How Hard Is It to Get To Golden League ?

[Xx-KingOFDark-xX]

Hi, and good day. 

 

I've been a Tekken player my whole life. Never played SF and I'm considering to play it now. 

 

How hard is it to get to the Golden League really ? 

 

I'm decent player in Tekken. I pick a character and practice with it but I never force myself to learn combo, chain combos or how to punish. I played ranked there and the highest I've reached is the Brawler rank. Reference here. 

 

How hard will it be for me? 

Will be a breeze, take time or be difficult and require me to never give up and know how to chain combos, juggle players in the air, max punishes and learn the ins and outs of everything ? 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Xx-KingOFDark-xX

[Copanele]

Hi there!

I can only speak from my experience (stuck  in Super Silver right now) : STREET FIGHTER IS HARD!

I believe it will take time to reach golden league, mostly you need to learn how to chain combos and most important how to punish the opponent's  mistakes!

You don't really need to learn the max punishes, although it will help, but you need to get used with anti-airs, don't jump so much, spacing, the frames of each hit etc.

I'd say practice makes perfect as long as you stick to a character, learn from your mistakes and study study study, you can reach Golden League in no time.

If you played Tekken however, you might consider picking Akuma for starters, get a feel for it. Tekken and Street Fighter aren't really the same truth be told.

[Xx-KingOFDark-xX]

Well, shieeeeeeet. 

 

So basically for a month or 2 I have to make my gaming life around SF ranked mode. I'd have to learn everything there's to learn and master my character. 

 

I played with Akuma in T7 and played SF V demo before. So I kinda get with you mean. SF has its own flow and rhythm than Tekken from what I've seen. Not that's a bad thing or anything. 

 

Tekken has many moves and combos laid out. While SF gives the basic moves and expect you to figure it out. Also the 2.5D with Tekken I think is something that's I'm gonna have to learn to live without as it would be make relieved if it was in SF. 

[Copanele]

I would say start the journey either in Casual Mode or Battle Lounge. Yes you don't get points but you get a feel of the game + you don't have the  tension of holding onto the points with your dear life  you just play FOR FUN! (if you don't have fun with this game, Golden League will be a distant dream)

Also despite there being "easy" characters to learn, my advice would be to do it like in Tekken : Just pick a character that looks cool to you and does some fancy shit and lab the hell out of him (aka learn all his shit in training mode). Tiers don't matter squat at low level, only in tournaments and stuff like that. I main Cody who is considered a mid to trash tier character and I still love him so far.

 

Of course, this is said from the eyes of a complete noob at Street Fighter (I played Guilty Gear all my life, Street Fighter kicked my ass). You might be a complete natural at the game and reach the Golden League in a matter of weeks, just saying  .

 

Ok, there is a "beginner's guide" to SF5, truth be told, that everyone should definitely learn. Try your best to follow these :

• Do not jump like a rabbit.
• Learn one anti-air move (against people that jump like rabbits). You can literally win matches only with anti-airs, you won't believe how many people jump in this game!
• Learn an air-to-air move - eventually you will have to jump, in case the opponent jumps also, see which is your best option to kick his ass while airborne.
• Punish the swipes. Most beginners crouch and do a large swipe (Pressing R2), leaving them open. I recommend blocking while crouching and punishing with a swipe yourself. Try your best to not abuse it though, you might build a bad habit  
• Don't throw your Ultra carelessly, they leave you wide open.

That is all for starters! After that you will figure it out (or study on YouTube ) 

[Xx-KingOFDark-xX]

Ofcourse, I'll get the game to enjoy it.

I'm mostly interested in the story. And frankly I don't know what the trophies are except the Golden League one. I'll check them once I'm done with the story. 

 

I'm really interested in Charlie, Akuma, Bison and Juri. And most likely will main one of them. I'm considering Ryu for the Golden League since someone told me he's the most balanced one for obvious reasons. 

 

My problem is having to learn to chain combos and punishes since I'm just playing for fun and not to be a "try-hard".

 

And thanks for the tips, will definitely keep them in mind. 

[Copanele]

17 minutes ago, Xx-KingOFDark-xX said:

My problem is having to learn to chain combos and punishes since I'm just playing for fun and not to be a "try-hard".

Don't bother that much with chain combos, at least not in the beginning. In terms of execution this game is not as punishing as Street Fighter 4 (hell, even Tekken 7 sounds more complicated to pull combos).

