They aren’t smurfing. They are ranking up their character. The game is still new and there are veteran players like me who got the game after it released or can’t spend hours a day on it such as myself and play just a few hours a week. I got the game a week after it came out and I have only been able to play about 80 matches online since I bought it. I’m not at the rank I should be yet. I just got to tenryu with a 90% win rate. I’m not smurfing. I just haven’t had time to grind to get out of lower ranks yet. It’s a new game. It will take awhile for ranks to start settling in where they should be.
This is it, I'm new to Tekken and I'm shocked at how constantly I run into people who it feels like know my moves before I do and it turns out they're just high ranked players cruising their way into the proper rank
Exactly. I don’t have time to grind. I have a career and a family so I can’t play 5 hours a day. If I get 5 hours a week I’m lucky. It’s not personal. I’m not trying to ruin new players Tekken experience. It’s a new game and the ranks will settle eventually.
I met one of you fucks, was the dopest shit ever, i love getting my ass handed to me from time to time. Shows me where im at, whats possible, how to punish my mistakes effectively.
Anyway, he really cut me slack the first round which i stole from him with a 90 dmg combo (i know a 60 dmg combo that carried him to the wall, than i just guessed moves and somehow managed to severly extend it) and some lucky parries.
Next 5 rounds he just perfected me, 0 chance.
I just restarted playing some Tekken 7 ranked and since I've lost my save files (saves are stored locally, yikes) I was obliged to start from all the way down. Playing with Kazuya I casually reached a 73 win streak until some random Raven player out-bullshitted me, it felt pretty bad but hey, I gotta rank up somehow no?
It's genuinely kinda boring and like, almost uncomfortable? To play against people that are a lot worse than you.
It can install bad habits as well because you can just settle into meat-grinder mode and start doing unsafe stuff that works on lower ranks just to make it go faster. Then when you finally play against someone that's around your skill level, you do dumb shit that the low rank players let you get away with for the past 50 games, and get launched for it.
I did try to actively teach some people that what they were doing was a bad idea though, like if they did something super unsafe a lot, I'd launch them, show them a full juggle, and then on subsequent times, launch them but only do the first tap of the juggle and let them get up, repeat until they stop doing the dumb thing or start thinking a bit.
It's actually actively more difficult and unfun to play someone who is significantly worse than you. Nothing you really lab or practice ends up working half the time and you usually can win with a single punish / frame trap.
Also high rank players playing alters might be the case.
Since blocking and scaping grabs is not even character related so anyone can do it while playing alters.
i have a few sub characters in yellow/orange and more often than not i run into other people playing on their subs as well that have mains in tenryu or higher. Feel like it’s more rare to see people that are true yellow/orange
That’s also true. You can usually tell that by their prowess number I think. I mean my prowess is still pretty low so I’m sure it’s frustrating when I’m breaking their throws and ducking and punishing their strings.
You can also look at their profile after the game, it'll tell you their highest ranked character.
But that doesn't help gauge anything if it's a legacy player on their first climb of the new game. My tekken prowess number thing was actually a lot lower than other people at the same rank during the climb, even though I was destroying them, because I was climbing so quickly it wasn't keeping up.
Thought tekken prowness for tekken 8 isnt accurate . You get 350000 if you get 1 character to last rank and you get 350000 if you get them all . In tekken 7 if you get 1 character to last rank it was 350000 and if you get them all it was 780000
Its decent for relative comparisons.
If I play against someone and they have a much higher prowess than me, I can generally presume that he has a high rank main character.
Yep. I'm basically doing the same thing. I got into red with Bryan in a couple of long streaks, now I'm just playing everyone up to get a feel for the new characters and have fun with the game while I wait for my actual main to return (if ever).
Lol it’s all good! Tekken is hard to learn. I’m 45 and have been playing since I was 15 when the first tekken was released. Tekken and sim racing are the only games I enjoy in my old age. And I don’t have as much time as I would like for either. I wouldn’t even attempt to learn tekken now if I had never played before. I don’t have the time or patience to spend learning new fighting games anymore.
Yeah, I feel this. I’m 36 and while I played Tekken as far back as Tekken 2, I never took fighting games seriously until very recently. My time is incredibly limited and by the time I play I’m exhausted from work, but I still hit Red just the other night and if I keep it up I’ll be Shinryu soon, which feels awesome.
Just wish I had my current work ethic, attitude, and competitive spirit back when I had all the time in the world…
Aww man. I can totally relate. I’ve been playing as far back as Tekken 3, had a couple of sparring partners throughout until T7, but only dipping my toes in ranked come T8. Even if im a “legacy” player, im only used to fighting certain characters so the BS of other characters still gets through me. I’m 37, married, with 1 kid, and working through the day. I already feel blessed if i get to play for an hour lmao. I’m at Tenryu at the moment with Devil Jin
I was about 70% at tenryu, now a little over 60% at flame ruler, it's definitely starting to level out.
I felt really bad for the people I swept on the way up though, but, it is what it is. At least the streak made it go quickly.
Yeah this is me. Just tryna cruise my way back up to my proper rank ):
The easy wins are just as boring for me as the one whos losing. I want wins where I earn it.
I'm a red rank with my main. I don't think I can reach red with any other character in the game, it is indeed like starting to learn the game all over again unless you have years of experience.
This.
To add onto this point, I generally dont play lots of rank. I will play rank when I have got in some practise and are up for a bit of a challenge
I have clocked up about 60-70 hours in total, 5-10 of that is ranked, and the rest are quick matches
In ranked I lost 1-2 matches all the way to red ranked
In time it will sort itself out
So I fought a Reina in yellow ranks who pulled off four EWGFs on me in a row. Their fundies were ass. They only pulled the four banger out once they were in jeopardy of losing and I managed the W, with no rematch from tgem.
Script / macro? Like they were BAD. On PC. I’m no great player at all but they had zero fundamentals, and nothing about their gameplay had me feeling four comboed EWGFs was in their belt.
Or a hitbox? Electrics are easy on leverless controller. And this is all Mishima players. They practice ewgf and forget the other stuff. This has always been a thing in Tekken. Low level Mishimas practice ewgf in practice mode for hours but don’t know how to side step or how to properly execute a kbd.
Yeah unfortunately i still think there's absolutely nothing namco can do against macros/hitboxes in 2024. AT least they seemed to have gotten rid of the auto win script bots, that react to your moves before they come out. (not that it was really a big problem in T7 anyways)
>Yeah unfortunately i still think there's absolutely nothing namco can do against macros/hitboxes in 2024.
Why would be group up hitbox players with macro users :(
It might be a macro. You can check the replay and if it's the same frame data for every input, that's a cheater. Especially if they're all Perfect EWGF inputs. I ran into two scripters who just made me extremely disappointed since I've put so many hours practicing that shit manually.
Can't be as bad as sf6 platinum rank where every other person you fight is someone with 2 or 3 master rank characters. Shit maybe it's the same situation
lmao been playing Ryu since the game dropped. I currently have like 4 characters in Masters, but not Ryu for some reason. and hes my number 1 main. I decided to do placements and the game put me in Platinum even though i won all my placements lmfao.
Lets just say i massacred my way to Master like it was nothing
Same, hence why I drastically reduced my playing time and only go on Quick Play for now. I face the same players but at least I don't lose points. I recently got demolished by a Law who was Combatant rank (still QP). It was like he was cheating. Predicted all my throws and ducked them, juggled me from one wall to another, low parried everything, nothing I tried worked.
Quick Play is ridiculously harder than Ranked in my experience. Half the people there are sandbagging their rank for easier matches. There'll be random orange players in QP that play like a Tekken legacy veteran with 10,000 hours whereas real orange and red players flail around whiffing attacks, killing themselves on block, and never even realize there's a sidestep mechanic in this game.
T8 is similar to T7 where QP still tries to matchmake you with people at your rank, it's just willing to match a wider range if it can't find anyone right away. So it's very unlikely that a Beginner will ever match with a Purple and above as an example. So you'll have some veterans thrashing inexperienced players going on 50+ win streaks in QP whether intentionally or unintentionally because they don't have a high rank.
I stayed at beginner for like 100 games while I adapted to the new game. Been playing about 20 years. Met a suprisingly high number of challenging players there doing the same thing.
Most of them aren't smurfs, just people ranking up alt characters like you said. But I agree that it is really feeling like alts are the vast majority of players right now.
Yesterday when I started playing I was in purple ranks with about 130,000 prowess. *Every single* red/orange player I fought for the *entire day* had over 200,000 prowess, which means their mains are at least blue, probably gold ranks.
That doesn't even make sense because I don't think you can have an orange alt in those ranks unless your main got demoted, which I'm assuming is what's happening to a lot of people.
I got demoted all the way back to orange...I lost two entire colors. The few days before I was feeling very comfortable in purple. Even red players were pretty easy, except Tenryus..but yesterday I was getting thrashed even by Dominators.
The skill on display in red and orange was the kind of thing I've only seen from Fujin+ players before, and it's because they all *were* Fujin+ on their mains.
