Does Counter-picking Characters Limit Longterm Skill?

[Beat!]

I think you should replace the word "skill" in the thread title with "improvement".

 

[Hax]

ask any falcon main why we picked him up in the first place. it's not about winning or the money, it's about overcoming a challenge

we'd be cheating ourselves in picking up god falco for other matchups

 

[Wobbles]

I suck with everybody else. If I tried switching to Fox or Falco, it would be years before I could make it out of pools again. Different skill sets and emphases between the characters make it so I really can't just hop from ICs to anybody else. When I do, that character looks REALLY WEIRD and usually suboptimal.

 

[Warhawk]

Wobbles have you ever played any other character in tournament? Now that you describe your other characters as being weird and different I really wanna see it lol.

 

[Kal]

Wobbles went Falco against me in tournament. Though Wobbles is a boss, his secondaries are sort of weird.

 

[Warhawk]

Yea I just found some videos of his Fox and Falco. There was some pretty weird, yet cool things but the videos were old. There was some weird triangle jump stuff including with his shield pressure and his Fox almost seemed to skate a lot lol.

 

[Kal]

I think it's pretty normal. I main Marth/Fox, so whenever I play Falco it looks like 2004 metagame, minus knowing what I'm doing.

 

[tarheeljks]

All the top level Falcon's also do this though, which is what perplexes me. You'd think they'd have some competitive aspiration.

presumptuous much? empathy, how does it work


edit: sorry, got a bit testy there. i see why one might restrict time investments to "high level" play, but most of us are not there or near it. for falcon players, and i'd guess for other players who main characters that aren't as "good", dividing time is a questionable strategy when you're already facing an uphill battle

 

[oukd]

IMO - at most it will slow you down but you'll still progress, it's not like you'll just stop improving. Incorporating CP'ing will add their own advantages and disadvantages to you as a player - doesn't mean you won't progress as a player, but your individual characters won't be nearly as chiseled as if you only played one character. If CP'ing is a part of how you play, you'll learn to adapt to it and use it to your full advantage, cover its holes, etc. However, if you want to progress with multiple characters, expect to ingrain CP'ing into your gameplay. If you can't make the commitment to incorporating CP'ing into your gameplay and keep switching between CP'ing/playing only one character, you'll see fluctuations in your results.

(This is all assuming that your characters have a somewhat even spread in matchup distribution and don't have one or two severely lopsided matchups where CP'ing wouldn't really hurt at all *cough*ICs*cough* and also that you'll be playing people trying to counter your CP'ing with their own CP'ing)

On a side note, I would have preferred playing only one character competitively, but I can't not play Falco or Pika. They're both too fun lol.

 

[Hopland]

I think it depends on your mindset going into it; if you switch of to Sheik against a CF because you feel that you can control space better as her and it fits how you would rather play the matchup then you can actually learn something about the character and it can then be applied to other characters in general. If you switch to Sheik against CF because lolsheiktechchasescfforfreealldai you'll probably focus too much on that one aspect of the matchup and it probably won't help you as a player or even in that one match because you are probably focusing on playing your opponent's character rather than your opponent.

^ this.
We can even apply this to Armada and his counterpick, since it's the most visible example. If you just counterpick because it's "what I saw Armada do," you're probably not going to improve your main any, even if you win. However, if you think about WHY he counters with YL against HBox's Puff, you can improve the matchup against your main as well.

Example: YL has advantages he can exploit against Puff.
1. Items pretty much directly counter Puff's super hitboxes. Exploding items still deal damage, even if you hit them. Unlike turnips.
Peach's Lesson: Pull turnips like a starving peasant. Pray to the Big Bob-omb.

2. Disjointed hitbox (YL's sword) counters Puff's moves (not bair or pound, but enough of her moves to make certain approaches viable).
Peach's Lesson: I dunno, maybe a wavedash back -> fsmash?

3. Small knockback/stun moves into kill attacks at death percentages (bomb -> dair for YL). You need to set up certain safe combos to approach her with.
Peach's Lesson: I dunno either, perhaps dtilt -> wavedash -> usmash/fair?

Therefore, these counterpick characters become new ways of seeing your main, because certain things are easier to see with those characters (YL's projectiles, sword, etc.). If you don't use them as such, you're not only missing out on experience of that matchup with your main, but also the opportunity to learn new things from another perspective.