How to Improve - a compilation

[Omni]

Lmao. You kinda' lost me there with the new spells, but I get you for the most part, too.

Well I guess since this thread is about "Reaching a Higher Level", then we're on topic.

So based off what you've heard about me and this thread, do you agree that the only way for me to get better is to constantly play the best people in the area or is there another way?

 

[forward]

Well the new spells thing. I was trying to explain (but failed) that reaching levels, and learning new tricks that nobody has done yet, is a lot harder than reaching level 50 when there are 50+ people who know about it. How do we create new levels? How do we learn new tactics? Etc.

So with that in mind, I'd say in order to improve. You need to create your own style, your own level of play. You can create your own by learning other's. By knowing what's already available, you save yourself time of discovering something that already exist.

For example, just recently I was in training mode with Sheik, experimenting with walking. You have 3 different walking animations, and I was curious to see if I could use them in my game. Now you may be thinking, walking isn't going to be taking you to the next level, and it won't. But doing something that nobody else is will.

 

[ss118]

Oh..... my.... god.....
I must be such a ******. I'm literally crying over MookieRah's section.
It's because at the first tournament I went to, the EXACT same scenario happened to me: I was considered to be the number two person in singles at the tourney, behind a player named 112.
I wasn't expecting to be rated number one immediantly, hell, I didn't think I was gonna be anywhere close to the top. I thought I was gonna be stopped by players my friend had been beat by in previous tournaments, including Laijin and a couple of others.
I proceeded very swiftly through the main brackets, except for a couple of close matches, like with the famous DogySamich rampaging through our boards. We, in fact, had a very close match that ended taking place on Corneria, which neither of us desired. I ended up winning, though it went very much over 100% damage for both of us.
It was Nerve-wracking.
The next match was winners-finals against my best friend, DruggedFox, who ended up taking 2nd place. I knew it would be intresting match, and I knew my win streak would end there.
Maybe that's why I lost.
All I remember, is that the last match involved a Fox vs Falco match on PS, us switching mains(He was Falco). I was up by 90 damage, last stock, when I jumped off the stage, allowing him to edgeguard me till I died.
T.T
I was then sent to the losers bracket, where I had to wait a mind-numbing 30 minutes(during which, even during friendlies, I questioned my playing style, my technability, and my own concious) before my *sniff* final match, where I would hope to win and continue on.
Unfortunately, I stopped there.
112 chose Marth, which I had not played before(the only other time I had played him was in pool matches, where I believe he took me half seriously, picking Link, Sheik, and Falco), which may have increased on the foundations to why I have lost. I literally had played EVERYONE they, numerous times, so this exact same scenerio would not occur: I didn't know what to expect.
All I remember is tippers. Maybe he realized his easy win with this intimidation, I don't know. All I know is, I knew I was against a better player. A player in which had, in one match, intimidated me and, therefore, made me lose myself(by that, I mean my main style). From the whole tourney on, I changed.
The only concern I had was to avoid tippers, This concern only made me more predictable, and made me fall more into this hole that I was way too deep in already. I completely forgot about all DI in getting OUT of the chainthrows, I tried to avoid the tipper that was yet to come. This made it easy to kill me, and I began to curse myself for doing this.
I was utterly defeated, anyone who played me afterwards would say I had a "grim" attitude, and I felt hopeless.
But not anymore.
Thank you, MookieRah, Binx, and anyone else for writing any article that appeared in that guide.
And thank you, anyone who reads this post, for listening to my story.
These fights(the ones vs 112) are online. Go to google video, and type in "Articanus"
You'll see.

 

[Binx]

I think walking is very usefull, but you need your opponent to be afraid of you when you start, I feel this is most helpful as marth, if you watch Ken play against players he has a decent lead on he starts to use walking alot and people will just jump or roll or spot dodge expecting that walking f-smash and he will capatalize on their fear.

With Shiek I find walking to be helpful for spacing f tilts. Oh BTW forward I saw that match at smashallity, your shiek is amazing, by far the best I have seen ever, I thought you only played falco but... wow. Until I saw you I thought shiek was just no skill no matter how you played.

I agree that everyone needs to discover their own style, if you are copying someone else there is no way to do exactly what they would do in every situation, I watch videos to learn whats possible but the best way is still to experience it all, which is where good players tend to have a big advantage, they have very likely seen it all before.

Thank you SS, all the people who wrote those guides are really awesome and I am glad they helped the smash community in such a way.

