Don't focus on being the "better" player, focus on learning more

[@Brian_F]

Hey guys, I wanted to address 2 things regarding this video. 1. The initial cut of this video featured a set vs. a Marissa player who I lost to, passive aggressively questioned some of their riskier decision making, then had them come into my chat where they asked for advice and I suggested not playing so risky on defense. This was then cut into the discussion regarding the topic, but was not what inspired this video. I planned the topic of discussion with the tweet days in advanced of the stream session. The interaction with the player and the discussion are not correlated AT ALL, and happened 20 minutes apart in the VOD. This was a miss in editing and set the wrong tone/idea from the get go. Yes I was acting in a salty manner since I was recovering from the loss, but I did not intend for this to be made into content or to ridicule someone for beating me. That was a complete miss. 2. The discussion regarding if Master rank is "good" or not I feel is completely distracting also from the meat of the video since it was cut up front. This video should've been cut closer to where the tweet was presented to get to the core aspect of the message. I see your arguments regarding my perspective of "good" which is great, but that's not what I wanteds the focus of this video to be. I feel with some people who watched (maybe only part of?) the video, they have perceived the exact opposite of what I say in the video, so I cut the video to jump straight to the tweet part. The core message is, worrying about labels like "good" distracts from the fact that it's irrelevant, you just need to acquire game knowledge/awareness in order to counter/defeat any problem your opponent presents. It's not about excusing losses, any loss is ALWAYS your own responsibility and I firmly believe that. Thanks for watching, have a good one.

[@KILLEM43KILLA]

When Daigo lost to a rapper lmao, that's also Daigo's fault for being bad 😂

[@PomadaGaming]

Fair enough brine. From the video alone i thought too that first part of the topic being led by that one marisa player interaction,but ig this is more a fortunate/unfortunate coincidence depending how you look at it lol. But yeah makes sense. Thanks for the note,quite clarifying indeed lol (first part specially for me)

[@sant6182]

"Consistency is the ultimate goal" Well I'm proud to say I constantly lose

[@SomeRandomDude821]

He's a little confused but he's got the spirit

[@PhantomHalf]

Keep up the consistency im proud of you

[@cosmic5665]

As E Honda said "nobody ever got strong without losing, don't lose hope!"

[@Narutofreak155]

You're not alone sir believe me 🎉

[@itsartline]

I feel you 😭

[@drfil146]

Brian is just sad that he can’t make a 100 part “road to master rank” series 5 years into SF6’s lifespan

[@kiddinamite100]

capcom will add new rank and probably there will be a reset every season

[@darkheat9946]

Damn that's like his whole content

[@griffin9846]

Good points but totally wrong about being “not good”. You’re literally under the elite level of players, so of course just getting to master doesn’t feel “good”. That’s comparing the entire SFVI player base to the top 1%. So even if I’m better than 99% of the player base…we can’t call that good? That’s insane. And then look at the amount of hours of work it takes the average person to go from no experience to Master. Hundreds of hours easily. That’s not good? Sure, you are just reaching full competency, but in SF that’s still good. It’s not easy. Hard game to learn. So, yeah while they aren’t quite elite, I’d say if you’re top 1%, you’re an advanced player for sure. If your the top 1% in any activity, you can call yourself advanced compared to the general base.

[@handscar6257]

​@@griffin9846i don't know man, if you have 50% win rate you will get to master if you play enough, i reached master today and i feel actually trash even if i am in the top 1%

[@lucathegreat9969]

​@kiddinamite100 I really hope there isn't a reset. Not because I want to keep master once obtained...but because ranked is such a grind in this game. Takes fucking forever to rank up, and I ain't got the time for that

[@JohnnyTheFlash_]

I lost in tournament once, and someone told me "They were just playing better today." You can lose to someone who might be worse than you as a whole, but some days are different.

[@PomadaGaming]

Facts. One day your dps might be better one day you can’t hit a single one. One day you shut down mental stack quick the other you just get overwhelmed and lose terribly. Little by little you improve those things if you’re willing,and yes sometimes even then that day has you a little weaker or that day your opponent is a little weaker. Factor to take in discussion for sure.

[@butteredtoast3032]

100% true, i had days when i had 20 games win streak and days that i lost like 5 games in a row lol

[@triangle1332]

There's a book called "With winning in mind" by an Olympic gold medalist. He developed a mental program to avoid the "I just didn't play my best today" type of stuff. He also taught his son this, who went on to win multiple golds too. Your mentality is trainable so you can achieve peak performance everytime it matters. Just like how you have to train the muscle memory to hit the right buttons at the right time. The book is legit though. Highly recommend. Changed my life for competing in anything.

[@butteredtoast3032]

@@triangle1332 do you know who the author is? Im actually interested in reading it

[@butteredtoast3032]

@@triangle1332 Lassy bhassam the author?

[@suitojp8043]

Framing player skill as ability to solve problems that your opponent presents is such a smart mindset. It's implied that solving problems is what you're doing when you're adapting to your opponents play style but I've never heard it verbalized in that way, I think it's a healthier perspective than the one that I was carrying now. Thank you!

[@yannilibbes8219]

two chess grandmasters were asked if being a master makes you a good chess player. Player 1, Ian Nepomniatichi said that master players are still not good chess players. Player 2, 8-time Russian champ Peter Svidler said "Ian is right, but also completely misses the point." when you're at the top level of players, everyone seems bad.

[@Lord_Dargon]

As someone who was hard stuck in bronze and fought tooth and nail to be silver 4, I can honestly say, I almost cried. It has nothing to do with the height of the mountain. It has everything to do with the length of the hike. I want to be master rank, of course, but it helps to see that improvement.

[@acecun6202]

If you need a sparring partner I can help teach you and at least get you comfortable going against my character of choice (Marisa)

[@mrrice7860]

i can help u if u need any tips on sf6

[@mrblooper1994]

You can do it brother, keep going. A tip that helped me was going to training and activating the anti air training while looking for matches, force yourself to anti air in the training rooms and the matches constantly, you're not playing neutral you're trying to make stopping jumping automatic and gold is yours for free

[@quarium5681]

​@@mrblooper1994This, this is my first SF game and I was bronze. I managed to get to Platinum already and one of the biggest helps was getting people scared of jumping with multiple anti air options (my main girl Chun-Li has standing MK, standing HK, air grabs, jumping back LP and her tensho kicks) Get used to keeping people from jumping at you, learn what are your safe sequences on block and these two things will take you far!

