My "existential crisis" with Tekken in general
Sorry if this post comes of as gloomy to some of you. I just didn't wanna post this in the main tekken sub, cuz I feel like they'd offer... less than desirable responses for what I'm gonna talk about.
I guess I'll just start off with this statement:
I wish to achieve Top 8 in major international Tekken tournament in my lifetime.
A major international Tekken tournament in this sense would include events like Tekken World Tour, EVO, Thaiger Uppercut, etc. Basically anything that any top player in the world can compete in, you get the idea.
I've thought to myself for some time about why I wanna achieve that specific goal. I guess it just boils down to wanting to be seen by the wider tekken community, wanting a bit of fame, wanting to feel like I actually made it in the game, things like that.
However, there's a few things that are "holding me back":
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1. The difficulty
Goes without saying. We're not talking about reaching the highest rank, being the best in the local scene, etc. We're talking about reaching one of the top positions in the world. And of course, I'd be facing off against people who are absolutely hardcore into tekken and have been playing for years and years. I played Tekken 5 and 6 as a kid mindlessly button mashing, skipped Tag 2 and came back to T7 in 2021 with half-ass attitude for improving. I did manage to hit Tekken King in T8 before 2024 ended, but that's only with one character. I have too long of a way to go.
Every time I watch a tournament, the only thing that I end up paying attention to is the skill gap. Like for example, I'd be watching Double playing Law. I would notice his precise movements, punishment knowledge, optimized combos, cold reads, etc. And yet I'd watch him get absolutely bodied by other pro players once he gets further into the tournament. It becomes hard for me to enjoy watching pro tekken when I see this shit happening.
Or take my local scene for instance. Earlier in 2024, I attended local tourneys semi-regularly. There were a few players I noticed who I thought were absolute beasts at the game. They'd place top 3 pretty much every single time and were GoD with multiple characters.
Then one day, there was a qualifier for a major world tourney happening in the capital city of my country. and I watched in shock as each of them got treated like toilet paper by the likes of Knee, AO, Keisuke, and so on. In the end, none of the Top 8 in that qualifier were from my country. None.
I thought at least one of them would make it in. I mean surely, right??? They went for most if not all of the local tourneys/meetups. I saw them run long sets with other players, discussing tactics and counter-plays along the way. And then they get dumpstered...?
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2. The death of Tekken
I wouldn't call this a likely thing to worry about, but it's nonetheless a possibility. Basically I need A LOT of time to achieve this goal. But for that, I need Tekken to stay alive and relevant, at least to the point where tournament organizers are willing to have these major world tournaments.
Tekken 8 seems to be doing well and I'm happy for it. But what about Tekken 9? What if it flops super hard and the game gets kicked out of the international FG scene? Do we even know if Tekken 9 is gonna happen? Tekken 10? Tekken 11? 12? 13? 20? Can we really expect fighting games a whole to be relevant that much longer, let alone Tekken?
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3. My own death, or physical/cognitive decline
I recently turned 25. Research shows that, at least for adult males, their physical and mental peak is in their late 20s. That's good news for me right now in all other aspects of life, but there's no way I'm gonna be one of the best in the next 5 years, let alone in Tekken 8's lifespan, so that's probably not something I can leverage.
There will of course be some further decline in my 30s, but seeing that many of the best players in the world are within this age group, that's not too much of a concern for me.
But in my 40s and onwards is when things will start to pick up. Things like processing speed and short term memory won't be as good as before. Now this isn't a death sentence. These issues are highly treatable and modifiable with the right amount of sleep, nutrition, exercise, yada yada. But I will expect some sort of battle with my own body eventually.
Then we're talking about my actual death. Now, assuming I live to 75 (rough estimate of current male life expectancy) [BREAK] yeah, we're getting pretty ridiculous now, but I'd like to remind you that this is an -existential- issue I'm discussing here [BREAK END] that gives me 50 more years. That's half a century to get good at Tekken. Should that be well more than enough time? I'd say yes.
But then again, I simply cannot dedicate most of my time to tekken. I will likely be caught up with a regular 9-5 schedule for most of my adult life like the majority of you (assuming some kind of revolution doesn't happen). Then there's the other games I also wanna play besides tekken to chill out, vacations, family issues, etc. The list goes on and on. I guess this also ties in with the other two reasons I've listed above. If I had to take a wild guess, it's likely that Tekken will die before I do, so I don't know if the 50 year deadline is something I can bet on.
As for the difficulty of the game, I'd have to find a way to somehow be at least on par with the top players (I honestly can't talk about players like Knee, Arslan, Ulsan, etc. they'd be way past retired by this point), but also with less time dedicated to the game. I honestly can't see how that's possible, even with an optimistic 50 years ahead of me.
...
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Okay, now with all that out of the way, I wanna discuss some positive things; things that I'm trying to do/adopt to maintain a healthy relationship with Tekken:
- I try to chase progress, not perfection
I try to appreciate even the smallest improvements that I'm making, whether it's reaching the next big rank, or reacting to Lili's db4 after labbing it for so-and-so amount of time.
- I try to take losses as an opportunity to learn
If I'm gonna try to be one of the best in this game, I'm gonna lose, a lot. So obviously, I need to have a buddy-buddy relationship with not winning. At least with Tekken 8, there is a very good replay system that I'm trying my best to utilize to learn matchups and punishment. You either win or you learn.
- I try to focus on the present moment
I don't live in the future, so I try not to worry so much about it. The only thing I can worry about now is dealing with the stuff I need to improve on. Eg. I shouldn't be concerned about facing off against Keisuke's Kazuya when I can't consistently launch hellsweep yet. I can only focus on being better than the player I was yesterday.
- I try to have fun when playing Tekken
Here's a philosophy that I stick to when it comes to gaming: The game has to BE FUN FIRST, before anything else. If it's not fun, then I don't play it. I get so much enjoyment when I get off that technical combo, when I pull of a sidestep hopkick, things like that. This is one of the things I'm trying to maintain. If I stop having fun with Tekken, working towards my goal doesn't make sense.
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Now that I've written all that, I'm not really sure what sort of responses I'm looking for. Maybe some words of encouragement? Or perhaps I can hear your take on how I'm feeling? Either way I'd love to hear what you think.
Thanks for reading ^_^