SCOTU
Smash Hero
A common misconception of the lower end of the smash community is that you should always aim your attacks to hit your opponent. This misconception comes from the basis that the goal of the game is to KO your opponent enough times until they lose. This, however, is a bit of a misnomer. While, yes, that's the goal, it's only part of the goal. The whole goal is to KO your opponent enough times before they KO you enough times. When you realize this difference, you can see where this misconception of aiming to always hit comes from, and why it's a misconception.
If you're only aiming to hit your opponent, you're limiting yourself, and your opponent is likely to win simply by not allowing you the opportunity to hit them enough. You have to just do more than only attack when you're going to hit. You have to do a couple things: 1) you need to ensure that you do get opportunities to hit your opponent, and 2) you limit your opponent's opportunities to hit you. These two things are two keys to running a successful on stage game.
How to remedy this? Aim to miss. If you're only trying to hit, then another option you can try adding is aiming to miss. What's the point in this? That's dumb, it just makes openings to kill you with. Not entirely. When done properly, aiming to miss can be extremely safe, and do exactly the opposite of making openings to kill you with.
Ok. So, what exactly is the point of aiming to miss then? It does two things: 1) give you opportunities to hit your opponent and 2) makes it so your opponent can't hit you. Do these seem familiar? There the two keys to a good onstage game i listed earlier. But how does aiming to miss accomplish this?
1) opportunities to hit: When you're aiming to miss, your opponent has a couple of choices, they can jump into the attack, or they can try to punish. Well, if they jump into the attack, there's your opportunity. You instantly gain match control. Who jumps into attacks? Well, they weren't trying to jump into it, they were trying to beat it out w/ another attack, but you did your attack in such a way as to not allow them to hit you with anything that could beat your attack. If they attempt to punish you, here's another opportunity to hit them. It's possible that they attempted to punish with something a bit too heavy, and you, since you avoided their punishment by properly spacing your attack, have the classic setup for punishment. And the feeling for punishing someone for YOU MISSING AN ATTACK sure is amazing.
2) limits opponents ability to hit you: This one's a bit easier to understand. If you've got a hitbox out between you and your opponent, you opponent can only hit through it w/ a larger hitbox (or one w/ more priority). Since you're aware of what attacks your opponent has that can beat which attacks of yours when you do them, you're making sure that basically, your opponent cannot hit you through your attack. Moreover, you're spacing in a way that makes it extremely difficult to hit you when your attack is over. After a while, your opponent may start to not jump in at you as much, meaning they're limiting their approaches, which is your win.
Ok, this is all good and stuff, but how do you go about aiming to miss properly? As you've been reading, I've been dropping some pretty obvious hints as to how to go about doing this. You need to do the following:
a) Make sure that you do your attack in such a way that your opponent cannot out prioritize your attack. Do this by knowing the angles that your opponent could attack from w/ a higher priority attack, and make sure you're not allowing them to use that angle.
b) Make sure you're safe when you're done w/ your attack. Use platforms, fast attacks, retreating attacks, etc...
Every character matchup is different for aiming to miss. It's also different for every stage, and every situation. Basically you just have to get a feel for what's safe to do, and how to do it.
If you're only aiming to hit your opponent, you're limiting yourself, and your opponent is likely to win simply by not allowing you the opportunity to hit them enough. You have to just do more than only attack when you're going to hit. You have to do a couple things: 1) you need to ensure that you do get opportunities to hit your opponent, and 2) you limit your opponent's opportunities to hit you. These two things are two keys to running a successful on stage game.
How to remedy this? Aim to miss. If you're only trying to hit, then another option you can try adding is aiming to miss. What's the point in this? That's dumb, it just makes openings to kill you with. Not entirely. When done properly, aiming to miss can be extremely safe, and do exactly the opposite of making openings to kill you with.
Ok. So, what exactly is the point of aiming to miss then? It does two things: 1) give you opportunities to hit your opponent and 2) makes it so your opponent can't hit you. Do these seem familiar? There the two keys to a good onstage game i listed earlier. But how does aiming to miss accomplish this?
1) opportunities to hit: When you're aiming to miss, your opponent has a couple of choices, they can jump into the attack, or they can try to punish. Well, if they jump into the attack, there's your opportunity. You instantly gain match control. Who jumps into attacks? Well, they weren't trying to jump into it, they were trying to beat it out w/ another attack, but you did your attack in such a way as to not allow them to hit you with anything that could beat your attack. If they attempt to punish you, here's another opportunity to hit them. It's possible that they attempted to punish with something a bit too heavy, and you, since you avoided their punishment by properly spacing your attack, have the classic setup for punishment. And the feeling for punishing someone for YOU MISSING AN ATTACK sure is amazing.
2) limits opponents ability to hit you: This one's a bit easier to understand. If you've got a hitbox out between you and your opponent, you opponent can only hit through it w/ a larger hitbox (or one w/ more priority). Since you're aware of what attacks your opponent has that can beat which attacks of yours when you do them, you're making sure that basically, your opponent cannot hit you through your attack. Moreover, you're spacing in a way that makes it extremely difficult to hit you when your attack is over. After a while, your opponent may start to not jump in at you as much, meaning they're limiting their approaches, which is your win.
Ok, this is all good and stuff, but how do you go about aiming to miss properly? As you've been reading, I've been dropping some pretty obvious hints as to how to go about doing this. You need to do the following:
a) Make sure that you do your attack in such a way that your opponent cannot out prioritize your attack. Do this by knowing the angles that your opponent could attack from w/ a higher priority attack, and make sure you're not allowing them to use that angle.
b) Make sure you're safe when you're done w/ your attack. Use platforms, fast attacks, retreating attacks, etc...
Every character matchup is different for aiming to miss. It's also different for every stage, and every situation. Basically you just have to get a feel for what's safe to do, and how to do it.
