LiteralGrill
Smokin' Hot~
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Hey all, we’re back this week with yet another Mind Over Meta. The last few MoMs have dealt with lofty or very broad topics in nature, so today I want to talk about a relatively specific scenario.
Almost every one of you will be in this situation at some point or another; because Smash attracts a huge audience, that audience will be quite diverse in a lot of respects, including skill level, meaning you are bound to encounter low level or “casual” players in tournaments at least once. However, facing these players can sometimes be frustrating or confusing, and I’ve had to deal with this stage of players a lot, having various friends and peers who enjoyed Project M but had no interest in learning “the game proper.”
So this week, I want to talk about so-called “scrubs” and their dynamics.
The Surgeon’s Clothes
When games are accessible to a variety of skill levels and a lot of different strategies, two things inevitably happen in tournaments:
- low level players join in
- low-effort strategies appear.
This is all fine and natural. Every player starts somewhere, so everyone destined to be a champion will start off clinging onto whatever advantages they can get. You can’t fault someone for being new to the game and not understanding everything. We all started off by spamming Fsmash and Thunder, and somehow doing OK enough. However, even then, I’ve found that scrub players who use superficially effective low-level strategies can really cause headaches for mid-level or even high-level players, for a fair number of reasons.
But first, I’d like to lay out some ground. What exactly is a scrub? I asked Bo, a friend who is a top ping pong maven (but slowly learning Smash), about what it means to play against “suboptimal players,” or as I’d call them, “scrubs,” in table tennis:
A "suboptimal" player is someone who plays a style or plays a stroke that is very different from the "textbook" styles of play. These styles are usually considered styles that are almost guaranteed to fail at the highest levels of professional play but can be extremely tricky to play against at lower levels... Usually these "suboptimal" players are very strong in one area but are very weak in a lot of other areas, but that one strong area ends up causing a lot of trouble for those who don't know how to play against that style.
It seems to me that these “suboptimal” or scrub players are a commonly discussed aspect of competitive ping pong, much more than in the Smash scenes. However, they still often influence the outcomes of Smash tournaments, particularly at the middle placings.
Note that being scrubby is a bad thing in the sense that it leads to a hard ceiling. As we just heard, scrub strategies are doomed at higher levels of play. However, every player deserves respect as a human and should be treated as such. In fact, that could be a key to beating them...
So we know about what scrubs are now, but what is it that makes them scrubs?
Scrubbing Til It’s Clean
Before we can tackle a scrub player in tournament, we need to find out what makes them scrubby. Usually this boils down to just a few things.
Primarily, the player does not understand the idea of Smash’s fundamentals; spacing, extended (non-automatic) combos, neutral game, and approaches are not concepts they understand thoroughly. Further, they usually have little to no technical prowess, and terms like w!#edash, L-c$&#el, or R%#erse L$#@ehop B@!r might even be curses in more extreme cases.
Second, the player is overly reliant on a few moves, almost always some relatively high power move with an easy input, and typically will spam this move in a game, maybe even in inappropriate scenarios. I call these tactics “degenerate,” in that they give a lot of reward for low effort, and every reader is guilty of trying to use them at some point. You’re immediately thinking of Marth’s F-smash, but other moves are easy to spam: Link’s up-B, Yoshi’s side-B, Samus’s grab, rolling, the list goes on. In Project M, this list is exaggerated further than in Melee because moves are toned with viability at maximum levels of play in mind, rather than with care to superficial strategies.
Third, the player is algorithmic. When faced with neutral, they might always try to dash attack in or use a high-mobility special, camp and spam projectiles, or when in close quarters they might spam one move repeatedly or with some frequency or trigger, hoping they might hit. When recovering, they might always just land on stage without thought of where and when, or when edgeguarding they might throw out the same neutral air every time.
Note that everything I said of scrub players could arguably be said of greats like Mew2king, iPunchKidz, Sethlon, and every other top player; losses at the highest level in large part come from mistakes, and mistakes could be from not understanding the game 100%, feeling pressured and using suboptimal moves, being predictable, or some other error. I don’t say this to call out top players, but to note that every player has weaknesses, and that means every player is still trying to shed their scrubby habits, probably till the end of their life. This includes you.
Scrub Your Mind Clean
These scrub characteristics I mentioned, on paper, are very easy to beat. However, that fact becomes psychologically draining when you make mistakes. “This guy is terrible at the game! All he does is spam Squirtle’s Withdraw endlessly. I should have cleaned him up ages ago.” You get frustrated easily that you lost to a worse, scrubby player. But Bo has a gentle reminder:
Part of not getting frustrated is to keep in mind that if you do end up losing, you lost to the better player.
