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How to Improve - a compilation

Binx

Smash Master
Joined
Jul 19, 2006
Messages
4,038
Location
Portland, Oregon
[size=+2]Reaching A Higher level - compilation[/size]

Having read so many thoughts of some great smashers I know my game has improved by leagues and although I am sure that many of these philosophies have been discovered by people reading them and most of them discovered on their own by the time they reach a "pro" level of gameplay, I beleive that its always good to save time and this is a great way to get yourself better sooner, or at the very least develop a deeper understanding of the game. There is so much room to improve in this game its rediculous. I did alot of work reading, skimming, hunting down information and this is a compilation of some of the best information I was able to find. I strongly feel that every smasher who wants to be truly competetive should read these threads and work on their game in all aspects as much as possible. Note that I have not personally written any of these guys, although I probably could now, but I am sure it would not be as detailed or as well done as many of these. Happy reading.

Special Note: if you don't like reading and arent planning on reading too much of this try and finish Four Times the Fun section by Wobbles its amazingly helpful and thourough.

Table of Contents
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Positioning - The Divide Between Good and Great by InfernoOmni

Observation - Observation: The Key to Higher Level Smash Play by MookieRah

What is a Professional? - 7 Habits Of A Professional Smasher by LunInSpectra

Four Times the Fun! - The 4 Aspects of Melee by WobblesThePhoenix

Building and Sustaining Momentum - Need help with Intelligent aggression by Rapid Assassin

Realization - Reaching the Pantheon: An Analysis of Ascending to the Next Level by The King

Mix ups - Understanding the depth of mix-up games in SSBM by Emblem Lord

Teaching Tech - How to Improve by Overswarm.com

Miscalanious - Things that do not yet have witty (read: not so witty) titles.

Binx: New information will be added frequently
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Positioning
The Divide Between Good and Great
by InfernoOmni

Smash In-Depth

Smash is a fighting video game that takes place on a variable arena. That arena is surrounded by a perfectly square boundary. If this boundary is crossed, that player will lose a stock. Thus it is every player’s goal to force their opponent outside of this boundary.

Above is the basic science of Smash Bros. What I will be discussing here is something much more in-depth: the physics of Smash Bros. There’s a difference between playing the game, and playing the game. To play this game at its maximum potential, you must understand the basic laws of war.

A. Position

Positioning is the single most important factor in any battle. In Smash, you play on a limited surface. Falling off the surface thus increases the chances of you crossing the arena’s boundaries. Also, being in a posture where damage can be given to you will increase your chances as well. Here after, the word position will always be spoken in regards to the player’s current location on any given stage. Because there are two players at any given time during a match, there will always be two positions. There are 5 basic factors that determine the strength of the player’s
Position:

1.) Direction. Which way is the player facing?
2.) Character. What character is being used? What is their range, speed, unique
Features, etc?
3.) Location. Where is the player in regards to the stage’s boundaries? Where is the player in regards to the opposing player? Where is the player in regards to stage obstacles (platforms, walls, etc.)?
4.) Action. What is the character’s current frame of action at the moment?
5.) Percentage. What is the current player’s percent?

A match is a battle for the better position. Remember this.

B. Adjusting Your Position

In any given match, two players are constantly moving in order to gain a better position. There are 3 basic ways to adjusting your position.

1.) Advancing – To close the gap in regards to distance between two players.
2.) Retreating – To expand the gap in regards to the distance between two players.
3.) Waiting – To base one’s own position on the opponent’s adjustment. Also to shield.

Note that adjusting your position does not necessarily give you better position. For example, in a Fox vs. Marth match, if a Fox adjusts his position onto the platform of Battlefield located directly above Marth he has weakened his position because he has become more vulnerable in this situation. After any adjustment, the rules of positioning apply as explained in the previous section.

C. What Adjusting Really Means

If you take into consideration everything that has been said, a player only has 3 options in any given situation: to advance, to retreat, or to wait. That’s it. Players do not adjust their position on a whim; there’s always a reason. What is that reason?

The common smash player is impulsive.

The common smash player reacts. When they are afraid, they retreat; when they’re confident, they advance. When a player feels vulnerable, they shield or roll; when a player finds their opponent vulnerable, they attack. Understanding this common law and abusing it is what separates the good from the regular. It’s impossible to improve your game if you play off impulse alone never attempting to look outside the box. How a player adjusts and adjusts to adjustments (reacts) says a lot about the person’s playing style. Understanding a person’s playing style is the first step to overcoming them. Smashers indirectly (sometimes directly) tell their opponent what kind of player they are when they adjust their position given a certain scenario.
Essentially, there are a lot of kinds of styles; however, there are only 3 raw styles:

1.) The Assailant. Advances constantly. Rarely retreats.
2.) The Camper. Retreats constantly. Rarely advances.
3.) The Ambusher. Rarely advances or retreats fully.

Even then, you can go further. If the person’s style is that of The Assailant is he reckless? Accurate? Predictable? It’s too bothersome to go into the combinations. The best smashers have no real combination, either; there’s a time and place to advance, retreat, and wait and they simply do it at those correct times. Some people can camp better then they can attack and vice versa. What’s important is that you recognize that its there.
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Observation
Observation: The Key to Higher Level Smash Play
by MookieRah

A lot of people, a lot of smashers here, aren't even aware of one of the most basic functions of high level play. You will ALWAYS see people discussing tech skill and mindgames. Mindgames, the term at least, has become a joke throwaway word for the most part, because so few people actually realize what mingaming is and it is often misunderstood. Still, all you see are topics about those 2 things, but never do you come across a thread talking about observation.

EVERYTHING in smash comes down to observation. EVERYTHING. Did I say that enough? I don't think I did. Once again, EVERYTHING branches from your ability to process as much data as possible visually. Most players play the game half blind, to be blunt and honest. They look only at their character, and focus on trying to get those hot, stinky, wet, nasty combos. Everybody loves dem combos!!! All they see is the most basic set of information going on in the match, which is their character's placement in conjunction to their opponent. The thing is, there is so much more out there to look for. For starters, why do most players focus on their own character in the first place? What information do you get by focusing on your character? You are making your own inputs, so you *should* know what you are doing most of the time without needing to look at your character. The focus should CLEARLY be on your opponent. This is a small tip that goes A LONG way, but you never ever hear it discussed. Of course, from time to time you might stumble a wavedash or not do that dash when you hit the ground like you wanted to or what not, but even if the focus is on your opponent you can still see your character. Keep in mind you can see the whole screen and focus your attention on one spot. You don't have to predict your own moves, or look for your mistakes as much as your opponent. The ability to be able to see through your opponents strategies and take advantage of their mistakes is a lot harder to determine than your own.

I first began to notice the power of observation by ****ing around. My marth was crap, total and utter crap about a year ago. I didn't have jack **** tech skill with him, didn't really know any combos or setups and what not. Complete garbage. One day though, I got bored. So instead of trying to beat my friends in a match, I was just trying to make them look stupid. I didn't realize this, but it was the first time I gave my entire attention to my opponent. All the sudden, I'm winning by spamming well spaced smashes at oppertune times. All the sudden, I'm seeing and responding to missed techs with smashes. My opponents, while not as good as I were, were not horrible players. There was no reason in my mind why this was happening, I was not just winning, I was ******, by spamming no more than 6 attacks. I later dubbed this strategy the "Make you feel stupid Marth."

So how did that work? How was I able to see more all of the sudden? Simple really. I changed my goals. My focus was only to get in tippers and smashes. I limited myself to just one thing, and when I did that, I could see ALL of the openings for that one thing. Normally I would look at the big picture, and I wouldn't notice all of the small things going on. I was clouded by thinking I should have to do some combo, or some lead in, when the most obvious and most effective answer was right in front of my face. Once I realized this, I knew what I could do to improve my observation.

It's easy to improve your observational skills, but it does take some time. The trick is try looking for one new thing at a time. Keep doing it until it becomes second nature. Eventually you are used to doing it, and it requires little thought and effort to do. Some examples of things to look for in matches are as follows:

Missed Techs
Habits in your opponents techs (IE: if your opponent is prone to teching to stand, or rolling left or right predominately)
Opponents using their Second Jumps
Habits in your opponents recovery and ledge game
Discovering your own habits
Discovering your opponents strategy
Determining the morale of your opponent


There are loads more things than that, but that should be a good grounding. Keep in mind, that being able to notice just one of these things will improve one QUITE a bit. Also, the more and more you observe, the easier and easier it becomes to learn to observe other things in the match. It builds on itself until it gets to the point that you see just about all their is to see in the match. The more you see, the more you begin to realize that what you do and how very much affects your opponent. All of the sudden mindgames develop on their own from your understanding of what is going on around you. Instead of waiting for your opponent to fall into things on his own, you can actively pursue to MAKE your opponent fall into them. In effect, mindgames, or just smart playing, is a direct result of good observational skills and nothing more. It's sad how simple all this is, but because it has been so vaguely described and mysterious, most people don't know about it.

There is one last important thing I will take about, and that is the flow of the match. Remember my "Make you feel stupid Marth" example from earlier? There was more to it than me being able to see tips I didn't notice before and abusing it, a lot more. My opponent felt dumb, stupid, humiliated, and helpless to what was going on. How did this happen? What the hell is going on?

Establishing fear, or the feeling of helplessness, is something that even fewer people realize. All of us have felt it before, all of us has caused it before; however, few people understand truly how they did it or how they fell into it. It's also amazingly simple.

My best example is once again Marth, whom has become my champion in terms of establishing fear. Marth is already a character MANY players hate to play against, and a lot of players go into the fight already afraid of tippers and early ledgeguard kills. KNOW THIS. People are nervous at tournaments, even high level players are a bit nervous. You can USE this, as long as you stay calm. All it takes for me to scare an opponent is to make a few smart moves in the beginning. Focus on getting a few of those tippers off. All it takes is a few tips. While I don't advocate it, smack talking amplifies things. Catch your opponent in a few stupid tippers, and remind them that they were careless or just downright stupid to be caught in it in the first place. All you are doing right now, is working on their morale.

Once you have landed a few (or if you have landed a few) your opponent will already start to feel a lot of pressure. Especially in the case of Marth. They will start to fear your tips, and this places doubt in their mind. They begin to second guess themselves and are easily frustrated. At this point they make a lot more mistakes which leads to a lot more tips. It's a snowball effect that leaves most players on their knees, unable to realize what is really going on namely because most players aren't fully aware of what is going on. It gets worse and worse, and by the end of the first match, they have already lost the set. You have completely and totally destroyed their morale. Not only that, they will probably even play worse in their next matches. Ever wondered exactly why you were having a bad smash day? A lot of times it wasn't so much you were playing bad, it's because your morale has gone so low that you are afraid of everything your opponent throws at you.

Hopefully by now you are beginning to understand why I'm passionate AND frustrated over the subject of observation and the role it plays. All to often I hear dudes rambling on about their favorite mindgame and I wish I could punch people through the internet. Hopefully this cleared a lot of things up.
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What is a professional?
7 Habits Of A Professional Smasher
by LunInSpectra

All top playing smashers possess a strong and varied collection of habits which give them the upper advantage against high-placing competitors. Now I am not talking about physical habits such as L-Cancelling or Accuracy, I am talking about mental habits. Mental habits have a strong effect on high-competition and a tremendous effect on middle-level-competition (The effects are emphasized more as competition-levels are decreased). A lot of us wonder what the mental habits are as a minority of us keep it a secret or doesn’t even acknowledge it. I have derived 7 major mental habits and mindsets you should focus on:

1) Prediction
2) Case Constructions
3) Spontaneity
4) Dynamic Reactions
5) Patience
6) Unpredictability / Conditioning
7) Strong Mindset / Emotional Control

Now you might be thinking, "What about Mindgames?". Ultimately, a mental construction of what-to-do-next is a mindgame. These are all mental habits, or mind games.

NOTE:
THESE ARE HABITS! HABITS! HABITS!
When you take a piss do you think about washing your hands after or do you just do it?

