I have a friend who is a huge fan of competitive Street Fighter. He watches all of the streams, knows the names of the pro players and has a general understanding of how the game works. His love for the scene has permeated beyond viewing other people play it, as he bought his first fightstick to get in on the action.
However, his actual abilities in the game to-date are limited. Aside from playing casual Street Fighter II as a kid and Street Fighter IV more recently, his overall skill-level is essentially ground zero.
So far, his journey into the FGC has been a brutal one. After suffering a number of defeats playing Street Fighter V online, his interest in playing the game has dropped dramatically. In an attempt to keep his interest alive, I’ve invited him to my house for a one-day training session in the dojo.
Learning how to become competent at fighting games was an agonizing process that was years in the making for me. In hindsight, my progress was extremely slow at the beginning, as I simply didn’t know how to get better. The biggest mistake I made during those early days, and one that I see online players fall into all the time, is having the mindset that the more you play, the better you get. That is a fallacious mentality to have, as I simply played poorly for a long time with no visible signs of improvement.
In Third Person 