Over the past week and a half, I've learned so much about this game.
Many of you play this game for the surface value. The flashing lights, cool colors, lucky 'combos', and the occasional friendly victory. It's as if you are reading a Manga without knowing the language, but the pictures alone are enough for you to keep reading, or at least trying to.
You don't understand the story but the artwork is amazing.
I used to play brawl like that. Just going with the flow, not really understanding key aspects but, I enjoyed the music, the noise, but I didn't understand the game.
Until recently.
Once you're able to speak and read the language that Manga becomes THAT Much better. And you can't put it down and you understand the finer aspects of that story.
In this post, I'm gonna help teach you the language of Brawl, and hopefully you can open your eyes to the amazing game this truly is.
The Guaranteed option:
Not many things in this game are Guaranteed. Usually you have to do some prediction or guessing, and your chances of hitting are resting on the idea that your move has frame advantage/priority/etc. But there's a way to literally hit them without their consent, not get punished and have complete control of the next action. And that's called the Guaranteed Option.
Depending on the tier of your character, you might not have as many Guaranteed Options (G.O) as other characters. Some have multiple per game, and some only have one or two. The higher tier your character, the better G.O's they have. But these things only come at max, perhaps 20 times a game, assuming you're MK, and they vary depending on the MU. It's your job to find, excise, and exploit these G.O's and use them every game. And this is where reads, and conditioning, and baiting come into play, but that's basic stuff that you should know. If you'd like me to expand on this point, let me know in the comments. Otherwise, I'll move on.
I play Wario, so an example would be vs Snake, a very irritating MU. During the game, I have no reason to face him in his face, for he has to many options that cover mine. So I'm going to play very defensively. But the second he Nairs, I'm going to go in for that Shield Grab, or that Clap. Granted, this doesn't happen very often. I could wait a whole Two minutes for this to happen, and only one G.O could come every two minutes. But I'm going to wait for it. It's my free damage, my free punish, my free kill. But this is why games last so long! Which leads me into my next point.
Disconnect between playing Gay and Safe:
It's no secret, that brawl is a defensive game. Every game from top players never ends in 3 minutes. Or 4 minutes. Why? Because each player is looking for that G.O. They are searching, and exploiting their character to do so. They will camp platforms, run away, stay on the ledge ,all to find that G.O. Sometimes it takes over two minutes to find the first one, and the next one won't come for 45 seconds Later. This makes games last so long. There is a large disconnect from 'playing gay' to 'playing safe.' Playing Gay implies that you are simply running for the sake of not being hit. Such that you are un touchable for no purpose other than to irritate your opponent and hope for a clock out. Playing Safe indicates that you are just using your time to wait for that G.O. And Safety does not always mean camping the ledge or hopping on platforms. It could mean pressuring them up close in order to force frame traps and irritating options for you to punish with a G.O.
Think about it. If you play Falco and you're fighting a Pikachu, what reason do you have to walk down near him? Camping platforms it not playing Gay, it's playing Safe. you're waiting for him to slip up, and take your G.O which could be as little as a jab, or as big as a Grab. But that's not going to happen very often, because in that MU, Falco has very little G.O's against Pikachu, and that's what makes it very difficult.
Often times, matches from top players last till about the last two minutes of a match. And some players decide to switch from playing Safe, to playing Gay, simply because the time out option becomes the G.O. Though the clock was never intended for such use, it became used for that. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it. In short, if your matches are lasting about four or three minutes each match, you're probably playing this game incorrectly.
No such thing as 'kill percent.'
When somebody is at high percent. It's really easy for one to see that a certain move can kill them, but who's idea was it for people to infer that you must kill them at that percent? People have created definition to the idea that subsists on percent, and killing them with a certain move at a certain time. That doesn't exist. When Fox plays anybody, you know that his U smash can kill you at 100 usually. So why would that fox ever use U smash? why not just continue the match as normal? The idea behind this, is the higher the players percent, the more moves you have to kill them with, and the more options you are inadvertently stopping.
I feel an easy way to understand, is playing each stock as if you were trying to get them to 999. However if you kill them with a move, then so be it. You have the stock advantage now.
tl;dr?
If you don't have the patience to read this, you don't have nearly the amount of patience for Brawl.
If people want to read more then I'll write more. I'll leave it at these three points for now. I hope you enjoyed it. =] Thanks for reading.