Binx: A lot of these guides mention muscle memory, reflex and such and yes they are habits; having varied habits are important though as it stops you from being predictable.

What Is A Professional Smasher

Did you ever ask yourself, "What is a rich man"? How about, "What is a smart girl"? They all seem to be based on a matter of opinion. Now when it comes to the top levels, you may see "Bill Gates" as the richest man in the world, but what if you didn't KNOW Bill Gates? What if you only knew your rich uncle?

Due to "Professional" being based on opinion, a professional player can be someone who resides only in your imagination instead of it just being Ken or Isai. If you can IMAGINE someone having $100 Billion (more than Bill Gates), then you can make THAT your image of a rich person.

A professional smasher is in your imagination; the best you can ever be relies on your imagination.

Binx: I fully agree with this statement, there are a lot of conflicting thoughts on this matter but I fully beleive that you can only get as good as you want to be, if you really want to be the best and you legitimately beleive you can be the best and you work hard enough to be the best, you can become the best.

So What Good Can It Do Me?

Personally, I find the mental game unquestionably the major factor of your level-of-play. My technical skill has brought me only so far compared to those who took their time unraveling the mysteries of strategic playing. If you are located in NorCal, and you played AznSpikes, you will understand. AznSpikes is a very unflashy player, but he always manages to get the win as opposed to my drillshine & repeat which isn't nearly as effective as him.

Technical skill does get you quite far, but if you have a strong desire or undying obsession to increase your odds of winning, you must pursue the road of mental-awareness. If you do not believe me just download anyone of the LunIn vs Irish/SilentSpectre/Isai/Nick matches.

Your mental habits can either make you or break you. Fortunately, we are not robots; all of us possess some form of a mental-plan. But the level and sophistication of which you focus on your mental-game, is the sole factor of how it can do you any good.


NOTE:
Rey will always be Fox
Jeff will always be Falcon


Prediction

Throughout the game you must be on a constant test & apply basis, or prediction & action. I call it tests, to see which action the opponent will take, and action, so you can exploit it. Lets take a look at a simple prediction:

Rey runs up to Jeff after Jeff comes down with a missed Nair
When Jeff is on the floor, Rey waits in front of him
Jeff dodges
Rey Grabs

--At this point, Jeff will know that Rey is waiting for a grab—

Rey runs up to Jeff again after a missed Nair
Jeff grabs as Rey waits

It takes some memory to handle predictions. There will be a lot of aspects to predict too. To test, you will need to work on your Case Constructions.


Case Constructions

The amount of case constructions you have determines the ability you have to play against new players comfortably. You construct cases to mentally minimize the possible actions your opponent can take. Here’s an example:

Rey double-jumps as Jeff is standing there
Jeff knows that Rey can only:

1) Come down with an aerial
2) Firefox or illusion to another part of the stage
3) Waveland
4) Land
5) Airdodge

Jeff will now be a statistician and remember what Rey did when he double-jumped. (You don’t actually have to use a log or count…but if you can that will be amazing). Mostly at this point, you should remember the primary action Rey will take (coming down with an aerial), and the secondary action (wavelanding). You can then minimize it even More, because Rey will either Come down with an aerial or waveland. What move counters both of them? Possibly the raptor (Falcon’s forward+b).

Apply the best move for the situation or use it by chance/prediction. I minimized the actions to 2, which means the lowest chance you have to get him is 50% (assuming you do the right moves). It would just be a little hard, if Rey did an airdodge to avoid the raptor or knee, because he never did that at all in the match until then.

Spontaneity

Everything has to seem as if it were out of nowhere. Being spontaneous is actually a subcategory of being unpredictable. You have to feel when your opponent will least expect a move, then do it. Not all of the time it has to go by statistics, for if you feel it is correct to do something, do it. Right when you expect your opponent to catch on, you change. In yet another example:

Rey always dodges when Jeff runs up with a grab
Jeff after getting usmashed 5 times after falling for the dodge, he backs up and waits a bit, or changes his style. (Any change in movement, pauses, or style usually indicates an acknowledgement)
Rey notices the change
Jeff runs up and expects a dodge
Rey grabs

Be spontaneous, look for changes in your opponent. Although looking for changes doesn’t always work (Top-level pros like Ken). You can use it quite a bit on medium & high level players (noobs seem to be spontaneous a lot…and they get a little farther than you expect quite a bit for their low-skill level if you didn’t notice or experience it). To be spontaneous, you need a case construction of your OWN possible actions, or dynamic reactions.


Dynamic Reactions & Movement

You can’t always do the same thing every time. So you can switch it up by Knowing your options. Changing your style from offensive to defensive is dynamic. FSmashing instead of DSmashing is dynamic. When you are dynamic, your opponent has to worry about more cases (nice word). If you overload your opponent just enough, you can have the upper advantage by a…landslide. You can only think about so much during a match, and if you’re fighting a mid-level competition guy and he has to worry about his L-Cancels, it will be worse than a murder.


Patience

Every high player has patience. Being patient isn’t being defensive; being defensive is a style and not an aspect. You can be offensive and patient, for example:

Jeff knows Rey will double jump soon in the match so Jeff can finish it off with a knee
Jeff pressures Rey with Nairs & grabs
Rey double jumps
Jeff knees

Pick one of your opponents vulnerabilities (double jumping), and exploit it. Not everything has to be a rush. Nothing should be a rush unless you play the stupid-offensive style.


Unpredictability / Conditioning

Unpredictability is the combination of spontaneity and dynamic reactions & movement. It is the mystery of "what is coming". Anything that you do that works in your favor and is unexpected by the opponent adds to the overall unpredictability.

I found that trusting your intuition is a risky move, but it also has a high potential outcome. If you believe something will be unpredictable, do it.

If you want to be unpredictable, focus on what the opponent is expecting, and exploit it. It's simple as it is, but it's not easily applied unless consciously done (for me personally, and I'm sure there are a lot of people like me).

I believe conditioning another player is the greatest skill one can attain throughout competitive game play. Have you ever watched Ken manipulate someone? The subtle conditioning he does to many players bewilders even some of the high level competitors how he can own someone by a large margin compared to other players that own the same person.

Did you ever play the game Rocks/Paper/Scissors? If I play you in 4 games total, I believe I can condition you at least once. This will be done as if I’m playing someone who is competitive & knowledge. Here is an example:

I pick Rock, you pick Scissors <-- Random, just for test

I pick Rock, you pick Rock <-- You believe I am guessing, but have a feeling I’m going to do Rock again

I pick Rock, you pick Paper <-- You predicted me and now you believe I’m going to change up

I pick Rock, you pick Scissors <-- Even after failure I use it


Strong Mindset / Emotional Control

"All you have to do is not get hit"
--Isai

I dwelled upon his advice long enough to come to the conclusion:

"The best you can ever do is choose the best path. Pick something to do with the greatest turnout and the lowest risk."

Before I got Isai's advice, I adopted the Frustrate & Intimidate mindset. I would often chaingrab --> reverse blaster with Fox against Fox. I'd run away as often as possible, taking advantage of the blaster. The more you 'play-up' on your opponents emotions and limits, the more of an advantage you have. A frustrated player doesn't play as well as a calm player (a majority of the time).


Chunking

Everybody has to Chunk what they are doing. A lot of people responding to this thread are basically saying:

"We don't have TIME to consciously think Lunin! I mean, I have to move my thumb approximately 2 centimeters up my controller, left one centimeter according to my index finger, send a signal to my finger to press down, send a signal to lift up, move back down 2 centi--"

If you read what I say at the end of my article, it will say you must not Worry about your technical skill. Crystallize it, have the ability to NOT second guess the ability of your technical skill.

Once that has been achieved, you can CHUNK. CHUNK Information! How do you do this? Well lets see:

My opponent is always coming in at me with C. Falcon's Nair (shorthopped).
I'm a fox at FD. What I can do is Full Hop --> Drill because his Nair has NO VERTICAL ATTACK.

That's chunking. Assessing what he does, looking for a weakness, determining the best thing to do, and having it practically automated by your fingers to do it. Everybody already has the ability to chunk.....but at what level no one knows but themself.


---My own thoughts---

.:A lot of the professional players have extremely accurate spacing. For example, Ken would fair you from a distance so that even if he jacked up you wouldn't be able to shield grab him.

.:pros mastered movement before mindgames.

.:When playing Smash, think of and do the BEST thing you can within your own capacity.

.:Extremitize (haha) any aspect you play up. Be the MOST patient player, the MOST defensive/aggressive. But make sure it is done to your advantage!

.:Before you can reach optimal strategic playing, you must not worry about your technical skill at all. Tech skill must be crystallized so that it is almost perfect. (To avoid arguments, I'll say, "Within your own capacity").

.:If you want the best, you must give the best.
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Four Times the Fun!
4 Aspects of Melee
by WobblesThePhoenix

Binx: This guide is so good I almost dont want to add it heh

I've made this thread to help players analyze their own game more deeply and to understand what it takes to become a good player.

Your skill as a smasher can be divided into four parts:

Technical Skill
Mindgames
Tactics
Spacing

I'm going to cover each one in detail, explain how they affect your game, and also make suggestions on how to improve each one.

Technical Skill


Your technical skill is your ability to execute commands. The ability to L-cancel consistently is part of your technical skill. The ability to short hop, wavedash, and move your character with absolute control is the ability to interact with the game fluidly.

Technical skill is the first thing we generally see in a player. When you see somebody SHFFL'ing and waveshining across the level, you assume good technical skill. Technical skill also implies that you are aware of the higher levels of the game and that you are integrating advanced techniques.

Why is technical skill important? It's pretty simple. If you want to do something, but always screw up and kill yourself (or let the opponent do it for you), then you're in trouble, and won't be winning many matches. Also, without technical skill, sometimes you can't exploit openings that might win you a match. If Marth forward smashes you and you shield it, if you can't wavedash from your shield consistently, he's free to smash your shield all he wants. You can't punish him, and you have fewer options. If you can't ledgehop, then you always have to stand up, attack, or roll onto the stage from the ledge, and that makes it a lot easier to punish you.

Questions you probably ask when trying to improve your technical skill:

1) Why didn't it work?

Well, the simple answer is this: you did it wrong. More specifically, you pushed or let go of something too soon or too late, or you moved the joystick in the wrong direction. It's that simple. If you flub a wavedash, it's because you air dodged early and jumped. Or maybe you air dodged horizontally. Maybe your Falco's double ledge laser isn't accurate. You might be firing the laser too late after you ledge hop. If something isn't working, you have to stop and figure out what you pressed and when you pressed it; compare that to how the action is supposed to go, and then simply adjust.

2) Why is it that I can do stuff against a CPU, but when I play against a person I lose my ability?

One, you're probably nervous and want REALLY BADLY to show off your tech skill. So you're trying too hard, and messing yourself up from within your own head. One solution to this is to start out slow and work your way up. Or come up with a warmup routine that you can actually do mid-match; maybe it's a movement pattern that gets your hands ready.

The other problem might be that you're splitting your attention between focusing on the enemy and focusing on your own actions. In training you focus on doing the combo, on execution, on your fingers and the buttons. In a real match, you're usually watching the characters. When the movements aren't completely ingrained into your psyche, then you will lose focus on both halves of the match, and then you'll fall apart. The answer is simply this: practice better. Not more, BETTER. Just rehearsing the same combo won't work. Do different stuff, make weird combinations of your ordinary movements, and make it so that when you want to do something, your hands just DO IT.

There is yet another reason, which is that when you are playing against a real opponent, they have a tendency to fight back. This seems like a no-brainer, but it's easy to forget. You can't treat your opponent like a training dummy, but that is often what happens after a lot of practice. You forget that your opponent is a threat, and you focus just on your own techniques. When you get interrupted, you start to panic and that interferes with your execution. One way to keep this from happening is to start off matches by refusing to attack; play purely evasion and keep-away, and this will help warm up your brain and your fingers at the same time. You might not like that idea (and it might not be feasible, especially if you're in a tournament match), so the other answer is simply to slow it down and pay extra attention to your opponent. Focus on them, not yourself. Remember that your matches aren't combo videos of you, and that your opponent's job is to screw you up. Thanks to Rohins for bringing this part up.

