Is this a terrible mentality to have whilst learning FGs?

[Renvalt]

So as I was playing Ranked Matches with Hakumen a bit ago, I noticed something. I tend to get angry when my opponent either A)wins using Stylish Mode, or B)wins because they were worlds better than me. With B I know I'm going to be terribly outmatched, so at least I can take losses like that with some semblance of "oh well, at least I tried", but with A I feel like they weren't even being serious about playing against me.

And that actually pisses me off because each match I go into, whether it be ranked or non-ranked, I treat as a tournament-style match. There may not be any prize money on the line, but this "make or break" mentality I get helps me give every fiber of my being into playing against my opponent. I play games to gradually get better, and I feel more relaxed if my opponent is at or around my skill level (like one tier weaker or stronger).

It's like a Little League baseball player being thrown into a World Series match (or Major League match) and expected to contribute to the team's victory - except I lack those Hollywood gimmicks you often see those kids gifted with (i.e. Like Mike, Angels in the Outfield, etc.)

My question is: if I'm treating all of my games as a "make or break" situation where one loss would psychologically tell me that "you're out of the running, you effectively suck", am I doing it wrong? Is this mentality of "give it your all because you only have one shot" damaging my ability to grow as a player? If yes, how should I go about ditching it, or how would I play the game while still retaining it?

tl;dr Is taking your opponent seriously to the point where "winning and losing mean more than they should" a bad idea when trying to learn and get better at BlazBlue, or any FG (or game) for that matter?

[Rhiya]

I think Sirlin can explain it better than I can, especially at 5 AM.

http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/love-of-the-game-not-playing-to-win.html

Honestly, it wouldn't be bad to read all of Playing to Win at some point, but the first part of this section ("Basic R&D") most clearly addresses your question.

Think of it like this: you can't use tools you don't have to win, no matter how seriously you're taking a match. When you're starting out, you have to acquire some of those tools before you can become competitive in any real sense. Playing to win before you have the skills to win is counterproductive, and there are a lot of skills you need to win in FGs that aren't obvious on a first, second, or hundredth glance; I definitely still lack quite a few myself. When you're learning, acquiring tools and skills has to come before winning, whether you like it or not. If you don't play to learn now, you'll never be able to play to win later.

Take pride in learning, too. We all started at square one, and there's no shame in that.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Dusk Thanatos

[RagnaXBL]

look at this way, if you don't get mad when you lose it means your not investing nearly enough time into the game to play at a decent level

[tataki]

Ironically, the more you care, the worse you'll play.

You should probably change your goal to improving at something you couldn't do as well previously and try to ignore the end result of the match. If playing ranked means you focus on a silly number instead of focusing on improving your play, then stop playing ranked.

[YukiBlue]

Don't focus on the end result. Everyone loses. As long as you learn something from every match you play, you will lose less and less.

A loss doesn't change you or who you are. It's an irrelevant number on the internet.

[Renvalt]

look at this way, if you don't get mad when you lose it means your not investing nearly enough time into the game to play at a decent level

Would that apply even to matches where my opponents were using Stylish instead of Technical/not using their mains and using some character that totally clashes with their playstyle? If so, does that effectively mean that I care more about the game than I thought?

I mean, I always thought it weird. I'd resell CSEX from time to time (probably because I needed money for something, whether another PS3 game or food or whatever), but then I'd have the strong urge to buy it again. Same with a lot of other games - I'd quit, but then return and not be able to give a straight answer as to "why" I had quit or "why" I'm playing the game again. I know it's definitely not just "taking a break", but there's zero explanation otherwise. Same with why I play BlazBlue over Guilty Gear - I can't explain why, I just do.

Ironically, the more you care, the worse you'll play.

You should probably change your goal to improving at something you couldn't do as well previously and try to ignore the end result of the match. If playing ranked means you focus on a silly number instead of focusing on improving your play, then stop playing ranked.