Many of you play this game for the surface value. The flashing lights, cool colors, lucky 'combos', and the occasional friendly victory. It's as if you are reading a Manga without knowing the language, but the pictures alone are enough for you to keep reading, or at least trying to.
You don't understand the story but the artwork is amazing.
I used to play brawl like that. Just going with the flow, not really understanding key aspects but, I enjoyed the music, the noise, but I didn't understand the game.
Until recently.
Once you're able to speak and read the language that Manga becomes THAT Much better. And you can't put it down and you understand the finer aspects of that story.
In this post, I'm gonna help teach you the language of Brawl, and hopefully you can open your eyes to the amazing game this truly is.
The Guaranteed option:
Not many things in this game are Guaranteed. Usually you have to do some prediction or guessing, and your chances of hitting are resting on the idea that your move has frame advantage/priority/etc. But there's a way to literally hit them without their consent, not get punished and have complete control of the next action. And that's called the Guaranteed Option.
Depending on the tier of your character, you might not have as many Guaranteed Options (G.O) as other characters. Some have multiple per game, and some only have one or two. The higher tier your character, the better G.O's they have. But these things only come at max, perhaps 20 times a game, assuming you're MK, and they vary depending on the MU. It's your job to find, excise, and exploit these G.O's and use them every game. And this is where reads, and conditioning, and baiting come into play, but that's basic stuff that you should know. If you'd like me to expand on this point, let me know in the comments. Otherwise, I'll move on.
I play Wario, so an example would be vs Snake, a very irritating MU. During the game, I have no reason to face him in his face, for he has to many options that cover mine. So I'm going to play very defensively. But the second he Nairs, I'm going to go in for that Shield Grab, or that Clap. Granted, this doesn't happen very often. I could wait a whole Two minutes for this to happen, and only one G.O could come every two minutes. But I'm going to wait for it. It's my free damage, my free punish, my free kill. But this is why games last so long! Which leads me into my next point.
Disconnect between playing Gay and Safe:
It's no secret, that brawl is a defensive game. Every game from top players never ends in 3 minutes. Or 4 minutes. Why? Because each player is looking for that G.O. They are searching, and exploiting their character to do so. They will camp platforms, run away, stay on the ledge ,all to find that G.O. Sometimes it takes over two minutes to find the first one, and the next one won't come for 45 seconds Later. This makes games last so long. There is a large disconnect from 'playing gay' to 'playing safe.' Playing Gay implies that you are simply running for the sake of not being hit. Such that you are un touchable for no purpose other than to irritate your opponent and hope for a clock out. Playing Safe indicates that you are just using your time to wait for that G.O. And Safety does not always mean camping the ledge or hopping on platforms. It could mean pressuring them up close in order to force frame traps and irritating options for you to punish with a G.O.
Think about it. If you play Falco and you're fighting a Pikachu, what reason do you have to walk down near him? Camping platforms it not playing Gay, it's playing Safe. you're waiting for him to slip up, and take your G.O which could be as little as a jab, or as big as a Grab. But that's not going to happen very often, because in that MU, Falco has very little G.O's against Pikachu, and that's what makes it very difficult.
Often times, matches from top players last till about the last two minutes of a match. And some players decide to switch from playing Safe, to playing Gay, simply because the time out option becomes the G.O. Though the clock was never intended for such use, it became used for that. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it. In short, if your matches are lasting about four or three minutes each match, you're probably playing this game incorrectly.
No such thing as 'kill percent.'
When somebody is at high percent. It's really easy for one to see that a certain move can kill them, but who's idea was it for people to infer that you must kill them at that percent? People have created definition to the idea that subsists on percent, and killing them with a certain move at a certain time. That doesn't exist. When Fox plays anybody, you know that his U smash can kill you at 100 usually. So why would that fox ever use U smash? why not just continue the match as normal? The idea behind this, is the higher the players percent, the more moves you have to kill them with, and the more options you are inadvertently stopping.
I feel an easy way to understand, is playing each stock as if you were trying to get them to 999. However if you kill them with a move, then so be it. You have the stock advantage now.
tl;dr?
If you don't have the patience to read this, you don't have nearly the amount of patience for Brawl.
If people want to read more then I'll write more. I'll leave it at these three points for now. I hope you enjoyed it. =] Thanks for reading.