Just learn the game and enjoy, you will gradually "unlock" the skills to do those combos no problem  

[SnowNinjaRaccoon]

To be honest, I don't think it's super difficult. Right now I'd say it is super damn easy for me after doing it like 7 or 8 times for different people.

1. Learn your characters moves and optimal combos

2. Punish OBVIOUS unsafe moves like Shorykuens, Sweeps, etc.

3. Don't jump like an idiot and learn to anti-air - every character has some sort of anti-air move, punishing opponent's jump-ins is already a ticket to silver league and above

4. Don't do stupid stuff like wake-up CA, wake up ex dp and stuff like that, doing a wake up ex dp from time to time will work but if you make a habit out of it you will suffer for that

 

Recently I got the trophy for a buddy with like 80 wins and 12 loses or something like that.

[Copanele]

I would also add that learning how to counter the basic moveset of your opponents will seriously save your ass in the long run. But that comes with experience, after you had quite a number of matches.

To give an example, most Abigail players( they can be intimidating at first) would do that Vroom Vroom charge at you or when he activates V-Trigger you bet he will use that stupid charge. Knowing how to deal with that attack will help you.

But bottom point...try your best to learn from your losses. You will lose a lot at first and that's how you will ultimately learn  

Edited April 21, 2020 by Copanele

[Greg]

I think if you're new to SF it's not easy but if you keep at it with an open mindset and learn how to anti air and some punish combos it's easily achievable. I've gotten it a few times with 70-80 wins as Mika.

[RevengeancePrime]

It shouldn't be very hard if you practice a little. You will need to spend some time learning optimal combos although they're not very challenging compared to Tekken 7. Players in bronze and silver tend to do a lot of unsafe things and crack under pressure, so just play defensively and focus on anti-airing and baiting out DPs, so you can get easy crush counter combos for big damage. Also abuse jump-ins or gimmicks if your opponent can't deal with them. Bison is a pretty good character for bodying lower rank players because they don't know how to deal with his gimmicks, so you might want to give him a try. 

[Xx-KingOFDark-xX]

On 4/28/2020 at 3:21 AM, ObliviousSenpai said:

It shouldn't be very hard if you practice a little. You will need to spend some time learning optimal combos although they're not very challenging compared to Tekken 7. Players in bronze and silver tend to do a lot of unsafe things and crack under pressure, so just play defensively and focus on anti-airing and baiting out DPs, so you can get easy crush counter combos for big damage. Also abuse jump-ins or gimmicks if your opponent can't deal with them. Bison is a pretty good character for bodying lower rank players because they don't know how to deal with his gimmicks, so you might want to give him a try. 

 

Thanks for the advice. It reminded of something I always see in competitive play. The lower levels are always easy to pass and you just need you improve a little level to reach the middle point of the ranking system (Diamond in Overwatch, Brawler in Tekken 7, Master in For Honor). And I'm guessing from what I've seen that's the equivalent of the golden league in SF V. Do correct me if I'm wrong. 

 

And thanks for the Bison idea. I did play him once and noticed he's all about countering attacks. 

[Copanele]

14 minutes ago, Xx-KingOFDark-xX said:

 

Thanks for the advice. It reminded of something I always see in competitive play. The lower levels are always easy to pass and you just need you improve a little level to reach the middle point of the ranking system (Diamond in Overwatch, Brawler in Tekken 7, Master in For Honor). And I'm guessing from what I've seen that's the equivalent of the golden league in SF V. Do correct me if I'm wrong. 

 

And thanks for the Bison idea. I did play him once and noticed he's all about countering attacks. 

That's pretty much it (except Master in For Honor, just grab the Berserker and you will fly past ranks  )

Bison is a super good character to use, lots of tools and decent combos. Just a word of advice, don't abuse the teleportation V-skill(I think it's a V-Skill?Need confirmation). Silver ranks won't fall for those cheap tricks and will combo you hard. But apart from that, Mister Bibson is an awesome counterpick to most of the cast, he was a headache to fight against.

[FreshFromThaDeli]

I have 3 words for you.

 

Practice. Practice. Practice.

 

Practice makes perfect. In this case you don't need to be perfect to beat even Ultra Silvers but spending time labbing will go a long way.

 

It's not too hard if you lab your character's go to punishes, crush counter combos and optimise your V Skill and V Trigger for the matchup as you get to see who your opponent has picked before selecting your V Skill and V Trigger.

