Written by Glenn | 06 July 2011

Ever watch someone get worked over in a match and wonder why he or she is so fast to get back into the next game? Even though it wasn't the same intensely, ultra competitive game that I cover on this site, I remember at Devastation 2009 losing a round in the Mario Kart Wii finals and pausing for a few moments wondering how unlucky I was. After some self reflection and tape adjustment (which gave me more time to reflect), I started the next race and won it, and the rest is history.

I had more than a minute to think about what happened in my loss and how I could prevent it from happening again. 

But what about fighting game competitors? Is it the same way? What goes on in their minds as they compete in championship matches or late-tournament matches that determine whether they get in the money?

The person that comes to mind immediately is retired Smash player DieSuperFly. It seemed like after any loss, no matter who it was to, he would immediately go back to that same stage with the same character and play even more aggressive than in the past round. It was strange because it only worked some of the time. In being more aggressive, he'd take the early lead, but the actual outcome was still in the air. 

Watching a lot of DSF matches over the years, I always wondered if he would change that mentality. He was already one of the greatest of all time, but would he be even better with some moments of self-reflection following a loss. We'll never know, now that he has retired.

I also remember East Coast (and sometimes West Coast) player Chu Dat walking around, talking to friends and staring into the ceiling after losses. A couple people told me he once went 30 minutes in between games, which is unreal.

Remember Justin Wong and Daigo Umehara during the Evolution 2009 championship match in Street Fighter IV? Both guys seemed to spend a lot of time in between their losses.

Think about how long you've spent in between games thinking about what just happened to you following a loss. Do you go back right away, or do you give yourself some moments?

I took a look at 84 random incidents in the Evolution 2011 circuit events just to see how time in between games affected the previous loser.

Full disclosure: I started the clock the moment players were able to start the next game or go to the character select screen, and the clock stopped once "Ready" showed up on the screen. Times were rounded up into whole numbers. If a player immediately went to the next game, that incident was counted as 1 second.

Overall, the 84 losers spent 9.17 seconds in between games. Out of those 84 incidents, the loser came back to win the next game only 27 times (.321).

Breaking it down by wins and losses, players that won the next game had only spent 6.78 seconds in between games of their previous loss. Players that lost the next game had spent 10.32 seconds.

Winter Brawl 5 was one of the tournaments I analyzed a little bit further. I captured 11 incidents, and the loser spent 17.45 seconds in between rounds. However, the number is high because of Ryan "Inthul" Burke. He was involved in six of these incidents and spent 25.17 seconds in between rounds, winning only one time.

At Final Round XIV, I captured 27 incidents. Losers spent 11.19 seconds in between games. Players that won the next game had spent 8.3 seconds in between games of their previous loss. Players that lost the next game had spent 12.88 seconds.

Here's a further breakdown by time:

Time	Incidents	Win %
1-3 seconds	45	.333
4-6 seconds	11	.636
7-10 seconds	9	.222
+10 seconds	19	.158

You might want to take a moment to think about your loss. Based on this, don't take that much time.