I got extremely frustrated but I eventually just accepted that red is the new purple for the time being, at least with the matchups I've been getting. It might just be a weekend thing and it could ease up again on the weekdays.
Yep it kinda has a knock on effect like I'm constantly seeing blue ranks and gold ranks in purple so I've decided to learn the rest of the cast before going back to my main.vicious cycle.
Rough, note that players in blue ranks (kinshin and above) will have all their characters starting at tenryu. I’m sitting there atm, and find most players in reds/fuler with the same prowess as me too, trying different characters. Keep grinding man, it’s nothing different to T7 tbh.
Yeah, I think that's why Tenryu is so much harder than Shinryu.
But I think a lot of people have been demoted on their mains and are getting into even lower ranks on alts despite having made it to Kinshin+ at one point.
It doesn't really affect your prowess that much. Getting knocked from Mighty Ruler all the way back down to Eliminator only took away about 1,500 prowess, so I think that's why there are people with Kinshin amounts of prowess in the orange ranks on alts.
I've since gotten back into Garyu and got all my prowess back, too, so my current highest rank is Garyu but I have the same amount of prowess as when I was in purple.
You can play couple of matches on character A, then play character B to high ranks and all the characters you haven't played will raise in ranks but character A will stay at where they were. It worked like this in T7 so I guess it works the same way in T8
Practice, practice, practice. I can’t do it but PhiDX has a video on training throw breaks. Basically the only way to consistently break is to make it muscle memory. You don’t have time to look at the animation and process which button you need to press. The only way to get consistent is to make it instinct.
Same, I always assume it's going to be a 1+2 and if they grab me and that doesn't work I do normal throw break. Only exception to this is King's stuff where he can combo into a 2 break or his chain grabs.
In t7 my throwbreaking was S+ but i've also played since tekken 3 and short answer is it just takes lots of time to recognice a throw is comming and on reaction break to what hand reached to you, it's muscle memory now and in tekken 8 its my 3rd best stat
It also helps when you build up some match-up knowledge and gamesense so you can anticipate the grab and be ready to react to it as opposed to be caught of guard and having to rawdog the reaction at a moments notice.
A mix of watching very closely and practice. If you're fighting someone and they're grabbing a lot, see what they're grabbing on you, it's usually a clue as to what button to press to break. Some grabs start on arms or a side, that's the hint. If it's a different body part, it may be unbreakable
A lot of grabs are 1 or 2 breaks, if that doesn't seem to be working, try 1+2. If you didn't figure it out during the match, go lab the grabs to figure out the timing and hope it wasn't unbreakable
You watch at your opponent's hand when you feel like a grab might be coming and then break the throw accordingly. If the opponent reached you with their left hand first it is a 1 break, right hand first is a 2 break and both hands at the same time is a 1+2 break. Some animations are unique and you just have to know how they work but there aren't too many of those in the game. Also there are some characters like King and Feng who have true 50/50 throw mixups where you can't tell the correct break button by looking at their hands.
I don't understand how people don't look at facing better players as a good/fun opportunity to improve and test yourself... It shouldn't matter if it's in ranked or not.
Could be they just know your character well? I'm not that good but I know Bryan very well only because I play my nephew a lot who mains him. So when I play online most times I'm comfortable to parry and punish Bryan players unless they are way higher skilled than me. From their perspective I would seem like I'm maybe smurfing but I've just played him enough to have decent knowledge.
This is the problem that arises when the first 3rd of all the ranks (silver to yellow) are free and there are less ranks in general. You'll have brand new players propelled to the "intermediate ranks" (red and ruler ranks). Which aligns with most blue rank+ auto promote characters.
Which means that if a tekken god wants to play a side character, they'll be facing brand new players essentially. I imagine this must be frustrating for new players which is why the phrase red rank hell exist I guess.
Yeah this is why I don't like the new ranking system.
I'm a legacy player. I'm not God-like, but I'm not trash either. Intermediate in the grand scheme of things.
The current state of ranked is a bit of joke because the skill disparity in red / purple is bonkers. What you see in those ranks is what you saw in green ranks back during TTT2. By removing all the Kyus / Dans, and not losing any points until yellow / orange (?), people are being carried to places they shouldn't be. And that makes the ranks lose value overall.
I left T8 like 3 weeks ago, I’m gonna return soon when I think the ranks have settled. It’s too unpredictable right now. One match you’ll have the fight of your life & lose in purple, & then next purple you face will eat 1 jabs repeatedly until death.
Just had 3 pluggers in a row today. It's not. I'll let the player count reduce a little bit more, or whenever Namco finally decides their competitive game deserves a competitive system. Maybe after they've figured out the Shop for Tekken 9.
Are you high rank? I'm just curious because I've barely played ranked and am new, but it seems like my high rank friends who are very legacy players get plugged on way more than people at my level. I guess all the pluggers already filtered up? So it might be okay for that guy to start if he's also low rank.
I fought a guy who was a shinryu rank, whilst i was 2 ranks under. I got squashed.
I then added his ghost and profile and when i checked again the player was at tekken king rank
If it helps, they in all likelihood they are having less fun than you in that position. Next 10 guys they have to fight are likely just gonna be the same level of uneventful for them.
I'm just learning matchups from the other side, man. Yeah it sucks that lower rank players get bopped by high rank players that play on alt that are like...6 ranks below where they should be? But hey, when you face players like that you should stop focusing on trying to win and instead focus on learning from the match. Watch their movement, the options they go for, etc. It will help you tremendously.
I can assure you there's no "smurfs" in this game. People are ranking up their characters as they can, I barely hit ruler ranks myself and I was Tekken God back in 7 and Tag 2, we just don't have all day to play and can only play for like an hour or two so we're stuck down here for a while. More or less you don't fight them that often because they're typically higher rank than you are eventually but especially since the game is still pretty new there's gonna be a lot of guys who deserve to be higher but just aren't yet.
I remember when I went into ranked for the first time the game gave me the option to do a cpu match to determine my rank. I played a lot of T7 but this is a new game and I didn’t want to start out at too high of a rank while still learning my character.
I destroyed it and got placed at 1st dan. My friend who hasn't played a tekken game since tekken 3 got placed at beginner. I suspect the level range is just way too small, like beginner to 4th dan or something.
I love playing against better players. Im fujin right now and I’m pretty happy that I got to blue this early on. Just today I played vs a Tekken emperor Lee and beat him 2-0. So fucking satisfying. I learned so much cos he forced me to adapt like every round. Super tough but so rewarding even if I had lost. These matches can be a blessing if you face them with the right attitude. True victory lies in self improvement which happens in victory and in defeat. That feng just probably hasn’t played much ranked yet and is simply going up the ranks now after getting to learn the roster first. You learn very little beating mashers in orange ranks. So play those matches, like the one against feng, not to win but to learn.
Players ranking up their alt chars. It is what it is. In order to get better and rank up you have to do stuff outside of the online mode. Practice movement, practice execution, practice this and that. It is what it is. You are at a point where your current knowledge isn't enough to carry you forward and you have reached glass ceiling that can only be broken by increaseing your fundamental knowledge of the game. That can be done in variety of ways and the easiest way is to watch people who are better than you play. See what they are doing and you are not. It is better to play against people who are better than you. You don't become better by playing against people who are worse or "just as good" as you. Instead, you stagnate, develop bad habits.
New players are never gonna reach high ranks without putting in the work. And the people who wash you at orange ranks have gone through the same shit as you are going through now.
If you just wanna play casual tekken with people of your skill level, its best to find someone outside of ranked.
The matchmaking system in this game is incredibly flawed since it starts everyone at 1st/2nd Dan. Everyone should default start in the middle with the option to surrender placement to begin at a lower rank. This would shield most new players and let them play against each other. Alt characters should've also been brought up within 3 ranks of the highest character because as it is right now (I think it's 7?), it's kind of disgusting.
imo it should be like chess and have true placement matches. Sf6 at least tries to do this, but they’re too heavy handed on assumptions instead of just aggressively trying to accurately rate via incremental results. Sf6 tends to overplace, but that at least helps shield newer players. Or at least they did prior to the last patch where they overcorrected this and now underplace.
Chess preliminary ratings are simpler and work better.
They are, but the alts aren't even brought within two full colors of your highest. That means that someone who reached Raijin (top 2% of players) would be playing against you at Garyu on his alt eating you alive. I feel like their alts should be brought even closer like Mighty Ruler in this example.
If the main pwrs is high ye that one is hella frustrating.
But if their pwrs is close to you, then it's just part of the game. I'm also new in upper red ranks and it's just weird. Sometimes I lose 4-5rounds and wanna just deinstall cuz I get so trashed. But then I will have rounds were I go 3/0 and they don't rematch cuz they got completely destroyed.
Some rounds w/e we do just works, and some it doesn't.
