Replay overview: UMvC3 playlist is alive!

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3:
One of the more embarrassing hangups with my DVR was that you're supposed to be able to play and record at the same time. I had all the connections hooked up correctly but it would never pass through properly. Finally after breaking frustration and a great deal of time picking through the support articles I redid all the cording. Wala~ it finally works.
TL;DR: I will be posting more UMvC3 stuff now.

Drizzmat(Vergil, Ghost Rider, Hulk) vs Eienhikaru(Trish, Chun-Li, Vergil) Player Match 12/29/2011

I've changed my character order a bit since I've started playing in hopes that the results are a little different. I used to lead with Chun-Li, now I've swapped her with Trish. Admittedly I was a bit preoccupied by the newfound ability to capture matches so the results are not different than before.
If I had to pick out a glaring problem is I'm having difficulty doing M > H > Special between characters. With Trish this only comes out ~25% of the time that I'm hitting the button, so you'll see a lot of M > H > Nothing/Get punished. I also thought walking backwards meant you could block too, I inexplicably get blown up at ~0:59. I have massive trouble trying to move in on Drizzmat's Ghost Rider, it's too bad I don't figure this out until Chun's almost dead.

Drizzmat(Vergil, Ghost Rider, Hulk) vs Eienhikaru(Trish, Chun-Li, Vergil) Player Match 12/29/2011

This match is rather painful to watch mostly because of the lag that went on. The match directly after this we got lagged out of the lobby. Both of us are unable to capitalize on openings, or keep combos up at all. I must have forgotten that Trish was only coming in at less than 50% life, because it looks like an eternity before I start up XFactor.

Eienhikaru(Trish, Chun-Li, Vergil) vs Drizzmat(Vergil, Nemesis, Wesker) Player Match 12/29/2011

The glaring problem with this match is I have massive trouble understanding Nemisis' overall reach. I don't do anything useful until Vergil shows up and is just that tiny bit faster with a dash of reach. Sadly it doesn't save me and once Wesker's tagged in I'm toast.

I get the sense that I'm missing something fundamental with Marvel. Whatever kind of "fighting game instincts" I have obviously aren't translating at all for me. There are some things I've been told as, I'm not using enough assists, or 'I'm not using Wesker,'. The assists I'm still trying to get a grasp on admittedly, I expect to change those around or even my order again. On using Wesker though, call me stubborn, but I'd hope that with a roster of 50 characters I could do better than I am without resorting to tier-whore out on Team Longcoat.
All that being said, feel free to comment here or on the channel on whatever I'm clearly missing out on.

Replay overview, AE2012 freshness.

Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition 2012:
I almost wish SF had more patches because then it means more people would be on! These were from days 1 and 2 of the 2012 patch and probably the best games I've had in a great while. I didn't even have that great a time when AE first came out in June, so overall this was such a good day for SF.

DeadmanHill(T.Hawk) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) 12/13/2011 Ranked Match

This was the first of an 0-2 set for me. I feel like keeping T.Hawk at range for a prolonged amount of time is highly difficult. Some more obvious stuff that I messed up on in this match was:
At ~1:35 I get that 3.JK again, where she does her flip kick. It's supposedly shorter now in AE2012, but I know one of these input errors I'm gonna get punished hard for it. I need to make sure to stay on 2 or 1 to get my normal c.SK instead.
At ~1:41 and ~2:47 I know I wanted to have back jumped, or potentially back-dashed out of that Ultra. I'll need to set up a bot to figure out wtf I'm to do about those.
Overall I don't know if my standing HPs or HKs are supposed make me more impatient or my opponent. After like 2-3 of the same thing I'm ready to go back to a more "normal" combo. In terms of the match up I need to be way more careful of empty jumps into the SPD.