The main problem with technical skill is that, if a player over-emphasizes it in their training, they will forget (or never learn) how to win mental battles against the opponent. This can cripple your game, as being able to outthink your opponent is a crucial component of Melee, and the second aspect that I want to discuss.

Mindgames, son.


Mindgames are controversial, but ignore the people who say they don't exist. Mindgames are an essential part of your game, but simply shouting "OH YOU GOT MINDGAMED SON" (when actually, you play like a moron and just get lucky) won't do you much good. Let's try and define them.

My personal definition is this: Mindgaming is the ability to discern what your opponent is going to do next, as well as the ability to do things they don't expect.

Nobody can pretend that those abilities do not exist. Good players are able to exploit your patterns, and just when you think you know that they're going to tech left, they go right. They break their patterns at the moment you thought you finally "got them."

Why are mindgames important? It's pretty obvious. If you are in your shield, and I know that you will try to roll past me because you ALWAYS DO, then how easy is it for me to punish your roll? You roll every time, and because you can't break your own patterns, I can exploit it. If you do the same thing in every situation, then you are incredibly easy to beat. It's the reason why players can stomp all over CPUs; they follow the same patterns, and then they lose.

We run into a problem though: how can you incorporate mindgames into your game? If you aren't in the habit of thinking while you play, how can you break that lethal habit?

Step 1: Record yourself playing, and then watch; try and guess what you're going to do. If you see yourself do the same thing over and over again, then it should hit you like a ton of bricks that you need some work. This should give you motivation.

Step 2: Play against predictable opponents. This should also help you realize, first hand, that a player who never mixes up patterns is a player that loses constantly.

Step 3: Now you're actually ready to start incorporating. You need to start slowing down how you play. Don't even worry about winning. In fact, it might help if you just play matches with infinite time limits and no stocks against your training partner of choice. Start by trying to guess what your opponent is going to do. Don't even really try to respond or retaliate. Just focus on calling your opponent's moves, one after the other. Watch your opponent, and forget about yourself.

Some people will probably complain right here: they will say, "you aren't supposed to think so hard while you play. If you're busy consciously analyzing everything, you'll be slow and can't react and won't even make decisions." That's correct. Absolutely true. But in order to integrate mental habits, they must be conscious decisions first. If you don't think while you play, then you have to make yourself think. You have to make it a conscious decision, all the time, while you play, until it becomes a habit. Once it reaches the unconscious level, then you will know you've hit a good point.

Step 4: Focus on breaking your own patterns. Again, watching videos helps. Try doing different things in the same situations. Adopt other people's techniques. If your friend always shield grabs, and another friend jumps out of shield, and another friend rolls away, and another one spot dodges, try each tactic out. Get yourself in the habit of breaking habits.

That should help a bit.

When You Don't Want To Think and Why


I'm paraphrasing a quote from HugS here, who was being very insightful about the mental aspect of this game. He said something similar to this:

"You don't want to use mindgames against somebody who doesn't have them, because they may catch you off guard with randomness."

The heart of this idea is that part of mindgames is knowing how skilled your opponent is. How good they are determines how you should think during your match.

For instance, why would you play differently against a computer than you would against a human? Simple answer: the computer does not adapt. No matter how many times you charge a forward smash, the computer will run into it. You do not need to think while playing against a computer because the same thing will always work.

Some people play like computers, and it is useless, even hurtful, to try and outthink them. If they do the same thing every time, and you know how to counter it, why would you even worry about outthinking them? Just wait for them to repeat a move and then punish them. If your opponent always throws scissors, would you suddenly throw paper just to mix it up? No! You'd throw rock until he learned that he has more than one move available.

Even as people learn advanced techniques, some still remain predictable. Maybe your opponent always tries to shield grab you. You always dodge right when you land, and he always tries to shieldgrab, and he always misses, and he never learns. You aren't obliged to mix up your strategy for the sake of being an advanced player. You cut to the heart of the matter and say "I know what he's going to do, and I'm going to do the same thing over and over again if he's never going to catch on."

As your opponent improves, your mental approach needs to change. Let's say your opponent catches on to your favorite movement strategy one minute into the match. If you can recognize his skill and anticipate when he is going to "catch on," then you can change at the exact moment he thinks he has you.

This mental skill is part of what makes playing this game so difficult. I can't just watch you and see how frequently you miss L-cancels or short hops. I need to watch you and learn--sometimes very very quickly--how you learn during a match. Some people are naturally good at this, and some people have to play a large number of opponents before they can recognize different skill levels. I will try and formulate ways to improve in this area, but for now all I can really do is identify it.

The ultimate example of this is a friend I used to smash with: he would often perform better against more skilled players than he would against newbies. This is because he always believed that his opponent would be thinking during the match as much as he did. He would complain that he just lost to a scrubby Marth or Peach who spammed the c-stick and was "incredibly predictable."

If they were so predictable, why didn't he just play to their level? Why didn't he play patiently and wait for them to do the same thing, then punish them, then do it a few more times until the match was over? The thing is, my friend was more interested in playing like a good player rather than being a truly skilled one. He didn't identify his opponent's skill, and he was unable to figure out how he should think during his matches. He placed poorly in a lot of tournaments because of this, and it made him incredibly mad.

The lesson is this: before you start trying to outthink your opponent, figure out how smart they are. If you don't need to think hard at all to beat them, either because they are very predictable or because you're too fast for them to touch you, then don't waste your energy thinking. If you only need to mix up your playstyle occasionally, then periodically switch styles. If you have to play like a different person every ten seconds in order to outfox them, then so be it. Your method of thought should be determined by your opponent's skill level.

Reflexes and Prediction


When you play against somebody with good reflexes, it can be a very scary thing. It's almost like they don't even need to think to punish certain behaviors.

I'm devoting this subject to how your reflexes relate to your predictive ability, and when you should be valuing one over the other.

First off, I'm going to define three different types of reactions: your pure reaction time, your amplified reaction time, and your diminished reaction time. I'm using acronyms because they are the freaking bomb.

Pure Reaction Time (PuRe Time): This is how long it takes for you to react to something when your mind is clear. You wait for an action, you figure out what it is, and you respond. PuRe time for most people is pretty strong, surprisingly, provided you know how to respond to different situations (see tactics, below).

Amplified Reaction Time (ART): Your ART is how quickly you react to something that you expect. When you know something is going to happen, you have your course of action planned out ahead of time, and then what you expect happens. Your ART is much better than your PuRe Time, although just how much varies from person to person.

Diminished Reaction Time (DiRT): DiRT is how long it takes to react to something you didn't expect. When you think the opponent is going to act in one way and he acts in another, there is extra lag time in your mind while you re-adjust. In fact, sometimes you think "he's doing this, not that!" and you do your pre-planned response anyhow, or you adjust and mistime your new response.

Here's a breakdown of the thoughts in your head.

PuRe Time:
Wait for opponent to take an action. Once he takes it, you figure out what to do. You take the action.

ART:
Anticipate opponent's action and come up with a plan before hand. Once he takes it, you respond immediately.

DiRT: Anticipate opponent's action and come up with plan. He takes a different action. One of two things happen now:
Now you realize it and have a moment of being dumfounded, then change your course of action. Usually too late.
You realize it, but you're already taking your preplanned response.

Sometimes you guess that the opponent is going to do something they aren't and the response you pick actually covers that contingency and you get lucky. Sometimes you guess the wrong thing, your response is flawed, and you get even luckier and you look ten times better than you are. Once I wanted to up-smash somebody's shield and push them off the level (using Fox), and I ran in to up-smash. Screwing up, I did a jumping up-air. They jumped out of their shield at the wrong time, and I up-aired them KO'ing them without DI earlier than I expected. I looked psychic, but I was actually so dumb that it looped around to become successful. Try not to rely on this, but if it happens, celebrate loudly.

How you can improve your reflexes midmatch is based on the following steps:

1) Eliminate DiRT. Either don't guess wrong (much easier said than done) or move on to step two.
2) Replace as much DiRT with PuRe time as you can. Go through some of the most common situations that occur and figure out what you are capable of reacting to. When somebody says "you have to predict this to punish it," don't listen. Experiment on your own and find what you can react to WITHOUT prediction. In order to use PuRe Time, you have to clear your mind of expectation.
3) ART is the most powerful, and the better you can predict, the more of your reflexes will be based around it. So you want to become as skilled at anticipating an opponent's moves as possible.

Technical Skill Vs. Mindgames


Which is more important, tech skill or mindgames?

This debate has been around for awhile, and it's pretty simple to answer: neither. Or rather, both.

Your technical skill and your cunning are both incredibly important, and both play off one another. Without your technical skill, you have fewer options and become easier to predict, so your mindgames are based on your technical skill. However, even if you do things very quickly and accurately, if you mindlessly attack in the same patterns, focusing solely on execution, you will be, for all intents and purposes, a level 10 computer.

Technical skill tends to get a lot of limelight because it's easy to recognize and very impressive to watch at its peak. Mindgames, however, tends to be exalted and put on a pedestal because some of the best players just seem psychic, and resultantly have immense respect. The truth is, however, that both are incredibly necessary. Neither, hoewver, work without knowledge of what works. That is the third part of your game - tactics.

Tactics


It doesn't matter if you do moves quickly, or even do moves that your opponent doesn't see coming, if they simply won't work in that situation.

If you know Marth is going to forward smash you, so you try to counter with DK's forward+b because he doesn't see it coming, then you're making a terrible decision. This is where tactics come in.

You need to know the counters to the things your opponent does to you. Or, if you don't know them beforehand, come up with them quickly.

This is a hard subject to discuss because it's so WIDE. You could call it "experience," but you have to be paying attention to the things that defeat you. Just playing isn't enough. You have to EXAMINE the game you're playing. Knowing hitboxes, move properties, and game physics helps a lot when trying to come up with solutions. Learn where each move hits. Did you know that Peach's forward-air actually reaches below and slightly behind her, and that connecting with it like that can send an opponent behind you? It might be worth it to know that so you DI it correctly. Did you know that Mewtwo's neutral-air, Mario and Doc's d-air, Game and Watch's d-air and back air, and Kirby's forward-air and down-air all have landing hitboxes? It's worth it to know that if you're going to try to shield grab or punish those moves. Wouldn't it suck to know GaW was going to d-air, so you dash danced away then back in to grab him, only to get hit by that hitbox? Or wouldn't it be awful if you tried to do a get-up attack and clink with Falco's forward-smash, not knowing that it has a strong tendency to clink and then follow through regardless, and you lost an entire match? You have to know these little things to consistently maintain the edge in every situation.

There are a lot of little things that get people KO'd or cause them to SD that they aren't aware of. Learning the minute ins and outs of this game can keep those things from happening to you when it's the last stock of the finals. I plan to write another article on these little details, as there are quite a few of them and they don't all belong in here.

It also helps if you know exactly what to do in a situation when you're focusing on reacting to an opponent's moves. You're PuRe Time improves, your DiRT improves, and even your ART is better because you don't need to spend long formulating responses beforehand. This also keeps you from losing in situations when you accurately guess an opponent's move. Maybe you knew what they would do and did the wrong move, making you lose in a situation. Prevent this from happening, and know your tactics.

Having good tactical skill doesn't mean merely knowing the answers, however, but knowing how to find them midmatch during a tournament, when your opponent suddenly finds something you're not used to and exploits it. If you know a lot about your opponent's character, your character, the matchup, and the game itself, you will quickly find a solution. If you can't, you're kind of screwed.

The best way to improve your tactical skill is simply to play matches, and identify the things that are defeating you. If it's Marth's f-smash repeatedly KO'ing you, figure out WHY your opponent is landing it on you. If Shiek is shffl'ing f-airs and you're getting owned, figure out why your opponent can keep doing the move to you while you're helpless. Maybe her aerial needles keep shutting down your approach; you need to realize the angle they fire at, her falling speed, and how that all relates to your character. Once you know why a maneuver works, then you can figure out how to break it.

