[SSJKarma]

didn't really understand much of it, but i'll try to answer from what i did understood !

1 - yeah, story mode used to be practice mode wagainst a RYU called BARNEY, thewn again it got fired out of the game and it became story mode, thus removing practice from the game, now everyone wanted it back, so during the first round onlym if you press the start button, then the computer just gets his AI off. you guessed it right, its for practice only !

2 - yeah the AI is cheap, but that's because TMyApp has a lot of things to do right now, he just had to make him cheap like that. but i must say that it is a good training ground in itself. if ya can beat them in the time limit, then ya got some serious skills on your way, i successfully hit them a few times and some of my supers actually ar ehitting the target without them being able to block it. so i know i have became better and better, so hope you luck, and sorry for the AI again, this is the only way to make them competitives !

3 - the lag problem is yours to deal with, there is no miraculous way to get rid of it. it all depends on your hardware, your connection and the options in the network tabs, play with the different options and deal with it as it come. must i say to you that hosting a match also reduces the lag for you, you'll see that the challengers gets a higher lag response.

PS... hosting and joining is way better then quick matching. that option should have been removed long ago, so it has full of bugs and will unlikely get updates for it. so forget about quick matches, maybe things will get better for you !

4 - the high level ping, that i have seen only in quick matches... like i said, they weren't really getting any updates, so forget qui matches. and hosting games will reduce your ping response... i warn ya tho, ya gotta bear with it, there is no real way to get rid of it. sometimes it goes off the chart then comes back at a resonable ping.

hope this answered your question and hope you luck on your future fights !