Regarding the Juu vs WGS vids.
Yellow is for Topics
For
Master WGS (if he doesn't get this, let him know)
To start, tell him never Shield-Grab again. It is doing the OPPOSITE of helping him.
Especially with Lucas, as he has many things he could be doing instead. There's nothing wrong with Shield-Grabbing, it has its uses, but he tries to rely on it connecting nearly every time something hit his shield. Lucas, of all characters, has an abundance of options out of his Shield that can all connect just as quickly, and provide just as many different offensive options (regarding trajectory/power/whatever) that Grab can.
If he focuses 100% on DON'T SHIELD-GRAB, his abilities and general awareness of defensive > offensive transitions will go through the ROOF.
He's capable to a point where he 'should' be able to trust himself enough to do the right thing otherwise in other situations.
As in, if he focuses 100% on NOT REACTING with these types of things out of defensive situations, it's not like his game will fall apart. He's well-toned enough to not have to even pay attention to any particular aspect of his game and still do 'fine'. AKA, he has a conditioned foundation from playing enough.
Therefore, he should focus 100% on not Shield-Grabbing, and nothing else. Everything will fall into place whether he does this or not, but doing this will help him where NOT doing it WON'T help him.
Hope that makes sense.
He also spends a lot of time running away and throwing PK Freezes when he's in moments of uncertainty. In other words, he's spending a LOT of time not accomplishing ANYTHING because he gets into 'uncomfortable' situations and his reaction is to reset.
An example would be when edge-guarding G&W. Instead of using this 'discomfort' or simple lack of understanding/ability to keep a positional advantage when G&W is recovering, he would revert to PKF. If G&W wouldn't be hit with one directly, he would run across the stage and PKF. It's his reset reaction safe-net conditioning when in uncertain positions, and this carries throughout the rest of his game (at least in every match in the vids, including vs TL etc)
Tell him to stay a little more mindfully open to screwing around, and getting out of those 'comfort zones' more often, rather than straight-up avoiding them, as averting discomfort won't help anyone become more comfortable with things like it (that are inevitable and might as well be dealt with then and there), and is essentially 'bottling it up' which will only hold him back.
Even simple things, such as trying to Grab the Ledge when G&W used his DJ and moved below the stage looking to Up-B. Sure, a lot of the time it won't be effective, and may even back-fire, but it's better than accomplishing nothing with conditional retreats out of uncertainty/inexperienced situations, and it's better now than 'eventually later'. Keep it simple, sure, but at least attempt something. That's simply a step forward, even if it's uncomfortable for a long time, eventually it won't be/will have to NOT be, and this is the only way to do it.
TL;DR
Not being comfortable with G&W off-stage
>
Not throwing G&W off-stage when he gets a chance
>
Up-Throwing G&W when he gets a grab
>
Not gaining any significant advantage of Grabs when he DOES get them
>
Why attempt going for Grabs at all?
Especially Shield Grabs that connected maybe ONCE in the entire set.
Everything roots back to something.
Hope all that made sense.
Juu G&W
A few tangible mundane things involving physics of the game/etc
1) With proper DI, opponents can get out of Grab > SH Uair combos quite effectively. Usually you can translate into SH-Bair's instead, as it's much more difficult to DI in a way that doesn't allow G&W to follow up, and deals more damage in the first place. As well, you can control the direction they go a lot better to gain positional advantage, where Uair allowed him to get center-stage type positioning far too often every time you repeated this once he started expecting the SH Uair's.
Otherwise, simply Up-B instead of Uair directly to start those attempted combos. It's trajectory is easy to follow, and you can Bair/Uair/Dair follow MUCH easier on the way down given the kind of mobility and speed you'll maintain after the hit (instead of the Uair hit) actually connects. It also leads to the Nair/Fair that otherwise you were limited to after the Uair's anyway. At the very least, you'll get that, but you can get more if you wanted.
If you're not going to connect with an aerial on the way down from Up-B mid-combo, etc, just throw a single Bacon. The reset/vortex type positional forcing and options of this gives G&W a massive advantage, whether it's hitting them and Up-Bing to combo again, forcing a DJ out of them, or simply making them move further away. If all your left with is falling back to the ground, getting a good trajectory Bacon at Jump/SH height on your way is a game-breaker more often than not.