A lot of the time I hear people say, "why can't I beat that move" or "why does that keep working on me?" The problem, however, is that a lot of the time people aren't asking the question for real. They aren't trying to find the answer. They've given up, and they're just asking it out of habit and despair. If something is beating you, ask those questions, and then ANSWER THEM.

Tactics won't solve everything, however. Have you ever known exactly what to do in a situation, and knew exactly what your opponent would do, and then MISSED with your response? This is where spacing, the fourth aspect, comes in.

Spacing


ChozenOne asked me why this has its own separate section. It's for two reasons:

One, spacing is not quite the same as technical skill. Yes, it is reliant on timing, a big factor of technical skill, but it also depends on simple spatial perception. Accurately gauging the distance between you and the opponent is crucial to spacing, and this is not related to your technical skill.

Two, spacing is an amalgamation of all three previous aspects. It is based on technical skill because, as I mentioned, timing is one of the components of spacing. It is based on your mindgames because Smash is a very fluid game with a lot of movement and motion; your opponent is moving around a lot, and you have to combine your timing with an accurate guess of where the opponent will move next to space a move properly. And of course, you might be at the right distance to punish a d-smash but not an f-smash, so you need to know which your opponent will do before you try to space your response. And lastly, you might be spacing your moves excellently but choosing them wrong. You might be hitting me with the tip of your attack, which would normally keep you safe, but my neutral air will out prioritize it (unless you had attacked just a tiny bit earlier). In a way, you spaced your move well; but you picked the wrong one, so for all practical purposes, you spaced your move poorly. Knowing those tactics is essential to spacing.

The concept is simple, the execution difficult. In a constantly moving game, you are trying to place yourself JUST out of reach of your opponent's moves so they whiff an attack and you can punish the lag. You want to sit still, then move ever so slightly so when you start your up-tilt, your character's model changes and their attack misses, then your attack lands and you get to deal major damage. You want to interrupt their move with a tipper at just the right moment. You want to be in a zone where you can react to their attacks. With good spacing, you will have these kinds of abilities.

Without it, you will do the right attack at the right time, execute it perfectly, and be in the wrong place for it. There are few feelings worse than whiffing an attack that you timed right and called correctly, but missed by a pixel.

How can you make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen? Well, when you're playing with an opponent, focus on the time-honored advice of Isai and don't get hit. Try and stay just out of range. Learn the range of your attacks and the attacks of characters who outrange you. Learn to focus not just on the characters, but on the empty area between them. See your character and the opponent's simultaneously--and once you can do that, learn to see where you think the opponent will be moments from now when he decides to finally dash in for an aerial.

The Hybrid Aspects


I've defined and elaborated on the four aspects of your game. Now, if you want to see hard results, you have to look at the hybrids. These are parts of the game that are based on combining your four aspects into gameplay and efficiency.

Punishment

Punishing an opponent's mistakes is one of the most important things you can do. This is because your opponents are going to keep on getting better and better, and they're going to make fewer mistakes. If your enemy misses ONE L-cancel in the entire match, you had better be ready to make him pay for it. But if you only get a free shield grab and then a small, 20 percent combo that doesn't go anywhere, what use was it? You should have made him pay as much as you can.

This, in fact, is one of the things that defines the current tier list. A character's ability to take advantage of an opening defines just how good you have to be to win with that character.

Consider Pichu. For most of your match, you're going to be landing isolated neutral-airs that don't lead into anything. If you're lucky, you might get two up-airs then a back-air for a moderately effective combo.

Now consider a character I know a bit more about; the Ice Climbers. The IC's have an infinite that works on everybody. One might argue that it is the ultimate punishing move, because if the IC's grab you, you die. More important than just having the infinite, however, they have ways to lead into it. If I tech chase you, I can kill you. If I hit you with an up-tilt and you're a fast faller, I can kill you. If I jab you and you don't jump or roll away or SOMETHING fast enough, I can kill you. As an IC, I have a wide variety of ways to lead into this ultimate punisher.

Less extreme examples are things like Marth's tipper, which can shorten a stock by margins of 50 percent or more. Well, it's still pretty extreme, but it's less extreme than an infinite. Even harsher though is Fox's shine, which can punish somebody for letting him get close by either a huge combo or a low percent, gimp KO. Chaingrabs are powerful weapons because they turn a single mistake into a hugely damaging combo with little to no risk. Good edgeguards (ala Marth's f-smash, or Jiggs' WoP) can mean a KO at ridiculously low percents, and can make a single error on your part lead to the loss of a stock. Those characters with these kinds of abilities tend to be much higher on the tier list than those that can't punish effectively and consistently.

That's how punishment affects characters. Let's see how it is part of your gameplay as a player.

Again, you are going to get fewer openings against better players; therefore, it is important that you learn to make them count. In regard to the four aspects, this is how it works.

Technical Skill: You need to be able to execute the combo, chaingrab, edgeguard, tech-chase, or whatever with controlled precision. If you miss an l-cancel in the middle of Falcon's SHFLL'd up-air up-air knee, then you failed to punish well.
Mind games: You need to know when the opening is coming. If it comes and goes and you don't even notice, then you probably failed to punish at all.
Tactics: Peach left herself open and you neutral-aired her with Fox. Whoops, she CC'd it into a down-smash and suddenly her mistake turned into yours. You should have d-air'ed into a shine combo into up-throw up-air. If you pick the wrong move to punish with, you can suddenly make mistakes of your own that get YOU punished.
Spacing: If you aren't in the right place at the right time to punish the mistake, then you can't. It's that simple. Heck, just like tactics, you might be at the wrong distance for your punishment to be effective and it turns around to bite you back.

I'm going to embark on a bit of a side-note here about low-tiers and how they can illustrate the skill of a player. As I mentioned earlier, lower-tier characters generally don't have good punishment options. They can get a small combo, but you have to consistently outplay the opponent to constantly land those combos and win.

I'm playing as Ness, and you're playing as Shiek. During our match, we each make ten mistakes per stock. In order to KO me, you only need to get a single grab, with which you can chaingrab, finish with a tilt slap combo, and edgeguard, all of which is very straightforward. With Ness, I need to take advantage of every mistake you make and make each one count as much as possible.

Let's look at it like this:
I make ten mistakes in a stock, and you only need to take advantage of ONE to KO me. So if your punishment is even at 10 percent capacity, you can KO me easily.
You make TWENTY mistakes in a stock and I need to take advantage of 10. I need to have at least 50 percent consistency to successfully KO you.

For every one mistake you exploit, I need to exploit ten to keep even. If I am WINNING, then it means that I am exploiting your mistakes MUCH more than you are exploiting mine. This is why if I'm beating your higher-tier character with a lower-tier, unless it's a really weird counterpick, I'm probably a lot better than you. You have more openings and I consistently take advantage of them better than you. Add to that fact that lower-tiers have a tougher time even starting punishment (usually lack of range, speed, or priority), I look even better by comparison.

Recovery

This is a very important part of your game. However, a lot like punishment, if your four aspects are solid, this will logically be good as well. Still, I will go into detail about it because it requires a skillful combination of all 4 aspects and it's so integral to winning.

Technical skill: Recovery doesn't usually require that much technical skill, but you can't be accidentally using forward+b when you want to up+b. Some characters have certain techniques that require skillful timing. There are also characters with angle-able up+b's who need precision to recover exactly the way you want to. It might not seem like such a necessary thing to practice, but you'll be in trouble if you mis-aim and frequently kill yourself trying to return. Learn your character's tricks and figure out how to maximize your control over yourself while trying to get back to the level.

Mindgames: This one is pretty simple to understand. Most characters have some form of recovery mix-up. With Fox and Falco, you can forward+b to the ledge or above it, or you can shorten their forward+b's to trick an opponent into mistiming an attack. You can up+b to sweetspot, or ride the ledge to maybe get a ledgetech. Peach might float above you, on top of you with an attack, or parasol then fastfall to the ledge. Samus has a fair amount of mobility while bomb jumping, and she might use her grapple to sweetspot or she'll sweetspot the up+b. Most characters have a couple recovery options, and it's your job to figure out what your opponent expects and do something else. And, of course, you need to figure out how they want to edgeguard you so you can respond to that.

Tactics: Know what moves will help your character survive. Know that holding down when you reach the ledge makes you pass by it, and don't let that make you SD. You also need to know your opponent's edgeguarding options and how to stymie their efforts at keeping you off the level.

Spacing: With good spacing comes sweetspots. Your recovery needs to put you exactly where you want to be, so you need to be familiar with the distance of your recovery moves. And it does you no good to repeatedly forward+b beneath the level with Fox or Falco and SD, or air dodge too low and fail to grab the level. Maybe you're Link, YL, or Samus and grapple too far away and miss the level, or you grab it too closely and go into freefall. Learn to space it, don't kill yourself and give the opponent a free stock.

Ideally, if you were good enough you'd never even get hit off the stage to need your recovery. We're going to assume you're not perfect and need to have some "crazy returns" to win a match.

Space Control

One of the most important things to understand about various characters is the areas of space that lay under their control at any given moment.

Imagine Young Link is standing on the right platform on Battlefield. He has a bomb in his hand, and he's doing nothing. Young Link, at this moment, because of his versatile projectiles, controls a surprising amount of the stage. His boomerang has numerous areas of space above, in front, and below him under potential control. His bomb can be thrown upwards, smash-thrown forwards, tilt-thrown forwards, or he can dash forward and throw it (or drop it down). His arrows control an arcing trajectory in front of him, and more of a straight line if charged. Because of his projectile diversity, opponents can have a difficult time approaching Young Link because he controls so much of the area in between the opponent and himself. If he wants to use his quick speed to run away and throw projectiles the whole game, a lot of characters will have trouble combatting him.

Every character controls different regions of space. Marth controls a LOT of space around himself because of the range and priority of his sword. Pichu, on the other hand, has very little concrete space control. You'll find that the ability to dominate areas of the level is directly proportional to a character's position on the tier list.

Wait a second though. Fox, when compared to Marth, Falco, and Sheik, controls relatively little space around him. Sheik's needles and their trajectory can dominate whole blocks of the stage at any given time, and can often shut down offenses and create solid approaches. Marth's sword can swipe a lot of projectiles out of the air, and characters will have trouble approaching a Marth with decent timing because he just cuts through their attacks. Falco's laser is a beam of control across the entire stage. He is concretely threatening you when you are on the other side of the level! Not to mention, almost all of his moves (when compared to Fox's) have more priority and reach. Yet somehow, Fox is ABOVE all of these characters on the tier list, and in fact he's at the very top!

That is in part because of Fox's incredible space control POTENTIAL. He is absurdly fast, and he's small. He can run in and out of range of attacks quickly, making him difficult to hit. He doesn't have much CONCRETE range, but his ability to put himself into those places makes him a tremendous threat even when he's on the other side of the stage.

Why wouldn't that ability put Pichu high on the tier list? He's really fast as well. Unfortunately for him Pichu can't combine his ground speed with the same amount of damage output, comboing ability, edgeguarding, priority, reach, and versatility that Fox can. All Pichu can really do is put himself in DANGER very quickly.

So what you find is that a character's ability to control the level isn't only determined by the areas they control with an attack, but with the speed of those attacks and with their movement ability. Jigglypuff can control a lot of the level when she is in the air, which is why most Jigglypuff players only touch the ground for small amounts of time. Marth has a fast and long-reaching dash dance - coupled with his grab range, you are threatened by Marth even if he's several sword lengths away. Characters don't just control the space they are in at this very moment; they control the spaces they can reach quickly. Fox can reach any part of the stage very quickly, and therefore he controls a lot of space.

