Playing a Weaker Character Can Teach You Things a Stronger Character Might Not

[@deadfr0g]

Maining a low tier has taught me greatly about OUR OWN MORTALITY AND THE FRAGILITY OF HUMAN LIFE.

[@BRAZILIAN_MIKU]

Chip/millia player spotted

[@Mr.Faust3]

@@BRAZILIAN_MIKU Chipp’s not a low tier

[@BRAZILIAN_MIKU]

@@Mr.Faust3 everyone's a low tier if ur bad enough

[@Mr.Faust3]

@@BRAZILIAN_MIKU tell that to a May player who spams 5HS

[@deadfr0g]

@@BRAZILIAN_MIKU “Heh. You think my character’s BROKEN?” 😎 **cracks knuckles** **loses**

[@integra8472]

Logged abt 300 hours as Anji from day 1, clawed my way to Celestial, picked up Ramlethal and immediately went “oh, OH”

[@bageltoo]

“My objective is not to win, but to learn new things” Fantastic advice. I need to remember to approach games from that angle instead of “grrr why win number no go up?”

[@WafflesOWNz]

After learning the Happy Chaos MU as Goldlewis and just barely going even with one of my friends, picking up Stun Dipper the Character™ for that matchup felt very powerful.

[@jasonslade6259]

KY is one of the few characters who does ok in that match-up. He has super fast dash acceleration to help him get closer and he has good mid range buttons to fight with once he gets there.

[@heracrossz7701]

I see you are addressing stundipper properly.

[@Blargel]

Same feeling here except my friend was playing Nago and I picked up Baiken. Having a button that advances while going under Nago's 2H felt like cheating after all I went through, lol.

[@TheSingularity3]

Yeah swapping from Goldilocks to Testament for that matchup was a revelation Neither is great against Faist sadly

[@saxtonnova]

@@jasonslade6259 i wish the problem was ky being super cracked and stun dipper being the single best tool in the game to close range but the problem is hc completely stopping characters like goldlewis to play the game :/. anyway we got season 2 coming.

[@lucaslennan3356]

I've never gotten more whiplash than underestimating the sentence "Bridget has low health" and then dying in literally 9 seconds two rounds in a row.

[@FiveStringC]

My favorite is when people tell me my characters bad. But then when you play them it becomes really obvious, they don't actually know why they're bad.

[@Michael_Raymond]

Case In Point: 6th Graders’ Meta At the end of the year, after all the kids had been dominated by Justice and Zappa, the kid who got closest to beating the teacher was Slayer kid because he had good fundamentals instead of picking a projectile character

[@PR1ME98]

I kind of hate having a secondary/pocket character just to cover a specific MU. I’d much rather just accept that i have to work harder and just learn it to the best of my ability and play to the best of my ability.

[@brucecole1940]

Reminds me of Plup in the Melee scene. Started with the midtier Samus and made them look faster and more technical than ever. Got so good to be top 20 with her. Switched to Sheik/Fox and his speed and ideas are still there. Just came 2nd at the last Summit too

[@Wilkenros]

This was 100% true for me with Strive. When it first came out I mained Chipp and I would run over people with his strong offence. I would autopilot the flowchart. When Goldlewis came out I thought he was fun, but I learned that I knew very little about defense in Strive. Wanting to get good with Gold forced me to relearn how to play the game.

[@SadOccultist]

Speaking on Noon's tweet, I swapped from Sin to Dizzy at the beginning of Rev2 absolutely knowing she was nowhere near as good as Sin. It was exactly what Sajam said, I loved Dizzy's design and toolkit so I enjoyed labbing things out and finding new stuff. I don't think I would've loved Rev2 as much if I stuck with Sin.

[@mikestevens1801]

Sin was still very high tier compared to half the cast

[@rachetmarvel931]

@@mikestevens1801 Yet Kizzy still downplays him.

