Hello there smashers :V
I think a lot of players will agree with me when I say that quality practice is rare in brawl. We all despise wifi, tournaments are expensive, smashfests aren't really serious, and cpus suck and are boring. And yet, we all want to get better.
That's why I had the idea of this thread. The purpose : sharing offline, single player training tactics that will enhance your gameplay. This is not going to be an article : my experience, as a top20 ranking player, is nowhere as valuable as a top player's.
Talent is rare, and I do not believe tops are tops just out of pure luck. I know it happens, I'm just saying that participation from high ranking players would be really welcome here.
Back to me. I'll give a couple examples from the different training techniques I have developped lately, for the sake of discussion. It's fun to note that I tend to conciously focus on different aspects of my gameplay rather than just playing the game on hardcore mode. Forcing myself to focus allows me to stay focused longer than I usually do against cpus which get boring super fast.
You can basically pick any of those, and try to complete two, three, or even more challenges at the same time to get the most out of your practice if you find it too easy.
-The M2K training : basically, this is all about studying the IA. You observe that whenever the cpu takes a hit that send them a bit upward, they always buffer an airdodge -> do not punish these airdodges. Same goes with every bad habit lvl9s have : rolling to the nearest ledge when tripped, always jumping from the ledge, etc... This training method will allow you to hone your execution skills, being frame perfect on every action you attempt instead of predicting stuff that are not going to happen in a real set.
-The comeback training : suicide 2 times at the beginning of the match, try to win it anyway. This will not be any harder than 3 stocking a cpu, but the mentality changes there. Subconciously, I tend to play a lot better doing this. And it trains you at doing less mistakes.
-The prediction training : this is kinda the same as the M2K training. What people usually do when they get hit, is thinking what they could have done to avoid that situation, or resolve it. Here, you have to force yourself to take a step further : whenever you perform an action which succeeds, ask yourself 'what could have he done to avoid that ? I'll reproduce the scenario, and do something that will punish that thing'. This will train you at two things : provoking opportunities, and keeping focus.
-The DI and antijuggle training : go to the center of the stage, get hit on purpose, and do whatever is needed to go back to the center of the stage. Will train both 'combo breaker' DI and 'survival' DI. Write somewhere how long you stayed alive, and the % you dies on each stock, and try to do better than the previous stock.
-The defensive maneuvers training : put 2 cpus in team against you, and avoid every possible damage by positionning yourself right, PSing a lot, dodging a lot. If you want to train your low% escape, suicide when you reach 50% (good training vs chaingrabbers). If you want to train your high% escape, start with a 100% handicap. You win by going to time.
-The chaingrabber's training : works with every other training routine : if you get grabbed before 50% by a falco cpu, let him get you to 75% before you continue playing. If you get grabbed by a DDD cpu, let him hit you for 30%, and go to the ledge. If you get grabbed by an ICs cpu, suicide. You get the point.
-The 'know your enemy' training : a matchup seems quite obscure to you ? A) go to your character's board. B) go to their character's board. C) play the opponent character against your character and provoke different situations to see what your opponent is capable of and the different ways your character can come out of it victorious. D) apply all that you've learned by playing your character against that opponent character. You should be able to play any character at an 'above CPU level' by now. If you aren't, it most probably means that you are uneducated about that character, and should indeed do that 'know your enemy' training, anyway.
/!\ Do not overuse this technique. I used to play random whenever I played cpus and now against real opponents I am not able to predict something I do not do when I play as their character.
-The stubborn training : We all have that one situation in one peculiar matchup that we tend to get into a lot, and it gets us in trouble. Do your list of most frequent negative situations for every matchup, especially the ones you dislike, and provoke them on purpose against cpus, repeatedly, until you are comfortable enough to be able to shout 'I KNOW ALL MY OPTIONS HERE' without shying it in the next set you'll play.
-The 'don't do it unless you're japanese' training : once you think you've mastered any combination of the above trainings, play it for a while. Whenever you lose a challenge, you have to play it again with the same characters, on the same stages, until you master it. And I mean it. Not just winning the challenge once or twice. Destroying it. Considering that challenge so easy that you can't understand how you managed to lose it anymore.
