How to handle losing?

GAP

Nobody likes to lose at most things especially in fighting games, it is hard to not get destroyed in arcades or online with expert players. It is an awful feeling even if you did all that practice, learned form your mistakes, improve your game and still lo to a better a player. We all want to win but in a fighting game (or any other game for that matter), someone is going to lose. With that said, how to you guys handle losing?

Cyberfrost849

Every single loss I have ever had since i started playing was always about having a learning experience. What moves did I lose to? How did my opponent beat me with them? What can my character do to overcome those challenges??? To NOT get frustrated at this game, you need to rid the scrubby mentality of simply blaming the game, saying turtling is cheap and you should walk forward, no.

My own personal mindset is that there are NO excuses for losing in a fighting game. I'm glad I got into fighting games when I did over how it's (usually) a 1v1 format, can't blame other players, can't blame a *bad team-mate* it's all on YOU. Yeah there might be factors like match-ups and all that but it is 100% on the PLAYER to prep for the bad match-ups, the good ones, the *5-5's*, or more if you want a pocket char to counter-pick certain match-ups with. All that knowledge you GAIN from losing time and time again from playing under pressure and playing good players determines whether or not you gain the W or hold that L in a real tournament.

And you know what? From what i hear of alot of top players, you have to respect the game, to LOVE the game. Be it a win, a loss, no matter what. You'll have to look through the downsides that some people may play "cheap" or so and so, and you just have to take the game as it is...

Raas

95% of the time, a lot of subtle hints about the just. BLATANT homosexuality. of my opponent.

The other 5% is putting the match into focus. Thinking carefully about what was giving you problems and how you can deal with it. Practicality wise I find that given that mindset to improve people should never get to uppity, but in practice it happens to all of us. Frustration I find stems from a couple of sources, an inability to quickly conceive of a way to defeat a tactic (das so cheap!), an inability to execute your own tactic (you got so lucky!) or an inability to perceive your situation (he's just mashing...). When faced against things that are out of our immediate control its natural to lash out at the cause of it all (especially in the cade where you might not get to run it back even if you DID see something) - I suppose just keep in mind that there are things you can do, even if its not right at that moment. Ultimately you just have to take your time and recognize it as a learning situation. As they say, "A not totally made up and very high percentage of our learning in life is done through failure". I'm guessing 40 batillon.

fizzywoemac

Id say the best way to deal with loses is to have a laid back approach to the game. Whenever you are playing just make sure that you remember that you are playing first and foremost for your own enjoyment, this should not stem simply from winning but from playing. Don't go into matches with the expectation that you are better than any given player, if you go in expecting yourself to easily win against an opponent it makes losing that much worse. Something that goes along with this is just being easy on yourself. Don't beat yourself up if you lose, it will make your playing worse and just add a level of stress you don't need to your future games (it also won't make you any better). Just accept you are going to lose, a lot. Its really not that bad if you can just roll with it. If someone starts beating you repeatedly then you'll be able to start experimenting and seeing if you can come up with a game plan that leads to victory. This is what leads to improvement, and eventually, winning. Just relax and remember you aren't the only one that has ever lost, anyone who is any good at any of these games has lost plenty..

kevfactor

send hateful xbox live messages and use that hate to make you play better!

Squire Grooktook

Trouble Brewing

Raas, post: 7342993, member: 4970 wrote:

95% of the time, a lot of subtle hints about the just. BLATANT homosexuality. of my opponent.

So. Salty. lol.

shin neferio

Raas, post: 7342993, member: 4970 wrote:

95% of the time, a lot of subtle hints about the just. BLATANT homosexuality. of my opponent.

hahahaha dead on

SmokeMaxX

I think it's childish to use homosexuality as an insult. That's like using something racist or sexist as an insult.

Anyway, there's really no point being really mad when you lose. Want to know why you lost? Someone outplayed you. I don't care if he/she did wake up Ultra, mashed buttons with Dark Phoenix, did st. jab pressure in SFxT, etc. Whatever they did, you couldn't beat it. You just have to learn from the experience and get better. If you think you're the best, win tournaments. Otherwise, take the losses and learn from them.

rcorporon

Learn from it and try to avoid doing whatever you did that caused you to lose anymore.

midnightgreen20

Win or lose, every match is a learning experience. If you go in with that mindset, you'll never be driven crazy by a loss.

kimo_kata

Or you can just mash next fight out of pure rage.

yomipower

Throw a hissy fit, also your controller.

