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I remember very clearly playing HugS at Melee FC 3, South Bend, Indiana. July 2005. I played HugS in several friendlies, winning 75% of them ish, Fox vs Samus. I remember watching Zelgadis vs HugS, Fox vs Samus, about half an hour later. HugS won the majority of their matches, and I spoke to him when they were done. HugS told me something along the line that he thought Zelgadis was a better overall player than me, despite the results of the matches, and that my style was just better vs him, but that Zelgadis had a better overall style. Zelgadis may be better than me, may have been back then, and may have always been better than me as a player. I've been told by many, many people that I counter their style, at least every single tournament, and I've been to around 60-70 tournaments in my time, some big and some small. Hugo simply laid it out the best.
So what makes a style counter? Actually, I do not believe that style counters exist anymore, only techniques that a player has not yet learn to overcome. The more techniques and abilities you have, the harder you are, as a player, to overcome. The harder you are to beat due to these techniques, the more unpredictable you are.
I.
The fact of the matter is, what you can do in terms of predictability is limited by your technical ability. If you do not have the technical ability to perform a feat within the game, you can not use that feat to your advantage. It makes sense to maximize your advantages before you abuse them. If you cannot shuffl attacks, make fluid combos, dashdance properly, ledgetech survival, DI well, your unpredictability rewards will not get you very far.
II.
Knowledge is a huge aspect of technical skill and expands general technical skill, hidden techniques past basics open up chances for unpredictability. Largely, advanced technical skill is what sets a character aside. Advanced technical skill is Ness's DJC, Yoshi's parry, Ice Climbers Wobbling, Sheik's needle grab. However, just because the option is open does not mean that you have to use it.
III.
"Let’s begin by saying what free will is, and what it isn’t. Free will is not the same as freedom of action. Freedom of action refers to things that prevent a willed action from being realized. For example, being in prison means you are not free to paint the town red. Being in a straight jacket means you are not free to wave hello. Being paralyzed means not being able to move your limbs. These are not issues of free will. Free will means being free to try to escape (or not), to try to wave (or not), to try to move your limbs (or not).
Neither is free will the same as political or social freedom (better known as liberty). Just because you will be executed for taking the local dictator’s name in vain, doesn’t mean you aren’t free to try, or even free to actually do so. You’ll just wind up paying for the satisfaction."
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/freewill.html
Or maybe not. Let's apply this to smash. Since predictability is a large part of mindgames, this introduces the ability to rely solely on technical ability and negate mindgames. An opponent cannot read someone who does not think. To be completely unpredictable and completely technical sounds like a good thing, as it seems like a dominations of the two main aspects in the game, mindgames and maximizing the utility of their character.
In smash, the application of free will is the ability to know what you can and cannot do, and how relevant that knowledge is to your play.
If you prefer to play safe, you sacrifice unpredictability. (see: Zanguzen)
If you're a walking disaster zone, you are not a safe player. (see: MasterOfFlames89)
Neither is better or worse than the other. The key to unpredictability is to know the game and have mastery over it, know what the possible consequences of your decisions are, and intentionally not pick the safest one every time. One of my favorite examples of unpredictable play is Korean DJ's Sheik. KDJ is the first player I've ever seen to tech chase with sheik's upsmash, and the player I see running straight at fox's shield with a dash attack most often. It's beautiful to watch. I don't think I have to further explain what makes Isai very unpredictable, particularly in teams.
IV.
Let's focus on character tricks.
A.
A good example of a character trick is King and his crouching techniques. It is fairly common to land in a sidestep dodge as a buffer defense when landing from an air attack. Ken often does marth's neutral air to sidestep to avoid punishment, for example. Sometimes though, he dashes upon landing for the same effect. Sometimes he lands into reverse up B.
King put a spin on this with Jigglypuff's abusable crouch, landing directly into a crouch after an air attack. Character specific tricks add a novelty effect and add advantages to your options, particularly innovative alternatives to old tricks. Another alternative for creativity, and often unpredictability goes out to characters often considered fully understood. One of my favorite fox tricks in particular is to waveshine, but wavedash past my opponent to get behind them during the stun and jab them in the back, which leads to basically anything.
King's crouching technique is technical ability. Walking off the edge into an edgehog is technical ability. Samus's CC dtilt is technical ability. It is what the character can do under your guidance.
B.
Character Mastery is the mix between solid strategies, full technical ability, and knowledge. A combination of these things allows for unpredictability. My favorite example is PC Chris and his falco play. Partially solid with standard lasers and pillar combos. Chris's falco is never seen in a video where he gets chaingrabbed to death. When he misses an L cancel, other players in the vicinity of the TV become confused. No one ever accused PC Chris of being a bland player.
C.
Along with unpredictable play comes its polar opposite, solid play. Solid play isn't unpredictable, it's just plain hard to beat, and you know it's coming. Solid play is Mew2King's dashance grab, Zanguzen's lasers, Ken's chaingrab. Solid play is Azen's C stick smashes, ChuDat's deathgrabs, Chillindude829's upairs, HugS's forward tilt.
V.
Some things simply cannot be dealt with by characters, and some characters are limited. Peach has no solution to Fox's laser spamming. Link has no solution to sheik's chaingrabbing. This is where solid play takes priority over unpredictability, and the domination of mindgames due to lack of thinking loses most of its initial value. A great example of this is Mew2King's approach to marth as fox:
In conclusion, if there's one thing you get from this article, it's this:
Unpredictability isn't everything. It's just one more factor to making a one-sided match even.