I'm not focusing on increasing my number, rather I'm (incorrectly) using the number as a means of judging my opponent's skill level. Because I'm interested in playing against players who are just as good as me, if not slightly better or worse.

I think Sirlin can explain it better than I can, especially at 5 AM.

*snip*

Honestly, it wouldn't be bad to read all of Playing to Win at some point, but the first part of this section ("Basic R&D") most clearly addresses your question.

Think of it like this: you can't use tools you don't have to win, no matter how seriously you're taking a match. When you're starting out, you have to acquire some of those tools before you can become competitive in any real sense. Playing to win before you have the skills to win is counterproductive, and there are a lot of skills you need to win in FGs that aren't obvious on a first, second, or hundredth glance; I definitely still lack quite a few myself. When you're learning, acquiring tools and skills has to come second to winning, whether you like it or not. If you don't play to learn now, you'll never be able to play to win later.

Take pride in learning, too. We all started at square one, and there's no shame in that.

Yet if I were playing to learn, and that was all I was allowed to do because (theoretically at least) other players had said they would not played me until I "learned" enough, then I would simply not care about BlazBlue or any other game as much. I might decide to beat the game's single player/story mode on a whim to get a story clear or a 100% clear, but I'd never truly enjoy that.

Games that have more emphasis on competition are games I pick up because I want to test my mettle against others, whatever skill level they may be. A CPU foe will have set ways of playing, but that doesn't excite me (especially when they have gimmicks you wouldn't find in tournament play, like SNK Boss Syndrone-esque gimmicks/moves/whatever).

Also, I'm not going to use Stylish myself - but not because I find it cheap. I actually think it's far more restricting than if I were to play with Technical - at least with Technical, I can use two punches and not worry about the A having vaulted me into a Gurren and now suddenly I'm down one Maga and vulnerable because I'm still in rec frames.

Don't focus on the end result. Everyone loses. As long as you learn something from every match you play, you will lose less and less.

A loss doesn't change you or who you are. It's an irrelevant number on the internet.

If it amuses you, I don't actually keep track of my losses in the long run. It's just super long ass streaks where I'm losing because of stagnant thinking. AKA not adapting to whatever my opponent was doing. So I basically back out and play a new opponent because I feel it's switching up the strategy I'm facing.

Edited August 7, 2013 by Renvalt

[YukiBlue]

Nothing wrong with that, You'll get better in time man.

Do you watch Jourdals channel btw? That really helps me, I look for videos of Pro Bang players, and just 100% steal combos + setups.

[Renvalt]

Nothing wrong with that, You'll get better in time man.

Do you watch Jourdals channel btw? That really helps me, I look for videos of Pro Bang players, and just 100% steal combos + setups.

I know that much. I've noticed that there are certain things I used to do when I first started this game that I no longer do now. Part of the whole "getting better" process, I'd imagine.

And as for Jourdal's channel, I think I'd really love if I could stuff my second hard drive full of vids of pro Hakumen players (I believe Spark's one of them, and I did watch a few of his vids of BBCP, but not intently). If anything, I feel I would need to watch those vids in a sense of "why did he consider that approach" or "why did he choose to block instead of using Drive counter for a combo"?

As a player myself, personally I feel that my own improvement will need to come from patching up problems in execution (like not botching Zantetsu or even Renka) as well as just learning those fundamentals with normals (I confess to having terrible issues with jump cancels or air dash cancels, and I absolutely cannot high jump without isolating it as a single action without a preceeding action or follow-up).

But yeah, I want to get better. Can't really say "why", but I know I do. This is like the third time I've bought the game again. And despite Hakumen's playstyle clashing with my ideals (I'm more of a berserker who likes a rabid bull offense as opposed to Hakumen's "chill and calm defense"), I confess that he's the only character I can stand to look at. Character love wise, I want to play with him - I just feel like fitting myself into his playstyle is going to be like re-aligning my teeth with braces. It's gonna hurt like all hell (mentally at least), but I think I may be better for it at the end of the day.