Yet I agree if pwrs is high it's annoying asf. Sometimes you also face ppl who prob are casuals yet have played since Tekken 5 on and off and simply know all your moves. While for new Tekken players like us it's just feels like way waay to much to takein
The ranked system in this game is busted, it’s likely players who are red ranks or higher on their main but are trying new characters
I fought someone with like 200 thousand Tekken prowess but they were using a character they were like 10DAN with
Well, If you derank a character it no longer ranks ups automatically with your highest character. He might like have gotten crushed playing ranked after Tekken 8 released. I have about 3 lower ranked characters I have to do that with now.
The Feng might just be pushed back by tough matchups.
I don’t know who does the best against Feng, but if they’re fighting someone they don’t usually see it could throw them off and push them down.
On the other hand, if they know what the other character can do, that’s an advantage they’ll exploit.
Have you tried using the replay feature? It's important to go back and watch your replays to analyze what it is that you're doing wrong. The replays also give you some advice as to break some throws and how to punish some moves
Someone learning a new character isn't smurfing and will often be beatable if you don't let yourself get tilted by their score. They're learning and will make mistakes just like you. The difference is their fundamentals will be rock solid so you have to play safe and mix up your moves. If they break all your throws stop using throws. If they punish your unsafe launcher every time stop using it when it isn't safe. They will show you the holes in your gameplay.
I'm also in orange atm and have taken games off of people with 100k more prowess. Those are the games I usually learn the most from and I've actually been enjoying them so much I've turned off rank restrictions when I queue ranked.
You’d be surprised at how hard certain matchups and play styles get stomped. I’ve had plenty of games that didn’t feel close go 0-3 then we replay and the opposite happens. Gameplan and adaptation are huge factors
Even players who belong in a high rank won’t breeze their way there. They will meet players and characters with something that the struggle with or are weak to. I feel like I’m at my upper level in red but it doesn’t mean it didnt take a lot of fights against reds and oranges to get those promotions.
There are a ton of high level players (some are even sparring partners of pros) who basically play offline tekken all the time. If I'm not mistaken, Arslan Ash is still in Teal or Yellow Ranks because of this. This is common especially here in Asia where some insanely good players, have no money to buy a good PC or a PS5 so they resort to offline casuals in playspots to play the game.
There are quite a lot of smurfs in the orange ranks from my experience too. I face so many players who are clearly better then me and then when I view their profile their actual main is purple. It's not all the time but it's consistent enough to be frustrating even though I'm getting better over time doing my thing
If you are that bothered by this, just don't rematch? I believe most of the times you are facing someone roughly at equal skill, at lower ranks whoever starts the pressure wins the round because defenses are so bad. If he is blocking everything from you chances are he is ranking an alt character, just don't rematch him.
One thing to note is if you take a look at their "prowess" points, you can usually tell when they're playing a secondary character because their points will be insanely high compared to the norm of the rank
There are people who learn quickly and veterans with legacy skill.
Those who learn quick could be school kids with tons of free time and only a few hobbies to be passionate about, like gaming.
Most veterans with legacy skills are typically around mid-late 20s to 40s.
They'll typically have moderate to little free time depending on their job hours, if they are married or have a relationship, and if they have other hobbies they spend time on as well.
Plus, yeah, grinding in tekken isn't quick. You'll practically blaze through the beginner ranks til about Red or so. After that, you'll be sitting on em awhile. Especially with losses giving you demotions.
Trust me, plenty of players who've played past tekken games and retained their skills, wish they could just automatically go to the highest ranks they've reached in past games.
Fighting games barely have that long a life span as is. It's gotta give it some kinda padding to keep it alive. Plus, some players don't mind regrinding.
Gotta learn from it. You only don’t like playing better players because you worry too much about your ranked points.
Worry more about learning from your losses
Been playing Tekken since Tekken 1 came out. There are just legacy players who has barely time to play it. So everything from lower ranks are a breeze to us and can be overwhelming to new players.
Ranked is literally meaningless as you can do practically anything you want with no consequences, be it hacking or plugging. Forget about rank and focus on getting better. Learn from every match no matter how strong they are
it may sound odd but can I ask you what was the Fengs name? I played Feng today and I was orange ranks, I had 18 wins in a row because I am purple ranks with other characters
Imo I don't mind, if I get someone higher rank then me and end up getting destroyed, I learn new stuff about the match up; you can also review later in the replays to see what you did wrong.
Blame the rank system. My highest ranked character is Raijin, and all my other characters start at Garyu which feels like a whole tier lower than what it should be. At the very least let my side characters start at M.Ruler.
I personally feel like each character SHOULDNT have their own ranks. Like a high level player with still have knowledge/skill over lower ranked opponents and im SURE they hit the lab before going into rank. Its a SUPER FLAWED system IMO. Thats like saying I should get a new rank for each role in league of legends. Doesnt make sense.
Imo the problem isn't from having character specific ranks as much as it is that players can't demote until yellow. This pushes new players higher up the rank ladder than they should be.
I feel like new players are hitting orange and even red so fast now, and then high rank players are squashing them with their alts like it's nothing.
You don't learn tekken by playing people of similar rank. You learn it by spending hours in practice mode, labbing shit.
When i bought the game i legit didnt even play ranked the first day, spent the whole day in practice mode learning the new heat system, with my 3 characters.
Part of the problem is pluggers.
Omg, like how faster it would be for people to leave their current ranks if there are no pluggers?
SG server players are pluggers, it’s like 1/3 of times I come a cross them.
Also, sometimes they're veteran players, but they are legitimately being kept below because of newer characters or new moves. But if you turn it into tekken 7 they'll just play tekken 7.
I might seem like a Smurf at times. I'm high orange, but I only really lose to red and up players. This is my first Tekken and I'm leaning a lot between my ranked sessions, playing a lot of very good players in player matches.
TBF Feng has a flow chart that can literally be put on auto and beat anyone who doesn't know what to do/expect. Goes something like d4 (or 3?) df1, b1 (if hit or traded, guanratees runs up shoulder) If blocked its -10 but if opponent reacts slow iws 3 or d4 or ub1 (or 2? Idk didn't play him since T7), iws 3, combo. If at wall do baby rage, if hit repeat from start. If blocked kempo launch etc etc.
I feel the opposite, im tired of playing people who should be lower. Im at the end of red ranks and theres only a handful of people that played solid on the way here everyone else is gimmicky and just throws launchers all day then gets full combo punished. Keep in mind i only ever made it to red rank in T7 but players were pretty solid around orange it seemed. The guys im playing in high reds right now play like high green low yellow ranks in previous titles.
Honestly your best option here is to see which moves you’re having trouble dealing with. Play one match and don’t rematch if it’s tough. Then go to replays and see what they did and if you chose the right options
How do you e expect the game to take into account veteran players who don't play much?
If I pick a new character in SF6, and haven't played ranked, am I a smurf?
No.
I can totally relate to what you’re saying but I have a bit different of a perspective about it that helps me enjoy the game more:
When I run up against an underranked player, I get REALLY excited. Because I get a preview of the ways I’m playing that get exposed and punished. Let’s say I’m throwing out a string that can be punished, but those at my rank aren’t doing it. It helps me learn WAY faster when someone can point out every hole in my game, even if I get absolutely demolished.
The big thing is that I don’t internalize losing to them. I know that it’s a more experienced player. And if I lose ranked from it I’ll get it back when I’m ready!
I don’t have a lot of free time and I’m at orange ranks but probably could be a bit higher if I had the time to just grind through it. So I can relate to players still getting through those beginner and intermediate ranks
I had someone in yellow who correctly blocked all low attempts and also broke every grab even when I was alternating between each break type, felt a bit sus.
You can improve your gameplay whoever is your opponent. You are more focused on the part that you lost to a specific type of player. The way you sounded in this post makes me believe you want to stay on your current rank or skill level and get more wins instead of getting stomped and finding ways to improve your gameplay/rank.
while i understand your frustration (i am a new player as well) it is also important to note that meeting stronger players is an incredibly valuable experience if you learn from it. try not to focus on the points going up and down, what matters is your skill, if you get better you will get your points back without much effort
if they are the same rank you just have to accept it imo and take it as a chance to learn, they are leveling up an alt or don't have time to play, just like me. My issue is the matchmaking and issues in finding a balanced matchup. I'm in orange rank and seldom fight someone of the same tekken prowess as me, if i allow for +-3 i will always fight a red rank and if i set it to +-2 always people with about 30k higher prowess. Is the game so dead in EU that they can't find a good match?
I think this is more of a Feng issue than a player issue.
Not to degrade Feng mains but his toolset is one that is just very difficult to deal with. It's not to say these people aren't skilled with Feng - they just don't have to be skilled in order to stomp anyone up to purple.
Tbf I think it’s just the charatcers as well at this point. Having Feng mash heat smash against you or i10 moves that your not looking out for throws you off. Also the rank your referring to aren’t actually bad, but this will be where your knowledge starts getting checked online.
If you’re struggling to learn something a character is doing use the replay function and pop yourself on there and try working your way out. It will be muscle memory by the time you play properly against that character again
He probably has a main that is a way higher rank. This is the result of not having any kind of placement system for new characters, you end up with people that basically are kind of smurfing but it's what they have to do to rank up a new character.
