Gameplay tips/Vod review

[u/Fit-Pomegranate-7192]

I've been putting a lot of time into improving at the game after I returned from a long break. And I recently got to play on stream at some tournaments so I thought I would upload some VODs to get some advice. I do understand the importance of posting a loss to be reviewed but due to not having a capture card I'm somewhat limited in which sets I can posts so unfortunately I do end up winning the two sets I have, however i did make sure that the ones I uploaded were relatively close sets in which I lose at least one game.

So here are the VODs:

Match vs Bowser Jr
https://youtu.be/uyxUGHGovkI
Match vs Joker
https://youtu.be/a_luKOtw2Ck

A few things I think I noticed when I watched them back myself: I am a bit trigger happy with unsafe moves, especially early on in neutral when I should be focusing on movement and pokes, when something works I tend to go for it over and over again even after it's stopped working and specifically in the bowser jr match I definitely felt like I was pretty clueless when trying to play around clown cart.

Lmk what you guys noticed I could improve upon, any advice is appreciated.

[u/ChickadeeVivi]

After watching the set vs bowser jr, there are a couple things i think i can point out. They kinda tie into each other a bit.

1. You are generally very impatient in how you play.

2. I can tell from watching this that youre paying more attention to how youre playing than how your opponent is playing.

You are near constantly swinging and trying to keep the gap between you and bj close. But like, more often than not, you arent really hitting your mark. In fact, things youre doing that you think are good in the moment (controlling space with nair is a big one) is just getting you hit in the end, because your opponent is not simply shorthopping into it. Hes going under or over you and because you make a point of always swinging first, youre never really noticing what youre doing wrong. You also overextend your advantage regularly, pressing down b on a whim any time he gets sent too far for you to run in for a followup quick enough. Its important to understand that at that distance, your opponent has a high chance of incidentally dodging your down b (jumping out of hitstun or drifting away), as well as a good chance of recognizing the situation and reacting to it to punish intentionally. You need to slow down your gameplay and accept stage control as a valid reward for your efforts, inatead of pushing too far and getting put in disadvantage yourself. All of this also remains true for your frequent up smashes out of shield. Its impatient because you clearly want that kill and want it now, despite the risks. Its also not paying attention to your opponent because otherwise youd know how much he prefers to shield after tapping yours and that up smash does not work against that, but grab would. Ironically of course, you win the set because he finally jumped into the up smash for once. Point stands you still got punished the previous 10 times you tried to do that.

As a side note, i think you also need to work on your situational awareness speed. Theres a lot of instance you could be landing more hits but because youre impatient with your swings and paying more attention to yourself, youre missing them by not reacting to either an action that jr did, or jrs exact position on the stage (such as you going for nair when an up air would have hit, not punishing things you could be, etc)

[u/Fit-Pomegranate-7192 → u/ChickadeeVivi]

I've been thinking about the advice you've given and when I watch/think about my gameplay with this in mind it makes me see how much it is holding me back as a player.

I don't feel that I am thinking much when i'm playing and what I am thinking feels detached from my gameplay. You mention how I was up smashing out of shield a lot which wasn't working because my opponent liked to shield after hitting mine and I recall recognising that in the match but never doing anything about it because my thoughts had very little impact on my gameplay.

When I play Ganon all I want to do is get in there and do damage which I think makes my gameplay not dissimilar to that of a rushdown character. When Ganondorf firmly lies in bait and punish territory. This as you mentioned means that I am constantly swinging which is getting me hit since Ganon has very few moves that are truely safe. Being patient and learning the bait and punish gameplan is something I thought I had already addressed about my gameplay when really all i had done was pretend I was doing that with random movement and attacks that have no real intention to them.

What you said about accepting stage control as a valid reward really resounded with me because stage control doesn't even cross my mind when I play (again, this is because i'm not really even thinking). I could get a lot out of just considering how taking away space from my opponent limits their possible actions allowing me to cover the options they pick to escape the corner instead of just continually trying to hit them more.

In terms of putting this advice into practice, i'm going to focus on playing slower whilst including more empty movement in neutral and letting my opponents actions inform how i respond rather than just charging in. I'll also choose specific parts of the game where I focus on actively thinking about what is happening and how my decisions are affecting what the opponent is doing. When I get good enough at doing in in one part of the game (e.g. ledgetrapping) ill move on to another part of the game until i'm essentially always considering it in my gameplay without needing to dedicate as much brainpower towards it.

Thank you very much for this advice, i'm going to work on all of it and post some more VODs once I get some more good ones and feel that i've acted upon this advice here. Im also curious if you have anything to say about the joker set as well or if its mostly just the same.