Lag is a very key component of space control. When you are standing still, you can do almost anything you want. You can jab, tilt, smash, jump, grab, use your B moves... whatever. You have so many areas under control because you are ABLE to reach out and hit whatever's inside of those areas. In short, you only control those parts of the level because of the threat of your moves. Once you do one of them, however, you are committed. Except for the hitboxes of the move, your space control has dropped to ZERO. If I forward smash with Marth, I have a large area in front of me controlled by my sword... but only for a few frames. Then I have a couple dozen where I can't do anything and I'm completely vulnerable. This is why finding ways to cancel the lag of moves is so important. Falco's short hopped laser violates the normal rules of lag and space control because it keeps going after he's landed. He can do anything he wants now, he can move around and attack and the laser keeps going, controlling that block of space all the way across the stage. If you've played any other fighting games, you'll notice the same fact about characters with fireball type moves. Check out SRK or Sirlin's video tutorial for Super Turbo for more information on this hugely important subject--you'd better believe it when I say that Sirlin and Seth Killian's writings are a huge inspiration to me and to this section.

So all this theory junk is nice, but how does it really apply to your game? Well, for starters, it should tell you how important spacing is. If you keep mistiming your attacks, then people will punish you for the lag of them. Second, it tells you that you cannot just throw out your attacks whenever you feel like, because opponents will be watching and waiting. You cannot mindlessly sacrifice the areas you have control over because you're getting antsy; that allows the opponent to push in on your territory and put you under his control. In short, you need to carefully time your attacks so that you are either hitting your opponent or, if you can't do that, NOT leave yourself in punishable lag.

That opens up new possibilites for mindgames though, and makes it even more important that you understand spacing and the lag of moves. Did you know that Marth's n-air can be autocancelled out of a short hop (and fast fall) with the right timing, leaving him with only four frames of landing lag? The horizontal range of that move coupled with the autocancel means you have very little--if any--leeway to punish that move even if it misses you. Marth might even be missing the move on purpose to bait you into trying to punish a move that can't actually be punished.

Understanding space control also helps you understand why dash dancing is such a strong strategy. Dash dancing has very little committment, since you can turn around and go the way you just came. For characters like Fox, you can do this with alarming speed. This means you can keep a wide area under your control. You can do shffl'ed aerials. You can grab. You can pivot into jabs, tilts and smashes. You can do running up smashes. And if you wind up in trouble, you can shield and roll away or dodge at any point. Dashdancing offers lots of mobility, control, and options, while minimizing committment. That helps you control a lot more space. And in the case of Fox, with his fantastic horizontal speed and smaller stature, he can move in and out of YOUR space. This means you have a much harder time knowing when to attack. And if you attack at the wrong moment, he will be out of your zone of control, you'll be in lag, and he can run back in quickly to punish you.

Something interesting about space control is that it is SUBJECTIVE. YOUR ability to react determines when you are in potential danger from an attack. If an opponent is able to move towards you and attack before you can react, then you have to predict their movements and intercept them (which can be really tough when your opponent has better reflexes then you). You have to understand your own reflexes and predictions to know when an opponent is in a zone where he actually threatens you.

Bringing it all together


You are only as good as your worst skill. If you see the move coming and put your response in the wrong place, you lose. If you know what move will work but fumble when it comes time for execution, you lose.

Your tech skill is contingent on your knowledge of how the game works: you know that there X frames of shield stun on THIS move rather than this one, so you know that your L-cancel needs to come this much later. And when you play against IC's, you know to compensate for two sets of shield stun, and of course, you can adjust.

Your mindgames are based on your available options; if you can't wavedash, you don't have the ability to quickly move left or right, and if you can't drill shine precisely, then you can't pressure the opponent's shield. As mentioned earlier, the ability to ledge-hop can drastically increase your survivability on the ledge because it decreases your predictability. And even good mindgames are useless if you know the f-smash is coming and judge the distance wrong, getting tippered. Or if you know it's coming and try to down-tilt through it, not knowing that Marth's hitbox will reach you before you hit him.

Spacing is useless if you get the distance right, but don't notice that your opponent was going to move at just that moment. It's also not much use if you try and d-smash just a moment too late, letting the opponent back on the ledge.

Tactics are meaningless to a player without the ability to implement them, and if a curve ball comes for you during the tournament finals, you need to figure out how to hit it; the only way you can is if you know enough about the game to devise a solution.

I hope this helps people looking to improve their game. Comments, feedback, and suggestions are all appreciated.
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Building and Sustaining Momentum
Need Help with Intelligent Aggression
by Cunning Kitsune

I have actually recently been addressing this very issue within my own gameplay. Perhaps I may impart a few words of wisdom.

First off, the key to "intelligent aggression" in my eyes is the ability to create, build, and sustain one's momentum. While a rather abstract concept, momentum can best be envisioned as possessing control of a match and dictating the movement and flow of that match (as I stated, not the most concrete of definitions, really). A significant portion of this relies upon your ability both to read and to react to your opponent. Successfully anticipating your foe will allow you both to stay on top of him or her and to punish any openings. However, this approach requires a good deal of thought, instinct, and proper decisions on your part, all components of higher level play (to which "intelligent aggression" is a gateway, in my opinion).

What you are looking for is the ability to read, predict, and punish your opponents, which ties back in to the concept of momentum discussed above. The most I can tell you here is constantly to look for some of the most common openings in an opponent's game. As well, while on the offense, keep a sharp eye out for some of the most common efforts by your enemy to gain some breathing room. You should notice that all of these scenarios imply that you are on the offense, pursuing and attacking your opponent, while they are trying to find an answer to your aggression. One of the keys to "intelligent aggression," is the ability to find answers on the fly to your opponent's efforts to escape you; this will allow you to stay on top of them, to maintain your momentum, and to play intelligently while staying on the offense.

Technical aptitude is also very much required for a successful offensive game plan. If one wishes to maintain his or her momentum (and thus his or her smart, offensive play), one cannot afford to lose all momentum instantly by getting shield-grabbed, out-spaced while approaching, grabbed from a falling aerial without an L-cancel, etc. You will notice that in all of these scenarios, were the player to have complete technical control over his or her character, he or she would emerge unscathed thus maintaining control of the match (momentum) and protecting the integrity of the offense.

In short, then, the keys to a successful (read: smart) offense are both mental and technical aptitude. However, there is one more ingredient to the mix, and that is your own absence of fear. You can never allow yourself to become afraid of your enemy, or that you might get punished if you go in, or what have you. Sometimes you just have to go in there and take what you can get. If you connect, keep your momentum and stay on top of your foe, always on the look-out for those easy openings and attempts to gain some breathing room, and following (key word) as appropriate. If you miss and are punished, DI the upcoming hit or hits, make the proper teching and recovery decisions, and keep on going. No fear.

My note: Playing Smash for the last year has taught me to think in terms of frames not seconds, this is one of the biggest differences to any other fighting game in my opinion, 6 frames(1/10th of a second) can mean the difference between winning and losing a match. A seconds hesitation is Smash is a lot longer than in most other games.

King Kong - "Do you think the same theory can be applied to a defensive playstyle?"

Now, regarding your question, I do believe that the same theory overall can be applied to a defensive game; however, some slight modifications have to be made. For instance, instead of reading for attempts to escape, you instead would have to read for opposing attempts to approach. You would have to look for when and how your foe would choose to advance and counter accordingly

You would also need to anticipate what your more aggressive opponent will expect you to do and then react contrary to his expectations (here is where having the ability to switch between play styles is especially useful). In effect, you need to be able to reverse-engineer your opponent's mentalities while playing defensively; note, however, that this same concept can also be applied to the aggressive styles and, indeed, any instance of the mental game at all.
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Realization
Reaching the Pantheon: An Analysis of Ascending to the Next Level
by The King

Inspired by conversations with Burnt Toast, Bob$ and Sidefx

I was wrapping up a Biweekly just last weekend, saying my goodbyes and all that, when I was asked a rather interesting question that most of us have asked ourselves at one point in time or another. It was something along the lines of:

"You know, I was watching those matches between Lunin and Silentspectre, seeing how good their spacing is and how technical they are and everything, and I've gotta ask you, is there just a point you get to when this game becomes a ton easier, like you wake up and see everything in a different light, and can just say "I get it now!'?"

I have to admit, this question struck my curiousity pretty hard. I was never the kind of person where I'd look back each day or each week or whatever and ask myself "how much have I improved recently?". Do we improve in some steady unbroken stream, or does our game evolve one infinitesimal step at a time? I don't remember what point in my game I fully implemented Lcanceling, or Wavedashing, or Shfflc'ing, or edgeguarding, or anything like that. For me, I always just played the game, and hated losing at it. In retrospect, the three things that drove me to improve were hating to lose, wanting to pull off huge combos on command, and Isai's advice of "Don't Get Hit".

But wait, something isn't right here. There's something missing. For one thing, some people play for years and never improve; some people know everything about this game but have no talent for winning; some people are as close to technically sound as one can get, but still lose to less-than-decent players. And for another, I remember when I was complete trash at this game (I spent years being "champion of my neighborhood", being the best UpB-spamming link out of all my friends, until I got the chance to get 4 stocked in dittos by Germ for a couple hours), but what I don't remember is when I became "good".

A long intro to arrive at my point, I know. What I'd like to analyze here is exactly what it takes to improve, pinpointing the hows and whys of what it takes to ascend to the next level in one's game. And because everyone improves at a different pace, and under different conditions, this makes giving a general walkthrough to improvement practically impossible. There's no checklist you can follow to improving. In the end, it all comes down to you. But what there ARE that we can highlight are the milestones that one must arrive at, and conquer, before moving on to the next phase of improvement. And keep in mind, improvement is possible at every level in one's game, with one's potential for improvement capped only by your determination. These steps are aimed towards the lower-level players, but are applicable to everybody looking to improve. With this said, let's begin.


Humility Goes A Long Way

1.) The first step to improvement is one of the more difficult to overcome, because right off the bat, your ego will be tested before the path to improvement even begins. The first step is seeing that there are people better than you, accepting that you are not nearly as good as you think you are, and becoming determined to improve. Whether it's how much faster they play the game than you, the combos they're able to pull off you didn't think were possible, or the aura of intelligent play that radiates from them, anything. There's got to be something that catches your eye, and brings you to the reality that you aren't anywhere as good as you thought you were, but with work and perserverance, you too could be that skillful at the game. Too many times, people run into someone with a faculty for the game that they never expected could be possible, but then throw away any potential they may have had for improvement by getting hung up on the johns or the "moralities" of the game. Rather than accepting they are worse at the game than their competitors, they tell themselves "That's the cheap way to play, I'm above doing stuff like that." or "I could play like that but the game wouldn't be any fun anymore." or the coup de gras, banning such advanced techniques (or even the person using them) from playing in their circle. Rather than accepting that they have tons of room for improvement, they isolate and shield themselves from the realities of the game, and sheltered under the veils of "honor" and "fun" they develop a sour distaste for the advanced aspects of their game, forever limiting themselves from further progression.

Well luckily for you, the gamer, there's never any obligation to move beyond this first step. Just as there's never any real obligation to get a job better than flipping burgers at McDonalds. But if you are willing to improve, you must show unto thyself humility, in that you are not as good as you can be with a little self-analysis and determination. With this self-epiphany under our belt, we can now move on to the next phase.


Understanding The Game


2.) Figuring out what it is in our game that needs improvement. There are two extremely distinct facets of one's game that always require focus and development, and while the two facets walk hand in hand, for the sake of this article I will break them into two phases, with this one (in my opinion) being the far easier to develop. Before your game can progress, self-analysis of the technical side of your game needs to be performed. Contrast to the next phase, this one requires nothing more than practice and muscle-memory. You need to learn the boundaries of your character(s) inside and out. Take your character to training mode and work on the advanced techniques of the game (such as Lcanceling, wavedashing and shorthopping for starters) until the movements feel natural, to the point where the effort of performing the techniques fades away from your consciousness.

