Do you ever watch high level Street Fighter 6 matches and find yourself amid a slightly open-mouthed gawk as the players you’re watching seem to just know how to do the right thing at the right time on repeat? You may at first figure it must just be they have a natural knack, or that they’ve played for so many hours that their brains are tuned in perfectly to pick up on every available cue, either way a talent that’s likely forever out of your own reach.
Those two reasons probably do play something of a factor, but there’s a really strong chance you’re missing out simply because you’re not putting your focus in the right places at the right times, and Mikey D has a quick lesson to remedy that and quickly level up your game.
So many of the round-deciding interactions in fighting games come down to rock/paper/scissors-like situations that require reactions to navigate successfully through.
When such situations play out quickly enough, said reactions are forced to become guesses, and mental stack can turn react-able scenarios into guess-based ones right quick. Street Fighter 6 naturally places a lot of mental stack on players as characters can pose many simultaneous threats from certain ranges, and the more juggling pins in the air the less likely you’ll be ready to catch the appropriate one.
Pressure like this perhaps most rapidly mounts when you’re in the corner, regardless of if you’re on defense or offense. Both players are playing a kind of R/P/S when one with advantage tries to land a successful hit on the other, but it can often feel like your opponent just guesses right more often than you could possibly hope to.
The reality is that you could be shaving off large pieces of that mental stack, zeroing in on more binary choices that are much easier to identify and react to. Mikey details a few such scenarios in the video below, which offers a wider “teach a man to fish” kind of lesson beyond the specific situations it examines.
Give it a watch below, and if you like what you see and want more on the subject of leveling up your decision making be sure to check out our post on how to play the SF6 odds more effectively next.