[@weepingj]

@@rachetmarvel931 lmao true he be like "sin main struggles" 🤣

[@no_nameyouknow]

Conversely actually learning a top tier can teach you a lot as well like what is strong and why those things are strong and how to fight against strong things because obviously you know the weaknesses of your own character better than other characters a lot of the time. I think just playing multiple different characters is better than just focusing on one. Of course you going to address that in the video later on I see

[@CaptinSpyke]

As someone whose two favorite characters in strive are Sol and Anji, they complement my learning process very well and I love both of them so I'm always having fun whether I play the stronger or weaker of the two

[@yosha101]

I wonder, as a competitor, isn't having fun also a part of it, if you enjoy playing a character in particular, no matter how trash. Character specialists have existed since the days of yore, ancient warriors who, understand their character isn't great but still stick with them cause they believe and enjoy playing with this one character THAT much. I understand that wanting to win as a competitor is a thing, but there are some who stick to their guns not just cause they WANT to win period, but cause they want to win with their CHARACTER. (Mind you not devaluing those who DO change characters for matchups and the what not, but I feel that this perspective should also be taken into account)

[@lazersfixall3939]

Like our lord and savior FAB

[@BigBoiBryant77]

This is a concept that has value in education as well. Picture a person who has learned addition with a calculator compared to someone who only had access to an abacus. The "abacus-user" may understand the concept more thoroughly than the one given access to the stronger tool that does this task for them. On the flip side, you could argue that having access to a tool that trivializes something like addition means that the learner's ceiling to understand additional concepts becomes taller, but this doesn't seem to always be the case (such as the fact that spell-check means many people can't spell to save their life). What do you all think?

[@thecoolkid440]

I'll always be a rushdown at heart, but I learned Testament just to see what its like on the other side with a different playstyle. I think learning testament made my execution on gio cleaner and my idea's and concepts of how matchups work more accurate.

[@yojo8667]

I’ve always chose and stick to characters based on whether I actually like the character or not so I hardly ever got to experience that fighting game tingling of suddenly feeling really good with a stronger character EXCEPT in VSAV with my attempts to try everyone not Jedah and just monkey flipping everyone with Sasquatch’s clearly unmatched buttons compared to my original pick.

[@han3wmanwukong125]

Yeah, sometimes you're lucky and your fave character happens to be also very strong in game.

[@CarbonRollerCaco]

@@han3wmanwukong125 And sometimes you're unlucky and they're TOO good.

[@Osiris2994]

I don't care if my character is weak as long as I can twerk on my opponents at least once per match

[@JFLunch]

Playing Ginyu in DBFZ taught me so much about the game as a beginner that I immediately had a skill boost as soon as I swapped to a more meta team. But then I played GT Goku, having the time of my life. When it was time to drop him I was like, "Wait, how do I stop jumping???", then proceeded to relearn how to deal with it without an easy powerful option. The opposite sorta happened to me with Strive. I thought May was an honest character compared to alot of characters in the cast. Then I picked up Leo. I then realized, "wait a minute, the character power level is weaker than I originally thought". Made me realize how I should approach my RPS situations that are in my favor and being okay with being wrong.

[@ArkRiley]

I encountered this a lot on the Tower in Strive. You'd run into a lot of Sols and Mays who just had no neutral skills even on the higher floors

[@demonkingnobunaga]

The quickest way to learn a fighting game is to main 2 characters: the best and the worst one. Alternatively, two very opposite characters can also teach you the game quickly

[@hendselp9527]

I love strive faust, but playing against my friends who mostly main top tiers is absolute suffering sometimes. I feel like I can't complain though, because as much as apologyman is a living meme it's pretty inspiring to see him out here winning tournaments and smoking hotashi in twitch rivals, and makes me feel like i can deal with these painful matchups if i'm stubborn enough. I feel like it has made me play alot better personally even if i haven't actually won a match in maybe 2 months now.

[@Eddiegames9]

I think Alex in 3rd Strike is an interesting example because while he does kind of suck from a perspective of frame data and reward off stray hits, his gameplay style gives you a *really* good understanding of both his own and his opponent's attack ranges for footsies, especially because of his emphasis on whiff punishing with EX Elbow, he's a character that teaches you how to play neutral effectively, which can then be taken and applied to other, better characters later on

[@idontno6d105]

7:14 I don't play Blazblue CF much anymore because there are only two characters that don't make me feel this way and coincidentally they're two of the hardest characters to learn

[@Butterfree_hater]

As someone who first started playing strive seriously with goldlewis, switching to nago and being able to whiff AND beat round start backdash has made my pre-season2 experience much better. Can't wait for season 2 where we get asuka, the resident trap based zoner

[@mad-dash6448]

Asuka’s been playable before?