In the long-term, one would need to first develop strong fundamentals and consistency. The reason why "suboptimal" players lose at the highest levels is because the best players in the world are just not volatile enough to lose to "suboptimal" players on a consistent basis.
If you are not consistent in your play, it is probable that you are not much different from your opponent in that you aren’t experienced enough. The top players in any sport are top because they are consistent winners. In the Melee scene, this was the reason the “Top 5 God” players a few years ago earned their titles; they only lost to each other with any consistency, so even if players occasionally lost to less notable players, it was usually not a lasting loss.
The solution here in becoming consistent and fundamentally solid is just to play more, both at home “in the lab” and in tournament.
Bo continues:
Another long-term strategy would be just to play against those styles a lot during practice to familiarize oneself come competition time.
Learning the tactics ahead of time goes a long way in tournament results. It may seem like a waste of time to learn to counter “bad” strategies, but if you refuse to spend time learning, it is very easy to be blindsided by such a strategy. Indeed, many high-level Melee players will focus on high-tier matchups only to suddenly face and struggle against low tier characters in tournaments. Similarly, poor or scrubby strategies can easily catch you off-guard. Preparing ahead of time mitigates your vulnerability to scrubby strategies. However, you cannot prepare all the time:
In the short-term (ie. you are just about to play a "suboptimal" player in the next match), one has to keep in mind that every style has a strength and a weakness. For example, while suboptimal players in table tennis usually aren't super aggressive, they have strong ball control and so they tend to get a lot of shots back.
Additionally they usually give players a variety of awkward spins that they aren't used to dealing with, and they place these shots at very uncomfortable spots. It baits medium-level players or weaker to play extremely well, in order to win. This "suboptimal" style creates a lot of unforced errors, which tries to frustrate the opponent. However, the weakness that a lot of "suboptimal" players have is that they don't have a lot of power and so one would need to use that knowledge to one's advantage.
This immediately reminds me of all the low level players that would beat me with stage control and constant rolling. I simply couldn’t land a hit, and opponents would just shield grab or roll away any time I tried, inching out advantages a little at a time. These scrubs would control the pace and flow of battle. It is exactly the scenario Bo describes, where a scrub lets opponents make unforced errors and defeat themselves in frustration. To keep up, you have to play “extremely well.” The key, as Bo notes, is to use the scrub’s lack of proper offense against them, often by baiting out certain things with dash dances or other tricky movement.
Instead of playing to beat the world champion, one should play to just beat the "suboptimal" opponent, and that can mean that you might even have to play "suboptimally" as well, as long as you are still targeting the opponent's weaknesses. This could mean that you should play a lot of very consistent shots such as a high lob with weird spin, knowing that your opponent would not have enough power to kill the ball back.
This is very important to read. The scrubs can beat you because they play into your weaknesses. So how do you respond? Play into theirs.
Every game you play, every last one, you ought to treat as though it’s the last one you’ll play in your life. When you are fighting ScrubLord25, you fight ScrubLord25, and don’t try to fight Mew2king. This is one thing I had to learn by repeatedly losing to players I thought were worse than me, and believe me, I’ve had a lot of experience in that department.
Playing against your opponent means you need to focus on who you’re fighting at that moment in time. I’m emphasizing this despite seeming obvious because it’s a principle I and others grapple against. You might have to change your style to match the opponent’s, even if it feels terrible and nauseating to not play at your natural flow, because you need to control the pace of the game, and if the opponent insists on changing it to a slow and roll-filled pace, so be it. You think you’re better than them? Then you should be able to beat them at their own game, so do it. Adaptation is a hugely important skill of Smash, and adapting to scrubby playstyles is no exception. Make whatever changes are necessary to beat your opponent, and don’t be afraid to change styles drastically to win.
Another key point, as I hinted earlier, is that you must respect your opponent to beat them. The cycle of frustration and reluctance to adapt often begins when you feel the opponent will not be a threat. Don’t assume that. If you underestimate your opponent, even if you feel you’re much a much better player, your psyche becomes exposed to unforced errors or dumb free damage chipping away at its armor. Stay calm and stay focused, and always assume your opponent is competent enough to win. This way, you are less vulnerable to getting surprised and realizing two stocks too late into a match that this match is not free.
I have let the timer run down to 25 seconds to eke out a win this way, because I felt there was no other way to combat a non-aggressive and roll-heavy Kirby on a campy stage. I had to respect his space and his Inhale and smash attacks, because I was being hit in stupid ways trying to be overly aggressive. I wasn’t playing for 1st place or even a tournament life, I was playing to win that game then and there. That’s what makes a winning mindset.