Dr.Continuum

Pillow, face, aargh.

eltrouble

GAP, post: 7342923, member: 60824 wrote:

Nobody likes to lose at most things especially in fighting games, it is hard to not get destroyed in arcades or online with expert players. It is an awful feeling even if you did all that practice, learned form your mistakes, improve your game and still lo to a better a player. We all want to win but in a fighting game (or any other game for that matter), someone is going to lose. With that said, how to you guys handle losing?

This is the early stages of saltitus. This is how it SHOULD go for every new player:

1. Practice your game.
2. Now you think you're hot shit.
3. Show up to an offline casual or tournament session.
4. Go 0-2.
5. Get sad, mad, all that shit, but hopefully you get motivated.
6. Repeat steps 1-3
7. Win your first match.
8. Pop off. Preferably insult their lack of ability, hygiene, looks, or mental intelligence. Insulting their family members, both immediate and extended, is not encouraged, but accepted.
9. Proceed to go 1-2 in the tournament.

Rinse and repeat until you win money.

On a serious note, if you get outplayed by a better player, you got outplayed. It just means you gotta step your shit up, practice harder, and add his name on the list of people you can beat. Nobody became a better player because they were happy all the time.

Get mad, get driven, and get to training.

doubleoh

Go back to a game you run the hood in so you get your confidence back. When I lose a lot, I play a few rounds of Halo and feel better immediately. Haha.

Tebbo

chuckle and roll your eyes.

grabczas

If I play online and I'm only loosing I'm start with being sad, then salty then I'm getting mad nad if I want to throw out my PS3/AS trough the window I don't play anymore that day sometimes even for few days.

If its offline play then it's easier to handle in most cases because when I play with people I know most of them just try to point what I did good, what bad and I can handle a lot more loosing ;) Also my favorite sparring partners always try to cheer me up when I start to be salty ^^

GordonsBeard

Figure out the best way to murder someone through sheer mental willpower.

Sehnder

Reasonable expectations. When I first started off and could not win a round for the life of me, I made small goals against my opponents. It started very basic with things like "don't get perfected", then "take him down to at least half", and finally "steal one round from him."

I've gotten to the point now where a reasonable expectation is that I have a chance to win any fight if I play my cards right, even if the deck is stacked against me. But that took a long time playing to get there. Beating myself up over losing to incredible players back when I had a 10% shoryuken accuracy rate simply wasn't productive.

Circus

I looked at the win/loss ratio of the top player of the leaderboards on BBCS a few months ago. He had won like 6000 matches, but he had lost almost 2000. He had lost more matches than I have ever played online of BBCS, by a mile. Whenever I lose now, I think about that win/loss number and two things go through my head: I realize how many losses it takes to be incredible and I am super happy that I won't be spending that much time playing a game. Really though, if you're really dedicated to this stuff (or any endeavor,) you have to put in your time and pay your failure dues. C'est la vie.

Circus

Also, In fighting games it is a lot more blatantly obvious that you lost. In an online halo game, you can accidentally kill like 10 people with grenades and rocket launchers or whatever but in fighting games you have (usually) 2-3 rounds. You don't accidentally win either of them against a competent opponent. It looks worse than it would in other games, but really its just how it goes. Even daigo and sako lose. Don't even sweat it, next game. BOOM.

Havatchu

Pick Yun.

Intuitive2011

I got my ass kicked by Alioune today in UMVC3, but, for me, it was a beautiful learning experience. I see a loss as showing you EXACTLY where you're going wrong. In my case it was my poor team composition. It's only a loss when you DON'T learn from it, remember that.

ExtremeYoshiFan

For me, it's more of an "Aww man... I didn't win. But it was a good match, so I had fun." From there I move on, and start another. It's all it really takes to keep going. Let me put it this way, you are going to suck at this game at some point, and you won't actually become good until somebody much better pummels you and you'll see why you aren't doing so hot.

It sucks losing a match if you take it the wrong way, but if you shrug it off and move on it's a lot easier to lose. Don't hate and don't be salty about it, it will make future matches harder.

Here's a checklist for you:
[ ] Did I give it my all?
[ ] Do I know where I went wrong?
[ ] Is it something I can work on?

If yes to all of the above, then you have successfully lost a match in a productive manner. Play a few more matches if it was an issue with your thinking, if it was execution related, maybe hop into training and do some fine tuning. That should be enough to get you feeling better about your losses and makes it a lot easier. Sometimes you will do everything right and you will lose, just because the other player put in more time or is better at the game, but there is something to learn from those matches as well. You can see how they act and maybe try to incorporate it into your play style.

Sephz

I jus try to learn from the loss and change accordingly

RamRamStyles

I don't mind losing against people who are better than me, and neither should you.

However, losing against someone because of something random or because of a shitty matchup can get extremely frustrating and it's something I'm still working on. I try to take a break as soon as I start to get annoyed.

