Newer players, for the sake of your sanity, DO NOT start off playing online in "Rank Jump" mode

I'm a pretty good fighting game player and have been playing games online for years (MvC3, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, SFV). I hadn't played a whole lot of KoF but I have a reasonable understanding of the mechanics (watched all the Juicy Bits videos and a number of other ones). I thought I'd jump in and use the rank jump mode and try to get a head start.

What a terrible mistake. I lost my first 7 matches. Not only that, in those matches, I think I only even won 2 rounds. I was on the verge of just throwing in the towel entirely until I figured I should at least stick out the initial ranking matches. I was able to end up 2-8 in my 10 matches, thanks to finding another player who was probably in the same boat as me.

Now that I've finished ranking, though, I actually hold my own against people who are the same rank as me. I'm still really clumsy and I have basically no combo execution right now, but at least I'm winning rounds here and there and starting to understand the neutral game. I've still got a very long way to go, but I'm playing against people who are at my skill level now so it's not a total massacre.