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Dang, how did you teach yourself to have such erratic & unpredictable movement?Quickly glancing over it, looks like I did a full length dash into WD and then faked a dash back in but cut it out early with a WD back. This would give me speed and also confuse the opponent about which direction I would move and how far I would move. The WD back at the end also serves to give me space to react to whatever happens next.
That stuff was all pretty intentional but it comes from very serious practice and thinking. Even if I could be that fast before that tourney, I couldn't have been so hard to follow without the training.
He got a lot of help from Cactus before Apex, who along with PP is the dashdance master. I believe he was referring to those few weeks of practice in his last sentenceDang, how did you teach yourself to have such erratic & unpredictable movement?
I'm pretty sure that he's following a rhythm but with dotted sixteenth notesDang, how did you teach yourself to have such erratic & unpredictable movement?
Cactus and I discussed DD'ing and its intricacies for a long time, but there was none of that before Apex. By that time I had been doing plenty of the work on my own. Playing with Cactus was somewhat helpful training though.He got a lot of help from Cactus before Apex, who along with PP is the dashdance master. I believe he was referring to those few weeks of practice in his last sentence
I'm pretty sure that he's following a rhythm but with dotted sixteenth notes
Gotcha,I actually rewatched the YouTube videos you two and zhu made during that time at school today. Pretty interesting stuff. You and Cactuar doing a team stream like smash practice is my melee fantasy.Cactus and I discussed DD'ing and its intricacies for a long time, but there was none of that before Apex. By that time I had been doing plenty of the work on my own. Playing with Cactus was somewhat helpful training though.
And thus my fantasy becomes realityI think Cactus and I would do a pretty good stream together. I should ask him to try that when I come visit him later.....
Cactuar is his tag but lots of people just call him cactus. He's the one that actually started this thread. Old school green Marth and fox that put a lot more effort into helping others improve (namely M2k and pp) than his own tourney results. Super cool dude and you can look up smash practice on YouTube to see some of his videos with zhu. Currently lives in norcal.btw can someone fill up on this Cactus guy? I've never heard of this name be4
Waveland and DJ are both good for different reasons so try both.Hey PP, On stages like battlefield, when trying to combo a character on the side platforms. I like your option (when close enough to the ledge) you waveland onto the platform->d-throw->drop down reverse shield breaker because the shield breaker does extend a little bit down if they try to sweetspot ledge
But that's beside the point, in situation likes those,would it be better to just waveland or should I just double-jump instantly to (forget the term) autoland? I feel like the animation mixes up the opponent as well and kinda slick
I also have some trouble getting back onto stage against Falco's because usually they'll stick a safe distance away and just laser and if I do anything, i'll just get lasered, f-tilted off or f-throwed off. I know I can come up and counter, but it'd help to know some other options because I feel like that works once a set.
I also have trouble acting out of getting lasered. For example,I usually just spam A to get the jab when I actually do want the jab but does that do something towards my input? Should I just time it to when right after I get out of hitlag from the laser?
Okay last one, when your opponent has invincibility I notice a lot of people have certain routines they like to do. M2k likes to grab ledge. When you're Falco you like to full jump to wherever (top platform, straight up). Or when you're marth you like to jump to top platform and waveland back. In my case i also like doing the last option, but most of the time instead of that I end up just dash-dancing near the ledge. This gets me cornered and I become vulnerable. I like to just weave into my opponent because I feel that's really confusing towards the opponent. (Ever since I began, that was like my favorite thing to do on people. It's slick, and I feel like i'm the dashdance master) They eventually read it and I just get grabbed or I get hit by a long hitbox. Should I at that point shield right before I weave then wavedash -> dash in if they don't attack or wavedash onto the ledge? etc. I know probably all marths struggle with this but knowing some tips would be awesome.
Think about your attacks first and your movement second. Zone with aerials and movement, poke with Dtilt, approach with grab or rising Fair, counterattack with pivot grab/fair. Find the full range you can threaten the opponent at and they can threaten you at and stay at that range before committing to any mixups.Hey, pp I have trouble controlling the pace of the match sometimes Im not sure entirely how to I guess, besides just using presence to zone your opponent. I try and use my wavedashes in a way that force my opponent to either back up or try and grab me and then punish with a wavedash back most of the time and start a combo, I'm not sure what else I should be doing.
Thanks a ton for replyingWaveland and DJ are both good for different reasons so try both.
For Falco you should delay when you actually get back onto the level and when you refresh your invincibility so you can throw off the Falco's laser timing and get up while invincible just after a laser goes over you.
Don't mash jab, learn to time it.
Move forward like you want to run through them, then move back. Shield could also work sometimes too.
Think about your attacks first and your movement second. Zone with aerials and movement, poke with Dtilt, approach with grab or rising Fair, counterattack with pivot grab/fair. Find the full range you can threaten the opponent at and they can threaten you at and stay at that range before committing to any mixups.
