"the character to play is the one who looks cool to you" ah yes, i see, I must play Magma Abraham Lincoln

Since about 2013 or so I've kept my ear to the ground on shoryuken threads and Twitter and the like, trying to figure out what specifically causes people to give up in a fighting game. Whenever I see a common thread I try to make a video that's like, "here's how you deal with that thing" and that's how I grew my KZfaq channel. A very common situation I see is someone who WANTS TO PLAY Akuma or juri or someone, but was told they're bad for beginners. That person plays Ryu for a bit, doesn't have fun, ditches the game. The thing most beginners don't realize is that the single most important thing in fighting games is their own morale. If you play juri for 100 hours because you like her, you're gonna end up a better player than a guy who plays Ryu for 20 hours then abandons the game because he doesn't like ryu, even though Ryu is "better for beginners." And not only will the guy who played juri because he was passionate about her be the better player in the end, he'll have had more fun for the journey. The vast majority of pros themselves are passion players who play characters they like, and sfv is balanced enough anyway that you can win with basically anyone up into the absolute top level of play. Obviously the main objective of a video game is to have a good time, so if you're not having a good time you have to reevaluate how you can. There's no sense in trying to become the best player ever if it's in a game you don't even enjoy playing. Most of us aren't ever going to get to pro level, and actually even if you do you might not even like tournament play. Personally I've always found tournaments to be really stressful while I just like the philosophy of the game, so I've never seriously tried to compete in any sf title. Not disagreeing with anything in your video. Just posting some thoughts and observations I've had over the years. One last thought, I think someone who plays Akuma for 100 hours will end up a better Akuma player than someone who plays Ryu for 50 then Akuma for 50, though I do confess I think the two players may end up with different Akuma playstyles. I think if you want to get good with X character, it makes no sense to play Y character when you could be playing X character.

After watching lots of Brian_f videos I've genuinely become a better player. Thanks Brian.

As a Birdie player, hearing Brian say “blonde waifus taking over Capcom Cup” with MenaRD and Birdie over his head is simply magnificent

The chat going “wait no” about Honda told me all I need to know. Instant main 😂

I love the sarcasm Brian display when people ask weird questions..

Ah yes Mr.Brian with another video

"Play the character you like" Me: - Knows very little SF lore, knows nothing about tier lists or professional play at time of purchase. - Sees Nash, half zombie guy with glasses and oversized boots. - This Nash guy looks cool, I think I'll main him. - *PAIN* ~ May 2019, the Nash one-trick incident.

I think when people say "tier lists don't matter till high level" they misunderstand the value of tier lists at lower levels. Tier lists are useful tools for learning how high level players view the game, and the strengths and weaknesses of characters. Inexperienced players may sometimes put too much stock in it, but they still help to build fundamentals

Love your vids my dude

Been following for a bit now...i know this vid is a year old, but i cant thank you enough for your effort and videos. Learning so much from your content. Thank you sir 🙏

Brian upload?? Pog

If Brian gets 100K, I'll cry. Here's to getting close to 60K.

Oh fuck yeah, love the Baf shoutout. Genuinely hoping you guys do stuff some day.

Hi, I just started watching your channel. Great content presented really well. Keep it up!!! :)

This is the content i'm subscribed for!

SFV creator MC Mura recently made a video on this topic too if anyone is interested in more content!

I don't get this obsession with "the right character for a new player" to be honest. Take it from someone whose first character in GG+R was Venom, you don't need to be able to use a character to their full potential to still have a good time with them. Are you going to lose? Sure! Welcome to fighting games, you must be new here. You're going to lose no matter which character you pick, but eventually with enough games between you getting better and the matchmaking having a better understanding of where you belong you'll eventually hit that sweet spot of winning about as much as you lose... but instead of playing a character you don't like who is good for new players you're playing a character you do like and actually want to get better with. That being said if it's taking too long for you to really get "the sauce" of the character you like and you're feeling like you're beating your head against the wall... absolutely try someone else. Don't let character loyalty sap the fun out of the game for you. Sometimes a character you love just doesn't love you back, and you have to let them go for the less attractive but more accessible character.

Thanks this helped me a lot to understand Why I was losing because of my mistakes but I am having more fun playing Luke. The first few days I thought Luke was impossible for a scrub to play him now siting in sliver working my way up in rank

Love meta discussion videos like this!

