Hate Speech: We Talkin' Bout Practice?

Practice vs the AI can help train you to perform certain combos in a "real match". Other than that it's really not very useful.
 
The AI is your best friend; if you also have human opponents.
Because it is consistent. You can play as many games as possible to refine your basics, like step, GI, punishment, throw breaks, back dash, reactions, spacing...and so on and so forth.

The AI obviously cannot help you understand the human mindset. Human opponents use mixups for mind games, and when cornered they can do very unexpected and desperate moves.

However, the AI helps you become solid...The more games you get in the cleaner your game will become. It is the best opponent to train your basics...because they're very hard to maintain.

You just have to differentiate between it and human thinking. After all it cheats, ducking throws and highs in foresight. It is just a program.

I will reinforce that the AI is consistent. The more games you get in the more likely you will get more wins off of it. This shows a growth somewhere you might not recognize. While practicing that many games with a human opponent...can produce unfavorable results.

Playing human opponents for long stretches equates to...your opponent's performance possibly declining. Your performance might decline. Or both of you might start to normalize by getting too used to each others' styles despite the difference in skill. Personally, when I play weaker opponents, I use enough strength to balance out the results.

To that point, your progress might slow down.
 
My practice routine... go to A & C (a game store that has an underground gaming arena) or someone's gathering; play for fun with a bit of seriousness; experiment certain moves in certain situations; take notes of loses; go back to the drawing board; rinse & repeat.
 
Some of my BEST STRATS come from just commuting on the Bus/Subway. In the back of your mind are all the situations you're still not used to dealing with, but it hasn't come to the forefront because you don't know how to deal with it. When my mind is relaxed, I sub-consciously go through certain situations and decide what their best option is and my best option is.

Usually this becomes your best practice mode. Practice Mode, Online, can help, but will NEVER bring your game to the next level. You must be able to put yourself in the opponents position, and even harder, think what they think your thinking.

Meditiation Really. AmIRite?!
 
Playing the AI can develop bad habits, that's for sure. Computers don't understand mind games the way a person does, so they are a bit more predictable. Since the AI is less aggressive, you need better defense against a person.

On the other hand, you can test to see if the combo you just discovered in practice mode is guaranteed or not. The AI might be flawed, but it understands air control, and can always shake out of stuns (okay more like 90% of the time).

At least the AI punishes you for unsafe moves, that alone makes it good for teaching safety.

Will all of the inherent flaws of the AI, it's still 100% better for practice than playing online. It terms of developing bad habits, online is far worse.

Back on topic: I practice specific situations that give me trouble. I like to practice with the AI on what I consider bad match-ups for me. Mostly, I try to find counters/evades to the most commonly used move. Generally speaking, the AI favors the same prime moves that people do, so this gives a good way to deal with said moves.

Slightly off topic: If astaroth does 6k CH, 2B+K A+G, is it guaranteed? In all the videos of astaroth in matches that I've seen, I've seen this simple combo over and over and not once have I seen anyone ever get out of it (provided that the moves are inputed as soon as possible). I recently picked up astaroth and his ground n pound game is insane with all the throws that he has. My one and only SC buddy is really pissed off at my astaroth LOL. Right now, he's convinced that he can somehow get out of that combo listed above. I'm pretty damn sure he cant :) Can someone confirm this for me?

LOL it's so funny when the 6k CH comes, my buddy starts spamming random buttons hoping to get out of it. I know this because I can hear him smashing the buttons LOL. And the next thing that follows is "THAT MOVE IS BULLSHIT!!". He gets even more pissed off when I get off a 22_88 B4 2 8 B+G. The damage on that aerial throw is fucking insane! He's also convinced that he can somehow aerial control out of that grab, but so far, he hasn't done it.. Is that combo also guaranteed?

I'm almost 100% positive that those 2 are guaranteed, the only reason I'm asking is so I can say, "I told you so".
 
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