~Binx

 

[Omni]

Shiek's walk is a bit of a shuffle. Really good for tech chasing since most people expect tilts from a Sheik approaching with her walk.

I agree. I feel that Mew2King's Marth became revolutionary with all the new solid techniques he started using, especially the edgeguard game.

 

[slikvik]

This thread is too good. lol Omni, help me level up

 

[SSBZalamander]

WHOA nice guide, i didn't read it all(just skimmed) but this is really good, plus it gives me the confirmation i needed of my prolevel status(in the habits section, though i may never get to play on the professional level) and i have some input for physical super smash training,

when you are too good for level 9 COMP, and have no really good friends that serve as a challenge, you can try handicaping computers, believe me it really works on helping your offensive skill, and REALLY helps your defensive skill, because when you face high handicaped COMP with a low handicap, you can afford to take many hits, and have to take every chance to land hits

 

[Binx]

WHOA nice guide, i didn't read it all(just skimmed) but this is really good, plus it gives me the confirmation i needed of my prolevel status(in the habits section, though i may never get to play on the professional level) and i have some input for physical super smash training,

when you are too good for level 9 COMP, and have no really good friends that serve as a challenge, you can try handicaping computers, believe me it really works on helping your offensive skill, and REALLY helps your defensive skill, because when you face high handicaped COMP with a low handicap, you can afford to take many hits, and have to take every chance to land hits

Thanks for the compliment. As far as level 9 computers go you can't really improve by facing them as they grab every time you block, they mostly only use neutral standing As and they get out of combos a person could almost never escape, also they are incredibly predictable as they are programmed to react the same way all the time.

Your handycap statement this would be a very good way to learn how to dodge IF the computers actually did any slow moves or ran after you, the AI in SSB64 was much better for this type of training, however in melee the computers cannot really be used in this way, you could have a real friend do this if he was one of those players who doesnt want a challenge and just wants to chase and kill you the whole match.

You cannot work on an offensive game with these settings due to the fact that all of your moves will knock them a lesser distance and this gets you used to doing combos that will not work in a real match. Thanks for the input though.

 

[AlphaZealot]

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!

Pfft! I despise my terms list being referred to as a "wall of text". Although if it is, I'm happy its number 1! And ouch, thats with me not putting in ****ty unused terms (yea, you heard me pulse walking AKA wavedashing combined with dashing).

 

[darE::to::Dream]

Pfft! I despise my terms list being referred to as a "wall of text". Although if it is, I'm happy its number 1! And ouch, thats with me not putting in ****ty unused terms (yea, you heard me pulse walking AKA wavedashing combined with dashing).

Hahaha... perhaps I forgot to leave out "in length." As in, "it may even rival AlphaZealot's terms guide in terms of length!"

But yeah, probably the only thing that would beat that right now is if someone were to take all of EsteBeatDown's posts on his story and compile them into a single MegaPost.

 

[Binx]

Hahaha... perhaps I forgot to leave out "in length." As in, "it may even rival AlphaZealot's terms guide in terms of length!"

But yeah, probably the only thing that would beat that right now is if someone were to take all of EsteBeatDown's posts on his story and compile them into a single MegaPost.

That would crash the servers haha. I don't consider this as usefull as AZs terms guide, Its actually the very first guide I link to because its amazing, the second is Doraki's guide on DI. I think that those guides give you plenty of foundation to practice and get better, once you have mastered those you can start going from tournament to tournament beating a vast majority of the players for fun and losing to ones you can improve from.

 

[Seison]

Nice job on this thing Binx, it's nice to have a variety of guides all in one spot.

!!Warning. Corny phrase approaching!!

It's your one stop shop! for all your smashing needs

 

[Binx]

Thanks Seison I got your PM I dont think I can use that in this guide but thanks for showing it to me. And to everyone else - I would really love it if more people would PM me stuff you think belongs here.

~Binx

 

[SSBZalamander]

Thanks for the compliment. As far as level 9 computers go you can't really improve by facing them as they grab every time you block, they mostly only use neutral standing As and they get out of combos a person could almost never escape, also they are incredibly predictable as they are programmed to react the same way all the time.

Your handycap statement this would be a very good way to learn how to dodge IF the computers actually did any slow moves or ran after you, the AI in SSB64 was much better for this type of training, however in melee the computers cannot really be used in this way, you could have a real friend do this if he was one of those players who doesnt want a challenge and just wants to chase and kill you the whole match.

