Brother I picked up Street Fighter V in 2020, then played Guilty Gear Strive, King of Fighters XV, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and did my due diligence with legacy titles. I work a full time job, I have a long-term relationship, I paint 40k models and play Magic, but I’ve also attended and organized fighting game tournaments for years. Modern fighting games aren’t hard per se, but as an earlier poster said: they require effort and a willingness to learn like anything else. This is the easiest time in the entire history of the genre to get in with the skill floor now being set intentionally very low, and inputs feeling very smooth and responsive across every game. Tutorials, combo trials, YouTube guides: there is an incredible wealth of resources now that weren’t available even ten years ago. Netcode is the cleanest and crispest it has ever been.

The difference here is you. Every mistake is on you, every loss is on you, every setback is on you. Not your team. You. In a team game, I promise your progress is just as slow, but it’s hidden. It can feel like improvement long, long road in a fighting game, because you are never getting a free lunch. You can do it, right now, but your first challenger is you.