Because I play the game differently than you, you deem me as lesser, which is just ignorant imo. That's the weird thing about players such as yourself. If people don't play by your rules, you hold a grudge. You build such anger and resentment towards someone without even knowing who they are. You're basically judging me as a human based on the way that I decide to play a video game, which is a little bizarre and immature tbh. When I play Lockdown, I just try to bait people into doing exactly what you said, to waste their time on me. I'm trying to stall so that my comrades can support me or capture. That's my playstyle. You're a player who only wants huge damage, so maybe you just can't comprehend such tactics because you're obsessed with your rules and don't want to see any other method.

We've spoken in-game before about it and you claimed to have been someone who I don't think you actually are. I've seen how much of a bully you are to people and people like that usually aren't what you claimed to be in real life. You actually display characteristics of someone who is introverted and outcasted. Even though life might not be how you want it right now, you don't have to lash out at others, my friend. You have time to be a better person still (considering the way you behave, I'm assuming you're quite young). There's no reason to have so much hate in your heart. If you've been hurt in the past, let me know about it, man. I'd love to help you cope with your inner demons.

EDIT:
A few genuine questions I have for you if none of the above apply.
Others are welcome to give their answers too, if you're brave enough.

- Why do you feel the need to hurt people? Does it give you personal satisfaction? If so, how come? What do you gain from putting others down? How do you feel after you know that you have hurt someone who is innocent?

- If your life is great, why would you have a need to bring down others? Most people with high qualities of life have no need to harm people who are less fortunate. Occasionally, privileged young people want to see things in pain for reasons that are unknown to me. If you fall into this category, I'm genuinely curious as to why.

- Does a sense of superiority in the game give you a sense of worth in reality? In your eyes, does the quality of one's skills in video games equate to their humanly worth? If so, why? If there is a man who is incredibly skilled at SK but freeloads his way through life and another man who is unskilled at SK but is highly successful in life, which one do you think is more valuable?

- How come someone's ability in the game matters so much to you? Does it really matter? If your mother or father played the game and were bad, would you resent them? If they played in a fashion that was against your beliefs, would you cast them away? Why is there a distinction if you intend to harm people who go against your beliefs anyways?

I'm not solely trying to annoy people, I'm trying to win my games and improve myself as a player by refining that style. I enjoy dodging stuff and admire defensive play in all genres of gaming. Again, just because I play differently than people want me to play, I am being attacked. I don't find that very fair, as you all are limiting me because of your inability to kill me as easily as you want. Now, I'm not saying I'm spectacular at this game, but I do think I'm good at what I do. There are plenty of players who shut me down fairly easily (Elk, Ezho, Son, Name, etc). If they can do it with ease, I expect others to be able to do the same. Like I said previously, people only think they can't do it, but they really can if they just stop giving up.

As for the spirit of competition, what I am doing is literally exactly what these players who think this game is a competition are looking for; I'm forcing them to adapt. A competition isn't a place that you come to to relax and follow the flow chart. You enter a competition to test your mettle against others. Everyone will have different styles, be it offensive or defensive. It's up to you as a competitor to overcome the obstacle in front of you and win. Anyone who has been a part of a sports team (or gaming team for that matter) would understand these concepts. It wouldn't be a competition if it was easy.

EDIT: I misinterpreted the last bit of your post, so apologies, but I'll keep this last bit here anyways.

@Neb: I can understand the sentiment of nurturing the new generation. Admittedly, that's something that I have a bad time doing since I'm so adjusted to my style that playing any other way is almost impossible. I do try my best to give proper advice to players when they PM me, however, it doesn't really help that much since the way I see the game is way different than how everyone else sees it; most just want to kill things fast. Hell, I even leave games once all the good players leave so the others can enjoy themselves. I'm not as heartless as I play, believe it or not. I only play hard when I'm faced against others who I think are very strong. That's when things are most enjoyable for me.

Like I said before, I come from a competitive gaming background, primarily in fighting games such as SFIV/UMVC3/SFV, as well as Melee and a little bit of Brawl. Back in my day, if you were bad, you either gave up and quit for good or you learned from your beatings and became better. This was back in 2005. I never got the sugarcoating treatment. Top players in my region beat me down without remorse til I couldn't stand up anymore. I had to go to the lab and figure things out on my own, and to be honest, it built up my work ethic as a human being. That's how I learned growing up, pretty much throughout my entire life. Maybe I'm just used to the old ways of learning the hard way and this generation is just soft. I dunno. I'm pretty dang old compared to most of you guys (at least 10 years older than your typical player). I think the changing times just made people expect a lot for less work.

Anyways, my point is, if people don't have the determination and drive to become better, then they can just stay at their level. They don't need to be good if they don't wanna and that's perfectly fine. To say that we have to lower ourselves so that they stand a fighting chance is an insult to them tbh. You can't build someone's heart and will power, they have to already have it.

And for the record, I was not comparing this game to Smash. I was saying that my background makes me see things differently. Any fighting game or Smash game has more depth than this game will ever have. There's no argument and both of us know this.

