Understanding Melee: Introduction Post

[Hermit=D]

read it all, Diamonds?

Very good, must of taken you a while.

I understand your concept of blindness very well, my smash is relatively weak at the moment. When i vs my area's top players I just don't know what's happening.

 

[ChivalRuse]

This thread is great. I was hoping you would actually break down a couple of situations, because I like talking theory, but you brought up some important points, especially the bit on mentality.

 

[JesiahTEG]

ok chivalruse, here's one I can think of off the top of my head, and I'll show you how it's really one situation, but as I got better it evolved about three times and I saw more and more.

let's say fox is near the edge and I'm Marth. That's the situation.

At scrub-a-dub level, I just ran up and attacked, and a good Fox would just jump over me and punish my missed grab or dash attack or Fsmash.

Then I realized, oh, I can't attack where he is right now, I have to wait and see what he does. So I started dash dancing so I could react to Fox's options. I saw more success, cuz now I can punish rolls, dodges and if Fox short hop or full hop attacks me with nair or dair.

Then I realized, oh, I shouldn't just be reacting, I should be making them react, so then I started paying attention to what actions my opponent took as a result of my specific actions. Faster DD'ing usually leads to a dodge or roll, doing an empty shorthop usually leads to a roll specifically (since they think you're going to fair and since Marth's jump is floaty they think they have time to roll behind you, but if you don't swing and just land and wait and keep your eyes open, you'll notice even the best players usually roll and then shine). There's more but can't think of them off the top of my head.

However here's a situation that's actually inside of the one I just described. After poking Fox's shield with Dtilt, lots of players will try to sh out and attack, so I got into the habit of DD'ing away after Dtilt and coming back in for a grab when I see fox attack.

The problem is, if Fox decides not to SH attack and decides to jump oos, and then double jump instead of attacking, I go in for the grab thinking he's going to just directly attack, I miss the grab and he falls on top of me with a bair or nair or dair, so then you realize, oh, after Dtilt dash dance, but be careful of the double jump, don't just dd grab right away.

keep in mind, at this level it's very easy to just keep getting hit by the falling aerial when you're trying to DD grab what you think is going to be Fox attacking. You think you're in control and it's hard to consciously break out of that, so this is a really good example of playing blindly. The goal is to recognize it as fast as possible, and if you can get good at that it can lower your learning curve infinitely. I believe this is how players rise to the top really fast. (unfortunately I'm not that good at it compared to others, but hey it's a journey for a journey right? :-P

Keep in mind, this is info a lot of people actually know, and if they don't consciously know it, high level players understand it intuitively.

The people who "know" this at low levels though haven't practiced or played enough to be able to handle themselves in this situation.

At higher levels they can manuever well in these situations, but they look robotic and planned out because they don't know how to disguise their intentions, so the an opponent that is better than them can clearly see what they're waiting for/trying to do.

Then there's top players who can capitalize precisely because they're one step ahead, and they're controlling the opponent and being tricky about it. Not just tricky, but suffocatingly tricky. Their spacing is so good and their movements so automated, that the opponent gets lulled into a state that I call "low attention level," meaning the opponent is not thinking one step ahead anymore. Now they are purely reacting to the Marth that is stalking them. (Mango is the best at this) Even at this level though, players lack consistency.

Then there's the best player, who is not only a master of this situation, but can punish each option different ways every time, while keeping the efficiency, and do it consistently over and over in tournament under pressure.

Keep in mind, although I'm fairly certain that this is all solid info, this is what I came up with. While I encourage you to look at it and apply it, I also encourage you to learn it, understand it, compare it to videos you see of players of all different skill and also test it on your own, and try to better it and come up with your own conclusions.

Did that all make sense?

 

[JesiahTEG]

and max ive been online from 5pm until i went to bed the past 2 days looking for u

 

[voorhese]

subbed .

 

[Signia]

Excellent, I love threads that involve closely analyzing the game or theory talk, if you will.