Kyoshingo (Abel) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) 12/13/2011 Ranked Match

1st of a 2-0 match for me. I was initially intimidated by the B rank at first, usually those don't go too well for me. As far as the matchup was concerned, I wanted to control both his rolling and Change of Direction. I also didn't want to carelessly jump into Cartwheel kicks.
He gets in close at ~0:43 and has what was probably a very competent jab/mid combo, I was lucky to trade and get some distance. I'm also falling into a bad auto-pilot of 2-3 c.SK > EX Lightning Kick. I'm really just burning meter for no reason if my hit confirms aren't proper.

enosh84(Gouken) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) 12/13/2011 Ranked Match

Watching this match again is more painful than having lost it I think. Sure I'm playing careful enough to keep out of countering, but as soon as he figures out that isn't working, he just gets in there and destroys me. I could have turned that first match around with just some basic anti-air or getting out of the corner maybe. He gives me 2 free punish opportunities in the second round with those non-jump Tatsumakis, I'm uncertain if he was trying something situational or just forgot that Gouken's version only goes straight up if you start on the ground.
I don't know if I'm misreading health bars or people are just more ballsy than me but he just lets that Super rip at ~1:55 then Focus > Ultra. I was thinking it was going to be a longer round than this. What really floors me (no pun, seriously) is that if you watch when he focuses, it fills the Ultra bar!. WTF - I think I've been missing something for a great while now if that's *always* been the case. Is that what people are doing when the Focus > Dash at mid - long screen are doing is prepping the Ultra bar? I always figured that was just baiting a jump in. Mad props to that meter knowledge.

SnG_619(Sakura) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) 12/13/2011 Ranked Match

I wandered into a raw "Quick Match" on accident and this is the beating I received. As a Sakura user I was glad to see this replay though. I'm more than convinced that this is a perfect example of Plinking. If you're watching SnG's inputs there's a lot of (LP+MP) inputs that do not look like they're meant to trigger a tech rise. You'll also see on that 2.MP killing blow, it's actually a 2.LP+MP. This is worth hitting the lab to see if a non-plinked 2.MP would trump a 2.HK.

battlb3ar(M.Bison) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) 12/13/2011 Ranked Match

M.Bison (Dictator) is a character I don't fight too often either. I find myself going "wtf why didn't that punish?" against Scissor Kicks and slides. One answer might be everyone has been doing the LK version of the Scissor Kick. I don't get to block any slides in this one but I do recall at one point it was punishable, and all of a sudden somewhere that stopped. The match gets a bit evened out as I keep him at mid-long range. However since he did only 2 Psycho Crushers the whole match they effectively blindsided me when he did them.

GosuAlpha1471(Chun-Li) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) 12/13/2011 Ranked Match

I was really excited at this match because there are so few Chun-Li's online, again I do like mirror matches to see how my version of the character measures up to what is out there. Already I have to give props to Gosu's short range stuff. If you've played me enough I'm usually gonna throw or kick you. His was a great mixup of L and MPs. Also for that AA-EX SBK at ~1:02, I rarely use this, mostly as shenanigans or to "style" in a combo. Also his use of the 3.HK crossup kick, it doesn't totally blind side me, but it's good at pinning me down a good deal. I've always considered this move really unsafe so I've never gambled on it as Gosu does. Then again I don't have an Auto-correcting DP to counter it either. I was not expecting the blow-up at ~1:55, that was just amazing. Overall mad props, I clearly have a ways to go with my main.

Cygnus475(M.Bison) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) 12/13/2011 Ranked Match

Somehow I thought this match was a great deal closer, I'm a bit more self-conscious about how many Scissor Kicks and Head Stomps I block with my face in this match. If there is a take-away it's going to be how to deal with Scissor Kicks.

animengames(Chun-Li) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) 12/13/2011 Player Match

Another really good close-range Chun-Li matchup. I was really pushed back at first by the pressure he'd started with. However it seems to even out as I get my more comfortable mid-range back. I drop a few fundamental combos, like in the match with Gosu. Notably I'm missing the ending fireball at ~1:23, and later again at ~1:32. I actually don't know wtf I was not-trying to do, but I get punished for my shitty approach and not expecting that random AA-Ultra.
The fireball > Super at ~2:19 was really surprising and potentially situational. I couldn't tell if a 1.SK got me or the fireball, but it looks like the fireball did actually trump my c.HK. I get the sense he panicked when he realized all that super was burnt out so early in the match, sadly a lot of that catches me off guard and nearly kills me. Yay for not dropping combos at ~2:42! I was initially going for chip with the Ultra so I got lucky that he thought I was going to jump in for the last.

