Would You Rather Have Luck Or Skill?
Aris ON Monday, December 27, 2010 at 11:38AM 
I was watching this video on YouTube earlier and it got me thinking, during a tournament, would I rather have luck on my side or would I prefer to just be playing at my highest potential? It's hard to deny that though small, luck does play a role in everything including fighting games. Personally I think a lot of shit gets chalked up as luck but without the quick reactions of the player or person, that lucky moment would have never taken place.
In the vid below you will see several people narrowly escaping fucked up situations with their lives. While you watch it, think about how many of these situations were actually luck VS. a display of skill and reaction times. I think you will be surprised.
So I guess the answer to the question, both. You need luck to give you the opportunity to display your skills. These two things work together to give us fighting game moments that will live on forever.
Reader Comments (21)
i would love to have luck on my side, i mean skill is something that comes natural with Experience...well i would guess so. but luck is always that Random Variable that is incalculable. so having more luck on your side would tip things in your favor sort to speak.
Skill if I absolutely have to choose one of them. It's something you can actually work on, and is far more reliable than something as random as luck.
Skill!
Id rather be called a skillful bastard than a lucky one.
"Personally I think a lot of shit gets chalked up as luck but without the quick reactions of the player or person, that lucky moment would have never taken place"
Yep i agree man, thats what i always say to my brother and other players, we all really have to think about it when we say the word "luck". And that thing we all call luck happen coz something occured beforehand. so is it really luck? and what actually makes luck?. so yeah, interesting topic.
I dnt know if luck even exists, i think its something we all just say so i won't pick that.
LOL great vid... a lot of those motorcycle clips i'd have to say were skill...
Luck is 1 of my skills.
For me I'd rather have luck in a tournament setting. I know it takes a bit of both to make it far, but the thought of getting top 3 because one players stick malfunctioned, the other had to take a shit mid match and high tailed it to the bathroom or something like that is far more entertaining to me.
You forgot the third which is divine intervention. There are some things luck, skill, or science can not explain. If I played Tekken versus the Devil himself for my very soul. I would rather have divine intervention over my minuscule years of life experience or some random variable.
I got pretty lucky at ncr once where I got eliminated in cvs2, but the girl who beat me had to go so they let me take her spot. very lucky to go three and out lol who else has that kind of luck
Skill simply as that
Oh this is an easy one. I'd rather play at my highest potential. The challenge is overcoming that fear of tournament nerves in my opinion. I guess luck plays apart in this area too. But I'd choose skill.
@ Aris - I've always thought that you needed both to do well in tournament. Even when you make a "lucky guess," you at least had to have SOMEthing to go on to make that guess. You have to put yourself in that situation and at least throw out that educated guess.
I've always thought of competitive Tekken like "Texas Hold 'em" poker... The best players at a table are going to consistently outplay those at the table who aren't as good, but luck is always there on the river card. That river card is the same as hitting a launcher when it "shouldn't" hit, or interrupting something with a throw without planning to so the opponent doesn't break it on reaction.
Is it skillful that your high attack magically pulls me out of a high crushing move or is it lucky?
luck.
You can always train a skill.
wll playing with ling i believe i have much luck on my side besides my skill =D
I have no luck, so to me, there is no such word or thing. Luck is something everyone but me has. So I would say that I would rather rely on my skill because luck has never been a factor in any of my matches. At least that's what I think.
Luck, because skill can be obtained. In the word's of Dominic Toretto, "Winnings winning" so even if its all luck, its fine by me.
Skill..because luck can come to you, when you least expect it I guess.
Luck is just probability taken personal