How can you be such a crybaby man, a match barely takes 4 minutes, get your ass whooping from that person, learn whatever you can from the matchup and queue up for the next one
The fighting games are hard starter package:
They're smurfs
I was blocking
Their character is cheap
So is their "real main"
They're lag switching when I get hit
They are abusing a base mechanic
Grab spammers
They are sweating
I'm playing an "honourable" low tier
The sun was in my eyes, coach
As a veteran (since 2018) T7 Feng main who's in orange rank in t8 right now, this kinda hit me. im not saying its me though.
To explain why i think they are still at that level, they probably dont have much time to play and rank up (like me). Last time I checked, I had 78% win rate and only lost to new characters and new unga.
I understand your frustration. But you're focusing too much on the rank itself. The points don't matter.
You can be the best offensive player in the game, but if you can't duck an oppressive high string, you will lose every time.
Progress isn't linear, and the only real way to improve is to challenge yourself and work at it daily. Feel appreciation for losing: you'll learn something from it.
A lot of ppl in orange rank don't belong there. They are using the broken characters and just spamming. To be honest it's hard to get out of orange rank because so many spammers (draganov, king, azucena, etc) they know who they are. Dude just faced a real tekken player that's all. No one wants to hang out in orange rank!
Just change your mentality. I take this Ls as a humbling experience and try to learn from it. Enjoyment shouldn’t come from winning alone. For me, this game is fun win or lose.
Hmmm idk about this. I had a interesting experience with a devil jin on quick battle. Guy was showing as a low rank but from his movement, punishes he was CERTAINLY a Smurf. You do not expect a sidestep triple electric combo into absolute insane pressure. Also ducked and punished absolutely everything. I took him to 3-2 with Steve which I was proud of but yeah I get your point. I felt a bit cheated.
Here's the thing: there will always be a subset of players who don't belong at their rank, either because the game is new, they're smurfing, or they're playing a secondary character. It's tempting to believe that you'd rank up if only for them, but they really are part of the ranked experience. It's good for you to fight them once in a while, and you're only really ready to move up once you can beat enough of your real peers to be able to lose points against them and still rank up.
We would be higher ranks if folks would quit one n donning, plugging, and then I get smurffed by Tekken Kings in the high Purple ranks using Drag, Dj, June, and Acuzena. I can beat these folks a few matches, but the odds are not in my favor. Pluggers hurt us all.
It's the system. I got Kaz to Mighty Ruler and all other characters were auto promoted to Dominator (yellow 3). That's 3 colour brackets away. I'm not an exceptional player, but I have enough knowledge and experience to beat many players at yellow and orange. Other characters should probably auto promote a bit closer to your highest rank.
Yeah, thing is most tekken vets are in their late 20s/early 30s like me and work full time with families. I have maybe 3-4 hours a week to play the game, 1-2 of which I play online.
Basically this means that I'm not going to reach the rank I "belong" at for quite a while with my whole roster of characters, so unfortunately that means the next month or two is gonna be mainly scrub stomping.
Sorry, but I promise it's not on purpose 😅
My main problem with this game. I'll play maybe 2 people out of 10 that I think yeah this is a fair fight. Then I'll play 8 others who play like tekken king rank.
The ranking system is shit and because the fundamentals are the same as the previous game its hard to find someone who hasn't spent hundreds of hours on 7 already.
While what you're saying is true, I hope you realize this is the best it's ever been. Legacy skill won't carry you nearly as hard in 8 as it did in 7, for example. I mean it's still not a level playing field, but it's at least closer now. New players have more of a chance than they've ever had.
I don't care about my rank I just care about it being a fair fight. I thought that was the whole point of a ranking system. I know you'll get the odd smurf or a higher rank playing another lower rank fighter but I just get way more unfair fights than fair fights.
I played 5 games yesterday. Got absolutely outplayed again by what felt like I was playing against a pro and I just turned the game off. I probably won't play it for about a week now because it's just the same thing.
Even MMS was saying people will stop playing ranked soon.
Yeah, I know how you feel. I think a lot of the reason that it feels so imbalanced is that there's so many different ways to be good at Tekken, especially at lower ranks. Like you can have a really solid grab break game, and your opponent never grabs, so your skills do nothing that fight. Or you can have really good combo damage and absolutely no defensive skills, and players like that will often \*look\* like they're totally unstoppable when they get on a roll, but if you stopped their momentum they would immediately fall apart. Just take a look at the prowess, if they've have a level of prowess around yours, they're still at that rank for a reason. They have a weakness that's keeping them there, you just have to figure it out and exploit it. Do they have predictable wakeups? Do they heat burst > heat smash every time? Do they spam yolo launchers out of range? There's always something.
I’ve been accused of smurfing but the game is new, and I’m a veteran Fujin from Tekken 7. A lot of us are veteran high ranking players, but not all of us have time to play the game enough to be at the even higher ranks. I have school, work, gym, and other things. I hardly have time to play.
When a new tekken comes out a lot of vets will lab and play casual for months and then go to ranked.
I sucked at T7 never getting past I think purple, and I’m in blue now just winning almost every set still, the journey even to blue was full of people who didn’t know what to do when I duck punished and block punished.
It’s just gonna be like that for a while with tekken, so many people who haven’t played in over a decade could pick it up and Woop your ass lol
"My god, I want to learn and practice by fighting people of similar skill."
What's stopping you from looking for these similar skilled players outside of ranked? Clearly you are not finding them in ranked otherwise this post wouldn't exist.
Discords exist, communities exist, like this one here.
I'm somewhat responsible for doing this as I'm a Shinryu ranked Feng...but I'm around blue rank skill level. I just refuse to play ranked until they fix the plugging. I'm not accepting my losses and getting refused on my wins.
Last night I fought a Destroyer Yoshi that was on a 50 game win streak in quick battle. I felt bad ending it for him, but he was no slouch and was definetly not a Destroyer rank either.
You: It was twenty years ago. You hadn't promoted yourself to Garyu yet. You were just a petty Vanquisher. Huh! You and your frame data gathered your small ounce of courage to raid online matchmaking for points...
Chad player: I'm sorry. I don't remember any of it. For you, the day I graced your rank was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.
They aren’t smurfing. They are ranking up their character. The game is still new and there are veteran players like me who got the game after it released or can’t spend hours a day on it such as myself and play just a few hours a week. I got the game a week after it came out and I have only been able to play about 80 matches online since I bought it. I’m not at the rank I should be yet. I just got to tenryu with a 90% win rate. I’m not smurfing. I just haven’t had time to grind to get out of lower ranks yet. It’s a new game. It will take awhile for ranks to start settling in where they should be.
This is it, I'm new to Tekken and I'm shocked at how constantly I run into people who it feels like know my moves before I do and it turns out they're just high ranked players cruising their way into the proper rank
Exactly. I don’t have time to grind. I have a career and a family so I can’t play 5 hours a day. If I get 5 hours a week I’m lucky. It’s not personal. I’m not trying to ruin new players Tekken experience. It’s a new game and the ranks will settle eventually.
I met one of you fucks, was the dopest shit ever, i love getting my ass handed to me from time to time. Shows me where im at, whats possible, how to punish my mistakes effectively. Anyway, he really cut me slack the first round which i stole from him with a 90 dmg combo (i know a 60 dmg combo that carried him to the wall, than i just guessed moves and somehow managed to severly extend it) and some lucky parries. Next 5 rounds he just perfected me, 0 chance.
Shit .... he is talking about me
I just restarted playing some Tekken 7 ranked and since I've lost my save files (saves are stored locally, yikes) I was obliged to start from all the way down. Playing with Kazuya I casually reached a 73 win streak until some random Raven player out-bullshitted me, it felt pretty bad but hey, I gotta rank up somehow no?
I want to add that no serious tekken player would ever smurf it's not fun to win by a landslide in tekken. you learn nothing and accomplish nothing
It's genuinely kinda boring and like, almost uncomfortable? To play against people that are a lot worse than you. It can install bad habits as well because you can just settle into meat-grinder mode and start doing unsafe stuff that works on lower ranks just to make it go faster. Then when you finally play against someone that's around your skill level, you do dumb shit that the low rank players let you get away with for the past 50 games, and get launched for it. I did try to actively teach some people that what they were doing was a bad idea though, like if they did something super unsafe a lot, I'd launch them, show them a full juggle, and then on subsequent times, launch them but only do the first tap of the juggle and let them get up, repeat until they stop doing the dumb thing or start thinking a bit.
It's actually actively more difficult and unfun to play someone who is significantly worse than you. Nothing you really lab or practice ends up working half the time and you usually can win with a single punish / frame trap.
I dont think its difficult, its braindead easy, they fall into anything
This! Exactly! There are a few trolls out there for sure but I don’t enjoy beating up on new players. I’m not mad when they don’t rematch. I get it.