No Apologies Necessary.

Marvel vs Capcom 3
Lately I've been trying to wrap my head around some of the varied aspects of MvC3. Whatever "Street Fighter," approach I've been trying to apply to it has not worked for me at all. While it hasn't been explicit here, I've never really "understood," the game, and it shows; so I'm really just making up for lost play time.
Considering that Ultimate's been out for almost a month now, I accept that a great deal of people have already left the Vanilla scene. The inability to seek out matches with closer rank/skill is nigh impossible, so I'm hoping that the leftover 2 or3 network trophies that hinge on ranked matches will come by luck rather than time.
Tonight I ran into a player that utterly destroyed me - I think what set the match apart, was he really stuck with an extended  6-7 hit 5.L, then finally into the larger set of the combo. It was frustrating, but consistent.
Clearly it was quicker than I gave it credit for, and he just annihilated me. The matchup was on the football player punching a baby level. It was bad sure, but I'm in raw, ranked match territory. I was expecting this from the beginning.
I'll respect it, I know my Marvel is scrubby - but I get a message back from the opponent. I was sort of expecting shit talk "herp derp gb2SSB" or similar, but instead I get this: "sorry i took it out on u" [sic].
I'm still at a loss, I've never been apologized to, certainly not in a fighting game. I won't begrudge him for noting the differences in skill, but my reading of the message is as though he's apologizing for an episode of newb stomping and blowing off steam. Pragmatically, I feel like apologies are misplaced in competitive, PVP games. Anyone who decides to pick up the stick or controller, especially in a fighting game, knows what they're signing on for. This is not a co-op game, we're playing for personal progress and higher numbers. Obviously what your game is and what you're using works, but seriously, keep your apologies for the casuals.

Replay overview, Rust-o-leum edition: SSF4AE, BB:CS2, KOFXIII, and AH3

This week we'll take a look at some replays that happened after Thanksgiving weekend, and see affects new and shiny games do to performance in preceding games.


Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition:

incrospito(Balrog) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-li) Ranked Match 12/04/2011

This match is really indicative of my continued naivete of playing online, mostly holding myself to a "2 out of 3; character locked," ruleset. Obviously this isn't an official tournament or anything so all that goes straight out the window and I really should take that to heart. Just before this match I'd gone 1-1 against his Rufus while the matches were pretty standard, this one he brings out his main chicken and educates me in the Balrog v Chun Li matchup, hard.
Overall comments I have about this are, I get pushed into the corner too easy and I'm too focused on spamming recovery (0:39, and this is off of a throw which doesn't allow me to recover like that anyways ;_; )  rather than trying to think my way through the match. The neutral j.FK's help to break the momentum, but by the time I get them in there, I've already lost a great deal of life to keep up that steam.

ELOCHILOKITO(Adon) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-li) Ranked Match 12/04/2011

After this match I was pretty salty because I made some really newbish mistakes, I missed punishing that Ultra at 1:01, I underestimated too many of his Rising Jaguars, and I really botch an input at ~1:57. 3.Short makes Chun do that flip kick, what I wanted was  2x 2 SK > EX Hyakuretsu > Kikousho. This is a common setup for me and I obviously wasn't keeping track where I was facing.
After watching the replay again, I nearly get a seizure from the spammed inputs and 3xK from ELO, I'm so salty potato chips would be like cotton candy. Was this guy taking bets that he could just spam and beat someone? Someone's kid cousin over for the weekend? This clearly was not a good weekend for me in SSF4, I need to keep to warming up before I hit ranked at the very least because going in cold for these few matches really destroyed me.
 
