A New Plateau

[mdmfromdaridge]

I like to consider myself a decent smasher. I am competent enough to compete on a tournament level, but not good enough to really get anywhere. I've worked tirelessly to make my Diddy more and more worthy of tournament play, learning mix-up's, AT's, strategies, options, physics; everything I can in order to make drastic improvements. Most of my training, unfortunately, MUST come for online play. Although it is undenyably better to play in person, I would disagree if you said that online play offered no benefits (assuming that there was little to no lag.) After playing on Faux Finder for a while, I decided to change the source of my opponents over to the All is Brawl ladder, in order to find more competative and challenging opponents. (aside from zamz, spartakick, BTC and a couple other FF smashers, most of them were becoming to easy) I moved to all is brawl a few days ago, and have had a terrible time playing.

My record on the ladder is 12-30~. It's sad. I can't seem to reel in the victories, and a lot of the losses I have are shut outs. After coming far to close to throwing my controller through my television and then taking a flamethrower to my wii, I started thinking about it.

I think i've hit a new plateau. I've topped out....again. And I'm having a TERRIBLE time overcoming it. It seems that none of the things I had learned before really work on my new opponents. I know it's because I'm not thinking hard enough, but the problem is I'm having a terrible time coming up with ways to beat them. Although I'm sure experience will help, I would really appreciate an outside source.

Could someone please give me a few pointers on overcoming this new gameplay plateau! I'm sure after I start progressing again I can continue rising through the ranks, but I've hit a massive brickwall and can't seem to find a way around it.

 

[B.A.M.]

well ill tell you one thing. Learn to step out of your set mix-ups and predict is always a mark of a truly good player. You cant just through out some setup and think itll work flawlessly. Also understand failure in one situation can mean success in another. Remember ur opponents tendencies. It seems like ur not even paying attention to your opponents habits by the way you are writing. This is very important when playing with top level players. They are less apparent but still gold mines if you find them. Also dont punish something just because you can. Take note of it; that may be your kill setup later on.

You need to realize in this game there are battles within the battle. Each situation propagates a new one and being able to recall situation aids you in the prediction aspect. You also have reaction speed but thats something you just have to keep on working on. Also work on differing timings. learn to buffer appropiately ( really easy given brawl's (and smash in general) grace period) and wait a bit before follow ups. Practice on playing different styles (aggro, camp, reactive etc.) and learn to identify when to ultize which. Know when ur gettin baited. For example; Meta's double dsmash is the dumbest bait ever. If you shield the first hit, not even powershield but shield it. You have up to 15 frames (?) i believe to punish. So know what you can and cant punish. Space appropiately.

If you want to be character specific; actually take sometime to actually think while your play diddy. Alot of diddys just throw out base setups that every1 who plays with an average diddy main knows and then they get wrecked. Dont auto-pilot. Try to step out of the mold with your character. You have to build yourself up as a player. Being an average diddy main means you lose to any1 who actually knows the matchup. Step out of those boundaries you probably built by urself coming to this site. Theres valuable info here; but theres tons of things you have to find for yourself to reach that next level.

Know that theres tons of things pro's do that seem like they should always work, but in actuality are just solid reads and can be DI or SDIed teched or straight up just punished. Just a pro gets hit by a said combination doesnt mean its completely legit and whenever that happens to you you have to just take it just the same. Theres mindgames involved in the videos and prediction processes going on you cant see by watching a vid.

Play with a cool mind and go into every game thinking about how you can legitamitely win. If you dont think you can, then stop playing. Oh and try stuff in friendlies please. I hate ppl who play the same way over and over in friendlies like its tourney. Friendlies are MADE for you to learn and try out new tatics vs a competent player. Figure out WHY they didnt work or why they do or if its the character or the player as to why it landed. Learn the game, play other characters so you can know your options and their mindset. Its pretty dumb not to play Metaknight if alot of ppl pick him up for a failsafe. It makes it exponentially easier to own ur opponent if you can proverbially place yourself in their shoes. Thats all i got right now. I got ish to do.

 

[mdmfromdaridge]

Thanks, a great reply. Although I TRY to mix it up, it always helps to get someone to put in a different light then I'm used too.

 

[DFEAR]

play diff every match with one thing in mind. learn ur opponent before he learns you. adaption is key. it may sound simple but it can become very complex. reading patterns are different from habits (autopilot is a habit). once you can get the jist of it down just apply it into gameplay and see where it takes you. it will most likely give you the win unless an outside source (aka bad gay homo stages) interfere.

every matchup is diff as well as along with players. some players choke to camping, while others choke to pressure. learn what is best to do in certain situations against certain people and characters and you will find your win. BNB of winning.

btw read this:
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=271152

most people will overclass themselves. like i used to think i was a 3.5 but in actuality im a 2 to high 2. i would consider seibrik and nick riddle a 3 for example. nobody a 4 around here. but just because i beat nick riddle often does not mean im better than him in NO SHAPE OR FORM, he is clearly a better player he just has trouble adapting to my gayness of which i call my diddy lol

 

[mdmfromdaridge]

Ironically Dfear, I read that thread twice about a week before I started playing on AiB. The way I saw it, is that I was involved in a bell curve that I was finally reaching the further end of, and then AiB presented another learning curve. The one that I have been persuing this whole time. Back to phase 1 lol.

 

[DFEAR]

theres no rush bro. patience will reward you.

 

[AvaricePanda]

I'm not sure about universally, but two things really helped me improve and can hopefully help you.

1) What do you do well? What do you do badly? Try to bring out your strengths and weaknesses; when you concretely know why you're doing well or badly then it's easier to improve. For example, I think the best part of my gameplay is reading, so I watch and analyze the opponent a ton and do notably worse when they're being unpredictable. Conversely, I'm not as good at watching my own habits and patterns mid-match, so recently I've been working on learning more mix-ups and being generally less predictable.

Knowing what you're looking for makes improving a lot easier; you can actually feel like you're improving every single match and not just playing another person.

2) Watch videos of your character. They don't always have to be of pros; you can take things from people on your skill level or maybe worse as well. Watching videos, for me at least, would usually teach me one or two little tricks that helped me get out of small slumps. For example, way back in early 09 I watched an ADHD vs. M2K set and implemented a lot more z-dropping in my game. I watched a random 20 second video from The Nanerz titled, "Oh Good Read," in which he threw a banana at a Peach and made her trip, but instead of trying to dash attack, he predicted that she'd roll backwards, so he kept running and grabbed her out of the roll. After seeing that, I started watching how they get out of a banana slip and punished accordingly. Little things like that helped me a lot.

Hopefully that helps.