[@lazersfixall3939]

@@mad-dash6448 in GG2: Overture

[@michaelflatt4663]

This is a great topic that would of heavily benefitted from visual aides. I still followed, but pulling clips up and showing the actual thought process would of been very nice.

[@baronwest]

In 3-D fighters the main benefit of low tiers in tournament is few people know the match-up outside of common gimmicks. Tiers assume both players have equal knowledge, but that never happens when the opponent is a character specialist using an obscure character.

[@samuelbiche6846]

in melee towards the start of the pandemic, zain (plays marth, a s tier character) entered a ton on online brackets playing roy (a bottom tier character) and said he learned a lot and has tapped into the skills he learned with roy to win with marth more, mostly mentality and controlling pace kinda stuff. also had the great tag 'DontTestMe'

[@gondolaFGC]

"I want to be as good as possible with the character I love"

[@The-toast]

Honestly, Faust has uniquely strong tools that I end up autopiloting like he's a top tier for opponents that dont know how to deal with it. Like 2p j.2K Faust 99. If nobody rpses it I'm Just going to do it every time.

[@GriFFonRec4]

How do you RPS around it?

[@The-toast]

@@GriFFonRec4 Backdash into anti air is very strong against that 99, but characters have a variety of options against it. But if you're Just gunna try to challenge every 99 I'm Just gunna keep scuffing your Jays and bonking your noggin

[@liamatte]

I learned this in pokemon unite. I mained garchomp from day 1 (who at the time was a bottom 2 character) until one day I tried out a top tier jungler and completely destroyed. Because I played an ass character I was more prepared for more scenarios because I had to learn different ways to interact in ways other characters couldn't. Another instance was in Star Wars Battlefront 2. I mained Yoda in duels (who is the worst saber hero in the game) and found unique ways to approach characters to the point where I genuinely consider yoda's best matchups to be against top tiers because his abilities are so unorthodox to the point where they completely shut down characters like Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.

[@CarbonRollerCaco]

"My objective is not to win, but to learn new things." Someone's been studying the Book of Sirlin. "Don't fight to win-fight to improve yourself. Victory will come." -Ryu, SSFIIT HDR And I believe most weak characters are that way because they tend to be underequipped to fully gel with the game's systems, not that they're wholly decent and are just outclassed by everyone else, yet if those underequipped characters just had one or two tools or general tweaks to overcome where they don't gel without totally destroying their fundamental playstyle, they could be amazing. Even as a mere casual, I get why SFIV Blanka is ass: he was good in ST despite lacking big combos because of his fast hops, slide and ball/bite mixup and the SFII days were when basic grabs were almost as powerful as combos, and all of those became nigh-irrelevant in SFIV where everyone could dash, widescreen meant greater distancing was possible, all basic throws were techable and damage as a whole was chopped WAY down. Blanka's old moves couldn't work for SFIV on their own, and he had nothing really new to make them work. It wasn't until SFV until Blanka got what his playstyle needed to be modernized: lightning auras and the Wild Hunt command grab. Of course, a game change wasn't necessary for those, and the former could be implemented as a regular move a la Hakan's oiling. Speaking of that, Hakan probably could've benefitted more from it if it gave him a general speed boost on top of its usual buffs because oil slips, letting him be a different sort of hit-and-run grappler from Blanka. Hey, Blanka was my first Street Fighter like-green rules-and I'm a wrestling fan. I want those two to kick ass.

[@thenamesblond2348]

this is why I've stuck to Elizabeth in P4AU, having a characters with such weak tools going against characters like Mitsuru or Narukami lets you figure out how to play when you're unmatched at a fundamental level

[@angiestrowbridge2157]

As you said it depends on the games balance Playing low tiers in unbalanced games will just hamper your potential for growth as the low tiers dont get to play the same game. On the flip side the top tiers tools can be a crutch. For instance, the majority of melee falco mains are incapable of playing any other character.

[@mitzi3262]

Playing a low tier in something like marvel just sounds like something that's holding you back unless you're already good

[@sillybearhours]

i don’t think this applies to actual high level falcos at all

[@angiestrowbridge2157]

@@sillybearhours Most likely not but I was referring to your average slippi falco.