Although depression will make me denounce the above statement as it comes around, so I'm gonna need to figure out how to deal with that.

[dioxideUniversa]

a legacy of being told to chill out since may '12

[YukiBlue]

You're thinking way too hard about this man. Just play the game and it will come to you. Have fun, talk about Hakumen on the boards, hit up training mode etc. That is genuinely all there is to it.

[Star-Demon]

Fighting games are not a good way to relieve stress or escape or relieve personal problems. A lot of yourself is thrown into a competitive game, and if you know yourself to be in bad shape for whatever reason I absolutely promise you it'll be magnified when you lose or fail to do something.

Yes, you're overthinking it - try to focus your thinking on ways to respond and improve instead of the other stuff you are enduring. It doesn't matter if they choose Gold colors, pink colors, training stage, stylish mode, play on one button, or what. The game requires a mental foundation that's sound in order to improve solidly, or else you are really cutting down any potential you really have.

Respect the game and respect yourself - otherwise you are not going to improve - that will be really hard if you are depressed or experience a lot of anxiety. Work on that first if you want a much MUCH easier time with learning anything.

I don't have any answers for you without being a massive hypocrite, but it's definitely not easy, and it's a personal challenge, without a doubt.

90% of everyone do not know what they are talking about in the FGC. Find yourself a good environment to learn in and stay the hell away from anyone that's putting hurtful competitive expectations on you, including yourself.

This is Episode 1 of Blue Beat Radio - I made it for people like you. We discuss Attitude at one point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs_X6PIOHoQ

[Rhiya]

Yet if I were playing to learn, and that was all I was allowed to do because (theoretically at least) other players had said they would not played me until I "learned" enough, then I would simply not care about BlazBlue or any other game as much. I might decide to beat the game's single player/story mode on a whim to get a story clear or a 100% clear, but I'd never truly enjoy that.

Games that have more emphasis on competition are games I pick up because I want to test my mettle against others, whatever skill level they may be. A CPU foe will have set ways of playing, but that doesn't excite me (especially when they have gimmicks you wouldn't find in tournament play, like SNK Boss Syndrone-esque gimmicks/moves/whatever).

Also, I'm not going to use Stylish myself - but not because I find it cheap. I actually think it's far more restricting than if I were to play with Technical - at least with Technical, I can use two punches and not worry about the A having vaulted me into a Gurren and now suddenly I'm down one Maga and vulnerable because I'm still in rec frames.

There is -always- someone willing to play with you to help you learn. I promise that. You may need to ask around a little, but you will find someone. And no one will get angry with you for trying things out in casual netplay matches, either. I know I like it when new players are willing to experiment, because they improve faster.

You're correct not to use stylish: it's a crutch that you can't even use to learn to walk.

[crimsonstardust]

Well I wouldn't use playing online as anyway to gauge your skill level. I will say it does require a different skill set to play online cause I thought I was completely bad at fighting games but I liked the genre anyway so I kept playing the games I played. My first real test of what I learned was she I got involved with my local scene, that's when I learned I wasn't as bad as I thought, in fact I found out I was a lot better then I gave myself credit for. Honestly you have to take playing online with a large grain of salt cause there's a lot of things that just don't work the same offline no matter how you might try online. If I had to use Blazblue as an example, back in the CS2 patch for CS, I read a lot of ways to fight the Hazama match and couldn't win at first. What I did was learn from each one what went wrong and watched my own replays just to see what went wrong. At some point I got better with it. So point being, don't beat yourself up, online isn't always ideal but you do learn from it to some degree, I knew that I could punish Hazama in certain ways but couldn't do it on reaction with some moves just cause its online. Worse thing to happen is you get used to playing online and your execution offline gets thrown off, happened to me had to reteach myself how to readjust to no lag but its not to bad.

Edited August 7, 2013 by crimsonstardust

[Solless]

Naw, next time you feel like there is no way you should've ever lost jump up, pick up your console, do an imitation of a sand raider from starwars at your family/friends, then chunk it through the window! (No, don't do this.)

