Hiya!

It’s strange how a few months can change a gal’s outlook. I had several hopes and dreams coming into 2024. Most of them were out of my control, like who Capcom would bring in for the 2nd season of Street Fighter 6 and Disney+ getting more WWE shows. Well, there was one specific dream I had which I could achieve through my own will and capability. That would be reaching the Master Rank in Street Fighter 6. This was something I could actually do if I really put my heart and mind to it. It wasn’t even an super lofty goal as there are so many Street Fighter 6 players who have reached Master Rank already. I wasn’t even aiming for Legend, which Capcom added because there were already so many Master Rank players in the game!

However, after months and months of grinding online, I finally had to face up to the truth: I am never going to make it. There was no way I can reach Master Rank in Street Fighter 6. It was kind of a crushing blow to my ego but, after mulling it over for a couple of days, I just had to admit to myself I just can’t reach that level.

So, there were several reasons as to why I came to that conclusion and I do think talking about it might help some other players, Street Fighter 6 or not, come to terms with this lesson I had to teach myself. Honestly, it breaks down to things you can control and things you can’t control. Let’s talk about the latter first.

One major contributor to why I won’t be reaching the Master Rank is because, well, I still live with my parents’ home and I live in the Philippines. For Westerners, it may seem weird for a fully grown adult to not have moved out of their parents’ house. However, in countries like in the Philippines, it’s perfectly reasonable. I mean, cultures are just different and families where I come from just have the natural tendency to never really move out.

While this is nice and all, this does cause lead to some problems as I don’t control a lot of stuff in my house, such as how the Internet is laid out. This means I’m basically reliant on my home’s WiFi connection to play online games. Technically, I could get a super long Ethernet cable and connect directly to the home WiFi router all the way to my room. The problem is the router is on the ground floor and my room is on the opposite side of the house… on the second floor! I guess I could drill holes in the walls and floors of the house… Oh, wait. I can’t because I already asked if I could and my parents told me no. So, that’s out of the question. Sad, really, because, from what I know, Ethernet cables can span something like 100 meters and not really lose quality. Doesn’t matter, though, because I can’t dangle wires on the ceiling of my home, I guess.

I even thought of bringing my computer from my room and into the room where the router is so I could get a wired connection. However, that didn’t sit right with me. Right now, I partially work from home for a client who follows UK time. This has me on shift starting around 4PM local time up until 1AM the next day. This does mean I only get to play Street Fighter VI at the ungodly hour of 4AM! My room is pretty soundproof so I can blast my games at a fairly loud volume. If I transfer the computer downstairs, I can’t do that and, no. I detest playing with a headset. It just doesn’t feel right to me. Also, I don’t want to keep shlepping my computer from downstairs to my room when I want to work on my job! I want my privacy!

Having to play at 4AM also isn’t that contusive for getting better at Street Fighter VI because there aren’t that many players going online at that time since most people are sleeping sounding like they should be! So, getting into a Ranked match can take a while. There are times when I would go 10 minutes without getting connected to another player. Before you even say it, yes, I have expanded my Ranked matchmaking search to the Worldwide setting, the connection option to 2 to 5 range as well as enable Crossplay. I should be getting matches out of my ear but, even with the Worldwide setting active, I’m not. I guess Capcom will still try to search locally before trying to expand the search worldwide despite the selection?

I can’t completely blame Capcom for this, however, as I’m betting the biggest contributor to the low rate of Ranked matches I get is because they do see the little WiFi icon when I do get a match. Street Fighter VI gives players the option to choose if they want to enter a Ranked match when they do get paired up with another player. I do think other players see the WiFi icon I have on my end and quickly bugger out.

Now, I have tried a trick which will fool your computer into showing it’s on a LAN connection despite actually being on WiFi and it does work. However, I didn’t see an increase in the number of Ranked matches I got, as in people were still opting out of the match before it starts, because I do think it shows something like a 3 to 4 bar connection. Well, I guess people are incredibly picky about their connection speeds and nothing less than an almost perfect 5 bar connection will do! That’s because we all know that’s the reason why we all lose: poor connection speeds and not a lack of skill.

The weirdest thing is I used to get connected to a lot of Ranked matches early on. It only started to peter out once I started getting to the upper Platinum ranks and the lower Diamond ranks. Yes, I am actually a 2-Star Diamond Rank with Dee Jay and 1-Star ranked with some other characters now, which is why I thought I could get to Master rank at the start of the year! However, it seems like, once you get to the higher ranks, most Street Fighter VI players don’t want to risk their MR points unless you’ve got a near-perfect connection! To test this theory, I did try leveling up one of my Gold ranked characters, Blanka, a few week ago and I was getting into Ranked matches left and right! It was only when I got my Blanka to 4-Star Platinum when I noticed a solid drop of the number of Ranked matches I was getting.

However, after all of this bellyaching, I do know the biggest reason why I’m never reaching Master rank in Street Fighter is because, simply put, I don’t have the skills to be a Master rank player! Getting to Diamond rank was kind of easy but actually putting in the necessary time and effort to up my skills to a Master rank player? I don’t think I’m there yet. I have tried facing off against some Master rank players in the Battle Hub and I’ve beaten some of them and even gave them a run for their money, I will still lose to most of them. I still struggle against facing the upper Diamond rank players in the Battle Hub as well.

I guess if I wanted to get my skills to Master rank, I could. I still need to work on countering players who do a lot of Drive Rush mixups. Heck, I still have trouble figuring out when is the proper time to do a raw Drive Rush myself, let alone counter them! I still have the newbie tendency to throw in a Drive Impact when it’s the most obvious time to do a Drive Impact, leading to myself getting countered with their Drive Impact. I also need to hone my skills in reacting to Drive Impact attacks myself! So, yeah. If I can’t take on these rather basic stuff, then I don’t think I’m ready for Master rank yet.

If I really wanted to, I guess I could grind it out and spend more time practicing my Street Fighter VI skills. I could find a workaround to get a really good Internet connection for my room. However, that doesn’t seem that important to me right now. Right now, I’m just having a lot of fun enjoying the game. Having to spend every waking moment trying to improve my Drive Rush combos or my Drive Impact reactions seems more like work than fun. I’m actually okay spending the 2 hours of Street Fighter VI gameplay time I have running around the Battle Hub and hopping onto cabinets to face off against other players. So, why should I get stressed out about getting to Master rank when the idea of doing so feels like it’s not worth it? Call it sour grapes but I’m just being honest with myself. I’m not going to reach the Master rank and that’s A-OK with me.

Byee!

What rank are you in Street Fighter VI? Better question: what New Year’s Resolution have you broken so far? Let me know in the comments section below!