Spanish analogy is excellent, but you do see this in every other concept. Before you "understand" anything, you see it as an incomprehensible infinite continuum. "Understanding" is basically just developing useful models to describe and predict so that it appears discrete. This is how I've come to understand learning, but I could be completely off about this, as I've never taken a psychology class.

That said I think you're overestimating the number of situations you might find yourself in. Also, you may be overestimating the difference in numbers of situations in other fighting games and Melee. Have you ever looked as deeply in Melee as with any other game? Anyway, it seems like it's possible to consider beforehand and experience situations beforehand most situations, especially on neutral stages. Only small adjustments need to be made to the way your mind models the game once you have a passing familiarity of the possibility space. As you notice more subtleties your model slowly gets more complex, and it would seem to me that eventually one would be able to have a strategy ready for every situation, and if the situation varies from before, they'd be able to separate the important differences from the minor ones and adjust accordingly.

An unrelated point I disagree with concerned your statement about paying too much attention to technical details such as hitbox and frame data. In every other fighting game, this data is used to see the game with greater precision as before; it is a method understanding the game at it's deepest level. Usually, with comprehensive frame data, players find so many new options and ways to punish optimally which were so difficult to see before. The reason you probably think it isn't useful is because it's too incomplete here on smashboards. I ****ed my pants when I saw Strongbad's hitstun spreadsheet that related damage percentage to hitstun. With recovery frames and hitstun we might finally be able to get estimates of our frame advantage and disadvantage, the most useful aspect of frame data.

If you're not convinced... check out GodIsMyRock's VG BootCamp videos. Apparently Bowser is at +10 after a grab release, giving him a guaranteed dash-grab if they don't do an air-release. His other videos are brawl videos which also showcase the usefulness of technical data. From looking at frame data he found a possible infinite combo for Bowser and an important aspect of Bowser and DK that only now was found.

If we had frame data that told us the recovery, hitstun, blockstun, and active hit frames, we'd be able to find frame advantage--that's recovery locked animation frames minus the hit/block stun locked animation frames--of moves, which allows us to find out which of your attacks will beat theirs.

Now I know damage/stun in Melee is complex to point of appearing inconsistent, but if we had a simple framework (and we do now thanks to Strongbad) and experimented with the implications of the data, eventually we'd get an intuitive feel for how many frames to adjust the frame advantage for situations like early aerials on shields. This way, we could have an more precise and accurate model to base our strategies off of, making only small adjustments. In other words, we could rely less on intuition because the distance we have to wander from the tangible data is shorter than before, whereas normally all we have is "Fox just did a pretty low aerial, I guess shine and jab will beat grab." Instead we could have "Fox just did a pretty low aerial, that will leave him at around -2, so his shine will come out on frame 3, his jab on frame 5, <list goes on for all his moves>, and my grab will come out on frame x, and my Up-B will start its invincibility frames at frame y, and I can wavedash and be out of range at about frame z..." ...thinking like this is common practice in other fighting games, so don't go thinking it's impossible to think through stuff like this in a short amount of time.

Just thought that would be interesting to you, since you don't want to rely on intuition but rather use your understanding of the game to make your decisions.

 

[ChivalRuse]

Yes, I'm pretty sure I see what you mean. So you're essentially saying there are 3 layers of seeing things:

1. Seeing where someone is and choosing attacks based on your position relative to theirs.
2. Using their current position as a starting ground to plan out the next attack, but not committing to the point where you can't react to what they do.
3. Applying 2, but not committing to a punish as soon as they "telegraph" their next action, since they might be baiting you into that punish.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying though. The way I see it, Mango's style is a combination of attacking so as to minimize the risk to himself, but maximize the reward (which his flawless execution usually amplifies). He also attacks knowing ALL of his opponent's options for escaping, mixed with reaction and a good ability to pick up on patterns and exploit them.

