I have no time.
I have no one to practice with.
My character sucks.
The only thing you need to train is your ability to trash talk ;)
10/12/2016 07:55:06
Azure's Git Gud Guide Part 1: Excuses
“It’s not that I’m fast; I’ve just seen that setup so many times.” ~Jezmo
Australia’s best player shared those words with me after taking two sets with his Diddy without dropping a stock. They summarize everything you should take away from this series, though that’s not obvious until you read the stuff below.
So you are a terrible player, and you’re looking towards another terrible player for advice. That sounds like a great start. But hey, I’m not your mother (but I could be your dad eyy). Before getting to how one improves, let’s tackle the biggest hurdle I see from entry- and mid-level players: excuses. In fact, excuses are such an impediment to improvement, that’s all I'm talking about in this part.
Get Rid of Excuses
Excuses don’t get you anything, but they provide comfort without effort. It’s the same reason you haven’t gotten the girl, that job, and also the reason you’re reading this instead of doing your homework. Regardless, excuses don't solve anything, and don't get you ahead. They are also bull, and I’ll show you by breaking down three popular reasons.
"I don’t have enough time"
This argument would hold weight if the world was right and fair, or it was an MMORPG. Reality doesn’t care how much time you put in, nor how much you “deserve” to win. In Smash 4’s short history, you can see how many upsets have happened. Especially notable are victories over players who started playing since the game came out.
A more honest way of phrasing this excuse is
I can be the best by merely putting in the time, but I have better things to do. Yes, I have the most untapped potential, and, if I had all the time in the world, I would do better than anyone who put in less time.I imagine no one would admit to believing this delusion, yet they are fine when it’s phrased as “I don’t have time."
The point is, it’s really not about how much time you put in, but the quality of the time you do dedicate. Look at Joshua Bell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJhZ0J3bIYc), a violinist who outclasses many older professionals despite being relatively young. Or you can look at more relevant examples like GamerBee (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GamerBee) who started his gaming career late.
So if time is not on your side, what should you do? Whatever you think is the most important thing right then. In Part 2, I'll discuss what that entails, but right now, getting rid of excuses comes first.
"I don't have anyone to practice with"
Okay, I hear you, but look in the mirror. You see that handsome stud there? He’s a human being. Like humans, he can do two things that are important for getting better: making mistakes and empathizing. If you think spot dodging is the best option in a hypothetical situation, then chances are another person will as well. If you play differently than anyone else, you can still imagine what another person wants to do.
"My character sucks"
No, you suck, and that’s okay. Everyone starts somewhere, and your character usually doesn't affect your skill. Although they may affect how you improve, they won't prevent you from improving. Let me explain with a graph. Let's take two characters: Falcon and Zelda and graph their performance vs player score:
To verbalize what you see, as you go left to right, both players are of equal, increasing skill, but their placements (i.e., how high up) vary because of their character. Both players continue to improve (i.e., go to the right) equally, but you can see their tournament placings don’t reflect that they are of equal skill.
Falcon is a “pickup and play” type character, where you have some objective measure of success early on. However, as you improve, you realize there’s a lot more to learn. In other words, you can see your improvement in tournament play early on, but later you may see a (temporary) stagnation in tournament results despite continuing to improve. At a certain point, all that improvement will again be realized (not shown).
Zelda, on the other hand, doesn’t reward you in any tangible way until you get really good. Like, really good. I’m talking god-like. As a result, you will not see any impressive tournament placings until your skill reaches the level of a top player. You are, however, still improving. Just don't expect to beat anyone who knows how to side+B for quite some time, n00b.
In both cases, you are progressing and improving. You just have to be aware that some of your progress won’t be visible until much later. And that’s okay. I’m not saying it is easy to keep pushing yourself when you feel like you are not making any progress. In fact, I think setting proper milestones for specific characters is critical to stay motivated, rather than using just tournament placings. I doubt I'll talk more about this concept further, but an example of this would be "1000 spindashes" for Sonic (lol j/k).
— END OF PART 1 —
So this covers the top 3 excuses I hear in the Smash 4 community. If there are others you want to discuss, leave them below, or even share why they are lame excuses!
Part 2 will be focused on what I think “training” is about. Here’s a taste of what to expect:
My Recommendation for Training
As a beginner, your goal is to master basic controls and inputs, of both the game and your character. Strategies and victories should be a distant second. It’s pretty pyrrhic to know you should have done a smash at that moment when you have trouble executing it. The other reason is, like riding a bike, the cognitive load on execution is high before you master something, so you can’t pay attention to the match as well as you should. This reduced awareness can result in the formation of bad habits. For competitive games, it is a balancing act between the Einstellung Effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstellung_effect) and Desirable Difficulty (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desirable_difficulty). Paradoxically…
Time-Efficient Strategies
Fortunately, the best way and fastest way are one and the same! As gwen.net (http://www.gwern.net/Spaced repetition) highlights:
Rates at which Halo: Reach players advance in skill matches nicely predictions from distribution: players who play 4-8 matches a week advance more in skill per match, than players who play more (distributed); but advance slower per week than players who play many more matches (massed).
by AzureWolf 10/12/2016 00:00:00
I think excuses are a huge part of why people are held back. I hear people say all the time after they lose that they didn't get any practice that week so that's why they play poor. I love hearing the person who beat them or a top placing player like Jaice reply with "same".
10/12/2016 09:44:41
the TV had exactly 1 frame more of input lag
literally unplayalbe
10/12/2016 09:49:53
literally unplayalbe
I only lost because the eyes was in my sun.
