The first part of my blog explains why I am practicing SSBM and what I'm attempting to accomplish at MLG Anaheim: win one (1) match. I'm roughly at the halfway point of practicing before the event in late June.
Before we get into what I've been learning, some positive news. I think I'm pretty good for someone who has "trained" for 3 months. I can often look like a passable player for small portions of matches. I am playing Falco mostly.
However, this game is a textbook example of ignorance being a gatekeeper to accurate skill assessment. I'm almost infinitely better at Smash than a few months ago, but now I can finally accurately see where I am on the spectrum of Smash players, and I can see that I am pretty far away from where I need to be.
I suppose the first question would be, is it even feasible to try to win a match in the MLG open bracket after practicing for only 4-5 months with a moderate amount of non-competitive SSBM experience previously? It appears I may just simply be praying for bracket luck.
What am I doing to practice?
I've never really trained for any competitive video game before. It seems to me, looking at Smash, that the biggest issue for newer players is simply techskill. The knowledge and matchup stuff will come with advice from better players and match play, but techskill is something you can literally just grind yourself in single player. Without a solid base of techskill you can't even do any of the stuff you're supposed to do in matches. I think most new players really need to just get their mechanical ability to a moderate level before even really attempting to form good habits / strategies.
Obviously, Smash isn't my fulltime job, but I try to get as much solo techskill practice in as possible.
Obviously grinding single player for 5 months can make you become Westballz 2.0
Smash is one of those games where in the pressure of a match without time to think or prepare, you're messing up simple shit that you executed perfectly 100x in practice. The answer to that really is to just repeat actions so much that it becomes muscle memory so you don't have to worry about it. And even if you do that, there will be times when you just still fuck up. So that is what a lot of time is spent doing, I'm sitting wavelanding on platforms and shield pressure on a computer and making sure my lasers are the same height.
I've also been playing a good amount on Dolphin netplay. I've found that you simply can't do a lot of stuff reaction and timing wise because of the buffer and input delay, but going from netplay-to-live is far, far more easier than the other way around. After an hour or two I'm fine with the timing of playing on a TV, its almost like Goku taking off the weights. It's incredibly hard the other way around, you feel like you're playing in water after a full day of CRTs.
The skill level in the #dolphin-ssbm channel is mixed. I'm in a weird zone where I beat everyone who is new very easily, and get 3-4 stocked by the actual good people in the channel. The good news is, Smash is fun even when you get owned, and combined with my endless tolerance for grinding 50 losses in a row from StarCraft means I have a pretty mentality for practice and motivation.
The hardest thing it seems is actually applying new stuff I learned to situations in game. Every player seems to have two mental modes, one being where they're trying hard and focusing and the other being this half assed "autopilot." I suppose that's why money matches are cool, they make players try. I try, as much as possible to stay "focused" and treat matches as extended training instead of just trying to win.
Lots of New Players
Lots of people I know who used to play smash for fun before seems to be getting back into it. MrBitter is trash talking me about playing at the Red Bull offices before MLG. I'm getting messages from old college roommates about the game. I even played Liquid Snute who randomly knows how to play Yoshi.
I went to a Dutch local tournament a few weeks ago, where after I was out, I played friendlies for nearly 8 hours straight. It is actually fun to just watch how some of these better players move around the various stages. Everyone was nice and there was a nice atmosphere of everyone cooperating to try to get better. The best player I played in a friendly there was a Marth that casually powershields seven straight lasers on his way to 4-stocking me.
There were a decent number of new players (though I was probably the "newest" since it was my first tournament) and they're all there because of the documentary and because of EVO. I tell them about my quest for an MLG win the reaction is largely mixed, some think I can do it with some luck and some think I have no chance.
There's this prevailing feeling that SoCal is some mythical place where dragons and unicorns exist next to random Luigis who will 4-stock your country's best players, like Korean Brood War circa 2008. That makes it even more exciting.
Just what I wanted to read! I wish you all the best of luck, man. I've been techskill grinding a bit too. Shit is insanely hard. Like, I can't even short hop. Been wave dashing for hours but am not close to doing it in an actual match yet. Guess I'll have to keep practicing.