[@TizOnly1]

I think if you don't understand that the better player doesn't always win.. you've never actually gotten good enough at anything to be able to understand that dynamic. The "better player" is a weird concept to begin with.. but in open bracket competition, it's impossible for whoever is the *technically better player* to win every time. Even in the most simplistic view of it.. for a player at any particular strength.. there's a range of people (above and below them) that they can beat, and a range of people (above and below them) that they can lose to. Presumably there'd be a diminishing distribution of likelihood as you go up or down on either of those scales (with some outliers, based on character/player matchups). So even in that grossly oversimplified model, the "better player" isn't always winning at all. But in real life, it's much messier than that.. there are all sorts of factors: character matchups, player reads.. who took a longer flight to get to the tournament.. what monitor are we playing on.. all sorts of shit. But even in a completely static environment there are way too many factors to make definitive claims about who's better. In a perfect world, everyone would drop the entire idea of it, and just keep playing for the sake of getting better than we were yesterday.. but that's not gonna happen.

[@sylascole5254]

I mean, Frakentank is a pot player. Whatcha gonna do 🤷‍♂

[@terrellregis7297]

​​​@@sylascole5254But his post wasn't about the concept of a better player, it was about someone that is seen as better losing not because of their fault but game mechanics, and he's disagreeing, saying that it's weird to say that. In some ways, he's also saying you need to reflect on your losses and see why YOU lost, rather than what made you lose. What does that, or what this guy said, have to do with him playing Pot?

[@sylascole5254]

@@terrellregis7297 Literally the screenshot he posted from Twitter was of a top Potemkin player that both of us are referencing. I agree with you, and I'm making a dig at pot players/grapplers refusing to learn game fundamental by proxy of always being able to one chance/having inordinate amounts of health letting them be wrong. It's playful in nature to be clear, Frankentank is hella good.

[@BGRecon]

How long the last person shits was.

[@terrellregis7297]

@@sylascole5254 Ah, my bad. When i said his post, I meant Frank's. I know Frank, (he inspired my Pot lol) but I read how you meant that wrong. I'd seen it as Frankentank wouldn't understand the concept of there not being a better player because he plays grapplers, which is kinda hypocritical. I didn't realize it was a joke. Sorry guy!

[@BigBossHayabusa]

“Master isn’t impressive” “I’m an ‘okay’ Street Fighter player” Come on bruh, you’re an incredible Street Fighter player and Master is extremely impressive. I do however agree there should be another rank. The fact that I’m one rank lower than you is crazy.

[@thefitgurutv]

Shen long?

[@RockBottom7626]

He is relatively speaking. The difference between a newish master and the very best players is bigger than between the master and a newish diamond.

[@Shiratto]

⁠It doesn’t mean you’re the best but to say that grinding up to Master is not impressive is just being a downer in general. The journey to improvement is never ending but it’s like you can’t even be temporarily pleased with the progress you’ve made cause someone’s always going “yeah but you aren’t gonna win against Tokido anytime soon at your level.” Most people know they aren’t already but they can see their potential for growth and possibly keep moving.

[@downtownhbrown4965]

Some flaws in the logic here imo. To say if you learn the chords of guitar you're better than 99.9% of the populace as the vast majority of people don't even bother giving the guitar a try isn't analogous to being master rank and being in the top .3% (I think?) of players as that is relative to the people who play and probably own the game. I think it's a pretty fair assumption to say for most things being in the top 1% of PARTICIPANTS (keyword here) is impressive. However, the general assertion that Master is set too low/too easily achieved in comparison to it's predecessor is definitely fair and I think is really what is being said here.

[@GelatinGhost]

Agreed, anyone who bought the game is already in the top .1% of the world’s population, most of which have never played it. It is a feat imo to be in the top 1% of that .1%. I do think that the skill ceiling is immensely high so that there is incredible variation in skill even within that 1%, just like with guitar there are insane shredders who make even great guitarists look bland. Anyways they literally just need to add more ranks which I’m sure they will.

[@uncleterri4965]

Well 99% of people who buy/own a guitar give up learning it immediately lol.

[@setxjrichie9745]

Most people that give guitar a try ignore the fact that scales and tangentially chords even exist altogether thinking they are above anything of the sort, eventually quitting because "their way" wasn't good enough for them, ironically.

[@happyman8231]

It's not fair. Your looking at the numbers wrong. If we consider that .3 percent of the whole world population and only look at the population of street fighter, saying that you being in the 90th percentile being low is too much. What else do you want it to be of how low do you want it to be? If there are 10000 players that play regularly your in the top 1k and that's an over simplification. It's definitely not easy to reach that rank. BUT if we compare skill levels, yes there definitely levels to things. It's like saying yeah a bad NBA player is immensely far from LeBron but a normal player Vs that bad NBA player is as far as that player from LeBron. We don't view the very best as the norm. So when you say that your(Brian) skill level is way way below of that of let's say the champion of Evo. It's not justifiable you view those below you as even weaker. It's just that your comparing yourself to beings that are considered to be abnormalities to the skew

[@AspynDotZip]

That's fair the guitar analogy is sort of apples to oranges, but i think the sentiment is less on any one particular rank system being flawed and more that the entire idea of being better and worse than someone is a hindrance to individual growth. I do disagree with where he draws the line of impressive cause i believe competence in any activity is impressive, but it'd be unwise to see competence as the final destination when the road is still so much longer after

[@smashingairguitars]

Evaulating your wins is some really great advice, Brian. Really dropping some gems that are not only for games, but life itself.

[@loayzc10]

This is classic Dunning kruger effect. You've gotten so good at something you fail to realize your own accomplishment. Usually you hear about it on the other end, thinking you're better than you really are because you're so ignorant of the height of the hill you're climbing. I see other high elo players on other games do the same thing. It's not "subjective" it's just that you've lost perspective on what being good at something means.

