Drinking with Skeletons

Getting GOOD at pinball (and Street Fighter)

I've been playing competitive pinball for a little over a year now and a couple weeks ago I won my first ever solo tournament. So far I've had a couple other accomplishments I've been proud of: good weekly league placements, being on a winning team during a different tournament a few weeks prior, but this was my first that I won all on my own. And it felt really good!

The theme of the tournament was really fun too. They call it Price is Right, and essentially each of the games you play on has a target score that you have to get as close as possible to without going over. The hard part is playing good enough to hit the score, while trying not to get a big bonus at the end of your ball that might knock you over (you got one tilt per game).

I had two insanely close games on Cirqus Voltaire and Stars where I played the bonus to eke out whoever was in first place by a few hundred points (and it was to the same person both times lol... sorry!!!). The final round I won by getting a bonus that would put me over into first place but then I had to quickly tilt the hell out of the game so my score would stop before going over the target. My heart was definitely pounding shaking that game LOL.

It turns out the secret to being good at pinball is just playing a lot. And all the time I've spent playing solo or at league or at home on my computer has been paying off. Playing at my local venues with my friends that are also really good at pinball has especially been nice because we're all improving together.

But at the same time, it's making me think of one of my other hobbies - competitive fighting games. Competitive pinball and competitive fighting games are not much different... but for whatever reason I get this crazy mental block when it comes to improving at Street Fighter. I think it has to do with how I'm compartmentalizing each. Pinball is a game you can play many different ways: competing against the machine to learn a game, competing against yourself to beat your high scores, or competing against your friends. When I go to a pinball tournament, 80% of the people there are friends of mine and we're mostly there to hang out too, so it's lower stress.

Fighting games on the other hand are you versus someone else. Most of your time is going to be spent playing online ranked mode, which is something I rarely do playing any genre of video game. Grinding online just isn't that fun to me and I do prefer the social aspect of doing sets with my friends. Video games to me are an unwinding activity for the most part, and after a long day at work sometimes the last thing I want to do is hop in ranked and get pissed off if I have a bad day and lose a bunch of games. Losing is part of the journey in fighting games, but it does suck to see your numbers go down when you do lose. At the same time... when you win it feels amazing LOL. I also struggle with labbing - I know I need to get more comfortable in training mode just to practice different situations and matchups I can end up in, but finding out what to do, what to practice and how to do it all without getting bored in 20 minutes has been tough for me.

But at the end of the day, that Zangief Master rank is calling for me. And I think it's achievable if I put the time and effort into learning it as I do with pinball. I think I just gotta do it in a healthy way though to avoid driving myself crazy - maybe an hour every few days in ranked when I'm in the mood or something. And maybe finally getting my ass to locals again...

Some other random thoughts on this Friday evening: