.

Also, give Kombat League a shot if you haven't already. There are problems about it that people dislike, but I've found the matchmaking is good enough that I'm routinely challenged but not getting bodied.
 

Phr4nk

2021 Ash Main
I don’t think you need a teacher, just a training partner who is better than you and who you’ll learn from playing them. You need to play long sets too, like 15-20 games every day if you can.
This is the best advice. There is no better teacher than a person who knows your options and will punish you for playing wild. Find someone at or above your level who has a good attitude and is committed to improving, and get a daily/weekly game going. The longer the set the better, but make it's at least an hour.