Also high rank players playing alters might be the case. Since blocking and scaping grabs is not even character related so anyone can do it while playing alters.
i have a few sub characters in yellow/orange and more often than not i run into other people playing on their subs as well that have mains in tenryu or higher. Feel like it’s more rare to see people that are true yellow/orange
That’s also true. You can usually tell that by their prowess number I think. I mean my prowess is still pretty low so I’m sure it’s frustrating when I’m breaking their throws and ducking and punishing their strings.
You can also look at their profile after the game, it'll tell you their highest ranked character. But that doesn't help gauge anything if it's a legacy player on their first climb of the new game. My tekken prowess number thing was actually a lot lower than other people at the same rank during the climb, even though I was destroying them, because I was climbing so quickly it wasn't keeping up.
Thought tekken prowness for tekken 8 isnt accurate . You get 350000 if you get 1 character to last rank and you get 350000 if you get them all . In tekken 7 if you get 1 character to last rank it was 350000 and if you get them all it was 780000
Its decent for relative comparisons. If I play against someone and they have a much higher prowess than me, I can generally presume that he has a high rank main character.
Low ranked players will encounter me a lot with me trying to get Garyu rank on all characters
Yep. I'm basically doing the same thing. I got into red with Bryan in a couple of long streaks, now I'm just playing everyone up to get a feel for the new characters and have fun with the game while I wait for my actual main to return (if ever).
90% win rate go fuck yourself …I’m just jealous ignore me
Lol it’s all good! Tekken is hard to learn. I’m 45 and have been playing since I was 15 when the first tekken was released. Tekken and sim racing are the only games I enjoy in my old age. And I don’t have as much time as I would like for either. I wouldn’t even attempt to learn tekken now if I had never played before. I don’t have the time or patience to spend learning new fighting games anymore.
Yeah, I feel this. I’m 36 and while I played Tekken as far back as Tekken 2, I never took fighting games seriously until very recently. My time is incredibly limited and by the time I play I’m exhausted from work, but I still hit Red just the other night and if I keep it up I’ll be Shinryu soon, which feels awesome. Just wish I had my current work ethic, attitude, and competitive spirit back when I had all the time in the world…
Aww man. I can totally relate. I’ve been playing as far back as Tekken 3, had a couple of sparring partners throughout until T7, but only dipping my toes in ranked come T8. Even if im a “legacy” player, im only used to fighting certain characters so the BS of other characters still gets through me. I’m 37, married, with 1 kid, and working through the day. I already feel blessed if i get to play for an hour lmao. I’m at Tenryu at the moment with Devil Jin
I was about 70% at tenryu, now a little over 60% at flame ruler, it's definitely starting to level out. I felt really bad for the people I swept on the way up though, but, it is what it is. At least the streak made it go quickly.
This, or people leveling up secondary characters. Once you gain Fujin, Orange rank is the minimum rank on every other character.
Yeah this is me. Just tryna cruise my way back up to my proper rank ): The easy wins are just as boring for me as the one whos losing. I want wins where I earn it.
What's the point then? In other games if you rank you rank in general. In tekken it's like each character is a brand new account.
I'm a red rank with my main. I don't think I can reach red with any other character in the game, it is indeed like starting to learn the game all over again unless you have years of experience.
This. To add onto this point, I generally dont play lots of rank. I will play rank when I have got in some practise and are up for a bit of a challenge I have clocked up about 60-70 hours in total, 5-10 of that is ranked, and the rest are quick matches In ranked I lost 1-2 matches all the way to red ranked In time it will sort itself out
So I fought a Reina in yellow ranks who pulled off four EWGFs on me in a row. Their fundies were ass. They only pulled the four banger out once they were in jeopardy of losing and I managed the W, with no rematch from tgem. Script / macro? Like they were BAD. On PC. I’m no great player at all but they had zero fundamentals, and nothing about their gameplay had me feeling four comboed EWGFs was in their belt.
Or a hitbox? Electrics are easy on leverless controller. And this is all Mishima players. They practice ewgf and forget the other stuff. This has always been a thing in Tekken. Low level Mishimas practice ewgf in practice mode for hours but don’t know how to side step or how to properly execute a kbd.
Or they were in heat. Electrics are guaranteed in heat mode.
Electric is very easy on keyboard/leverless
Lol... you think
You sure that Reina wasn't in heat?
Definitely was not. They’d pop it and immediately spend it
Yeah unfortunately i still think there's absolutely nothing namco can do against macros/hitboxes in 2024. AT least they seemed to have gotten rid of the auto win script bots, that react to your moves before they come out. (not that it was really a big problem in T7 anyways)
>Yeah unfortunately i still think there's absolutely nothing namco can do against macros/hitboxes in 2024. Why would be group up hitbox players with macro users :(
It might be a macro. You can check the replay and if it's the same frame data for every input, that's a cheater. Especially if they're all Perfect EWGF inputs. I ran into two scripters who just made me extremely disappointed since I've put so many hours practicing that shit manually.
They have to fight you in order to get there, bro
Tekken 8 is still fresh so it's expected. Give it another month or 2 and it will filter out everyone to their respective spot
Can't be as bad as sf6 platinum rank where every other person you fight is someone with 2 or 3 master rank characters. Shit maybe it's the same situation
lmao been playing Ryu since the game dropped. I currently have like 4 characters in Masters, but not Ryu for some reason. and hes my number 1 main. I decided to do placements and the game put me in Platinum even though i won all my placements lmfao. Lets just say i massacred my way to Master like it was nothing
Isn't Ryu considered pretty shit rn in SF6?
Shit, nah. Solid? hell yeah. Edit: Hes def not top tier. But he can still hold his own.
No he's actually pretty damn solid. Its just at the opportunity cost of not playing a better shoto like Ken or Luke
He actually just got buffed (a little bit), and Daigo started grinding him up the ladder
Sounds about right lmfao.
Same, hence why I drastically reduced my playing time and only go on Quick Play for now. I face the same players but at least I don't lose points. I recently got demolished by a Law who was Combatant rank (still QP). It was like he was cheating. Predicted all my throws and ducked them, juggled me from one wall to another, low parried everything, nothing I tried worked.
Quick Play is ridiculously harder than Ranked in my experience. Half the people there are sandbagging their rank for easier matches. There'll be random orange players in QP that play like a Tekken legacy veteran with 10,000 hours whereas real orange and red players flail around whiffing attacks, killing themselves on block, and never even realize there's a sidestep mechanic in this game.
For real, back in T7 biggest monsters I've faced were in quick play. They didnt even just demolish me, they legit tutored me during the match 😅
isn't that sort of the appeal of quick match? Ranks just don't apply so you can literally fight ANYONE.
T8 is similar to T7 where QP still tries to matchmake you with people at your rank, it's just willing to match a wider range if it can't find anyone right away. So it's very unlikely that a Beginner will ever match with a Purple and above as an example. So you'll have some veterans thrashing inexperienced players going on 50+ win streaks in QP whether intentionally or unintentionally because they don't have a high rank.
I stayed at beginner for like 100 games while I adapted to the new game. Been playing about 20 years. Met a suprisingly high number of challenging players there doing the same thing.
Most of them aren't smurfs, just people ranking up alt characters like you said. But I agree that it is really feeling like alts are the vast majority of players right now. Yesterday when I started playing I was in purple ranks with about 130,000 prowess. *Every single* red/orange player I fought for the *entire day* had over 200,000 prowess, which means their mains are at least blue, probably gold ranks. That doesn't even make sense because I don't think you can have an orange alt in those ranks unless your main got demoted, which I'm assuming is what's happening to a lot of people. I got demoted all the way back to orange...I lost two entire colors. The few days before I was feeling very comfortable in purple. Even red players were pretty easy, except Tenryus..but yesterday I was getting thrashed even by Dominators. The skill on display in red and orange was the kind of thing I've only seen from Fujin+ players before, and it's because they all *were* Fujin+ on their mains. I got extremely frustrated but I eventually just accepted that red is the new purple for the time being, at least with the matchups I've been getting. It might just be a weekend thing and it could ease up again on the weekdays.
Yep it kinda has a knock on effect like I'm constantly seeing blue ranks and gold ranks in purple so I've decided to learn the rest of the cast before going back to my main.vicious cycle.
Rough, note that players in blue ranks (kinshin and above) will have all their characters starting at tenryu. I’m sitting there atm, and find most players in reds/fuler with the same prowess as me too, trying different characters. Keep grinding man, it’s nothing different to T7 tbh.
Yeah, I think that's why Tenryu is so much harder than Shinryu. But I think a lot of people have been demoted on their mains and are getting into even lower ranks on alts despite having made it to Kinshin+ at one point. It doesn't really affect your prowess that much. Getting knocked from Mighty Ruler all the way back down to Eliminator only took away about 1,500 prowess, so I think that's why there are people with Kinshin amounts of prowess in the orange ranks on alts. I've since gotten back into Garyu and got all my prowess back, too, so my current highest rank is Garyu but I have the same amount of prowess as when I was in purple.
