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When you play against newby friends, do you destroy them or give them a chance?

Tanya-Fan-28

TanyaShouldBeInMK11
With friends who have zero interest in FGs and are coming over to hang out, I'll go easy & even let them win. Plus I just like showing of all my fave characters and showing all the intros. I like seeing their reaction. IF THEY BOUGHT THE GAME THEMSELVES then yes, sweat mode activated. If they have a copy of the game and don't bother learning the lingo, strats ect there's no excuse. Luckily All my cod friends are chill and just say "wow ur rlly good".
 

lionheart21

Its Game Over, Man
no mercy; never make easy for your opponent, even more in MK11, hehe !!!! :p

Kreese: "We do not train to be merciful here. Mercy is for the weak. Here, in the streets, in competition: A man confronts you, he is the enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy. "

"Finish him!!"
"But, its my friend."
"You have a problem with that??"
"...No, sensei."
"No Mercy."
 

ChoseDeath

Seriously Casual Player.
When we start, I tell them I am going all in and then I pretend it's a $1,000 money match and beat the brakes off them.

After establishing baseline dominance, I then tell them that's what is possible, then I back way off and play down to their level and we either learn basics or character specific stuff. I love helping people, and I have always appreciated every person who has taken time out of their busy lives to kick the shit out of me and help me get better, lol.
 

MKF30

Fujin and Ermac for MK 11
I either throw the matches, take it easy or play dumb if it's personal friends. Though now it don't work because back when they first played me in MKT days, I demolished them and actually made them drop MK because of me lol. Or one who still buys MK to this day but he doesn't play me, he just plays tot, story, casual modes.
 

Zer0_h0ur

XBL tag: South of Zero
My Kasual friends tend to mash like CONSTANTLY they actually do well against me at first, especially when I'm using random select bc of their sheer randomness.
I usually try new strategies against 'em or try to troll them with the same move over and over.
I lose interest very quickly if I play against them seriously. If they cared to learn I'd take it more seriously.
 

DixieFlatline78

Everyone Has A Path
I remember my friend picking up SFIV after the last Evo. He could do all the combo trials and he already was figuring footsies out by the time I played him. I tried taking it easy on him but I actually had to be pretty clever with my movement to secure rounds. I wish he would've stuck with it, he seemed to be a bit of a natural
 

xenogorgeous

.... they mostly come at night. Mostly.
Sandbagging in fighting games brings none benefits at all .... either your opponent just accept the defeat/loss or just better chose to give up on trying getting better and go play super mario or zelda in Switch, hehe .... :p

when you purposelly play "below" your real level, you just waste your time; and the match session does have no purpose, it losts the goal/objective, and ending not working even as a simple sparring training ....

True champions never do that .... the world is competitive in ALL areas , all ! Nature is cruel and so, if you don't do your best, someone will come up and does it, and you will be replaced, simple like that, so, always give your best shot, and even if you lose, you lost trying to win, giving everything you got

My 2 cents. :D
 

Marlow

Premium Supporter
Premium Supporter
I wouldn't say you need to purposely go easy on them, but you also probably don't need to go all out absolute hardest.
 

lionheart21

Its Game Over, Man
It depends on the setting. If its mainly just a bunch of buddies that aren't really taking the game seriously and just wanna have a good time, I'll go easy on them, since I don't wanna be that guy and ruin a good time.

However, if one of them starts thinking that he's hot shit and starts talking trash, then that's a different story and he needs to be brought back down to Earth. In that case I'm not holding anything back.
 

Enexemander

A Hitbox Pirate - YARRR -
when you purposelly play "below" your real level, you just waste your time; and the match session does have no purpose, it losts the goal/objective, and ending not working even as a simple sparring training ....
Real fighters don't go 100% when they spar, so explain that one :-p

It's about what your goals are, and who you're playing with. If I'm playing my cousin who I've trash talked back and forth countless times across every conceivable activity? Yeah, I'm going hard in the paint in the game and in his ear. Expect that pop off when I win, because I know it's coming if I lose!

But if we are training, if it IS sparring (good analogy), it's best to not do that. I think of it as Sandbag by Meta Level. Don't dunk them with tick throws, because they don't even know what that is. Don't frame trap when you're barely plus, they don't know frame data. Win by spacing, neutral, fundies. They will respect that and can learn. Once they have meta level 1 down, you can start introducing meta level 2, etc.