Low HP is bad for people that have no sense of mitigating risk. Makes sense that Cammy would be near the bottom

Brian Upload?? Pog

I just picked up Kage because he's so coool

I watched this before it was on youtube, but after it was live on twitch. What a weird feeling haha

That's why ever since Dan was put in game I ditched Akuma for him, and I've never felt happier. Going back to my old sf4 main has given me renewed interest in the game. I even managed to rank up quite a bit lol. Hell if Dan was in game from day 1 I'd probably would have bought it day one instead of waiting till march 2018 anyway.

Subscribed, just as you commanded master.

Great video! Also, today marks 34 years since the original Street Fighter hit the arcades. Lol

Lots of charge motion characters are up there. Interesting. But yeah, very true. I started playing FG's in seriousness last May and E. Honda was easy to play and hit hard. I was like, "No shame, let's get it!"

yo Brian and Baf? that's a crazy crossover

I’ve been maining Honda for a long time only because of his Kappa skin

Abimagail is the one character i'd give my vote for. Big buttons, big damage, easy combos, decent anti-air, has command grabs to open up blocking (although a normal one got nerfed way too hard for no reason), highest vitality, pretty much nobody up to like platinum cannot deal with run to grab cancels, and if they are smart enough to start jumping, you punch them to the face instead. Has a parry for that honda buttslam too. And as an added bonus, he absolutely dwarfs and trashes all those pesky gief players who think they are better than you. Top tier beginner character.

the character you find hottest. that's the objective scientific answer. i mean honda makes sense, according to my data.

I still find tier lists fun to go over all the time, Honda is a great example of knowledge check with frame data, noob players will assume a long pokey punch or kick, when something like 5K into DP is what satisfies the condition statement, noob players won't do that As the lists get higher, we see mechanic disparity fall, like Karin, Cammy, Juri Even looking at these lists tell stories, Akuma is low cause online lag and volatile stun is what ends him, so he suffers more than optimally when not under online conditions

There's something very wrong with this, Dan apparently has several 10-0 matchups at the highest ranks

I just came go sfv last month after dropping r6s and im enjoying so far im just a casual that plays for fun so i dont care if a character i use is op or not i judt wanna have fun (something that made me drop the previous games)

Thank you, that you told me to sub to the channel. I completely forgot, that I've never subscribed, even though the almighty google algorithm shows me one of your vids every other day.

Nice!

How high I keep seeing Vega in these rankings makes me feel lied to

11:23 that’s right. 100% agree

Started playing a few days ago, and as I’m not a complete newcomer to fighting games (Mortal Kombat really and even then I was god awful) this game hasn’t been the most forgiving to me. Picked Rashid to go with as well as Ken too and as much as I love their style… I still suck , however I am getting the hang of taking my time with the game. Won my first match today as well. So I’ll take this advice lol, but losing something like 15 games in a row because of lack of knowledge drains a guy. Here’s hoping I get a character under my belt properly soon

Props for putting Alex's silhouette in Rookie

Honestly I feel like you gotta pick whoever makes the game the most fun for you cause that always increased the lifespan of a fighting game for me. I started with Cammy cause of her rep as a good starter character but I switched to Karin later and had WAY more fun playing as her. I also felt like it instilled better fundamentals since I had to get in close on the ground with Karin whereas with Cammy I'd fall back on divekicks or hooligan mixups too frequently.

I love you bro

I'm happy that you moved to Texas Brian. Hopefully I can catch you on Steam and show you my trash Ryu xD!

I think the reason why bison is so high at low level is because new players see this badass villain and be like “I wanna play this guy”

I have 80 hours in the game and still don't know who I want to main lmao But I think it's really cool that win-rates and pick-rates are available for all to see. I wonder how heavy is the influence of that data on balancing versus tournament results

3:17 Well said, that’s exactly what I tell new people

I've always said tierlists don't matter until you get to the highest level but I never thought about the concept of multiple skill tierlists. that's really interesting

I never choose a character based on tier lists. I just go with ones I think are cool and have a moveset I can understand.

baf goated

8:40 “I have a dream” by Brian_F

Watching Brian drunk undefeated

HI BRIAN! And hello everyone! I passed my quiz in Payroll and sales tax, so hope everyone enjoys the video! Btw Hello Daniel

Thanks science!

