Auto-Piloting

[Im Fragbait]

Hello everyone,

I seem to keep having trouble when it comes to tournament matches, I continuously autopilot and don't think about what the other player is doing. This probably has to do with the fact that i only play with really good players every once in a while, and the people i play with on the regular are sub par. When i play with them i tend to focus on upping my combo and punish game, but i never look for patterns or anything cause they are so free you know. Anyways i guess my question is does anyone have any tips on how not to auto pilot, and whats your mind set during a match.

 

[ECHOnce]

Auto-piloting can be a good or bad thing, depending on some other habits you commit to. Literally just wrote two applicable posts and don't feel like retyping lol.

Start reading up on theory work about smash neutral game and improvement; it'll help to better your understanding of how you should go about improving, and what situations may be counterproductive to certain aspects of improvement. For example - you practice often, but are unable to beat an opponent who doesn't, despite them appearing to play much worse than you (tech-wise). This would imply that you're lacking in some other aspect of play; you may be improving or maintaining better tech, but it'll be useless if you don't tackle the actual root of the problem. Figure out what that is. From the sounds of it, it's neutral game and spacing, which are often common issues that players who don't get much player-practice have. Find players who are better than you. Neutral/spacing can be read about and integrated into your play by painstakingly teaching yourself against a player who doesn't also reciprocate the same effort/knowledge (since they're just using what they have and don't plan to improve; you're not learning anything from them), or finding better players who have a good neutral game and getting more interactive "examples" to draw from. It makes it much easier to learn a tactic when you're repetitively beaten by it, since it convinces you of how good it is, and you're gathering examples of where it seems to work best and not, so you don't even have to go out researching articles or observing top players (as much) and hoping you figure it out in your own. For that reason, even if you despise the lag on Netplay, it can be useful. If you're not going to any local tournaments anyways, it might actually be better for you to convert mostly to Netplay, and just maintain some tech practice occasionally on console. You'll find tons of crazy players who can prob best the crap out of you online lol.

This is an amazing skill to learn; being able to manage your focus and allot some of it towards noticing what your and your opponent are doing that's good/bad, and being able to come up with solutions and adapt. Pretty commonly brought up in player advice, but very few actually learn how to do so proficiently. Record some matches and experiment with some scenarios, where you could've used other options, and study that to the extent where...when you're next playing someone, it becomes as simple/instinctive as picking one of 2-5 RPS moves, or Pokemon moves that's most appropriate. If you can make that step, it'll require less focus to go into "observer" mode, and so you can use it without autopiloting to such a degree.

This applies to anyone obv, but it's hard to observe anything during autopilot in the first place for a good chunk of players lol.

 

[Im Fragbait]

Auto-piloting can be a good or bad thing, depending on some other habits you commit to. Literally just wrote two applicable posts and don't feel like retyping lol.

Thanks :D this is going to help me a ton but any other help/suggestions is always appreciated

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

Hello everyone,

I seem to keep having trouble when it comes to tournament matches, I continuously autopilot and don't think about what the other player is doing. This probably has to do with the fact that i only play with really good players every once in a while, and the people i play with on the regular are sub par. When i play with them i tend to focus on upping my combo and punish game, but i never look for patterns or anything cause they are so free you know. Anyways i guess my question is does anyone have any tips on how not to auto pilot, and whats your mind set during a match.

This does not sound like auto-pilot to me.

It sounds like you are doing the right thing to practice against people who are not as proficient as you. Playing players who are not at your level gives you freedom to experiment or simply try to stay consistent. The auto-pilot I think comes into play when you start doing stuff that is not good because worse players let you get away with doing it. In this way, you build up habits which are risky and generally will not work against better players.