kastle09

[kastle09]

One Last Call

This Sunday will be the last tournament for the World Warrior Finals to see who will represent us at Capcom Cup next year. It will also be my last as a commentator.

For those that kept up with me on twitter, I harboured a lot of doubts after BAM earlier in the year. It was the first time where I found myself meandering unsure of what my role was in the FGC. After some soul searching in Singapore I feel more than ready for what lies ahead and part of that means I will have to end a 6 year journey.

I have dedicated myself to commentary since 2018. I remember getting a lift with a few of the Sydney FGC guys back from dinner and saying in the car that that is what I wanted to do. For me the decision came after getting to sit down during as we talked about the game, about the other players. The thoughts, the strategy, the dedication to practice.

I have felt more than anything that if the players will go through this much effort to be good at the game then it will be my responsibility that those efforts are presented as best as possible.

Where it all started

Our local in Sydney, York Street Battle had a lot of absences one weekend. Adelaide was holding a major tournament and so our TO had no one to throw on the desk. Basically reached a point asking every player after they got eliminated if they could sit for the stream and I was reluctantly roped in. In hindsight the stakes were so small with 3 people watching and yet I was nervous as, and yet it was all it took to make me think maybe this is what I was supposed to do. That experience led me to Team WP and the Fledgling Fighter series, an online weekly aimed at new players. Kind of rich coming from me because despite having started in SF4, I wasn’t that much better than a lot of those players I was now calling. Early days were a lot of nervous trepidation and finding what my voice was.

What I did know at that time was that I felt like I hit the crossroads. I could try and put work into playing and competing or I could try and see what dedicating myself to commentating would look like. But I couldn’t do both, at least not in a way I would be satisfied with either. In the words of Ron Swanson “Never Half-Ass Two Things, Whole Ass One Thing”.

Learning the craft

One thing that did make me turn toward doing commentary was the fact that as someone who grew up on esports, my heroes growing up were in fact the commentators and not the players. There was a series a long time ago called CGS (Championship Gaming Series) and it was a failed attempt (of many) to make esports mainstream in 2007-08. Despite the damage it did to esports, that was my first introduction to it and the reasons were the main two hosts for that product: djWheat and Redeye.

Soon after, Starcraft 2 had just rolled around and Day[9] became a huge inspiration for me, not just as a commentator but as a person. His energy and humour, how he explained and presented ideas and analysis. 

Most of all how to present and talk to others about what it is you are passionate about. It is something I still try to do now. Every single broadcast the goal is if someone new is watching, how do I get them excited. At every single level I want to introduce someone “This is really cool, let me explain why”.

The most telling thing I’ve learned as a caster is game knowledge, while important, has been one of the most over-represented skill set required for a commentator. Yes, knowing the game and the situation will always be important but if you are unable to convey that as interesting or succinctly then you haven’t been able to use the knowledge you do have.

Redeye came to the rescue again when he published a few articles on the guide to become an esports broadcaster, and it became my bible. In it he talks of the 4 Ps. 

Preparation: Game specifics but also the things outside the game. Knowing and understanding storylines, Player backgrounds, information on their insight into how they think about the game. 

Practice: Repetition of calling, gaining feedback (from yourself or others), re implementing it for next time. Practising rhythm and cadence, pronunciation, increasing vocabulary. This is the part that is just like being a player.

Professionalism: Be mindful that everything you say and how you present yourself. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to be a robot, that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. But it's not a licence to do or say whatever. 

Passion: Never lose sight of why you do it in the first place. On more than one occasion when people ask why I play Street Fighter. My answer is always the community, the game has almost been irrelevant.

I could be wrong on this, but I never thought I was naturally talented at commentary, I’ve been very appreciative that people like what I have done over the years and enjoy listening to me.

But there is a lot of behind the scenes that people rarely see and that I also can’t really talk to people about because not a lot of others can relate in the same way. In the same way that there are a lot of backseaters in chat or comments if they watch you play It's been the same for commentary.

The Highlights and Lowlights

Gonna start a little low, also because of some grievances to air out.

With the amount of inspiration I take from esports, and it being the way that I learned is that while a lot of people like my style of commentary, a lot of others don’t. FGC and Esports have always had a very checkered relationship, and I’ve always felt very stuck in the middle trying to appease the otherside at the same time having them bad mouth the other through me. It took a long time to come to peace with that

While it hasn’t occurred often, there have been situations where I’ve had players either talk down to myself or others and then find myself having to commentate them later while putting them in the best possible spotlight. Those situations are rough to deal with and I have to focus on the job and stay in the game, luckily not a common occurrence. Enough of that thought time for some Highlights.

GfinityAU

Being given the privilege of being apart of GfinityAU very early on was a dream. I still to this day lament the fact I was replacing a friend for the position but with his assurances I am glad I took it on. I almost wished the opportunity had rolled around later when I had learned more about myself and had more experience. I was still very green and was fortunate I was given time to make mistakes in what was the highest stakes we had in the scene at the time.

It was such a valuable experience and speaking to the commentators and experts from the other games and learning from them was incredibly important for me. Really grateful to JimNeso and Hysterics. OzHadou Nationals 16

Before this OHN, I felt like I had only done okay at events, but I still felt like something was missing, wasn't quite satisfied with it.

With OHN being in Sydney there is an added responsibility of also making sure interstate players were looked after I felt like I had to make sure this was the one had to do my best.

I remember being in the finals, and the last call of the game I literally ran out of breath. Wanted to speak and nothing came out and keeled over. Tom had to save it in the meantime.

In that moment I knew I had given everything I could have and left it all out there. The joy and exhaustion in that moment hit me like a tonne of bricks but I was so proud and beaming the remainder of the night.

UNGA Season 1 Finals.

I think for a lot of us we didn’t know how much we needed each other until we were in lockdown. With no locals or majors to be able to attend there was an opportunity spearheaded by Schenkhan to present something new.

Coming together with some of the most experienced and talented people in the scene from every facet. Production, Organisers, Artists, Talent and Players with support from the community to fund was a dream.

Since then having been able to run other titles or try other formats, direct support from the developers, to now being the primary place to see who will enter Capcom Cup. It's beyond my imagination we would have been able to grow something out of the most trying time. 