 

I would say go watch all the demonstrations and do all the trials for your main. That's all 4 seasons worth to get a good idea of what you can do with that character. 

 

Out of the characters you are considering I would say go with Ryu or Bison. Ryu has an easy to pick up and play playstyle. Bison has great up close pressure and does more damage than Ryu in exchange for slow walk speed. Pick the one that suits you. 

 

Along the journey you will learn to anticipate grabs and tech them as well as learn to anti air to stop jump ins.

 

 

Edited May 4, 2020 by FreshFromThaDeli

[RevengeancePrime]

7 hours ago, Copanele said:

That's pretty much it (except Master in For Honor, just grab the Berserker and you will fly past ranks  )

Bison is a super good character to use, lots of tools and decent combos. Just a word of advice, don't abuse the teleportation V-skill(I think it's a V-Skill?Need confirmation). Silver ranks won't fall for those cheap tricks and will combo you hard. But apart from that, Mister Bibson is an awesome counterpick to most of the cast, he was a headache to fight against.

 

Are you talking about his V-Skill 2 where he teleports and knees the opponent? If so, I would have to disagree and say abuse it unless you find an opponent that can react to it. I generally play at gold/super gold and found that a lot of players don't know how to react to it if you throw it out every once in a while. He can also teleport in his V-Trigger 1 state by either dashing or using devil reverse. Teleporting through your opponent is very risky, but doing it with devil reverse works on quite a few players.

[Copanele]

22 minutes ago, ObliviousSenpai said:

 

Are you talking about his V-Skill 2 where he teleports and knees the opponent? If so, I would have to disagree and say abuse it unless you find an opponent that can react to it. I generally play at gold/super gold and found that a lot of players don't know how to react to it if you throw it out every once in a while. He can also teleport in his V-Trigger 1 state by either dashing or using devil reverse. Teleporting through your opponent is very risky, but doing it with devil reverse works on quite a few players.

Ok yes, doing it once in a while and doing it unpredictably is absolutely recommended ( yes it's V-Skill 2). What I meant was, every Bison that I met in Silver were just doing that + one random hit. It got super predictable and I just punished it every time.

My point was with the abuse...don't spam it mindlessly else you'll develop some bad habits that will stick you in Super Silver. Of course, mixing it with combos and unpredictability is the way to go with that char. 

[SnowNinjaRaccoon]

I wouldn't recommend any particular character for the gold league. Play whoever you like to play and practice the character. There is no character which makes it easier honestly.

The only thing I can tell you though: don't try to main Menat if you are a new player, she is not meant for beginners. I can tell you which characters are easier/harder to play though, if you are not sure who suits your skill level.

 

Easy to play: Ryu, Ken, Bison, Rashid, Balrog, Guile, Cammy, Akuma

Not so easy for beginners: Menat, Zeku, Ibuki, Dhalsim, Falke

Why are those not easy to play: Menat is a character all about laming the opponent out, with high execution window for her V-Trigger 1, Zeku players have to master 2 stances and know where to use which one, Ibuki is about managing her Kunais and especially about mixups and meter management, Dhalsim is just like Menat a lamer and you have to know your spacing with him in order to see any light, Falke requires charging a fireball at all times basically - she can be amazing in matchups against grapplers since she can keep them at distance at all times but she gets annihilated by other characters.

 

And about Bipson V-Skill 2, I just neutral jump punish them when I see his ass disappearing Bipson is a scrub killer though, he will kill you for not knowing how to play against him with most of his moves being positive on block. Against Bipson you got to learn to be patient and just keep blocking or simply rush his ass down and don't let him bully you.

[Xx-KingOFDark-xX]

19 hours ago, Copanele said:

That's pretty much it (except Master in For Honor, just grab the Berserker and you will fly past ranks  )

Bison is a super good character to use, lots of tools and decent combos. Just a word of advice, don't abuse the teleportation V-skill(I think it's a V-Skill?Need confirmation). Silver ranks won't fall for those cheap tricks and will combo you hard. But apart from that, Mister Bibson is an awesome counterpick to most of the cast, he was a headache to fight against.

 

Good lord you don't how much I hate Berserker. 

 

Thanks for the help. 

18 hours ago, FreshFromThaDeli said:

I have 3 words for you.

 

Practice. Practice. Practice.

 

Practice makes perfect. In this case you don't need to be perfect to beat even Ultra Silvers but spending time labbing will go a long way.