You cannot work on an offensive game with these settings due to the fact that all of your moves will knock them a lesser distance and this gets you used to doing combos that will not work in a real match. Thanks for the input though.

it actaully helps me a lot, and by increasing offense i mean it teaches you to deal out more damge better(do to how hard they, ganondorf in my case, are to knock away) and defense because i face it with me having a four handicap and it having a nine, so it trains you to naturally avoid damage because at those levels, his Smash down WILL kill you almost garunteed. and my computers are really annoying because they have mimiced my reflecting skills with their shields(the reason i call them cheap and don't use them) though since i learned to efficiantly "shine" yesterday i've grown even better. plus in my game at least they react better when they have handicaps so for me it is good training

 

[Binx]

Ok I understand that you want to think this helps you, but in a real match you are going to expect your opponent to hit you in ways and times that a level 9 computer would, and when you hit them you are going to knock them further and have difficulty following up. If I had a handicap of 1 and a level 9 computer with a handicap of 9 I could beat it in a 99 stock match without being hit by just shielding, waiting til it gets close, sidestepping grabbing it and upthrowing and running away and repeating until its at 999%. Because a level 9 computer will ALWAYS grab when you shield and a well time sidestep to grab will always work against them.

The only effective methods to practice without developing some pretty bad habits are by either playing against real players all the time, or playing with real players most of the time and low level computers to practice combos on that you know are unescapable by human players. For example I want to pick up ICs, so I went into vs mode with a controller in the second spot and practiced some chain throws, once I felt I had the hang of it I then practiced some desynchs, then I called my friend over and played with him and got beat anyways, because he DIed and I wasnt used to it, bottom line is that some of the chain throws did work and I did get better at them, but had I learned them in real combat scenarios I would have known how far he could have DIed before hand and predicted it better.

 

[choknater]

this is incredible. are bumps okay? lol

 

[Binx]

Bumps are super, I think more people need to do it haha.

 

[yomedrath]

bump ^^


nice one :D
i havent read it yet, i will next week when i got more time... i accidently found it while looking for the Observation guide by MoRah (dammit.. forgot the name... so sry )

i think this deserves a sticky, because it solve almost everything, as far as i checked the headers...

pro lvl, here i come... (or maybe not -.-)

 

[Binx]

Well apparently there is a 110000 character limit for a post, so this guide is pretty much done, I can shorten it by just having parts of guides and linking them as I did with Overswarm's. So if I find one or two more that deserve to be in here I will have to just plain remove most of it and rework it from scratch. So for all intents and purposes this is finished, if anyone has trouble reading it the way it is and has a good idea as to how I should make it look better let me know otherwise its plenty long and plenty detailed.

 

[Rapid_Assassin]

WHOA nice guide, i didn't read it all(just skimmed) but this is really good, plus it gives me the confirmation i needed of my prolevel status(in the habits section, though i may never get to play on the professional level) and i have some input for physical super smash training,

when you are too good for level 9 COMP, and have no really good friends that serve as a challenge, you can try handicaping computers, believe me it really works on helping your offensive skill, and REALLY helps your defensive skill, because when you face high handicaped COMP with a low handicap, you can afford to take many hits, and have to take every chance to land hits

....no

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtMsW7ss440

Just don't play vs. lv. 9's. If you play vs. computers, play vs. lv. 1's, and practice combos and tech skill, until you find a real opponent.

 

[Binx]

Bump hahaha ten characters
two lines

 

[SCOTU]

OK, so, i was going to do this basically just for myself in a text file, so i start going through the melee discussion boards, taking down links. Then i come to this one, and am like, holy ****. that's everything i was going to do. Then i just copied this link and put it at the top and labeled it "all of the below". Great post is what i'm trying to say in short.

You might want to consider adding the following:

Tech Skill, Mindgames... what really matters?
by Mew2King
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=85859

 

[Binx]

Thank you Scotu that is exactly what this is for, I am running out of space for new articles if some people who have read the ones i have and decide the one they would mind least of being replaced that would be awesome.

 

[Binx]

Bump with a hopefully more eyecatching title, I guess i shouldnt expect people to read this who arent me, Im a little obsessive sometimes.