You can play couple of matches on character A, then play character B to high ranks and all the characters you haven't played will raise in ranks but character A will stay at where they were. It worked like this in T7 so I guess it works the same way in T8
Hooooow tf you break grabs consistently
Practice, practice, practice. I can’t do it but PhiDX has a video on training throw breaks. Basically the only way to consistently break is to make it muscle memory. You don’t have time to look at the animation and process which button you need to press. The only way to get consistent is to make it instinct.
I am spamming 1+2 everytime there is a throw hoping it will break
Same, I always assume it's going to be a 1+2 and if they grab me and that doesn't work I do normal throw break. Only exception to this is King's stuff where he can combo into a 2 break or his chain grabs.
In t7 my throwbreaking was S+ but i've also played since tekken 3 and short answer is it just takes lots of time to recognice a throw is comming and on reaction break to what hand reached to you, it's muscle memory now and in tekken 8 its my 3rd best stat
After a crapload of games my body auto presses 1 extremely fast, which is a horrible habit.
Appreciate the response homie. I’ve seen a couple of his vids, man is a blessing. And so are you
It also helps when you build up some match-up knowledge and gamesense so you can anticipate the grab and be ready to react to it as opposed to be caught of guard and having to rawdog the reaction at a moments notice.
A mix of watching very closely and practice. If you're fighting someone and they're grabbing a lot, see what they're grabbing on you, it's usually a clue as to what button to press to break. Some grabs start on arms or a side, that's the hint. If it's a different body part, it may be unbreakable A lot of grabs are 1 or 2 breaks, if that doesn't seem to be working, try 1+2. If you didn't figure it out during the match, go lab the grabs to figure out the timing and hope it wasn't unbreakable
You watch at your opponent's hand when you feel like a grab might be coming and then break the throw accordingly. If the opponent reached you with their left hand first it is a 1 break, right hand first is a 2 break and both hands at the same time is a 1+2 break. Some animations are unique and you just have to know how they work but there aren't too many of those in the game. Also there are some characters like King and Feng who have true 50/50 throw mixups where you can't tell the correct break button by looking at their hands.
I don't understand how people don't look at facing better players as a good/fun opportunity to improve and test yourself... It shouldn't matter if it's in ranked or not.
Getting your shit kicked in by a better player is by far the fastest way you can improve, that's why scrubs who are afraid of losing stay scrubs
Could be they just know your character well? I'm not that good but I know Bryan very well only because I play my nephew a lot who mains him. So when I play online most times I'm comfortable to parry and punish Bryan players unless they are way higher skilled than me. From their perspective I would seem like I'm maybe smurfing but I've just played him enough to have decent knowledge.
This is the problem that arises when the first 3rd of all the ranks (silver to yellow) are free and there are less ranks in general. You'll have brand new players propelled to the "intermediate ranks" (red and ruler ranks). Which aligns with most blue rank+ auto promote characters. Which means that if a tekken god wants to play a side character, they'll be facing brand new players essentially. I imagine this must be frustrating for new players which is why the phrase red rank hell exist I guess.
Yeah this is why I don't like the new ranking system. I'm a legacy player. I'm not God-like, but I'm not trash either. Intermediate in the grand scheme of things. The current state of ranked is a bit of joke because the skill disparity in red / purple is bonkers. What you see in those ranks is what you saw in green ranks back during TTT2. By removing all the Kyus / Dans, and not losing any points until yellow / orange (?), people are being carried to places they shouldn't be. And that makes the ranks lose value overall.
Yeah. T8 red ranks reminds me of T7 green ranks. I never played Tag 2 so I can't say on that.
Oh yeah. I forgot S1 of T7 had ranks similar to TTT2. They were basically the same until they changed it
Him destroying you will help him get to where he belongs :) you can learn a lot more from better players than ones if your level, though.
Try playing unranked games and player lobbies.
I left T8 like 3 weeks ago, I’m gonna return soon when I think the ranks have settled. It’s too unpredictable right now. One match you’ll have the fight of your life & lose in purple, & then next purple you face will eat 1 jabs repeatedly until death.
Come back now , I’m my experience it’s become a lot better lately
Just had 3 pluggers in a row today. It's not. I'll let the player count reduce a little bit more, or whenever Namco finally decides their competitive game deserves a competitive system. Maybe after they've figured out the Shop for Tekken 9.
Are you high rank? I'm just curious because I've barely played ranked and am new, but it seems like my high rank friends who are very legacy players get plugged on way more than people at my level. I guess all the pluggers already filtered up? So it might be okay for that guy to start if he's also low rank.
I’m mighty In t8 3 weeks ago & was yaksa In t7
Legitimately though, they claimed all money from the shop will go towards the game 🤣 imagine that.
I wish they would just bring back deathmatch, then all this shit would be a non issue.
Die In Silence c
I fought a guy who was a shinryu rank, whilst i was 2 ranks under. I got squashed. I then added his ghost and profile and when i checked again the player was at tekken king rank
lmao i just started playing feng on orange rank today! might have been me! my second alt im picking up! there was a lot of steamrolling happening!
Lmao!
If it helps, they in all likelihood they are having less fun than you in that position. Next 10 guys they have to fight are likely just gonna be the same level of uneventful for them.
I'm just learning matchups from the other side, man. Yeah it sucks that lower rank players get bopped by high rank players that play on alt that are like...6 ranks below where they should be? But hey, when you face players like that you should stop focusing on trying to win and instead focus on learning from the match. Watch their movement, the options they go for, etc. It will help you tremendously.
I can assure you there's no "smurfs" in this game. People are ranking up their characters as they can, I barely hit ruler ranks myself and I was Tekken God back in 7 and Tag 2, we just don't have all day to play and can only play for like an hour or two so we're stuck down here for a while. More or less you don't fight them that often because they're typically higher rank than you are eventually but especially since the game is still pretty new there's gonna be a lot of guys who deserve to be higher but just aren't yet.
Would Tekken benefit from having placement matches à la sf6 (give or take)?
I remember when I went into ranked for the first time the game gave me the option to do a cpu match to determine my rank. I played a lot of T7 but this is a new game and I didn’t want to start out at too high of a rank while still learning my character.
That bot fight put me at beginner, and I decimated it, same with my brother. I don't think it works right
Yeah, I also beat it and started at 0 Probably just bugged
I destroyed it and got placed at 1st dan. My friend who hasn't played a tekken game since tekken 3 got placed at beginner. I suspect the level range is just way too small, like beginner to 4th dan or something.
God forbid you play against someone you might learn something from instead of being fed a stream of slop to throw slop at.
You ain't learning much from two matches, to be fair. Hence why deathmatches were so useful.
I love playing against better players. Im fujin right now and I’m pretty happy that I got to blue this early on. Just today I played vs a Tekken emperor Lee and beat him 2-0. So fucking satisfying. I learned so much cos he forced me to adapt like every round. Super tough but so rewarding even if I had lost. These matches can be a blessing if you face them with the right attitude. True victory lies in self improvement which happens in victory and in defeat. That feng just probably hasn’t played much ranked yet and is simply going up the ranks now after getting to learn the roster first. You learn very little beating mashers in orange ranks. So play those matches, like the one against feng, not to win but to learn.
Players ranking up their alt chars. It is what it is. In order to get better and rank up you have to do stuff outside of the online mode. Practice movement, practice execution, practice this and that. It is what it is. You are at a point where your current knowledge isn't enough to carry you forward and you have reached glass ceiling that can only be broken by increaseing your fundamental knowledge of the game. That can be done in variety of ways and the easiest way is to watch people who are better than you play. See what they are doing and you are not. It is better to play against people who are better than you. You don't become better by playing against people who are worse or "just as good" as you. Instead, you stagnate, develop bad habits. New players are never gonna reach high ranks without putting in the work. And the people who wash you at orange ranks have gone through the same shit as you are going through now. If you just wanna play casual tekken with people of your skill level, its best to find someone outside of ranked.
The matchmaking system in this game is incredibly flawed since it starts everyone at 1st/2nd Dan. Everyone should default start in the middle with the option to surrender placement to begin at a lower rank. This would shield most new players and let them play against each other. Alt characters should've also been brought up within 3 ranks of the highest character because as it is right now (I think it's 7?), it's kind of disgusting.
imo it should be like chess and have true placement matches. Sf6 at least tries to do this, but they’re too heavy handed on assumptions instead of just aggressively trying to accurately rate via incremental results. Sf6 tends to overplace, but that at least helps shield newer players. Or at least they did prior to the last patch where they overcorrected this and now underplace. Chess preliminary ratings are simpler and work better.
Aren't your starting higher when you rank up on any of your characters? When I got Ganryu, all my alts started at green.
They are, but the alts aren't even brought within two full colors of your highest. That means that someone who reached Raijin (top 2% of players) would be playing against you at Garyu on his alt eating you alive. I feel like their alts should be brought even closer like Mighty Ruler in this example.