Did you know Akke plays btw? You should challenge him .
In term of my connection to the TL community, I want Hot_Bid to win the entire goddamned Smash tournament and leave Adam weeping in the back alley of the venue over how embarrassingly wrong he was.
But in terms of entertainment, nothing would make me happier than to see Hot_Bid get absolutely crushed and eliminated from the tournament in sixty seconds flat, and to see him droop his shoulders in soul-shattering defeat and anguish as he shambles out of the venue for his flight back home.
Best of luck though Hot Bid you trollzor. Looking forward to mind games you could do before/during matches. Get in their heads with that uber trolling mind of yours.
On May 08 2014 04:27 Hot_Bid wrote: The best player I played in a friendly there was a Marth that casually powershields seven straight lasers on his way to 4-stocking me.
I know that feeling. Years ago I went to a smashfest having played a lot casually but far from being decently competitively. It resulted in me getting wrecked the entire night long by Amsah & Faab. Wouldn't surprise me it was one of those 2 guys you played considering they took first and second place at the tourney you went.
Isai (I know it's 64 but philosophy is good) once said "don't get hit"
Do not give way
Otherwise you die
Of course this comes from a casual who is new to knowing the scene exists. But the morbid road advice is true. And beware, when a guy is following the philosophy too close you just let him go get pulled over. The highway patrol is nails.
'Course you been here you know this. Besides I exaggerate because it fun for meaning pun eh?
I only played one game at a really high level and I can just imagine a 3-month-old player trying to compete :p. Even 3 years of constant play would produce a mediocre player. Just thought of it because the games are very similar in terms of muscle memory combinations at very high speed, knowing which combos to use in which situations (however, you also had to have perfect aim on very high speed targets whilst constantly moving yourself). I saw Akke say something about SSB being the perfect competitive game. I think my game was close if not for a few flaws.
First is gameplay. Second is finger movements by an average skill player (although he is quite fast) from 6 years ago. Something to note about this is that although it looks like spam, everything is timed more or less to the millisecond or the combinations don't work. Excuse music in both videos.
No time to blog. Get back in practice right now!! Also ask Ken or KDJ about some advice! Even if they don't play Falco, they might have some useful tip about improving!
On May 11 2014 01:32 bardtown wrote: I only played one game at a really high level and I can just imagine a 3-month-old player trying to compete :p. Even 3 years of constant play would produce a mediocre player. Just thought of it because the games are very similar in terms of muscle memory combinations at very high speed, knowing which combos to use in which situations (however, you also had to have perfect aim on very high speed targets whilst constantly moving yourself). I saw Akke say something about SSB being the perfect competitive game. I think my game was close if not for a few flaws.
First is gameplay. Second is finger movements by an average skill player (although he is quite fast) from 6 years ago. Something to note about this is that although it looks like spam, everything is timed more or less to the millisecond or the combinations don't work. Excuse music in both videos.
Holy SHIT the nostalgia from watching those videos. I remember first learning how to kstyle all those years ago, good times....
That should be enough time to become mechanically proficient.
I believe that Falco's certainly the best choice, but only if it suits your playstyle. It can dominate heavily with mechanics alone and if you laser properly, it's going to be troublesome trying to punish you even if you play predictably. In my opinion, the most important part about playing as Falco is learning to laser properly. By that I -don't- mean learning to laser as fast as possible or jump back and forth while lasering(although that's useful). That can become predictable very quickly and it's so easy playing against technical, inexperienced Falcos who just laser into my smashes and whatnot.
You should learn to laser on your opponent's landing as the #1 priority. That can't really be punished and guarantees a followup. If your opponent jumps, laser him so that it hits when he's about to hit the ground. Might need to predict a fastfall. Another important thing is to learn to mix up your SHFFL timings. An early SHFFL Dair for example can easily be shieldgrabbed, whereas if you delay it, you can actually shine them out of the shieldgrab timing. This of course is vulnerable to just getting hit out of, although that becomes a lot less risky if you're covering your approach with a laser. Of course, if you're predictable they can just jump in to the air in advance or wavedash backwards and hit you anyway.