#1: It's online. Unless your playing with players in your half of your own state, most likely there is a twinge or more of lag. Too many of these laggy matches can lead to serious discouragement because at that point it isn't necessarily your skill that is in question. As at that point it can be boiled down to luck or even who can mash buttons at close range faster. Mixups are available that would normally be easy to respond to, crossups have the potential to not be blocked even if you changed direction at the right time, and combo timing will be messed up. Given this online matches can more be a test of tactics and luck, excluding reactions and timings.

#2: Try a different character with a different voice set from what you normally use. It will be a fresh face allow you to just play as a different playstyle, preferably one closer to what you like. Case in point: In SFIV I will never use Akuma unless I have it set to japanese voices. Throat cancer Dave Mallow just sounds even worse than Steve Kramer Bang.

#3: If you really can't stand fighting the same guy again or find yourself falling into a lull, back out and take around a 10 minute break or more from the game before going back into any matches. This is mental fatigue, and truly the best way to get over it is to simply rest. Watch a cartoon, pop some popcorn, make ramen, read a book, nap, walk, jog, play with your pets, ANYTHING to refresh your mind.

Edited August 7, 2013 by Solless

[Errol]

This is the Small fish in a big pond vs Big fish in a small pond thing.

Most places in this country you will have access to stronger players by hopping online than by going to your offline scene.

Something to think about.

[mAc Chaos]

a legacy of being told to chill out since may '12

I had to laugh. So I'm not the only one that remembers.

Anyway, you should get the idea out of your head that you "deserve" a certain level of competition. If you really are a beginner then why would they be forced to go 100%? It's like expecting Mike Tyson to go all out against a baby. You only deserve the amount you can earn. If someone can beat you with Stylish mode, then just consider that a skill level to get past, because if they can beat you with it then you should be focusing on beating that first. You might as well think of it as a different character.

Plus, it could just be people wanting to play with you but picking sometihng so it'll be closer and they will have a bigger challenge too.

Winning and skill level are relative. The guy that is dominating you gets dominated by somebody else. That means winning or losing does not have any inherent meaning in it, it all depends on what you get out of it. That is why you should focus on just improving yourself, and as a side effect you will win more.

And you shouldn't pay attention to rank either. In BB it does not really accurately reflect anything except how many matches they have played.

It also helps to have a challenger's mentality. When I was learning to play, I had the attitude that everybody was better than me, so it was only natural if I lost, so it's not a big deal. If I won, then it was a bonus. But I also assumed getting my better was inevitable, so any present difficulties didn't mean anything. You also get a huge thrill out of chasing and fighting people better than you, slowly catching up until you can beat them. (Just Saiyan.)

Not that I've felt that in a long time...

You should look at each match as a step in a journey, rather than the goal itself.

Your frustration comes because your mentality is:

"I'm good enough to win against these people. I deserve to win, so it's a disgrace that I lost. It doesn't make sense."

What you want it to be is:

"These guys are all great, so it's only natural if they beat me. But I'll get better and win."

Gotta give the competition their credit.

Edited August 7, 2013 by mAc Chaos

[Renvalt]

I had to laugh. So I'm not the only one that remembers.

I laughed too once I got what you meant. I didn't think anyone cared enough to remember that - it's not exactly a legacy I'm fond of.

In any case, thanks for all the words of wisdom.

[Moy_X7]

Think of it like this: you can't use tools you don't have to win, no matter how seriously you're taking a match. When you're starting out, you have to acquire some of those tools before you can become competitive in any real sense. Playing to win before you have the skills to win is counterproductive, and there are a lot of skills you need to win in FGs that aren't obvious on a first, second, or hundredth glance; I definitely still lack quite a few myself. When you're learning, acquiring tools and skills has to come second to winning, whether you like it or not. If you don't play to learn now, you'll never be able to play to win later.

