Does online play affect your play style in tournaments?

[Rango the Mercenary]

There is no doubt that lag is a detriment. There is also no doubt that Ike suffers worse than most of the roster in WiFi. Due to his slower movement and punishes, it's very hard to get in when you need to. When you play someone online, you never know what you're going to get. But for people who live in places that aren't very tournament-oriented and need to practice, you're stuck with limited options.

That being said, you might not take online seriously. You may go on For Glory to work some movements against other players, or you might go on Smashladder to play friendlies or even climb the ladder. But do you develop bad habits that may transition to tournament play, such as punishes that will never work or bad landings?

And do some of you avoid online play altogether?

 

[Anatase]

I know playing online has put me in a bad habit of Nairing EVERY. SINGLE. LANDING.

 

[Sheep McLamb]

It will make you develop bat habits if you aren't careful. Remember, the best way to train for tournaments is always against people.

The For Glory crowd isn't human.

 

[Arrei]

Just hazarding a guess, but I think online play, For Glory play in particular, will make you adopt a more aggressive playstyle, because it often works even when it shouldn't at moderate level play. Unsafe approaches and risky maneuvers pay off more often than not, or at least go unpunished, and it isn't until that tactic stops working that you begin to think about other ways to tackle the matchup.

 

[AfroShinobii]

I got to gold recently on smash ladder and the players are much better around that range than fg. Good for certain MUs I don't usually play at locals but the downside is I feel like its taken a bit too seriously.

 

[Zack117]

I just recently noticed once more how much online slows down my play with Ike… and I like to play him fast. It was shocking. I'm beginning to notice it carrying over to my offline play more and more.

It's been already mentioned how online can develop bad habits in terms of decision making.

But there's also a very important aspect I feel is underrated and that's execution. Movement, fast falls, aerials etc. but most of all: buffering your moves. You have to adjust every input to the lag. I don't know how you guys are dealing with this but I'm very sensitive to input delay in general and I don't find myself developing an online/offline switch anytime soon. So one of them two have to suffer, if not both.


That being said, I'm starting to avoid online more and more by playing

• offline as much as possible
• only friends / strong opponents online for the mind games
• the CPU / training mode for execution and muscle memory