The "Advance Techniques" from Melee. Sensible or Illogical?

[Veggi]

You don't have to learn how to tech. You just have to know it exists and then press one button. I guess it's my fault for not giving enough background for why I was saying what I said. lol Basically, I was addressing the subject of "good game design is making functions hard to perform so that the person who put time into it and practiced the technique will win". It was more an argument against making things harder than they need to be to fulfill the same gameplay purpose. Teching being sort of hard to do depending on the situation is good for me because it means that the player can change what happens depending on their ability to anticipate their opponent. Kind of like a counter.

So for example, if wavedashing was easy to do, a person who didn't get to play the game a lot could still do it. They would just still lose because they're bad.

 

[Malex]

For people that don't understand why game design is the way it is:

Imagine I'm a college student who loves to play video games. I have to go to classes, do homework, go to work during the semester, and still hang out with friends enough that they don't hate me. When the Summer starts I have to work the entire time so I have enough money for the next semester. When I finally get to play the game, do you think I want to play by myself doing the same complicated techniques over and over so I can learn them or do you think I would want to get better at the game by having fun? I want to be able to get last in a tournament and still be able to use every option at my disposal so that I can have fun. If I can't get better at the game by playing against my friends, then I'm not going to give the developer my money.

You don't get better at a fighting game by playing by yourself. Any time you are playing by yourself, ideally, you should be playing with another person. Not only can you practice technical skill, but also combos, mind games, etc. etc.

Good competitive players don't sit around by themselves and practice technical moves every day. They play against other players.

 

[PCHU]

You don't have to learn how to tech. You just have to know it exists and then press one button. I guess it's my fault for not giving enough background for why I was saying what I said. lol Basically, I was addressing the subject of "good game design is making functions hard to perform so that the person who put time into it and practiced the technique will win". It was more an argument against making things harder than they need to be to fulfill the same gameplay purpose. Teching being sort of hard to do depending on the situation is good for me because it means that the player can change what happens depending on their ability to anticipate their opponent. Kind of like a counter.

So for example, if wavedashing was easy to do, a person who didn't get to play the game a lot could still do it. They would just still lose because they're bad.

I suppose I see your point (but teching actually does take a little practice, especially when there's that one guy who loves to cargo -> stagespike all the time).

The thing that gets me is that a lot of people talk as if everyone else is using Melee Fox and getting irritated that they keep getting shield broken with some SHFFL shine uairs and multishines.
Not every character is this complex, even in Melee.
If there's ever a point when I try but just can't do something, I don't do it and find another answer.
Smash is a relatively simple game, but when it comes to high level play, there's a lot of characters I drop because I don't feel like investing time into something I don't really want to master (Diddy's banana lock and relative shenanigans, Wario's tire combos, etc), so I just focus on what I can do and make the most out of that.
If I couldn't l-cancel, I'd just try to solidify my ground game or try to time my aerials so I never land with them, but space so it wouldn't be a braindead punish.

 

[StriCNYN3]

After reading responses, I face-palmed. HARD.

First off, again, no. It's not about getting 'rekt' or whatever. And it's not EVERYONE. I'm talking about one over competitve player walking into a free tournament and crushing everyone else simply because they can twist their fingers into knots. I don't care that someone is more successful or beats me. Hell, I don't even care about myself anymore! I'm irritated as a whole that such a simple game can't be left simple and must be complicated, or it automatically sucks.

Sooooo.... what, did the guy spit on you and give you a wedgie on the way out the tourney or something? Because him just showing up and beating people in a fighting game was what he was supposed to do at a tourney, or atleast should strive for. I know he didn't just hop in his car and was like, "Man, I can't WAIT til I get bodied at this free tourny."

For the multple times you stressed your stance, it seems to me that the guy doesn't even have the slightest idea the situation he has caused, not knowing he'd have a person writing hateful things towards him for genuinely participating event just to test his skill, expecially considering the fact that it was a free casual tourney with nothing on the line (in which case, why did you take that sooo seriously knowing nothing mattered to begin with?) How did the others that couldn't beat him feel? Do you even see this guy often? I assume no since tourneys consists of players more like him.




