Is Metafy coaching legit? I got Tekken lessons to find out [Review]

Ever wondered if Metafy is a good place to find a coach for your favourite game? You're not alone, which is why we decided to take a look at how Metafy works, plus get some coaching ourselves in Tekken 8.

Having a music tutor or even an after school tutor for a class you were struggling with is nothing new. However, paying for a coach to improve you at a video game? Well that's an investment some people are still hesitant about.

I'd personally never been coached before, but after this experience I'd definitely be more open to it given just how much I learned. But first things first, what is Metafy and how does their coaching system work?

If you don’t know what MetaFy is, they're a well-established brand offering coaches for over 200 different games. Their four most prominent titles are VALORANT, League of Legends, Rocket League and Pokemon.

On Metafy you pick from a set of coaching options which can range from Team Coaching, VOD review, Live Feedback during your Ranked Matches or even just helping you with Aim and movement or Sensitivity Settings.  There are also Metafy masterclasses available, where creators upload a set of content on MetaFy which can be purchased in bulk.

One of the class programs I particularly love is coaches offering a bundle where you pay a lump sum but you can have unlimited additional classes until you reach a certain rank in your chosen game (e.g. Ascendant in VALORANT or Fujin in Tekken 8).

Metafy Coaching Sessions typically last 1 hour, and the prices usually fall between $20 to $60 per hour. However, many of the coaches offer a free 30 minute free consultation. Each coach can set their own class types and cost, with Metafy taking only 8% of their revenue. Alternatively coaches can pay a monthly fee and get to keep 100% of their revenue. More details on how to become a coach at the end.

For Tekken 8 there are just over 30 coaches offering different plans. The choices range from players still competing on the Tekken World Tour 2024 to content creators and streamers just looking for a bit of a return on the hours invested into Tekken 8.

For Tekken 8 the most common options for coaching are Replay review, Live Feedback during Ranked Games or an opportunity to play 1 versus 1 against your coach. I opted for Replay review and character walkthrough. My main? Jun.

When Tekken 8 launched I made it my mission to cover it on esports.gg and I got obsessed, sinking dozens of hours into the game. We were lucky enough to get early access (thanks Bandai Namco) but I found myself continuing to play after the hype had died down.

At the time I got Metafy coaching I had played 2,000 ranked matches exclusively on Jun with a win-rate of about 35%. The reason for Jun was nothing to do with balance or ease-of-play. Jun had been a character I enjoyed back in Tekken 1 and 2 alongside Michelle and Armor King. The fact Jun's big return to Tekken coincided with my return to the franchise just made sense. In addition to her waifu vibes, Tifa Lockhart mod and the fact she has a fireball as her Heat Smash of course.

My ranked journey went as follows:

At the end of July I went on a downward spiral, tanking four ranks in just seven days. Flame Ruler all the way down to Garyu.

With how the Tekken ranking system works, I'd still end up facing the same calibre of opponents as when I was Purple Rank. Sometimes facing players with 200,000+ Tekken Prowess having only 150,000 myself. It was soul destroying to say the least, and I decided to take a little break.

At the end of August I ended up connecting with Corey from Metafy. Corey kindly put me in contact with two of their top coaches in Tekken 8. Below is my recap of my experience, my personal rating as well as the impact after having some coaching. The two coaches I was setup with were Heera "Malik Ash" Malik from Pakistan, and Fergus McGee from Ireland. Special thanks to Corey from Metafy for the introductions.

A friend of Arslan Ash, Malik Ash is part of the same Tekken nucleus in Pakistan that has bred so many top players in recent years. He's also sponsored by Metafy who support his travel to represent them at competitive Tekken 8 events. According to Malik Ash, him and Arslan are part of a group of about a dozen players who'd grown up together playing Tekken titles in Pakistan. The group often meet to practise against each other. Life goals!

Ahead of the class, Malik Ash asked for me to send over recordings of my recent matches to prepare. When it was time for class he provided me a personalized Jun Fact Sheet. The Fact Sheet had Jun's key moves, her strengths and weaknesses as a character, and my own as a player. The fact research was done into my VODs ahead of the class by Malik Ash definitely was a huge plus.

During our hour's class we spent about 30 minutes going over Jun's key moves. I found this invaluable, as I'd picked up a few dirty habits spamming moves that were unsafe. Malik Ash walked me through the scenarios to use certain key moves, and what to do based on the enemy's response to them.

For example DF1 while in heat on counter hit would ensure I'd be able to pull off my Heat Smash uninterrupted. My F4 was trackable both sides, making it the perfect move to punish sidesteppers.

Every time Malik Ash wanted to emphasise how good a certain combo was, he would land it and dramatically say: "THIS.. it is guaranteed". Needless to say every time he said that I was taking a mental note of that move.

My biggest takeaway from half of the class was the d3+4 (known as Kankan) was my "comeback move" and that it could not be low parried. He added that it had 14-frame start up and will still connect even if an enemy tried to grab. All of this info was new to me, and whenever I'm on the ropes in my games now I remember it.

The second half of the class was analyzing the VODS of matches, with Malik Ash pausing to explain. In his Jun Fact Sheet he had listed my weaknesses, I'll be honest there were quite a few. While I was a 7/10 in executing combos (Thanks Malik Ash) I was weak on punishing, movement, defence and reading opponent's minds. Yep, that's a lot of weaknesses, time to get my money's worth.