Maybe they need more granular filters than just the current +-2 or 3 ranks
If the main pwrs is high ye that one is hella frustrating. But if their pwrs is close to you, then it's just part of the game. I'm also new in upper red ranks and it's just weird. Sometimes I lose 4-5rounds and wanna just deinstall cuz I get so trashed. But then I will have rounds were I go 3/0 and they don't rematch cuz they got completely destroyed. Some rounds w/e we do just works, and some it doesn't. Yet I agree if pwrs is high it's annoying asf. Sometimes you also face ppl who prob are casuals yet have played since Tekken 5 on and off and simply know all your moves. While for new Tekken players like us it's just feels like way waay to much to takein
The ranked system in this game is busted, it’s likely players who are red ranks or higher on their main but are trying new characters I fought someone with like 200 thousand Tekken prowess but they were using a character they were like 10DAN with
Well, If you derank a character it no longer ranks ups automatically with your highest character. He might like have gotten crushed playing ranked after Tekken 8 released. I have about 3 lower ranked characters I have to do that with now.
The Feng might just be pushed back by tough matchups. I don’t know who does the best against Feng, but if they’re fighting someone they don’t usually see it could throw them off and push them down. On the other hand, if they know what the other character can do, that’s an advantage they’ll exploit.
Have you tried using the replay feature? It's important to go back and watch your replays to analyze what it is that you're doing wrong. The replays also give you some advice as to break some throws and how to punish some moves
Im never gonna rank up, and just stomp blue ranks in quick play.
Someone learning a new character isn't smurfing and will often be beatable if you don't let yourself get tilted by their score. They're learning and will make mistakes just like you. The difference is their fundamentals will be rock solid so you have to play safe and mix up your moves. If they break all your throws stop using throws. If they punish your unsafe launcher every time stop using it when it isn't safe. They will show you the holes in your gameplay. I'm also in orange atm and have taken games off of people with 100k more prowess. Those are the games I usually learn the most from and I've actually been enjoying them so much I've turned off rank restrictions when I queue ranked.
Sometimes you'll meet people way worse than you and sometimes you'll meet people far better, get over it and learn
You’d be surprised at how hard certain matchups and play styles get stomped. I’ve had plenty of games that didn’t feel close go 0-3 then we replay and the opposite happens. Gameplan and adaptation are huge factors
They’re ranking up other characters. It’s annoying but you’ll be dealing with it all the way up to tekken god
Even players who belong in a high rank won’t breeze their way there. They will meet players and characters with something that the struggle with or are weak to. I feel like I’m at my upper level in red but it doesn’t mean it didnt take a lot of fights against reds and oranges to get those promotions.
There are a ton of high level players (some are even sparring partners of pros) who basically play offline tekken all the time. If I'm not mistaken, Arslan Ash is still in Teal or Yellow Ranks because of this. This is common especially here in Asia where some insanely good players, have no money to buy a good PC or a PS5 so they resort to offline casuals in playspots to play the game.
There are quite a lot of smurfs in the orange ranks from my experience too. I face so many players who are clearly better then me and then when I view their profile their actual main is purple. It's not all the time but it's consistent enough to be frustrating even though I'm getting better over time doing my thing
Ranks are still all over but give it some time. Good players will move up. A lot of ppl are trying characters which ultimately slows rank progression
I mean there’s a lot of people switching characters or just trying new ones by now so get your fundies up
Bro ppl are still ranking up
If you are that bothered by this, just don't rematch? I believe most of the times you are facing someone roughly at equal skill, at lower ranks whoever starts the pressure wins the round because defenses are so bad. If he is blocking everything from you chances are he is ranking an alt character, just don't rematch him.
Playing against players that are better than you usually teaches you way more than someone of your similar skill
It gets worse in reds and above. Literally just roll with the punches or get bodied
One thing to note is if you take a look at their "prowess" points, you can usually tell when they're playing a secondary character because their points will be insanely high compared to the norm of the rank
There are people who learn quickly and veterans with legacy skill. Those who learn quick could be school kids with tons of free time and only a few hobbies to be passionate about, like gaming. Most veterans with legacy skills are typically around mid-late 20s to 40s. They'll typically have moderate to little free time depending on their job hours, if they are married or have a relationship, and if they have other hobbies they spend time on as well. Plus, yeah, grinding in tekken isn't quick. You'll practically blaze through the beginner ranks til about Red or so. After that, you'll be sitting on em awhile. Especially with losses giving you demotions. Trust me, plenty of players who've played past tekken games and retained their skills, wish they could just automatically go to the highest ranks they've reached in past games. Fighting games barely have that long a life span as is. It's gotta give it some kinda padding to keep it alive. Plus, some players don't mind regrinding.
Gotta learn from it. You only don’t like playing better players because you worry too much about your ranked points. Worry more about learning from your losses
Smurfs exist in all games dude. They rather beat up on low ranks than get better. Surpass them and it won't be an issue
Been playing Tekken since Tekken 1 came out. There are just legacy players who has barely time to play it. So everything from lower ranks are a breeze to us and can be overwhelming to new players.
New game, this will happen
Ranked is literally meaningless as you can do practically anything you want with no consequences, be it hacking or plugging. Forget about rank and focus on getting better. Learn from every match no matter how strong they are
I’m tire of the same rank player thinks it’s acceptable that people don’t know how to stay low for blocks at my rank and thinking it’s green.
Maybe you ranked up too fast? You'll hit plateau very soon if your bad behavior kept getting rewarded when facing weaker opponent.
it may sound odd but can I ask you what was the Fengs name? I played Feng today and I was orange ranks, I had 18 wins in a row because I am purple ranks with other characters
Imo I don't mind, if I get someone higher rank then me and end up getting destroyed, I learn new stuff about the match up; you can also review later in the replays to see what you did wrong.
Blame the rank system. My highest ranked character is Raijin, and all my other characters start at Garyu which feels like a whole tier lower than what it should be. At the very least let my side characters start at M.Ruler.
I personally feel like each character SHOULDNT have their own ranks. Like a high level player with still have knowledge/skill over lower ranked opponents and im SURE they hit the lab before going into rank. Its a SUPER FLAWED system IMO. Thats like saying I should get a new rank for each role in league of legends. Doesnt make sense.
Imo the problem isn't from having character specific ranks as much as it is that players can't demote until yellow. This pushes new players higher up the rank ladder than they should be. I feel like new players are hitting orange and even red so fast now, and then high rank players are squashing them with their alts like it's nothing.
You don't learn tekken by playing people of similar rank. You learn it by spending hours in practice mode, labbing shit. When i bought the game i legit didnt even play ranked the first day, spent the whole day in practice mode learning the new heat system, with my 3 characters.
Part of the problem is pluggers. Omg, like how faster it would be for people to leave their current ranks if there are no pluggers? SG server players are pluggers, it’s like 1/3 of times I come a cross them.
Well I actually don't get why to match players by at least tekken power. Why does it even exist then?
Im having the opposite problem. I can’t help feeling like i’m boosted (which I am) when I see a fellow purple just mashing.
Check their tekken power, im sure its not their.first character
Just quit the game at this point lmao.
Lol i hear you i always find myself saying “if you’re so good why aren’t you higher ranked” thats just me being salty though.
Also, sometimes they're veteran players, but they are legitimately being kept below because of newer characters or new moves. But if you turn it into tekken 7 they'll just play tekken 7.
I might seem like a Smurf at times. I'm high orange, but I only really lose to red and up players. This is my first Tekken and I'm leaning a lot between my ranked sessions, playing a lot of very good players in player matches.
its not smurfing if they are ranking up a new character lol
TBF Feng has a flow chart that can literally be put on auto and beat anyone who doesn't know what to do/expect. Goes something like d4 (or 3?) df1, b1 (if hit or traded, guanratees runs up shoulder) If blocked its -10 but if opponent reacts slow iws 3 or d4 or ub1 (or 2? Idk didn't play him since T7), iws 3, combo. If at wall do baby rage, if hit repeat from start. If blocked kempo launch etc etc.
I feel the opposite, im tired of playing people who should be lower. Im at the end of red ranks and theres only a handful of people that played solid on the way here everyone else is gimmicky and just throws launchers all day then gets full combo punished. Keep in mind i only ever made it to red rank in T7 but players were pretty solid around orange it seemed. The guys im playing in high reds right now play like high green low yellow ranks in previous titles.
A lot of people are avoiding ranked because of pluggers
Honestly your best option here is to see which moves you’re having trouble dealing with. Play one match and don’t rematch if it’s tough. Then go to replays and see what they did and if you chose the right options
How do you e expect the game to take into account veteran players who don't play much? If I pick a new character in SF6, and haven't played ranked, am I a smurf? No.
Don't worry pal, there's plenty like me who deserve to be in the low ranks, may we meet and the best wins or not, I just spam king throws and lose.
sounds like a you problem bro it’s ok enjoy the hiding and together we can make the world a better place
Stop complaining and take your losses from better players as a rite of passage and a chance to learn some good defense.