 

It's not too hard if you lab your character's go to punishes, crush counter combos and optimise your V Skill and V Trigger for the matchup as you get to see who your opponent has picked before selecting your V Skill and V Trigger.

 

I would say go watch all the demonstrations and do all the trials for your main. That's all 4 seasons worth to get a good idea of what you can do with that character. 

 

Out of the characters you are considering I would say go with Ryu or Bison. Ryu has an easy to pick up and play playstyle. Bison has great up close pressure and does more damage than Ryu in exchange for slow walk speed. Pick the one that suits you. 

 

Along the journey you will learn to anticipate grabs and tech them as well as learn to anti air to stop jump ins.

 

 

 

Will definitely check the demos and trials. Good to know there's such a thing. And from what I read Ryu has received some significant nerfs in the last season, Rendering him weaker against some picks. 

 

11 hours ago, ObliviousSenpai said:

 

Are you talking about his V-Skill 2 where he teleports and knees the opponent? If so, I would have to disagree and say abuse it unless you find an opponent that can react to it. I generally play at gold/super gold and found that a lot of players don't know how to react to it if you throw it out every once in a while. He can also teleport in his V-Trigger 1 state by either dashing or using devil reverse. Teleporting through your opponent is very risky, but doing it with devil reverse works on quite a few players.

 

Well, thanks to you. This move will the only thing I anticipate from Bison. ?

 

10 hours ago, Copanele said:

Ok yes, doing it once in a while and doing it unpredictably is absolutely recommended ( yes it's V-Skill 2). What I meant was, every Bison that I met in Silver were just doing that + one random hit. It got super predictable and I just punished it every time.

My point was with the abuse...don't spam it mindlessly else you'll develop some bad habits that will stick you in Super Silver. Of course, mixing it with combos and unpredictability is the way to go with that char. 

 

Yeah, I developed a similar habit with Devil Jin in Tekken. Even when I know I'll countered, my brain does automatically. Took a long time to get rid of it. 

 

10 hours ago, SnowNinjaRaccoon said:

I wouldn't recommend any particular character for the gold league. Play whoever you like to play and practice the character. There is no character which makes it easier honestly.

The only thing I can tell you though: don't try to main Menat if you are a new player, she is not meant for beginners. I can tell you which characters are easier/harder to play though, if you are not sure who suits your skill level.

 

Easy to play: Ryu, Ken, Bison, Rashid, Balrog, Guile, Cammy, Akuma

Not so easy for beginners: Menat, Zeku, Ibuki, Dhalsim, Falke

Why are those not easy to play: Menat is a character all about laming the opponent out, with high execution window for her V-Trigger 1, Zeku players have to master 2 stances and know where to use which one, Ibuki is about managing her Kunais and especially about mixups and meter management, Dhalsim is just like Menat a lamer and you have to know your spacing with him in order to see any light, Falke requires charging a fireball at all times basically - she can be amazing in matchups against grapplers since she can keep them at distance at all times but she gets annihilated by other characters.

 

And about Bipson V-Skill 2, I just neutral jump punish them when I see his ass disappearing Bipson is a scrub killer though, he will kill you for not knowing how to play against him with most of his moves being positive on block. Against Bipson you got to learn to be patient and just keep blocking or simply rush his ass down and don't let him bully you.

 

Thanks a lot for all the tips. Will save them in my SF V folder (Yea, I create folders for my games guides =P). 

 

I met someone who recommended something regarding the characters. He told me to either go with Rashid, Chun-Li, G and some other characters I forgot. For they're the "S tier" characters used in EVO & tournaments, and have little or no negative picks. And If I'm gonna put the effort to practice, might as well do it with as he said "OP characters". 

[GravityQueeen]

Great hints and advices from everybody! I'm keeping an eye on this thread because I always wanted to go for Street Fighter V plat, always been afraid, but I think that has changed.

 

I might be derailing this thread, but I have two questions:

1- Have all the characters been released or Capcom Will still add more?

2- What is the best version to buy, considering I want to have all characters?

 

Good luck to anyone trying to reach Golden league, dont give up lol

Edited May 5, 2020 by GravityQueeen

[Xx-KingOFDark-xX]

7 minutes ago, GravityQueeen said:

Great hints and advices from everybody! I'm keeping an eye on this thread because I always wanted to go for Street Fighters V plat, always been afraid, but I think that has chances.