[@SlenchFan]

Totally. It’s unfortunate lol

[@gfdf511]

The dunning kruger is actually an overestimate of ones ability. If he was saying that getting masters in valorant was easy because he's masters in sf6 that would be dunning kruger. I could be wrong tho

[@loayzc10]

@@gfdf511 You are wrong, the DKE is a curve that compares confidence to knowledge. So when you're somewhat new to a skill, you may perceive yourself as better than you actually are because you don't actually know how much there is to learn. Confidence spikes. But as you learn more and more about the skill, you realize there was so much you didn't know and that you're actually not very good. Confidence plummets as you learn more. Then, as you continue to master the skill, confidence spikes again, but not to the level of confidence it once was as an amateur. This is because you realize how much there is to still master and you underestimate your own mastery. Just look up the graph.

[@orangegba5816]

Brian is inspiring me not only to pick up Street Fighter again but also to just better myself in all the competitive games I play.

[@butteredtoast3032]

Brian is how i would want to be when playing fighting games, allways calm for the most part, great decision making and matchup knowledge, respectable and just a grind machine, he's an inspiration as a fighting game player to me honestly

[@jonc8561]

What do you mean, he just shit on his whole audience lol

[@thefitgurutv]

@@butteredtoast3032an inspiration as a person overall. Dude’s very well rounded and always professional. I don’t know his background but I assume he came from corporate America. Nevertheless, he’s my favorite content creator.

[@afroraykun]

@@thefitgurutv Pretty sure I read somewhere that his day job is as an optometrist.

[@BadlndsBob]

A lot of what Brian F is saying today applies to life beyond Street Fighter and other fighting games. Sage advice!

[@masterofdoom5000]

I've seen Silver players with good ass neutral and combos, with clear weaknesses that they need to overcome. I've seen Diamond players who seem to have figured out one or two things in training mode that work and just keep slamming those two buttons, leaving after a single loss. Shit in Strive people were OPENLY talking about dodging unpleasant matchups or annoying characters, the highest ranks in a fighting game don't mean shit about your skill level. Smash Ultimate has Elite Smash, where you'll find practiced players moving with a level of comfort you've seen in tournaments fighting a laggy, 1 and done Samus that just runs away and spams big laser until they either kill or time out. These two are according to the game within a reasonable skill level of "good" because their points in ranked are close to each other. There are SO many ways to game the system and never have to be even remotely good yet rank highly, Master rank in SF6 is no different.

[@Manifestopheles386]

This is all very important to keep in mind. I had another super salty evening last night, and it's just hard to get out of that mindset in those moments, but this morning I did some battle hub matches, got my a$$ handed to me by an unranked Ryu, managed to beat him just once, but just enough to remind me to have fun with the game and just keep learning. That set also gave me the "don't get cocky" title, which is a nice way of acknowledging this kind of mindset. To put the cherry on top, I got a friend request from one of the players who beat me last night AND I reached my personal goal to get the achievement for 600 "nice" points, which really made my day. I really love how this game encourages just having fun and just to keep improving with all these little things, and it's really cool to have such an awesome community build around it and so many ways to interact with players. Salt is natural, but having a positive outlook and keeping up the grind is paramount to enjoying the game, which deserves nothing less in my opinion.

[@graveaxel3607]

Funny, I was just talking to my friend today about how I used to have a bad habit of losing to someone I thought was worse, and say things like 'why are they playing like this, it makes no sense'. But now it's like if I can't adapt to their play style it's on me. People mashing out of my pressure and oki? Well that's on me to tighten it up. Am I getting gimmicked? Time to learn wtf I can do to stop it lol. FG's are a lot more fun when you separate yourself from your ego, and play to learn instead. Great video as always!

[@anima94]

1:15 I think the guitar comparison is bad since most fg players really try hard to improve and spend hundreds if not thousands of hours doing it, your rank is compared to people that actually play, not rookies. I guess it also comes down to what you consider "not bad", to me it sounds like it's synonymous with "world class" to you

[@Solereaper21]

“Master isn’t impressive” there is a small 1000s of players who are master in a game with well over a million sales. Master is impressive. Your guitar analogy is flawed because you can’t compare to non-participants. In a class at school if I get a final grade of 20% no one would say, “oh that’s good because you are better than the 99% of the world that got 0% because they didn’t opt into the class”. You can only compare to participants. (I didn’t use ranked participants because I don’t know the number, I know Master is still a fraction of a percent of ranked participants though)

[@cheesi]

Just a different perspective. Master is wildly impressive to a lot of people (including me), but if you're in the context of the highest level of play it's totally different, it's the baseline for serious competition.

[@thesaltmerchant4564]

@@cheesiyes it’s the baseline for .01% of the player base

[@atomu27]

Yeah being in master = knowing 2 chords on guitar is wild lol

[@valsione38]

It went up a but more but it's still under 1% of the playerbase, regardless what people think of ranked there will be a portion of online players that will reach the rank with the right characters.

[@hackprefect]

Master is only impressive to those that put value in achieving that. If that's what one does and believes, there's nothing wrong with that. But there's additional context there that colours this perception. How many people actually care about getting master rank? How many people who bought this game have made that a goal worth striving for? How many people don't care about rank and just want to play World Tour, or just want to play within their friend group, or just want to mess around in training mode? What if only 10% of people who bought the game have achieving the highest rank online as a goal? Does that diminish how "impressive" it is? I average 215 in bowling. Subjectively, that's an impressive feat to people who think average is a measure of proficiency in bowling. But honestly, it doesn't mean much. Technically, I'm eligible, based on average, to bowl on the professional tour. But if I did that, I'd be woefully outmatched by 99% of the competition. My 215 average shows that I'm competent enough to know what's right and wrong to do and have the mechanical proficiency to execute that more than 50% of the time. What it does not show is how knowledgeable I am of the nuances of lane play, surface changes, reading breakdown on future lanes I haven't bowled on, adapting to traffic, and any number of other skills that are actually necessary to bowl at a professional level. Master rank means you probably play safer than most people, can punish most unsafe things, and guess right in variable situations more than 50% of the time in the game of Street Fighter 6. Anyone can do that, with enough practice towards those goals. What master rank does not mean is the kind of wide and deep knowledge it takes to succeed against any competitor in any scenario. That is special. That is impressive.