Outside of encouraging me to learn Korean Backdash, Malik pointed out in the VODs moments where I'd picked a slower attack despite having plus frames after blocking. I found this encouraging. It wasn't so much that I was powerless against the pressure, but that I was picking the wrong moves to take my turn.

In just an hour I'd revisited the strengths and weaknesses of Jun's key moves plus I knew which of my moves were high crush or great counter hits plus, which were the best for wall punish. Not to mention the moves which, as Malik Ash would say, were guaranteed.

Review: Malik Ash was incredibly polite and prepared before coaching me. Genuinely felt he wanted me to improve as a result of the class, plus never made me feel any question was too stupid to ask. A lot of what he told me has stuck with me, and I've watched back the VOD of our coaching session several times. (9.5/10)

Get coached by Malik Ash

Fergus was a personal pick of mine given he'd produced content for YouTube specifically around Jun Kazama, including a brilliant tutorial videos for Jun just as Tekken 8 launched. During our coaching session after I tried to learn more about his background, I found Fergus competed in Tekken 7, even qualifying twice to the Tekken World Tour in 2017 and 2018.

He's since retired from competing to focus on his day job, but Fergus still streams on Twitch and offers coaching on Metafy in his spare time to both new and old Tekken players. Fergus is also a sparring partner for European Tekken players looking for serious practise against Asuka.

Fergus' approach was different to Malik Ash's, primarily because he mained the character I wanted to learn, Jun. The Irishman has reached the highest rank God of Destruction for both Asuka and Jun in Tekken 8, having also played both competitively in Tekken Tag 2 in the past.

Fergus kicked things off by looking at a match between myself and a Hwoarang - a character that caused me insufferable pain in Orange and Red Ranks. His approach was really interesting, freeze framing scenarios where I could have punished and going through my options.

However, the most valuable part of my coaching session with Fergus was when he demoed Jun and ran through moves I should use more based on my VODs.

It reminded me a bit of The First Descendant, a recent looter shooter by Nexon. In the game you often get weapons drops and initially you follow the classic logic that purple rarity is better than blue, blue is better than green etc.. However, after playing longer you realise that sometimes because of a particular perk, rate of fire or ammo type that a blue gun can sometimes be better than a purple gun.

How is this related to Tekken? Well, character moves are similar I learned from Fergus. Certain moves that I favoured were "bigger" and dealt more damage but there were lower damage options that were faster to execute and opened up better follow up attacks.

Fergus went on to explain that my "big swings" worked at lower ranks, but at higher ranks they became more risky and made me more open to being interrupted or counter-attacked. This much I knew, but thanks to Fergus I learned which of my moves were actually holding me back and becoming bad habits. For example F3,2's second hit is high, making it easy to duck and launch.

Seeing Fergus just take apart and dissect the pros and cons of my go-to moves was so enlightening, something I would have never learned simply by looking at a key moves spreadsheet on Reddit. He then went on to dive into the mind games Jun can play even with the most basic of inputs, which I found empowering. Especially considering the beatdown I'd been getting.

Review: Fergus was a brilliant coach. Was great to get a little peek into the theoretical side of Tekken 8 and how certain moves or patterns can make your opponent second guess themselves. Very personable and his background in competitive Tekken can help give you a bit of an edge. (9/10)

Get Coached by Fergus

Did I improve from Metafy coaching? Yes, significantly. As a result of just 2 hours of coaching I genuinely felt a huge boost in both game awareness and confidence. I managed to climb back up to Flame Ruler and then even reach a new record by reaching Battle Ruler.

My win rate has almost improved and now sits at about 41% (up from 37%). I'm a lot more aware of my character's strengths and weaknesses, as well as my own bad habits which put me at a disadvantage in the past thanks to Malik Ash and Fergus' coaching.

If you're stuck in Red Rank and looking to push yourself into Purple or Blue Ranks, I think coaching will save you hours of ranked grinds, especially if this is your first Tekken. As a newcomer to competitive Tekken, you're starting at a huge disadvantage much like myself.

The majority of Tekken 8 players who stick around after the launch, played previous Tekken titles online. With each new Tekken title they've built on their knowledge of combos, movement and match-ups.

Catching up is tough, and there aren't that many resources to give you advice specific to you. From my experience you can get to Garyu fairly easily, but by Purple Rank people start to memorise combo patterns or your habits.

Without taking time to learn things like Tekken 8 frame data, or getting advice from more experienced players, you'll end up plateauing - or mega tilting like I did. I was surprised just how helpful a couple of hours of coaching was to rekindle my passion for Tekken 8 and ranked matchmaking.

To become a coach on Metafy you simply need to sign-up, there is no minimum required rank. There are two types of coach memberships; Core & Pro. Core is completely free but you share 8% of your revenue. Alternatively, if you're pretty confident you'll get at least a couple of students a month you can opt for the Pro membership. The Pro membership is $29 a month ($19 if you use our link below) but you keep 100% of all your earnings.

Yes, Metafy is a legit website dedicated to coaching in competitive esports and gaming titles. It offers coaches for over 200 different titles. The US-based company was founded in 2020 by Josh Fabian, and currently has over 10,000 active players using its services.