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StoicPhantom
It's more like I have trouble dealing with sudden shifts in momentum and burst options. It's nothing huge like not being able to react to Ganon Fsmash or something, but it's noticeable and something I struggle with. There always seems to be a slight pause whenever I do a reaction and that can often help my opponent escape or pressure. Like there is a delay in the process of my brain sending signals to my body that it's time to do something. So like even if I anticipate a roll, I can't do a lot to really punish it sometimes. I've been losing to roll behind -> grab since Smash 4. I know they're going to do it, but sometimes I can't seem to do anything to stop it.

Same thing with aggressive aerial spam. It's not necessarily reacting to the first hit, it's the subsequent ones that are the issue. I can barely pull of shielding a Roy Fair, so I'm not prepared or able to handle the other options. If he continues attacking I can keep shielding, but if he mixes up with grab, I'm pretty much doomed. I just have lot of trouble processing all the information of his spacing and DI. It's also why I struggle significantly against characters like Mario, Falcon, Yoshi, Ness, and all the Links.

In Smash 4 I just had to worry about some characters being able to mash and blitz all over the place. It seems to be an actual mechanic in Ultimate. I'm having trouble keeping up with all the sheer amount of options in this game. It isn't the first option or the second buffered one, it's the third or the fourth. Having them dodge my Up-air into a landing that I attempt to punish only for them to have buffered a roll, then do a frame 3 Nair or something right after that. Being able to think ahead and keep up with all of that is difficult.

Not just defense, I can have trouble reacting to my own setups. Baiting an option OoS like a jump or spot-dodge, only to not be able to react to the option and miss an opportunity or even get punished for it. It becomes this really silly thing where I do the hard part of laying the trap and then fail at the easier part of executing it. Or even just capitalizing on my opponent's mistake.

It's not like this happens every time, but it's frequent enough to affect outcomes of games. There have been countless games where I've built a two stock lead, only for my opponent to go hyper aggressive mashing and running all over the stage and that lead then quickly vanishes and it's up in the air whether I can clutch or lose to a random Fsmash. Like I can do well against skilled opponents, but not the common masher or skilled opponents that notice my issues. I can handle most of the cast, but not the ones that can easily spam and DI all over the place.
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StoicPhantom
That's why I gravitate to characters that can zone. It's easier to keep opponents at bay and give me time to think and react. I'm very bad with combo and close range characters because I can't seem to keep up with all the DI and micro movements to play them. I don't think changing characters will help either, I think this is a pretty fundamental issue.

I don't really know how much this will affect my potential though.
Oz o:
Oz o:
When you put it like that, it makes me think it might mostly be a thing of the game itself. I do a ton of a reading, and most of my play is always just trying to read what my opponent is going to do afterwards, rather than what they're doing my now. My friend and opponent won't sit still, and it's honestly pretty annoying. After each attack on my shield I know I can't just shield grab, so I constantly have to react to his defensive option (usually roll or jump away). It's really annoying when you have the option read, like when they just airdodge into a platform and they can suddenly shield or attack.

It might not be all in your head, honestly. But if you're planning on playing this game in the long run, it's something you ought to get used to. This game thought me how to be quick and how to make the most out of OoS punishes.
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StoicPhantom
Ultimate is part of the problem yeah and I'm not the only one having issues. The overall faster speed and amount of options seems to make it more difficult than some of the other Smash games. It's simply more demanding and that can overall affect your play.

However, I do suffer these issues in other competitive games I've played and even other physical stuff like sports, back when I could still play them, or just stuff in general.

And not just anecdotes and my subjective experience either, I've actually had visual-motor skills clinically tested and scored well below average, relative to my age and sex. Like bottom ten percent in most of them. So it's not just my perception, there are actual physical issues, I just don't know how much they come into play in regards to fighting games. Like how much physical abilities like reaction time and stamina come into play versus practice. Obviously this is a physical activity so they are going to come into play regardless, just don't know if they are the bottom line at high/top level play or not.

It's one thing to have average or slightly below, but having significantly below average visual-motor skills makes me wonder if that won't limit my potential at higher level play. Supposedly Marss has lower reaction time relative to the other top players, but I don't know about anyone that has actual motor impairment.

Although in regards to Ultimate, I did do some combo practice with Talim in Soul Calibur 6 yesterday for a bit. I didn't get to play it much, on account of its release date being a month from Smash Ultimate and computer issues. I might start playing it alongside Ultimate, being that it's kind of difficult to improve beyond a certain level with this trash of online and too much Ultimate online isn't good for my mental health lol. I can use it as a test to see if my issues still persist or not and hopefully improve my overall fundamentals in a game with an actual connection filter.
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Oz o:
Oz o:
Even if it’s not high/top level play, it shouldn’t stop you from getting better within your range. Top level isn’t exactly easy to achieve, regardless.

Could you tell me where it’s stated that Marss has that issue? That’s pretty curious. Really hard to believe, too. Dude’s an easy Top 5 of the world. If anything, it should motivate people. I used to head that apparently M2K had slow reactions, back in the day. He was a Top Melee and Brawl player.
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