My thoughts exactly

Work on your execution, the system basics, your fundamentals, and get acquainted with frame data (or at least learn when you can push a button or punish something) before you even think about fighting, let alone winning.

As for your mentality, I kinda agree and kinda disagree. As of now, I play with that "get serious" kind of mentality, no matter how weaker/stronger my opponent is. It doesn't matter how much weaker my opponent is, I will give it all. Well that's unless they want to screw around at which point I'll follow suit lol. However, if my opponent is giving it their all then so will I, anything other than that will just be an insult to them. I have no problem double perfecting people, in my eyes that's better than sandbagging and trolling.

As for getting angry after getting completely bodied or expecting to win with your current abilities, I suggest you get rid of that mentality. You WILL lose more often than you might win at this point in time. Most of the CSE players have moved on, leaving behind a handful of faithful veterans (or people who have/won't play anything else). You're not going to win against them, you shouldn't even think about winning against them. Take the loss and gain the experience. Gaining experience is much more valuable than adding a win to your record. After enough matches you will come against a player who is weaker than the other player who has been ruthlessly crushing you all this time and say "this guy is nowhere near as good as that other guy, I can take him after all the match-up experience that I've gained."

Before all that, you seriously need to work on the basics. You can't expect to win when you can't even finish your combos, transition from a blocked hit (or two) into the proper block string, learn the reach of your attacks, knowing when you should and shouldn't push buttons, etc.

[Celerity]

Think of it like this: you can't use tools you don't have to win, no matter how seriously you're taking a match. When you're starting out, you have to acquire some of those tools before you can become competitive in any real sense. Playing to win before you have the skills to win is counterproductive, and there are a lot of skills you need to win in FGs that aren't obvious on a first, second, or hundredth glance; I definitely still lack quite a few myself. When you're learning, acquiring tools and skills has to come second to winning, whether you like it or not. If you don't play to learn now, you'll never be able to play to win later.

Bold part is meant to be the other way around, right?

But I agree. Play to learn, not to win. Set goals for yourself and try to improve in one small area at a time, and be happy with those small improvements regardless of your W/L.

[Rhiya]

Err, I derped. Gonna edit that. >_>

That's what I get for writing it at 5 AM.

[DerQ]

There's one thing that can really help you enjoy more the game if you get pissed off for trying to play seriously and win. Try splitting your game sessions into "serious" and "fun games". Day 9 talked a lot about this for starcraft 2. If you only play seriously, you are draining a lot of the enjoyment that could be achieved out of the game. Your enjoyment is based on the result so if you don't have the result, you lose love and will to keep going. I've been there when I attributed value to my ranking points in SF4.

So how do you deal with it? simple, decide what's your mindset for a certain set of matches. It's OK to have some games that you don't care for the result or what happens. A good example on how to turn off the seriousness is picking up a sub character to just mess around with. Cooling off the temper and sustained periods of seriousness will make the matches you chose to play seriously less demotivating and hard on yourself.

It's also OK to take a break every now and then. So long as you have the will to keep playing, all of these temper related issues will be a thing of the past

And other people have said it already, but small goals for casual matches will make you improve much more steadily. Small goals = precise action to be focused on while playing to improve one aspect of your gameplay. It should start as simple as say "I want to be thinking a lot about using anti-airs to improve my defense" for example. Play a week, maybe 2 only thinking about that and before you know it, it becomes second nature and you'll be aware that this very precise aspect of your game improved. Seeing small improvements happen often is a great fuel to keep going. Eventually, it'll be something more complex and you can even find new goals according to your previous one. For example, "I want to convert counter-hits anti-airs into a better combo with good knockdown".

Edited August 8, 2013 by DerQ

[Dazardz]

Nothing wrong with that, You'll get better in time man.

Do you watch Jourdals channel btw? That really helps me, I look for videos of Pro Bang players, and just 100% steal combos + setups.

"I look for videos of Pro Bang players, and just 100% steal combos + setups."

Sounded funny when I read it, but yeah, that's a good idea too.