0chocolachao0

I cry.

J.D

People who beat you spent just a much time practicing and improving their technique as you did, probably a lot more.

shin neferio

ive never once in all my gaming years run into this mysterious and legendary opponent who is humbled in losing his match against me, that everyone in this thread is whispering about.

HexSells

It depends on how/what I lose to.

If I lose to someone who is actually good, I obviously don't mind and actually enjoy it. Granted...it's not fun at all if someone is just TOO good and you literally can't do anything at all. I still maintain composure and at least try to have fun if that's the case, however.

If I lose to something gimmicky, someone who got lucky or online lag, I get pretty frustrated.

Now, if I lose to myself, aka not pulling off combos and generally playing shitty and doing things that make no sense, I get pissed. Why? Because I know I can play better than that and to lose to myself is embarrassing.

Bakuhakubasugasu

Handling losing is easy. Handling salt is on a whole new level.

TheBigVirgo983

whenever i had those days in third strike: OE when everyone kicks my ass, I usually start by putting the game down. then i realize that fighting games would be pretty boring if i beat every person i came across.

EMR

I just send hatemail who the fuck cares about respect. I keep that OG mentality that your opponent is not your fucking buddy. Allows me to blow off some steam without me breaking a fucking door or some expensive object in the proccess. Its gratifying to body that scrub's shit once you insult him. Double profit.

doubleoh

I go over the match in my head, analyzing what happened and where I failed, where there was pattern I didn't pick up on, etc. and I tell myself "next time he does XYZ, I'll do this instead!"

Thinking you're gonna do better next time and preparing yourself for it helps a lot. Further, a great way to look at those really tough opponents is people you can learn from. They are already good, right? Good enough to beat you. That means you can only get better while he can't. If he could, it would only be marginally. I think that helps.

EMR

doubleoh, post: 7366426, member: 69866 wrote:

I go over the match in my head, analyzing what happened and where I failed, where there was pattern I didn't pick up on, etc. and I tell myself "next time he does XYZ, I'll do this instead!"

Thinking you're gonna do better next time and preparing yourself for it helps a lot. Further, a great way to look at those really tough opponents is people you can learn from. They are already good, right? Good enough to beat you. That means you can only get better while he can't. If he could, it would only be marginally. I think that helps.

I don't waste my time reasoning with scrub gameplay online....they mostly get lucky and win. If you played right and still lost to online bullshit then fuck it. Hatemail that bitch! I used to be like you until I realized that drove me crazy with the amount of idiocy and latency abuse you well to see online...

HNIC Mike

i think you mostly have to drop your ego and the feeling that you are entitled to wins. in every loss try to understand that there are things you could have done better to change the outcome

Evansgambit

I lose all the time at my local arcades. To be fair, their stick setup is horrid. Not even Sanwa parts or a Japanese ball top stick. The equipment I play at home is superior, but I'm not good enough to adapt to the foreign controls. Doesn't mean I would actually win, but the match would be more closer for me! LOL

I embrace the same Street Fighter policy as my real money poker policy. After the game is over, walk over to them, smile and say "Good Game" and MEAN IT. True players respect that. I don't have an ego and I'm not upset with loses. Every time I fall off the horse, I get back on the horse.

I've made so many friends at the local arcade scene because of this positive attitude. Well worth it. Never take it personal, and always show respect. "Good Game"

And yes, I'm traditional and observe the mercy rule. Because people's coins are at stake. I don't expect a mercy round in return, but I always give a mercy round. ALWAYS!!! Practice some FADC absorbs, blocking and build meter :-)

True Grave

Nobody likes getting their ass kicked. I know some like to spin it like they've attained some zen-like state of mind, and its all a learning experience regardless. However, that has its limits and they ARE going to be irked if they lose enough. Theres nothing wrong with this however, and its a fundamental part of what drives us to be better. Show me someone who honestly is not bothered by losing and i'll show you a casual player that doesn't really give a damn. Point is this is normal.

To further beat a dead horse, one could argue that if you don't rage at the game every now and then, then you didn't really give a damn and need to go play something ELSE.

GAP, post: 7342923, member: 60824 wrote:

Nobody likes to lose at most things especially in fighting games, it is hard to not get destroyed in arcades or online with expert players. It is an awful feeling even if you did all that practice, learned form your mistakes, improve your game and still lo to a better a player. We all want to win but in a fighting game (or any other game for that matter), someone is going to lose. With that said, how to you guys handle losing?

You just gotta accept that its going to happen a LOT in whatever fighting game you're attempting till learn until you get better. AKA: Desensitize yourself.