[@jaiapenopicante7758]

The only player I want to be better than is myself from a day ago, as cheesy as it sounds, this mentality has kept me sane and extremely focused so far lol.

[@Acubfox]

Something incredible too is that you could be learning a combo one day and not pulling it consistently, litteraly after sleeping it's like you always knew it

[@jaiapenopicante7758]

@Acubfox Something that I've always tried to tell to others is to celebrate the small victories that anyone goes through on a daily basis. You lost but you reacted to a certain thing the exact way you wanted to react to it? Landed a cool combo even if you dropped it 4 times in a set? Celebrate it, pat yourself in the back, watch the replay and enjoy those seconds. We tend to focus on being better than others that we forget we should start by enjoying the process with the only person that has seen the process and changes from the beginning, and that's ourselves.

[@felygu9268]

@@jaiapenopicante7758 THAT is the way! But it is sometimes hard to not be salty, especially if you lose to someone with way less hours in the game. Or modern controls :D

[@AspynDotZip]

​@@jaiapenopicante7758i like those moments when i punish something poorly or take a sub optimal combo route and then call it out right after. Seeing what you did sloppy in the moment is a big step towards optimizing it later

[@jimcrumpet7015]

Brian lets not sandbag lol. Just because you had an easy time getting to master doesn't mean that it isn't hard to achieve. I'm pretty sure its something like 1% of the player base that's made it that far. It's absoultely crazy to say that that isn't impressive in and of itself, kinda insulting even.

[@MidProductionz]

It's literally no different than those that made it to Warlord in SF5 and proceeded to get washed in ever tournament they went to. So no, in the grand scheme of things it's not that impressive.

[@Taziod]

I read the comments before watching the video and it made it seem like he was being insulting. But within the first 5 mins of the video he constantly professes that he is speaking subjectively and big picture. There are plenty of players who get to masters and the range on how that is achieved is important. Imagine the win button situation, where each player has a "win button" they can press and instantly win. Some players, by sheer luck, will rank up under this game but are they better than any other player playing the win button game? No. I'm not saying there are degenerate strategies so bad in SF6 that this is possible, but there are obviously many roads to Masters in SF6, and so suggesting every player who reaches it has accomplished some grand epic bout is a subjective belief like any other.

[@setxjrichie9745]

It's only "impressive" if you're kinda bad. Hope this helps

[@ShadowedAgony]

You are decided to be kind of insulted though. We should remember he is talking to upwards of a thousand people live and then editing and uploading it for several thousands. He in no way is able to single out an individual experience other than his own. Just because he doesnt find it impressive doesnt mean you have to agree. He even mentions this in the video lol.

[@Taunt61]

calm down. he's talking about knowing the game. currently understanding the game and being able to use your tools gets you master. when people get better at the game that won't be enough. but he's saying basically: if you're playing this fulltime, and you have some experience with fighting games, master is expected. you don't need to be extra special to get master. most of us have jobs, or never dedicated that kind of effort to a fighting game. you gotta understand him instead of getting offended.

[@KZ_Suntorn]

So many people down here focusing on the comments about Master rank that they seem to be missing every other sentiment presented in the video that gives those comments perspective.

[@AspynDotZip]

Shame that it's that lack of perspective that'll keep a lot of players from improving

[@Darvoxspirit]

2:00 "Being bad at something is the first step to be good at something" That's awesome

[@CalmTempest]

That 1:33 anology is not quite correct. You're comparing guitar players to non guitar players (rest of the world), but SF rank is SF players vs SF players only. You'd have to compare guitar players to guitar players to make it work - then it sounds kinda impressive again.

[@AspynDotZip]

Your right the analogy would be more like a guitarist that can read sheet music and play tabs vs a newbie. To the people below him it's impressive, but to himself and the people above him it isn't. I think that's where his mindset is at. Because he knows how much he doesn't know, he isn't impressed with himself or where he's been no matter his current accolades. But who knows i could be projecting like a mf

[@noguts2233]

I think one huge thing that has helped me evolve and get better as a newer player is understanding when I won because of my opponents errors, I watch more replays of wins than losses because of this reason because I feel I can learn more from it

[@readysetmoses]

Master is the top 1% of all players. It is objectively a metric of success.

[@sleepyjustin1922]

Not really because you don't have to have a positive win rate to reach master. You can have a 46-47% win rate and still reach Master if you just grind enough because you earn more points than you lose at a base level.

[@cheesi]

Well I don't think those statements follow naturally. Success is necessarily subjective, it's not something you can pin down to the same measure for everyone. For me reaching master would be a great success, for most people in the world it's meaningless, and for top level players it's just the baseline for playing competently. We all have different scales of what makes us successful, what we value, what impresses us.

[@xero248]

Its also a metric of how much time youve put into the game. If you win 50% of games in the current ranked format you will hit Master

[@millerwrightt]

Being able to win 50% of your games against people that high on the ladder is still impressive imo

[@readysetmoses]

@@sleepyjustin1922 So having a 46-47% win rate is successful. Hitting a baseball 3/10 times over your career may put you in the hall of fame. It is all withing the context of the game. If achieving Master was so easy, it would not be less than 1% of the playerbase.

[@SaucyCheeseburgerwithRanch]

The thumbnail had me thinking this was a sfv video damn

[@BrainGeniusAcademy]

Background from SFV, ryu from sfxt, other chars from mvc2... I've lost control of my life

[@Hontonoki]

i'm consistently impressed by Brian's acuity of vision and ability to verbalize things so specifically concise and precise. Big iq

[@unrighteous8745]

Not disagreeing with anything, but the guitar analogy doesn't really work. Most people are not good at guitar, but most people don't play or even have a guitar. To compare SF to guitar, you could say that buying the game is like buying a guitar and playing the game is like playing guitar. I don't think it's wrong to say that the top 1% of guitar players (that actually play, don't just own one) are good at guitar. Of course, there's a massive difference between the top 1% and the top 0.01%, so wanting more ranks is understandable. I just think it's kind of a bad mindset to say that the top 1% of people that actually put time into something aren't good at it. You may be better than them, but they're still better than 99% of players. Now, does that actually mean anything? Well, it doesn't make you a better person; we play games and guitar for fun.