@Chasern: I just built this thread because I've been spectating games over the past few months, as well as played in many of them, and noticed that people are being nastier than normal. Believe me, I know about the latency thing. I have pretty decent latency (about ~70 most times). I feel sympathetic for the players who play under crappy conditions, but the fact of the matter is that they signed up for this. Everyone who registers to play Lockdown knows what they're getting themselves into. I was out of line when I compared a >100 ping player to those single digit pingers. I apologize for that. However, I do expect players with less than exceptional conditions to have the mind to figure out battle strategies to cope with their environment.

You wanna know why I run and gun? It's because I played against Ez/Sky/Remet/etc so much back in the day that I developed strategies for survival. During those times, I played on a potato PC and played with >100 ping. I had to deviate from the norm (Slash And Pray) so that I could evolve as a player. I thought outside the box to counter my difficult environment and I became good at doing what I do. The main problem I see with a lot of players is that they aren't even trying to change their ways, if they're losing. They try the same tactics over and over again and wonder why nothing is changing. Retreat is never an option in their minds and neither is deviating from the golden standard of this game - swords only. People seem to think that running away from a fight to gain better positioning or to bait is against the rules. People are too fixated on what is socially acceptable and stagnate as a result.

I have sympathy for the high ping players who make up the majority, but if they aren't even going to adapt, then that's not my problem anymore. If people have enough time to sit around and complain about their abilities, they have the time to develop them too.

This thread has derailed and for that, I apologize. This thread was designed so that people could remember to have respect for each other because creating hatred over something so petty is bad for the soul. We should all try our best to have better sportsmanship. Whether you win or lose, remember to have respect for others. There is literally no purpose to hurting another over something like a game.

@Neb: The problem with your logic is that you're telling me to lower my quality of life so that others can feel better about themselves. That's unfair and you know it. Floyd Mayweather was the greatest defensive boxer of all time, possibly the greatest boxer period. The masses hated how he fought because he didn't meet their expectations of what a boxer should be. They failed to understand his genius. He didn't change because what he was doing was effective. Hungrybox in Melee is one of the smartest players that ever picked up a controller. He's also one of the most defensive ones. A lot of lesser players ostracize him because they can't comprehend just how incredibly difficult it is to do what he does. He's literally the only player who can do it for a reason. Chris G, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3's previous EVO Champion and debatably the greatest UMVC3 player alive, just shoots fireballs with Morrigan all day. To a normal, inexperienced player, he's just abusing overpowered tactics and is being "cheap" because what he does doesn't allow others to get near him. People give him flack because what he does is considered "lame." That said, nobody can do it like him. Nobody can place moves as intelligently or have the foresight that he has with his squad.

If these three people played, for lack of a better word, "fairly," they would not have had as much success because this is who they built themselves to be. Tell Floyd to fight like Pacman and he would have no legacy. Tell Hungrybox to play aggressive Puff and he would never break Top 8. Tell Chris G to stop shooting fireballs and he wouldn't have reigned with an iron fist. In your eyes, should these people have changed their ways to meet your criteria of what a proper "athlete" should be?

What you're telling me is to change my way of life to satisfy your ideal. You only want others to play by your rules. Once these arbitrary set of rules are broken, the only thing you can do is to ask for some mercy? That's not how a fighter should approach things. If you run into an obstacle in life, you aren't going to get to run to your mom and dad for help every time. You have to face it head-on to move forward with life. If you're struggling with school, you can't ask the teacher to change their methods or to make the curriculum easier. If your job is beating you down, you don't ask if you can have your workload lessened cuz you can't handle it. You have to face your problems head-on because things don't go away because you want them to.

Despite you being shady towards me over the past year or so (I still don't know why as you have seen that I am a relatively friendly person outside of Lockdown), I have some respect for you, Neb. You seem to have good intentions, but an unexplored outlook on how things actually work on this world. The honest truth is that I don't mean to do harm, people just interpret it as such.

@Leekcoco: This thread was created to remind people to be friendly to their fellow man because they know nothing. There's no need to be so negative toward other people's decisions in life. We all are different and unique in our own special ways. Learning to accept how others decide to live their life is something that I'm trying to teach, albeit, in a small way through Spiral Knights. Often times, people judge others without seeing the big picture. They judge the book by it's cover, or the first few chapters in some cases. Because these individuals are different, a lot of people deem them as less. I don't think that's fair. People need to learn to be understanding rather than spiteful. I know the latter is easier because people seem to naturally want to feel hatred, but try to visualize the bigger picture one of these days. Realize that not everyone views this world the same way you do.

And it's a shame how this thread became. I should have posted on my alt to avoid all the drama, as players began to attack me instead of addressing the topic at hand. As a result, I had to defend myself, while also trying to reason with you people. Had an unknown knight made this thread instead, things could have been productive. You're all young, either in your teens or early to mid-20s. You'll come to understand given more time. You're not going to listen now though. You're still going to fight me, but you'll get it eventually. I believe in all of you.