3:13 THIS! Picking up tekken it was scary asf but I knew that with my guy Bryan it would all be ok

Rob actually is practicing his Guile for Capcom Cup. He said it'd be a better matchup against iDom

Brian if you dont mind can you do another for the culture?

I feel that ranked is actually fairly indicative ASIDE from maybe the top 500 or 1000 ppl. Its a huge difference if your silver or plat. But i do agree, I wish fighting game publishers and devs would make more robust and meaningful ranked systems

This new wave of objective tier lists based on statistics is the move. Can we keep it in SF6?

Shout out to Baf!

5:28 Yes. You did speak too soon.

As a Cody player, I agree about Fang.

Hi, Twitch chat!

I play guile and I am just hard stuck on ultra bronze. I just don’t know what to do against Abigail. Like what is that guy? xD

Only good kage since I only really use evil Ryu I can't do all the crazy combos but I can do a good few where it counts

I've been playing sf5 for about month now mostly with ryu. I have my good days online but I still suck. I've been wanting to try different characters but it's hard to decide given the huge roster which is why I've spent so much time with ryu. Funny enough I was thinking about e Honda and come to think of it I don't think I've come across one online.

I was in your pools bracket for evo

Basically ungabunga charge characters are the best for winning in bronze to gold, if you only care about winning.

I started from rookie and got to gold on ps4 thanks to Alex and his crazy pressure and rushdown grab game in 1 month. This video is based.

Hi Brian

I'm watching this while my game is updating and once it is I'm playing Abigail. He just looks awesome.

"Falke top tier gold-ultra platinum" Noooooo ...my excuse...

I just have character adhd. So finding a character is only a matter of time for me. I do trails then practice for at most an hour an then online. Not seeing how many times i win pre say but seeing how it feels to play that character. Like with sf4 Juri i had a lower win rate then with gief but i had no less fun. But staying on a character long enough to get to higher ranks was just tough for me.

Baf

Oh god. I main Chun and Cammy in Super Silver. Not that that’s gonna change, lol

Alex because Ultra Silver below has like 50% of them in auto macro command to mash / hold HP+HK or something you are completely oblivious to lower ranks, and that's expected

Brazilian Ken is always a great choice

*Gets Fang in ranked match* Welp guess I dont get to play today

when i started Street fighter 5 i started with Ken, i think he is good because he is fast and can have good combos, but he dosen't have a lot of moves.

9:03 laughing in na

I'm not trying to sound harsh and discouraged anyone from playing certain characters, but Honda is basically like training wheels for players. It's insane how safe he is on most of his special moves on black smh

Its funny how i've just made it to Ultra silver with Vega and i was thinking about changing my main, it seems i won't have to.

I started playing street fighter last year and I reached gold with Rose. I want to play as Laura but is she strong enough in current situation?

I started playing shotos and ended up maining bison/dictator lol EDIT: it's because of dictators japanese VA who I absolutely love: Norio Wakamoto

So, Blanka is fifth in the Warlord chart, but how do I go from Super/Ultra Gold To Warlord? Cuz that's where I'm stuck :(

Bro. I have cc on and it is all over the place. What the heck

I feel like tier list are the reason a lot of new players pick Cammy without learning the match ups or practicing making her win/lose ratio bad.

Wow

When is capcom cup?

It's true Honda is notoriously difficult to deal with at bottom ranks. You have to specifically train to recognise if he's using medium or hard headbutt. Depending on your character there maybe little that can be done. And you have to be stand blocking to reduce the pushback to punish properly most times. This is just from one special. He also has sumo splash from the air that can also cross-up, so your AA has to be on point. Even after these two, he can pressure with hands that are plus on block. Then he even has a command grab lol. How do you expect any rookie-silver to deal with all this. Anyone who can deal with it is already not a silver player.

Brian_F: The best character to play is e Honda 👌! Me when I got street fighter: *jumps off wall* AREIBA AREIBA *critical arts into a projectile* Edit: 3:16 AND THATS A FACT

What’s the song he plays at 2:55 ?

Power to the earth 🌎

I mean you can just pick honda and mash. It's really fun

E Honda is the modern day Ryu

bro the chart got even wonkyier even in high level play nowadays.

Alex's together....strong!

I guess there are also lots of players who already know fighting games picking characters like honda but many absolute beginners will pick characters like ryu and cammy and rack up losses for that character

Oro is the galaxy brainest character!

The blind spot of the stat is in mirror match