Once you trust the dynamics of your movement and have adopted them into the basic structure of your game, you will need to study the dynamics of character interation. You need to develop a FEEL for the game, absorbing every little bit of information you can. This involves understanding your character's weaknesses, and learning it's strengths. This includes options for getting back onto the stage, options for edgeguarding, getting a feel for how heavy each character is and which of your moves can physically combo into others, memorizing lag times for techrolls, fullhops, missed Lcancels, the works. This requires you to learn what moves your character is vunerable to, and what moves of yours are most punishing to a particular opponent. This is a daunting task, and for most cases, requires time and conscious effort to perfect. But remember that this is a game, and few people on earth in any game rarely develop a total understanding for it. It's just like memorizing a rulebook. It is a process, and one that comes slowly. But with time, your mind will adopt the technicalities of the game, and your fingers will calibrate themselves through muscle memory to performing whatever little trick you want.


Understanding Yourself


3.) Once you've adopted some technical precision into your game, you will have arrived at the next phase of development in your game. Here you are no longer bound by your character's speed of movement; on the contrary, you are now physically capable of anything you will your character to perform. Herein lies phase 3. Now, the single-biggest factor holding back the development of your game is YOU. It is your mental awareness, stability, maturity, and confidence. Sadly, this is also the phase for many gamers where the road to improvement ends, or at least slows substantially. It's just that this phase of improvement requires more focus, determination and analysis than most people have the patience for. This is the phase where you stop analyzing the game in general, and begin analyzing YOUR game. Seeing as how this is probably the most extensive and diverse analysis you will be doing to improve, and since there are so many different ways to analyze your game for improvement, I'm going to break this phase down into subchapters.

a.) Find out why you're losing--I'm going to discuss this portion as if one were watching a match video of themselves versus a skilled player. This is where your capacity for analysis will be tested, because when it comes to reviewing your gameplay, you need to overlook the "hows" of why you're losing, and instead focus on the why. When focusing on a match you've just played, you need to look beyond the moves you were hit by and the combos to which you were subjected. Look back and analyze what moves your opponent was using to take advantage of you (this can range anywhere from Marth spamming that Fsmash, to Fox just dashdancing waiting for a mistake from you to claim a grab). Now take a good look at your character's moveset, and try to find a move or tactic that's best-suited to handle the problem facing you. Fox hitting you with too many Nairs against peach? Learn when and how to crouch-cancel into downsmash. Marth tricking you into situations that get you grabbed? Analyze what setups he's pulling you into, bait him into a false sense of security that his next one will land, forsee the pattern, and punish him for his predictability.

Just as analyzing the patterns of your opponent's chosen moveset is important, so is knowing where your character is vunerable or effective on the stage. Some characters flourish when played on platforms, some better near the ledges, some better underneath platforms or on flat portions of stage. Drawing from the experience you've been collecting about priority and stage properties, learn where to best place your character for maximum efficiency.

b.)Abolish Anger, Frustration and Emotion from your game-- This part of your game requires you to train yourself to restrain from those primal urges for revenge that everyone feels from time to time in a match. It's the urge to get back at someone after you've made a big mistake, you've just been caught in a huge combo or rediculous setup, or even when you are just down stock in a match. The player just discards everything they know about spacing and priority, and just starts throwing out their power moves in some feeble attempt to kill the opponent.

Newsflash: Not only will your opponent see your frustration and react to your desperation accordingly, but you playing for revenge like an idiot is nothing short of expected. You have no idea how many times I've seen exceptional players throw away any chance they had at staging a comeback in a match, simply because they grew frustrated that they couldn't kill their opponent below 150% or just got edgeguarded at 40%. Spamming those Fsmashes to finish off your opponent, as rediculous as it sounds, will NOT work, and against skilled opponents you will only be digging your own grave by leaving yourself predictable and punishable. You need to learn to check your god complex at the door before starting a match, no matter who the opponent is, and enter the match with focus and grit. Your game plan should not be discarded due to one gimped edgeguard, fouled combo, or exceptional spot of play from your opponent. Remain true to your game plan, don't get angry or frustrated when something doesn't go your way, and never force revenge. Remember, revenge is a dish best served cold.


c.)Play with confidence-- Here is where the greatest players tend to shine, and as far as player skill goes, this will always sift out the best of the best in matches that hold significant weight or pressure. I can watch a mediocre player pull the craziest **** I've ever seen against cpu's and in friendlies all day long. But you put that same player into a tournament match with money and standings on the line, where they're only a 4 stock away from a trip to the loser's bracket or elimination all together, and 99% of the time, it's a completely different story.

At this point, you've gotten your tech game out of the way. You know the matchups. You know the combos. You know your spacing and your priorities and your mindgames and your patterns. You've even conquered the more volatile area of your mental game, i.e. keeping control of your emotions. All you have left to do, is just go out there and TRUST it. Hesitation is one of the game's biggest killers at the highest levels, and the more confidence you have in yourself and your abilities, the more of a cakewalk the match will feel. Every match you play, tell yourself you've been there a thousand times before. Whether you're in 2nd round of the loser's bracket or playing in the finals of the tournament, reassure yourself that you've been here before and this pressure is nothing new. If you're playing in the finals for the first time, dismiss the intimidation you're feeling; play like you Belong there, and that there is nowhere else you would rather be.

Don't stand there like a wuss when your opponent misses that tech, have the foresight and confidence to punish him for it before he recovers and rolls to safety. Don't be afraid of getting in their face while they're recovering, get in their mother ****ing way and force their hand to choose the worst option for recovery. Don't be tentative to keep that big combo going; you know what combos into what at this point in your game, so don't hesitate in bridging one move to the next. I don't care what's on the line. Tap into your inner focus, and trust that what you've pulled off a million times already. Don't think, don't hesitate, just do it.

King Out
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Mix Ups
Understanding the depth of mix-up games in SSBM
by Emblem Lord

Binx: I am aware this seems to start in an odd place because this is not the beginning of the artice I cut part of the first paragraph as well as one of the ending paragraphs to see the rest of this please click the link at the bottom.

If you hold the shield too long, it will break. Shields also shrink the longer you hold them, they get reduced as they take hits, they take time to regenerate, and they can be shield stabbed. To help mitigate all these weaknesses, shields can be tilted for better coverage of a given area, or they can be made lighter and wider for more coverage overall. It is also possible to roll or spot dodge from a shield. With this formula the developers of SSBM set the stage for many creative mix-up games. Now let’s get to it.


Approach Games

Approaching an opponent adds a layer of depth in of itself. You can approach a number of ways. Dashing, wave dashing, SHFFLING, come in with a projectile, empty SHFF, JC grab, JC attack, etc. Still it can all be broken down into 3 different things. Attacking, grabbing, or shield stabbing. You grab if they like to stay in their shield. You attack if you want to pressure them or you think they will attack and you want to stuff their move. Shield stabbing is just attacking really. Or is it? Everyone has gotten a shield stab off before. You probably just thought it was luck and you just went from there. But what if you started actively looking for opportunities to shield stab? What if you take it to a level beyond that? What if you try to pressure someone’s shield to the point where you know you can get an easy shield stab? Let’s say you are playing Captain Falcon. Your opponent is at 110% damage. One knee will easily finish them off. You want to get a knee off easily. You might say just go for a grab to d-throw to knee right? Well, that is one route. But you could also pressure their shield with sweetspotted knees in order to whittle down their shield. The knee has enough shield stun for Captain Falcon to get away unharmed so you could repeatedly pressure them if your good enough. Then once their shield is low enough you can get an easy hit on an exposed body part. Let’s say you rush your opponent and they just know that you want to get that knee off, so they angle their shield upwards. But then you just land harmlessly and then d-tilt hitting their exposed lower body and finishing them off with a full hopped…… Uair. MINDGAMES!!!!!!
So you can see that shield tilting allows SSBM to have it’s own spin on high/low mix-ups and actively creating opportunities to nail shield stabs sets-up for more chances to stage an offense. If the shield stab causes a knockdown then just tech chase. Shield stabbing is a great way to circumvent the protection that shields offer. And of course while you are looking for opportunities to shield stab you can still mix-up your offense with grabs making you even more unpredictable.

Dash Cross-up

Crossing up is an old school term. It means to go to the opposite side of your opponent to land an attack. So a dash cross-up is simply dashing behind your opponent to catch them off guard. This is an extremely useful technique. Unfortunately it is only effective with characters that have fast dashes with long opening strides. Characters such as Marth, Captain Falcon, and Fox can put this technique to good use. The idea behind this technique is to quickly dash past someone when they out up a shield. Of course if you are fast enough and close enough, you can also dash past them as they are attacking. Marth is especially good at this because he crouches low to the ground as he dashes, making it easier for him to avoid attacks. Full mastery of Dash cross-ups will lead to alot more opportunities to land combos or attacks. After dashing behind an opponent you can turn around immediately for a pivot grab. This will catch most players off guard. You could mix-it up even further though. You could dash right back to the front of your opponent if you think they might SHFFL an aerial to hit you as you dash behind them. You could also dash and shield to block their attack and then retaliate. If you think they will roll away or spot dodge, just wait for it and then punish them. Dash Cross-ups are not the same as going into a characters full dash animation and then dashing behind someone. Dash Cross-ups are better because they leave you with more options which is a very good thing in remaining unpredictable.

SHFFL Cross-ups

Crossing up with a SHFFL harkens back to Street Fighter. In games with a traditional guarding system, crossing-up would mean you jump over your opponent to attack their backs. There aren’t any Bair attacks, so you had to use an attack that had a hitbox that appeared behind a character, and you had to time your jump in very well. This is a very effective mix-up tool because it would be difficult to tell which way to block when used well. SHFFL cross-ups in SSBM are a bit different. They are easier to do and there are two ways of doing them. And not every character can get use out of this technique. The first method of doing a SHFFL Cross-up is to just run at your opponent and then do a SHFFLed aerial as you approach them, but space yourself so that you land behind them. The other method is to do a SHFFLed Bair or any aerial that hits behind you after a Dash Cross-up. The first method is great for baiting attacks because when you land you are very safe. With proper spacing there is little your opponent can do to retaliate. But you have quite a lot of options after this technique. You can dash back in for a grab, pressure your opponent with dash dancing and then punish their roll or spot dodge, do another SHFFL cross-up, you could dash away or roll away if you fear being punished, etc. It’s also good for getting in a shield stab. This is a very good tactic. You just have to make sure you use an aerial that has little lag for the SHFFL and you should be fine when trying to master it. The second method for the most part just adds another layer of depth to dash cross-ups. This is another option for you to use if you think your opponent will try to SHFFL a Bair in response to your dash cross-up. But as you SHFFL the Bair you can do two things. You can SHFFL it then land in place. From there you have the same options as the first method. But this way of doing it is slightly unsafe because the aerial would come out as you are rising, which gives your opponent more time to recover from their shield stun and then punish you. To remedy this you could SHFFL the aerial when you hit the peak of your jump so you are safer after the SHFFL, but that means you are slightly more vulnerable while in the air. Either way it will be a trade off, so be sure to change up your method so your opponent can’t read you easily. The other way of SHFFLing the Bair is to do it while jumping away so it’s harder to punish you. Then when you land you can dash back in for a grab or to pressure them with dash dancing, etc. As you can see there are several ways of using SHFFL cross-ups and they are all worthy additions to any smashers arsenal.