What's Changed

So why. Why am I stopping? 

I’ve been thinking if I lost the last of Redeye’s Ps. Passion. For commentary maybe, but I tell myself why I wanted to do it in the first place. To help.

The only thing I’ve ever wanted was for the Oceania community to get into a space and spotlight we were proud of. Stretching all the way from Fledglings to Capcom Cup Qualifiers.

I haven’t lost the passion for Street Fighter or the FGC but I do want to help in other ways. I started commentating because we wanted to lift it to a level we hadn’t seen before and I think we’ve done that.

With others coming in to help fill the role we were alone in I feel more comfortable leaving it in order to break boundaries in other areas of our scene.

I may need the challenge of commentary again one day so it's goodbye for now, but not forever.

Krisna "kastle09" Siv

[kastle09]

5 Australian players who can make Capcom Cup

CPT stops in Australia this weekend and given that UNGA World Warrior is also underway I wanted to put my two cents out there on who might be a pick to take one of the two spots.

There are a few people missing from this list (‘8.5 people who have a chance’ didn’t make a good title) so I'll have some honourable mentions towards the end, but here are my Top 5 players who you should be looking out for over the weekend and for World Warrior.

#5 - Bksama

Urien

Intel World Open Champion, UNGA Season 4 Champion.

Bk represents a trait I often spout to new players which is that an okay-ish decision made quickly can often be better than the best option made too late. The traces of the Sydney scramble trace its origins back to one player, that being Bk. His pace and tempo often forces opponents into playing at his speed which only a few can do well whether attempting to emulate him or try to keep up in a match against Bk.

In the Australian scene, long the term “ex.dp” and “Bk” are often used interchangeably and with his main character, Urien, having his taken away, it’s a wonder if Bk can still make results happen. A second place in the first World Warrior shows he is more than capable with the tools he has, and can make it work.

If Bk reads this he may exclaim to you that he has changed mains to another character (I’m betting it’s Kolin now after Kawano’s win). Do not believe his lies. But, that familiarity with a few different characters has proved useful in the past and I expect an occasional flavour of the month can help him especially in first to 2 matches. When trying for wins against the Top echelon though, he tends to get stuck in a place where his tried and true may yet not be enough and the Alts are not practised enough, especially in First to Three setting. The Character Crisis may yet prove the downfall.

Of the two competitions I think Bk would be stronger in the AUS CPT setting.

#4 - Somniac

M.Bison 

UNGA Season 2 Champion, Warlord Ranked #1 Oceanic Region 

There was something that Nezs (KillerQueen) said during our UNGA Season 1 preview show that really stuck with me about Som. Being one of the longest standing names still at the top, a lot of players build their game around defeating Som first. He is usually your first bracket demon or Ranked adversary as you enter. And as such, he is one of the most studied players/matchups in OCE. Despite that he is still on top and always in the conversation.

I used to paint Somniac’s playstyle very one dimensional; Very good defensively, very runaway on life leads, not as strong on comebacks as other players in this list, can’t play as fast. Especially those last two points though, I have been wrong on more occasions than otherwise, and it’s most notable against the players who are in that intermediate to high rank that can think a step ahead but not a step further. You cannot be the Highest ranked player in the region (by a very large stretch) and not be in the conversation.

M.Bison has been a mixed bag, especially since the V-Shift changes. Some things have helped him, some things have hindered him, and after all the characters changing around him he appears to be about a similar strength to where he was previously. If only, his strong tools have now changed around though still nothing significant. An Ed in the back pocket for Som is also an interesting venture for those who believe he is a one trick character pony.

A threat in both, UNGA might be where Somniac has the greatest opportunity given a Top 8 leaderboard finish in every season thus far.

#3 - Rumours

Cody

Capcom Cup 2020 Champion, UNGA Season 6 Champion, OHN 2019 Champion

Currently overseas this past weekend featuring at EVO, Rumours is on a run to hunt for a Second CPT win. Where I think Rumours is at his best is in long sets where he has had time to prep. The example I always think of is his UNGA Season 1 matchup against Rank 1 Leader, pahnda. As a first vs eight seed match, it was one that should not have been close and it was not … he steamrolled over pahnda, sending him to losers.

While Cody is great at making comebacks, I don’t think its necessarily the reasons Rumours is good at making them in either rounds or sets. Unlike most of the players in Sydney, the ability to stay calm under pressure, regardless of any precedents that have happened, is what has won him a lot of rounds that he probably had no business in winning. Winning by Attrition is only matched by Somniac and Travis most notably which why the three of them usually have rounds that hit below 10 seconds.

In his debut season it seemed like Cody was only a trigger monster, but the neutral tools were a little underrated. With a few buffs later Cody has wandered into a spot that is much more well rounded allowing his nuanced strengths to show even more. While no longer necessary to have an alt, a giggling Honda is awaiting in the wings.

He will be a threat if he gets to day 2 of any event. So a Top 8 Winners side in CPT or a Finalist for UNGA will automatically make him a big threat to take the whole thing. If the jet lag travelling back to Australia from the US isn’t an issue for him, I can imagine the level up of being overseas, playing and practicing with players stronger than him will allow him to hit the ground running through the bracket this weekend.

#2 - TravisStyles

Balrog 

Capcom Cup 2021 Champion, UNGA Season 3 Champion

One trait I think Travis has over all the other players on this list is he very rarely gets upset in bracket. First to 2 by nature can be quite volatile and upsets happen even to the best players out there, but there are only a few players that have a good shot against Travis and pretty much all of those players are also in the running for the win. Top 8 is often a guarantee and reaching at least Semi-finals is very likely.

While often a favourite going into any competition, something you will hear most commentators say (including myself), I think he would even acknowledge that the competition is closer at the top level then most people realise. The fact that he is the most visible as the top player to a more general audience is no accident. It's a title he has been at least in the running for, if not owning for sometime now, but all the names on this list plus a select few others are more than capable of clinching it in front of him. This is a feat we saw during the UNGA series with a total of three runner up finishes.

