I'm used to the hold that Daigo is showing, currently trying to get used to it with 2 fingers on top, as personally i feel like my ring finger gets in the way of speed.
As for the gate: you've got to try what works. I grabbed an octo-gate and was riding the gate for a while. Friends tried to tell me how bad it was until one day i was playing locals and the stick i was using was a square so i just went with it. holy crap. i felt like the training wheels broke off of a bike while i was riding. Not only was i able to use less energy by throwing fireballs with a very small notation, but the "tiger knee" input became real, and it was like learning to shoryuken all over again.
if you're an amazon prime user, you can pick this one up and give it a try while getting it quickly and having amazon's easy return policy.
It is a madcatz brawlstick, from the 360 days. I added my own joystick bat to it and changed the inside to be 8way restrictor way instead of 4. It has Sanwa inputs so much better than mayflash. They are like 70 used on Amazon. that is more than I paid back in the day. If you are into modding you can buy a cheap joystick case and change the parts out for better responsiveness. I get all my parts from Focus Attack
http://www.amazon.com/Sanwa-GT-Y-Octagonal-Restrictor-Joysticks/dp/B004AU0H4U
or you can man up and stop blaming your tools
http://www.amazon.com/Sanwa-GT-Y-Octagonal-Restrictor-Joysticks/dp/B004AU0H4U
or you can man up and stop blaming your tools
This was the one I was looking at specifically. (https://www.amazon.com/Sanwa-GT-Y-Octagonal-Restrictor-Joysticks/dp/B004AU0H4U/ref=pd_bxgy_63_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B004AU0H4U&pd_rd_r=VQ8SQBR63J75W000T081&pd_rd_w=oE2PY&pd_rd_wg=XYPss&psc=1&refRID=VQ8SQBR63J75W000T081)
I'm used to Dualshock sticks, which I think are octagonal. I'm not against learning squared ones though. I feel like getting a Sanwa would give me an excuse to learn how to work on a stick internally too.
And again, thanks a whole lot for the help.
Yeah the stick you linked is good. You can get an octo gate for an extra $9 or so here http://www.amazon.com/Sanwa-GT-Y-Octagonal-Restrictor-Joysticks/dp/B004AU0H4U/ref=pd_bxgy_vg_text_y
TBH you should just learn to play on a square though.
A few people have said, that you can get that stick for $79 shipped from madcatz during tournaments. That is kind of true, they usually offer $50 off (retail on their site is $129), however, they have been out of the stick for 360 for almost 3 weeks already, and you can see on amazon's site, they estimate 3-5 weeks before they get anymore.