 

[red stone]

there's really only 3 things you need to beat your friends. that's l-cancel, shieldgrab and mindgames.

i'm serious, that's all that's really needed to take on nearly 98% of all casual smashers

but wait red stone, how do you do mindgames without dash dancing, wavedashing, etc.?-you might ask

well that's not a problem. you may not know this (or you probably do) but mindgames come in many shapes and forms.

for instance, you can roll unexpectedly, come to an immediate stop, pretend to do an attack but instead double jump and punish them, sidestep, jump away, and a plethora of other little tricks that are easy as pie to do but may be a little hard to incorporate


ok so with the l-cancel, you are about 1.4 times as fast as a normal smasher already. that's like +6 advantage points

then there's sheild grabbing. most scrub smashers will always fall into a sheild grab because they relentlessly attack and smash and can't l-cancel to save themeselves from being grabbed. that's +4 advantage points


then there's mindgames. they are self-explanatory. just constantly outwit your friends. they won't even know that you're manipulating because they'll be busy trying to attack and act on impulse. mindgames add +infinity advantage points

 

[ecstatic]

This topic should be stickied.

Hear that, mods? STICKY PLEASE! This is an awesome topic!

 

[Binx]

Thank you ecstatic for such a nice comment.

@ red stone - Yeah unless your friends go on smashboards too, and as I said the topic name doesnt really mean anything it used to be called How to Improve and no one read it.

~Happy smashing

 

[Wreckless]

It's more like gaining experience rather then to watch videos and read threads even "though" it CAN help. So get out there, go to tournaments.

 

[Binx]

Wreckless I fully agree with you. The best way to improve is to play a large variety of different people in a tournament setting on a regular basis while practicing what youve learned in between. Reading these just kind of gives you something to watch out for, helps you understand what you are losing and helps you to understand what you are missing in you game and what you should be paying the most attention to.

 

[Kenpachi]

BINX! Hey, awesome thread man! I've run into most of these myself, but the first one on here I haven't read before. I've bookmarked this thread, cause its good to re-read some of this before practicing. Have to have the right mindset, right?

Oh, and good matches at SF:E! Too bad I didn't really catch on the "camp and capitalize" technique for fighting ICs until I fought T!mMy... but i won then, after six and a half minutes, haha. OSU 3 is going to be epic if we all keep improving like this.

Keep the good reads coming!

~Kenpachi

 

[Binx]

Thanks Kenpachi, yeah I was doing some camping with shiek too, funny I never play her at all but I was beating some people mains which just needles and grabs pretty much, I am thinking about using her as a second for Marths cause my ICs have a tough time.

Timmy seemed to be a bit off with his IC game so I am not sure if he was playing as well with them that day as I was, he knows some more compilcated chain throws than me but I think I was playing smarter and safer.

 

[CapnDeath]

BINX! Hey, awesome thread man! I've run into most of these myself, but the first one on here I haven't read before. I've bookmarked this thread, cause its good to re-read some of this before practicing. Have to have the right mindset, right?

Oh, and good matches at SF:E! Too bad I didn't really catch on the "camp and capitalize" technique for fighting ICs until I fought T!mMy... but i won then, after six and a half minutes, haha. OSU 3 is going to be epic if we all keep improving like this.

Keep the good reads coming!

~Kenpachi

This is an awesome thread. I have it bookmarked too for the same reasons, thanks binx

 

[Binx]

Thanks guys keep the comments coming! I am really glad that eveyone enjoys the articles.

 

[choknater]

This topic is too good.

However, I find the title change a bit degrading. Reaching a Higher Level - Compilation was great. The only reason it wasn't getting lots of replies is because a bunch of people probably already read it and never replied, and didn't have much use for reading it again.

Regardless, I keep this topic in my AIM profile considering how awesome it is. Keep it up, your thread in the IC's forum is awesome too. You can also try to spice up this thread by finding and adding other noteworthy essays.

 

[Binx]

I would have looked for more, and actually I have seen some, but there is an 11000 character limit that I reached and so I cant really add to it, although I now know a mod could duplicate my post. I want to finish my other projects before i come back to this one though.

 

[brawlpro]

this is pretty decent stuff...

 

[Binx]

Come on guys more comments, keep this recent so more people can see it ha.

 

[metroid1117]

You're missing The King's write-up on how to play teams: http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=112086

I already posted here, but as you said, a thread this good needs to be bumped .

 

[edgeswipe21]

wow this helped me more than ne advice or reading i did on smash boards.

 

[Overswarm]

wow this helped me more than ne advice or reading i did on smash boards.

....this statement cannot be true. O_o