BlazeBlue: Continuum Shift 2:
There's a misconception, that even I fall into where Player Matches are viewed sort of casual, non threatening, you're just sort of killing time sort of thing. No. This is not the approach anyone should take or have towards player matches.  I ran a BB:CS2 set with SBRS-Bulange recently that was one of the most intense and chaotic sets I've had in forever.

Eienhikaru(Litchi) vs SBRS-Bulange(Lamda 11) Player Match 12/06/2011

This was really good example of the first part of these matches, my execution was non existant, relying on patterns and misjudging throws. However I've improved a smidge about defending that overhead D that sneaks in from behind, and not trying to jump in/over her Spike Chaser. Many of the Litchi vs Lamda matches played out like this one where we're just down to pixels near the end of fight.

Eienhikaru(Litchi) vs SBRS-Bulange(Rachel) Player Match 12/06/2011

One thing about re-learning a patched character is that combos and tech you used before can get scrapped and put you at a handicap. I was heavily reliant on Litchi's Itsuu cancels > Ryuuisou as a use for my heat gauge. Now that I can't do those mid combo anymore these can be sniffed out really easily due to long startup, overall not allowing me to use Heat for anything useful. I was constantly dying at a full heat bar, and not in a position to use it for an astral.
Despite it being a techable combo at ~3:12 that's probably been my best use of Dai-Sharin to date.

Eienhikaru(Litchi) vs SBRS-Bulange(Lamda 11) Player Match 12/06/2011

It's really clear that when I'm at close and short/mid screen I do better, and when I make space or try to use space to my advantage I get out-poked like a mofo.
This really pushed me outside of the "my favorite combo works, so I'm sticking to it," pattern I'm really bad about. I'm beginning to understand that I can't holding generic approach to fighting games, like I'm walking in like I would with an FPS where I have what I have, and the only thing that makes a difference is execution. Matchups matter, and I need to understand that if I'm going to improve.

King of Fighters XIII:
Here are some early replays of KoF XIII, they announced that they're working on a netcode patch so it  makes me happy that I won't have to rely on local play only. With these replays, I'm saddened by the fact that the replay menu doesn't have or display who I fought for the ranked matches. When I get a chance to piece together who I fought I'll update the video details.

Eienhikaru(Athena, Kula, Mai) vs (Kula, Kyo, Iori) Ranked Match 12/01/2011

This was some solid Kula play on the part of my opponent. If I have a choice of hard and light attacks I favor the hard attacks, but clearly with Kula the hard kick version of her Ray Spin just throws her across the screen.

Eienhikaru(Athena, Kula, Mai) vs (Maxima, Yuri, Joe) Ranked Match 12/03/2011

The Yuri I fought in this I swear the player must play an Akuma just from the heavy amount of air fireballs he did. He's also got the black outfit and red hair to boot. At ~3:36 I just started laming it out because I was unable to approach without being forced to block or trade damage.
~5:07 I was so ready to punish that super I managed to cross over but W T F - does the hit box include Joe himself? Sure I screwed up on my input, but I'm clearly behind him anything should have hit even if it wasn't a great punish.

Eienhikaru(Athena, Kula, Mai) vs Drizzmat(Hwa Jai, Yuri, Terry) Player Match 12/05/2011

These next couple replays were my first foray into Player Matches and the lag was really bad, I should probably get a capture with the inputs but I know for sure all the whiffed "neutral" punches from my Athena were supposed to be 2.LK > Psycho Ball.
Hwa *hurts* amg - he fights like a cross between Adon and Gen-an, and those are not characters to be taken lightly either.
Yuri I find hilarious as a character, but she seriously is like the lost, parallel dimensional daughter of Sakura x Dan (...ew, but anyway). The forward moving Cho-Upper and mannerisms are almost distracting to me, just how equally similar she is to Dan and Sakura.

