Stubbornness, Frustration, and Failing to Adapt

[WhiteCrow]

Recently at a tournament I struggled with adapting to an opponent I found easy to read. They had consistent counter-play to many of my approaches and my character's weaknesses, but when I tried to compensate (countering their counter) I would either whiff or fail to reach them. If I over extended, knowing they were using fade away aerials, they would retreat just as much and I'd run into hit boxes.

My mistakes were obvious to me but I couldn't seem to undo them, even in a best of 5. It was like watching someone show me my own play book. I couldn't tell if my failure to adapt was due to my own stubbornness or if I was genuinely outplayed. If I play against this opponent more I think I'll be able to figure it out, but I that isn't a proper or sustainable solution if I run into this difficulty at out of region tournaments.

Do you ever experience this frustration? How do you adapt to an opponent's adaptation when your strategy is exposed and exploited? What do you do to counter the counter?

 

[Narpas_sword]

uhg, Is your post coloured manually? there's a setting in your profile if you want that. (preferences>Custom post text colour)
(which also means my setting can ignore your bright colour and i can actually read your post without pasting it to notepad)

to your post: I'm mostly the same, ill find myself doing dumb stuff all the time. best thing to do is recognising the error and formulate a plan to beat it. dont let yourself auto pilot into it.

easy to say i know - but the more you actively try to break it, the easier it is to break the habit.

 

[WhiteCrow]

My posts have always been manually colored, I never knew there was a preferences option. Thanks for the information, didn't realize it could make a post so difficult to read.

What would you consider "dumb stuff" that you do? Are they things you find yourself doing mostly in tournament matches?

 

[Narpas_sword]

Generally 'dumb stuff' includes moves i know areunsafe on shield - but i still go for it. Trying to beat moves with better hit-boxes than me, trying to do something flashy instead of safe.

I usually get my **** together once i lose a set though =p

 

[Crosstails20]

I have the same problem too. Luckily my opponents aren't good and notice this until 2 games in. It mainly has to do with my shield habits. I can not spot dodge for crap and my main move is probably shield, which is easily countered by grab and my OOS punishes are always Grab OOS. Even a noob adapted to this, given he was using SSF2 Marth and was spamming F Smash. I don't know what to say about your situation. I guess that adapting is something that is learned over time and experience. I have been playing Smash 4 for about one year, SSF2 for about 6 months, PM for 4 and Brawlhalla for about 1 month and I have been able to develop the ability to adapt a little bit. I have been able to adapt by telling myself about opponents habits out loud and then keep those in mind and then adapt, given I was playing online, but it is a great place to start.

Also for something extra, if you want to build your confidence in the Art of Edge Guarding, play Brawlhalla it is a good smash want to be and I have also noticed that I have been going offstage way more often now than ever because of my confidence in Brawlhalla and that the guy I usually play against is really salty about edge guarding and is just somewhat funny to see him explode. Call me a bully or jerk all you want, it is still funny.