[@mikestevens1801]

I think yall gotta stop playing games where characters are so bad they hamper your play. Never played a fighting game where that's true outside of the pro scene

[@deadfr0g]

“This ain’t Falco!” - Falco mains, probably

[@DrgoFx]

Absolutely. I'm much more familiar with Smash Bros as it's the game I have the most competitive experience with, but there's a friend of mine who plays Wolf who arguably has one of the best neutral games in the roster. Despite this though, I feel his Wolf is significantly weaker than his less competitive characters such as Incineroar and Pit. His Pit especially is really oppressive as he understands the limits of his character, while with his wolf he seems to under or over estimate the boundaries of kit with a clear indication that he just kind of assumes the character's tools will just work in that moment. It really doesn't help that he's very tilt sensitive and he will always complain and rant about the match up, or your character being broken, or his character being weak, etc. It truly is tiring for me because as an example, another friend of mine is very competitive and we play a ton of games together, but Melee is easily his best (ranked 1st in our area for like half a year at one point). Very early on in my competitive development in a casual game, he just spammed Cloud's Up B at me gloating "Omg this move, it's broken, it's too good, you can't get around it, cloud is top tier" and the entire time he's provoking me like this with clearly playful energy, I'm just thinking to myself "There is definitely a way to beat this, I'm just not doing it or I don't know how to do it" and for those curious, it's just either coming at him from behind, jumping over the hb, or shielding the hb on its way down to punish. Or use a projectile, all of those are doable. But that was a defining moment in my mindset towards fighting games which I can only describe as "There's an answer to this seemingly unbeatable option, I just need to figure it out."

[@Randomsmashfan64]

Yes. I carry this mentality to every game I play these days. Helps me keep my cool in FPS games where most people would start malding and blame the game/the enemy's weapon on their loss (*cough* COD players *cough*). Just a good mindset to have.

[@arglebargle5531]

SMH he should have been spamming Bair! :P

[@DrgoFx]

@@Randomsmashfan64 yeah honestly this mindset is what's lead to my enjoyment of fighting games, the idea of solving the neutral game. Not with some big picture idea of being the best, but just the enjoyment of figuring out how to counter act an option your opponent throws at you and having those realizations of "Ah, I can't beat that option, they're super plus" or recognizing "ah if they use their special like that, I can punish it with an anti Air if I anticipate it." and just that general concept of problem solving and adaptability.

[@Bruthole]

What Sajam was saying about people picking top tiers and doing flowchart stuff is kind of one of the strengths of a low tier. Everybody knows the top tier b&bs, but nobody knows low tiers. I think playing a low tier opens your mind to being more creative with the system's mechanics, and finding solutions to seemingly impossible problems. When you pick a top tier you can kinda coast on fundamentals, but you'll never win against someone who truly understands the game, matchups, and mechanics better than you do.

[@garethmagis]

8:11 Holy shit this keeps happening to me playing mid lane in league of legends. I'm playing Viktor and my buddy will tell me that i should dominate the lane against a character like irellia or yasuo. (he doesn't play the character but watches a lot of pro matches where people roam to help the mid lane) So i felt stupid and looked up some matches with viktor v irellia or viktor v yasuo. Into both matchups the grandmaster player was having basically the same issues i was having with the sole difference being that everytime those characters got overconfident the jungle would come out, save the lane for the viktor and then he would be up enough that he could somewhat safely kill the wave and run back to tower.

[@cheesi]

Also think even if you do want to do your best and improve as much as possible there's a big element of identity to it. I love specific styles, I really wanna get that across and excel at it.

[@matrix3509]

The real question is how many Sanford Kelly gifs were posted in response to that tweet?

[@ninjakinryu1382]

Spot on analysis sajam. I tend to find games I like with enough depth I have motivation to learn and play every character out of interest and enjoyment. Weak characters definitely help improve your fundamental understanding of the game while top tiers tend to require less thought. So when you are actually presented with a challenge and you only pick top tier you wont know the basis of how to look for a solution. My advice is you should look for a strong character you like that still has weaknesses to keep you thinking and improving. If your like me and play everyone, the most fun is to look for characters people downplay or underrate who you believe are actually top tier and then surprise people when they realize they don’t actually know the matchup.