Eienhikaru(Athena, Kula, Mai) vs Drizzmat(King, Mai, Andy) Player Match 12/05/2011

Some really strong King play here Drizzmat, good solid combo into Super at ~0:43.
Mai's Neo Max must have a crazy hit box - I know it can be blocked from the tmes I've been messing around with it in Training. I don't know if you can react-block to it like you can an Ultra from SSF4 or something, like what happened to my Kula at ~3:06, also I don't even see where my Neo Max hit Andy at ~4:49, he couldn't get to the top-right corner any harder and it still hit x_x.
Overall I need to work on my Athena, using her like a weak Ryu just isn't cutting it right now, and learning more painful stuff with Mai or deciding on a stronger, perhaps more intuitive anchor. The best example of this I've seen so far is from CrossCounterAsia's Xian, Watch when his Takuma is rotated in, it's beyond just being a different fighter, he just pours on the hurt.


Arcana Heart 3:

Eienhikaru(Saki) vs Prod7gy(Heart) Ranked Match 12/04/2011

Something a bit different this time around, I put in for a few Ranked Matches in AH3 finally. We play this when we do locals but I've never seriously taken it online until now. I kept running into Prod7gy and everytime we got matched up his Heart would just spam that Heavy attack. I wasn't too sure what was up until I did a bit of searching, it turns out he was doing some AH3 streams that day.
Prod7gy, Good Guy Streamer: Runs Streams - Sets up a free "bot," for players farming Ranked Matches!

Replay overview, WTF Ragna edition SSF4AE and BBCS2.

Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition:
My overall experience with SSF4AE up until recently has been frustrating. I used to get a lot of "couldn't find match," or "unable to join," errors. Not to mention that jumping right into AE when it was fresh really played hell with the rank matchmaking. Only very recently has this started to turn around and I can't put my finger on "why." Perhaps the rankings are a little bit clearer now, or just searching for AE matches alone has helped. I don't know but I've finally pushed past 1.1K PP ranking whereas before this, it was constantly hovering at a 7-800. More importantly I'm gaining more wins than before.

KiD_ShAe(Ibuki) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) 11/20/2011 (Ranked Match)

This match was a very "wait and see," for me. I was expecting way more neckbreakers and attempts to vortex. There were a couple especially during the 2nd match. This was a way more "sedate," Ibuki compared to what I've seen online and even how I play her. I got blown up trying to break blockstrings at ~1:00 and 2:00, this must mean my Tsumuji's aren't coming out fast enough when I try the same setup with Ibuki.
Props to the mad defense at ~1:44, so much for me trying to keep pressure up instead of backing off like I tend to do.

WARBLADE2729(Gouken) vs Eienhikaru(Chun-Li) 11/20/2011 (Ranked Match)

Walking into this match I was expecting parries, so I was hoping to be a little more careful of what I attack with. Sticking with throws and spacing out my attacks in the beginning seemed to work and show that he was a bit too itchy with trying to parry. The biggest blunders on my part was, dropping the ultra at ~1:15, and attempting for chip immediately afterwards. Because no one playing online does wake-up Ultras right? Right? /sigh.
Not punishing anything until I'm 50% down in the third match was down right painful to watch again. I clearly don't fight enough Goukens to know what and how to punish much of what went on.  I probably could have exploited my 2x j.FP more since the second one would break through, but no assurance that could have kept working.

Blazblue Continuum Shift 2
I have a friend who thinks that any SF with Ryu in it has some sort of secret "balancing," that automagically makes Ryu the "best character," in the game, which is all based on him being the canon "main character." After this batch of Ragna replays, I wonder if that theory applies here in Blazblue as well.

Eienhikaru(Litchi) vs Wrath187(Ragna) 11/17/2011 (Ranked Match)

Wrath187 really has this setup down, with what looks like a A > B > C > Dead Spike or Hells Fang, and just various option selects based on screen position if he needs to keep me in the corner or push me into it. The little bit of success I did have was in keeping him at mid/long range while I had Matenbou, and potentially if I was able to respond I should have gone staffless to be a bit quicker. My remaining confusion is why there is a  Dead Spike reset that catches me when I'm caught in the corner. Without the inputs I don't know what I wanted to do or tried to do to respond, but whatever was going on reduced me to being a training dummy or worse.