Balrog’s VS2 has had some significant downgrades in recent times. In fact, a lot of the strengths he pointed out in the post interview with Jammerz on ‘Sets’ have taken a bit of a hit (jinxed). While Chun has really been the only other notable alternative, I don’t think we will see it in either competition as her strengths no longer really compliment the problems he was playing against. I think loyalist is the wrong word for Travis and Balrog, What is more accurate is making sure he gets the most out of whatever character he puts into competition. A skill level and mindset that I can see has developed in how he has approached multiple games in the past (Starcraft 2 and MK most notably)

If you asked me a year ago, I would rank Travis #1 OCE and I still might. But while I’m sure he has a good chance in both competitions, I think there is one more player who might be even more a surefire fit.

#1 - R!OT| ROF

Birdie

BAM 2022 Champion, UNGA Season 6 Rank #1, Two time Gifinity Champion

A night before Gfinity back in 2018 we had an FGC Mafia night. Within 3 seconds of opening my eyes he looked at me, pointed and said “you’re mafia”. I haven’t felt more naked in my entire life. 

During that year ROF was the best player in Australia, and that is based on not just the achievements he had, or just passively watching as a Caster. The Yomi God was the most named player by his peers in the scene. Because of Gfinity’s TVish demeanour, it meant he got typecast as a Villain during the series which while unfair in retrospect; but you cannot be selected as the Villain if you aren’t also one of the best.

When the pandemic initially hit ROF was missing in action from most of the online tournaments only making occasional appearances. The online era was a struggling burden for a lot of the community, learning how to deal with our lives both in relation to the game and real life.

I think as we let time pass, we forgot. Birdie was taking a bit of a hit, and it seemed like every tier list we would see, he would be lower and lower. Both Birdie mains and alts were switching him out for other characters. Stronger, more consistent. We kinda just forgot how good ROF was. We would occasionally see glimpses of Seth and Juri and others as well, but it all felt like a testing ground waiting to head back offline, which didn’t quite happen.

That was until the beginning of 2022 when he came roaring back, dominating UNGA and Couchwarriors Ranbats. Continuous back to back performances everywhere, both online and offline.

When we got to Battle Arena Melbourne, it felt clear to me that Schenkhan was the strongest player that weekend, dominating his way into the Grand Finals, including sending ROF to the losers bracket. But there is something when you are in a battle with ROF. The audience goes away, the technical knowledge disappears and you get stuck in a world where you’re staring at him and asking yourself “Does he know what I’m going to do?”.

Risky options, safe options, weighing up risk reward all these calculations in your head whether coin flips or could be 90% in your favour, it’s still a percentage. You can play your best, be technically correct and still lose. That can be just how it goes sometimes, and when it happens, ROF is usually sitting across from you.

More than anything about ROF he is a proven winner and doesn’t just beat the other top players but can make them look incredibly dumb. With two opportunities now, I can’t see a world in which he doesn’t make it (unless I’ve just jinxed it… YES !).

Honourable Mentions

Schenkhan - Sacrificing himself for TO duties for UNGA has meant he has all his eggs in Aus CPT this weekend. Has beaten every one of the other players on this list with multiple tournament ready characters. Flexible, technical, a strong contender. 

GhostChips - Seen during CEO not too long ago and can also participate in only one of the competitions like Schen. No disrespect to the other Kiwis but for me, Chips is the best chance for a New Zealand Representative at Capcom Cup.

pahnda - pahnda has been getting more attention to an International audience over the past two year and many have sat up and taken notice. But, he has had an unfortunate habit of falling short on occasion many times. Of all the top players, he can have some of the highest highs and lowest lows. That said, a win is certainly within reach.

_____________________________________

These are of course just my thoughts, and you are more than welcome to disagree. Regardless of who makes it, I am incredibly proud of the OCE community and will be backing whoever will make it for the last hurrah of SFV.

[kastle09]

Principles: States of Play and Transition

This is a new sub category of articles describing very fundamental topics of how I think about games in a very abstract manner. As different as fighting games are in mechanics and scope, once you strip those things away what's left to observe are the underlying aspects. I wanted to talk about concepts that have application to any fighting game you play.

It's definitely something that you feel more than you can describe to someone so in that vein I want to articulate a new concept which I will describe as “The States of Play”. If you really boil down to it, at any point in a round I believe you are placed into one of five states.

The 5 States

The five states are as follows:

True Neutral - When neither player has advantage and neither is forced to initiate

Offense in Neutral - When neither player has advantage but you have to initiate.

Defense in Neutral - When neither player has advantage and your opponent needs to initiate.

Offense in Pressure - When you have advantage and have a set offensive plan

Defense in Pressure - When the opponent has advantage and you need a set defensive plan

Understanding which state you are currently in can inform your decision making and recognise what options are currently available to you and which aren’t.

True, Offensive and Defensive Neutral

Neutral gets used as an all encompassing word, but it can be broken down further as even if both players are playing “in neutral”, they aren’t always concentrating on the same aspects.

For instance a player who is Defensive in Neutral has more of a mind for things like Anti Airs, Dash checking, Defensive whiff punishing etc

Conversely a player who is offensively minded is looking for opportunities such as dash pressure, spacing traps, jump/divekick pressure etc.

All of these tools at a players disposal encompass neutral but which you are focused on and which you can kind of ignore because the state of the game can be dependent on a variety of factors.

I'd say it's actually quite rare where the state of play is truly neutral (for reasons I will go into soon) and in fact the shifting to one of the other types happens quite quickly whether it's due to health differences, meter advantage or character toolset.

When understanding what state of neutral you are in it, it helps to ask yourself the question:

“If the timer ticks down, and the neutral continues to be played in this way, who will win first?”

So let's look at some scenarios and apply this question.

Scenario 1: Mirror match, Life Lead

Let's say it's a mirror match but one player has a life lead on another. Just based purely on attrition as each side whittles the other down evenly, the player with the life lead is going to win as they just have more of a resource to maintain the status quo.

Therefore the onus is on the opponent to try and make something happen and initiate to change that variable.

Scenario 2: Grappler vs Zoner

So in a scenario where a character has a clear advantage over the other in neutral we can tell as soon as the round start bell rings, The character more dominant in neutral is automatically assigned to be “Neutrally Defensive” and the opponent is “Neutrally Offensive”.

The example of a grappler vs zoner archetype represents this in the extremes by the fact that often the grappler does not want to spend any more time in neutral then is required whereas a zoner is the opposite of that.

