Intimidation? A game outside the game?

[Swamp Sensei]

Many moons ago, a friend and I were playing Brawl.

We're around the same skill level and back then we played all the time.

Wins were usually 50/50. This one session though, I was winning all of them.

I noticed he wasn't playing his usual self. He was being more aggressive than he needed to be and he was essentially choking and choking bad. This got much worse after a few meteors with each one making the situation worse.

I finally said, "You're intimidated. Calm down and have more fun with it.You'll play better."

He then proceeded to give me crap which of course meant he still lost the future games in that session.

Years later, he still brings it up to taunt me, saying the notion was ridiculous. A League playing friend of ours heard this one time and actually agreed with me saying "If you fear the champion, you will lose."

We then proceeded to play Smash 3DS. Where I dominated him when I really shouldn't have.

He is still adamant it means nothing but luckily it has become an inside joke of sorts.

So... Do you think intimidation is a big factor in Smash? Whether it's because of the player, stage, character or ruleset?

 

[Jandlebars]

Speaking from personal experience, and from listening on commentary in the Smash scene...

Yes, intimidation can be a very big deal.
Really, any kind of game with a competitive component can, and will, involve players being adversely affected by intimidation, even when that intimidation is never intended.
I imagine this is often what causes the most 'chokes' in a competitive mind-set. Even when a player is ahead, they can get worried that they'll lose the lead if they're not used to the mental pressure that they're putting on themselves.

"Oh man, I'm 2 stocks ahead of this really awesome Sonic player! I would really, really hate to lose from this position." Such a thought pattern breaks the focus that the player had previously established throughout an entire match, and can likely lose their position precisely because they're now aware -- too aware -- of the possibility that they may screw up.

Characters themselves can be pretty intimidating, too. It's always possible for a low-tier hero to cause an upset against a complacent player, definitely, but a lack of confidence in a match-up is far more detrimental. At the very least, if you lose one match to someone piloting a 'bad' character, you can give yourself a mental kick up the buttocks to be more careful.
It's much more likely that the presence of a powerful character will cause stress on a player, because they know they need to adapt, but either aren't sure how, or they determine that they won't have a chance in the match afterwards.


Keep in mind that I probably don't even qualify as a decent player, but there's ample reason to believe intimidation is a powerful element in competition.

 

[Rizen]

If he goes 50/50 with you it sounds more like he was having a bad day than being intimidated.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

If he goes 50/50 with you it sounds more like he was having a bad day than being intimidated.

To clarify, a couple of bad games intimidated him. Like he felt he was going to lose that day.

If that makes sense.

 

[iVoltage]

I'm newer and I got the chance to play a vet last weekend after an all day session with my friend. I played well against my friend but when the vet came in I instantly felt nervous even when i wasnt playing. I feel this is a problem that will go away with experience, but for the time being I did exactly what your friend did choke hard, being too aggressive and getting sheildgrabbed every attempt at an approach because i defaulted to one move.

 

[Jandlebars]

To clarify, a couple of bad games intimidated him. Like he felt he was going to lose that day.

If that makes sense.

That's part of intimidation, yeah. When I've played against my younger brother (who goes 50/50 with me, too), a couple of bad matches have gotten to me, too, even though it was just in a 'safe' circle.
Part of the reason was, at that point in time, neither of us had really invested time into going to nearby tournaments, so we had to expend all our competitive 'energy' against each other. It's a pretty normal thing in that respect.

I'm newer and I got the chance to play a vet last weekend after an all day session with my friend. I played well against my friend but when the vet came in I instantly felt nervous even when i wasnt playing. I feel this is a problem that will go away with experience, but for the time being I did exactly what your friend did choke hard, being too aggressive and getting sheildgrabbed every attempt at an approach because i defaulted to one move.

It does definitely get better, but it does take work at the same time.
You begin to understand how to play well by being punished for your mistakes. Habits aren't too difficult to break if you're given constant reason to break them (a negative feed-back loop, basically).

 

[wizrad]

Nairo gets intimidated all the time...

 

[Raijinken]

I don't think intimidation is the proper term for this (I would reserve that label more to your opponent's attitude than your own internal attitude), but yes, it's definitely a thing.

I'd call this being daunted, which, at least in my head, means it's a result of my own thoughts, rather than my opponent pointedly (whether knowingly or not) attacking me psychologically. Which has no place in a game.

 

[Wintropy]

I'd call this being daunted, which, at least in my head, means it's a result of my own thoughts, rather than my opponent pointedly (whether knowingly or not) attacking me psychologically. Which has no place in a game.

I don't know about that. In-game intimidation can be very useful. For example, my brother knows I have difficulty with his Donkey Kong and certain things he does with the character, so he does them to play mind-games with me and make me sweat.

If you mean personal intimidation, e.g. sizing up next to the person when you play, then I agree it has no place.

Probably because you'd be very stupid to throw shapes at somebody when you should be fighting them in the game.

 

[Turrin]

I'm guessing that his argument is "I didn't lose because I was intimidated, it was because I kept making stupid mistakes." The thing is, he was probably making those mistakes because he was intimidated. I wouldn't really call it intimidation, I would just call it being nervous. Same thing applies to lots of different areas. For example, I've spent hours every week practicing for a musical audition piece only to mess it up during the performance because I was nervous.
In Smash, if you're not relaxed - for any reason - you won't react quickly, you won't think through your choices clearly, and you'll make jerk impulses that end up getting you destroyed. I played an online tournament where I got destroyed into the first round, and went into the losers bracket thinking I'd probably get wrecked again. I was pretty relaxed and ready to lose, then I took game one from my next opponent. As soon as it occurred to me that I could win, I got nervous knowing I'd have to go tryhard to win the next one as well. Guess what? I lost games 2 and 3.
So yes, intimidation/nervousness plays as big a part in Smash as it does in anything else. It's like getting stage fright in the middle of a game or set, where your mind just locks up and you go into auto-pilot, therefore becoming more predictable and making bad moves. To me, the key is honestly to not care whether you win or lose, even when there are big stakes on the line.

 

[Boomstick720]

Intimidation is incredibly important, and depending on who you are playing or how competitive it is, is a tool you should use whenever you are able. If you want to win, you should focus on demoralizing your opponent as much as possible. Make them nervous around you, and they will be more liable to make mistakes, which you can capitalize on.

If you are being intimidated, slow down. If you are playing aggressively, start playing more defensively if you find you are making even one or two bad mistakes. If you opponent is playing incredibly aggressively, get them off stage or force them to play catch up.

Intimidation is a thing that I think is absolutely a vital part of any competitive gameplay, and should be used whenever you can, and try to mitigate it whenever you feel it is used against you.

 

[expansioN]

There is defenitely some impact that happens outside of the game. Even mindgames work. Slice sometimes gets me with his "oh man I don´t have a doublejump" when he´s offstage. *******.

 

[mobilisq]

Totally expected a comment about 8bitman in here

 

[Trifroze]

An important thing when playing in a tournament (offline) is to keep calm in pressure situations while also never showing any sign of feeling yourself when something good happens or even when you win a really close match. If something is scary it's when the player next to you doesn't get moved by anything and focuses on the match with seemingly full confidence. Once you show emotion or start taking heavy breaths or twitching around you reveal that you have a bunch of doubts and pressure in your mind which can be seen through and exploited.

Adrenaline happens to everyone and for a large part it's a handicap in an environment like this, but there are mental ways to control it or at least physically hide it.