[@TheJbrown60]

whenever i play an anji or faust on strive from my expierience theres so few of them that the ones i do fight against are kinda schnasty

[@Stormwolf4]

I understand this question was for specifically tournament play. But as a casual person who just enjoys online completive matches, I almost always just pick what's fun over what's good. I play Junpei in P4UA, and I'm well aware he's one of the worst characters in the game, but he's gameplay is just so fun that I can't help but play him more. But don't get me wrong, I play Kanji too, and having an amazing DP like Kanji can really make you feel bad once you go back to Junpei.

[@FishyAshB]

Playing e. honda (ST/SF4) taught me how to deal with projectiles really well. Because his tools are so poor against zoning you have to be VERY patient. Playing any other character makes zoning basically a non-issue unless they are severely outplaying me.

[@han3wmanwukong125]

There are people who consider choosing a character who wins because winning is fun, but who don't really win much more oftehn that people who pick characters they like esthetically, fighting-style wise or even by the characters "personality " (you know what I mean, gents). If you have a character you like, but give them up because they are "weak" or "too hard" then I wonder how it feels cause I find that to be very weird.

[@shinygekkouga52]

Low tiers in more recent games typically have one situation that’s really fun once you’re able to access it, but have a lot of trouble getting there against competent opponents. At the very least, it is this design philosophy that attracts me to them. I wouldn’t say Testament, the char I’m currently learning, is low tier, but their gameplay is basically as I described: difficult to access, especially compared to my main, Gio.

[@GlowingOrangeOoze]

I gotta talk about Project M because essentially every player experienced going from a strong character to a weaker one and was forced to learn how to play. In the early versions they balanced the game kinda gunning for the cast to be as powerful as a Melee top tier. Eventually version 3.5 dropped and they kicked the crutches out from under the whole community and nerfed almost every character until the balance was more like a Melee high tier (this is a bigger difference than it sounds like. Melee is an old game). Even my main, Ganondorf, who was just about the only character to be buffed overall, had a crutch to blow up (neutral air's active frames reduced to 2 per kick. In Smash terms, this is makes the move SO much harder to use). We all felt like we just got dropped in the desert and told to find our way home. But once a few months passed I felt like we were all so much better at the game and it was more fun to play. Looking back at version 3.0, I feel like we were all just butting heads against one another.

[@effay3204]

I have most of my time in Strive as I-No since I mained her in Xrd, but have picked up Goldlewis the past few months (not that he's low tier, but he's probably not quite as good as I-No). Getting used to not having a hover dash was hard, but what was even harder was realizing how busted I-No's 6P was especially compared to Goldie. I still fuck up Behemoth Typhoons in the heat of the match too much, but boy are good Goldlewis rounds satisfying. I've never played a "big body" character before and it's inspired me to try them in future games, and even give Kliff a shot in +R.

[@jacekkujawa683]

I think, when a lot of people play top tier characters, you have more gaming knowledge about matchup, because you play a lot matches against this top tiers. When you choose to play low tier characters your enemy, don't have that knowledge because they play against that character a lot less, i don't watch on tier list because i play characters when i enjoy their gmeplay. People are not robots, win that man who make less mistakes so if you on similiar lvl you need to find or force your oponent to make mistake and be ready to punish him for it. Is something magical in cheering for low tier characters becuse if they win all crowd gets wild and all pressure in match is on top tier chracter side because everyone think u have a "better" character advantage. And i agree in everything what was said in the video.

[@luckygoblin9642]

being short in combat sports is like playing a low tier

[@joecoolmccall]

"How to Ignore Sanford's Advice". Beautiful.

[@Cambiony]

I'm not so sure that this actually applies that much these days. Like low tiers of today tend to have so overwhelmingly good options, but they are just not enough to make them consistently good. Like, it's not ususual for the worst character in the game to have best 'something' of the game. Like Xrd Potemkin backdash or Faust crawl that can let you opt out of some situations even some better characters just can't. So imo it's more that different characters teach you things some others don't. Like Ram player playing Nago will probably learn a lot of new things and has to adjust in a new way, even tho both of those characters are top tier.

[@fromundaman]

I can't speak for everyone, but I played Joker in IJ1. I just really enjoyed him, and he improved my neutral and execution a lot. I also was in denial about his power level as well. "How bad can a character that will ToD you actually be?" I had also played some weaker characters before and found success, so I was fully convinced that I could make it work. Finally, match-up inexperience is always on your side when you travel with a low tier. I wasn't good enough to be a top 8er regardless of character in that game, but man I got some decent wins because no one understood how to deal with Joker's tools, and if they figured it out I was still ready since my local scene who knew my gimmicks forced me to adapt to that.