And seriously, the elitism is SO HIGH in this thread. I am seriously getting pissed off at the constant "argument" of, "I'd still wreck you without ATs because you suck and I'm good."

Seriously? Get off your f**king high horse. I've played Smash for years, and not just a little either. I've had probably just as much practice as half of you all, the only difference being that practice wasn't involving Wavedashing or L-canceling or every other technique that wasn't in the nature of Smash.[/quote]

Tell me, WHO in this thread is saying this? Literally nowhere do i see anyone saying "ha get dawged noob" anywhere. Not a single soul but yourself. The posters here are trying to rationalize what you're presenting yet all you've done is come here and talk sh%@ about competive players just because they came at the wrong place at the wrong time, apparently. Somehow that justifies eliminating a playerbase.

Also, it doesn't matter how long you played, if you aren't practicing what it takes to become effecient in a particular area, then there will always be that one guy better than you who sat there as long as you, if not longer, learning and gathering the right tools for what it takes to win, rightfully so. This applies to anything, no just Smash.

Typing on a wii u sucks. ill fix the quotes later.

 

[Veggi]

You don't get better at a fighting game by playing by yourself. Any time you are playing by yourself, ideally, you should be playing with another person. Not only can you practice technical skill, but also combos, mind games, etc. etc.

Good competitive players don't sit around by themselves and practice technical moves every day. They play against other players.

Well, you have to do both to get good at most fighting games. The phrase "going to the lab" exists for a reason. I don't mean to sound rude, but do you believe that good Marvel, Street Fighter, BlazBlue, ect. players don't play by themselves a lot on purpose? As someone who has spent a lot of time with all of those games and people that have played those games a whole lot more than me, that's very not true. It's not ideal to play with other people during some stages of becoming better because you can't focus on certain aspects of your play that need improving (tech skill) and then apply the finished product to your game later. I definitely know this personally because my friends all play the games I listed by themselves all the time and they all know how to do all these things that I can't perform properly due to lack of "going to the lab".

 

[Dracometeor]

Agreed. I wouldn't mind Wavedashing as much if it was, 1. Less painful to use, like if activated by a dedicated button or something, and 2. mentioned in the game.

Yeah I definitely prefer AT's that aren't so much replacements for regular options but just add different options for the same

For people that don't understand why game design is the way it is:

Imagine I'm a college student who loves to play video games. I have to go to classes, do homework, go to work during the semester, and still hang out with friends enough that they don't hate me. When the Summer starts I have to work the entire time so I have enough money for the next semester. When I finally get to play the game, do you think I want to play by myself doing the same complicated techniques over and over so I can learn them or do you think I would want to get better at the game by having fun? I want to be able to get last in a tournament and still be able to use every option at my disposal so that I can have fun. If I can't get better at the game by playing against my friends, then I'm not going to give the developer my money.

You can still get better against friends...
I mean there is no game that you could play casually and expect to not get beat badly in a competitive tournament, if the game is competitive.
Just because your too busy to learn the game does NOT mean the game shouldn't have a learning curve. It's very selfish to think that way, especially since your a very casual player, someone who probably wouldn't even have a wii u or the game and would be sharing a communal system, I mean since when could college students drop $400 into a gaming console while having to work full time during the summer to survive the school year? Whereas every competitive player will have his own copy of the game and system, he would spend the money for it because it is his hobby and something he will spend a lot of time with.

If the game didn't have as much depth most competitive players wouldn't buy. Complicated AT's are not a must. But options for performing different actions need to be available and preferably balanced.

 

[Veggi]

I'm a competitive player, lol. I was speaking for the people who aren't or wish to be competitive without the means to be. I think it's selfish to make it so that people can't use all of the game's options without practicing them repeatedly. But yeah, as for your last paragraph, I totally agree with you. Games can have depth without the commands for something being more complicated than they need to be. If a technique has to be complicated to add depth, then I think it's fine for it to be complicated.