SHFFL Set-ups

When a smasher SHFFLes an attack and it gets shielded often they think, ”Awww, crap. I really wanted to get that hit in.” And they also worry about getting shield grabbed as well. But having someone shield your attack isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact it can open the door to many new mix-up games and mind games. Players just need to change how they think. Let’s say a player SHFFLes an attack and it gets shielded. The player knows a shield grab is coming so they do a dash cross-up and then pivot grab. The player used the situation to his advantage. By using an aerial that has little lag he was able to evade the shield grab and punish his opponent. And that’s the key using aerials that have very little lag, and remaining aware that your opponent may or may not shield. If they don’t shield then just continue comboing or w/e. If they DO shield then the mix-up game begins. From there you can do so much. You can roll, shield, spot dodge, jab, SHFFL cross-up, attack, grab, dash cross-up, etc. Basically, you can do whatever you want, but what you do will vary greatly depending on your opponent and your own character. When someone shields a SHFFL they usually will instinctively try to shield grab. To counter this you could dash back and then dash back in, dash cross-up, or jab. Dashing will let you avoid the shield grab and then you can retaliate. Jabbing will let you stuff their shield grab attempt and then you can grab them or do something else. Fox and Falco can shine to stuff shield grabbers. Shiek can d-smash and jab. DK can use his up b. Every character has someway of dealing with shield grabbing. Ok, that’s great and all that, but what about fighting a veteran smasher that knows all those tricks? What if they shield and they don’t try to grab that often because they understand the mix-up game? Hehe, that my friends is where the REAL fun starts. The more intelligent a person is and the more they understand how mind games work, the more you can mess with their heads. So let’s say you SHFFL an attack and after playing them for a minutes you have picked on the fact that they usually won’t shield grab. So, how about after that SHFFL you do something amazing.
You grab them. It’s a revolutionary idea I know, but think about it. Smashers learn to never attempt a grab after a SHFFL because it will just get you shield grabbed. But if your opponent just sits in his shield not grabbing you after he blocks your attack then why shouldn’t you just grab him? And when he gets wise to that, then you can switch it up again. You can go back to jabbing or dash cross-ups or w/e works for you. And that’s the beauty of the mix-up game. It’s mindgames that are simple and extremely effective. As the aggressor you are at in advantage in the mix-up game. They have to guess what you will do. They have to choose correctly or they will lose. All you have to do is be patient and unpredictable and victory is yours.

I hope this was informative and that it inspired people to try new things and take their game to new levels. Mix-ups add an incredible amount of depth to all fighters and SSBM is no exception. Although it may be hard to spot mix-ups I can guarantee that pro smashers use them to the fullest and you can see them if you look closely enough at pro matches. The entire community should be aware of the mix-up games in SSBM so that it can grow and aspire to new heights. So train hard, mix it up, try new things and breakthrough the limit!

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Teaching Tech
How to Improve
by Overswarm

Binx: This article delves once again into stressing the physical part of you training before the mental, you have to be able to use your tech skill flawlessly before you can begin incorporating it into your mental game. Also note that the lack of a creative title does not stop this guide from being very informative.

A goal of every competitive smasher is to improve. To know that one month from now, you will be better, and a year from now even better than that. But very few people know exactly how to improve, and they hurt themselves by using poor training techniques.

Every good player plays using his sub-conscious mind.

But how can they do that and succeed so consistently, when you can't? Easy. They already did their thinking ahead of time.

Training your unconscious

There are three steps:

1. Thinking about what you want to do
2. Perfecting the motion
3. Repeating the motion

It is as simple as that.

This isn't anything new. People have known about this for ages, and people have suggested to play against level 1 CPUs to practice (step 3), and smashers have read guides (step 1), but they never know why except that it is to "get better".

Step 1: Thinking about what you want to do

You can accomplish this by talking to someone with more experience, asking questions, or reading a guide. Fill your head with knowledge about your character.

The first questions you should ask yourself about your character are ones relating to offense.

Do you know the hitboxes of your character?

Do you know the chain grabs?

Do you know the % in which you can do a powerful attack from a grab?

Do you know who your character does good against? Does bad against? Do you know why?

Shortly after answering those questions, you should ask yourself questions relating to defense.

Who is counter-picked against your character most often in tournaments? Why?

Who is your most feared character to play against? Why? Is this someone that most players of your character are afraid of playing, or is this just something with your playstyle?

How is your character killed most often? Off the top? From edgeguarding? From chain grabs?

Who can chain grab your character? At what %'s, and what DI is used to get out of it?

You ask yourself questions like this because if you can't answer them using your brain right now, sitting in front of a computer screen, how are you possibly going to be able to think objectively in the middle of a fast-paced tournament game? If all smashers asked themselves simple questions like this, they would know what they need to work on, and what they should do.

Binx: To see the rest of this artice click this link
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Miscalanious
By Various members of the smash community

The following is quoted from a thread called The Next Big Project: What Truly Separates Pros From Beginners-Straight From The Pros

Originally Posted by HugS
In order to win, every approach you take in this game should result in one of two things:

1. You get what you want out of your action. This includes countless scenarios, but here are some examples:
A. You take a stock
B. You add damage to the opponent.
C. You put the opponent in a bad position on the stage
D. You escape from being harmed in any way by the opponent.
F. You set the opponent up for all of the above, or you set yourself up for "D".

2. You cause no type of disadvantage to the opponent, but you escape unharmed yourself.

If neither of these two results are apparent with the approach you want to take, you should not go about taking that particular approach.

Why would you? Going into a situation with the hopes of prevailing while knowing that you have a chance at failure is not a good choice. If you end up victorious, good for you. You got lucky. If you don't, then what? Why not prevent the failure from ever happening by not taking that approach.

For example, your opponent is standing in front of you at full guard with his shield up. He is not open. You decide to throw your defense aside and forward smash his shield in the hopes that it will hit. He may coincidentally decide to jump out of his shield that very moment you decide to forward smash allowing you to land the hit. But at the same time he may stay in place and end up with a free grab. Why take that chance?

Imagine if you were capable of controlling that urge, and only doing that forward smash when you KNOW you can't get shield grabbed or out spaced. You'd be free of failure.

Ideally, every approach you take should leave you invincible. In fact, you should attempt to make yourself invincible at all times. By invincible, I don't mean being incapable of recieving harm regardless of the circumstances. More like, being capable of not allowing others to harm you. And if you allow others to harm you, it's for a larger trade off.

If every approach you take is a safe one, without a chance of bringing harm back onto you, you are on your way to winning.

If you follow your urges and act on impatience, you leave yourself open to many things.

It's your ability to leave fewer openings and make fewer mistakes that dictates how much control you have.

If you have that control, then you can start to see the other part of the equation.

People will mess up. People will eventually leave an opening.

It's your ability to take advantage of that opening that dictates if you are skilled, and to what degree.

Control + skill at execution means you are on your way to becoming better.

I can't say I do this perfectly, or that I even do it well. But knowing how to improve is a good start to well...improving. And it has helped me before.

You shouldn't really hope for things to go your way...
When the opportunity arises, make them go your way.
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Binx: I feel that it is important for people to realize just how great tournament experience is for your skill level.

Alpha Zealot

Wavedashing/L-canceling/shuffling/most advanced tech's aren't hard. Period. That does not show dedication. Knowing everything about this game, at this point in time, also does not show dedication. It may show dedication in the past (2 or so years ago, when most of the current high level players starting picking up this game and getting known, and the tournament community really started to form), but at current, unless there is a tournament, most higher level players will only play the game against other high level players, and even then for short amounts of time, or just kinda goofing off. They will stay the best, cause they will continue to go to tournaments. That doesn't nessasarily mean dedication, but if your great at something, even though you may not enjoy it, you might as well win some money.

I'm not saying your completely wrong, just that the amount you prob think they play to be at that level, is most likely much larger than the amount they really play. When Isai went to Japan, he waited days before he even played Melee (granted he did play SSB64).

The main thing about this game, is that you wont get good based on the amount of overall time playing and practiceing. What is important, is the amount of time playing against good competition. One tournament would prob be better than weeks of practice against low level opponants or CPU's. As such, the high level players can sorta just go to a tournament, and mabye play a few matches a couple days before, and be totally chill. Versus someone who many practice till their hands bleed, and place last. It's not the moves, its the application of those moves (though without knowing all the moves, you can't really understand how to apply things)."
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Below is a list of threads that I think are exceptional, I will reference many of these during the course of this project and feel strongly that all smashers should read these threads at least once.

Wavedashing, L-cancelling, All The Terms! by AlphaZealot

A Guide to DI, Smash DI, C-stick DI, Teching and Crouch Cancelling by Doraki

The Divide Between Good and Great by InfernoOmni

Need help with Intelligent aggression by Rapid Assassin

Understanding the depth of mix-up games in SSBM by Emblem Lord

7 Habits Of A Professional Smasher by LunInSpectra

The 4 Aspects of Melee by WobblesThePhoenix

Reaching the Pantheon: An Analysis of Ascending to the Next Level by The King

Observation: The Key to Higher Level Smash Play by MookieRah

The Next Big Project: What Truly Separates Pros From Beginners-Straight From The Pros by The King

How to Improve by Overswarm.com
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Binx

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That's a great idea, I would also like to copy and paste the majority of what was said without the character specific and situation specific examples though.
 

Emblem Lord

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You gave Cunning and Omni credit for their articles but no credit for using my article about mix-up games?

That's kinda messed up.

And you should have stated where you added things to my original article. You added stuff that I didn't orginally state. You also altered my article and left some things out.

:/
 

Binx

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I was on that actually =) my internet went down in the middle of me getting all the credits and links for your guys' work, rest assured you will be credited, I admire all of the articles I am putting here and they are mostly only edited for the purpose of generilizing and removing character specific information, I want to try and remove examples of things like fox vs marth to make the thread more broad.
 

Binx

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I think that it's comming along fairly well, I have finished my PMs to all of the people that I want to include in this so far. Please anyone if you find something good on a character specific forum some good advice from a friend anything please post it here so it can be added.
 

Binx

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Thank you Wraith, if you find anything that you think belongs here could you PM me a link, I will credit anyone who finds anything as well as people who write it originally.
 

Binx

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I would be more than happy to, do you know a link where I could learn how to do HTML editing? K all done I think it looks much better now =)
 

tshahi10

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What kind of a guide is this?

It says reaching a higher level, but all it does is give in-depth tips to improve your game, if you did not presumably Know it id est.
 

Binx

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What kind of a guide is this?

It says reaching a higher level, but all it does is give in-depth tips to improve your game, if you did not presumably Know it id est.
No guide can improve your game for you. This guide does exactly what it was intended to do, provides new and experienced smashers alike one place to see a lot of great work that our more advanced smashers have come up with. This helps build a strong base to develop new techniques and strategies for your own use.

I wish I had these tips when I first started I could have saved myself a lot of headache trying to figure out some of these deeper thoughts.
 

Snoodude

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Holy CRAP this thing is AWESOME!!!

I read through the whole thing in one sitting; if it had been a book, I wouldn't have been able to put it down. Wow, really, 'smashing' job here! :chuckle: Especially the part about making things become instinctive, it's very true. When a person can perform a task unconsciously (i.e. not thinking about it, instinctive/practiced), it takes almost no time at all. When a person must perform a task consciously (i.e. thinking about doing it then having it happen), it takes somewhere between half and three-quarters of a second. Quite a large difference in a game of split-second interactions.

Again, you did a really bang-up job collecting, condensing, and linking all this information. I hope it gets even bigger!
 

Binx

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Thanks overswarm I will be sure to check it out and add any relevant information. Keep the comments coming guys I am really glad this is helpful to some of you. I have updated the compilation to say "Binx" where I have interjected some of my opinions rather than note to avoid potential confusion, I have added overswarm.com's guide and have updated the list of links to include a link to the guide on overswarm. I checked out the interview with kitsune and it was very fun to read, I suggest taking a look at it, however to keep this as concise as possible I will not be including that interview here. This is already plenty massive. As soon as I get a PM back from the King OKing the use of his guide in this project I can add it to the main piece as well, its very good, so those of you who have not checked it out I would go take a peak at it as well.
 

Overswarm

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Thanks overswarm I will be sure to check it out and add any relevant information. Keep the comments coming guys I am really glad this is helpful to some of you. I have updated the compilation to say "Binx" where I have interjected some of my opinions rather than note to avoid potential confusion, I have added overswarm.com's guide and have updated the list of links to include a link to the guide on overswarm. I checked out the interview with kitsune and it was very fun to read, I suggest taking a look at it, however to keep this as concise as possible I will not be including that interview here. This is already plenty massive. As soon as I get a PM back from the King OKing the use of his guide in this project I can add it to the main piece as well, its very good, so those of you who have not checked it out I would go take a peak at it as well.
If you want to organize this, there are three things you need to do:

1. Put links to the threads/articles/interviews/etc. at the top, not the bottom

2. Put snippets of the articles in quotes, not just a wall of text, so that there are definite borders around them. Makes it easier to skip from one to the other.