[@shackeledbored6626]

Did he cut the part where he lost and got tilted????

[@GusMortis]

At the upper levels of any sport/game its all about who is having a better day. Who got sleep, who has less stress, who had too much to eat for lunch or hasnt eaten.

[@AkibanaZero]

The real matchup you have to strive to master is the one against your ego.

[@ltwood4570]

I struggle to agree with the purely anecdotal take about how achieving master isn't to be considered impressive. Out of the hundreds of thousands of people who are concurrently playing SF6, diamond alone only consists of around 3% of the player base whilst master is 0.64%. Its hard not to write this off as gatekeepy when the bar that is said to be low is achieved by climbing to be the top 0.64% of a few hundred thousand people.

[@KZ_Suntorn]

Other people have already pointed out the specifics of it down here, but if you grind hard enough you can have a sub-50% wr and eventually rank up to master. Brian alludes to that in the video. It seems objective to look at the stats but there's a lot more to what makes a player "good" than just being high up in a ranking system. Goes for many games. There's a dozen other points he makes about the whole thing that go deeper than just being "anecdotal" too. I think it's actually pretty hard to label what he says as gatekeeping if you listen to more than the first 10 seconds of the vid.

[@ltwood4570]

@@KZ_Suntorn as his pinmed comment mentions, the "good" take is separate from the main message of the video so to suggest the rest of the video is him justifying the first few minutes is just untrue. I struggle to understand how even if you were winning 50% of your matches against the top 0.64 of players, that it somehow takes away from how impressive of a feat it is. You struggle to interpret what he said independently because you can't produce an original thought and argue in bad faith from the get go from stating the stats are objective then deciding to forge your opinion out of emotion and bias. FGC crediting new players for getting good at their once niche game challenge: Im-fucking-possible

[@Sagaleon14]

Thanks for these vids Brian. I’m not a street fighter guy but I really look up to your insight when it comes to the whole competitive aspect of a fighting game, your mentality should be an example for new players trying to improve and enjoy the game.

[@PomadaGaming]

Yeah that was the case for me with his videos 2 years ago. Helped immensely and yeah i picked up sfv with it

[@pkjose1343]

Different fighting game, but I play Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and I main Chie. I'd say I'm a beginner/intermediate player and I know I have a lot to learn but I've slowly been getting better at the game, learning about some characters, opening up more win conditions with more combos/routes, etc., so when I play against people online I can tell when they know the match up cause they're usually heavily offensive, don't drop combos much, and bait my dp's and specifically do things that only work against my character (Chie's DP is a Counter). But on some occasions I find myself playing against people who are either around my skill level or "worse" than me and I can tell because I've been bodied by/challenged by way better players so I kinda feel free like there's no pressure since said weaker opponents just don't know what to do against my character or are still scrambling to learn the game. With that knowledge from the first round I proceed to do things I know wouldn't work normally and kill them faster because they simply don't have the match up knowledge and/or skill yet. But for me personally, while I lose often, I get a rush of motivation and happiness from simply getting better at the game. I can lose 10-0, but if I take ONE round off them or maybe even one game, it's enough for me because that's progress. And due to the small community, I run into the same couple people sometimes, so when I beat more them after losing a lot in our previous encounter, it feels soooo good. Tldr: Play Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. It's fun. I value learning the game even when losing. I can tell when a player knows the matchup and one who doesn't and that's cool.

[@HeathenKnuckle]

It's a shame more people didn't give that game a chance, as it's really good. I think it was even free to download with a PS Plus membership for one month. Of course it helps if you're a Persona fan and are already familiar with the characters, but it's a great fighting game either way. And as you rightly point out, it still holds up on its merits today despite being around ten years old.

[@pkjose1343]

@@HeathenKnuckle Yeah, as a Persona fan and a fighting game enjoyed, this game was a no brainer lol and it hasn't disappointed! I just hope Atlus one day reveals a Persona 5 Arena...though I don't have high hopes on an announcement.

[@LordBaktor]

An ancillary pet peeve of mine is when people confuse "the best" with "my favorite".

[@eternalwanderer3785]

Fighting Games is like life. You're not fighting anyone but yourself

[@Frosted_Moontips]

As a casual fan of the genre, I like to focus more on discovering really cool stuff in fighting games rather than trying to being competitive online or in tournaments; in fact I started a new series about me learning certain aspects of them a while back. The reason being is that I want to make my channel a place where casual players can find a way to enjoy FGs without getting stressed out over matchups or metas. But yeah I totally agree with ya, learning the game is obviously important for keeping you well-rounded and prepared regardless of the venue.

[@theuzi8516]

I think with hiw complex and nerve-wracking FGs can be, stuff like health and morale and exhaustion are extremely impactful, too. Heck, whether someone had the opportunity to eat between matches can influence performance significantly. So yeah, you def need to look at a large pool of matches rather than who won in a single one.

[@PomadaGaming]

100%

[@thato8000]

Interesting take Brian-sama. If we zoom out and look at the world objectively then Masters is actually extremely good imo😅. Speaking from a statically view less than 1% of the entire worlds Street Fighter players are Masters. The top 1% of the rich are Elon Musk and them. The top 1% of basketball players are in the NBA. In terms of objective fact, Masters is extremely good. You can argue maybe that the skill level of Masters isn't good relative to yours maybe (because you goated😎) but not that it objectively isn't good in relation to skill level or feats imo

[@emansfvera]

It's like learning a martial art, for example in jiu jitsu if you train for at least 6 months as a white belt you can beat up 95% of people on the streets, it certainly doesn't mean you're good tho,once you get to black belt you realize you've just become competent enough. I definitely agree with your analogy man, master rank is definitely competitively competent is the perfect definition.

[@Pedro-ho2xj]

Yeah, people talk about how good a player is in videogames like it's fucking dragon ball power levels.

[@nivrap_]

That "better player" shit is so prevalent in Smash, people will slander you and discredit your wins because of your character.