 

[ImaClubYou]

You don't get better at a fighting game by playing by yourself. Any time you are playing by yourself, ideally, you should be playing with another person. Not only can you practice technical skill, but also combos, mind games, etc. etc.

Good competitive players don't sit around by themselves and practice technical moves every day. They play against other players.

Before Genesis Armada pretty much practiced against computers 90% of the time.

Look how far he got, lol.

 

[Hitzel]

Yeah, most fighting game players try to spend a lot of time in training mode just practicing things.

It's a kinda of stress-reliever for a lot of people too. Sitting down for a few minutes to practice some Marvel combos and setups has always been a nice little thing to do.

 

[Malex]

Yeah, after reflecting on it, I guess I did spend some time through out the day practicing complicated stuff I couldn't nail on the fly. I remember the first thing was thunder combos, lol.

 

[Book Jacket]

I like advanced techniques in theory. The idea that there's more to the game than the initial how to play video is pretty cool. I love that the fundamentals of Smash are easy to learn, and since I got Melee when I was 8 or so, I probably wouldn't be playing Smash if it wasn't easy to learn. But AT's make it cooler now that I'm more capable of learning, following, and playing the game.

And watching the AT's in high level tournaments is kinda great. Watching any Grand Finals is a physical event for me; there will be flailing and I will hurt myself.

I would, however, like it if the AT's could be a little more accessible and a little less complicated. I don't want them to be overly simple, but I just have a hard time with L-Canceling and Wavedashing and even Dashdancing. I'm not great. I'll be fine if I still can't do some of them, I have no problem with being worse than other people, but just as a personal opinion, I'd like it if advanced stuff could be just a little simpler.

I guess my main problem is with wavedashing really (and it's not a huge problem). I just don't like how it feels. It just seems like a code exploit (which it is) and not like a real tech (which it also is).

TL;DR: Simpler would be nice, but plain simple would be bad.

 

[Stake]

For people that don't understand why game design is the way it is:

Imagine I'm a college student who loves to play video games. I have to go to classes, do homework, go to work during the semester, and still hang out with friends enough that they don't hate me. When the Summer starts I have to work the entire time so I have enough money for the next semester. When I finally get to play the game, do you think I want to play by myself doing the same complicated techniques over and over so I can learn them or do you think I would want to get better at the game by having fun? I want to be able to get last in a tournament and still be able to use every option at my disposal so that I can have fun. If I can't get better at the game by playing against my friends, then I'm not going to give the developer my money.

In Smash, you get way better at the game by playing real life people, who react to different situations differently, but the competitive factor is still prevalent in grinding away learning technical things. This was a sort biased post.
One thing for me, I enjoy the feeling of conquering tech skill, I can now short hop laser with ease, and it makes me happy to do it. I can't see the benefit of l-canceling as well as I can see the benefit of wavedashing and shorthops, so I sort of ignore them.

 

[ImaClubYou]

In Smash, you get way better at the game by playing real life people, who react to different situations differently, but the competitive factor is still prevalent in grinding away learning technical things. This was a sort biased post.
One thing for me, I enjoy the feeling of conquering tech skill, I can now short hop laser with ease, and it makes me happy to do it. I can't see the benefit of l-canceling as well as I can see the benefit of wavedashing and shorthops, so I sort of ignore them.

Well if you play fast characters L-Canceling is required to beat out hitstun before it ends.

 

[Stake]

Yeah I know, but its the reason I haven't practiced it as much, because I don't notice the difference as much, I will probably practice it some day lol xD.

 

[TheGoldMan]

Eh. I'm not opposed to them, but at the same time I don't feel they're necessary.

It's entirely possible to have a deep competitive experience without tech skill.

So, if they're there and they actually contribute? Neat! If they're not there, not the end of the world.



