Match vid independance harmful?

[FlyMike]

My question is, is the route to progression ultmately dependant upon watching match videos. Obviously this is not all it takes, but if one doesn't do this, will his/her game be lacking? Guess you can say I'm in that boat. No personal comp. Even the severely out of date home comp that hasn't played decent media since 2001 has took it's last breath. I only visit this site from my Sidekick 3, which is unable to play videos. And trying to sneak and view vids over my gf's house isn't going so good. So I'm left with trying to hit up the library on campus or make an attempt when I get a minute at work. But say, I chose not to watch vids at all and I didn't play good comp on the regular? Am I already weakened to the point that hours upon hours of practice probably mean squat?

[Tsak]

for me i thinking watching match videos has helped me grow on my character me seeing all the stuff the japanese do with my character it helped me in that area but if you have good comp and you play with them regularly it won't hurt your game persay if you don't watch them it helps a bit nothing like playing the real thing though :P

[Doomscyther]

It wont hinder you as much as not playing all those cats in memphis (I know there is alot of good players there).

[Xaphiel]

But say, I chose not to watch vids at all and I didn't play good comp on the regular? Am I already weakened to the point that hours upon hours of practice probably mean squat?

As Doomscyther talked about, watching vids isn't as important as playing against some real competition. They don't have to really push your skills but it's *much* better if they do. Most practice against a real opponent is good practice, you'll always be working on your basics regardless of your opponent's skill.

That said, you honestly can't bring your skill level above a certain point without playing really good people. You just can't get great until you get your ass beat, and you get a feel for what serious play is like. But fortunately you can learn to cope with those serious players a little easier if you have a good base to improve from like being familiar with your character, or lots of practice against other players or in training mode.

[FlyMike]

Yea I figured as much and by NOT playing real comp, I found out a while back that I didn't know how the actual characters were supposed to be played lol. I'm gonna try to hit the Memphis scene hard. It's a travesty that I wasn't involved sooner. And maybe try to get an inexpensive cpu to watch a few vids ;-). Until then I'll try to force one of my friends to get into GG and that way we sorta push each other like we did in 3s. Thanks guys for your input.

[AKA]

You watch, you copy, you understand. It takes a while in the beginning, but it's what helps you build your fundamentals. There isn't ever really a point where watching videos becomes detrimental, however you can get stuck looking for things that aren't there. That's a result of being good enough to recognize that the players aren't playing on the same level you are and it's literally a waste of time (speaking from a perspective of "watching to learn").