Alright, here it is:
I came to a conclusion not too long ago regarding the ICs. It's a conclusion that, I feel, has improved my play radically and done a lot for my outlook on the game.
They're not a good character.
What do I mean by this? Not that they can't win. Not that they aren't scary to fight against. Not that, in the right hands, they can't devastate almost every player and character in the game.
The thing is, they do not fall into any particular role very well. They lack range. They lack solid pressure. If you take away the fact that they hit like a monster truck and you remove those vicious, vicious grabs, you're essentially left with Sopo. Somebody--don't know who--described them as a low-tier character with top-tier gimmicks. This is pretty darn accurate. You are a monster when you get your opening. As far as creating and finding those openings without losing the part of you that actually gives you punishment... no, not so much.
I've spent a LOT of time trying to figure out the elements of gameplay, breaking them down and discerning where I need to improve, what skills I can master that will give me the edge on others. What is it that the best players have that I don't?
Top-players have tech-skill. Not necessarily the fastest, but they make almost no errors and give nothing away, and they can take advantage of a majority of situations because they've got the technical means.
Top players have mindgames. They read you, they trick you. They have a good idea what option you want to pick next, and they're good at hiding their intentions and getting you to play into their hands.
Top players space well. They don't whiff moves constantly, they don't trade very often. If they *can* beat you out with a move in a given situation, they usually do because they time it right.
There are other skills, like DI'ing well and picking solid punishes. I've got those too. So what am I missing? My spacing is alright, my mental area is where I excel the most, and I make up for the tech-skill with a few solid abilities and by using fairly easy punishes that wreak havoc. When I'm playing well, all these consolidate and I do great. But something isn't there.
Well, this is where my first realization comes into play. I realized that the ICs are not that good as a character, and I've been trying to play them like they are. So when this came to mind I realized that I need to be a lot more conservative when I play than before. I need to pick my battles.
I noticed this while fighting DoH's Peach. There were times where I came in at an angle that gave me an absolute priority advantage and I'd nail him with an f-air and follow up with u-air. Sync'ed, that's a pretty solid combo for the IC's--around 40 percent--and leaves me at no disadvantage to speak of. It also pops Peach up, giving me more room to poke with u-air, or trap her on a platform with b-air. Maybe I can force her to the edge where the likelihood of me landing a smash or grab is greater since she doesn't have the room to get a higher float going.
This is great. But you know, those f-airs don't come along very often. She has to be at the right height and not about to slap the crap out of me while I'm starting up the f-air. I cannot just try and spam this f-air praying that this time will come so I can get a big positional advantage and try to convert it to MORE percent and stock. I have to resist the urge to hope it will work out and move around, jockey for position, make sure that if I'm going to throw out that f-air that there's a high probability it will work.
I played Zhu's Falco this past weekend, and I spent a lot of time wavedashing out of shield away from him. I wanted to constantly reset spacing so I'd be out of range of his attacks and regain neutral positions. I would jump up to platforms only to waveland down again, just to get him into places where he didn't have free shield pressure. I spent half of the matches not doing any attacks at all, just bringing up my shield, moving around, jumping, falling down, and waiting. Then I'd pop out at a time I strongly believed I'd be able to catch him with a move and turn it into an advantage. I won two sets in a row, 3-1 both times.
Before I played Zhu, I fought Kels twice, once in Winner's where he beat me. I was throwing out u-airs left and right to try and stop his Fox's platform camping, and he'd nick me with b-airs and chip away with shines, dropping Nana and then he'd actually really fight me. He was playing that match well, and I lost the first set 0-2 because I just chased, mindlessly. The next time we played, I used far fewer u-airs and hit with more. I secured leads that forced him to stop camping and start approaching low, where I had a better shot of reading and intercepting his approach, or launching surprise attacks. I beat him 3-1 as well. Mostly, it was because I stopped trying to hit him so **** much.
It kind of started from a post that Fly_Amanita made; I said that Chu was too inefficient, but he pointed out that Chu rarely throws at moves that don't actually work. His grab game has degenerated because he hasn't kept up, but his solid decision making on attacking and his ability to read people has not. He still lands the most basic wave-smashes and aerials on the most amazing of players, because he doesn't force things. He doesn't just toss them out, or get up in people's faces hoping that they'll just screw up. He'll bide his time until he's got a confident read or position advantage, then go for a decent punish. He doesn't chase as much, but the end result is situations rarely turn around on him.
All this kind of came into my head at once. I tried playing a bit more slowly and a bit more reserved; I want the opponent to think I'm not at an advantage most of the time, so that I can suddenly blast in with a wavedash into a smash, or jab-grab, or cross half the level in the blink of an eye with WD into b-air because I know that it will be to my advantage to do so. I stopped hoping that things will magically work for me, and now things seem to work more often. I pick my battles, I'm more choosy, I reset situations into neutrality as often as I need to before I make my move. It seems to work out.
I hope I can keep this idea in my head through APEX and see how far it takes me. If this isn't just a bunch of smoke I'm blowing, then it's a big step forward in my game.
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