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Long sessions in Fighting Games might be better than tournament sets
We might not be scrounging for quarters, but wanting to get back on the setup for the fifteenth chance to redeem yourself vs the local scene monster is still a core part of the FGC.
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Make it to the end of your long sessions
Fighting games may seem to be about competition at first, since tournaments are about who is the best that day, but it’s the first-to-deaths and fiery rivalries from the community that provide the foundation for memorable events.
But players don’t start there, at the apex of competition. Locals are a great place for you to start, or maybe on a voice call versus your friend who’s more into fighting games than you are. Fighting games can seem daunting, but playing with a friend takes down so many of the barriers.
With a friend, you can feel much more comfortable asking questions as you play. It’s also easier to turn down the heat on the session and play some chiller games rather than sweating it out the entire time.
Outside of the one on one sessions, a more experienced friend can help you integrate at locals, which is the foundation of the social experience of fighting games. Having someone to introduce you to the scene and show you around really helps what can feel awkward and nerve-wracking at first.
What do these sets look like?
Jabhim with a legendary upset over Tokido at Red Bull Kumite South Africa
© Tyrone Bradley / Red Bull Content Pool
For example, part of what makes Red Bull Kumite special as an event is the Kumite (sparring) aspect. You need to sharpen your sword against your peers in long sets to come to a satisfying result and maximize the XP gained.
Not only do you get to work on your own game, but you get more opportunities to showcase what you’ve been working on and how you handle the situations the game throws at you. You also get much more time under tension against styles that might be foreign to you.
That’s why Jabhim vs Tokido at Red Bull Kumite South Africa was so amazing. Jabhim defeated a veritable titan of Street Fighter in front of his home crowd, while the community watched from home. Everyone was put on notice, Jabhim was already a great player and respected, but defeating Tokido in a high stakes match over a long set of games isn’t an accomplishment many can put on their resume.
Daigo’s Battle of the Beast exhibition series is another event that has this ideal at heart. Not only did the best of the best go at it, but there were undercards that allowed lesser known players to experience the pressure that comes with this type of event.
Daigo was pitted against rivals that have taken tournament sets against him in the past, but things were different with the longer game count.
Where to get these sets?
Sometimes the simplest way to get long set experience is rope a friend into one of these degen sessions, be it offline or online. An online session with a friend can be a great way to ease into a longer session with one person, rather than just running through ranked.After a quick 0-2 rank set, there really isn’t much to look back on or work on.
A cool feature some games like Street Fighter 6 have added is the “invite to custom room” option from matchmaking queues. You can run back a close 0-2 and get a longer session even if you didn’t know the player before this encounter. You might even add them as a friend after and build your fighting game circle.
Online is a growing and welcome part of the fighting game scene, good netcode has grown the FGC unimaginably. But truly there’s something different about sitting elbow to elbow at locals and laughing about certain interactions, or being able to ask instantly for advice.
It’s also important to note that almost everyone at your locals is here to have a good time and enjoy their night, while also getting better at the games they play. It’s this feeling of community and shared purpose that gives way to those impromptu super long sets.
This could be against someone at your level (which we highly suggest) or it could be getting schooled by the local oldhead with legacy tech. Without realizing it, with enough of these sets, you’ll be the local oldhead hitting the new guys with forbidden mixups on your way to 30-0 sets.
What’s the gain?
These long sets provide so much opportunity to work on your game mid set or contemplate as you shower that night, thinking to yourself, ‘I should have anti air’d that jump in’.
The most important skill you’ll gain from these, if you pay attention, is the ability to adapt to the player you’re facing. Sure you’ll gain situational awareness and learn how to beat certain strategies, but being able to gather so much data on your opponent’s habits will help you learn to synthesize it into counterplay.
This will translate immensely during tournament play where over the course of 3 or 5 games, you will have to break down your opponent’s tendencies and punish them for it with your decision making. It will require you to understand risk and reward, take in previous interactions, and adapt accordingly, but you will have built this through these longer sessions.
This doesn’t just impact your gameplay as well, with more matches vs certain people, you’ll be able to give them more detailed advice if you have it, or just lay out their own tendencies they might not even have noticed.
There is no better practice than a long set vs someone with a dedicated chat afterwards about what went well and what didn’t work out for both players. This also gives you a great in to build more of a friendship with these players, in your local scene or an online friend.
This last bit is the true sauce. The camaraderie of improving together is genuinely the most important thing to come out of fighting games. Gaining real friends out of people you met at locals, cheering for them when you go out of town to a regional, watching them on stream, this is what really matters.
Long sessions are great tools to improve at the game and to get closer to what life’s about, just make sure to stay hydrated and energized as you game!
