I progressed in various steps, but my first fighter was SC2 where I thought I was good because I could do every move (remember that phase? lol), then SC4 rolled around and I got schooled by friends. I stubbornly practiced and started annihilating people online after struggling and having someone point me to this site. SC4 was my first true fighter that I sat down with. But it wasn't till I took my over confidant ass to EVO 09 and got humbled and someone took the time to explain the game is more than frames and combos; I was missing core basics like reading the opponent, using tools to maintain advantage and not just fish for huge combos, stepping, yomi, etc... I spent about a week at home letting it all set in and started to see how far from the top I was and I while I didn't get the skills right away I developed the mentality and understanding of what to look for and how to learn to get better which is often the hardest part. Many people start with grave misunderstandings on what fighting games are all about and until you can grasp advanced concepts (whether or not you can apply them) it's hard to gauge if you suck or not.
As of now I'm still progressing and my steps from my debut to now have been vast. I went into this EVO for MvC3 expecting to get destroyed and while I didn't get far, my losses were respectable (and could've easily been mine if not for some minor slips) and I was very surprised to realize that my Taskmaster was far better than I gave myself credit for and had I not put so much focus on Wolv/Akuma in 1 month of training and built a team around him...I wonder how well I would've done. I'm hoping by SC5 I'll be a legit threat in the pools of majors. I only have 2 years since I was a true scrub, so we'll see.
So it's hard to say at what point of grasping concepts and applying them that I feel I crossed the threshold, but the catalyst was the humbling and sit down I had at EVO 09' that allowed me to get there. It can also be taken relative to what I compare it to, and there's simply tiers of play I haven't reached yet...
