"One and Done" in ranked match is bad for your health and your self-esteem

You’ve just slipped out a narrow victory against a tough player in ranked match. “They’re good; let’s see how the next one goes!” But there is no next one. The player hit Quit as quickly as they could and returned to the ranked match pool, likely in search of an opponent they could defeat more easily. That’s what we call “One and Done” in online fighting games.

It’s been going on since online fighting games shifted to a tournament-style “set” format: players play to best of three full matches. This long-term model allows for an extended back-and-forth as players gradually learn each other’s style, make deeper reads on their moves, and develop adjustments and counter-measures on the fly. You’ve perhaps seen this recently at Evo; even as a spectator it’s often very clear to see.

Fighting games are about communication, and if the single arcade skirmish is a quick chat, the long set is a conversation.

https://www.twitch.tv/sajam/clip/FrailMoistHerringSwiftRage-qSW7ooO5bEwxm6nS

(Is Substack not properly embedding things? This is a clip of popular streamer and commentator Sajam calling up a friend who one-and-doned him.)

Pulling the one and done cuts all that off, and a lot of players consider it a bit rude to leave after the first game, win or lose. It doesn’t bug me personally; I just take it as a surrender. (Even if they won.)

But if you do one and done in ranked match, I want to let you know it’s bad for you. As a competitor. It’s weak mindset that poisons your game and your potential.

I’m not a competitor!

That’s fine, but you’re on ranked match. If you didn’t care about winning and ranking at all, you’d be in casual matches or the Battle Hub. Plenty of strong players never even touch ranked matches because they don’t care about rank. But you’re in ranked because somewhere in you, you want to prove your worth— by way of your rank-- and get better. Ranked match is a training tool to help players learn to win consistently. You are already a competitor; it is only a question of whether you want to commit to losing as one.

I’m trying to save my points!

Ah, the coward’s game. This is the one and doner we see the most. Ranked points aren’t an RPG experience level that just goes higher and higher forever. They’re intended to mark roughly where you’re at in your overall journey as a player. The journey will necessarily have ups and downs as you fail and learn and improve. Rank points are a tool, not the goal in and of themselves.

To aim to simply amass ranked points at all costs, while avoiding the possibility of defeat as much as possible, is not only pointless but counterproductive.1 You’re raising a number on the screen at the cost of denying yourself the actual play experience which is the true purpose of ranked match. If you only ever fight battles you’re already confident you can win, you will never have to improve. Your play will stagnate.

Plus, if you’re not taking your lumps, your rank isn’t really accurate compared to players who do. You’re being placed against players who are stronger than you are, and they’ll notice. It’s obvious to most of your peers when they fight you that you’re not as strong as your rank indicates you’d be.

When I fight a player like this in ranked match, whose skill is way out of whack with the stars I see by their name, I assume they will one and done me. I’m usually right.

I’d just lose the next one anyway!

If you’re saying this about yourself, you’ve already lost. I don’t care if you’re up against Justin and Daigo at the same time: You must never think like this. The first, foundational step is having the will to win and the intention to make it happen. You lack that, you’re hollow. You’ll give it away to someone who wants to win.

Mindset is so important in competition; mental strength is a real thing. If, when things get bad, you start thinking that it’s already over, try to start thinking about how you can turn it around instead. Even if you do lose, positive thinking is always better.

Some of the most crucial moments you will have as a player are when you are up against the wall and have to come up with new ideas to squeeze out a victory. No matter what your skill level is, don’t hold yourself back by putting yourself down.

I deserve a better rank than this!

I figured I’d cover overconfidence as well as low confidence.

We all have our own images of ourselves; they don’t necessarily match up with reality and it can hurt to have to look straight into the mirror. That’s just as true in video games— a medium where most games are designed to tell you you’re an invincible, flawless, incredibly attractive demigod— as it is everywhere else. Hard results can be frustrating. Ranked match can be frustrating. But you have only ever earned the result you see in front of you.

Avoid creating excuses and doing mental gymnastics to say you should really be a rank up from where you are, or people at higher ranks just got lucky. Concentrate on practicing and improving; when you feel breakthroughs in your play you’ll start winning more, and then you’ll make breakthroughs in your rank.

Try not to allow your ranked results to affect how you feel about yourself as a player, and definitely don’t look at your rank relative to others; look at your progress relative to yourself, cause you’re not them. I play online Japanese mahjong, home of the most emotionally damaging ranked grind in existence.2 It has given me the gift of acceptance and the mental fortitude to leave the losses in the past.3

That character is bullshit!

Man, you know how many characters are bullshit? I sincerely believe that Happy Chaos in Guilty Gear Strive was a design mistake. You ever see Arakune in Blazblue? But if you’re just talking about SF6, the character probably isn’t even that bullshit.

The thing about playing a game competitively is that it doesn’t even matter if the character is bullshit, S-tier or god mode. All balance debates aside, that character you hate fighting is not going anywhere, and as a competitive player your job is to figure out how to beat them.

A Diamond-rank player who runs away from JP every time is just a player who will always lose to JP, forever. They should be running to JP, to guides, to resources and to matches so that they can learn and master their options in that matchup. That’s how you get better. Going no further than complaining on Discord about it, on the other hand, is how you stay bad.

Every excuse to one-and-done is self-sabotage, and you can do better. Run the set.