[@hteety]

I think anyone who doesn't get this should watch watch the story of Amsa. AsumSaus released an excellent video covering Amsa and his Yoshi in Melee, and how he eventually prevailed in the single most stacked smash tournament in history at the time. Not just that, during the process, he learned the stage that was considered a counterpick for him, and won picking that stage himself. He's a true inspiration for anyone looking to main a mid/low tier character and just goes to show that even in a game as old as Melee, that mid and low tiers can still win at the highest of levels. Then go watch some of his matches, and just see how immaculately he plays, and how his grind paid off in ways that other characters couldn't possibly. One example is just in the same match mentioned above. Mango makes one missed tech, and Amsa punishes it from 0% to death to take the tourney.

[@MitoRequiem]

I remember going to WNF for Guilty Gear Xrd and everyone being shocked I was a Baiken player and saying "Man she's a lot of work" but I felt like she was a strong character and that I was losing cause of me and not Baiken

[@ElvisMaximus1]

It's the best feeling to play a character and feel like you know they're strong and you just have to level up your game to make them work like they should Honestly though I don't think there's many characters I've played that I can say that for. Pretty much just I-no GG and Litchi in BB for me, but both have such high ceilings in a lot of their games that it always feels like "if I was just a little bit better.." rather than "man this characters options suck, if I just had [x] I'd be fine"

[@Lanzetsu]

Yes! That is the feeling, and when you win it feels even better, congrats on you as an old Baiken Main for real

[@theesengovender1870]

Excellent video, Sajam. Excellent!!

[@pinksywedarnoc8017]

I main Faust because I really like him, I don't care if he's actually bad to play in the game I just really REALLY like to have fun with who I find the most interesting and weird. Like Faust and his silly shenanigans.

[@viceanterra3]

I've realized I know how to play Faust but I wasn't very good at playing Strive. Learning strive has made my Faust a little scarier. I'm thinking about picking Zato next he's not low tier but I find his mechanics almost as interesting as Faust's.

[@megan_tensei]

7:13 this pic is your brain on perfectionism

[@axis8396]

Just EX when she press bro the matchup's not that bad

[@as95ms98]

I've definitely felt this as a Ram main playing against Jack-O's. I honestly feel that I don't know that Ram/Jack-O match-up at all because Ram's normals are so unbelievably good at removing her minions and win condition that I feel like I just autopilot and win. Most of the time at the skill level that I'm at I don't really feel the whole top tier character makes you learn less lessons thing, cause when I win I still learn a lot and still made mistakes getting to the win that I can learn from. But against Jack-O, I win and feel like I didn't really have to think about anything.

[@killerkonnat]

I don't think JackO statistically has many good matchups at the higher ratings anyway...

[@genzo454]

As a Negan main, not having a homing mid really required me to actually think about stopping my opponent's lateral movement, as opposed to just pressing a button and knowing my opponent will stop stepping. Not saying that Negan is low tier, but there's a reason he is firmly mid-tier.

[@blargh559]

If you've had an easy life, struggle will hit you way harder than if you've been running uphill since birth, for you it's just tuesday

[@DANCERcow]

As a Faust main since XX! I will never abandon Little Mac!

[@chillaxboi2109]

I like Faust. Fuck XX Faust, tho. Kliff main😂

[@garethmagis]

I often end up playing bad characters but it's usually just because i play the characters that i just love the most. I love strange gameplans and even stranger characters, i also have fallen in love with command grabbing people lol. The biggest reason though why i don't pick a top tier even in games where i plan on competing is because i know that i will never be the best sol player, so there isn't really a point in trying to be best sol player in a tournament on a character that i just don't enjoy.

[@kot4311]

I know what I like, midrange buttons which aren’t too slow and good jump-in buttons, and this preference is what lead me to Anji, and despite everything, I don’t regret sticking with him

[@Titankerberos]

That end bit summarizes my experience with strive so far.