Usually whenever I had a huge streak of losing, I would just stay in training mode for a couple of days. After that, your less tense and you actually might play a little better, sometimes we just need a break.

But then, if your losing to people using stylish mode, it could just be the matchup(the character is far better than the one your playing.) At that point, you choose to play to win, or play to have fun.

If you play to win, you'll choose top tier characters(and keep on becoming better until your on top), if you you play to have fun, you'll choose your favourite character. If you want to do both, just learn your favourite character REALLY WELL, stay in training mode for hours and hours. I actually did that with Lambda, and also looked at some pro players, and you can be one of the best with a mid to low-tier character. (I'm still not as half as good as most people though.)

Edit:

But playing for fun can feel nice sometimes. I use Lambda-11, so when I know I can't win, I just run away and spam the taunt button or a move that you'll never hit the opponent with. It IS stupid, but if you know you can't win but you keep taking your opponent seriously, your going to lose.

So if your on Player Match, I'd just mess around for the rest of that round instead of mashing buttons harder when your about to lose. You'll be a little more calm for the next match, it should help you.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Dazardz

[Renvalt]

"I look for videos of Pro Bang players, and just 100% steal combos + setups."

Sounded funny when I read it, but yeah, that's a good idea too.

Usually whenever I had a huge streak of losing, I would just stay in training mode for a couple of days. After that, your less tense and you actually might play a little better, sometimes we just need a break.

But then, if your losing to people using stylish mode, it could just be the matchup(the character is far better than the one your playing.) At that point, you choose to play to win, or play to have fun.

If you play to win, you'll choose top tier characters(and keep on becoming better until your on top), if you you play to have fun, you'll choose your favourite character. If you want to do both, just learn your favourite character REALLY WELL, stay in training mode for hours and hours. I actually did that with Lambda, and also looked at some pro players, and you can be one of the best with a mid to low-tier character. (I'm still not as half as good as most people though.)

Edit:

But playing for fun can feel nice sometimes. I use Lambda-11, so when I know I can't win, I just run away and spam the taunt button or a move that you'll never hit the opponent with. It IS stupid, but if you know you can't win but you keep taking your opponent seriously, your going to lose.

So if your on Player Match, I'd just mess around for the rest of that round instead of mashing buttons harder when your about to lose. You'll be a little more calm for the next match, it should help you.

I've never really felt like any of my gameplay improved when I went back into training mode. I don't feel depressed or weighed down by my losses after a while, though I just can't see myself being happy from giving it any less than my absolute best.

I mean, right now my absolute biggest desire is to beat everyone here that's given me advice (Airk, Yuki, StarDemon, etc), but I know (and have known for a while now) that as I stand I'll just lose if I even attempt. And if I can't even beat someone using Stylish Mode (or even the CPU on a difficulty other than Beginner) then I clearly won't be able to win even two loss breakers (which is my goal for the time being - don't aim for huge win streaks, just try to break loss streaks with sporadic wins) against you guys.

The longer I maintain a loss streak, the worse it gets. I can't just "stop" and have fun, as that would mean I'd have to put getting better on hold - and in that time, you guys could get even farther than I am now, forcing me to work harder to close the skill gaps between myself and aforementioned Dustloopers.

And just to clarify: I'm not aiming to beat you guys so that you'll respect me or anything like that; I'm simply wanting to win to gain confidence and get over my grudge against losing to you all. Yet I'm willing to admit that I'm a scrub right now (though admitting that is very shameful for me, as this doesn't seem to be a place that really takes delight in BlazBlue scrubs).

'Course what do I know? I'm just a scrub - I'm not showing effort on getting better at the game, and I'm not having any fun losing. Why should I question you, who know it all and can at least hold your own out there in tournament level play (and take tons of losses like Terminator takes bullets)?

I'm more or less mad at myself for thinking I shouldn't suck so bad and feeling "entitled" to a specific speed of progress, then realizing I'm not getting what I felt "entitled" to and throwing a fit because of it. I'm not having fun whether it's the scrub kind or the play2win kind (both for different reasons).