But now let's say it's later into a match and through exchanges the grappler has a life lead over the opponent, even though the zoner is stronger in neutral, They can no longer win by trading the same way.

Now we are in a scenario where the onus is on the zoner to initiate and the grappler is allowed to let the opponents come to them. The roles of each player are now reversed.

Scenario 3: Playstyles affect

This time, instead of thinking in terms of character, we are going to look at it in terms of how the players themselves can affect this dynamic.

If a person naturally tends towards being more offensive regardless of the matchup or resources at present he is evidently forcing an opponent into the compliment.

Think about a lot of beginner or intermediate level matches where it's common to give the advice to “let the opponent hang themselves”.

In other words, if they are taking all the risks, we don’t have to do anything but play reactionary and punish the over commitment. The reason that kind of blanket advice is effective despite matchups is the opponent is clearly not playing the matchup so it is no longer relevant.

Having said that, characters can still have an effect on playstyle match ups. Let's imagine a match between two defensively minded players who carry identical skill sets and play styles but one player has a character much more suited for that type of play then the other.

Just because the character has the tools to play strongly in that way, even if each player gets the same opportunities in neutral and captalise on them identically, the output of the stronger neutral character may be unequivocally higher than the other just because that character is able to produce more in each scenario. Either the opponent has to work even harder for the same reward or move to a different approach, one more suited to the character strengths.

Pressure as the Attacker and Defender

When I use the term “pressure” what I really just mean is spots where one player has frame advantage over the other. These are spots that just mean someone has an advantage and therefore definitively, Someone is attacking to maintain or get value from the situation and the other has to defend and escape.

As we know, there are a number of situations that this could represent but surprisingly, the decision making can be remarkably similar depending on the game. “A +2 situation by any other name would smell as sweet” you might say.

For instance in Street Fighter, a knockdown and an air reset after an anti air are remarkably similar situations even if we don’t internalise it as such. In both spots the rock - paper - scissors game of meaty vs throw vs shimmy is identical.

What's even more interesting is it's a spot where a player's default decision making can be so different despite that similarity. Someone may play close attention to how they act on wake up but autopilot during air resets for example. The biggest difference that sets these scenarios apart from neutral offense and defense is that it's far less free form. Usually there will always be a selection of very specific “correct” responses that each player needs to select from. This is a big benefit to players who thrive in making players ask the hard questions, shoving a multiple choice question in your face, that if you get wrong they get damage, oki and the ability to shove another one in your face.

If neutral is a mind game of intentions that leave a backdoor to remaining safe, A pressure scenario is like reaching the end of the poker hand, the River card has just been flipped and each player has to show their cards and live with the decision (There you are Cam, that was for you).

The Transition

So now that we have talked about the states, the final thing I want to touch on is how these interact when we have to quickly switch from one state to another and there are a couple of things to note. You will notice that however a player is playing in neutral (defensively or offensively), either situation can produce a pressure situation that gives them advantage. Whether I offensively whiff punished by setup or baited an opponent into over extension defensively the result has led to the same Attacking pressure. What this tells us is states aren’t linked in a circle only leading from one to the next. It's possible for these transition to happen from any state to any other in the flash if the opportunity presents itself.

I don't have to be aggressive to get an advantageous position; in other words.

The other interesting thing about this transition phase is the psychological aspect it presents, with particular focus on the difficulty of task switching. It's something that becomes most apparent when you watch someone play vs when you actually have to play yourself.

Think how much easier it is to anti air when nothing happens in the few seconds prior, vs when you have just whiffed a button.

What you may feel as an obvious error is actually a really difficult skill that needs to be trained and its difficulty can be explained when your brain had to transition from a state you were thinking about opening someone up to then having to mentally switch to defending in neutral.

In Football(Soccer), there is a well known concept that one of the times a player is most vulnerable is when they have just gained possession of the ball.

They have just expended energy in the challenge, still trying to get the ball under control, and haven't fully grasped where other players are on the pitch (teammates and opponents alike).

Tactics have been developed specifically on speedily identifying and defending in a manner to panic the player on the ball and regain position as quickly as possible and the same is true for fighting games, as possession in soccer is analogous to gaining the plus frame advantage once again.

Conclusion

It's an interesting experiment to see if when you play you can identify the states for your game. Not every game has the same neutral, or attacking defending options, but I think the broad strokes are there whether it be traditional 2D, anime, 3D or teams.

This is a concept that I'll probably refine in future as I consider it more and if I need to include or trim anything so if you have any thoughts Id like to hear them and improve what is this first draft on the States of Play in fighting games.

[kastle09]

Uncertainty Spacing: The point of walking back and forth

If you have watched a few tournament games and see players dancing around back and forth kind of feeling each other out. Then BAM, Whiff Punish.

So you think “WOW I need to be doing that!” but when you try it in your matches you often find your opponent never does anything for you to whiff punish or you get clipped when trying to walk around.

If I'm honest I don’t think this concept really has a name in FGC lingo, I would say most people just see it as part of footsies. So I am going to give it the name “Uncertainty Spacing”. While the name is new, the concept itself is definitely not and you can see it in a range of other sports.

Use in Sports

So in baseball there is something called the “strike zone”. If you are not familiar with baseball (which I am also not), the very basics you have to understand is this

If a ball passes through the strike zone and the batter misses or doesn’t swing it is a “Strike”

If a ball misses the strike zone and the batter still swings and misses. It is also a “Strike”

If a ball misses the strike zone and the batter doesn’t swing, it is a “Ball”

Balls are good for the batter, strikes are good for the pitcher. This creates a dynamic where as the pitcher, where can I place a ball to make the batter indecisive on whether he should swing or not. If I teeter on the edge of the strike zone, the batter has to quickly make the decision if he can reach or not, is it worth the risk or not.

Another example is in the sport of cricket. Commentators will often term a bowler having bowled a “good length delivery”. But what does that actually mean?

If a ball is bowled too short, it's very easy for the batsman to adjust and hit the ball across his body (like a pull shot)

 If a ball is bowled very full, again it is easy for a batsman to adjust and hit through the line of the ball (like an on drive)

The “good length” is a ball that is in between those two, where the batsman is unsure which shot he needs to play. 

