So.. I finally pulled the trigger and attempted a speed run.

I feel it's an unusual one, but I'm working to do Clayfighter Tournament Edition on SNES on Hard.

It's only 11 different fights.. I get to the 5th or 6th one and choke every time. I feel I was making good times, not record breaking.. Never could get past those 2. I'm just looking to place on the board since it only has 1 run.

I have a question in all this.. how much practice goes into your runs?

I feel I'm not doing so bad right now.. I just have to get over the half way mark. I put in over 30-40 tries tonight. It got so bad that I was dying on the first person.. I'll try again tomorrow and see what happens!

From my limited experience I think it's best to try and finish the run a few times no matter what. You don't care about the time a first, it's gonna be far off for a few runs, or even a lot of runs if the game is demanding. Focus on learning the route/techniques/... along the way without aiming for a specific time. Then with repetition PBs will follow, and you can focus on where / what causes trouble, time loss.

For fighting games, my early attempts are practice.

I usually do a bit of research, choose a character or characters I think might work and map out what attacks and chains are most efficient to use if frame data exists. Then I do some in game testing just to make sure that the data is correct, and that my strategy would work. After that, it's just attempt after attempt after attempt until I get it right. I don't reset, no matter what the time says initially. Occasionally if I find I don't like the current strategy for an opponent or it's just not working as intended, I'll purposefully lose rounds to have more practice. I could save state in an emulator on that particular fight and practice that way, but I find that it's usually more variable if I don't do that. I end up learning more about the AI patterns, and that's really what it's about in the end: gaming the AI.

Usually takes me about 50 to 100 attempts to figure things out, but keep in mind, some of these games I've been playing for close to 20 years, so mileage may vary. Sounds like you're doing fine, IMHO.

I have more experience with vanilla Clayfighter. I have never actually played TE .. but I 'think' the AI works the same? At least it looks like it does from watching the run.

Theres 2 things you have to be aware of:

1. The enemies will consistently jump over towards you from about 2-3 "body spaces away", they will be completely open just before they land. Just make sure begin going for the hit-mashing then. If they begin to block .. back off and try to trigger the same jump again and counter them again.

2. The "catchup AI" is horrendously overpowered. Once you have them down to around 30-40% hp or lower, they will go into a really aggressive AI state which can be downright unfair. You really need to be watching for when it starts, I would handle this differently with Blob in Vanilla Clayfighter by switching to his sweep moves which often countered it. I'm not sure what the best option is for Icky other than just laying down the hit-strings so they can't break free.

Much as @Krayzar said, you really want to keep retrying many things until you find your footing for when/how to trigger the jump over and when/how to counter the catchup AI.

I also want to reiterate what @Nariom said too. Continues are allowed in the run and it doesn't matter if your run is a second, a minute, or an hour away from the WR. Just doing whatever it takes to get that first run up - no matter how good/bad - does wonders in pushing you to get better. If your first successful run is bad, then think how easy it is going to be to PB it! Don't worry about being good, just worry about being better than your last run.

pretty much what tenka and Krayzar said. just keep at it and even if u have to continue, finish the run. Get that experience and knowledge of what the later fighters are like and understand there patterns. could even try on a lower difficulty as the fighters are almost the same except they don't fight back as much but still kill ya as quick when they do. with enough practice u will be getting dem runs in no time.check out other runners on the board on medium. there are different strats being used or come up with one on your own. whatever u feel comfortable with. fine something that fits u and later if u want go with WR strats. Never know u could fine something that is faster than the current. GL :)