[@kyl0ooart]

Playing faust taught me that is should just stay ram

[@beansoclock8748]

yes

[@gekisage7448]

Additionally, having more than one characters helps you to have different visions, options, and matchups

[@figureitout2973]

I picked Nago day 1 cause he looked cool and had sick looking combos and it turned out he was good too I have no motivation to ever pick up anyone else now

[@Crescent-Adam]

10/10 thumbnail 👍🏻

[@christopherwest671]

The first time I played Zato - I got smoked so hard by May. Had to look at the frame data to see that his 6p is not the best anti-air after the first frame or two.

[@Yvs8962]

My competitive roots are in Smash, but I began as a low tier main becoming one of the best with my character, and stuck with it admittedly out of a noobish mindset of "not stooping to the level of the tier whores" thinking that made me better than them even when they beat me. It honestly just took a few years of experience as a competitor to grow out of that mentality, and I began picking up top tiers for MUs and having respect for people who play them, though I do feel sticking with my low tier as a main forced me to develop very solid fundamentals, which would pay off in the long run. When the next game in the series was announced I was deadset on having no loyalty to the character and would play someone I'd be successful with, and thankfully that character was a High Tier in this game :) immediately began getting great National results. Nowadays Ive switched to Melee and shamelessly play the best character in the game..... Yeah I just killed your gimmick mid tier at 0%, deal with it.

[@Meatblasting]

My buddy mains Q in 3rd Strike. It forces him to git gud little by little and I respect that grind

[@michaelmcdermott1624]

At high level, I can think of one other reason to play lower tier characters: you think that they won't always be bad. Kind of like character speculation. Probably not a good idea historically, but with patching as it is, it might be an idea.

[@TaggedByTim]

Maining Faust and recently trying out Ram had made me realize that it doesn't matter if I play a low or a high tier. I just have a hard time adjusting to my opponent and my inputs are ugly. Like my brain knows I need to do something different but my hands default to j2k or mess up 236236S.

[@Kathanis]

I just pick who I like and learn and have fun. I'm never going to be at the insane top tier of any game so I just want to be good at the character I like and that's it. I've been a Leo main since day 1 and won't stop, maybe until Sin comes out cuz I miss playing Sin lol

[@matheusleite4333]

I usually like to main a rushdown and a zonner character, so i get understand better the tools to get in and the tools do avoid some characters

[@givemeverything]

I'm a nago main now but when I first started I was a sol guy just because of the strive gossip (he's the best hands down in the game) but sol wasn't for me didn't feel right. So I went to zato we had a good relationship me zato and Eddie and they wasn't hard to use but the strength wasn't there so we broke up then I chose nagoriyuki and for me my opinion he's the best charcter if he didn't rage he would be a sol but the concept the structure of this character just speaks to me and that is what truly matters. So my advice to the new comers to strive if ur trying to figure out who to main try the ones with limitations they in return will teach u to think 🤔 and not just push buttons and then my friend no one can say u was carried

[@KidArkx]

Swords are garbage when it comes to actual combat. I mean the quintessential "blade" such as knight longswords and katana. I shouldn't say garbage, but compared to something like a spear or any projectile they take soo much more knowledge experience and training. However for most of human history there's some sort of reverence to using blades like that. It got to the point that people called bows coward weapons. That's basically it, people have a preference to what they want to use and these preferences expand to most players of games. I play grapplers and I've dealt with more 10-0 well they feel like 10-0 blocking fireballs or ferry's whip or NU. I could easily switch to the zoner's 10-0 matching but I don't, cause that's how I play.

[@tingispingis]

Swords were revered because they were status symbols. They are expensive and mostly carried by people like noblemen, knights, samurai etc. So if you saw someone with a sword then chances are they were a person of status. They were also used mostly as a sidearm or for self defense when walking around town or something. Spears and ranged weapons have always been the dominant, preferred choice for humans ever since we were cavemen until automatic guns came around. No knight is gonna be walking into battle with only his sword as his main weapon no matter how good he is.

[@kaleidoslug7777]

Yep, you wanna feel like you won, getting to the end screen with the character on your side still standing is not enough, you want it to be *Your* character

[@justterrell956]

I usually play Mid/low tier characters. I picked up Strive(1st GG) and tried Ram. Instantly was bored with the fact that I was bodying people and had no experience in this game, I main Faust(I like the random) and am learning May(I main charge in every fighting game I play). Playing mid/low tier to me allows me to learn the game a bit better, there’s just so much more you have to do to be better. I think everyone should try a low tier out at least once, even if your playing casual. It’ll up your gameplay.