And Sakurai is actually adressing several competitive complaints this time around. Planking and tripping are gone for example. I say let's see what Sakurai does. I have a good feeling about this.

He doesn't care about the competitive complaints. He only removed those options for balancing purposes.

 

[ferioku]

He doesn't care about the competitive complaints. He only removed those options for balancing purposes.

Those issues were complaint's in the past from both competitive and casual players.

 

[TheGoldMan]

Those issues were complaint's in the past from both competitive and casual players.

I know that, because that's common sense. I'm saying thats not the main reason why he did it, although that could have added another reason for it. Atleast that's what I think.

 

[Clavaat]

I know that, because that's common sense. I'm saying thats not the main reason why he did it, although that could have added another reason for it. Atleast that's what I think.

I don't believe Sakurai had a reason behind ATs, or even realized them upon creation. But they were discovered. No amount of QA or progammer personnel can account for every piece of data that makes these kinds of things logically possible. That's the nature of the accessibility of information in this day and age: your core sample size is gargantuan. Someone is bound to discover something you hadn't expected.

I also feel that Sakurai has clearly accepted the popularity of the competitive Smash competitive scene, and is catering to them, at least to extent. Smash 4 will be competitive, whether or not it contains the AT's that Melee had. The accessibility only helps the community grow, while still creating tiers of influence (the veterans, those who react to mindgames, those who can execute proper dodging/shielding/edgehogging etc, and those who cannot).

 

[Hitzel]

He only removed those options for balancing purposes.

I'll be completely honest with you, I think they were removed to take the AT-centric playstyles of competitive players out of the game. This is almost always the case when it comes to videogame sequels that go through this.

 

[Takehiko]

All in all, ATs are going to exist in smash. If not melee ATs or brawl ATs, then you're going to have smash 4 ATs. There's going to be millions of people playing this game, so something's going to be found out in 1-2 months. It'd be crazy for someone to find out something advantageous and not use it.

In street fighter games, you've had tech blocking, CC valle, roll grabs (-cross snk) and the focus attacking cancels. And each of these techniques have been staples of the games. To the point, if I talk to someone about getting in a casual game with them , off rip they'll feel like I will play using the ATs.

For all the people complaining about them not getting melee techniques down and losing in tournaments, melee has been out for a long time to the point it's the street fighter 3rd strike of the smash world where it's the epitome of what amazing smash is supposed to be. This why sakurai made a completely different game with its own mechanics and ATs to be discovered, and this was the same thing Ono did with street fighter, yet each of those games has their own ATs.

Even outside of fighting games there's ATs, in War (technological advancements), chess (grandmaster strategies and gambits), Magic the gathering (Expensive cards that have amazing amounts of synergy), Mario go kart 8 (fire hopping).

If you don't like it, then you can leave the community. I didn't like how I had to be learn infinites to stand a chance in MvC3 , so I left. I didn't like how sfxt was the same way so I left. I didn't like how I have to have a deck worth $600 and above to have fun in mtg , so I left. If I sat around complaining and being disgruntled about the higher level of things whether it was ATs , cards, or chess moves, I'd be wasting my time and others time reading it when we both could put our time to better uses.

For the people complaining about not having enough time to learn, I've taken full college classes, worked full time, partied with my friends drinking and popping molly, but in 10 small mins of everyday I'd practiced my srk -> fadc -Ult 1 to the point I can be sloshed and still pull it off. Please come with a legit reason for them not being in the game rather than being lazy.

To the OP: I feel ATs of some kind should be in the game and reward the player for finding them. Even if they're character specific then it expands the game. When I got into Brawl and I found out how deep things go with Wario then it made me stay because it gave the game Depth.

 

[Vkrm]

He doesn't care about the competitive complaints. He only removed those options for balancing purposes.

Oh I see. That's how he was able to achieve brawls stellar balancing.

 

[LancerStaff]

Oh I see. That's how he was able to achieve brawls stellar balancing.

