L-Canceling, and my trouble with it...

[iSyphun]

Greetings, I am iSyphun. I found Project M about a month ago, and was hooked ever since. Melee Is so much better than Brawl. But the thing is, I've been a Falco main for a long time. L-Canceling is a new thing to me. And as most people know, L-Canceling is crucial to Falco's gameplay, increasing attack speed and utilizing his Shine to it's max. Your character flashes in Project M when you have successfully executed an L-Cancel... However, the timing is brutal. Anyone have specific finger motions they do on their controller to get the timing down (E.g. Flicking their finger, sliding their finger on the button, etc.)? Or is it all about practice?

 

[Stride]

A 7 frame window isn't brutal. There are no special motions that will help. Just practice more.

Remember to take hitlag into account, which changes the timing depending on whether you hit a hurtbubble and what attack it's with.

 

[Celestis]

All you can really do is practice as stated. Eventually you will be doing it without even thinking like any other button input. Hit lag is indeed a variable that you must anticipate.

 

[jackal27]

Spend whole matches just trying to L-cancel. Even if you know you will lose, just being able to do it under pressure is so important. Or just wait for the day that the PM team sees that L-cancelling is the worst and just makes it automatic

 

[Narpas_sword]

Or just wait for the day that the PM team sees that L-cancelling is the worst and just makes it automatic

That's up to TO's not us.

 

[Kaeldiar]

Check your L-cancel % at the end of every match. It'll help you focus on it

 

[Saikyoshi]

And if worst comes to worst, there's an option to make it automatic in the rules added in 3.6.

If you don't plan on playing for money, I suggest turning that on.

 

[jackal27]

That's up to TO's not us.

Haha, I suppose that's true. I was just being silly anyway. I've always been able to see the argument about its inclusion from both sides.

 

[True Fool]

I'm in favor of auto-cancel to be honest. Partially because it's just an arbitrary command and not a real option. But selfishly because one of my doubles partners just seems to refuse to do it.

But in the meantime, and in case that never catches on, just practice combos on low-level CPUs(higher levels tend to teach players some bad habits), checking your cancel-rate every match.

It seems rough at first when you start to practice it, but you'll get the hang of it pretty quick.

Also, I don't personally agree with this method, but another player I know uses X/Y(forget which) to grab, and also uses this button to l-cancel. You could try it if you think your index fingers are just too slow to keep up with your thumbs, but I think it just makes your thumb way too busy.

 

[Phaiyte]

L Cancelling is really just a stupid and arbitrary input barrier that serves no real purpose. Auto cancelling is stupid because the cancelling shouldn't have to happen in the first place. The game would be infinitely better and more user friendly if the whole concept of cancelling was removed with aerial land lag cut in half to compensate. But yaknow, Smash-only players are gonna feel entitled and oppose that to the moon and back.

 

[Narpas_sword]

Can we not turn this into an "LC vs ALC" thread.

People can just go read the locked ones if need be.

 

[iSyphun]

So sorry for my lack of replies... Thanks for the advice everyone!

Check your L-cancel % at the end of every match. It'll help you focus on it

I had actually been doing that already. It's helped me to improve fairly quick.

Spend whole matches just trying to L-cancel. Even if you know you will lose, just being able to do it under pressure is so important. Or just wait for the day that the PM team sees that L-cancelling is the worst and just makes it automatic

I have been practicing against level 1 Donkey Kongs, just because he's easier to combo with, and would focus on L-Canceling every aerial move. Whenever I won, I would raise his level by one. It's helped tremendously. I discovered the automatic LC option in the game rules a while ago on my own, but I figured I should learn to do it myself before getting involved in that.

 

[Bleck]

Can we not turn this into an "LC vs ALC" thread.

did somebody call me

 

[Phaiyte]

#NoCancel.

 

[jackal27]

Can we not turn this into an "LC vs ALC" thread.

People can just go read the locked ones if need be.

eh heeeeeh sorry about that...

 

[LightningDragon]

I personally just find the concept painfully gimmicky. That being said, the most we can do about it is practice it, and encourage TOs to try ALC at least once.

 

[menotyou135]

Put 3 empty controllers in and practice l-canceling on them as well as when you miss.

When you play actual matches, check your l-cancel percent afterwards to make sure you know how well you did as this keeps l-canceling in your mind and you can see progress.

Just get in the habit of pressing it just as you hit the ground.

 

[Lsedo]

L-cancelling is in my opinion something that makes Melee and Project M great. Without it, there would be nothing to punish if a person messes up the L-cancel, and it is rewarding to the player that can successfully pull it off. It adds another element to the gameplay that made Melee complex and compelling in the first place. Taking it out takes out that dimension of gameplay. Remember, Melee is jazz, not classical music. You shouldn't have auto-combos or auto-movements.

That aside, I'm usually controlling the speed of my fall by pressing down to fall faster, and you should practice timing it free-falling and fast-falling. Also, when performing a move into someone shielding and someone not shielding, it will also take you longer to fall when aerial attacking someone who is shielding than someone who is not shielding, so there are about four combinations (free-falling or fast-falling times hitting a shield or not hitting a shield) and thus four timings you should be aware of.

 

[Stride]

Also, when performing a move into someone shielding and someone not shielding, it will also take you longer to fall when aerial attacking someone who is shielding than someone who is not shielding, so there are about four combinations (free-falling or fast-falling times hitting a shield or not hitting a shield) and thus four timings you should be aware of.

Attacker hitlag (and therefore L-cancel timing) is the same on shield and on hit. The only time hitlag differs between hitting a shield and hitting a hurtbubble is with electric element hitbubbles, since they don't undergo the 1.5x defender hitlag multiplier on shield like they do on hit; even then, that only applies to the opponent, so your L-cancel timing is the same regardless.

 

[Lsedo]

Really? I remember having to practice this difference in timing when learning to L-cancel a long time ago (but when I tried it just now to double-check, I really couldn't tell if I was falling faster or slower after hitting someone's shield). Does anybody have frame data on this?

Attacker hitlag (and therefore L-cancel timing) is the same on shield and on hit. The only time hitlag differs between hitting a shield and hitting a hurtbubble is with electric element hitbubbles, since they don't undergo the 1.5x defender hitlag multiplier on shield like they do on hit; even then, that only applies to the opponent, so your L-cancel timing is the same regardless.

 

[Lsedo]

A video talking about fast-falling in conjunction with L-cancelling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGS5eT68P-8

 

[Bleck]

L-cancelling is in my opinion something that makes Melee and Project M great.

nope

 

[Stride]

Really? I remember having to practice this difference in timing when learning to L-cancel a long time ago (but when I tried it just now to double-check, I really couldn't tell if I was falling faster or slower after hitting someone's shield). Does anybody have frame data on this?

Just test it yourself with frame advance.