Haaaavvveeeeee……….you met, Zangief: Using grappler archetypes to strengthen and expand your fighting game know how!

Kick, punch, it’s all in the mind……...or is it? Anyone who knows me knows my love for fighting games. Whether it’s Street Fighter, a 3D fighter like the Soul Calibur series, or an “Anime” fighter like Guilty Gear, fighting games are a way of life. If this sounds like you, then you are  probably invested in the world of the FGC or Fighting Game Community. Through sites like Shoryuken.com, and EventHubs.com, one can find a plethora of ways to watch and follow the tournament scene as well as read or watch tutorials to get better. But as a novice, how does one become better at these types of games? Is it about combos? Is it about Tiers? I have had many conversations about this type of thing, and I have the answers to your questions! Sure you can play with the usual “Ryu/Ken” Type of fighter, but I think if you want to up your game in a serious way quickly, you should be considering a grappler character like Zangief, whether you are a novice, intermediate, or advanced player in any of these games.

Skill, does it matter? In a sense yes, most Fighters require a good sense of execution and know how, but there are usually 2 major schools of thought with this: Technical fighters, study frame data, hitboxes, recovery times, and all sorts of information that would allow them to actually “know” what is happening, why it is happening, and for how long it is happening. The other school is intuitive based. You may have a general sense of the system, but it is your opponent and your character’s moves that you focus most of your energy on. In this aspect, it’s not about data, but rather how good you are at reading situations and more importantly your opponents. Either way, we arrive at a point where all of these concepts come together in the form of inputs and here is where the meta and questions really start to materialize. What character/characters do I choose? I personally have always enjoy grapplers, because the level of execution barring the need to master 360 degree motions, is low, and not combo heavy. I also enjoy the mind games and unique situations they present. I think if you are really trying to understand the fundamentals and inner workings of a fighting game, one should really pick up a grapple-centric character. Here’s why:

• Margin of error is much smaller: Generally, grapplers don’t have the same mobility as most characters, or even a projectile to help them cover ground in a small amount of time. You quickly have to learn patience, or even with the increased health, you will find yourself at a disadvantage almost immediately. Playing with a character like this teaches you to think more about your next moves, and gets you out of bad habits and rookie mistakes, like jumping constantly. It also focuses you on calming and better calculating your movements, rather than reacting wildly.
• Mind games are learned almost by default: As mentioned above, the archetype for most grapplers is slow moving and non-projectile having. But here is the bright side: most grapplers have powerful throws and high priority normals. They are not designed to keep people out, rather they are usually designed to shrink space, and cause a sense of claustrophobia and entrapment to their opponents. Their normals usually when timed correctly stop a lot of random limbs, and their command throws are usually damaging and unforgiving, which puts the opponent on tilt, nervously wondering what to do next. You will learn through this, that your presence near an opponent is more than enough to corral them into making mistakes, thus making their movements more predictable. You will see the frantic jumping or special move wake ups, which lets you know, they feel cornered. This is where you will ultimately get your wins. Even better, if you do decide to play with faster, more mobile characters, you will know how to better impose your will.
• You Realize combos aren’t everything: Some of the joys of fighting games are the insane combos and button presses needed for most characters, but for those of us who struggle with consistent execution, Grapplers are the perfect storm. Most of their combos are short, and most combos are high damage. Meaning you get to do more with less! Depending on the game, most grapplers don’t have combos that go higher than 5 hits, but boy do they hurt! If you happen to have a game that’s system allows high hit combos, or even combos that lead to throws your in luck! But since combos aren't necessary for Grapplers to cause high damage, one can focus on out poking, and out prioritizing their opponents moves, thus giving you a strong base lead by fundamentals and mind games.
• Sense of accomplishment: For all the reasons Grappler’s are great, they can just as easily suck for the same reasons. You will lose a lot in the beginning. Chances are you will get "fireballed" to death, and as great as some of their normals are, there are usually faster characters, with equal to or greater normals/pokes. It’s with this in mind that the sense of accomplishment you get from beating an opponent with these traits is bar none to any other character archetype you can think of. It is really and truly the one class that has to literally out-think opponents because of the limited resources. Your opponent will feel angry for losing to a slow, brutish mess, and you will feel twice as vindicated for having stuck to your guns and basically dismantled your opponent.
• Extra thought on resource management: If there is one way to also look at this whole enterprise it's the currency on which all your moves and actions are based on: The life bar. For most characters, the life bar is just a mere indicator of how much damage you can sustain before losing a round, but here’s how I look at it: The more life you have and most grapplers have more vitality than other cast members since they are usually bound to take more damage, the more “Gambles” you can take: Since you are a damage sponge you can be more aggressive in your reads, and really push the pace when you have opponents cornered because of that same gambling chip. It has helped my game tremendously to know that I can get hit and not have to immediately consider dire consequences.

In closing, the beauty of these games are, we can choose who we want to use, but for most of us it’s always hard going to find out how to get better, or which characters to play with. Almost like jogging with a weighted vest, if you use or master grappler ideology, when you "take off the vest" and go back to using smaller, quicker, characters, you will be faster in your decision making and more adept at making hard reads and decisions. Technically you may still need work in the combo execution department, but even this is a play style that will move you away from trying to combo opponents to death, and rather, out space and control their actions. I hope this helps! It certainly helped me on my journey to being a better fighting game player. Also if you ever want to really learn more about the technical aspects of fighting games, the above mentioned sites are great resources, with tools, tips, and videos geared towards this mindset as well as others. Most importantly have fun it’s called a game for a reason!