Something interesting to note is a batsmen can interrupt this tactic from the bowler either by moving himself closer and make a good length ball into something full, or move back to give himself more room to play across his body.

If that all got a bit confusing don’t worry. The important take away from those examples is that we need to be putting doubt in the opponent's mind to induce mistakes: The uncertainty space.

So let's look at how we can use this concept in fighting games.

A Street Fighter Example

Okay let's look at a very common scenario. The opponent is Sagat who is zoning, and he has to decide between two things. 

When should Sagat throw a fireball to zone

When should Sagat use a normal poke to zone

Further range

If the Sagat knows none of his normals are within range, and that nothing will make contact with us. There is danger in getting whiff punished if he throws a normal poke out, so It makes much more sense for him to use a fireball in this case

Close range

Now we are in a range where a fireball is very dangerous for him to use. He understands that a fireball blocked this close could be punishable, or the long start up of fireball could mean he will be interrupted and crush countered. Normals and pokes to push us back are much more likely and safer to do.

Finding the Uncertainty Spacing

So with the info we have just gathered, where do we want to stand? Well if we know the two ranges and the options associated with them, by constantly switching between the two ranges we make the opponent think about the two options.

The “dancing” pro players do suddenly make a lot of sense. Now we can see not only why they do it, but where they do it. Knowing the farthest range the opponent can connect a normal will dictate where we want to to be

As both players walk around, the distance between them is ever changing. So for instance if the Ryu is attempting to manipulate the range by walking around, the Sagat can also do the same to either maintain a good range for himself or get you off the range you want to be. Which begs the question, when can’t he do that?

The Corner

The biggest misnomer about having an opponent cornered is thinking “Yes now I can do all the pressure!”

Although sometimes that can be a good play, the real reason is that the midscreen dance that we talked about before is now in the hands of the aggressor. They control when things happen, and flirt in and out of the ranges that they desire. The player who is currently cornered now has to take some risks in an attempt to an escape, not ideal for them.

Quick sidenote about the corner: As a new player it can be really tempting to attempt to avoid danger by back dashing/jump back/ or walking backwards away from the opponent. However, you need to be careful that you aren’t giving up space for free. If you find yourself in the corner within 10-15 secs with both of you even in life, it is a sure sign you may be backing yourself up without much effort from your opponent. Find ways to hold your ground on screen (even better, try and back them up).

____________________________________________________

While this concept is quite simple, the idea of overloading your opponents decision making will be a very common theme throughout your time in fighting games. 

Think about moments where your opponent needs to defend multiple possibilities with different options. It is an incredibly common occurrence.

What we have gone through today hasn’t even taken into account the other things opponents can do in the example shown: What if one of the players jumps, or dashes. What if the characters have a move that can bypass projectiles, or go over pokes, or change the range in a short time. 

There are a lot of layers which can be applied and it's just one of the things that gives fighting games so much depth but this is a starting point.

[kastle09]

The Beautiful Adventure of Learning a Combo

So fighting games aren’t always about the 1v1 aspect of it and their is a part of the genre that everyone will have to deal with at some point. A ride that you get to do multiple times over (phrasing) and that is learning a new combo.

It is easily the most visible aspect of fighting games and while from the outside can be seen as the differentiator of skill between players. Within the community however it is often acknowledged that it is only one aspect of being a great player.

Having said that though their is something very alluring about learning to do something that you could not do before. So let's take a little dive into it and just to be extra lame, let’s do it in the context of the hero’s journey narrative structure.

Call to Adventure

Our hero finds themselves comfortable in their life when they are spurred into action. A passing phenomenon catches the wandering eye of our hero and lures them away.

A new game, a new character that has been released. Perhaps the gods have bestowed upon mankind something called “Trial Mode”.

Our hero must set off into the unknown in order to explore this new phenomenon.

Supernatural Aid

Along the way, the hero is provided with supernatural aid. This is an artifact that aids the hero in their quest.

This aid can come in many forms. A piece of footage of the combo being performed, or the eternal wisdom of an “OG” may come to their side. The OG’s can appear in many forms. Sometimes cryptically in “YouTube Guides” or “Forums”.

It can also come in a physical piece of aid. A messenger coming out of the Amazon and has delivered an Arcade Stick to the hero's door. It is with these items that will help the hero complete their journey.

Road of Trials

So begins initiation as our hero sets off on several trials to begin their transformation to something powerful.

It is common for our hero to fail one or more of these trials. A tight link, a late cancel or efficiently charging in order to advance. It is a struggle as our hero falls over and over, but it is the persistence that gets them through the trials.

The previous aid can help them in overcoming some struggles. Learning of a new technique in order to overcome these obstacles. The OG speaks of “buffering” and “shortcuts”.

Occasionally ancient texts are discovered, They describe inputs lost to time such as “tiger knee motion” and “pianoing” and it is with this knowledge our hero completes his trials and advances to the next part of the journey.

Atonement with the Father

In this part of the journey, the hero must face internally with what holds the power in their life.

Having now been given all the items in order to complete the journey, the barrier is no longer a physical one but of a mental and emotional state. Our hero, on the verge of death, where they know exactly what to do but aren’t able to yet do it.

They approach the end of the combo but continually fall short, unable to complete the quest.

On the verge of death, our hero has expended all other resources and now must act in faith to complete their journey. When finally...

Apotheosis

... Our hero ascends. The point of realization in which a greater understanding is achieved and the rebirth is complete.

The skills and barriers that were halting progress begin to fall away and become trivial. They watch the combo counter continue to increase before delivering the final blow.

The hero's understanding is complete and with this new found power our hero is able to achieve the ultimate boon of the quest.

The Combo is complete. The hero has emerged victorious!

The Return

Our hero, now having completed his quest returns to society they once knew but carrying with them the knowledge and wisdom gained on the quest.

They find themselves increasingly being asked by others who are about to begin their journey for their help. A realisation comes across our heroes face as they smile. That they are now the aid for others.

____________________________

Hope you enjoyed this little adventure, and let me know of the hardest combo you ever had to learn!

[kastle09]

Why I fell out of competitive Tetris,  and the frustration of The Tetris Company (TTC)

In my life previous to FGC I was heavily involved with a Tetris variant called “Cultris 2” as a player since 2011 and Tournament Organiser for 3-4 years. You can even see my early article writing attempts as well. 