Eienhikaru(Litchi) vs godoftennis101(Ragna) 11/17/2011 (Ranked Match)

Is 5D supposed to be that versitile?  He dashes and move cancels out of it really well and just beasted me in the corner, especially at 1:10. You might ask why I didn't burst, I honestly didn't think that combo was going to stay up as it did. I need to learn how Counter Assaults happen, so this way I DO NOT repeat what  happened at ~2:00. I spent the rest of the match going "why don't I have meter?" only to watch the replay and go "WTF," all over it.

Eienhikaru(Litchi) vs NiteFlyX(Ragna) 11/17/2011 (Ranked Match)

1st Round turns around on me at ~0:50 both when I drop that air combo and somehow end up with a 4D allowing him to punish me all the way to the other side of the screen. As the match progresses when I rush down I'm constantly eating Inferno Dividers, just because the other Ragnas from earlier didn't use that, doesn't mean I shouldn't watch out for it I suppose. If I could pick out the differences between this and the earlier matches was mostly because I was able to keep my range while staffed, and he wasn't nearly as normal or Hell's Fang happy as the other Ragnas.

Eienhikaru(Litchi) vs godoftennis101(Ragna) 11/17/2011 (Ranked Match 2)

Well one of the color changes worked in my favor lol. Keeping more of my distance might have been the only part that helped in this fight, and not trying to go for that Astral or a flashy DD at the last.

I get the sense that the Litchi vs Ragna matchup has changed. I'll have to look into that because ever since CS2's release, I have little response or defense against a Ragna that's in my face constantly with Hells Fang. I need to be able to respond effectively when I lose ground, either by pushing them back or going staffless. Overall my reliance on Ittsu's invincibilty is too high, more often than not it was a misread on my part that got me punished. I think the original idea behind that was to stop incoming Hell's Fangs.

Replay update week ending 11/19

Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition:
The "follow a player" trophy in AE allowed me to dig up this amazing Chun Li replay by vivin1022 . It's sick to see that players are applying stuff from the Chun Li by Desk video.

Tekken 6 / Street Fighter X Tekken:
With great thanks to TimeApple, I also picked up a majority of the T6 network trophies this week. I'm not sure what's changed but I didn't run into bad network problems with the game. Last I recall it was as bad as Soul Calibur 4's netcode, which was 1 spammable button short of unplayable.
Depending on how "serious," I get I've started a playlist for Tekken 6 Replays, Those initial ones aren't the best looking fights, but enough to get my ranked match trophy, as well as a mirror match of my chosen main right off the bat. GGs SelfTaughtProdigy.
Also props to Boshadro who clicks on the related links, I need to change various articles of clothing after this SFx T game footage.

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II
The quest for the lvl 50 trophy in BB:CS2 persists, ever since the Rukawa Clash I've been having consistent issues with online Ragnas. You'll see what I'm talking about in the third round where my dropped combo at ~2:25 nearly costs me the match. Also my face seems to attract a great deal of Hell's Fang spam, more of that to come, I assure you :/.
On a more progressive note here is my match for the lvl 46 ding, watch for the Fubuki > double Distortion Drive, which was pretty spectacular, despite being on the business end of that.

CS1 / 2 We hardly knew ya

The BlazBlue: Continuum Shift 1 replays are finally uploaded and in playlist form.
BB:CS1 replay archive.

I'm still adding soft commentary to some of the matches, but most of them were for reference in the hopes that I would go through them sooner and start applying tech I would encounter online. I like how easy to "bookend," this series of replays mostly due to the inherent organization and version of the game. Also it's been helpful that I can revisit the replays even though we're looming on another big version change, unlike some other game company's processes that make "old" replays impossible to watch on current game versions. Perhaps it's just another reason to record early and record often.

