the combination of:

• learning the minutiae of various characters' blockstrings (why is everything so fucking safe/+ in this game?) and spacing
• the randomness of insane button mashers
• various blends of cheese
• my trash execution
• my trash ~10 year old hori ex2

was really getting to me and making me think i was very bad at this game instead of just going through growing pains. over the past 3-4 days i regressed from ranked ~89k and almost in super silver to ranked ~160k and in ultra bronze. not a good feeling at all. but reading this:

>Bronze and Silver in ranked is a looney bin. I went through
>the same thing when I picked up SFV online. I can't even
>count how many times I've been hit by a double dash-up sweep,
>or random low forward cancelled straight into super. It took
>me something like a year and a half to get out of silver.

made me feel a little better about struggling with ranked

>One problem I had early on was trying to play
>reactively/defensively against the random wacko stuff. The
>problem is that it you can't win doing that - you have to make
>your own offense. Because if you anti air the guy four times,
>but he lands a fierce jump in one time for full combo, that's
>still a net win for him.

this is my problem. i'm playing way too passively to try to read them and then when i can't read them because they're doing weird shit i get destroyed

>So the thing I had to start figuring out is when to throw out
>my own stuff (not just anti-airs and punishing unsafe stuff).
>Purist SF strategy says don't random sweep, don't push buttons
>on wakeup, don't wakeup DP, etc. But you actually need to do
>those things against the wackos because they're pushing
>buttons and doing stuff when they don't really have advantage.
> Aka fake pressure. Is someone doing a double dash up +
>buttons after knocking you down? Throw out a jab. There's a
>good chance that they don't really have the frames to do that
>double dash + buttons. Or is someone relentlessly walking up
>or dashing up? Throw out a sweep to shut it down. Is someone
>spamming normals in neutral? Throw out a light DP in neutral.
> Basically, don't be afraid to challenge their BS. And you'll
>find out quickly whether it's BS. If you get knocked down,
>and throw out that wakeup jab and get counterhit, then their
>pressure is real. If you land the jab, then it's either fake
>pressure or their timing is shit (either way is a win). You
>don't need to go full-on Tasmanian devil like your opponent,
>but you can go a little porcupine.

generally if i can get my offense going i can win because kolin's setups and mixups are pretty great, even with V-I. i struggle a lot in defense but that extends to all the fighting games i play. my neutral isn't much better, partly due to the last year or so of playing a character in guilty gear with only one good neutral button. kolin's buttons are kind of trash, too. s.MP, c.MP, s.LK, and 4HK are about it, and none of them are particularly good. i'm currently lab'ing confirms off of s.LK and s.HP just to get something consistent going in neutral when i do manage to connect

>Another example is how I personally use Young Zeku. I mostly
>use him against wackos and hyperactive opponents because his
>stuff is so unsafe, but against an opponent who never blocks,
>it lands. Sweep, run slide, random shoulder. All unsafe, but
>they nail hyperactive opponents.
>
>I know you didn't ask for this advice, but bronze and silver
>is such a madhouse, and I've been there before. I'm still not
>too far out of it as I'm only in regular gold. But the amount
>of improvement needed to beat bronzes and silvers 9/10 is not
>as much as it may seem.

the advice is more than welcome. thanks for the empathy and advice