I go back to it every now and again but I sometimes wonder where it could have gone. I had dreams at one time to see Tetris reach the heights of the other esports, but it could never get there. The things that have halted its progress and development when I left are still ruining the community I loved even now.

I almost think the original version of Tetris was so successful it has halted anyone bad mouthing the game in its current standing. A game can be groundbreaking and revolutionary, but it can also be out of date, and that is exactly what is happening with Tetris at the moment.

Short overview on competitive Tetris

So a bit of background for those of you not as familiar with it, there are (broadly speaking) three kinds of players: Marathon, Sprint, and Battle.

Marathon is classic tetris; High score, playing as long as you can. If you watch Classic Tetris World Championship or the fantastic documentary “Ecstasy of Order” you would be extremely familiar with this game mode. It is also what I would say is the most fundamental tetris, the other game modes will branch off but it doesn’t start without understanding these games. Tetris on the NES and Tetris:The Grand Master (TGM) Series are examples of marathon.

Sprint is 40 line mode. Clear 40 lines as fast as possible. These world records are amazing to behold. I still remember a few years ago going under 20 second barrier was an amazing feat, now closing in on under 15. Jstris, Lockjaw and Nullpolimo among others are very well known for catering to this crowd, stripping back almost all unnecessary animations and incredibly fine tuning in order to play as fast as possible. If you play Counter-strike and you are the guy that looks to change their mouse sensitivity to a very specific decimal pointed number, play 800 x 600, left handed model. That's kind of what these sprint Tetris games are like.

Battle is the final and has become more popular since the new millennium. 1 vs 1, Garbage line, T-spins, ‘x’-wide combos etc are all terms derived from this game mode. It’s easier to tell which era you grew up with Tetris pending if you prefer playing Battle or Marathon style Tetris. I would probably say Tetris Friends especially which began on Facebook in 2008 would be one of the key reasons people are so familiar with this game mode, but it stretches out even now in Cultris 2, or Puyo Puyo Tetris.

The Tetris Company (TTC)

Despite creator Alexey Pajitnov creating Tetris all the way back in 1984, it wasn’t until he and Henk Rogers formed “The Tetris Company” in 1996 that he could actually earn royalties from his creation.

From the perspective of a creator getting his due credit and worth from something so popular, it's understandable why TTC exists. Imagine having no power at all when a 100 companies flood the app store with 100 different versions of Tetris for example. Copyright is there to protect that name, and that style. 

Games that are TTC Licenced games, also called “Guideline Tetris” are called as such because there is a list of guidelines that TTC sets out for a developer that MUST BE FEATURED. These include(but are not limited to):

The Size of the play matrix

The Colour of the Tetriminos

The Ability to Hold Piece and show Ghost Piece

Use of the “7 System” (Also known as bag system) for the block spawning generation

System dictating how blocks rotate

etc 

If a lot of these seem really arbitrary it's because they are. For TTC it’s more important the game looks and feels the same all the time across all their versions, rather than trying to do anything actually interesting with the systems (foreshadowing).

This is where I feel TTC has fallen down. The rigidity of guidelines has created a limited design that has widened the division between the original creators and the current community.

I’ll put it this way, if we were happy with the official games, we wouldn’t have the need for the fan clones. That's also a reason why some of the best Tetris games out at the moment, aren’t the official ones.

TTC vs Community

From what I’ve understood (and keep in mind I am not a lawyer), while you can copyright the game itself and your expression of that form you cannot copyright a game design or mechanics.

Wouldn’t it be ridiculous if every shooter released had to follow the Call of Duty format? Thats because the Brand name and style of Call of Duty can be copyrighted, but first person perspective, sprint button and aim down sights cannot be.  And yet that's kinda what TTC does for Tetris. If any other developer did that to their game it would be seen as medieval thinking. Somehow though Tetris has avoided this criticism and instead of choking creativity it's somehow celebrated as protecting the brand.

What people want out of their Tetris game isn’t the same. Just consider what I said earlier about their being very different sub communities. Each finding what they like about Tetris and branching off to the experience they like.

But TTC doesn’t like that. TTC likes to tell you “this is what the game is, this is how you play it, because I said so”. That might sound hyperbolic but you know when the last time those guidelines were adjusted? 2009.

More than 11 years ago. Tell me how the hell you can think you are still in tune with fans when you haven’t revised your thoughts in ELEVEN years.

Tetris Ultimate was when I drew the line in the sand. I’d like to personally apologize now to “CeeCee”, the Community Manager from Ubisoft who was responsible for overseeing TU because I don’t think she was prepared for the amount of hate and turmoil that that development was going to produce. She had to find out the hard way that A) there is such a thing as a hardcore Tetris community and B) they can get incredibly vocal and toxic.

Every forum or social media outlet Ubisoft had was just bombarded with foul language and rage. Everything Ubisoft tried to post was followed up with unanswered questions and complaints.

It was when I first really felt like no one actually cared what was happening. Not TTC for over seeing the end product and not Ubisoft for being able to make a game that High-school students code as a school project. 

As a community we get stuck right in the middle

We can’t rely on TTC to re-format the game we want 

the developers don’t listen to the feedback given and/or are hamstrung by TTC

Any clone that actually makes an effort gets a cease and desists for their efforts.

The Pipe Dream of Tetris esport

When Tetris 99 dropped a couple of years ago, there was an interview Alexy Pajitnov did with US gamer and was quoted as saying: “I really want Tetris to establish itself as an esport. We’re getting there very slowly but surely.”

As someone who has been able to view this industry from a lot of different angles (Player, Viewer, Tournament Organiser, Coach, Commentator) it is laughable to suggest that Tetris is making any headway towards esports viability.

If they were concerned about fixing the player experience, some developer or TTC themselves would have invested some time into discovering why previous games' battle modes weren’t balanced well. Why only one stacking strategy ever proved optimal. Why something as simple as button remapping and Delay and Repeat actually matters.

Esport games need to have a good viewing experience as well, have they taken any clues from the successful games, and how they have a mode specifically with spectator tools to help a streamer, commentator or tournament organiser present and organise games?