3. Use the bold setting to help differentiate between sections.

This thread is good, it is just a little cluttered and unorganized.
 

Binx

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There I have done about 2 and a half hours worth of editing and I feel that it is now even more legible. I like the links at the bottom, if there is more support for them to be at the top I will consider a change, but I feel that this forces more people to read the whole thing. As soon as I can figure out links to make it skip to different parts on the same page I will more than likely impliment them in the table of contents section.
 

Overswarm

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There I have done about 2 and a half hours worth of editing and I feel that it is now even more legible. I like the links at the bottom, if there is more support for them to be at the top I will consider a change, but I feel that this forces more people to read the whole thing. As soon as I can figure out links to make it skip to different parts on the same page I will more than likely impliment them in the table of contents section.
Please just link to my articles; don't quote them in entirety.
 

Binx

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My intention was to have one big document for people to browse through with links to all the source information I can remove your guide if you want but I don't see how that accomplishes anything.
 

Overswarm

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My intention was to have one big document for people to browse through with links to all the source information I can remove your guide if you want but I don't see how that accomplishes anything.
You just copied and pasted my guide; you can put a snippet in and a link if you'd like (as long as you show that it is a snippet), but don't just take someone else's work and post it in a thread in its entirety.
 

Aftermath

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Overswarm, there's no reason not to, other than it makes the post rather huge. He credited you, linked to your article, and made it very clear in the beginning that nothing here is his. For people to mistake that is a grand failure on their part, not him trying to steal your ideas.

I would agree that you should link the thread when that guide's part comes up. Then just give an overview in your own words and a few wuotes from the sections of it. This really doesn't stop people from reading the stuff, but makes it less of an amalgamation of every thread in existence and more of a compendium.

There isn't a way to link to different parts of the same post, but just put a table of contents and tell people to Ctrl+F for it. But yeah, you really shouldn't just have the entire thing quoted on everything.
 

forward

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The real question is, how do you improve faster than the competition around you? You may have gotten better by reading these articles, but so did everyone else who read them, and so did the people who wrote them. You are no closer to being better than the other players than before you read this.

If you ever wish to surpass someone in this game, you have to improve at the game faster than they do. Or the other person could just stop playing for awhile and you can catch up that way.
 

Overswarm

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The real question is, how do you improve faster than the competition around you? You may have gotten better by reading these articles, but so did everyone else who read them, and so did the people who wrote them. You are no closer to being better than the other players than before you read this.

If you ever wish to surpass someone in this game, you have to improve at the game faster than they do. Or the other person could just stop playing for awhile and you can catch up that way.

Good question.

The only answer I have is do the same thing everyone else is doing, but more consistently and more often.
 

Binx

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Hey awesome Forward posted. While I agree that absolutely everyone is still improving I dont beleive that everyone improves at the same rate, sooner or later your improvement slows down. And I know this might seem wierd but I really am only competing directly with myself, of course when I play with other people I want to win, I am trying to learn to beat them, but by doing that I know that I am growing rapidly better than the self I was last week and the week before. The best way for me to improve is to play more people and better people, so thats what I am trying to help with, other people improving so I can face them and improve as well.

Actually I was editing this guide this morning at about 10:00 AM and again around 2:00PM to about 4:00 PM so I am pretty sure it was updated today. Although I am not sure it will need daily tending after all that was done today, but I will try my hardest to check and post here at least once a day and make sure it isnt missing anything that other smashers feel should belong.
 

darE::to::Dream

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Minor spelling error for Overswarm's article, just take a look at the beginning and I think you'll spot it. : )

I really like this compilation so far... it's got a lot of the useful articles I've read in the past. It is becoming quite a wall of text though, it may even rival AlphaZealot's official terms guide!
 

Overswarm

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Minor spelling error for Overswarm's article, just take a look at the beginning and I think you'll spot it. : )

I really like this compilation so far... it's got a lot of the useful articles I've read in the past. It is becoming quite a wall of text though, it may even rival AlphaZealot's official terms guide!
Teaching Teach?



Also, Binx, I'm serious. Make it a snippet with a link or remove it all together.
 

Omni

You can't break those cuffs.
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The real question is, how do you improve faster than the competition around you? You may have gotten better by reading these articles, but so did everyone else who read them, and so did the people who wrote them. You are no closer to being better than the other players than before you read this.

If you ever wish to surpass someone in this game, you have to improve at the game faster than they do. Or the other person could just stop playing for awhile and you can catch up that way.
Not completely true. 100 people presented with the same information don't come up as equals at the end. In my opinion, there are just people out there who are good at these kind of video games and people who just can't cut it. There are people out here that can use the information here at its maximum potential and others who won't be able to use it at all. Ultimately, there are people who want to be the best, and others who've decided they will be the best.

2 years ago, I went to MLG DC 2005 and learned just what it means to be the best. Since then, I've been improving nonstop and have become a very well known smasher in the east coast region. How did I improve? I surrounded myself around top guns in the MD/VA area and got the snot beat out of me constantly. Suddenly, anyone who wasn't a top gun wasn't a threat. Soon after, I started understanding the mindsets of the top guns by falling for their traps over and over again. I was now able to see exactly what my opponents were doing to beat me. With all this experience, I was able to begin developing techniques and tactics for countering what was once my weakness. When those were countered, I found more counters. Now, not only could I match these top guns, but I was finally in a posture to beat them.

So how did I become better then some people who've been playing this game for 4 years? 5 years? I never stopped. When there's a barrier (and there will be plenty), I didn't stand there and slam my head into the wall over and over. I sat down and analyzed my faults, my weakness and compared them to my opponents strengths. You see, when you can't win it's because you're doing something wrong. It's your responsibility to find out what about yourself you have to change and then change it.
 

RDK

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That was very well put, Omni.

The wisest man still has something to learn.

Thinking you already know something to its ultimate potential is just a very effective barrier against actually learning more.
 

Binx

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Thanks Omni, I agree that not everyone will get the same results, I do beleive with hard enough work you can get better than the people around you. However there is one thing I would like to say, I really do beleive you will only get what you put in, someone like forward who plays in a new tournament every week against hundreds of different players in a year will get a far different kind of experience from a person who plays the same 3-10 really good players(note: I said different not better or worse). I beleive any aspect of this game can be learned by any person, but I don't beleive every aspect can be taught. Honestly the people who would most improve by this information would probably have found it themselves as I had done. To be honest a large part of this project is for me to have one place find information, because I really do read things like this almost every day and it takes up a good deal of time. This allows other people benifit from it and learn in a more efficient way, not just me.

PS: Teaching Teach was supposed to be Teaching Tech and I swear I had caught that and changed it, I think a ghost just wanted to make me look stupid.
 

forward

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Of course Omni, people don't get stuck at the level they are at when they first start playing the game. People will keep improving, and if they are dedicated enough they will become the best. However, that doesn't happen very often.

You may have reached a high status on the EC, but you haven't reached a high status in the country. I wouldn't be surprised if, the people who are above you now, have been above you for quite some time, and you've had a hard time surpassing them (chillin? chu? neo?)

I must say though, that this is only speculation on my part. I'm only pointing out observations from my experience.
 

FastFox

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Of course Omni, people don't get stuck at the level they are at when they first start playing the game. People will keep improving, and if they are dedicated enough they will become the best. However, that doesn't happen very often.

You may have reached a high status on the EC, but you haven't reached a high status in the country. I wouldn't be surprised if, the people who are above you now, have been above you for quite some time, and you've had a hard time surpassing them (chillin? chu? neo?)

I must say though, that this is only speculation on my part. I'm only pointing out observations from my experience.
I agree with what you're saying, forward, however a great deal of self-improvement also lies within how hard you get your ass kicked by the people you play against. But, skill is somewhat of a constant variable. As your opponent improves, you will also improve, so on and so forth.

A great deal of learning comes from not losing your temper when you're whooped, and looking back and picking out what you could have done better.
 

Omni

You can't break those cuffs.
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Of course Omni, people don't get stuck at the level they are at when they first start playing the game. People will keep improving, and if they are dedicated enough they will become the best. However, that doesn't happen very often.

You may have reached a high status on the EC, but you haven't reached a high status in the country. I wouldn't be surprised if, the people who are above you now, have been above you for quite some time, and you've had a hard time surpassing them (chillin? chu? neo?)

I must say though, that this is only speculation on my part. I'm only pointing out observations from my experience.
True. I had A LOT of room for improvement back then. And you're right, I've been having a difficult time surpassing those guys. It kinda' reminds me of an RPG where I entered the game 3-4 years after the game came out. Of course it'll be easy to jump from LVL 1 - 30, and even 31-60 with a lot of time and practice, but guys like Chu, Chillin, and Neo are at like... LVL 90 or w/e. As you your level gets higher, it gets harder to get to the next level. That wasn't well put, but it makes sense in my head. Sticking with this RPG theory just for fun, I've found that playing people who are way above my level gives me more EXP making it easier for me to level. So my next question is, 'How do I surpass Chillin/Chu/Neo, etc?'

Tell me what you think about this, Forward.

The only way I can surpass them is by playing them or people who are better then them constantly. Playing people who are closer to perfecting this game makes playing people who aren't as close as them, or maybe even a little bit behind them easier to face IF I am able to learn and adjust to the new enviroment of play. That's it; there's no other way, and that is why you've dedicated yourself to traveling the country to play the best of the best in order to improve yourself the fastest.
 

Binx

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So that's the secret, I just have to win the lottery or something and travel the world playing smash until I have no fingers! Screw this guide im off to buy some tickets! Seriously though you improve alot by playing a wide variety of people on a regular basis, I wish I had money and time for that.

Like I said before this guide is as much for me as for everyone else, I like having a place to read everything at once if I want to review. Most serious smashers would discover a majority of this on their own with enough time, at least an instinctual sense of it.

I dont think you need book knowledge of every single move your character has to be successful but some people might, I am a mix between the two, I like having the text book knowledge available and occasionally look at it when I have time, but I dont bother memorizing all the percents all my attacks do, I know what works in most of the character matches I have experience in and I know what doesnt, I know general percents that I can do certain things through practice, but if someone wants to come read a guide on how to improve and work on each thing individually they can go that route. And I will be glad something I did helped.

~Binx
 

forward

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Omni your RPG reference makes a lot of sense, I look at it in a similar way myself. The difference between reaching a higher level in smash and a higher level in an RPG is that we don't level up as a programmed system. We don't have experience bars that we can check to see how close we are getting to the next level, or we can't tell what players give us the most exp. points when we play them. I suppose if you wanted to argue semantics, you could say that humans are a system, and we level up in a predetermined way. But that is a discussion for another time and place.

How I look at it, lets say you are a new player to smash and you have never touched the game before, you start off at level 0. Levels 1-10 consist of controlling your character, which should be very simple to go through, you could even learn that in one player mode. Levels 11-20 now consist of advanced control like wave dashing, l cancels, dash dancing, etc. Almost anybody you play against will have an understanding of these techniques, thus the experience to gain them is easy to get. Levels 21-30 might be a little tricky now, but still shouldn't be too difficult, as there are many people who have learned to apply wave dashing and dash dancing into their game play.

I could continue but I think I'd run out of metaphors so I'll just explain what I'm saying. The experience of lower levels of game play is easy to attain, as you could get it from virtually anybody. The higher up you go the harder the experience is to gain, since fewer and fewer people will have this knowledge. This is why you can have new players reach a high status in the community in shorter periods of time.

What tricky though is advancing to the next level that no one is at yet. If we were to say that M2K was the best and is at level 87, how can he reach level 88, there is no one with that kind of knowledge he can learn from. Or who knows, maybe you could say that level 88 is easy to get to from 87, and 89 is easy to get to from level 88. But lets say at 90 your character learns a new spell (a new tactic, like light sheild ledge guarding vs Marth), how do these "new spells" appear in the smash community?

Well, I kind of rambled there and I don't really know where I'm going with this anymore. Haha
 
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