I can give you a few tips hopefully although im sure this is late, but it can still help for the future. Since this is a skill ive been struggling with, ive had to do some soul searching and theorycrafting to figure out what im doing wrong and i think more then anything, i allow myself to go into this half auto-pilot mode where im paying attention to things that arent working when i do them but im not focusing enough on how people are acting/reacting and so even though i can tell what im doing wrong and what they did to counter it, im also not giving myself the full information on each given situation because im not paying attention to the way my opponent is seeing the game and so the only info i gather is that option A in scenario (insert number) got beating by opponents option X. This doesnt help me because my option could very well have worked under different circumstances if i had known what my opponent was spacing himself/herself for.Alright, smashfest tonight with colbol pi and drunksloth. Gonna try and focus on adaptation (because out of everything it seems like this is what separates the best players from the good players), understanding why they choose the options they choose, and using the movement options I've been grinding over the last couple days.
Any advice to maximize what I get from this session?
Chances are you are fully committing when you want to go in and getting punished. You should do compound approaches and/or fakes, meaning pretend to go get them and then either hit them or pull back and observe how they responded.on a somewhat similar note.
Dr Peepee im having difficulty figuring out how best to dominate neutral vs campy foxs and falcos. If the fox or falco is content to just sit back and laser until i commit then im not sure what to pressure them without putting myself at risk of being opened up and i generally do get opened up. I suppose part of my issue may be that im not sure how to use DD in a more directly aggressive manner while still being non-committal but im not sure if im on the right track there. If i am correct then what kind of mindset(s) should i be having about how to be more proactive with my DD without putting myself at a significant risk?
I feel that im just not mentally approaching this problem in the right way.
I heard many very skilled players saying I was "just dash dancing" after Apex 2015 and it was very saddening to me because of the effort I had to put into understanding it and myself in order to do that well. I respect your effort and understanding =)Dr Peepee These are some of my thoughts I've come up with in the past day or so, it's a bit scattered but I'll do my best to organize it, I really hope some of it makes sense to anyone out there
You, or any great player, rarely put yourself in a position of restriction be it with Falco or Marth. It seems to be a battle of positioning, and confidence. People may question why you'd move so close to your opponent, but you're not letting your opponents moves control you in a way that's defeating to you. You are not responding to their resources (Moves like turnips, Falcon's Nair, Marth's d-tilt) out of defeat with losing moves built on a lack of confidence (Shielding too much, running away, y'know). You don't disrespect these moves, but you hold a position that says you're not afraid of them. You are responding positively. You've trained yourself to be confident in the face of a player like Armada pulling a turnip, you'll close gaps against players like S2J or Leffen. For just about anyone playing this game, they will be playing the underdog role for a very long time, if the proper mental fortitude/confidence is trained, then advantages against seemingly stronger opponents can be opened up to them that were previously invisible. Even against opponents who are doing their best to restrict you, you seem free. (Watching you vs Armada at Apex 2013 led me to that) You understand how Peach dash attack or Falcon's Nair or Sheik's F-tilt wants you to respond, and you do this against opponents who are pretty smart themselves! There are players who understand what those moves are doing, of course, (Of course I'd like to not be hit by Peaches dash attack) but there are few who have broken a confidence barrier that allows them to play the game in such away as to not actually be afraid of getting hit by a Peach dash attack from a player of ANY skill-level. (There are some more points to this but I'm sure you get it). Which in my opinion, shows a truly great player.
Trust and confidence in yourself to perform after testing your ideas was built with presumably much trial and error. You aren't a one trick either. Sets of you or Armada all look different, there isn't one single trick to winning with Peach or Marth. It isn't just dash dancing and throwing turnips to dash attacks. Too often too many players will get hit by a move, just one single move, and it'll be game over for them. When you tell people to build up confidence, clarity, and focus, I realize now you really really mean it and just how deep that goes into anyone's performance.
I'll leave it at that.
Adaptation comes from a few different places. It comes from relaxation but sharp focus. It comes from understanding. It can even come from changing your emotional state. If you have the ability to use all of these methods well then you should fear no player.Kopaka thought provoking post. I've often wondered how much of the incredible performances of top players come from their knowledge of the game, and much of them come from their confidence in their knowledge of the game. I think this is a topic that ties pretty easily into adaption, because that's where game knowledge is best displayed. I've always been curious how much of top player adaption to an opponent is conscious critical thinking as they play a set, and how much is just implementing previously learned adjustments as different tools are used against them. Dr Peepee I'm sure you've been asked this before, but how do you personally adapt during a match?
thanks PP. i guess playing true offense with such a committal character puts me a little out of my comfort zone and i need to practice and learn how to feel out people's responses when im the one approaching, because im much more used to play a DD game that revolves around having opponents approach me or working around playing a neutral where both of us are trying to get in but i dont have experience with finding ways to play around my opponents expectations of how i will approach. Would you say that maybe some of your sets vs hungrybox or maybe hugs would be good to watch for that? maybe some of mango's sets vs campy players as well id assume since hes got a very fleshed out aggro game in general.Chances are you are fully committing when you want to go in and getting punished. You should do compound approaches and/or fakes, meaning pretend to go get them and then either hit them or pull back and observe how they responded.