EDIT: FYI, I am enjoying playing BlazBlue to some degree, as I haven't even touched SF4 or GG compared to BB, and the only other fighter I can stand to touch in my PS3 library is Arcana Heart 3 (and I suck at that game too, but I strangely keep playing it along with this). So I AM having fun with this game - I just can't figure out why.

Edited August 10, 2013 by Renvalt

[DerQ]

I've been there, more than once. Especially when I netplayed and put in value to the stats offered in game.

See, wanting to win is your goal, yet you voice that you lose. In that sense losing is a problem right? A problem can be fixed by a solution that can be applied wouldn't you say? What's the solution to stop losing? It's a problem and goal so vague that you will never find one direct solution to resolve your problem. Split into smaller parts, there's a reason you lose matches and there's things you can do about these smaller details. I don't know what applies to you most because it depends on your playstyle, character, etc. But a simple example would be "I'm not optimizing combos, if I count the amount of times I've hit my opponents in that last match compared to them, I could have won with better combos". Again, this is not aimed towards you in particular, but it shows that some aspect of your gameplay is lacking and that you can aim towards fixing these problems by realizing it. You don't have combos? Practice some in training, go learn them online, practice against bots (moving opponents) and try as much as possible to be actively thinking about it during matches.

When you break down the reasons why you're not performing well and/or winning into smaller problems with better defined available solutions, you gain assets as a player, as a *insert character name* main, etc. These games will test a lot of your assets as such and you can choose to work towards improving or gaining them. From it, you'll notice it's a much more linear approach to improving than wishing to win. When you learn something and apply it in matches, you'll notice something else comes along that you should improve. "I want to convert my combos into knockdown" will naturally lead into "But what do I do after knockdown? What is my safest option to keep the pressure when my opponent wakes up?" and from there you start improving parts of your gameplay.

It's a long process, but before you know it, players you couldn't beat are suddenly tied to you even though you weren't thinking about winning or that wasn't your current goal. BTW, stay mad at yourself for being entitled to progress, this is a good sign. Your ego doesn't like the state you find yourself at and it itches you to do something about it. Now what will you do about it? If I may suggest, go play someone that you can have a light chat with afterwards and ask them what's wrong with how you played or what was it that they exploited to win. They'll tell you something, w/e it is and you can make it your current goal for improvement if it's not too big to focus on. Or you can even break it down into something smaller short term goals. From there, spend a week just focusing on that or two if you need. I'll guarantee you that this will lead to more results than wishing to break losing streaks. When you take a retrospective over yourself after a while, you'll realize how much you gained in a defined amount of time. There's also critique threads in character forums for you to post your matches if you can and people knowledgeable about your character will help you better direct your flow of improvement.

[Solless]

How to address this.

There is nothing we can say nor do to help you get out of this mentality if you're going to set yourself into this way stubbornly. I have had these moments too. Games never go my way and I feel like whatever hobbies I might have I will never get better at or will always suck at. After all, hobbies are for people to enjoy and to help improve themselves in some way. It's a horrible feeling, and I end up getting angry at anyone near me.

I don't know if you've played any of these people and have lost, but you have to get back on the horse with a fresh mind. Doesn't matter how long it takes to get back on as long as you do. Get a mic, find others that have one, joke around in matches. Laugh, (lightly) poke fun and get the same (light) treatment back. You're stressing yourself out so much because this is more than a game to you, but also because (I think) that you're having no verbal communication with other players during matches. From the very few tournaments and little scenes I've been to, having people around to talk about what just happened right then and there is something SO different that sitting in your house playing the game with Ishiwatari music blaring. Try it, you might find yourself once again happy and more relaxed.

After all, if you're going into a game so sure you'll fail that you're in like a depressive trance, then yeah. You're most likely going to fail and just stay feeling depressed.

P.S. Yes, I know my thoughts and posts are at times a jumbled mess. Please bear with me.