~ Gheb ~

It's closed now.

Ok Gheb, I tried reading defensive options yesterday, but I noticed that you gave a flow chart which I always refered too, but an issue was that I couldn't punish exactly how you said, or situations just never happened, especially the dodge cross ups. I think I was able to get it once. And another thing was that it worked very well on the mid/low level players, but when it came to the high level players, the reading defensive options almost never seemed to apply because they would use movement or attacks to outspace me, and it never seemed to really matter to punish those options unless they were habits.

It did though help me beat lower/mid level players at a higher consistency & w/ out losing much % or stocks.

And the main thing I noticed from the tournament was that my character control of Pit was not on the level it needed to be, nor was my mindgames or pressure game or approach game. I feel I have 5 approaches w/ Pit: 1)Fair, 2)Dair, 3)Side-B, 4)Roll Behind, 5)Walk or Dash Shield. And from this info, do you have any more advice on where I should go?

Ok, thank you Gheb! And bro there is a free tournament too, so I'll keep those things in mind & hopefully I can apply them to the tournament, but I think I'm getting there as soon as it starts though sadly, but I'll print out what you said & look @ it every match cuz I'm forgetful.

vs panel is up.

I don't actually remember your name on facebook though lol. Let me know it when you get a chance.

Oh I will put you visible on chat. I only usually have Leap of Faith visible on chat but I like talking to you lol so I will put you on visible. There are a good amount of people I like speaking to but I forget to put them on visible (like Nairo, Vinnie, you....that might be it lol. Oh sometimes M2K when he's not nagging me for something.)

I'm on smashboards 20 times more than Skype and 500 times more than aim lol. I haven't used aim in years. I'm on facebook more than smash websites but I'm guessing you don't have one?

Then why is it your avi lol?

What's your avi? I know it's a superhero/villian, but I can't remember who that is.

Sweet, thanks I hope to make it out to at least one big EU/Germany tournament before Brawl runs its course!

Ew :/ well... at least now I know for sure that I can't make it regardless of my internship plans lol. That's unfortunate... do you guys have any big tournaments planned for the next year?

OH THANK THE HEAVENS. The current date was conflicting with my primary internship plans and I was kinda upset that I'd have to pass on FD :x

If you guys could move it back to like... August 10/11, that would be ideal for me since the internships I'm aiming for end on the 9th. If you're moving it up, the earlier in June the better. What's the current situation looking like?

Unfortunately I'll be focusing on professional development before making FD, so I wouldn't have much (if any) time to tour around even if the tournament date works out. But in the event that things change I'll let you guys know :D

Nah, it went by in a few days lol. Nothing more than a slightly runny nose. Thanks for the concern though

Bro, what is your skype?

dothatgwalk, and bro, I've been reaching out to you for a while! I guess that's why you never responded.

$2 dl mm at apex?

sure, i can stay marth if youd like

$5 money match @ apex?

Yeah, but I keep up with him on FB. He's traveling alone :x

Merry Christmas Gheb!

Mate, people were mentioning Discworld so I went to read it.

Holy...we are so good.

Hmmmmm.

Idk Gheb, you've really got me thinking a lot about this.

I'm giving it some more thought, as well as doing some research, and I can see how the pledge might be harmful is some ways. America is suppose to be a free country. Like, we make a pretty big deal out of that. The government doesn't make it required for public schools to recite the pledge, but lots of people still encourage it greatly. Idk, it just doesn't really seem to be a just a "free" thing to me if you're forced (or just strongly encouraged, which is still bad) to pledge allegiance to something that you may not like or even fully understand.

Plus, from a psychological PoV, I wouldn't doubt that just a repetitive practice could have some type of conditioning effects on children. Still don't think that this was the intention, but it's a possible consequence.

p.s. I'm not accusing you of being condescending, I'm just offering an alternative as to why American's may be reluctant to agree with you.

p.p.s. You specifically called out the American Dgamers as "evidence" that your hypothesis that the "brainwashing" was at least somewhat successful. Since you called us out, I feel like my focus on the term you used is justified.

Well you use the term brainwashing a lot, and you definitely make it seem like you're calling out Americans specifically.

If you don't like the idea of children being taught to not question authority, then fine, I can agree with you on that. However I would only agree with you on that because I feel that humanity has evolved to a point where it's probably beneficial for individuals to think for themselves.

Can you agree though that children being taught to not question authority is probably more of a side effect of evolution than it is part of some larger conspiracy? Because if you can realize that, then I'll think that it would be hard to blame people for just being human.

Also, I don't believe that your parents never taught you obedience. I can believe that they might have encouraged critical thinking and independence in you, but I just can not believe that they entirely divorced the idea of teaching you obedience to them to at least some level. I mean, did you ever do anything as a child that they found to be morally wrong? If so, did they scold you for this? If so, then they taught at least some obedience to you.

EDIT: Sorry for the run-on sentences and the redundant word choice, but you get the point.

tl;dr: Humans want to feel exclusive and included. Customs are meant to reinforce this, and are almost always passed down from generation to generatiion instinctively. There are valid evolutionary explanations for this phenomenon. The pledge is not an attempt at brainwashing but rather simply a large scale exercise of this phenomenon. Yes it is an exercise of authority figures teaching the youth their own customs, and to an extent, to obey them. However, this is not an exclusively something that happens in America like your implying. This is just human nature practiced on a large scale.

Anyways, my conclusion that this isn't brainwashing is just my opinion, but it's based off of a lot things that I feel we can both agree are nearly facts.

Friended you so I wouldn't have to join the debate hall to talk about this.