2) With the amount of (extremely predictable) PK Freezes he throws, you should be able to bucket them. Aim to simply be READY to bucket every time he runs away, or throws one at you when recovering since you can halt your momentum for easy control, and it comes out very quick. You could have had some free instant-kill style buckets throughout those matches.
Though at the same time, if this was a set for 'money' or 'tournament' style, then doing what you did was probably beneficial. As if you DID start bucketing PKF's, it would have given him incentive to adjust his play, and he may have transitioned to being more effective in those 'uncertainty' situations that you were abusing from his lack of making anything happen in them. I would never encourage playing 'to win' if it involves abusing or hindering someone else's potential to get better, but if you were aware of this and winning the match mattered more than giving him a tangible and very visual aid to an area he could improve in, then that's acceptable. If this wasn't your intention (usually it's not lol) then watch for that, and both you AND him will become more aware of the meta-game developing between you mid-matches.
3) This goes back to Up-B. Use it more than simply OOS and recovering. You did it ONCE outside of these situations, but you could have abused it a LOT more. There was a sequence in the first match where you were 'reset' at least 5+ times, and could have used the speed of Up-B to transition a feinted combo/pressure string into a combo of your own. Use it the way you would a Bowser-Up-B, simply as a very quick releasing move when that fast character thinks they can connect that aerial after you tech in place, or whatever. Trading that hit with whatever they have can often be beneficial to you even, let alone the way you can actually go straight through the holes in their maneuvering with it cleanly the majority of the time anyway.
With that stuff alone, there's no way you should lose matches to his Lucas with G&W if he plays the way he did.
However, the
MAIN REASON he won this set is due to you being more of a 'chicken' than him.
Every time he Shield-Grabbed (he missed basically all but 1 I think haha), you spent that time FULL JUMPING across the stage away from him. If you simply FJ'd in place even, you probably could have attempted a clean Judgement hit on each one and that alone would have been enough to turn the tides. You played as if you expected him to power through you with Fair's and running-train on you every time you made an action. It's reasonable, and it very well could have happened, especially against Lucas, but this is where player vs player comes into play. He played in a way of averting things, and has a lot of holes in his game where he hits the panic button (Shield-Grabbing and run-away PKF's are simply the very visually significant 'panic-modes'), that you can easily adapt to and adjust your own play to make use of.
On-Topic of Toon Link
It made a good example of this 'respecting people's space' thing very easy to see in the TL matches. In the first game, he plays away from you like he's scared, just as he was respecting your space as G&W, though the difference came when YOU forced HIM to adjust due to character changes. You didn't change, HE did, and that's why he won the 2nd game.
With the character change, he gave you the same kind of room, but guess what? TL makes good use of that room, and enjoys have as much room as possible. This made PKF and his 'fall-back' options futile, and he had to actually MAKE stuff happen. When he had to 'make' stuff happen, he started playing aggressively, following you and not respecting your space, which inevitably worked because you played 'chicken' too.
Notice how almost every single one of the Grabs you landed in the first match came from SOMETHING ELSE. A landed hit, or something scaring him into some defensive maneuver, and this resulted in you getting the grab. As he stopped respecting your space (stopped playing chicken/was forced to MAKE something happen), he no longer went into these positions, or let you have to room that would put him there.
This resulted in you fishing for straight-Grabs in the second match, but he spent a lot more time actively moving around and towards you to cut off any mobility you could have, and challenging you more often. This was his adjustment and the first match he played differently, and it's because your character change forced him to stop playing scardipants. You continued to do so (TL is better for it) which is understandable against Lucas overall usually, but your play didn't adjust significantly.
AKA, in the first match, your TL stuff worked due to having a gimmick nature (something that shouldn't work but works in the situation because the meta-game hasn't developed enough to deal with it) and didn't in the second match (due to the meta-game developing between you to the point where he knew what tools you were abusing and how to get around them)
It likely wasn't a conscious alteration of play, but a natural aggression that formed out of (very mild desperation) the need to do something else to deal with you.
With all that stuff, simply be mindful of how you're developing your play and improving.
