Recently, it dawned on me.
Many people say, "MK is so cheap. MK is so easy to play. MK this, MK that, Down smash BBBBB Yadda yadda."
And while it's all fun to say that, and to make MK players feel like garbage, I guess it just dawned on me... What do they really have to go through, you know?
After analyzing this for a bit, I spoke to a rising So-Cal star, Tyrant, on his opinion.
Talking with him, as well as watching some matches progress made me realize something.
As we know, there are three things to the matches in brawl, when it comes to the competitive scene. When you walk into a tournament, and you play your match, the outcome of the match is usually assumed on the following:
The Base Matchup Ratio.
The Character
and You as a Player.
The only thing that you can really develop to a superlative is developing you as a player. Mindgames, spacing, prediction, etc. This is telling you pretty much how to acquire those skills, and use them to your full potential. Having that said, get a load of this;
MK is one of the hardest characters to play in this entire game, if not the hardest.
here's an Example. Say someone you know picked up MK today, and they are thinking, "I'm going to win now!"
Because he is so Main stream, we as a community have exploited MK for every weakness, or lack there of, that he has. Scrubby MK's will not make it past their first matches, and they will go 0-2 in every tournament that matters. So in order for an MK to subsist in tournament, not only do they have to be good, they have to be able to keep up with the already amazing MKs.
And what does that mean? Well that means that they are going to have to literally be on top of this game, to a degree unimaginable. Knowing each matchup better than they know your matchup, which is obviously going to be amazingly hard. So if you want to succeed with MK, you're going to have to know the whole roster, front and back.
Additionally, trivial typical MK things are over with. The spamming of Tornado has been soft countered by most characters. So the bottom line is, you're going to have to mix it up. Problem is, you'll probably cycle through a lot of things before you find something that No other MK does, because chances are, it's been done before.
So now you're going to be constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place, finding something unique about your MK. This is good, because on your journey, you will be picking up on some essential habits, and very important things about brawl.
What will you pick up?
You will learn how to Predict. Along your quest to become a good MK, you will be losing, a lot. But on your way, you'll be seeing people, sitting on the sidelines, and just watching. When you play, you'll be watching your loss/win very carefully. You're going to have to play the hell out of this game to beat a decent person with MK, so with that exploitation of each character, with all that character knowledge, eventually you'll start seeing what each character has to do to win. And with that knowledge, you'll learn to predict what others might do.
Spacing is key for tournament play, right? Like any character, if you miss space anything you'll get punished. The difference between MK and other characters, is the simple fact that everybody knows what to punish, and what not. I'm not going to mess around with MK when he's Foward B-ing on the Stage, or Tornadoing toward me, but the second he Dsmashes and I shield it, I'm going to punish that easily. We as a community have learned how to punish MK the best ways we can, so you're going to have to be on the top of your game in every regard. One miss spaced anything will result in a smash that will likely KO you. Why do I say that? because if you're not skilled enough to space will with MK, you most likely don't know the repercussions that are coming. As an MK, if you want to win, you'll pretty much be forced to space well.
Mind games will come just as natural. Like I said earlier, doing insipid things that are easily read will cause you to lose. So in order to win as MK, you're going to have to out wit your opponent. This will cause you to implement Mind games into your style of play. Using your own personal play style, you'll have to pull together, and do things that will shock or confuse your opponent. Something they, 'haven't seen before'.
Now, am I saying, "GO OUT THER, DROP UR KARACTER, N PIK UP MK LOLOLOL."? No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, that by just learning how to use him, you'll know not only how to maybe fight against him, but you will develop the tools essential for boosting your self in this game, and you'll learn the skills that you can go back and apply to your other character. Every character needs Mind games, prediction, spacing, etc. And by using this method, you can achieve your full potential, as a player.
Bring on the haters, I know there are going to be some of you saying, "BUUUUT SKAIII, WITH HARD WORK I CAN LEARN ALL THAT WITH MY OWN GUIZE TO B GOOD CUZ I GOT IT HARDER CUZ I'M NOT MK!" While this is partially true, you've got to look at it this way. Lets say you main Diddy. That character is still culture shocking the brawl community, (People don't really know him yet.) So if you went to a tournament, and placed high, you wouldn't really need to use that many Mind games and such, you would just have to play Diddy, and overwhelm your opponent with the arsenal of Diddy's attacks. No real Mind games needed. But if you picked MK... everybody knows him. So you're going to have to rely on the skills you achieve as a smahser, rather than the base advantages that your character already has in that respect.
And yes, I'm an advocate that not all characters can win tournaments, because I have a feeling that's going to be brought up. Dtier and Below have such a low chance of winning a regional, or any major tournament, that I've rounded it down to an impossibility. Call it pessimism, I call it realistic.
tl;dr?
MK is Main stream, and everybody knows that character inside and out. 5 frame Downsmash, I'm sure you guys know the rest. So if you were to play him seriously for a few tournaments, and start learning the character in depth, not only will you learn him, but you'll be forced to learn the mental things needed to be exceptionally well at this game.
This is just my opinion. I just wanted to see what you guys thought about it. =D
Edit: I changed the title, I didn't want to use such a strong word. Cause though it's amazingly helpful, it isn't absolutely needed.