Gheb, the reason no American is admitting to be brainwashed is not because the "brainwashing" was successful, but because it's insulting to suggest just. You're telling us that we're victims, but if that's true, then it's not very obvious to us. Since it doesn't seem likely to us that we've been victimized, it instead seems condescending. Are you telling us that we've been brainwashed because you legitimately want to help us, or do you just want to make a point? No matter what your intention truly is, it seems like the latter of the two.

Anyways, my thoughts on the pledge itself.

The constant reciting of the American pledge seems like a product of natural human psychology to me. Like, do you know of children sometimes have "secret" handshakes that they share only with their friends? Why do you think they do that? Imo, I think that children do that for the sense of exclusivity. People seem to like being in a club, especially exclusive clubs that only some people can be it. This gives people a sense of belonging. To me, the pledge is a large scale "secret handshake" (albeit not so secret) meant to install a sense of belonging in Americans.

Not convinced? I got more examples.

You ever wonder why people like to identify with sport teams so much? "I attend this university with this football (talking about American football here) team. I am a fan of this team. When this team wins, I'm happy. When my team loses, I get frustrated. If my team wins against another team that my friend likes, I am prone to 'trash talking' him." Ask yourself, why would anyone actually feel emotional about a sports team that they are not apart of? It's because that sports team gives team a sense of inclusion.

It's not too hard to extend this logic with people identifying themselves with their entire country. I know for a fact that you're a football (soccer) fan. I've seen you post status updates on facebook about the sport. Do you not identify with whatever soccer team you like? During the FIFA world cup, do you not want your country to do well?

The point is, is that people love to find external things to identify themselves with, and costumes (like the pledge) are ways to reinforce this sense of identification. This sense of exclusivity. This sense of belonging.

This all makes sense from an evolutionary stand point. Imagine in the days of old, when people lived only in tribes. I think it likely that each individual tribe had their own unique customs, so to reinforce the idea that their tribe was unique. Other people from other tribes had different customs, and thus they were outsiders. As just, one was to be cautious around an outsider, maybe even hate them. Why? Because maybe that outsider was a threat to their land, their food, their women, ect.. It might seem unethical from a modern PoV, but back then it was probably logical given that ones own survival wasn't guaranteed, like it is today (more or less).

I also think that it would have been logical for authority figures to try to install these customs into the children of the tribes. To try to install their sense of identity with their tribe. Sorry if it seems like I'm jumping from one topic to the next, but I think that you'll get what I'm getting at.

What I'm getting at is that I don't believe the pledge is a result of an attempt to brainwash the public, but rather simply a large scale implication of what I said above. After all, technically the American government doesn't force one to recite the pledge. Usually it's individual adults who reinforce it. I'm not saying that it's right, or that it hasn't been abused. The pledge was originally written simply to honor Columbus Day. Now we recite it every day in our public school systems. Also, the words, "one nation, under God" weren't originally in the pledge. They were edited in during the cold war as a conservative attempt to make it an "us" (Godly democratic Americans) vs. "them" (Godless communist Russians) thing. Is that ethical? Imo, no. Is that cheap patriotism? Imo, yes. Was it an attempt at brainwashing? Imo, kinda in the sense that they wanted to influence the American public, but I don't think that's what they're still using it for today. Today, I just think that it's a thing that's been passed down from generation to generation, because it's a custom that's been installed into the American psyche and, over time, has spread across the country.

Gheb, adults teach children how they believe they should act. Adults also teach them to obey them, do they not? Did your parents not demand obedience on at least some scale? We're they trying to brainwash you, or were they simply teaching you values and customs that they know, a practice in education that has been installed into us by evolution?

If people could take the train over, that would be sooo much easier for me, but if someone has a serious issue with that I can pick them up. Ride to the airport will be $5 one-way, train ticket is $15 one-way. Train brings people straight from the airport to my college campus, like a 10 minute drive vs 45, doubled (trip there and back for me) for a 70 minute difference in time spent. Much much nicer.

I haven't actually started planning anything lol, all I know is that things will work out and I will be housing a ridiculous amount of people

...and you're in. Welcome.

Hey, apply for the Debater group and I'll let you in!

I'll play your BiM. Can I please actually have a gun this time though? I've played three and drawn nothing but goon and bombs.

I suppose that just goes to show how much is the original post I read. I was just excited for there to be a huge tournament while I was going to be there and would get to meet you.
And thank you for the suggestion.

I'm onnnn my way

Planning on flying into the Netherlands, staying there for a bitbecause Ramin/Marc, from there the UK (plane, obv not train), then make my way to Germany and around southern Europe (maybe Spain, definitely Greece and Italy) head back up to Austria for your thing, back to Netherlands for a few days then back to the states.

That's just a first draft atm, but it's the general idea

I know public transportation in western Europe is God tier. I'm going backpacking through western Europe this summer ending up @ your tournament at the end of my trip. My question is, do you just buy a ticket for every trip? Or is it all standardized where I can buy a card and just reload it when I need to?

Gheb are there any videos of Abadango's Wario from recent tournies in doubles and singles? It'd be greatly appreciated if you could direct me to a channel or some specific videos.

Think you could shoot me a PM? Working on some crucial HW atm.

It can be just like first blush reactions and so on, then I can collect thoughts on your first impressions while you fully collect and flesh out your own thoughts until we can skype it up.

Great, I will look at them on Wednesday most likely when I get my Wii back from False.

Sure, my email is rurounikeitaro@msn.com

My fault, I fell back asleep and now I just woke up and I have to pick up my friend from the train station in 15 minutes

I see you're going to APEX, do you play Yugioh? If so interested in swapping foreign cards?