'Sorry, I'm New and Bad. I Don't Want to Waste Your Time' | Dealing with Competitive Anxiety

streamed Jan. 26, 2021

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Editing/Thumbnail by Magic Moste:

#FGC

[kevinrivera]

“Look at the handshake... you’ll notice their hands are shaking” -Sajam

[someguymalleth]

"Did I teabag him? Absolutely" Sajam a real bro.

[joshuaworden]

My first week of Runeterra, I got matched against Hafu in ranked. Turns out she was streaming in front of like 20, 000 people. Some days you're the hammer, some days you're the nail.

[zeato]

"The pleasure of the game must remain greater than the pressure of the game." - Jean Francois Menard

[Athorment]

PPMD: "Ideally, you want to play anyone in Melee.

From less skilled players you can practice consistency in your execution

From higher skilled players you can recognize exploitable habits in your defensive play

From those the same skill as you you can put everything together"

[adams]

The glorious paradox of the FGC is that it's the most directly-competitive, cutthroat genre of multiplayer game.... that lives and dies based on its members being friendly, generous, and kind to each other.

[Nestix_the_stupid_one]

"If someone is hitting rematch against you again and again, you're not wasting their time"
This made me remember something. In the last beta of gg strive, i busted my ass to get my potemkin to level 70 and hit 10th floor, and on the last day of beta just chilled out at a park. A nago player came up to me and i could tell he didn't have a lot of experience with the game. Didn't punish a lotta stuff, kept getting punished by pot buster, etc. However, every single time he lost, he hit rematch instantly. He kept doing it every time. And the boy was fucking learning. Backdashing my pot busters, anti-airing megafist, grabbing hammer fall, it was a joy to watch. And, even after dozens of losses, he kept rematching. We ended up with a 53-10 score in my favor. Yes, this boy rematched me 63 whole ass times. And after those matches, i got out of the battle station, bowed to him, thanked him for the matches and was ready to go to sleep. And then, can you guess what happened? I got a fucking ps4 message from him THANKING ME for rematching him so many times. He said it was a great learning experience, and that every time he learned how to deal with something, i'd always pull out a new gimmick for him to counter. Told me he one day wanted to play pot like i do. I'm only 18 years old but god DAMN did i feel like such a proud father to that boy :')

[dpedreno]

Just imagine you're Perfect Legend, who has the whole community constantly reminding him that he lost 13-0 in a FT10. He still plays, he still competes. Few people give him credit for that level of resilience, tho.

[notapplicable]

I am not a fighting game player, I've always watched FGC content, but this is the primary reason why I have not played yet. This video really helped me out.

[Revengeance_tk]

I was in Band all throughout middle school and high school and before one of my first performances, I told my band director i was really nervous and he told me something that as always stuck with me and I taken with me in my FG career.

“You never get comfortable with performing, you just become comfortable with being terrified.”

[Eggrolls]

I used to be like this until my friend who kept bodying me a while back when I was new to melty said a phrase that stuck with me. "Different shades of grey. We're all bad, even I'm bad. Some are more talented than others and that's ok. Strive to be better, not to be the best." Now I'm really good at many fighting games SOLELY because of that phrase.

[SuperBeast]

If there's one thing dudes need to start understanding, in life in general, it's how absolutely ELATED a lot of other guys get to teach you something you actually want to learn. Fr it's like being a dad but only the fun parts. Imagine literally anything you're good at, and then meeting someone like 2 years younger than you that asks you about that thing out of genuine curiosity. Your soul lights up, I promise. Don't be afraid to be the one asking for help learning

[FGCErrorRick]

Just started playing Guilty Gear for the first time like 2 days ago and have just been in training mode the whole time so I think I'm absolutely relating to this. Always good to be reminded I'm not alone in trying something new.

[doolioart]

I remember my late mentor in the atelier used to say "you're not creating a masterpiece, let it go" whenever someone was too timid with their studies or indecisive when they need to fix a mistake they realized they've made etc. And, that's a good reminder, even if it's from a different field. When you're a beginner, the anxiety is surely there, but you should remind yourself that your goals at that particular moments aren't exactly to be tight and highly competitive as if you were at a tournament. Then you'll start to relax and actually work on things that are important to you as a player at that given moment.
Though, today, another notion is also possible: the prevalence of social media and interconnectedness. I think someone's anxiety might be exacerbated by that. As you said, you can run into a streamer or someone eager to put you on their twitter highlight or whatever. So, that might play a part in the whole thing.

[qedsoku]

Teaching beginners is one of the best parts of fighting games

[thrillhouse]

I feel that anxiety whenever I boot up an online game, to me it’s way less awkward in person cause you can actually see them and joke and talk etc.

[FLMaxler]

Ik im 3 years late, but the FGC, i think, is the only place i can see a huge ranked player, ask them for tips, and not only do they give me tips for their character, who im trying to learn, but when i offer to fight, they said "fuck yeah", kicked my ass, turned around (metaphorically) snd said the most genuenine ggs in the world

[JPROP-vbsv]

When you play any fighting game just try to learn something with every match. The only time winning matters is in tournaments

[Triggerhappy]

"I'm garbage, I'm messing up, I'm wasting everyone's time"

Me in literally every aspect of my life.

[Pine_Quest]

There was a session of TFH that made me swear off the competitive scene, at least temporarily.
When the game was in its earlier stages, I played a lot and was decently skilled. I could stand my ground with a lot of the grind heavy players when I started to play. After a couple of months, I was up there with some of the more skilled players. I took a huge hiatus because I had to move and figure out life.
I came back to the back to the game and saw one of the regular players again. I set up to play him, knowing that I would get smashed. He played a best of 3 with me, took his W, and then hard left the game.
TFH has voice chat, and after the match, this happened:
“GG, dude.” I said, taking my L with grace.
“Yeah, you’re just not good at all.” he replied
“Yeah I’m aware, I’m rusty and you’re better than me, ”
“Yeah, uh-huh, phew you’re just, uhh...”
“I mean, I didn’t expect to win, I just wanted to play to fight a higher level player.”
“Yeah... uh huh ggs I guess.”
He then walked his online avatar off of the screen, so far off the of the screen that I was no longer in his view- despite the majority of the other players being in our original vicinity.
This is the sort of attitude that discourages people from getting into fighting games/fighting better players. PPMD of the Melee community even said that fighting people of higher skill is great for building defense/counterplay options. Unfortunately, you got people who feel like you are a waste of time.
Better players, offer words of advice and encouragement to those who aren’t that good. Tell them what they are doing right. Give them tools and help reinforce their love for the game- it’s the only way the community gets better.