Balancing the gap between casual and hardcore.

 

[DownWitDaWaveDash]

Balancing the gap between casual and hardcore.

The gap that should never be removed or balanced

 

[JV5Chris]

Balancing the gap between casual and hardcore.

Really think about that for a minute. Did the Brawl team address the middle of that skill curve, or were they more focused on trying to truncate the two ends?

 

[LancerStaff]

The gap that should never be removed or balanced

Why doesn't your username match what you just said?

Really think about that for a minute. Did the Brawl team address the middle of that skill curve, or were they more focused on trying to truncate the two ends?

The middle. There's no significant glitches with difficult imputs dividing the two. 4 will further cut down on glitches. Competitive Brawl is much easier to get into.

 

[Jaedrik]

Oh, hey, this thread~-~-~-~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDZ_QiPw_4s

 

[The Slayer]

Oh, hey, this thread~-~-~-~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDZ_QiPw_4s

And that video was pointless since this topic was hitting around it for a while now. Also, that person seem to know little about what they're talking about. Just baiting in arguments for the sake of arguing.

 

[JV5Chris]

The middle. There's no significant glitches with difficult imputs dividing the two. 4 will further cut down on glitches. Competitive Brawl is much easier to get into.

The skill divide is just as present now as it was prior to Brawl's release. It's not a gradual climb to start playing any Smash game at a competitive level, it's a cliff. Brawl is hardly the exception. The systems designed to close the gap in the end contributed to entirely new barriers.

If they really want to do something about the skill gap, the focus needs to instead be on building a Smash game around skill progression. No amount of added limitations or gameplay simplifications will get to the root of the issue.

 

[guedes the brawler]

So for example, if wavedashing was easy to do, a person who didn't get to play the game a lot could still do it. They would just still lose because they're bad.

Wavedahsing is easy to do, the thing is theat most people learn it after they already know the basics of smash,s o they have essentially to re-learnt he game to adapt for this

this is unlike, say, l-cancelling, which is easy to know when to do and how (timing and remebering it are the only issues), or DACUS which is hard (sometimes, depends on your char) but very circumstantial and easy to know when to do

 

[LancerStaff]

The skill divide is just as present now as it was prior to Brawl's release. It's not a gradual climb to start playing any Smash game at a competitive level, it's a cliff. Brawl is hardly the exception. The systems designed to close the gap in the end contributed to entirely new barriers.

If they really want to do something about the skill gap, the focus needs to instead be on building a Smash game around skill progression. No amount of added limitations or gameplay simplifications will get to the root of the issue.

The importance of mystery moves was been significantly decreased in Brawl. Anybody who's watched the tutorial can clearly make out what a Brawl player is doing, whereas in Melee people are shuffling around everywhere and half of their moves are faster then usual for some reason.

 

[Beats]

The importance of mystery moves was been significantly decreased in Brawl. Anybody who's watched the tutorial can clearly make out what a Brawl player is doing, whereas in Melee people are shuffling around everywhere and half of their moves are faster then usual for some reason.

You mean SHFFLing around everywhere? Har har.

Anyway, I do agree that accessibility is good, but at the same time I don't think melee is that inaccessible. A quick search of video tutorials or smash wikis will clear up most of the confusing looking things. Doing a bit of research is a fundamental part of the competitive side of any game, whether they are tutorials or just watching high level matches.

 

[LancerStaff]

You mean SHFFLing around everywhere? Har har.

Anyway, I do agree that accessibility is good, but at the same time I don't think melee is that inaccessible. A quick search of video tutorials or smash wikis will clear up most of the confusing looking things. Doing a bit of research is a fundamental part of the competitive side of any game, whether they are tutorials or just watching high level matches.

Well, it's very clear Sakurai would like the game to be pretty much just be the base mechanics. I wouldn't mind myself.

