It's 2021. Street Fighter V has been out for five years, it's receiving its final season of content, and a sequel appears to be on the horizon. What is it like to enter its highly competitive scene in this environment? Is it populated mostly by veterans who will absolutely destroy you? Or is there a healthy base of beginners? Here's what I learned on my journey through the ranks.
For a little background, I'm not unfamiliar with fighting games. I've played plenty casually and got semi-serious about Dragon Ball FighterZ for a bit, but Street Fighter is a different beast. The unique combo timing and ground-based neutral game were foreign concepts to me. I had played it a bit on launch in 2016 but left due to not really understanding the game and a lack of content.
Credit to Capcom though, they have improved the game immensely since then. The new content and mechanics they've added have been stellar. Street Fighter V is in a great spot and the community is the happiest it has been with the game in a long while.
But what is it like to actually rank up in 2021? Well, the good news is that, according to data compiled by Reddit user LimitlessCSGOTV, more than half of the players are in Rookie or Bronze. These numbers include inactive users as well but the player base seems to be healthy.
