1-on-1.

I've been reminiscing about my experience during my "Fighting Game Arc" during my late grade school - early high school days, alot of things to think about, such as the game itself, the people I've met, and my own growth since then both mentally and literally. This post could take the topic of many things, but something I often think about was simply the endeavor of playing online, specifically, the humble, yet devious space that is dubbed "Ranked."

Online modes in fighting games, or any competitive video game should be elementary, The unranked mode for casuals, or people who don't wanna play with the pressure of having a rank attached, and Ranked mode, for the more competitive minded; people who want a vague measurement of growth via ranks and to be matched with similiarly ranked people, That's that, right.

Wrong, ranked is a trench that drags the unsuspecting into endless grinding, develop anti social tendencies, and leave all behind, just for the pursuit of Master/Ruler/Gold Aura/ whatever the game you play calls it.

Kidding, obviously, unless its funnier to think that I completely meant what I said, in which case go ahead, but, being a Ranked Grinder™ I feel is not the way to play fighting games personally, atleast, not to me.

Let's take, say, Joe Guilty Gear, guy who bought strive cause it's the hip new thing their friends play that's all the rave, vague fighting game background; seen some tournament vods maybe, plays the tutorial and gets a feel for it all, decides of playing Potemkin, cause they think he's cool (Great taste, Joe!) and decides to hit the Tower, the online mode of the game, does his preliminary CPU match (he doesn't know that though) then gets placed say, floor 6.

Congratulations Joe, You now know you enjoy the game, and what the hey, maybe even try to improve your gameplay, it's 202X, fighting game resources are more prevalent and actively maintained more than ever.

Joe has now learned about frame data of Potemkins normals and specials, and understands Potemkin's gameplan; Get in>Stay in>Pressure>Profit. Joe plays more consciously, and that eventually all culminates into his rank up match. With solid fundamentals by his side, despite matchup inexperience, he now is able to play on Floor 7.

Now where do you go from here Joe? Well the answer is that Joe now learns about Kara specials; a mechanic not specific to Potemkin, but benefits him greatly. Also now watches Potemkin vods when they have time and tries to implement what he sees in his own matches, and now has a greater understanding of Roman Cancels. He now absolutely has the edge over his opponents, which leads him to eventually win this floors rank up match with relative ease.

Floor 9 really just comes and goes, sure Joe still does learn more about the game, such as the many matchups and knowledge checks throughout the roster, Goldlewis, Asuka, and Nagoriyuki may still be his bane, but Joe can pull through despite some stinging losses. A fierce rank up battle against a bad matchup and Joe pulls through, ranking them up to Floor 10.

Floor 10 is feels like the culmination of all the Joe has learned, there's always improvement, of course, but from here on out, Joe's is now a certified Name Taker. Joe now, purely just plays to play, and that inevitably brings him to the Celestial floor, Joe now has the games blessing that he can now rough it up with the best of the best, cool! What does Joe pursue now, in terms of the game.

Joe, just keeps playing, and playing, and playing...

It's to be noted that, Joe's life isnt the game, of course, he does his responsibilities, hang out with friends, take his break once he feels content enough with Strive, hell, maybe he plays an online tournament every once in a while and places well, but besides that, Joe is going to clock into celestial when they have the time to.

Their Potemkin is now a well oiled machine, every input has meaning to it, kara inputs are almost flawless; High level Potemkin's are a forced to be reckoned with, despite a low tiering placement in relative to the rest of the cast. But what does Joe think?

Joe, despite playing well, unfortunately hadn't really set a goal for themself. Sure, they wanted to have fun, and win, and they did just that! However... Joe finally succumbs to the mental challenge of this ordeal.

Wins have less meaning, Losses hit a bit harder, Joe feels alot more fatigue, they don't feel angry or sad at the game or anything... but Joe doesn't really feel much of anything after playing, besides a dubious level of content.

But Joe keeps on playing, and playing, and playing, and then suddenly one day, just decides to stop playing for a while, and Strive grows cold within Joe's steam library. Joe is content overall from learning and improving, but doesn't exactly understand why they put all of that effort into strive... Was there a reason?

Yeah, If maybe you didn't infer by now, "Joe" was essentially a vague self insert of my experience playing Strive ranked, definitely alot more exaggerated; I did not feel nearly as bad or empty by the end of that spiel; I did truly enjoy most of my time playing Strive ranked but where I grew the ever awful "Brain worms" was that I didn't really have a goal other than, Winning

You may be thinking to yourself "Isn't the whole point of a competitive video game to, yknow, win?" and, yeah! I don't deny that, hell, I also mean to say that my experience does not extend to everybody who plays ranked just to win. But more often than not, alot of people within the circles I was in tend to have a somewhat similiar experience to mine.

Winning is a vague goal, with not really much meaning; I always say I play to have fun, which is what I did, and winning can definitely be fun, but maybe I should've set an alternative goal, such as Playing to improve, You can always have fun improving, and that goal is achieved whether you Win or lose.

It all felt especially weird too after i learned, I'm not really a competitive person in the slightest, hell, I used to feel bad and even apologized to online friends for beating them in the game. I don't like making people feel bad in video games, which feels weird in a genre where trash talk is prevalent.

All this to say that, Ranked sort of removes the human from playing a game, the distinction between a CPU and a real human player, when between the wall of netplay, is that you know your playing a against a human, an expect them to put up a fight, That's a bit fucked up to say, but people who grind online video games really do forget this. In a different setting like say, a local, your playing against another person sure, but theres an expectation of being social with your opponent, and interacting with them outside of the game, ask them about the game, maybe feedback during the match, maybe you won't ask those questions but your opponent will. When you play online, people just seem like points, you beat them purely for some imaginary gain.

I find it hard to me to really play Fighting games anymore, while my experience with Strive ranked of course isn't the entire reason (it should also be mentioned i grinded many other games during, before, and after my time with strive) I just find my mental state never enough to enjoy Fighting games online. Of course, online does not mean ranked, you can play online i the early mentioned unranked modes, or hit up a friend or someone in a fighting game discord (i know) to play with you. But frankly, I've just been a little too soured by my own self afflicted view of playing fighting games to really try.

Also want to say, if your a fledgling fighting game player, please, do not take my word of ranked as something you should truly heed, online modes exist for a reason, throw yourself out there if you want, just be conscious of what you play for is all.

Maybe when time permits, and i figure more of my life out (you would be surprised how much of my real life also affected me and fighting games, but thats a story for another day(?)), I'll make my grand return to playing fighting games again. and maybe as a silly sendoff to this all I'll say, as a Potemkin player,

"It's better to have command grabbed and lost many a match, than to have never command grabbed at all."

I don't remember why I saved these messages of people commending my Potemkin play; I would never do such a thing nowadays, but I do admit seeing these again made me happy, and made me remember, I really was a good fucking player.