 

[SKM_NeoN]

Dang, I stopped looking at this thread because I thought it pretty much died. I didn't know it'd end up being the center of the best day I've ever spent! I've read every post since page like, 14 with comments made in February. I forgot to eat Lunch thanks to this.

Wow guys, some of you are awesome, some of you are idiots, and a certain someone probably needs to seek professional help about some mental issues, lol.

My current stance: AT's are amazing, if you don't like em' don't use em'. You're not going to compete with or without Advanced Techs so please stop kidding yourselves.

 

[Ogre_Deity_Link]

You mean SHFFLing around everywhere? Har har.

Anyway, I do agree that accessibility is good, but at the same time I don't think melee is that inaccessible. A quick search of video tutorials or smash wikis will clear up most of the confusing looking things. Doing a bit of research is a fundamental part of the competitive side of any game, whether they are tutorials or just watching high level matches.

I don't know of any other fighting games that require you to go online and research advanced techniques. Every other game I've played has put them right in the tutorial and doesn't try to hide anything. Why should Smash be any different?

 

[LancerStaff]

Dang, I stopped looking at this thread because I thought it pretty much died. I didn't know it'd end up being the center of the best day I've ever spent! I've read every post since page like, 14 with comments made in February. I forgot to eat Lunch thanks to this.

Wow guys, some of you are awesome, some of you are idiots, and a certain someone probably needs to seek professional help about some mental issues, lol.

My current stance: AT's are amazing, if you don't like em' don't use em'. You're not going to compete with or without Advanced Techs so please stop kidding yourselves.

Little does he know I play games with significant amounts of tech skill regularly, and I use every tech I can in attempt to win in Melee/Brawl. This is much more difficult then the average Melee tech. Not that I've done it completely yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gySArm2RSWk

 

[Dr. James Rustles]

People argue that:
- it is too hard and takes to much time to learn
- since it takes so long to learn, people who have work won't be as good as those who have time to practice

Believe it or not the second argument presented above was an actual argument on my previous thread speaking on Miiverse.

I too am one of those people that cheat by practicing.

 

[Beats]

I don't know of any other fighting games that require you to go online and research advanced techniques. Every other game I've played has put them right in the tutorial and doesn't try to hide anything. Why should Smash be any different?

I'm not familiar with other fighting games, but I'm assuming you'd still search things up like combos, or match ups? Maybe frame data? Someone more knowledgeable should correct me. It's just that realistically, there will always be things that the developers will miss during testing; there's no way of knowing how people will end up playing the game. In that sense melee, or smash in general, isn't different at all. And anyway, if research is to be done regardless, whether or not it's for ATs doesn't really change much.

 

[LancerStaff]

I'm not familiar with other fighting games, but I'm assuming you'd still search things up like combos, or match ups? Maybe frame data? Someone more knowledgeable should correct me. It's just that realistically, there will always be things that the developers will miss during testing; there's no way of knowing how people will end up playing the game. In that sense melee, or smash in general, isn't different at all. And anyway, if research is to be done regardless, whether or not it's for ATs doesn't really change much.

Well, from what little I know, most other fighting games don't have techs that completely change how movement is handled in competitive play or things that reduce lag on like a third of all moves.

 

[Ogre_Deity_Link]

Well, from what little I know, most other fighting games don't have techs that completely change how movement is handled in competitive play or things that reduce lag on like a third of all moves.

They don't have hidden techs that completely change movement. Anything that affects the meta-game so much is blatantly shown in tutorials, booklets and more. You don't have to go online and find other people who've learned it to find out its existence, it's right there, and can't be argued.

 

[Butt Luckily]

I don't know of any other fighting games that require you to go online and research advanced techniques. Every other game I've played has put them right in the tutorial and doesn't try to hide anything. Why should Smash be any different?

I have yet to find the quote, but I recall reading in one of Sirlin's articles that the Smash Bros. community is different from other communities. In the Street Fighter community, if you found a secret technique, you kept it secret until you unveiled it at a tournament in hopes of winning by presenting a situation the enemy could not react to. The Smash community instead shares all information and presents hidden techniques to each other. I don't recall if Sirlin speculated as to why the Smash community does this.