[@burgerchild]

it's important to state what master rank really means. You can only lose up to 40 points in a ranked match, and you can only win up to 50 points. That means that with enough games played, if you can get a >40% win rate vs the top ~1-5% of players, you will eventually hit master. Realistically, you will need about a 45% win rate to progress fast. In practice, you can also win like 250 points off winning vs a master rank with like 50k+ points if you manage to beat them.

[@AllFlashNoDash]

Interesting. That would take a long time. But as you get to higher ranks, that 40% might drop because the competition gets stiffer. I would say you probably need to be closer to 55% - 58%. But good analysis on your part.

[@burgerchild]

@@AllFlashNoDash you’d actually rank up quite fast with a 55% win rate

[@jamiedevis5446]

It only took me about 8 hours at 70% win rate

[@burgerchild]

@@jamiedevis5446 not all of us are daigo

[@ironmarkus]

Playing simple chords may make you better at guitar than 99.99% of people, but not 100% of people are guitar players. When we're looking at Master rank, they are 0.5% of PLAYERS. Not PEOPLE. So yes, they are objectively good.

[@andrewwestfall65]

Not fighting games but I had a friend that was a competitive Team Fortress 2 player. I would dick around with him, but I was just a messing around. Because I knew him and we played together regularly, if we were on a team together we would dominate and if we were against each other I was a thorn in his side. He was a significantly better player than me, but I knew his habits and timings and how to counter him. Against worse players that I didn't know very well, I didn't do nearly as well because I wasn't great, I just had a lot of player knowledge going into the game

[@jpVari]

as to the opening discussion, people want to make masters but -can't-... I don't think anyone wants to learn two chords, has all the necessary equipment and etc but just -can't-. Now let me clarify, I am not saying that means 'master = you're great'. but it isn't nothing, it does have meaning of some amount. I know to brian it seems like he walked right into masters, but he has a lot of years playing and also plays a lot due to the stream. I have a lot of time and can't get to diamond yet, tho I inch closer and that consistency makes me happy. maybe I am underrating how hard guitar is or something, idk, but it seems like an off comparison to me.

[@osakagrindset]

People gotta realise all of these labels like 'silver' and 'gold' are fairly arbitrary. They dont inherently mean anything.

[@Giraffinator]

Reminding myself that I'm better at guitar than the vast majority of people on Earth has been a huge boon to my confidence, despite being incredibly mid at it.

[@thefractalcactus]

So are many signed musicians. Ultimately the argument over what constitutes "good" is not only relative but subjective.

[@ihavetubes]

You have to compare yourself to the others that also play guitar

[@Giraffinator]

@@ihavetubesknowing that you learned a skill that most other people have not is a valuable motivator by itself. It's more about helping to put into perspective that you've made progress when it doesn't feel like it. You know something now that you didn't before; you used to be one of billions that didn't know how to play, but now you're part of the group that does because of the work that you put in. It has also helped my motivation in trying to learning a second language, like the vast majority of people that I've ever had contact with in my life aren't gonna know what the hell 銀行 is supposed to be, and I'm just like "hey, that makes sense to me after it used to not make sense, I remember being like the people who don't know"

[@lasermaxx4695]

It's a non-discussion. The entire point of playing an interactive multiplayer game is that the outcome is not predetermined or set in stone. In fact it may very well be the case that someone was a worse player than you in the loading screen but became better just in time to win, skill and social standing are fleeting things much like happiness. By the time you manage to calculate which of you is better you will have already lost the match, given that calculating strength is too difficult to do at the same time and beating ass.

[@TheloneOokami13]

Focusing on who’s better really did stunt my growth during SFV and made that whole game miserable! I’m so glad I’ve learned my lesson.

[@mickeybat5816]

I get what Brian's saying. My friend was Plat 1, while I was Gold 3 and hadn't played for a bit, we played some sets and I ended up getting a 5 win streak on him. By metrics, he's better than me, he even has a higher win rate than me when it comes to ranked and casual matches, yet I went in a 5 game win streak on him. Who's better is subjective, it's not actually quantifiable.

[@thefitgurutv]

Plat 1 and Gold 3 are essentially the same tier though

[@dizzygunner]

I learned in SF5 when I was prepping for 6, that you should take your wins when people are just letting you do things, ever since I started in 4 I was always in the mind set of "always play sold, even if they aren't teching throws, you gotta learn to play solid" but then I realised finding a weakness in an opponent is a skill in its self.

[@naindoza]

Oof Brian, this video has not been received well by the more casual player base it seems. I think the crucial point is that "being good" is a matter of perspective. To a newcomer, being able to do simple combos means "good". To you as a tournament level player, the goal posts have moved: you compare yourself to the Menas and Daigos of the world. You're in way deeper than 99% of the SF player base. It's a completely different world. Ranks are meaningless, etc. I get why people are frustrated at this video because it sounds like you're belittling their ranked progress but like I said, it's just personal perspective which is always highly subjective. With higher skill, your expectation will ALWAYS go up as well. Competition is a never-ending journey, there's always someone better.

[@MrDadumbo1]

That’s the whole point of street fight in general. For all the guys that want to get better. You train, watch videos and training room. And go out to tournaments. It’s fun

[@Ennbeard]

Is Rock better than Scissors because it wins 100% of the time? I dunno, their head to head against paper tells a different story...

[@Jorgec224]

Totally respect Brian's insights

[@TrueUnderDawgGaming]

I like remaining “New Challenger” and then defeating Diamond players who join my lobby

[@Krokpot7]

This is so good, I agree 100%. I’m not that good but I’m just adding layers at a time to my Blanka to keep using different approaches and mixups when I get in. I’m just adding and learning and the rank is slowly going up as I get more consistent and learn the matchups.

[@rbw9692]

Same here with cammy, one step at a time!

[@pattarick1054]

Being good is subjective. Less than 1% of players are in Master. It's like comparing D1 college basketball players to NBA players. Sure, the college players will score a couple points, but more often than not the NBA players are going to be better. However, I would still consider both good.