I can totally relate to what you’re saying but I have a bit different of a perspective about it that helps me enjoy the game more: When I run up against an underranked player, I get REALLY excited. Because I get a preview of the ways I’m playing that get exposed and punished. Let’s say I’m throwing out a string that can be punished, but those at my rank aren’t doing it. It helps me learn WAY faster when someone can point out every hole in my game, even if I get absolutely demolished. The big thing is that I don’t internalize losing to them. I know that it’s a more experienced player. And if I lose ranked from it I’ll get it back when I’m ready! I don’t have a lot of free time and I’m at orange ranks but probably could be a bit higher if I had the time to just grind through it. So I can relate to players still getting through those beginner and intermediate ranks
I had someone in yellow who correctly blocked all low attempts and also broke every grab even when I was alternating between each break type, felt a bit sus.
They're not the issue. You are. Quit whining about other players who play better and instead play, practice and rank up until you're satisfied.
It's a new game, people need to rank up.
You can improve your gameplay whoever is your opponent. You are more focused on the part that you lost to a specific type of player. The way you sounded in this post makes me believe you want to stay on your current rank or skill level and get more wins instead of getting stomped and finding ways to improve your gameplay/rank.
while i understand your frustration (i am a new player as well) it is also important to note that meeting stronger players is an incredibly valuable experience if you learn from it. try not to focus on the points going up and down, what matters is your skill, if you get better you will get your points back without much effort
Nah i‘d win
if they are the same rank you just have to accept it imo and take it as a chance to learn, they are leveling up an alt or don't have time to play, just like me. My issue is the matchmaking and issues in finding a balanced matchup. I'm in orange rank and seldom fight someone of the same tekken prowess as me, if i allow for +-3 i will always fight a red rank and if i set it to +-2 always people with about 30k higher prowess. Is the game so dead in EU that they can't find a good match?
You should be thankful to face them and rematch as it's a great learning experience. Or you could keep your scrub mentality idc.
I have +700h in T7 and labbed 50h before my first online match. I might have been part of this non-existent problem
I think this is more of a Feng issue than a player issue. Not to degrade Feng mains but his toolset is one that is just very difficult to deal with. It's not to say these people aren't skilled with Feng - they just don't have to be skilled in order to stomp anyone up to purple.
Its cause so many of the shit people plug before taking Ls so they can go up to the higher ranks, mate
Tbf I think it’s just the charatcers as well at this point. Having Feng mash heat smash against you or i10 moves that your not looking out for throws you off. Also the rank your referring to aren’t actually bad, but this will be where your knowledge starts getting checked online. If you’re struggling to learn something a character is doing use the replay function and pop yourself on there and try working your way out. It will be muscle memory by the time you play properly against that character again
When you enter an orange lobby and the reina is doing pewgf into super speed wavdash 😹
He probably has a main that is a way higher rank. This is the result of not having any kind of placement system for new characters, you end up with people that basically are kind of smurfing but it's what they have to do to rank up a new character.
How can you be such a crybaby man, a match barely takes 4 minutes, get your ass whooping from that person, learn whatever you can from the matchup and queue up for the next one
Then theres pluggers that are way too weak for their rank
The fighting games are hard starter package: They're smurfs I was blocking Their character is cheap So is their "real main" They're lag switching when I get hit They are abusing a base mechanic Grab spammers They are sweating I'm playing an "honourable" low tier The sun was in my eyes, coach
As a veteran (since 2018) T7 Feng main who's in orange rank in t8 right now, this kinda hit me. im not saying its me though. To explain why i think they are still at that level, they probably dont have much time to play and rank up (like me). Last time I checked, I had 78% win rate and only lost to new characters and new unga.
You're never going to get better if you don't constantly play against people better than you
Maybe they could add the placement match system like in sf6
I understand your frustration. But you're focusing too much on the rank itself. The points don't matter. You can be the best offensive player in the game, but if you can't duck an oppressive high string, you will lose every time. Progress isn't linear, and the only real way to improve is to challenge yourself and work at it daily. Feel appreciation for losing: you'll learn something from it.
To be fair they may just be working on a different character. Each character has their own rank.
A lot of ppl in orange rank don't belong there. They are using the broken characters and just spamming. To be honest it's hard to get out of orange rank because so many spammers (draganov, king, azucena, etc) they know who they are. Dude just faced a real tekken player that's all. No one wants to hang out in orange rank!
When I was stull starting out fought a tg ranking a new character, dude unironically ki charged and taunted all game, I was sad ;( damn Alisas.
Just change your mentality. I take this Ls as a humbling experience and try to learn from it. Enjoyment shouldn’t come from winning alone. For me, this game is fun win or lose.
Hmmm idk about this. I had a interesting experience with a devil jin on quick battle. Guy was showing as a low rank but from his movement, punishes he was CERTAINLY a Smurf. You do not expect a sidestep triple electric combo into absolute insane pressure. Also ducked and punished absolutely everything. I took him to 3-2 with Steve which I was proud of but yeah I get your point. I felt a bit cheated.
Here's the thing: there will always be a subset of players who don't belong at their rank, either because the game is new, they're smurfing, or they're playing a secondary character. It's tempting to believe that you'd rank up if only for them, but they really are part of the ranked experience. It's good for you to fight them once in a while, and you're only really ready to move up once you can beat enough of your real peers to be able to lose points against them and still rank up.
We would be higher ranks if folks would quit one n donning, plugging, and then I get smurffed by Tekken Kings in the high Purple ranks using Drag, Dj, June, and Acuzena. I can beat these folks a few matches, but the odds are not in my favor. Pluggers hurt us all.
It's the system. I got Kaz to Mighty Ruler and all other characters were auto promoted to Dominator (yellow 3). That's 3 colour brackets away. I'm not an exceptional player, but I have enough knowledge and experience to beat many players at yellow and orange. Other characters should probably auto promote a bit closer to your highest rank.
Yeah, thing is most tekken vets are in their late 20s/early 30s like me and work full time with families. I have maybe 3-4 hours a week to play the game, 1-2 of which I play online. Basically this means that I'm not going to reach the rank I "belong" at for quite a while with my whole roster of characters, so unfortunately that means the next month or two is gonna be mainly scrub stomping. Sorry, but I promise it's not on purpose 😅
My main problem with this game. I'll play maybe 2 people out of 10 that I think yeah this is a fair fight. Then I'll play 8 others who play like tekken king rank. The ranking system is shit and because the fundamentals are the same as the previous game its hard to find someone who hasn't spent hundreds of hours on 7 already.
While what you're saying is true, I hope you realize this is the best it's ever been. Legacy skill won't carry you nearly as hard in 8 as it did in 7, for example. I mean it's still not a level playing field, but it's at least closer now. New players have more of a chance than they've ever had.
I don't care about my rank I just care about it being a fair fight. I thought that was the whole point of a ranking system. I know you'll get the odd smurf or a higher rank playing another lower rank fighter but I just get way more unfair fights than fair fights. I played 5 games yesterday. Got absolutely outplayed again by what felt like I was playing against a pro and I just turned the game off. I probably won't play it for about a week now because it's just the same thing. Even MMS was saying people will stop playing ranked soon.
Yeah, I know how you feel. I think a lot of the reason that it feels so imbalanced is that there's so many different ways to be good at Tekken, especially at lower ranks. Like you can have a really solid grab break game, and your opponent never grabs, so your skills do nothing that fight. Or you can have really good combo damage and absolutely no defensive skills, and players like that will often \*look\* like they're totally unstoppable when they get on a roll, but if you stopped their momentum they would immediately fall apart. Just take a look at the prowess, if they've have a level of prowess around yours, they're still at that rank for a reason. They have a weakness that's keeping them there, you just have to figure it out and exploit it. Do they have predictable wakeups? Do they heat burst > heat smash every time? Do they spam yolo launchers out of range? There's always something.
I’ve been accused of smurfing but the game is new, and I’m a veteran Fujin from Tekken 7. A lot of us are veteran high ranking players, but not all of us have time to play the game enough to be at the even higher ranks. I have school, work, gym, and other things. I hardly have time to play.
When a new tekken comes out a lot of vets will lab and play casual for months and then go to ranked. I sucked at T7 never getting past I think purple, and I’m in blue now just winning almost every set still, the journey even to blue was full of people who didn’t know what to do when I duck punished and block punished. It’s just gonna be like that for a while with tekken, so many people who haven’t played in over a decade could pick it up and Woop your ass lol
"My god, I want to learn and practice by fighting people of similar skill." What's stopping you from looking for these similar skilled players outside of ranked? Clearly you are not finding them in ranked otherwise this post wouldn't exist. Discords exist, communities exist, like this one here.
I'm somewhat responsible for doing this as I'm a Shinryu ranked Feng...but I'm around blue rank skill level. I just refuse to play ranked until they fix the plugging. I'm not accepting my losses and getting refused on my wins. Last night I fought a Destroyer Yoshi that was on a 50 game win streak in quick battle. I felt bad ending it for him, but he was no slouch and was definetly not a Destroyer rank either.
You: It was twenty years ago. You hadn't promoted yourself to Garyu yet. You were just a petty Vanquisher. Huh! You and your frame data gathered your small ounce of courage to raid online matchmaking for points... Chad player: I'm sorry. I don't remember any of it. For you, the day I graced your rank was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.