There are some option selects that help with reacting to things that happen almost instantaneously. The situation you described in which you d-tilt someone's shield and then run away, anticipating a jump oos, has its own set of option selects. For example, if you dash away and dash in anticipating a SH oos (and position yourself to grab them where they should land based on their horizontal air speed, etc) you also have to be prepared for them to double jump away. I believe if you just dash in and shield, you get near enough to them to be able to shield grab if they land in front of you (from SHing out of shield) but you also don't commit to the grab just yet, meaning you can react to a double jump with uair/fair oos.

By putting yourself in the position to be able to punish both of these options, only then are you actually empowered to take advantage of both your ability to anticipate your opponent's response AND react to variations.

 

[Mahone]

Man, if only i lived in NY so i could play you, i wish there were more people motivated like you.

Idk, I want to go up there but its like 9 hours away, do you have any plans to play in NC or VA this summer?

 

[DoH]

I feel very stagnant in my gameplay. I'm incredibly fortunate that the people I play with on a regular basis are darkrain and Wobbles, but I don't know if either of us is actually getting better. If we are, it is only marginally or we are all getting better at the same pace so it doesn't seem like we are. Also we are old and tired =\

 

[JesiahTEG]

Doh- Your honesty is awesome. I personally believe in Melee's unlimited potential. I believe even if you can't figure out how to do it, you most definitely can get better. Even the best players right now can get much better.

There's an extremely popular book (for good reason) by George Leonard called Mastery, and to simplify it, he talks about how most growth in any endeavor is actually occuring at a "plateau," when you think you're most stagnant and when you feel you're not improving at all.

Then you start improving again and you get re-motivated, but really the growth happened when you weren't improving. It'd be difficult to flush out the whole topic, but at the point you're at now I really recommend reading it

 

[LLDL]

I think your second point is more likely to be true. It's more likely that you're improving, but all at roughly the same rate so you don't realize any improvement. Then again, getting better is relative. When you go and fight someone else besides Wobbles or Darkrain, you might not feel like you've improved at all because they aren't the same characters. But I don't think anyone really decreases in skill, so you definitely have been improving.

I personally think that the best way to get better is to play a variety of people. Either that or play someone who has a versatile cast and who is also around your level or better. I just do falco dittos with stric all of the time. I have that matchup down pat, but I seem to get worse at the other weird matchups because they seem foreign.

 

[CloneHat]

Playing lots of people is definitely the best way for me to improve. It's far more effective than just watching videos.

I used to lose to a player in our Smash Club all the time, but after going to a small tournament (a fairly rare opportunity for me), I could suddenly beat him with my low tiers. New people just make you rethink your game.

 

[Rat]

Good read.

I especially like this part.

...This is their ego basically saying to their opponent, “If I didn’t mess up this execution, I would have had you. I’m smarter than you but I messed up, so DON’T GO THINKING YOU’RE BETTER THAN ME.”

Guess what kid, the fact that you messed up means I AM better than you

1000% agree. I know johning is a smash brothers thing, but that **** happens all the time. It's stupid. The hard part is catching yourself doing it and then refocusing on what actually happened and why. The ego gets in the way of improvement.


I'm not sure I agree with this part.

Look, maybe some people who always play to win have developed a system of learning at the same time- for me personally, it doesn’t work like that, which is why I recommend not caring so much about winning in friendlies.

It works the opposite way for me.

The moments in which I improve the most is when I care the most. What I'm talking about is those times when you have the hunger to win. That feeling of "I'm NOT going to lose." (It reminds me of the Rorshach line from watchmen ... and I'll whisper "no.")

Whenever I have that refusal, I'll push myself beyond my normal limits. I'll do things I've never done before, and they will work. Counters to situations that I haven't had before. It's like in that moment of super focus you see new things and your mind finds an answer. (I can give some personal examples if you want.)

We might not be talking about the same thing. As this could be related to what the emotional aspects of melee, which you mentioned.


Again awesome read.

 

[Divinokage]

I <3 all this warrior type talk, it makes my heart warm. =D I'm not sure what I could input more on this..

 

[MTKO]

Doh- Your honesty is awesome. I personally believe in Melee's unlimited potential. I believe even if you can't figure out how to do it, you most definitely can get better. Even the best players right now can get much better.

