I understand that, but winning a lot online doesn't really mean anything. You don't have the pressure of being at a tournament with anything on the line when you play online.
Everything changes at a tournament.
Ranked says I'm a B, but I still feel like I have no clue what the hell I'm doing.
I find the footsie game in DoA5 hard to get used to. It seems every character has these attacks that bulldoze through midscreen, so playing footsies seems to be a game of "just block and sidestep until one of...
I always get in people's face with Zack before the round starts. I go in a lot with 2p, duck mix ups. Or just ppkk (they always try to counter the mid kicks, but I've already cancelled the string and continue Zacking them).
You can really only "punish" something on -6 with a blockstring and get some pressure in, or go for a grab if you think they'll be blocking. They could, however, just go right back into trying to pressure you, where their strike will beat your grab.
Just block & punish
Seriously, for some reason most players don't like blocking in DoA5. I can't tell you how many ranked matches I've won just by blocking and punishing their unsafe moves. When I do this, they usually stop and then back away from me because they have no idea what to do...
Saying DoA5's netcode is unplayable is a gross exaggeration. You want unplayable netcode? Go play MK9.
Again, I get almost no lag when I chose "same" or "nearby" region in ranked. I really don't know what everyone's problem is.
Replays are buggy. I got a perfect round on an opponent once, but the replay showed that I got hit a bunch of times that round. Then in the final round, the replay ended as though I had won, but my opponent still had life left.