I feel a common mistake people make in fighting games is they always have the ‘playing to win’ mentality. This is regardless if it’s in a major tournament, or online casuals. I’m a huge advocate for the playing to win mentality, a HUGE advocate. However, it’s not always the mentality you want to have for every situation.
For those who are unaware, the playing to win mentality is a mentality based on the fact that you will do whatever is in your power to win. Meaning abusing everything you possibly can, trying super hard not to lose, and your goal is simple. To be the one who won the match.
The problem arrises when you’re playing casuals, especially online. Because for the most part, you should treat casuals of any kind as a learning experience. The end goal should be to improve. Walk out of the set a little better of a player than when you walked into the set. This doesn’t mean counting wins to see who “won” the set. That is pointless 99% of the time. It’s just about impossible to determine who the actual better player is online, and let me tell you why.
There’s a lot of different strategies people use when they play long sets of casuals. For instance, I know a common one for me is setting challenges for myself. Like, “in this next match, I will not jump a single time”. This means even if jumping is the absolute correct play, I will not jump. The purpose of this challenge is for one, to be more disciplined on my jump in attempts. But it also helps me play my grounded game and improve that. Which leads me to my next challenge, foosties and fundamentals challenge. In this one I will attempt to anti air everything as much as I can. I will play footsies and again limit my jumps. I will work on not only general MK11 fundamentals, but also the mechanic within the game. For instance wakeup attacks and rolls, or all the other wakeup options. This could even include trying to tech throws every chance you get, and also throwing out throws as often as you can. These are just some of the examples, but I think you get the point.
So, your goal in these matches isn’t to win. It’s to improve in certain areas. If you end up winning, cool. If you end up losing, it does NOT matter. You weren’t playing to win, you were playing to improve certain aspects of your game. There been countless games where I could have won easily, but it would have abandoned the challenge and the entire point.
Guys, it’s okay to lose. I absolutely RELISH and appreciate it when I lose. Whether I’m doing these things to improve certain aspects of my game, or even if I’m playing to win.
Losing an as opportunity. I love when I lose and it’s not because of something random like lag/delay or something like that. When I lose I can actually learn so much more than I would have if I had won.
Main point, not everyone has their super tryhard caps on and are playing to win in casuals sets. This doesn’t mean you need to go easy on them or that they are sandbagging. This also doesn’t mean you can’t play to win. What your goal is for the set or match is 100% up to you.
Lastly, my overall point is stop taking online casuals so seriously and acting like it’s a test to see who the better player is. Even IF that’s exactly what your opponent is doing... who cares? If that isn’t your goal for this set, it doesn’t matter what your opponent thinks. As long as you accomplish your goal and actually improve from the set/casuals, that is absolutely an accomplishment.
These are things that will help you become a better player without question. Yeah I realize this came out kinda sloppy and kinda ranty, but I’m a little sleep deprived but felt compelled to get this out there.
For those who are unaware, the playing to win mentality is a mentality based on the fact that you will do whatever is in your power to win. Meaning abusing everything you possibly can, trying super hard not to lose, and your goal is simple. To be the one who won the match.
The problem arrises when you’re playing casuals, especially online. Because for the most part, you should treat casuals of any kind as a learning experience. The end goal should be to improve. Walk out of the set a little better of a player than when you walked into the set. This doesn’t mean counting wins to see who “won” the set. That is pointless 99% of the time. It’s just about impossible to determine who the actual better player is online, and let me tell you why.
There’s a lot of different strategies people use when they play long sets of casuals. For instance, I know a common one for me is setting challenges for myself. Like, “in this next match, I will not jump a single time”. This means even if jumping is the absolute correct play, I will not jump. The purpose of this challenge is for one, to be more disciplined on my jump in attempts. But it also helps me play my grounded game and improve that. Which leads me to my next challenge, foosties and fundamentals challenge. In this one I will attempt to anti air everything as much as I can. I will play footsies and again limit my jumps. I will work on not only general MK11 fundamentals, but also the mechanic within the game. For instance wakeup attacks and rolls, or all the other wakeup options. This could even include trying to tech throws every chance you get, and also throwing out throws as often as you can. These are just some of the examples, but I think you get the point.
So, your goal in these matches isn’t to win. It’s to improve in certain areas. If you end up winning, cool. If you end up losing, it does NOT matter. You weren’t playing to win, you were playing to improve certain aspects of your game. There been countless games where I could have won easily, but it would have abandoned the challenge and the entire point.
Guys, it’s okay to lose. I absolutely RELISH and appreciate it when I lose. Whether I’m doing these things to improve certain aspects of my game, or even if I’m playing to win.
Losing an as opportunity. I love when I lose and it’s not because of something random like lag/delay or something like that. When I lose I can actually learn so much more than I would have if I had won.
Main point, not everyone has their super tryhard caps on and are playing to win in casuals sets. This doesn’t mean you need to go easy on them or that they are sandbagging. This also doesn’t mean you can’t play to win. What your goal is for the set or match is 100% up to you.
Lastly, my overall point is stop taking online casuals so seriously and acting like it’s a test to see who the better player is. Even IF that’s exactly what your opponent is doing... who cares? If that isn’t your goal for this set, it doesn’t matter what your opponent thinks. As long as you accomplish your goal and actually improve from the set/casuals, that is absolutely an accomplishment.
These are things that will help you become a better player without question. Yeah I realize this came out kinda sloppy and kinda ranty, but I’m a little sleep deprived but felt compelled to get this out there.