[@derekstephens1529]

Syncing with the win is what it is all about because you figure.. both players have what it takes most of the time, if you cannot see how high your damage output during a loss you do not know how good you are. If one player doesn’t have close matches to the final second you are not reacting and either player could have a overpowering victory. Health is street fighter literacy rate. If you’re consistent with health you have an argument, know yourself. Brian F for example Tekken 7 has tekken prowess… it rates how high despite rank. They should have street fighter 6 prowess like in tekken… to many insecurities amidst players.

[@ChuckleBrryFinn]

I met a really good Juri the other day, I sent a friend request to be like, "whoa dude that was sick, let play again sometime" but I feel like they thought I was gonna chew them out for beating my ass 😂

[@ChildishBrandino.]

yeah feels like people get stuck in the win/loss mentality instead of focusing on what went wrong/finding ways to improve. there's still a large number of diamond hondas that climbed from gold week 1 doing three things and winning but because they never learned anything else they're still stuck in diamond. AND i hate fighting those guys cuz it feels like im fighting the same cpu over and over lmao

[@DenOfSin]

This is the kind of bullshit mentality that too many people have. Did you lose? Yes? GG shake my hand I'm the better player. Who cares about being the most consistent, the most optimal, the most fundies based.. at the end of the day if you lost you lost. It's the kind of thing that makes people who fight and bitch about losing to Our Lord In Heaven Kusoru even scrubbier because no matter how hard they got outplayed "I'm better i should have won against that random loser" is still THE number one complaint.

[@jetflash100]

Tldr: there is always someone better so always keep learning

[@ledgy69]

Coming from dota high MMR such a huge skill disparity it's hard to understand unless u or someone u know is there I don't think u come across arrogant I understand

[@bazzjedimaster]

I might be projecting my own problems on that Mariza player, but I guess the random supers on defense are just missed or over mashed attempts to input Phalanx and Scutum.

[@meatrodofmisery7384]

Dude I always get lvl1 when doing 2mp into the jump punch

[@valsione38]

My thoughts exactly, I've run into Marissa's that suddenly do this for no reason when they play well the rest of the set

[@ysmg1061]

@@meatrodofmisery7384 dude fuckin same

[@NRVNQSRR]

Boys, clear your inputs.

[@blinx_x9925]

well Marisa really doesn't have good wake up options her only invincible wake up is Lv 2 or 3 super otherwise you ether delay throw tech or make a hard read

[@Kawaiimuscles]

The path to getting consistent is full of ups and downs and you can still lose as you get better. You just lose less. Thank you Brian my ego needed a pep talk and a reality check

[@User-pu3lc]

You must continue to learn and find new ways to challenge yourself… new fights to engage in… is Brian F the real life Ryu?!

[@N64Hobo]

got you on my youtube recommended. keep going man, i'm enjoying your vids.

[@ireallydontknow6709]

Title is so true, I am possibly the greatest fighting game player of all time and I didn't reach diamond yet

[@EliTheGleason]

2:20 some real inspirational stuff ❤ ty bri

[@Romancesymphony]

You can't be the best player if you aren't willing to invincible DP on their wakeup. Simple as.

[@ADreamingTraveler]

You said that one thing that can cause upsets is a lack of matchup knowledge. I really don't want to see EVO soon because people will only have had 11 days to learn Rashid and the matchups with him after his release

[@blustosa]

I appreciate your thought process and how you apply them to your game. Still remember the video in which you said you stopped worrying about points and it all just started to feel much better. "I went to a tournament over the weekend and dropped like 100 spots in the rank!"

[@L4DNS]

Plat 4 with Ryu is my next milestone. It's been too long since my B+ Sagat from #4 lol

[@thefitgurutv]

Shouldn’t be too hard. He’s one of the better fighters in the game.

[@NedMethod]

i mean it is true. fighting games are often like poker in many ways. there is a lot of guessing involved, and someone can do strange options where you cannot just seem to guess them. thats why bo5 is so important. if that person can fool them that many times, well they outplayed them in that bo5. it goes deeper though, because results carry the most weight

[@Aubin1]

I mean i get why he’s saying that most Master players aren’t good. But to me, it’s seems a bit extreme to call « good » 0.5% of players. It’s just shifting the appreciation of levels imo. And in the end i feel like it can send an elitist message. It almost means that you’re good only of you’re consistently making the good choices and having near perfect execution. It seems a bit extreme and also diminishes the work that Brian and other excellent players have put in.

[@thefitgurutv]

Brian’s a no nonsense professional. I just took it as he’s seeing behavior’s out of master rank players which should’ve been weeded out while progressing out of the lower ranks. And then also, if you’re a true Master rank player, I could see it being frustrating encountering these type of matchups because it could regress you psychologically as a result.

[@ivanrosado5283]

Me everytime i lose to anyone in ranked:

[@SlenchFan]

Exactly lol we all get salty then words fly out our mouths

[@spman2099]

I think Brian is being extremely unfair here. If you are in the Master rank you are legitimately very good at Street Fighter 6. Does it make you a pro? Absolutely not. There is a difference between being very good and being great. Someone like Brian is incapable of seeing that accomplishment, they can only see the things that separate that player from the next tier up. But that top tier is an extremely exclusive place for a reason. Also, that guitar analogy isn't a good one. Learning two chords won't make you an objectively better guitar player than the majority of people actively playing the guitar. Reaching the Master rank, on the other hand, does mean that, of all the people actively playing Street Fighter 6, you are among the best.

[@spman2099]

That being said, I do think it is fair to say that he wishes there were higher ranks. I think that is completely reasonable. But saying master rank isn't an achievement is just ridiculous. It isn't an achievement for a tournament level player, but it is an incredible achievement for literally anybody else.

[@yjre]

I'd agree if you had to play best of 3s in ranked. You can gimmick your way to master by one and doneing people with a strong one trick gameplan that falls apart once the opponent has time to think. I don't think the highest rank in the game should be reachable with gimmicks and gaming the system (streak bonus, one and done.) You would never get to Tekken god prime off of knowing a couple of setups like you can in sf6. Another easy solution to the absurd rank inflation would be lose streaks, losing more points per match the more you lose. You SHOULD rank down if you lose 5 in a row no matter what. Smurfs are a small price to pay for a ranking system that actually makes master mean master

[@Pivot___]

another banger video from sajam !