Many people say, "MK is so cheap. MK is so easy to play. MK this, MK that, Down smash BBBBB Yadda yadda."
And while it's all fun to say that, and to make MK players feel like garbage, I guess it just dawned on me... What do they really have to go through, you know?
After analyzing this for a bit, I spoke to a rising So-Cal star, Tyrant, on his opinion.
Talking with him, as well as watching some matches progress made me realize something.
As we know, there are three things to the matches in brawl, when it comes to the competitive scene. When you walk into a tournament, and you play your match, the outcome of the match is usually assumed on the following:
The Base Matchup Ratio.
The Character
and You as a Player.
The only thing that you can really develop to a superlative is developing you as a player. Mindgames, spacing, prediction, etc. This is telling you pretty much how to acquire those skills, and use them to your full potential. Having that said, get a load of this;
MK is one of the hardest characters to play in this entire game, if not the hardest.
here's an Example. Say someone you know picked up MK today, and they are thinking, "I'm going to win now!"
Because he is so Main stream, we as a community have exploited MK for every weakness, or lack there of, that he has. Scrubby MK's will not make it past their first matches, and they will go 0-2 in every tournament that matters. So in order for an MK to subsist in tournament, not only do they have to be good, they have to be able to keep up with the already amazing MKs.
And what does that mean? Well that means that they are going to have to literally be on top of this game, to a degree unimaginable. Knowing each matchup better than they know your matchup, which is obviously going to be amazingly hard. So if you want to succeed with MK, you're going to have to know the whole roster, front and back.
Additionally, trivial typical MK things are over with. The spamming of Tornado has been soft countered by most characters. So the bottom line is, you're going to have to mix it up. Problem is, you'll probably cycle through a lot of things before you find something that No other MK does, because chances are, it's been done before.
So now you're going to be constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place, finding something unique about your MK. This is good, because on your journey, you will be picking up on some essential habits, and very important things about brawl.
What will you pick up?
You will learn how to Predict. Along your quest to become a good MK, you will be losing, a lot. But on your way, you'll be seeing people, sitting on the sidelines, and just watching. When you play, you'll be watching your loss/win very carefully. You're going to have to play the hell out of this game to beat a decent person with MK, so with that exploitation of each character, with all that character knowledge, eventually you'll start seeing what each character has to do to win. And with that knowledge, you'll learn to predict what others might do.
Spacing is key for tournament play, right? Like any character, if you miss space anything you'll get punished. The difference between MK and other characters, is the simple fact that everybody knows what to punish, and what not. I'm not going to mess around with MK when he's Foward B-ing on the Stage, or Tornadoing toward me, but the second he Dsmashes and I shield it, I'm going to punish that easily. We as a community have learned how to punish MK the best ways we can, so you're going to have to be on the top of your game in every regard. One miss spaced anything will result in a smash that will likely KO you. Why do I say that? because if you're not skilled enough to space will with MK, you most likely don't know the repercussions that are coming. As an MK, if you want to win, you'll pretty much be forced to space well.
Mind games will come just as natural. Like I said earlier, doing insipid things that are easily read will cause you to lose. So in order to win as MK, you're going to have to out wit your opponent. This will cause you to implement Mind games into your style of play. Using your own personal play style, you'll have to pull together, and do things that will shock or confuse your opponent. Something they, 'haven't seen before'.
Now, am I saying, "GO OUT THER, DROP UR KARACTER, N PIK UP MK LOLOLOL."? No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, that by just learning how to use him, you'll know not only how to maybe fight against him, but you will develop the tools essential for boosting your self in this game, and you'll learn the skills that you can go back and apply to your other character. Every character needs Mind games, prediction, spacing, etc. And by using this method, you can achieve your full potential, as a player.
Bring on the haters, I know there are going to be some of you saying, "BUUUUT SKAIII, WITH HARD WORK I CAN LEARN ALL THAT WITH MY OWN GUIZE TO B GOOD CUZ I GOT IT HARDER CUZ I'M NOT MK!" While this is partially true, you've got to look at it this way. Lets say you main Diddy. That character is still culture shocking the brawl community, (People don't really know him yet.) So if you went to a tournament, and placed high, you wouldn't really need to use that many Mind games and such, you would just have to play Diddy, and overwhelm your opponent with the arsenal of Diddy's attacks. No real Mind games needed. But if you picked MK... everybody knows him. So you're going to have to rely on the skills you achieve as a smahser, rather than the base advantages that your character already has in that respect.
And yes, I'm an advocate that not all characters can win tournaments, because I have a feeling that's going to be brought up. Dtier and Below have such a low chance of winning a regional, or any major tournament, that I've rounded it down to an impossibility. Call it pessimism, I call it realistic.
tl;dr?
MK is Main stream, and everybody knows that character inside and out. 5 frame Downsmash, I'm sure you guys know the rest. So if you were to play him seriously for a few tournaments, and start learning the character in depth, not only will you learn him, but you'll be forced to learn the mental things needed to be exceptionally well at this game.
This is just my opinion. I just wanted to see what you guys thought about it. =D
Edit: I changed the title, I didn't want to use such a strong word. Cause though it's amazingly helpful, it isn't absolutely needed.