One of my favorite things to do with a space animal is to hit the shield with a low aerial and then shine-grab. That works at a very high percentage against decent players, and usually at worst they roll away and it just resets. With Falco, you can even SHL -> fastfall to the ground and shine-grab their shield.
An important thing to keep in mind is the % where the opponent can crouch cancel your aerials. Getting your nair crouch-cancel-counter grabbed by a Marth can mean the end of the stock for you. Never approach with crouch cancelable aerials is my personal advice. Doing the aerial very low and shining can hit them out of it especially if they don't time it perfectly but I wouldn't rely on it. With Falco this is significantly less of a problem as Falco's Dair is very resilient against crouch canceling.
You should also work on delaying your fastfall with your approaching aerial. That way you can land behind the opponent's shield and for many champions this is moderately difficult to punish heavily, at least if compared to landing in the front of their shield where you're wide open to a grab.
Something that's an extremely common habit of beginning players is sidestepping too often. If this doesn't apply to you, that's great, but you really should not be spamming dodge all the time. I believe that that might be where most of my largest punishes come from against a newer player - Dashdancing while waiting for the inevitable spot dodge and getting the free grab. Shielding and rolling should be the primary things you do, although you need to roll sparingly and mostly only use it to get out of unbearable pressure(Falco pillar). Good players can punish these well.
Some other things... Keep in mind what part of the stage you are at and which characters have the priority advantage over you. For example, against some characters like another Falco, you might not have an issue staying above him because your dair eats through whatever he attempts to hit you with, but trying a similiar thing against a Marth is suicide. Marth's weak spot in the air for instance is from below him, on the front side, which is where you should always attempt to hit him from. Falco's relatively weak directly up, stronger up-behind. However, poking through platforms with uair is still extremely powerful and I've had success by doing it. Don't see many other Falcos do that so often but as far as I'm concerned it's very safe and effective.
The most important thing for Falco is to attempt to gain control of the center of the stage. You also can never let yourself baited to get thrown off the stage as that can easily spell your doom. In my opinion, defensive / zoning type of play is much more effective with Falco at lower levels. The reason is, it's way too easy to be predictable and punishable by SHFFLing or SHLing poorly and getting punished. However, if you patiently zone with lasers and then attack when the opponent is in the air, for example, your risk of getting punished is far lower. In general, at low %s when crouch canceling is an option, you should aim to attack your opponent when they are in the air as often as possible. You can get them there with Shine, grabs, or having them jump(and some other things). When the opponent is grounded, only low dairs and grabs should be considered safe. Personally, I almost exclusively grab at these %s because CCC is way too destructive.
I also would learn wavedashing out of shield for long-range punishing. Mastering that technique elevates you to a whole another level, in my opinion, even though there's not that many Marths anymore that fsmash randomly.
By the way, "Don't get hit" is correct at least for me. I would always go for smaller hits of guaranteed damage instead of being risky with reads. You can do a lot with careful spacing and just making sure to only strike when you're practically guaranteed to hit without taking damage in return.
You should also check some of these videos out, they are quite good:
Thanks for the long post Shikyo, a lot of it I've already been told a fuckton by people but it's nice to see it all written out. In terms of style, I'm probably just gonna YOLO. We'll see haha.
On May 13 2014 10:06 GhostKorean wrote: Do you play the game on a Gamecube?
I'd imagine you can play online with Dolphin. How's the lag + delay over Dolphin?
Hotbid mostly plays on Dolphin (see this thread on TL and this thread on Smashboards). Lag is reasonable if you're geographically close, and input delay is minimal if you have a good adapter.
On May 13 2014 21:45 buMf00d wrote: Can someone point me in the right direction for a good adapter to use a ngc controller on pc?
Get a Raphnet adapter, it's like $26. I had a Mayflash adapter but it just stopped working after about half a year. So obviously I am not too pleased and recommend avoiding Mayflash.
Also, the Raphnet adapter supposedly has less input lag.
EPT
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