[@zerobeat032]

this is why I'm not really proud of myself for being in platinum compared to where I was in SFV. I never got out of silver there. and here in SF6 I'm plat... I don't feel I actually belong in that rank. but I wanna feel happy because it's a personal milestone I didn't think I'd reach. Honestly, I'm not sure how I should feel about it. other than ranked isn't the end all anyways.

[@Brian_F]

Should definitely celebrate your own personal growth

[@zerobeat032]

ya know, yeah. that's true. I shouldn't downplay the progress so much. just keep at it and see where that takes me. thanks for that. and keep up the great content.

[@RockBottom7626]

​@@zerobeat032 Be happy that you got so far, be proud of the milestone, but keep walking. Do it for the path, not the goal.

[@gfdf511]

Fighting games are very reliant on the person behind the character. Im guessing a lot has happened in your life since playing Sf5, you are different, and your play will reflect this too.

[@zerobeat032]

yeah, I'm in a much better mental spot then when I was playing sfv for sure. that's definitely been helpful

[@christianchandler216]

Rank inflation is wild I couldn’t get out of bronze in sfv and now I’m plat with multiple characters

[@thefitgurutv]

You’re selling yourself short. I guarantee your knowledge floor has increased exponentially since Bronze V.

[@drehkick32]

Does anybody know the name of the song played at 9:25 ?

[@KevinRobertsArt]

I need to stop waiting until 12am to start playing.

[@That-KidDo]

That video start is so well spoken. He’s completely right that you have to come up with your own judgment on how good you are at something. Don’t compare yourselves to others, you’ll go nowhere

[@ihavetubes]

I think also that everyone plays too safe online while they should be experimenting.

[@The_Tugged]

Truly a Brain F(ilosipher) video

[@BuddyMocha]

I don't like the way Brain put this. I agree that comparing yourself to others isn't the best way to get better, but listening to someone vastly better talk about how ranks below master "dont understand the mechanics" and "aren't competent" is a really bad way to put it to a larger audience, who largely is NOT in master. Mechanical understanding is something even people in silver-gold have to a degree(they may not know option selects, but they still know invincible DP, stike throw RPS, and the basics of punishes) and competence is completely relative. In the same way you shouldn' compare yourself to others, you shouldn't care about brian's definition of competence, as his is relative to professional players. I see you people in gold-plat fighting for your life. You are good, you can improve but you've come a long way ❤

[@MrSOOPERcooper]

Fighting games are super close to actual combat sports in real life. The only way to 100% make improvements is to put the time in and challenge people. Will you get beat to a pulp sometimes? Yes. Will you beat them to a pulp sometimes? Yes. It all comes down to decision making that you gain through experience

[@RushFox]

Lost to a Ryu in bracket in SFV at NEC 2-1. Got the salty run back later that day and beat him 10-1. tournament matches add a whole element of stress that make people feel pressured to win.

[@christopherpease8998]

Being bad is the first step to being good...well put brain F

[@RePlayQ]

The smash scene is so much different from the FGC when it comes to the competitive mindset. We do pop off at other peoples success and we do praise people for doing something crazy or showing something new. When I entered the FGC everyone seemed very self absorbed and not interested in the growth of everyone.

[@WhatNowMaxTVchannel]

Nothing better than seeing your homie do well in tournament against someone that plays the same character as you.

[@RePlayQ]

@@WhatNowMaxTVchannel it’s always so exciting too when the season rankings come out. The fact that the FGC doesn’t do that is sadj to me

[@Jako3334074]

Feel like it is worth mentioning, FGC is not a monolith, within it there is many different subcultures around capcom fighters, team fighters, anime fighters, 3d fighters, etc. Random examples, KoF being its own subculture mostly present in Latin America and China, or "VS" series games (mahvel) having its own subculture within capcom fighters stuff and usually separate from anime fighters (even when sharing many mechanics with those), or 3D fighters (the big one being Tekken) being very split off from 2D fighter community. I've only been around FGC type stuff since like 2015 maybe, but i can tell you that a lot of these sub-communities have way different vibes

[@HeathenKnuckle]

I always try to say well done and thank you after winning comfortably and playing well. But you can tell by the lack of response or being kicked from a lobby, your opponent thinks you're "trolling" them being patronising. You can't win either way with some of them. A small percentage are always happy to play and improve, and they'll add you to CFN to play again at a later date. The very nature of fighting games just appears to create a bitter, toxic environment with many unfortunately. And Streetfighter is one of the worst for that.

[@kwuite1738]

Umeshoryu, Kazuloco, etc. Playing "random" but still climbing isnt random. As you said in a previous video, just because someone isnt playing *your* version of Street Fighter isn't a reason to write them off. "You beat me but you're bad" is the quintessential Scrubquote and I honestly expected better. Not only were you unable to take the L, but then make a YT video complaining about someone taking risks on a character designed from the ground up to be "You need to guess right every time, I only need to guess right once."

[@thefractalcactus]

He does this shit all the time, and it's honestly irritating. Much as I like him, the shtick is getting old. Boo-hoo, you can't beat the best of the best of the best with 100% consistency, you must be mid at the game. Master rank isn't impressive because you can't beat in a first to 1,000. 😢😢😢

[@neotron6490]

This video had taught about to not being the best rather than being the master. It applied to literally almost everything existed too Thats kind of reason FGC now to me felt like most of the averages playing like they playing TCG with muscles. Especially talked about its all on the characters like they needly bring the best card along with your deck kit to the tournament or even friendly match

[@RyuShinkuuHadoken]

At some point we all are gonna lose to someone who is just mashing.

[@AdamJorgensen]

Wait....so there are only 1000 or so people that are at least somewhat component at SF6? Ouch. There goes my million dollars ;-)

[@austinschmidt8228]

The best fighting game player to ever live has never even played one.

[@ThreatLvMezzanotte]

GodTier thumbnail right there

[@OldManGaribubee]

Bad is objectively the bottom 33%. 33% above that is Average, and then 33% above that is good (Yeah im simplifying it). If you are in the top 1% of something, that's good, arguably great. If we are talking about someones own definition of "bad" then that line is anywhere.