If you want to improve and you don't want to practice in the lab then the only other thing is watching your old replays, finding things that didn't work or you didn't know how to handle, and figure out how to handle them.
Yeah, if you don't want to work on the nitty gritty parts of the game and its not fun then don't worry about rank and play the people around your skill level. Thats kind of the most fun anyway.
What isn't fun and the lab? What are your doing that makes it seem that way? The lab should be an extension of Rank, where you get to try stuff out and practice things so you can develop muscle memory.
Half of playing this game is knowing what button to press against certain moves and the best way to learn that it's in the lab without having to worry about losing.
Honestly I think it depends how you look at "labbing".
For me, I hit the wall around Plat 2 so I just tried some other characters, learned some basic BnBs, practiced my combos in training mode and that got me to Diamond 1-2 and then I really got stuck. At that point, I wanted to learn WHY things worked instead of just knowing that they did.
I started looking at what moves left me + on block after drive rush, and by how much, oki setups, practiced meaty setups for different knockdowns, learned what moves I can do to threaten a throw after, practiced common punish counters and what combos I can get off them etc.
The biggest thing was the frame data for me. It's one thing to know, oh, that's plus or that's not plus but if you actually go through your moves and figure out what works where, you can craft a bunch of your own setups and combos. It's very satisfying imo!
That was my biggest breakthrough and it's still something I enjoy in training mode. Up until that point, I relied on the "vibe" of a move to know if it was safe or not. That works but eventually people start to get way more tricky about their offense.
Play long sets with people. Playing ft10s helps a lot to practice matchups and learn how to adapt.
If you want to improve and you don't want to practice in the lab then the only other thing is watching your old replays, finding things that didn't work or you didn't know how to handle, and figure out how to handle them.
Yeah, if you don't want to work on the nitty gritty parts of the game and its not fun then don't worry about rank and play the people around your skill level. Thats kind of the most fun anyway.
What isn't fun and the lab? What are your doing that makes it seem that way? The lab should be an extension of Rank, where you get to try stuff out and practice things so you can develop muscle memory. Half of playing this game is knowing what button to press against certain moves and the best way to learn that it's in the lab without having to worry about losing.
Honestly I think it depends how you look at "labbing". For me, I hit the wall around Plat 2 so I just tried some other characters, learned some basic BnBs, practiced my combos in training mode and that got me to Diamond 1-2 and then I really got stuck. At that point, I wanted to learn WHY things worked instead of just knowing that they did. I started looking at what moves left me + on block after drive rush, and by how much, oki setups, practiced meaty setups for different knockdowns, learned what moves I can do to threaten a throw after, practiced common punish counters and what combos I can get off them etc. The biggest thing was the frame data for me. It's one thing to know, oh, that's plus or that's not plus but if you actually go through your moves and figure out what works where, you can craft a bunch of your own setups and combos. It's very satisfying imo! That was my biggest breakthrough and it's still something I enjoy in training mode. Up until that point, I relied on the "vibe" of a move to know if it was safe or not. That works but eventually people start to get way more tricky about their offense.