There's an extremely popular book (for good reason) by George Leonard called Mastery, and to simplify it, he talks about how most growth in any endeavor is actually occuring at a "plateau," when you think you're most stagnant and when you feel you're not improving at all.

Then you start improving again and you get re-motivated, but really the growth happened when you weren't improving. It'd be difficult to flush out the whole topic, but at the point you're at now I really recommend reading it

I watched a video on the key points in that book after reading your post. I would really like to purchase the book and may order it tomorrow.

In the video it was mentioned that obsessively chasing the goal and seeing it as a point that can be reached through practice is hurtful to your mastery of the subject. I can see this being very true. And in smash I think it's more obvious than more complex activities. In smash I often find myself thinking I have to play a certain way or do certain things or always focus on one or a few aspects of the game (spacing, mind games, and so on). And I end up playing in a very basic manner with little variety. I sometimes notice myself playing my sheik and only doing tech chases for the early percents, then using only f tilt, fair, bair, with very little use of any other attacks. I'll only start combos with a dash attack or forward tilt. And then my opponent is always ready to counter those two moves I use to start my combos. Instead I think I should be focusing using variety of different things within each of aspects of the game in order to keep myself from falling into a rut where I'm essentially just focusing on the same patterns that I've always used and never improving.

 

[DoH]

But apparently my Falco is now approximately ****. Go figure.

 

[Ryzol_]

That’s why if you’re a lower level player watching videos, your mind is going to focus on WHAT the top players are doing. You think you understand it all, but you only understand as much as your mind allows you to see. When higher level players are watching videos, they’re seeing much more than you are, but even then they’re not seeing everything, and again, players of even higher level are seeing even more.

I find watching matches in slowmo helps a lot. I watch them in 0.10x to 0.40x if I am trying to analyze them. You can do this by downloading them off of youtube and then using VLC player.

 

[King Funk]

What’s important to keep in mind is that I don’t want to nurture any lower level players. I don’t want anyone to EVER think someone’s going to make them good. In fact it’s a bit of an internal conflict for me, and I feel this conflict waging inside of me like a war when I’m playing players of lower levels. On one hand, as a competitor, I want to absolutely crush and destroy everyone who I play. This is definitely healthy for anyone wanting to become ****, so when someone takes a stock off me in a friendly (and with the people I play on a regular this is actually only usually once every 3-4 games) I feel a massive amount of frustration and anger, and I actually use that to motivate myself to not let it happen again.

Also VERY well said about not helping people improve. While it helps some people to a certain degree, it's your own strength that brings you to the top.

Have you watched Kaiji/Akagi btw? I think those animes analyze this stuff really well.

I actually don't really agree with this. I can't say I have experience teaching people stuff at SSBM because I still haven't really reached a high enough level to deserve doing so. I still feel that I'm improving pretty fast and maybe one day I'll have the required experience to start helping new players out. So, if you don't mind I'll use what I know from smash 64.

Of course, I can understand why you wouldn't want people to believe someone is going to make them good. It's 100% true that nobody becomes good at smash without mostly standing up on his own two feet. However, a helping hand should never be refused to newer players if they request it. You have to understand that if they're asking for your help, they discarded their ego and accepted that they have room to improve. There are many novice players who think they'd suffer from a heavy inferiority complex if they even asked for a little tip. It's a barrier that they have to break, and when they do, I actually welcome it rather than loathe it. It proves they want to get better, and that's never really a bad thing. It's obvious that you should never tell someone you'll show him everything, because there's a ton of things he has to figure out on himself. But for me, a little push can sometimes be CRUCIAL.

Let me tell you a story. I started playing Smash back in late 2008 with Brawl. In April 2009, I discovered Smash 64 online. Thanks to the fantastic playability of 64 online combined with a great group chat filled with active players from all countries, I had a great platform to improve on.