I remember very clearly playing HugS at Melee FC 3, South Bend, Indiana. July 2005. I played HugS in several friendlies, winning 75% of them ish, Fox vs Samus. I remember watching Zelgadis vs HugS, Fox vs Samus, about half an hour later. HugS won the majority of their matches, and I spoke to him when they were done. HugS told me something along the line that he thought Zelgadis was a better overall player than me, despite the results of the matches, and that my style was just better vs him, but that Zelgadis had a better overall style. Zelgadis may be better than me, may have been back then, and may have always been better than me as a player. I've been told by many, many people that I counter their style, at least every single tournament, and I've been to around 60-70 tournaments in my time, some big and some small. Hugo simply laid it out the best.
So what makes a style counter? Actually, I do not believe that style counters exist anymore, only techniques that a player has not yet learn to overcome. The more techniques and abilities you have, the harder you are, as a player, to overcome. The harder you are to beat due to these techniques, the more unpredictable you are.
I.
The fact of the matter is, what you can do in terms of predictability is limited by your technical ability. If you do not have the technical ability to perform a feat within the game, you can not use that feat to your advantage. It makes sense to maximize your advantages before you abuse them. If you cannot shuffl attacks, make fluid combos, dashdance properly, ledgetech survival, DI well, your unpredictability rewards will not get you very far.
II.
Knowledge is a huge aspect of technical skill and expands general technical skill, hidden techniques past basics open up chances for unpredictability. Largely, advanced technical skill is what sets a character aside. Advanced technical skill is Ness's DJC, Yoshi's parry, Ice Climbers Wobbling, Sheik's needle grab. However, just because the option is open does not mean that you have to use it.
III.
"Let’s begin by saying what free will is, and what it isn’t. Free will is not the same as freedom of action. Freedom of action refers to things that prevent a willed action from being realized. For example, being in prison means you are not free to paint the town red. Being in a straight jacket means you are not free to wave hello. Being paralyzed means not being able to move your limbs. These are not issues of free will. Free will means being free to try to escape (or not), to try to wave (or not), to try to move your limbs (or not).
Neither is free will the same as political or social freedom (better known as liberty). Just because you will be executed for taking the local dictator’s name in vain, doesn’t mean you aren’t free to try, or even free to actually do so. You’ll just wind up paying for the satisfaction."
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/freewill.html
Or maybe not. Let's apply this to smash. Since predictability is a large part of mindgames, this introduces the ability to rely solely on technical ability and negate mindgames. An opponent cannot read someone who does not think. To be completely unpredictable and completely technical sounds like a good thing, as it seems like a dominations of the two main aspects in the game, mindgames and maximizing the utility of their character.
In smash, the application of free will is the ability to know what you can and cannot do, and how relevant that knowledge is to your play.
If you prefer to play safe, you sacrifice unpredictability. (see: Zanguzen)
If you're a walking disaster zone, you are not a safe player. (see: MasterOfFlames89)
Neither is better or worse than the other. The key to unpredictability is to know the game and have mastery over it, know what the possible consequences of your decisions are, and intentionally not pick the safest one every time. One of my favorite examples of unpredictable play is Korean DJ's Sheik. KDJ is the first player I've ever seen to tech chase with sheik's upsmash, and the player I see running straight at fox's shield with a dash attack most often. It's beautiful to watch. I don't think I have to further explain what makes Isai very unpredictable, particularly in teams.
IV.
Let's focus on character tricks.
A.
A good example of a character trick is King and his crouching techniques. It is fairly common to land in a sidestep dodge as a buffer defense when landing from an air attack. Ken often does marth's neutral air to sidestep to avoid punishment, for example. Sometimes though, he dashes upon landing for the same effect. Sometimes he lands into reverse up B.
King put a spin on this with Jigglypuff's abusable crouch, landing directly into a crouch after an air attack. Character specific tricks add a novelty effect and add advantages to your options, particularly innovative alternatives to old tricks. Another alternative for creativity, and often unpredictability goes out to characters often considered fully understood. One of my favorite fox tricks in particular is to waveshine, but wavedash past my opponent to get behind them during the stun and jab them in the back, which leads to basically anything.
King's crouching technique is technical ability. Walking off the edge into an edgehog is technical ability. Samus's CC dtilt is technical ability. It is what the character can do under your guidance.
B.
Character Mastery is the mix between solid strategies, full technical ability, and knowledge. A combination of these things allows for unpredictability. My favorite example is PC Chris and his falco play. Partially solid with standard lasers and pillar combos. Chris's falco is never seen in a video where he gets chaingrabbed to death. When he misses an L cancel, other players in the vicinity of the TV become confused. No one ever accused PC Chris of being a bland player.
C.
Along with unpredictable play comes its polar opposite, solid play. Solid play isn't unpredictable, it's just plain hard to beat, and you know it's coming. Solid play is Mew2King's dashance grab, Zanguzen's lasers, Ken's chaingrab. Solid play is Azen's C stick smashes, ChuDat's deathgrabs, Chillindude829's upairs, HugS's forward tilt.
V.
Some things simply cannot be dealt with by characters, and some characters are limited. Peach has no solution to Fox's laser spamming. Link has no solution to sheik's chaingrabbing. This is where solid play takes priority over unpredictability, and the domination of mindgames due to lack of thinking loses most of its initial value. A great example of this is Mew2King's approach to marth as fox:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbF4bR7YdrQ&mode=related&search=)
In conclusion, if there's one thing you get from this article, it's this:
Unpredictability isn't everything. It's just one more factor to making a one-sided match even.
![[Deuce]](/data/avatars/l/34/34711.jpg?1423154415){kind=avatar}
