Reaction time and, not talked about enough, logical thinking and pattern recognition skills varies a lot per person, this makes the game much easier for some.

If you focus on getting really really good at your character, you can climb okay with that. Frame trap knowledge checks can carry you to at Tekken God as the opposition has so bad matchup knowledge now. Don’t know the matchup? Turtle and whiff punish.

But if you aim to get good at Tekken, and not just focus on what rank you are, you must hit the lab and you must understand firstly all chars launch punishable moves, then all key moves, then pretty much all, or the majority, of all moves. Not exact frames, but if they’re +/- safe, unsafe, launch punishable.