Thanks to the new local blood, this year just might manage to beat any love for Street Fighter out of me after all.
Been awhile. It's not that I haven't been playing or developing my game, it's just more that I've had a lot to think of in the wake of the videos ShenlongBo and I released in the last post.
Part of my self-imposed training regimen has been reading David Sirlin's book, Playing To Win. I've assessed all of the playstyles and philosophies he presented from a wide array of players, and decided (as per two posts ago) that Sirlin's own style speaks to me quite a bit - at your best, it gives you a very high chance of winning against anybody who is simply less patient than you. As such, I decided to reinvent myself as a defense-first, "test the opponent before fighting them" type of player.
A week later, I blogged with 16 videos featuring me as a maniacal (and only moderately successful) predator.
I started to speculate that maybe a playstyle is a microcosm of one's own core personality. "I am an angry person. Therefore, I play in an angry way." I tossed this idea around with Shen for quite awhile, and everything seemed to come back to the very reason I arrived at the screen name you all know me by.
I've presented a few explanations over the years as to how the name "DarkCatalyst" came about. There are elements of truth to all of them, but what really made the decision for me was something much more simple. Batteries run off of both positive and negative energy, and around the span from 01-02 when I started the transition to the DarkCatalyst username, I had a pretty solid mastery over the negative stuff. A side effect has been a subconscious partial acceptance of a mentality I've always rejected both philosophically and as a matter of principle. That being, Jeff "LAAkuma" Schaefer's approach that says the opponent is seriously the enemy. Hate them. Make them hate you. If you're miserable, make them more so. It goes against everything I personally believe in, actively antagonizing opponents and bringing deep negative emotions into the game.
If that's true, then evolving my playstyle will involve a lot more than just practice. In order for me, Patrick Mifflin, to continue playing, my gaming personality, DarkCatalyst, would have to go.
That's one possibility.
There's little doubt that Utah's top player, when he's motivated and available, is Ernie Thompson. I've known the guy for about seven years now, and over those years, I've played many matches against him in many games, typically with Ernie coming out on top. I have never gotten past him in a tournament bracket. Particularly during the infancy of the local resurgence, from 2002 to the pre-Evo battle in 2005, Ernie set a gold standard for the rest of Team Utah to follow, and none of us really have any idea just how he got that good. In Tony "Jaded Perspective" Stockseth's words, "A lot of us may be making strides, but Ernie knows how to fly."
Prior to Evo 2003, I was talking with Ernie about playstyles, particularly in the context of the Utah community. I'm seriously paraphrasing here, as I can't quote him word for word after all this time. Ernie told me, "A lot of these guys, they're really balanced players. They're at least solid in just about any situation. You and I, on the other hand, we're headhunters. We're always focused on how to rip another chunk out of the other guy's lifebar, even when they're throwing their whole meter at us. But that's okay, because we make it work and still translate it into wins."
Thinking back on it now, I'm starting to wonder if playstyles aren't so much learned as they are psychologically pre-determined. I can play Sirlin's way, holding people off with "test situations" before they're able to actually fight me (although having been hit with a few of Sirlin's brick walls, I've got a long way to go before I can present anything that difficult to get around), and I've found quite a bit of success doing that. Still, when I'm presented a matchup against someone who actually knows me, like Shen, the predator emerges automatically.
Could it be that people like Ernie and myself, perhaps even going all the way up to the ultimate predator, Alex Valle, are just "wired" to play that way? I admit, after this last set against Shen (during which the now infamous "Epic" bout was played), I'm feeling a lot more comfortable in my own skin as an offense-oriented player. Or is it possible that I can have my cake and eat it too? Is it possible that I could somehow Bruce Lee everyone's methods that I like into something of my own while still keeping it inwardly organized and playable? Maybe I've just assimilated a defensive element into my game, and everything else just needs a little fine-tuning?
This is going to be an interesting few months for me...
Age-sensitive for ShenlongBo's potty mouth. 
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