I think part of it (for me, at least) was the jump from D to C, i.e. going from folks mashing buttons to those who know how to put some nice combos together and understand their character's strengths + weaknesses. Also I decided to start playing ranked matches with makoto and she kind of sucks (read: I kind of suck) against space contollers like the shotos and grabbers like gief, and that's all I saw last night (with a few juris mixed in)

*goes back to training mode*