i'm probably not going to continue playing once i hit 1k

currently at ~52% win rate and hovering around the ultra silver mark. i can't seem to get too deep into ultra silver without going on a bad loss streak. i don't feel bad at all about my performance considering this is the first SF game i've played since i stopped playing USFIV several years ago

the main issue i have with this game is the guessing. every reset/wakeup situation is a guessing game with serious consequences if you guess wrong and there are several resets/wakeups per match. i understand why the game is designed like this (it makes for fantastic viewing) but it's too frustrating for me to play at this level. i imagine that if i really put time in and got to gold the experience would be a little better but i'd rather devote that time to a game more suited to my tastes

the ranked matchmaking experience in SFV is easily the one of the worst online video game experiences i've ever had and it's mostly because of how this game rewards risky play. losing a round to someone who is clearly button mashing and doing wild things is maddening because it goes against my 25+ years of playing fighting games. you're not supposed to wakeup tatsu. you're not supposed to wall bounce a 5th time in a row with vega even though i've air thrown you out of the previous 4. but people do it anyway because that one time it hits they can take off more damage off one confirm than i can with 4 air throws. that's ridiculous

some people who play this game are real dirtbags. my blacklist of people who yolo/gimmick their way through a quick two rounds and then refuse a rematch numbers in the hundreds

i still have no idea how to fight several characters because i've only played against them 10-15 times. a good 30% of my matches have been against 4 characters (ryu, akuma, blanka, sakura). that's mind-boggling to me. this roster is huge. why doesn't anyone play weird characters?

i may give up on ranked and just chill in battle lounge for a little while and hope to run into people who actually want to play the game