If players were rational, you probably wouldn't be able to find any videos online explaining anything to you. Perhaps it isn't the truly competitive players that are sharing information. If I found a tactic or technique that were very powerful, I think I would try to enter a tournament and use it before sharing it with others.

I will continue to search for the quote, but here is his anecdote of the unveiling of the Valle CC, from his book "Playing to Win".

Spoiler

Adaptability (Versus Planning)

“Adaptability” is a loaded term. First, let’s look at its opposite: Planning. Some players are highly concerned with knowing exactly how the game “system” works. They have deep knowledge of the game rules, the consequences of the rules, and the optimal situations they want to create. They have a plan. They will know that in a certain situation the opponent has, say, five reasonable responses. They will know the optimal counter that minimizes overall risk and maximizes overall reward. Perhaps the optimal counter ends up “even” versus responses 1 and 2, gives a small advantage versus 3 and 4, and a large advantage versus response 5. The Planner knows all the ins and outs of this situation, how to steer the game into it, and the “solution” to it. I once heard a player claim that he could beat anyone in a very particular character matchup in a particular fighting game. When asked why he was so confident, he said “because I know the algorithm.” “Knowing the algorithm” is something I have been known for and teased about for years. It’s the perfect motto of the Planner.

But this quality is rarely seen in #1 players, which is somewhat surprising to me. I would think that players who have a deep knowledge of the game system and know the optimal responses to all guessing games are the players who would tend to come out on top. Perhaps the personality type of the Planner is so rare that it simply occupies a proportionately small number of the #1 spots in various games. Or perhaps, the entire approach is inferior to Adaptability. A great many players I asked listed Adaptability as one of the three most important traits of a #1 player, and I didn’t even list it as a choice to color their responses. Some even use it as their main measure of determining how good another player is: can the player adapt quickly to new situations? Oh, and if the Adaptive player were put into the situation described above (with the 5 possible enemy responses), then how would he react? He might not even need to know the totality of the situation. All he knows is that you will do response 5, and he’s not falling for it.

Here is an anecdote about Adaptability. The “B3” tournament was a landmark in fighting game history. It marked the first meeting between virtually undefeated players John Choi and Alex Valle in the game Street Fighter Alpha 2. Each easily cut through the field, eventually to face each other in the finals. At this time, Alex Valle unleashed a new technique never seen before, something he had saved until this moment. I should note that “saving your good stuff” backfires 99 times out of 100, but this is one of those storybook situations almost too extreme to be true. Valle’s technique, which an untrained eye would probably not even notice, went on to become the single most powerful technique in the game, it changed the way the game was played, and it was immediately named “the Valle CC” after the man himself. The point is, this was no ordinary trick, but the most powerful, game-changing tactic the game would ever know.

How did Choi fare in such unfamiliar waters? Many players would have lost the entire set without even realizing what Valle was doing. Choi may not have fully grasped what was going on, but he knew the rules were suddenly very different. Choi ultimately lost that match, but to leave it at that is an injustice. He changed his gameplay, got caught fewer and fewer times by the new trick, and even managed to do it back to Valle! Valle dominated several rounds, but his grasp slipped more and more as the games went on. The crowd was in utter awe that Choi could possibly even hang in there against such odds, much less slowly shift the momentum in his favor. The match went the full count of possible games: all the way to the last bit of health of both players in the 3rd and final round of the 14th and final game. By a razor’s edge, Choi lost. Yet even today, that match is cited as the most amazing display of Adaptability in fighting games. Planning would have been of little use to Choi in that match, yet Adaptability is seen by nearly all as a rare and distinguishing factor of the most elite players. And don’t let that story give you the wrong impression of Valle either. He richly deserves his status as a #1 player, and while he may not be a strong Planner, he has proven time and again his utter dominance in the realm of Adaptability.