10/12/2016 12:20:10
Damn dude this is really good, keep it up.
10/12/2016 12:25:26
I only lose because my opponents play lame and I don't want to play the game when they play lame so I let them hit me because I also got 100% masochist on the BDSM test.
10/12/2016 15:25:50
I'm really feeling it! Here's a note as well people, identifying a problem, even if it's an issue outside of the game, isn't an excuse, it's a criticism. If you can identify something to improve with by replacing it with a similar but less deleterious, or even a successful trait, then you are a winner.
My biggest weakness, by far other than things I don't know yet, is my attention deficit. I can play really well in a vacuum, but as soon as I hear someone talking around me, I immediately start thinking of responses in my head because I love having a conversation. So is that excuse of mine? Hell no, it's a self-assessment. I believe if I can learn to have a conversation with someone who is saying nothing, by talking with my hands, then I can win. The fact that I can think of responses so fast to another persons verbal cues is amazing. So I need to apply this to things relevant within the game.
After all, having a response to an opponents option in game is known as "having an answer". So, pull up your cold-reading guide, and find out what they want.
Also, if you feel like you lost a match because you didn't know enough about the opponents character, don't make it a johns, make it a goal. Go into training mode, get a second controller and preferably a friend, and learn how to input certain moves of the other character and find out what moves beat it at certain Angles.
Use a multi-variate approach and you will have breakthroughs in no time.
"We tried nothin' and we're all out of ideas!"
10/14/2016 16:25:29
My biggest weakness, by far other than things I don't know yet, is my attention deficit. I can play really well in a vacuum, but as soon as I hear someone talking around me, I immediately start thinking of responses in my head because I love having a conversation. So is that excuse of mine? Hell no, it's a self-assessment. I believe if I can learn to have a conversation with someone who is saying nothing, by talking with my hands, then I can win. The fact that I can think of responses so fast to another persons verbal cues is amazing. So I need to apply this to things relevant within the game.
After all, having a response to an opponents option in game is known as "having an answer". So, pull up your cold-reading guide, and find out what they want.
Also, if you feel like you lost a match because you didn't know enough about the opponents character, don't make it a johns, make it a goal. Go into training mode, get a second controller and preferably a friend, and learn how to input certain moves of the other character and find out what moves beat it at certain Angles.
Use a multi-variate approach and you will have breakthroughs in no time.
"We tried nothin' and we're all out of ideas!"
Sonder said:
I'm really feeling it! Here's a note as well people, identifying a problem, even if it's an issue outside of the game, isn't an excuse, it's a criticism. If you can identify something to improve with by replacing it with a similar but less deleterious, or even a successful trait, then you are a winner.
My biggest weakness, by far other than things I don't know yet, is my attention deficit. I can play really well in a vacuum, but as soon as I hear someone talking around me, I immediately start thinking of responses in my head because I love having a conversation. So is that excuse of mine? Hell no, it's a self-assessment. I believe if I can learn to have a conversation with someone who is saying nothing, by talking with my hands, then I can win. The fact that I can think of responses so fast to another persons verbal cues is amazing. So I need to apply this to things relevant within the game.
After all, having a response to an opponents option in game is known as "having an answer". So, pull up your cold-reading guide, and find out what they want.
Also, if you feel like you lost a match because you didn't know enough about the opponents character, don't make it a johns, make it a goal. Go into training mode, get a second controller and preferably a friend, and learn how to input certain moves of the other character and find out what moves beat it at certain Angles.
Use a multi-variate approach and you will have breakthroughs in no time.
"We tried nothin' and we're all out of ideas!"
That's actually very well said, I shall commend you.
This is REALLY good.
10/15/2016 12:48:14
Loving this so far Azure!
For part 2, you might like to give this article a read, I think it's wonderful and delightfully interesting. :D
http://nautil.us/issue/35/boundaries/not-all-practice-makes-perfect
10/16/2016 18:07:23
For part 2, you might like to give this article a read, I think it's wonderful and delightfully interesting. :D
http://nautil.us/issue/35/boundaries/not-all-practice-makes-perfect
"What good does complaining about another character actually get you"
-Mango
"It gets me satisfaction that there's nothing actually wrong with me. There's just something wrong with the game, and i'm actually the best player in the world."
- Scar
Smash 4 is just a difficult game to see improvement with overall. I remember getting better at the game, one day reads made sense, another day baits made sense, then footsies, stage control and everything else. All these little things you always hear and you think "yeah yeah i get it" but you don't get it. You're just a fat pale kid sitting in his lounge room by himself eating cereal straight from the box by the fist-full wondering why girls don't talk to you.
10/27/2016 10:15:53
-Mango
"It gets me satisfaction that there's nothing actually wrong with me. There's just something wrong with the game, and i'm actually the best player in the world."
- Scar
Smash 4 is just a difficult game to see improvement with overall. I remember getting better at the game, one day reads made sense, another day baits made sense, then footsies, stage control and everything else. All these little things you always hear and you think "yeah yeah i get it" but you don't get it. You're just a fat pale kid sitting in his lounge room by himself eating cereal straight from the box by the fist-full wondering why girls don't talk to you.
I really like the article Azure! It felt kind of weird to read as I often feel like I don't have much time to practice because of Uni >< It is an excuse for not getting better, and that's fine. I'm prioritizing the better grades and learning, and I know that will come at the expense of my Smash skill. I just try to make sure improve when I can and have fun to get the most value out of the time I do have.
10/28/2016 11:05:18
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