actually booted street fighter 6 up today, lots of slapping around in silver rank. i think i went with a positive record but i wish i coulda had more luck hitting my training mode tech in actual matches.
it makes sense i didn't, though, since i started learning that stuff today. ftr, it's really simple stuff - a very simple juri combo in [sMP, cMP, M.Fuha], followed up by a dash and a meaty sMP. in theory, against people who just mash on wakeup (many such cases in silver), i could loop this forever, but i keep dropping the links. i know the combo is very easy, though, so it's just a matter of a couple of days of practice.
execution aside, i think my mental game has been a lot better. it's kind of funny it took 2+ years but i finally think i have a grasp of the flow of a match/of offense that makes sense to me, ideas of what i want to do to have advantage beyond "hit bigger buttons more to make enemy hp go down".
silver rank is a wonderful mixed bag where some guys are definitely just on their way up to ~platinum and other guys are ryus who will round start backjump and keep doing it until they put themselves in the corner for me. i appreciate the ability to look at a player's profile after a match to see that they've played way more than me and so it was reasonable that i'd lose.