I'm one of those people who can't really give a clear answer to who helped me the most to reach the level I reached. Let's be honest, nobody really "nurtured" me. Obviously in the beginning I got utterly destroyed by everyone. I really felt that "blindness" you talk about in your thread. A feeling of not understanding at all what was happening to me, why I got hit, why I couldn't hit my opponents (which later on I figured represented 80% of what smash 64 is about). But eventually, as I kept playing and getting wrecked, there was a point around 9 months later where I had a sort of "click" in my mind. Suddenly it seemed like I was starting to understand everything, that everything was becoming clear. *insert dramatic music* I could almost say that I figured out the concepts of spacing well and baiting in a single day. It was the best feeling I've ever had playing smash. After all that time I spent trying to reach a decent level, it was extremely rewarding.

I wanted to share it with other people, I wanted to tell everyone about that very special moment. When I asked better players if they ever had such a moment, some said yes while others seemed to pretend it had never happened for them. That moment is like reading a great book for the first time. Once you've read it, you can't ever read it again and have that same kind of utter joy. Once you've climbed a mountain, coming down and climbing it again won't give you the same sense of accomplishment. The only way I could ever experience something close to it again was by trying to make it happen for other new players. And that's what I decided to do. After a year and a half of playing the game, I began giving tips on how to improve. It always feels great for me to do so, not because it increases my ego, but rather because I see my old self in novice players, especially those that play Captain Falcon (my main). I find it also thrilling to see how a player progresses, every new thing he learns and how he applies them.

A good example of a person I could consider as someone to whom I told quite a lot of things is a player called Fays. When he appeared on the group chat, he was already at a decent level, but he lacked application. I could see that he was smart but didn't really have what it took to pull off all that he wanted to. Most of my tips and advice to him were more on the technical level. One of the most important things I've told him was how to dash pivot. As you may or may not know, the dash pivot allows a character in 64 to execute a single dash and turn around, which is really useful in many aspects. You can move backwards while facing fowards, you can turn around very quickly with a forward momentum to hit with a back air, you can edgehog, you can do combos that otherwise couldn't be done without it. Once I taught him that trick, he started using it a lot. Hell, he even applied it in ways that I never thought of myself, which is one of the biggest benefits of helping out players. You show them things, and they show you other things in return.

I remember also giving advice to Fays on the mental aspect of the game. Smash 64 is an insanely frustrating game. This game will make you suffer. You get hit once and you might lose your stock. Having a stock lead in that game means NOTHING. You may have 2 stocks and your opponent may only have 1 left, but sometimes it only takes two little errors to be defeated. I've had lots of times where I wanted to quit this game because of it, and I know that Fays felt it too at one point.

Eventually, Fays pretty much started to surpass me. I didn't know what to think of it. It doesn't feel great to be surpassed, but in a way, I was quite happy about it because I know that my advice made a lot of difference. He did most of the work himself, but I was satisfied to have contributed to his growth as a player. We had a European tournament online for the first time a few months ago and he ended up winning it, which was the cherry on top of the cake.

I've reflected later on how fast he's grown as a player and I concluded that he reached my level and surpassed me in a really short time when compared to the time it took for me to become good at the game. Is it talent? Who knows. What if someone explained me everything about dash pivots early on? What if someone told me I could jump out of my shield during the first month of my experience with the game instead of embarrassingly figuring it out 3 months later? What if a player showed me all the ways to mix up my recovery and tech options?

When you help a player improve, as long as he puts enough work into it by himself, he will become better. As he becomes better it's great for you as well because:
- you get to play at a higher level with him
- he may show you things you didn't know in return

If you refrain completely from helping someone because you're afraid he'll be better than you, you're being egoistic and you are actually shooting yourself in the foot.

You don't need to take care of new players like babies.
But every little bit of experience you share helps them, you and the community.

 

[-Jumpman-]

KF is too nice.

 

[ILM]

After playing you at Zenith (I was the Marth at the end that you *****.) I decided to reread this. I have to say, I like your style of playing new people. When I'm getting obviously sandbagged I feel like I'm not playing 'for real.' And while it's not fun to get 4-stocked, it makes my mistakes stand out, and forces me to correct them.