I haven't played Smash in a while, and this is the first Smash I've seen out-side the local community that I've seen in even LONGER, but I've seen both you and WGS play before, and you've come a long way since. It's good to see the PM community as a whole stepping in a developing direction, and continuing to do so, and you make a good example of that. The steps are coming quicker, but you can take leaps forward if your attention goes to the right areas to allow it.
Give attention to how you're growing. You likely improve bit by bit with every match, whether it's a 'good' or 'bad' match, but don't give as much attention to what you're adjusting (aggressive play) but HOW/WHY you're adjusting that way (going from defensive to aggressive, or vice versa, or whatever the game might call for/moment/event/anything)
Increase the awareness in HOW to develop efficiently > Developing efficiently.
Hopefully all this makes sense so far...
Mindfulness in application.
In the end, I'm just pointing out a bunch of visually exampled things in a set that might intellectually clear some things up. It's just intellectual stuff though.
There is NOTHING I'll ever say that you already know. This is all stuff you know, (Don't Shield-Grab on reaction if it's not gonna connect lulz) so the 'understanding' of this is just mundane crap you haven't applied to you games yet.
The purpose of my posting isn't to point out what you know that you haven't applied yet. That's simple meaningless stuff that anyone can do, and is essentially just 'friendly reminders'
Which are always good, but there's more to my posting than just that stuff. I won't pick apart the routes you might/could take from here, I simply pointed out this 'Do this and that' stuff in the matches that happened to use as examples. What you do from HERE is up to YOU 100%, so this is the best way I can help. Not pick apart WHAT you can do better with TL from here, but HOW you can find those things you might be able to do better.
- Just to clear this up... You don't need help in this field more than anyone, and I'm not saying that, and I'm only directing this at you as an example that applies to everyone. You're doing fine, and will do fine, and everyone else is too. I'm just using you as an example for it. That's all.
Train of importance, for hopefully making some sense out of this.
Be mindful of every action.
More importantly, and more clearly put.
Be mindful of every action NOW.
Then...
Be mindful of every action NOW.
If the 2 NOW moments have a different actions/reasoning behind them/perceptions during them... be mindful of THAT.
And...
Most importantly.
Be mindful of every change in your actions.
This is pretty universal and simple, and I'm sure you're well aware of it (everyone is I think), so take this as a friendly reminder if anything.
Hopefully you got most of this... hopefully somebody bothered to read it anyway (it's long but applies to all)
The whole point of intellectualizing... studying... discussing... PLAYING THE GAME AT ALL...
(if you're looking to improve at it that is... otherwise playing just for fun is sweet... but improve + fun + fun improving is X3 sweetness)
...is to go from having it take 'effort' or ANY bit of your attention at ALL...
To being 100% a natural state of being.
To the point where Awareness itself is a part of you, and the way you see things.
To the extent that every moment your attention of the moment and all the layers of it (actions > why you do the actions > transition into changing your actions) is just YOU AS YOU ARE.
Keep working with awareness.
If any of that makes sense/helps... cool.
It's nice to see members of the community stepping forward. All those moments where you're not fully aware (in-game it looks like repeated Shield-Grab attempts, repeated Uair's that lead to nothing, etc), are steps side-ways.
The 'goal' shouldn't be to step forward, but to simply make sure when you take a step, it's not in a direction you don't want to go.. like side-ways... or grinding/digging a hole for yourself by stepping backwards (usually in the form of excessive conditioning from overplaying unconsciously)
The community (every community) takes a lot of steps side-ways, and that's the only reason the PM meta-game has moved along like a slug since Day-1, and why everything generally goes slow in terms of publicly viewable development regarding anything. (aside from maybe a few hot-spots or individuals) This applies to every aspect of life so it's completely reasonable... and really would be a MIRACLE if Smash actually developed at any effective rate of awareness, though Smash, of all communities I'm involved in, is one of the most aware communities I've interacted with.
It's great to see, but the reason for this is because every individual has to take the steps, and therefore they do it. The more steps that are taken on one's own terms, the better for all, and Project: M has been a great beacon for resetting that for a lot of people within something that's already such a solid community.
Great to have something so demonstrably obvious to be grateful for. The people in this community, every one of them.
Good stuff, keep it up.
It's always difficult to explain that silliness, and even more difficult in 'writing' to public communities that I don't personally know/work with to any decent extent, but hopefully this all made sense.
And with that... Peace. <3