Or you can just curb stomp, lol. But you're not accomplishing anything but beating up on someone who can't properly defend themselves. If my 4 year old nephew laces up some gloves and boxes with me, I'm not going to launch his ass into orbit and yell "Get Gud!" as he passes the International Space Station.
 

John Grizzly

The axe that clears the forest
I have no one locally to play, so I tend to just try to get my friends into playing the games more seriously so I have someone to play/talk about the game with. If I just destroy them, they don't enjoy it and will just end up quitting immediately.

My move is to normally have a couple friends who don't know what they're doing play each other and I'll give them tips along the way. This engages them and doesn't make them feel like they have no shot at winning.

For the past few weeks, I've been bringing my old N64 and PS2 to a bar I work at during the day. I've had several people want to play Tekken Tag, so that's the game we've played the most. I enjoy sitting there drinking and explaining shit like Wang's Horse Tamer on block and why they keep getting launched after blocking it. These people have played the game before, but they haven't really PLAYED the game.

Once they learn more about the game, they're more apt to want to play me and come back again. I do the same with MK Trilogy.

Having said that, whenever someone runs their mouth, I'll get them to agree to a first to 3 or 10 or whatever and then mop their ass in the most polite way possible.

Last month a buddy of mine heard me talking about WWF No Mercy and said "oh, I'll definitely beat you at that." He then challenged me to best 2 out of 3 for $20 the following week. I absolutely destroyed him. That's probably the game I'm best at period.
 
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xenogorgeous

.... they mostly come at night. Mostly.
Real fighters don't go 100% when they spar, so explain that one :-p
exactly .... real fighters not, but, among those, that who wanna be true warriors (best of the best), those who want to be on the top of line, to be the "ultimate" predator in the food chain top spot .... those yes, those give their best all the time, hehe .... they hate to lose even on training sessions ! :p

of course , could be a bit of exaggeration to apply this "military gladiator" fighting philosophy into a simple videogame, but, the overall ideia is:

if competitive challenge is your thing, play your best all the time, and give focus on improve your level always; if you feel like, if you feel so .....

anyway, if this is not that important to you, play the way you enjoy more, since nobody gives a shit anyway, hehe :p
 

Wam-Zlay

Reptile / Noob
Of course they get destroyed. When people kick my ass in rl i can hear them saying that they won against me
 

LawAbidingCitizen

Bomb Setups & Ball Rolls(Mileena/Cyrax)
I give them constructive advice while destroying them. I play back the match and point out what both of us did wrong and them help them lab it. If they don't want to learn then I don't help and still go full force.
 

Mikemetroid

Who hired this guy, WTF?
If I didn't go HAM, I wouldn't have one of my training partners that I do today... if they can't take the smoke then play another game lol
 

Daemantalo

Not Good Enough
I play like DarksydePhil when I fight against one of my friends who’s new to the game: I have no fundamentals, do unsafe stuff, and do an act that tries to get them to laugh.

“Dude wtf I can’t blawk.”
“I was blawking, f00kin’ netcode maaaan.”
“DUDE MY UPPERCUT WENT RIGHT THROUGH YOUR CROUCHING BODY IT’S BUGGED MAAAN.”
“MY SWEEP WON’T COME OUT WHAT THE FUCK DUDE!”
“MY FIREBALL WON’T REGISTER ON SCREEN. ED BOON NEEDS TO FIX HIS GAME MAHN INSTEAD OF IMPROVING IT OFFLINE.”
“LOOK AT YOUR GAME NETHERREALM. THIS IS YOUR GAME ED! LOOK AT YOUR GAME!

For the cases I want to improve a little bit, I also try to work on blocking, turntaking, and throw teching as opposed to comboing them.
 

SOULWARRIOR 71K

XBL: SOULWARRIOR 71K PSN: SOULWARRIOR71K
As a Shao Kahn main, I particularly enjoy frame-trapping them to death over and over and over again. Go ahead, keep mashing when I’m +6. Oh? You feel like you can move? Too bad. You’re lucky I don’t pick Liu Kang and f4 you to death.