Also, you going to the next No Johns? I want to play again.

 

[NightroGlycerine]

ILM- I was playing as hard as possible vs. everybody at Zenith lol, I didn't sandbag you

King Funk- Really, really good post and you hit it spot on. I think you kinda misinterpreted that part you quoted though. Of course if someone wants help I'll give it to them, but I mean I don't want lower level players to always just hope someone's going to give them so much information that they'll just become good, because it doesn't work that way. (Or at least from my experience/what I've heard)

-Oops, this is Jesiah

 

[Strong Badam]

[crediting me for Histun frames etc.]

It was 100% Magus420. I did the Excel stuff, but he found the knockback formula in Brawl's ASM. I don't want to take credit for the mountain of contribution James has done in the Project M Back Room as far as Melee mechanics and frame data goes. All I do is make tools to make use of the information.
I won't be able to make my vision of Hitstun/KB based on victim, character, move, & % until I learn C++ or something, because it's a huge undertaking (could take like months of data inputting <.<) when I could just use C++ to parse the data from a database of .dat files after I learn it.

Anyway I'm getting far off topic, so I'll respond to one of THE JESIAH's posts. I still need to read the first post btw. LOL

There's an extremely popular book (for good reason) by George Leonard called Mastery, and to simplify it, he talks about how most growth in any endeavor is actually occuring at a "plateau," when you think you're most stagnant and when you feel you're not improving at all.

Then you start improving again and you get re-motivated, but really the growth happened when you weren't improving. It'd be difficult to flush out the whole topic, but at the point you're at now I really recommend reading it

The effort it took to push past the plateau is similar to effort taken to improve normally, and thus is growth an and of itself. This growth is more significant because despite not improving, the fact that you are motivated to push forward despite not seeing any immediate growth is substantial. Indeed.

Are you going to Genesis 2?

 

[TheCrimsonBlur]

I learned a lot from playing you at Zenith Jesiah. Your advice that I need to keep my speed but just become more precise inspired me...I'm never gonna slow the Blur down

Thanks man.

 

[MTKO]

It was 100% Magus420. I did the Excel stuff, but he found the knockback formula in Brawl's ASM. I don't want to take credit for the mountain of contribution James has done in the Project M Back Room as far as Melee mechanics and frame data goes. All I do is make tools to make use of the information.
I won't be able to make my vision of Hitstun/KB based on victim, character, move, & % until I learn C++ or something, because it's a huge undertaking (could take like months of data inputting <.<) when I could just use C++ to parse the data from a database of .dat files after I learn it.

Anyway I'm getting far off topic, so I'll respond to one of THE JESIAH's posts. I still need to read the first post btw. LOL


The effort it took to push past the plateau is similar to effort taken to improve normally, and thus is growth an and of itself. This growth is more significant because despite not improving, the fact that you are motivated to push forward despite not seeing any immediate growth is substantial. Indeed.

Are you going to Genesis 2?

After reading "Mastery", I think I've come up with my own interpretation of what was being said in the book. It's kind of a blend of what you and Jesiah are saying.

I think that a person reaches a new plateau, or whatever else you'd like to call it(a new level, a stage, some grand epiphany that has brought you to your next plateau), through the mostly unnoticed progress until all the improvements, new ideas that work, style changes, and better grasp on particular aspects of the game (among many other things) all come together in a short time after a lengthy time on the plateau and that's when you reach a new plateau/level. Sometimes the improvements on the plateau may not all be shown in gameplay and just ideas that are being though over a lot, until eventually they get applied along with everything else rather suddenly and you before you know it you improve without even knowing that it was going to happen.

 

[JesiahTEG]

MTKO- Glad you read it man, awesome.