Or if you're a masochist like me and insist on only playing a game that largely resembles rock/paper/scissors, where the winner is not necessarily the better player, but who just got the jump on the other first and killed in one combo(you know the game i mean).

Then you definitely have to get used to losing more often than you'd like.

D.R.E.

you have to grow a thick layer of numbness to losing if you want to play fighting games..

losses come way too frequently to get super mad everytime...my blood pressure cant take it..

so I learned how to keep it moving

Tig3r-san

You need the right BGM when you notice that you're losing

SpaceOutNightmare

Hold that shit.

petran79

SpaceOutNightmare, post: 7575894, member: 74440 wrote:

Hold that shit.

there is also a SF4 mod that shows this message whenever you lose.

Kikuichimonji

GAP, post: 7342923, member: 60824 wrote:

Nobody likes to lose at most things especially in fighting games, it is hard to not get destroyed in arcades or online with expert players. It is an awful feeling even if you did all that practice, learned form your mistakes, improve your game and still lo to a better a player. We all want to win but in a fighting game (or any other game for that matter), someone is going to lose. With that said, how to you guys handle losing?

I'd rather play players better than me, lose, and get better than play players worse than me, win, and not get better.

I like losing. It means there's room for improvement. I get a chance to step it up.

What really ticks me off is when I think I'm stagnating and not getting better even though I have competition. Which probably means I'm losing a lot to the same people. And there's only one solution to that: stop doing the things that make me lose, and start doing the things that make me win.

Lazarus_Stone

I love losing. When I play some beast way beyond my understanding of the game I know I'm breaking through success barriers just trying to get some chip damage on them. It sucks when people stuff you while they send you mail about how bad you suck, and you should stop playing. If awesome players will wafflestomp me for an hour without berating me I'm having a good time.

Bakuhakubasugasu

Losing makes you better. Make sure you pick up those tears, excuses and salt. Hit the lab, train and make a comeback and give those things back to the one who gave you them.

Lazarus_Stone

Lazurus Stone: Hey! Have any tips or corrections you can give me?
Some beast: UR A FAG
Laz: Cool, dude! Do you think you could rock that combo and perfect me for another hour?
Beast: *grunt* KFAG
Laz: Thanks man!

Gotta deal with the BS.

petran79

I was playing KOF2001 and I had no chance at all. the opponent either used that devastating Benimaru combo or when he switched opponents he used the Bao glitch and I couldnt do anything.



I'd hate to win games in that fashion though. There is a line I like to draw. Out of respect I kept playing. Even if I could deplete half its energy it was a success.

Kikuichimonji, post: 7586046, member: 11194 wrote:

I'd rather play players better than me, lose, and get better than play players worse than me, win, and not get better.

I like losing. It means there's room for improvement. I get a chance to step it up.

What really ticks me off is when I think I'm stagnating and not getting better even though I have competition. Which probably means I'm losing a lot to the same people. And there's only one solution to that: stop doing the things that make me lose, and start doing the things that make me win.

If you know the basics and can pull out some good stuff, then you could play with players of your level too. there is nothing wrong with that. Besides, winning or losing because of the smallest details has also its charm, rather than wait the opportunity to beat one player once in 200 games.

Artiskan

In my case, my ability to deal with losing comes from my childhood of always being beaten in fighting games by my brother...he never taught me and i never learned until years later....now he won't play but i guess environmental conditioning played a part of how losing nowadays doesn't matter much to me...then again i haven't been to a tournament in quite awhile and what's at stake in online matches is usually nothing...i still feel that you can learn more from losing than u ever can from winning...and to me, that's one of the overall goal of any competitive game or life experience....

Kikuichimonji

petran79, post: 7587478, member: 51716 wrote:

If you know the basics and can pull out some good stuff, then you could play with players of your level too. there is nothing wrong with that. Besides, winning or losing because of the smallest details has also its charm, rather than wait the opportunity to beat one player once in 200 games.

If you're not playing for immediate fun and you're not playing in a tournament, I think you always want the best opponent possible. Good players expose your bad habits before they become critical, they teach you things about the matchup that you might never learn against a weaker player, and they give you experience in understanding the other opponent's mindset.

petran79

Kikuichimonji, post: 7588472, member: 11194 wrote:

If you're not playing for immediate fun and you're not playing in a tournament, I think you always want the best opponent possible. Good players expose your bad habits before they become critical, they teach you things about the matchup that you might never learn against a weaker player, and they give you experience in understanding the other opponent's mindset.

dont disagree but how much is enough?
sometimes you have to start on your own and learn to correct your mistakes by yourself and have your own style, even if you lose. there will always be better players
you can lose forever. but it is up to the individual to decide when he learned enough and has to stop.