Rugalitarian is another Vega player whom I've know for a long time. He has a habit of coming out of the woodwork to challenge me to matches in SF4 and Skullgirls. I prefer to fight him in SF4 since I have not been practicing Skullgirls at all. This week alone we've played several sessions in Endless Mode of close to 20 games each of nothing but Vega vs Vega. We banter back and forth on Steam before and during the set. In the most recent set he bested me 10 to 7.
Having been playing SF4 rather constantly since late '09 or early 2010, and now playing mostly on PC where the players are generally weaker than on consoles, matches between players of equal or greater skill than me become rather uncommon. Compared to the competitive scene, I'm not a great player, but online it fells like I'm an apex predator in a sea of prey that get devoured in a single bite.
To enter a private 1 vs 1 lobby, vs a player as good as if not better than you, someone you have a history with, someone you might not encounter for stretches of time, someone who has walked the exact same path as you but has learned a slightly different style, it is quite a dramatic and exhilarating situation. The game music carries on as it always does, but in my mind the sound drops out dramatically when the round is about to begin. Is Rugal going to come right at me? Will he be able to punish me if I jump right away? Can he react in time to retaliate after blocking a risky but surprising attack? Will he directly fight on the ground if I approach?
No, no, yes, no. I know these answers already because we each know eachother so well. I attack first, Rugal baits me into losing patience. It's how every match begins because it plays to our strengths much more than deviating in hopes of a surprise. Rugal attempts to space himself deceptively so that my attacks might barely miss, and takes a risk to make sure he doesn't get cornered. My reactions with focus attacks are superb and as I advance I mix them in to keep him from poking out my advances. Rugal weathers the storm as best he can until...
Rugal gains his first bar of super meter, and the game changes. Rugal's execution with Vega's difficult but powerful hit-confirms into EX-Walldive is much better than mine. His ability to catch my grab attempts with cr.LP threatens to turn the game around on any approach of mine that isn't perfect. If he catches me, I get knocked down, and if I get knocked down, Rugal will come at me in a fury until I am able to deflect him back into my focus-attack range again. The basics of our game average out, and what makes and breaks the win isn't our knowledge nor mechanical skill, but the mindgames of predicting and countering the exact thing out of all possibilities that the other player is about to do.
The amount of random ultras, extremely telegraphed and risky moves, we throw at eachother is quite high. You never do them as anticipatory attacks, but in our matches we do. Why? They almost always hit. I jab Rugal twice, he blocks them, I ultra out of the blue and correctly predict that he would be counter attacking at that very moment. Rugal jumps, I block it, he jabs me and pushes me back as I block more, Rugal waits a split second and ultras out of the blue, and he has caught me attempting to step forward and grab.
Well, I do find myself using Vega less and less now that I'm getting better with Deejay. Aside from these private 1v1's, Vega only comes out as if he is my "final form" once someone manages to beat my Deejay, making matches vs opponents like Rugal even more special.
Deejay is my new alternate pick. My #2. I don't have the same knowledge and mechanical skill with him like I do Vega, by I do have my reactions, my mind games revolving around a high walk speed, and my ability to charge special moves insanely fast. Deejay laughs, he points, he says "AYYY" when backdashing. He's a perfect troll character to keep me interested, and his instantaneous anti-air kicks provide strength exactly where Vega is weak.
I still don't think I'd pick him in a tournament, because I still feel like "If I can't win with my main, I can't win". However, with Deejay I can still prove to be a serious nuisance vs even the hardest opponents. I usually only suffer a slight to moderate disadvantage compared to how my Vega fairs.
His air-to-air punch is insanely good.
In other news, I finally earned the #1 spot in "North American Battle Points for Vega on PC". This is basically the same as saying I'm the #1 "Grindiest example of a particular low-tier character on the least played platform for a short time long past the game's peak in popularity, ignoring Asia and Europe". My more important metrics, which reflect skill a little better, are not nearly as good:
I blame Deejay.
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