CB- Yeah, I mean you were going for all the right stuff- tech chases, grabs, good approaches w/dash attacks (iirc) but you were just missing them all. Just a little bit of tweaking and fine tuning, but it could take a while. (It did for me and I'm still working on it)

Man there's a lot I have to say, but I'm gonna wait till I have time to post it all in my blog. The best part about Zenith for me was 2 things- My strategies for controlling my emotions and playing confidently worked very well, and I also have a VERY clear idea of stuff I need to work on. I'm so far away from how good I am going to be, I have SO much room to improve, and luckily I know exactly what it all is. I'm thinking about writing another article like this as well, but more organized (hopefully haha.)

 

[Shaka03]

This is their ego basically saying to their opponent, “If I didn’t mess up this execution, I would have had you. I’m smarter than you but I messed up, so DON’T GO THINKING YOU’RE BETTER THAN ME.” I'm totally guilty of that lol.

I mean, if you don't punish an opponent's action (even if you can predict it), why wouldn't your opponent continue doing it?

Anyhow, interesting read Jesiah. I especially like the specific examples with Marth/Fox, playing blindly, and learning how to force your opponent to react instead of simply reacting to him when talking to Ruse lol.

And great idea with slowing down videos Ryzol, I normally just paused and rewinded on Youtube . . .

 

[Strong Badam]

That’s why tech skill is limitless. Even if you CAN execute, you most likely won’t to your potential because of the pressure and nerves you feel, and it’s all subconscious. In fact, hearing the very name of the player you’re playing against being called on the loud speaker triggers a physiological change in your body and muscles based on your perception of how good that player is, and when your muscles nervously tense up and they’re not loose, your fingers can’t execute properly, and this creates the phenomenon that most players call “I can’t play good in tournaments wahhhh” but what’s really known as UNDERPERFORMING. Notice why Mango and Armada almost never play bad, because in their minds they are the best and no one can come close, so they almost always play to their full potential. I mean, even they have off days, but that’s much, much rarer than most other players.

This is a very under explored part of Melee, is the emotional/psychological part of the game. There’s physical, which is your execution, there is mental which is what some people call mindgames, and then there’s your emotional state, which to every top athlete is just as equal, if not more than the first two, but because most people who play Melee competitively see it as just a video game, they never delve into this aspect of being able to control your thoughts and emotions, which is silly because it’s a skill (one of the only you develop by playing Melee) that translates to real life. It’s also why Jman and Lucky underperform so much, and you see when they’re playing good that they’re better than most people can imagine.

This brings up an interesting little dynamic. Notice how Jman’s playstyle has developed to be consistent even when he’s playing bad? His laser game and basic combos make it so he doesn’t have to be on all the time to place top 5 at a tournament, while Lucky’s risky aggressiveness sometimes causes him to lose to players that he would beat at his maximum potential.

This reminds me of this.

After having won many archery contests, the town champion went to the Zen master.

- I am the best of all - he said. - I didn’t study religion, never sought help from the monks, and succeeded in becoming the finest archer in the whole region. I heard that, for a time, you were the best archer in the region, and ask you: was it necessary to become a monk in order to learn to shoot?

- No - replied the Zen master.

But the champion was not satisfied: he took an arrow, placed it in the bow, fired it and hit a cherry which was very far away, smiling, as if to say: “you might have saved your time, devoting yourself only to technique.”

And he said: I doubt whether you could do that.

Without looking in the least bit worried, the master went inside, fetched his bow, and began to walk towards a nearby mountain. On the way, there was an abyss which could only be crossed by an old bridge made of rotting rope, and which was almost collapsing: with complete calm, the Zen master went to the middle of the bridge, took his bow and placed an arrow in it, then aimed at a tree on the far side of the precipice, and hit his target.

- Now it is your turn - he kindly told the young man, as he returned to firm ground.

Terrified as he gazed down at the abyss below his feet, the young man went to the spot and fired, but his arrow veered wide of the mark.

- That is why the discipline of meditation was worthwhile - concluded the master, when the young man returned to him. - You may have great skill with the instrument you choose for your livelihood, but it us useless, if you cannot command the mind which uses that instrument.

Excellent read Jesiah; finally read it today.