So generally it's better to just move around the opponent's attacks?In the ditto spotdodge is kinda okay, but generally his spotdodge is terrible. Not a great amount of invincibility frames and a lot of cooldown on it, plus his actions out of spotdodge are slower too.
Drift back Fair should be safe, so either your drift is off or your action after the fair is what's punishing you. Late Fair/Nair/Uair and maybe Dair are safe on shield. Spaced Bair is safe too as is spaced Fair and Nair.ily PP, I was wondering what's the best option for shield pressure once you're in the air. I know Marth's aerials aren't the best on shield, but it's a situation I put myself in all too often. Drift back f-air almost always gets punished but it might be me.I'd love to see you back, so get well soon!
I think I was trying FH Dair OOS and it was working fairly well in that situation. SH Dair sometimes when Puff is at higher percent. I guess you could also just jump out and go to a platform lol.I'm really trying to think of better ways to handle certain little situations in the Puff matchup. I try to avoid letting puff land in front of my shield while able to crouch, but I'm not always able to avoid getting caught in that situation. Obviously if Puff isn't in lag, grabbing is a huge risk, so I never go for that. So that leaves me with the following options that I tend to mix up.
Wavedash back OoS: Gives me some distance if I have stage behind me. Still kinda dangerous though cause I can get hit during the start, or if Puff predicts it.
Roll: Probably not the best but sometimes it works out. I try not to roll because I know the puff will usually kill me for it.
Aerial OoS: Fair comes out on top so I feel like that's a pretty awful option since it really doesn't cover below Marth well. I guess dair is probably better?
I was wondering if I'm missing any other options that I could mix in. Would you recommend dair OoS? I'm really hesitant to try to aerial OoS because I feel like I'll get hit by an uptilt or something before I get the aerial out. I've also flirted with the idea of using Up-B if I'm underneath top platform and can reach it. I feel like especially if Puff is at high %s, that might work out pretty well. Do you see any issues with that?
Yes this is true. Taking the idea a step farther, you can learn they might try to do this Fair before they even do it if they fit into patterns you've learned from playing other Sheiks. This is why analysis and playing many different people is so valuable, you can see a variety of situations and how people typically make related choices in all situation types.Dr Peepee You've mentioned paradigms created for each player you face to beat them as quick as possible, which is something I didn't understand before. You create paradigms based on information you've gained from your opponent based on a number of things like how he's hitting you, or how he feels safe hitting you in a pattern, definitely many more examples. Then you put these paradigms to work by doing something like an example of: Sheik repeatedly trying to zone you with Short hop forward airs, so you approach her with Marth's short hop Nair in a way that it hits her just as she lands and begins her next jump, before she can get her Fair out. The Marth player has recognized Sheik feels comfortable doing that move to zone you, so he's used his own tools in a way to attack that comfort zone and send her off stage. I believe doing that alone definitely sends some sort of signal to the opponent to try and find a new way of zoning you.
Oh yeah it is! That's funny I joined on my mom's birthday.Dr Peepee as fox, when marth counters my up b from the stage, how should I DI? (I guess this is kind of a fox boards question). I assume up and away/up
Also happy smashboards anniversary! Its been 9 years for you!!!
In my view, the only motivators worth controlling are inner ones. Everything follows through after that.I began writing kind of for fun.
The process of learning a thing is something I've been kind of interested in (and struggling with) for a while now.
What I claim to know is probably very faulty and a lot of that isn't even something I really know, but this should be good for organizing some thoughts and stuff.
It starts with a will.
Then you build a basis.
Then you stack one thing after another on that basis. Some things can be "completely stacked", fully learned. Most can't. At least as long as we remain human.
The will is probably the most important part. And something I struggle with lots. Sources for motivation are preferably innate. Outside motivators require at least somewhat constant engagement with the source. Ones that come from inside oneself are more constant, but require specific skills in order to control. There is no motivator that is completely (100%) in one or the other category.
This made the following questions pop up, to which I couldn't find answers.
What kind of motivators can be controlled? What kind of motivators are likely to lead to the greatest personal growth? What I mean is, give skills that can be effectively applied widely. How can one control motivators (on this I have vague ideas).
Sorry for not bothering with looking for resources etc. and coming straight here, haha.
you know we did one before apex 2015 right? zhu was there too it was pretty good.dudeeee i want the kevin and charlie stream