When players start venturing into the competitive side of fighting games, most people want to be like Alex Valle and “rush that shit down!” It’s no surprise; everyone wants to be the crowd-favorite daredevil destroying opponents in twenty seconds or less.

That plan works like a charm as long as you’re battling other risk-takers. Then you face your first seasoned defensive rival and it’s like running into a concrete wall. They’ll gradually slow down your game and eventually take away most of what you enjoy doing. When that begins happening on a regular basis, it’s easy to get discouraged.

To make matters worse, the reality is that some fighting games are defensive in nature. If you ever see a tier list with Vega, Honda, and Dhalsim at the top, it’s going to mean an uphill battle for aggressive specialists. Along with Guile and Sagat, these characters tend to have a strong influence in slowing down match pace.

However, the real problem is that many players are guilty of romanticizing the ideal. Let me tell you, nobody gets a clear path to becoming a top player. You will have to face a number of forks in the road where you have to decide if you’re willing to do what it takes to get to the next level. Street Fighter IV in particular seems to have evolved into a more zoning-oriented defensive game. Still, there are no realities in SF4 that are remotely as harsh as CvS2 or SFA3 or MvC2 any other bullshit-filled tournament title.

If you have a problem with being forced to turtle, then rush down! Yes it’s difficult. Yes you will lose a lot. Yes, even after you stop losing, you will still lose important matches that you know you could easily have won if you had simply played the clock. But that’s what it takes to be a rushdown player and that’s why they get all the glory. That’s also why they all tend to burn out and become increasingly defensive over time. Valle isn’t much of a rushdown player anymore either. It takes too much time and dedication and focus, and you have to know the game inside and out in order to beat someone who’s playing it safe and playing the odds.

Street Fighter, like most things in life, is all about finding the balance. It’s much easier if you let the game tell you how you’re supposed to play it. Yet the option to attack (and choose attacking characters regardless of their tier ranking) is always there.

If there was an ultimate secret technique scroll hidden away in the world of Street Fighter, it would read: “Nobody can stop you from walking forward without taking a risk.”

We’ll get into what that actually means as we delve into the mechanics of footsies in the coming months.

One final note: Even though i’ve always been a fan of the attacking West Coast style, i’d much rather watch a tournament match balanced between an aggressive player and a defensive player, over matches between two rushdown specialists. The true measure of an offensive powerhouse is the ability to overcome strong defenses. Both types of players are absolutely necessary for any regional community to stay competitive.