Losing to win: wait, why is that effective?

[Knight-errant]

This has to do with a strange phenomenon that has occured in several smash games I've played with my cousin.

See, we'll be battling neck and neck; neither of us knows who will win because the match is so even...but I can sense him getting angry beside me. So, for the sake of him not getting angry, I decide to stop playing my hardest and instead I just try to:

1. Pretend to attack him but miss on purpose (so that he can hit me in the lag)

2. Try to run into his attacks without looking like I'm running into his attacks (which is harder than it sounds...he gets even angrier if he thinks you tried to let him win).

3. And just to make sure he can't tell, I thrown in a few attacks here and there to make it look like I'm still trying, but playing poorly.

Now here's the weird part. For some reason, I actually start doing better. Instead of being the evenly matched heated battle it was before, I begin to take the advantage and win. My question is: how? I'm trying to let him win, but somehow I end up doing better instead.

Any ideas on what causes this strange occurence?

 

[Protoguy]

Congratulations! You just broke reality... The world will now slowly start to fade into black...


Oh wait, that's just because it's nightime... Nevermind, you're just wierd...<_<

 

[MagiMaster]

Your weird that's all lol jk

Maybe by doing mistake on purpose, you mess up his strategy. While he's like wtf you can't just do nothing because then it'l be obvious that you losing on purpose so you do something that punish him. And end up hitting him more often?

That's all I can think of.

Or maybe he is losing even more on purpose ??

edit: btw this is what mindgames is about. excepts for the part that you want him to win

 

[Yoshi'stheBombers7]

I don't know, I've never heard of this senerio before. You did say you stopped playing your hardest, and by that I assume that you didn't mash the controller as much and maybe cleared your heard. When you get strung up, it's harder to focus sometimes. I think you sould ditch playing with someone who gets angry over losing. Sure, if you lose you get disapointed, but why be angry over it? I suggest you stop playing against him and find a better smash player with a positive attitude.

 

[Smash G 0 D]

You are easing him into simple combos. As he starts to get easier hits, he stops concentrating 100% on the match and feels comfortable. But you, however, are in control of his emotions at this point. My guess is that you overwhelm him with your full skill or close to it once you bring down is awareness, whether you do it consciously or not.

 

[SonicLuigi]

well when i play with my friend that same thing happens, but i continue to kick his *** and accept the pain XD

 

[MagiMaster]

I think you sould ditch playing with someone who gets angry over losing. Sure, if you lose you get disapointed, but why be angry over it? I suggest you stop playing against him and find a better smash player with a positive attitude.

That quite hard you know? there's not much people playing melee now outside of swf.

 

[Cereal Rabbit]

Sounds like mindgames.

Good job.

 

[snoblo]

Here's the deal
If you play someone often, he or she will know your playing style very well, and vice versa. If you both play the same way every time, then obviously the results will be similar each time.

Keeping that in mind, if you pull something out of the ordinary, you will give your opponent a surprise. Since they're not used to it, they would have to take time to adapt, and make new decisions.

to sum up everything I said...
Mindgames, son

EDIT:

Sounds like mindgames.

Good job.

what he said ^^. (at the time of my making my post, his post wasn't there yet)

 

[Knight-errant]

Accidental mindgames. Heh. Makes sense. I'll need to start trying to do this on purpose.\

EDIT: BTW, thanks for the explanations.

 

[Speedsk8er]

>_< I suck at mindgames. lolz

 

[Popertop]

You mindgamed him so completely you forced him to do what you wanted without even trying.

 

[4 Aces]

That quite hard you know? there's not much people playing melee now outside of swf.

QFT. The friends who used to play smash with me (they sucked) hardly ever play it now. It's always Brawl, Brawl, Brawl. I mean, that's fine, but until then they could at least play smash more.

>_< I suck at mindgames. lolz

Yeah, me too. I try them, but I just can't pull them off (at least I don't think I'm doing it).

 

[Razed]

Cause you're using your head to play =p

 

[theONEjanitor]

whats probably going on is since you were winning, he probably began to play more defensively. but since you began to be reckless he probably wasn't expecting it. he probably was thinking "there's no way he's going to just throw out a random f-smash, it would be stupid." and then you did it.

 

[Popertop]

Cause you're using your head to play =p

Yeah, quit doing that.
It's all in the knees.

 

[Endless Nightmares]

That quite hard you know? there's not much people playing melee now outside of swf.

Not true at all. I've seen plenty of new Smashers in my area who don't go to SWF, but they know all the advanced techs and use them well. It's like an underground world of smash or something...

 

[Xanthyr]

it sounds to me that you changed your playstyle while still being used to his. You changed the tempo of the game so he is thrown off initially. Not to mention, since you're calming yourself down, you're more cool and collected and able to think in a different mindset then you once were moments ago. It's as if you switched the controller with someone else in mid game.

Imagine you two are sprinting for a finish line. You start to stumble and slow down, and he loses his concentration, looking at you. Once his engines are starting to cool down, you rip past him. That's what I see at least.

 

[Yoshi'stheBombers7]

That quite hard you know? there's not much people playing melee now outside of swf.

Yea, that is true. But still, it's something to think about.

 

[geemann2236]

Sandbagging much?

 

[Sandwich]

Congrats. You achieved mindgames.

 

[Spot4]

I do this all the time with a buddy of mine who gets frustrated the same way your cousin does. I don't know if I'd chalk it up to mindgames, but I think the change in tempo really has something to do with it. Especially if you're talking about just tapping A every once in a while to throw out a regular attack intermittently -- usually people will rush down and mash A to follow it up with something else. The same goes for trying to run into his attacks. When people rush down, it's because they see an opening that they want to punish. Your cousin probably just gets more defensive and thrown off his guard when you do that. It drives me nuts when I'm trying to even the playing field with my friend.

 

[Rohins]

you are mixing up your game toward the end focusing less on yourself and becoming more aware of your opponent, that's all.

 

[Vincent Vega]

Man up. Don't be afraid of him getting angry. ^_^

 

[Popertop]

I finally started to beat my friend today.
He's a beastly Zelda, and I was Falco.
I actually started comboing him, which I never was able to do.
I just tore him up for the first part of the match, then SD'd.

 

[Powderfinger]

maybe it's just cause you're style has changed when you decide to lose. Or, you're not focusing on winning and instead are just focusing on playing, which may result in better performance?

 

[Red Exodus]

When you do that you stop playing the way he expects you to. You don't try to avoid well but he is looking for you to dodge so that can aim for that.

You might normally edgeguard a certain way and he might delay his recovery but he might delay too much because he expects you to do something about his recovery, thus screwing him up.

You should probably talk to him about being such an *** about losing though.