A community is paramount to an esport. So why is it every Tetris game on release has trouble maintaining a player base after a couple of years. Why is it that some Clone games have lasted much longer. 

The short answer is they have no idea about what it takes to get into esports, and none of their actions suggest they are even making any headway. If I released this article 5 years ago, the challengers are exactly the same as they have ever been.

Final Words

Leaving was one of the hardest things I had to decide but I felt stuck. On one side is a community of dedicated and talented people who yell into the void hoping for things to change. On the other side, the mainstream that seems almost unwilling or blindsided that there could possibly be anything wrong with a game as “perfect” as Tetris.

No one has ever been able to put pressure on TTC to change. Not mainstream media, not its player base (which is mainly casual), and no creator has had enough financial backing to fight a C&D to make a game that the community wants.

I love my life now in fighting games and esports, but I wish my old compatriots and peers could have what I always wanted for the game. For it to be better than what they have had to put up with.

[kastle09]

Believing in Yourself isn’t cheesy, it’s Essential

One of the problems I’ve run into when coaching new players is that while it’s very easy to go through training exercises and passing on character knowledge, I've always found it difficult to teach how to help someone be more confident in their own abilities. 

I have seen many people, good players in a technical sense, fall to themselves because of negative thoughts.  They shut down due to fear of failure, self fulfilling prophecies, and in the worst cases, learned helplessness.

The problem I then face as a coach is not in teaching someone how to get better, but encouraging them to undertake that process at all. 

In doing so I find myself often reaching for that old line “just believe that you can do it”, which is met with a (not entirely unexpected) lack of enthusiasm.

And in this I really want to expand why it’s not just some throw away line that many treat it. I cannot stress to you its importance in order to become a better player. Whether you are about to attend an offline tournament, or play your next ranked set you need to know why it’s important to believe in yourself. Let’s do some Psychology 101

Bandura's concept of Self-efficacy 

“Self-efficacy - A personal judgement of how well one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations"

This concept introduced by Canadian-American psychologist, Albert Bandura, is a measure of a person's beliefs in their own strengths.

The state of someone's self efficacy can give a glimpse on what a person is likely to do in a given circumstance, and their perception of an upcoming challenge. 

For instance a player whose self-efficacy is far below his actual ability, has discouraged growth and skill development. Think about a task as simple as learning to execute a combo consistent, and let’s say they land it 7 out of 10 times.

A player with low self-efficacy may see that as a failure and think: ”That combo is too hard to get right”. This negativity leads to low motivation and eventually a state where a player feels no amount of effort will make a difference in being able to succeed.

A player with high self-efficacy can see it as a stepping stone to greater success. “Okay great we got 7 lets get to 8”, Instead of Obstacles becoming discouraging, it instead spurs the player on to greater and sustained efforts in order to achieve a goal.

You can see in both scenarios, it displays a player with the same current skill level however the perception they have of themselves has a determination on whether they will continue or give up.

Improving one's self-efficacy isn’t as simple as just telling someone to do it. People seem to get frustrated at the fact when saying “well stop feeling that way, be more positive” doesn’t work. (And as someone who has a history with clinical depression it doesn’t surprise me in the least).

What feeds into your Self-efficacy?

To improve our Self-efficacy we need to understand how it can be affected. Bandura identified 4 aspects that affect a person's Self-efficacy

Mastery Experience – Drawing on your previous successes

People will find every reason to avoid a problem. In Street Fighter it's common to want to blame a character being too strong or my character being too weak for example. 

But if that's all you lay the blame on then what purpose is it supposed to be serving? Does it help you perform better against that character next time? No

The only thing that can help you in a spot like that is knowing what you are going to do differently the next time it happens. Idiocy is trying the same thing over and over and thinking the result will be different because that's how you believe it “should be”, not how it actually is. 

Your only job is to try and perfect within the system you are given. Not constantly blame the system (even if the developers later prove you right with a balance change). What are the things in your control.

If you are afraid of some Birdie player doing EX.Dolphin dive or Karin c.mk then that has to be reflected in the way that you practice. If you are beaten by that, yell at the screen, and then hit ready up again, what have you learned? Absolutely nothing. Training mode is there for you to experience situations on a loop. Again and again, until we know exactly what is going on and how we deal with it. 

Mastery experience is drawing on that which has been achieved previously can be replicated again. This is why as well as taking the time to look over your losses to improve, it's equally important to remember and celebrate success, especially when it’s hard earned. Keep it in the memory to push you forward, and especially in moments that are tough because it is there to remind you that if you push through like you did last time, you can achieve success again.

Vicarious Experience – Seeing others that are able to succeed

Like a lot of Street Fighter 4 Makoto players, I looked up to Haitani as my hero and player to watch and learn from. Having heroes to look up to, especially in esports, is I think one thing that sets it apart from traditional sports.

If I wanted to run around and make a play like Lebron James I might need 9 other people on the court to recreate a play, but the beautiful thing about esports is If I watch someone do something spectacular I can instantly jump into the game and attempt to recreate it myself.

Vicarious experience simply put is the idea of “If they can do it, so can I”. Watching Haitani make pixel comebacks or make picture perfect plays gives me the mindset of “Well if I plan right, and play my cards right, I can make a comeback like that”.

For all intents and purposes while I am not as good skill wise as Haitani, in that moment, to make that play. I need to believe I am.

This can have a negative effect as sometimes people seeing others succeed can be de-motivational, in the sense that you think “Man I can never be as good as that” or sometimes watching someone else you think is better lose to similar things and think “Well if he can’t do it there isn’t anyway I can either”. It is important to be aware when these thoughts occur and how to spin it. For instance being able to see it as a goal to chase or to not repeating the mistakes of someone else.

Social Persuasion – The belief and encouragement from others

Despite the competitive nature of esports, talking and conversing with your peers can be an invaluable experience for you.

Even just having one extra person (a training partner, a coach or a friend for example) can be vitally important in your journey to continue. Yes there is some enjoyment in being able to figure things out for yourself and get to a stage where you’ve learned how to help yourself.

If you ever find yourself at a wall however, don’t ever be afraid to simply ask for help. Especially in a local community it’s in everyone's best interest to get as good as they can possibly be. You don’t have to keep banging your head against a wall to try and work on a problem that has been known and solved long ago.