 

I might be derailing this thread, but I have two questions:

1- Have all the characters been released or Capcom Will still add more?

2- What is the best version to buy, considering I want to have all characters?

 

Good luck to anyone trying to reach Golden league, dont give up lol

 

I could be mistaken so everyone should be feel free to correct me. 

 

1- You never know with Capcom. They might release a Street Fighter V: Super Ultra Turbo Arcade Championship Edition II. But the current number of characters is worth it. And the game has been out for four years so I don't think there's a point in waiting anymore. =P 

 

2- Champion Edition for sure. All the characters and maps along with all the cosmetic DLCs which include 200 skins and other stuff. For 30$. It's been 2 months since its release so I'd expect a discount soon. (I kinda feel sad for those who got it day 1 for 60$ ?) 

Edited May 5, 2020 by Xx-KingOFDark-xX

[Copanele]

As mentioned before, champion edition hands down. Capcom will definitely add more characters since it is capcom after all (also given that Gill and Seth have been very well received... Expect more to come). 

 

And if I can make a mention (again, the more experienced players please correct me if I am wrong).... Do NOT follow the tier lists that is only tournament related and has no value in online play. It can really mess up your playstyle if you play a character that you do not like just because he is S tier. 

 

To give a proper example... I main Cody. Absolutely nobody mains him in tournaments and most people even forget about him. He is the very definition of mid-to-low tier. However he was super easy for me to learn (he has one main combo where you mash square for decent damage) and the nr 3 or 4 online player is a Cody main. Soooo unless you are Daigo Umehara or Justin Wong, tier lists are absolute trash. I mean even in Tekken 7 didn't someone win with the bear character?  

 

OK another topic (I hated rank mode but I love the franchise) : Ryu. In my personal noob opinion Ryu in SF5 is absolute garbage. I hate him because compared to SF4 where he was a honest but actually decent character, in SF5 he is like a white belt with arthritis. Normally Ken is a way better choice since in this game he does everything better than Ryu (except hadokens). BUT Ryu is perfectly viable if you feel his playstyle and like his moveset. Its just me who absolutely hates him, even if I do get bodied by Ryus now and then. In the footsie game everybody is equal lol.

 

So yeah... I would say pick the champion edition for sure, try every character in training mode, see which one you find the coolest and try to learn that character. That's how I feel that you get better and interested in fighting games : pick a fancy character that does fun shit. Who knows, maybe you will even pick G! Shake hands with the president! 

 

Also fuck Berserker For Honor is imbalanced as shit

[shirogane19508]

Be a Akuma player. EASY.

[FreshFromThaDeli]

On 28/06/2020 at 5:04 PM, BLOOD_BUTTER_FLY said:

Be a Akuma player. EASY.

Don't listen to this. Akuma is a highly technical character that may look easy on the surface until you realise he has low vitality and requires more knowledge than any other shoto character.

[Copanele]

56 minutes ago, FreshFromThaDeli said:

Don't listen to this. Akuma is a highly technical character that may look easy on the surface until you realise he has low vitality and requires more knowledge than any other shoto character.

For an easy time towards gold rank I agree with this too... Akuma is way too squishy, compared to Ryu or a yolo Ken.

 

But... If you think of it, Akuma has a ton of options and looks hella cool that sells the character as well. From super silver onwards yeah more knowledge is needed but up until that point... Akuma works too. 

 

Not sure where Kage would fit in all the shoto complexity. He is finally patched and has some pretty awesome movesets. 

[grimydawg___]

If you have some sort of fundamentals, it's pretty easy to get gold, especially now.  I'm going to get grand Master on my main account now.  I need to get back into playing, since it's been a while since I played a fighting game.

[FreshFromThaDeli]

8 hours ago, Copanele said:

For an easy time towards gold rank I agree with this too... Akuma is way too squishy, compared to Ryu or a yolo Ken.

 

But... If you think of it, Akuma has a ton of options and looks hella cool that sells the character as well. From super silver onwards yeah more knowledge is needed but up until that point... Akuma works too. 

 

Not sure where Kage would fit in all the shoto complexity. He is finally patched and has some pretty awesome movesets. 

Yeah Akuma is very appealing no doubt. It's easier to use any other shots together to gold though imo.

 

I don't play Kage but he is usable now and no longer one of the worst characters in the game. He is also very flashy if that appeals to you and you will have an easier time with him compared to Akuma.