SJBG: Casuals against Filipino Champ

Ryan: "Was that 2?"

Random Guy: "Uhhh one more."

Ryan: "Get the fuck outta here."

*Guy gets up and leaves.*

*Ryan sits down and looks at me.*

Me: "Hey, Ryan."

Ryan: "See that's how you do it! Hate it when they do that..."

:)

Anyway, onto the matches. After studying the Daigo vs Filipino Champ matches over again, I felt more confident playing Ryan. I was able to space better, control a better ground-game, threw fireballs at better times, and counter-poked at better times. I felt like I was understanding the match-up slowly. I still lost like 8-10 straight, but they were all very close rounds (consisting of 1-2 in rounds). Every time I lost a round Ryan shook his head as if he's thinking: good move but I already knew that you were going to do that. The fact that I was able to keep up with him made me want to play even better. Now before all of this, when I would play Ryan I would lose really badly. That being said, I would lose 0-10 the first time I trained against him, and then 1-9 during Hiro's (and we're playing more than 10 games so to speak). So I was completely satisfied with how I was playing, but of course I wanted to beat him and more. Couple of the sets I was able to setup the 50/50 focus, dp's on reaction, and crouching strong into light punch fire ball. I was playing the way I wanted to.

One thing that I'd like to point out is that I tried to play by rounds and not by sets. This means I tried to win rounds and not sets. It wouldn't matter if I won the set 2-1 in rounds or 2-0. Then I wouldn't have trouble with the match-up if that were happening. I was looking for 1-2 and 0-2. It's casuals and I was trying to learn as much as possible. One of the best ways to learn is to keep losing. I wanted to see what I was doing right and what I wasn't doing right (or not doing at all). If I'd lose a round doing something right I wouldn't do it again the next round since I know it's something that will benefit me to win the round. Instead I pushed myself and did other things like trying to sweep Dhalsim's standing fierce. For example, I know I have trouble with sweeping Dhalsim's standing fierce and have the option to crouching strong it, but I don't. Instead I make myself work and try to sweep it. Of course there is a leniency to this method of learning, but you can tweak it however way you want it in order to build your fundamentals and footsies (or whatever you need to work on).

The next time we played was at Hiro's. I played Ryan and he completely changed it up. He was more patient about sticking out his limbs, his fireballs, and his spacing was harder to deal with. So what am I gonna do about it? I'll let you know the next time I play him!

-Miky

P.S. Just kidding... As he plays patient I'll be able to gain more ground. If he knows that he'll try to keep me out and we're back to square one. Anyway, I'll let you guys know how it goes the next time I play Ryan. :)