[@ZawaOnYoutube]

Dear Sajam, What if I don't like any of the characters in Strive right now? What if none of them seem to click? What then?

[@Mo-yh5lo]

Top tier thumbnail

[@SpecialBeam]

That last meme is why I rarely go back to Souls-Like games. I'll play through it once just to say I did it but.. idk.. the more I lose to the same boss, the more I don't give a shit when I finally win. Because in my head I'm frustrated that I didn't beat it 6 tries ago lol

[@ungeekfurioso4802]

I main the worst character in Garou: MoTW, Freeman (why? Bc he's hot) I tried to learn Gato for the Grant matchup, I did not have fun and I couldnt solve problems as advanced with Gato.

[@sibi2000]

å

[@lollobiscorollo4875]

I'm stuck playing a bad character IRL, this video really hit different.

[@Drawfill]

I wish I could play other characters then my own. I'm just not having fun when I pick someone else for the sake of having a better character.

[@mirror2922]

I know its not directed to casuals but to some extent the rule applies. Even in casual play you will meet a competent player at the game, who understands your tools which forces you to "organically" make a decision or test different stuff the p So problem is just how well the person retains the information. So next time a problem presents itself their problem solving skills develop quicker/faster when their tools are constantly being contested by people who have some core knowledge of the character and the game. I'm not kidding myself if I were to fight Sajam, Romolla, Lordknight (LK), I would get my ass smoked but I also don't think the concepts are entirely too far from each other when we add time played too. If a beginner uses anji and has to find work arounds for that character (any low tier in any fighting game really) I think the growth of that player is faster. It just heavily depends on if they rely on knowledge checks to net the W or not. Because the moment the knowledge check stops working they have to think or they will continue to get beat and at that point the player isn't growing if they stay that way. It applies to some casuals that they don't grow but I think an overwhelming majority do learn to improve or deal with a problem some characters are just used to thinking outside the box and others not so much.

[@thegoose8663]

Yeah, whenever I play anyone else but Nago I can FEEL the framedata hurting me. Like how do you Potemkins live with your fastest poke being an 8f crouching punch? :P

[@quarterscarlet]

I take a tweet with scrutiny if the character can mash a few normals and still get away with a lot of stuff.

[@ParagonFury]

Imagine being Me, picking Gio because I thought she looked cool and had Doggo, only to have her absurd noob stomping potential immediately boost me to Floor 10, and now I've got like a 15% since the second month from launch because I definitely don't belong on F10.

[@DoctorGalactor]

I think playstyle and personal preference come a long way too. I know that Ky isn't the greatest character, but I love his flexibility and the different ways you can approach a match-up. On the other hand, I know that Chipp can steamroll almost any character if you know what you're doing, but I didn't enjoy playing him so I stopped.

[@webbowser8834]

Apparently Ky actually has a pretty decent HC matchup, so you can definitely do a lot worse.

[@DoctorGalactor]

@@webbowser8834 true. He doesn't have a super strong win condition like the top tiers, but he can fight almost every character on even ground.

[@rhompbus]

The I-No HC matchup is so fucked got me questioning life

[@Sorrelhas]

Playing a weaker character taught me that I'm carried I have a huge interest in grapplers, and every time I run a grappler it feels like it's my first time ever picking up a fighting game

[@GamerBlazened]

Playing Jacko right now, reminded me I like May because how easy she shuts down "just send it" players

[@t1red3yez27]

Tekken 7 - Fahkumram vs. Yoshimitsu SFV - Luke vs. Fang Strive - Sol vs. Goldlewis Pick up these 2 characters in the game of your choice and you'll understand 100%

[@ezraezra666]

I usually end up playing strong characters because I like having lots of strong options for any situation.

[@iorilamia]

Anji mains are secretly big brain because of the struggle

[@MrDrumStikz]

Often times a character is bad because their strengths don't line up with the parts of the game that are strongest (e.g. grapplers in a game with strong zoning and air options). If your play style happens to match the strengths of that character rather than the meta of the game, you may perform your best on a weak character.

[@thesaltmerchant4564]

Hook hang god is really going through this rn

[@gaminglakitu]

I just legit don't care about relative character strength, because I just like having fun with almost everyone in the game