How to not get frustrated?

[meager karma]

I need to preface this with the fact that I have played a good bit of Rivals 1. Certainly not as much as others, but I'm a reasonably functional forsburn with 1600 hours in that game. I also want to note that in my past I've been a very angry individual, but I was pretty sure that I'd worked through that issue personally because I've not had a proper angry outburst in years.

Something about this game, rivals 2, makes me so, so angry when playing. It's a level of anger I've not felt in a very long time. I don't know what it is about this game, I'm thinking it's the multiple minutes I'll spend on a single stock just surviving and not getting much in (especially against fleet, clairen, and ranno. I'm ranked around 1050-1080 for reference) but I just kind of lose it in general playing this game. There are 2 fresh holes in my desk from where controller made relatively high-velocity impact, both followed by an extremely disrespectful alt+f4 on my part. Both of these holes have appeared since rivals 2 have come out, and have both been created following extreme frustration with this game. I am ashamed to say that I've rage quit plenty of other matches in this game without causing damage to my surroundings.

The issue is, I can't go back to rivals 1, a game where I feel like I have much more control, especially in disadvantage. The playerbase isn't there. All of my friends are labeled as having played "recently", and none within the last 2 weeks. I tried playing for a couple hours and could only find games in casuals, and they weren't even at all. It's not fun for me, and I doubt its fun for the other players.

I'm aware of the futility of my anger. It means nothing, this is just a video game. I don't know what to do about it, and I'm hoping someone here can offer advice.

[pastel dirge]

This may be cold comfort, but I can say for certain you are not alone LOL it feels like a ton of people get very frustrated trying to climb ranked in this game.

I'm not you, so I can only try to guess at the root cause of your anger. Only you can assess for yourself whether what I say rings true.

It sounds like you feel much more confident about the older game you've spent several hundred hours in, which makes perfect sense. Now you're having to play this sequel and feel totally lost.

Do you feel like you deserve to be ranked higher (or just be playing better) than you are right now, because you played well in the previous game? Ultimately, Rivals 2 is a different video game. You shouldn't expect everything you've learned to transfer, especially with how the disadvantage game has changed. Have you spent 1600 hours in Rivals 2?

There needs to be an acceptance first and foremost that the headstart from Rivals 1 isn't the end all be all for the sequel, and that's ok. There's more to learn.

Honestly, it might help at least a little to stop looking at the ELO (I know there's a mod going around that hides it for you). The mentality going forward should be less "what this player is doing to me is utter horseshit" (which is likely true but not helpful) and more "how do I actually deal with this horseshit". Then either try to figure it out yourself and adapt, or ask for help on how to deal with a specific scenario. Try to be concrete with what exactly you're dealing with; it should be a (potentially frustrating, but) fun puzzle to solve, not just bullshit to yell at.

[meager karma]

You're right. It is less of a rank thing but definitely the "what this player is doing" bit. Yes it feels good to have a higher rank, but I'd much rather just enjoy the game, which I'm finding very very hard to do.

I need to step back, and take the puzzle approach. I was able to do it in rivals 1, I can do it in rivals 2. The unfamiliar mechanics are definitely at play here because I don't fully understand how to use this game's mechanics to overcome the challenges presented. I'm still getting fucked up by the fact that I can just fall down, and the distinct lack of whiff lag. I keep expecting to be able to challenge some things that I can't, and missing opportunities to challenge things that I am able to, but don't appear to be challengeable.

A huge part of my issue is trying to play rivals 1, when this is not that game.

[pastel dirge]

Great! It sounds like you found at least one core issue, and there's an actionable plan to address it. I think simply treating this as a different game will take you far.

It's also possible you may come to the conclusion that you just don't like rivals 2 lmao, which is also fine imo. I know you were sad about the lack of players in the first game, but there are people in this server still pinging for R1 games, people actively looking to get better.

Regardless, I just also want to offer to you that you don't have to force yourself to play Rivals 2 if ultimately you can't enjoy it, even as you get better at it. There are other games, and other things in life.

[meager karma]

just wanted to update you on my frustration. I really appreciated your response, and I wanted to say that not even a week later I'm enjoying the game much more thoroughly. New mindset, new game, not the old one.

Your advice was very helpful in getting a grip on things and understanding the problem, that problem being that I wasn't open to trying to understand this game because I felt like I already understood it coming from rivals 1. Now I've taken the time to figure out what I'm missing in this game, what about my old muscle memory and expectations wasn't working, and start rebuilding those aspects of my play. Turns out this game is massively fun, and losing is also less frustrating because I'm not fighting the game anymore, just the other player.