I've been thinking a lot about RPS and Melee. I always saw it brought up by top players like Leffen and PPMD to describe certain situations and players and the neutral, but I was never really sure what it meant. I now assume that it basically means an option that beats another option- if your opponent always shields your Falco's lasers because he anticipates an aerial afterwards and shield beats attack, then you could beat that option by lasering and grabbing or lasering and empty hopping. This is a very basic thing that I thought about and describes how I currently look at RPS and the game- conditioning or predicting an opponent to anticipate a certain option and react with their 'winning' option when you threaten them, and then beating that option yourself.
However, I'm beginning to reconsider and doubt all of that. When I tried applying that guess of what RPS is to Fox, I was lost. I asked about RPS and Fox and the response I got was that Fox positions himself to force RPS situations, and then either whiff punishes with dash dance grab or stuffs their movement with an aerial or shine. They also mentioned that an RPS situation is an unreactable situation. But what confuses me is how one would force an RPS situation specifically as Fox. Obviously a short hop neutral air would beat some options- such as shield- but just throwing out a spaced nair so as to be in a position to pressure someone's shield if they put it up doesn't seem to fit the bill of an RPS situation or an unreactable situation. Overall, I'm just curious about how Fox approaches, how Fox and other characters can force RPS situations, and what exactly these situations are. Looking at the first paragraph I typed will give you a good idea about how much I currently know/what I think about RPS as of now, and you can find my question in this Reddit post (https://www.reddit.com/r/SSBM/comments/3rv5nc/daily_discussion_thread_110715/cwrxaf1)
I really want to understand this game, and I feel like understanding how RPS relates to the game and how one can force it safely is one of the steps to becoming good. I feel like I have some fundamental misunderstandings about it in the first paragraph, especially since I'm confused about applying the idea to Fox and was confused by what seemed to be a very basic answer.
However, I'm beginning to reconsider and doubt all of that. When I tried applying that guess of what RPS is to Fox, I was lost. I asked about RPS and Fox and the response I got was that Fox positions himself to force RPS situations, and then either whiff punishes with dash dance grab or stuffs their movement with an aerial or shine. They also mentioned that an RPS situation is an unreactable situation. But what confuses me is how one would force an RPS situation specifically as Fox. Obviously a short hop neutral air would beat some options- such as shield- but just throwing out a spaced nair so as to be in a position to pressure someone's shield if they put it up doesn't seem to fit the bill of an RPS situation or an unreactable situation. Overall, I'm just curious about how Fox approaches, how Fox and other characters can force RPS situations, and what exactly these situations are. Looking at the first paragraph I typed will give you a good idea about how much I currently know/what I think about RPS as of now, and you can find my question in this Reddit post (https://www.reddit.com/r/SSBM/comments/3rv5nc/daily_discussion_thread_110715/cwrxaf1)
I really want to understand this game, and I feel like understanding how RPS relates to the game and how one can force it safely is one of the steps to becoming good. I feel like I have some fundamental misunderstandings about it in the first paragraph, especially since I'm confused about applying the idea to Fox and was confused by what seemed to be a very basic answer.