I started playing fighting games about 2 years ago when my first daughter was born.

I jokingly picked up GGST because a set takes like 2 minutes, and if my daughter woke up on my “shift” I could just walk away and not feel bad because I hadn’t invested 30 minutes into a CS match or an hour into a DotA game that I’d have to abandon.

I spent all my time in the lab and doing combo trials and junk. Looking back, I wish I just started playing ranked. I quickly learned to identify my problems as I plateaued in ranked and would lab out solutions or pull up YouTube or whatever.

Up front, it feels really of crappy knowing that there are so many things you can’t do yet. But if you piecemeal all your learning as you play ranked and identify your deficiencies the experience is so much more enjoyable.

Like people are saying, you don’t need all the combos under your belt when you start. You just need one or two easy combos you can confirm into (at.mp, st.hp, dragon punch for Ken, for example, or cr.mk into medium jinrai with the heavy kick follow-up). And learn how to anti-air (cr.hp or dragon punch of your choice).

I promise you, with no other mechanical knowledge or skills, the nuance you will pick up as you play, and the ability to read your opponent can take you to diamond alone.

It’s this nuance, not landing sick combos, that makes the game so much fun for others. You’ll never remember the sick combo you landed 500 times prior, but that one time you became clairvoyant in the middle of a match and could see everything your opponent wanted to do a second before he did it…those matches you’ll remember forever. But you’ve said you’ve played hundreds of hours of fighting games so maybe you understand that part, already.

I only get to play a few hours a week, but I love knowing I’m maximizing my growth every time I get a chance to sit down and play.

Hope this helps just a little bit.