I won't be really uploading any "massive," BB: CS2 archives like this mostly because I haven't had the same sort of time with it, between life and the big PSN outage that hit. Lately I've been hitting the ranked harder again, but when you're matched up with level 89 ranked opponents there's little to glean from besides, "they're pro, and I drop combos." I am looking forward to BB:CS Extend so there isn't much to lament about CS2 really.

In non Blazblue stuff I'm really stoked for the new KoF XIII, and what happens with UMvC3. KoF XIII looks like it has a faster pace than I recall from the older versions. UMvC3's online changes look promising, I'll  be glad to actually spectate instead of just watching a couple of "infocards" mash it out. (No seriously if you never played Vanilla MvC3 online this is what you got instead of watching the match!)

SF3SO - Product may contain and produce salt.

Probably Technically impossible but...
I really wish there was a harsher punishment for Cordyankers, specifically that I can't save replays of my matches where I replay the hilarity that is someone getting beat down, either by my skill (or lack thereof), and becoming so ashamed of the match their only option is to erase the game from history like it never happened. If your joystick was misconfigured, take the loss and fix it. If you're off your game, take a breather and really focus on why you lost. Bad news is, you're not going to be just drafted into a top 8 solely based off your online ranking, it comes down to raw talent.

"The world starts where your comfort zone ends."
I read this off of Reddit recently, my initial reaction to this was a mix of appreciation and skepticism. Last night's 3SO player matches really put this into perspective for me. A new player (who I may or may not have fought before on SSF4) was invited into the room and repeatedly destroyed most of us in the room. (Props to TimeAppl3 for hanging out as long as he did!).
First off I'm not one to restrict characters, but after yesterday's matches I'm considering banning Gill.
Second even if we weren't fighting Gill the way we were beatdown made us look like someone's kid brother. Maybe it was the due to the headset and the mild trashtalk, or due to the fact I've had relatively little Third Strike experience, but it really looked like we weren't a contest at all, and made me question where my "enthusiasm," ends.

"If it bleeds, we can kill it" -- Dutch, "Predator"
The "good news" is that we were able to take a few matches, they were not easy by any means. For myself at least, it took a great deal of really choosing my "best," moves, bordering on perceived "spam," and cutting out the parts of my game that are gimmicky and unsafe. This wasn't just about "putting my serious face on," it really came down to using what I knew worked and forcing myself not to experiment at all.
Gootecks had a related discussion about this recently about the environment and mindset that really puts people into their games. This wasn't an arcade certainly, but the situation really pushed me out of my "just chilling out in player matches," mentality. There were no points on the line, no risk. In truth, without the reward of points, a player's skill, and desire to win means that much more in this situation.

Welcome to the internet, here's your blacklisting.

Some things never cease to surprise me. Specifically this week I had to use the blacklist feature on PSN for someone. Nothing too dramatic, more that I suddenly have more respect for the phrase "cannot take a hint," now.

To explain, I play female characters in fighting games. Chun Li was my first favorite character since the original SF2, and since I've picked up other females as mains, like Sakura, and Ibuki.. I pick my icons and titles to keep with this theme too , but I don't go out of my way to make my gender "fuzzy," or anything. Sure I get asked if I'm a girl from time to time, but this guy would not let it go, even after I'd explicitly told him "no I'm not a chick," yet the friend requests and same reply of "Are u a female?" kept coming.  I don't know how many messages I deleted, but it was a sizable amount of time and spam. To make things worse when I initially tried to add him to the blacklist I would keep getting an error. When I finally did call PSN support that weekend, the blacklist added him no problem, go figure.

I'm not one to advise on where people should go to meet up for relationship potentials, however I really think the last place anyone should start looking is over the gaming console network. What really surprised me was the fervor that the messages would come in with. Deleting them when they came in was like whack-a-mole. Initially I thought it was lag or some network problem, but after I deleted the friend request and another came in right after, there was no network issues, and this guy was just determined to hit the blacklist. I guess despite his given age of 21 he hasn't seen The rules of the Internet, (rule 30). In that case welcome to the Internet, here's your blacklisting.