Psychological advantage is the only one a scrub has over an experienced and proficient veteran. These are one type of tournament setting where the outcome is decided by how well you can keep your head without getting flustered, but if you can do that, I think the odds of success are good.
Descrubification
So we've talked about staying calm and keeping focused in order to best scrubby play. However, I haven't yet talked much about the process of winning out. While any set algorithm in Smash is subject to a lot of variation, there are some key points that you can try to go through while turning a struggling match against a Scrub into an advantage:
- Be ready to adapt. As I said earlier, adaptation is an integral part of beating very unorthodox playstyles. If what you're doing isn't working, either you will lose or do something else. Scrubs can be very consistent in what they do, which is exceptionally frustrating, so be ready to change mental tracks when you need to.
- Pick apart your gameplay. Why are you losing? What's causing you to lose in particular? Is it that you keep rushing in and getting Shield Grabbed? Do you keep getting caught by random randy Fsmashes? Most of the time when fighting scrubs, your flaws are being too eager to be aggressive, so never fear hanging back and playing defensively instead. As Bo mentioned, scrubs usually have a very weak offensive game, so capitalize on that by making them have to rely on it.
- Make the changes. Realizing what's going on is half the battle in countering scrubby gameplay; actually making the adjustments is the other half.
- Be consistent. If you waver in your play, scrubs are usually consistent enough to capitalize on overly aggressive styles, so make sure you tone down your game until you are in a clearly advantageous position like the middle of a combo or an easy edgeguard situation. Sudden bursts of power between defensive bouts will overwhelm and confuse scrubs, throwing them on tilt.
- Be PATIENT. This is the biggest advice I can offer. Scrubs will thrive on winning stray hits and dodging your inappropriate offensives. Wait for openings or make them before you try and crack the shell. If you keep trying to land grabs, smashes, or meaty aerials, scrubs will keep avoiding them with rolls, spotdodges, and shields. Patience, Bo cautioned, is the central point in dealing with these playstyles. Playing conservatively minimizes the chance that scrubs get random stupid hits, meaning your psyche takes less of a beating as you keep winning piece by piece.
Pulling the Scrubs Off
As I said before, everyone is varying degrees of scrubby. So how can those who feel they are “fully scrubs” improve? Bo has some comments on how many get better in table tennis:
Well a lot of "suboptimal" players in the table tennis community end up learning to combine their "suboptimal" styles with more optimal styles… But most often they just play against a lot of optimal players, and they try to find even more creative ways to play "suboptimally" in order to win.
Of course, certain scrubby behaviors should be largely eliminated, like being one directional and maladaptive, or not understanding the fundamentals of Smash, spacing, combos, and edgeguards. Your tournament success is highly limited without proper application of these concepts. But that doesn’t mean that you have to eliminate your playstyle entirely.
Every player has distinctive habits. They do things because they like certain techniques or tactics. Some players like particular moves or using ledges or rolls to turn tides of the battle. Others might like using grabs to combo opponents. What makes someone scrubby is trying to do these things thoughtlessly, without an understanding of fundamentals, or that spamming is bad for your playstyle, or that refusing to vary your algorithms or at least make them multidimensional makes for bad play. But the way you approach offense and defense in Smash is what gives you your characteristic playstyle.
There’s certainly a chance for you to improve and still keep some of your style in your play. Your Fox Illusion spam is not going to get you anywhere useful, but maybe learning setups and applying ideas of fundamentals and spacing with creativity will help you pull off sick combos. Certainly, you should avoid being overtly predictable, but your mannerisms make up your Smash identity. It is certainly possible to make your scrubby habits into good ones by learning Smash “properly” before molding your personal style.
Closing Remarks
Playing against lower-level or scrubby players is an issue I struggled with very personally for a long time. Now, I find myself confident in battling these types of players, the same way I feel confident in certain matchups.
It took months to simply realize that I needed to relax, focus, and adapt properly to different characters. It took at least a year to realize that I need to play every match on its own. I need to be fluid and calm and if I find I cannot control the flow of the game, stop struggling and let myself play on whatever terms let me gain control. I made scrubs regret trying to camp and slow down the match, regret playing algorithmically with just shield grabs and rolls and Nayru’s Love and Egg Roll and Forward Smash. I stopped letting scrubs control me, and started controlling myself and my own psyche. And I’ve seen success for it.
Thanks for reading, and special thanks to Bo for contributing, as well as /u/PlayOnSunday and /u/L_Pag for proofreading. We’ll see you next week.
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SmashCapps hoped this was as enjoyable to read for others as it was for him and that it will help Smash fans if they go to host an event. To keep up with his own writing adventures follow him on Twitter.