That's it for me guys. Tell me what you think about these, share yours, enjoy the game
I think a lot of players will agree with me when I say that quality practice is rare in brawl. We all despise wifi, tournaments are expensive, smashfests aren't really serious, and cpus suck and are boring. And yet, we all want to get better.
That's why I had the idea of this thread. The purpose : sharing offline, single player training tactics that will enhance your gameplay. This is not going to be an article : my experience, as a top20 ranking player, is nowhere as valuable as a top player's.
Talent is rare, and I do not believe tops are tops just out of pure luck. I know it happens, I'm just saying that participation from high ranking players would be really welcome here.
Back to me. I'll give a couple examples from the different training techniques I have developped lately, for the sake of discussion. It's fun to note that I tend to conciously focus on different aspects of my gameplay rather than just playing the game on hardcore mode. Forcing myself to focus allows me to stay focused longer than I usually do against cpus which get boring super fast.
You can basically pick any of those, and try to complete two, three, or even more challenges at the same time to get the most out of your practice if you find it too easy.
-The M2K training : basically, this is all about studying the IA. You observe that whenever the cpu takes a hit that send them a bit upward, they always buffer an airdodge -> do not punish these airdodges. Same goes with every bad habit lvl9s have : rolling to the nearest ledge when tripped, always jumping from the ledge, etc... This training method will allow you to hone your execution skills, being frame perfect on every action you attempt instead of predicting stuff that are not going to happen in a real set.
-The comeback training : suicide 2 times at the beginning of the match, try to win it anyway. This will not be any harder than 3 stocking a cpu, but the mentality changes there. Subconciously, I tend to play a lot better doing this. And it trains you at doing less mistakes.
-The prediction training : this is kinda the same as the M2K training. What people usually do when they get hit, is thinking what they could have done to avoid that situation, or resolve it. Here, you have to force yourself to take a step further : whenever you perform an action which succeeds, ask yourself 'what could have he done to avoid that ? I'll reproduce the scenario, and do something that will punish that thing'. This will train you at two things : provoking opportunities, and keeping focus.
-The DI and antijuggle training : go to the center of the stage, get hit on purpose, and do whatever is needed to go back to the center of the stage. Will train both 'combo breaker' DI and 'survival' DI. Write somewhere how long you stayed alive, and the % you dies on each stock, and try to do better than the previous stock.
-The defensive maneuvers training : put 2 cpus in team against you, and avoid every possible damage by positionning yourself right, PSing a lot, dodging a lot. If you want to train your low% escape, suicide when you reach 50% (good training vs chaingrabbers). If you want to train your high% escape, start with a 100% handicap. You win by going to time.
-The chaingrabber's training : works with every other training routine : if you get grabbed before 50% by a falco cpu, let him get you to 75% before you continue playing. If you get grabbed by a DDD cpu, let him hit you for 30%, and go to the ledge. If you get grabbed by an ICs cpu, suicide. You get the point.
-The 'know your enemy' training : a matchup seems quite obscure to you ? A) go to your character's board. B) go to their character's board. C) play the opponent character against your character and provoke different situations to see what your opponent is capable of and the different ways your character can come out of it victorious. D) apply all that you've learned by playing your character against that opponent character. You should be able to play any character at an 'above CPU level' by now. If you aren't, it most probably means that you are uneducated about that character, and should indeed do that 'know your enemy' training, anyway.
/!\ Do not overuse this technique. I used to play random whenever I played cpus and now against real opponents I am not able to predict something I do not do when I play as their character.
-The stubborn training : We all have that one situation in one peculiar matchup that we tend to get into a lot, and it gets us in trouble. Do your list of most frequent negative situations for every matchup, especially the ones you dislike, and provoke them on purpose against cpus, repeatedly, until you are comfortable enough to be able to shout 'I KNOW ALL MY OPTIONS HERE' without shying it in the next set you'll play.
-The 'don't do it unless you're japanese' training : once you think you've mastered any combination of the above trainings, play it for a while. Whenever you lose a challenge, you have to play it again with the same characters, on the same stages, until you master it. And I mean it. Not just winning the challenge once or twice. Destroying it. Considering that challenge so easy that you can't understand how you managed to lose it anymore.
That's it for me guys. Tell me what you think about these, share yours, enjoy the game
