Ok here's a few things on how to improve your game:
Let's say for instance you're in a tournament. You lose to some random guy using X char.
These are the questions that you're supposed to ask yourself as soon as you lose,
What did I do wrong? What were my errors?
Relax, just remember the game that just went on and try to remember what exactly happened. Did you get outspaced numerous times? Did someone spam tornado on you? Did someone sit there and shield grabbed all day long? Did someone just keep you at the edge? Did you die repeatedly to the same circumstance? THINK PPL. I believe the source of the problem if you aren't doing well is because you aren't thinking.
"Well Havok, then that means they weren't my errors he's just playing gay!" WRONG. That right there is why you lose because you deny the fact that you fuked up and LET HIM play gay. (Planking is another thing altogether). How do you not get tornado'ed? Bait it silly, jump *he'll tornado* you jump away with your second jump then punish because his tornado is ending.
What could I have done different?
"Next time I'm going to try and bait X move and punish THIS way, maybe that will work."
You die instead. Ok, ill do it this way now! Die again.
It's rinse and repeat people! You try again and again until you get it down, this is especially true when you're trying to learn specific matchups.
What I just told you also applies in any other game, s*it even life.
Now let's reverse the situation, let's say only tornado DOES work on someone. Why stop? If he can't figure it out, stop his habit within the 3 matches you win. Press on it! Use your newly acquired observation and exploit the hell of it.
That winds down to playing the player, we all have bad habits. Me, you, oats, even mogX admitted he liked Tortas.
WEAKNESS. It's natural. However, you can stop them IF and ONLY IF you become aware of them. By aware i'm talking about you accepting the fact that you fall into X situation OVER and OVER, know you suck at that specific moment and are WILLING to do something about it. It won't be easy though but it can be done with time and practice. Or not, don't work on your game at all.
Keep mental notes of how matchups are supposed to go,
Well this char has a crappy recovery so I'm going to try to keep him offstage as much as possible and maybe even gimp.
Well this char doesn't have any out of shield options so I can pressure very easily.
Well this char doesn't have a good grab so I can etc etc.
Remember Brawl RELIES on you knowing the matchup's, if you don't you get owned. Games like street fighter are much more flexible because of their characters and dynamics of the game, it has larger margin between playing a certain style and playing the matchup. Do both together = WIN.
This is the beauty of having a community, you can ASK ppl for information. Everyone has it. Bits and pieces all broken up for you to piece together. Sometimes it takes 30 mins to piece a matchup together. Sometimes it takes days, weeks, even months. Sometime you still won't get it. Sometimes you think you did but you realize you don't. Nyjin has something, Fierce has something, TKD has something, HAZE has something, DEHF, DSF, rickety, and so forth. Everyone, all it takes is an initiative to ask and piece it together yourself.
For example, HugS wrote this piece that puts "Zone-ing" into a brawl perspective.
http://allisbrawl.com/blogpost.aspx?id=16108
It's beautiful because it's spot on. The information that he provided can open the doors to the missing aspect that brawl needs. Maybe. Who knows. The metagame evolved just a tiny bit.
Fighting games in general are much more deeper that we all think, you have to dig in order to understand and be willing to use that information. It's much more than combos and flashiness.
And finally you can always find more encouragement with your community, as soon as you start taking the game too seriously they'll remind you it's fun.
Keys in brawl: practice, knowledge, and the most important one I feel that you always need, OBSERVATION.
Ok i got class now. I guess ill write something longer about this later.