Something that I appreciate greatly about my Newcastle cartel here where I live is everyone from the newest to the most experienced players are always up for learning, trying something new and helping each other out. There is competition still sure, but the strength of the group as a whole is what we value most.

Physiological Factors - The emotional state of mind

It cannot be helped that sometimes your mind and body want to react in ways to situations that are not always beneficial. Improving self-efficacy is not necessarily about preventing those things from happening, but more how you wish to view what those signs mean.

How many of you for instance have sat down for your first tournament match at locals, you hear the game announcer through the speakers, and your leg will not stop shaking and bouncing. Your fidgety beyond belief, your palms are sweaty. How do you interpret those signs?

If you interpret it as a sign of being ill prepared or lack of ability to handle what's coming next. It can decrease your self-efficacy and reinforce in your mind any faults during a game. Soon to spiral and not play how you ordinarily do.

If you have heard about a player “Oh they are great in casuals but play bad in tournaments” this can be an attributing factor. Someone with a clear amount of skill, but no confidence that they actually have it and can produce it when required.

A person with high self-efficacy may instead interrupt these signs more as something that naturally occurs and are therefore able to separate it from their ability. The signs are now a sign of readiness and preparedness instead of the absence of it.

Conclusion

This article was written in response to the anger and disappointment I have when people fail to be able to see what hard work and skill they have achieved thus far, and consider it obsolete. The come with a thinking that: “Well that’s it, I tried and this is all I can do” As Hemingway wrote “any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.” 

Any player who has lost hope, it is a loss all of us feel. It therefore is also on us, to come together to bring them back.

There is of course no magic bullet or cure all for being mental tough when it comes to performance, but I at least hope in reading through this, you will at least be able to recognise and hopefully steer yourself in the right direction

Welcome to 2021, New year, New Us.

Let’s get cracking FGC. - Krisna “kastle09″ Siv

[kastle09]

Why don't we love esport orgs?

I am a huge football fan (that's soccer football, not any other kind of football) and just recently I saw my childhood team, LiverpoolFC, win the Premier league title, our first division title in 30 years and first since the Premier leagues inception.

Like all the other fans, I felt the same mixture of emotions: relief, tears of joy, uncontained excitement, and great love and admiration for the players, the manager, and the club.

Thinking on it since, I've began to wonder why I don't feel that same love for esports organisations. I in no way feel the same kind of romanticism surrounding them. Why is that?

Players being bigger then the Team

While there are definitively Star players, important players that are match winners that have lead to Liverpool's success this season, no player no matter how good they are are bigger then the club. Stars will walk in and out of your doors and you will love them while they are here, and either you will cuss them when they jump ship or clap them off when they retire.

For another example think about when Lebron James made the move to Miami Heat. For Cleveland fans they were absolutely distraught at the time. But that doesn't mean you stop supporting your team. It just means you hold bitterness and resentment to the people that leave. The team always comes first.

In contrast to esports though, people tend to jump around teams on a constant basis, there isn't really the same semblance of loyalty, and it doesn't really seem fans care all too much either. As a fan of fighting games and Starcraft, both 1v1 competitive games, its almost expected that your hero is the player that plays your character/race and you are going to follow them regardless of where they go.

But even in team esports, it still hasn't held up. As an Australian watching the core line up of AZR, jks, jkaem, Gratisfaction and Liazz move from Renegades to 100 Thieves, I didn't really give a second thought about ignoring RNG and being a 100T fan. I just wanted to watch my team, and my team was the roster it wasn't the organisation.

So is that the key? Do teams need to form a bond by representing a region and that's how they can keep fans.

International fans and Club Identity

If you look at the past ventures in esports when we began doing long seasonal competitions from the ground up, Not only did they choose to go the franchise model, they also tried to tie it back to a City. The Championship Gaming Series in 06-08 took this approach as well as the Australian Gfinity (both now defunct I might add).

For a  recent example take Blizzards attempt at forming a privatised league with the OWL with again having teams be City based: Seoul Dynasty, London Spitfire, Houston Outlaws.

Now this is actually a proven model for success if you look all over in real sports from Major League Soccer and A-League for soccer, Indian Premier League and Big Bash League for cricket etc. So it makes a lot of sense to try and copy.

One benefit is if you have less interest or investment,as a first time viewer when you tune in you automatically have a team you can identify with and to cheer for purely because you live in that part of the country.

The problem is esports is quite an international reach, A city itself, isn't really enough to sustain a team, it has to be representative something larger. Its probably why what more often happens is we are attracted to a philosophy and a style, and that's what makes us fall in love. Because of a particular way this team plays and more importantly what it represents to us.

I am obviously on the other side of the world to Liverpool, and if I think about my relationship with Liverpool. I haven't yet visited the city or to Anfield (Its on my bucket list to watch a game from the Kop end) but I identify with that club more then any other because of what they represent to me. Liverpool was a working class region of England during the industrial boom and its reflected in scousers as people.

I was growing up in the early 2000s among Man Utd fans and being ridiculed and jealous of how easy success seem to come to them, and how hard we had to work. But with that also came the beautiful moments of triumph, like Istanbul. There are picture perfect moments that represent what it is to be a fan of that club, there are Players that embody everything about what that badge on the front represents.

I think esports can deliver that feeling but I think there is a big reason why they are currently failing at it.

Neglecting history

Even though I didnt grow up in the years when Liverpool were dominant and successful, the club does its part to make sure for any new fans, you will learn and be proud of that history.

Club Icons like Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard are still attached to the club often in ambassadorial roles. Having the past generation let you know what the values of the club are, what's expected of you and reminding the current players exactly what being a part of the club represents.

But we don't do that in esports.

This is actually something Duncan “Thorin” Shields has talked about in a video before and I'll echo some of the same sentiments here. But esport teams, even the longest running and financially successful ones seem to never acknowledge the past very often.

A League of Legends example I think about is Hai Du Lam. I don't follow Lol very closely but I know Hai and I know Cloud9. Hai is what would be considered a Cloud9 Legend but because of the nature of it, Cloud9 seem disinterested in doing anything to celebrate something like that and especially with Hai forming his own team it doesn't feel like that relationship would be allowed to happen.

Keeping on Cloud9 for another moment because their CSGO team seem to illustrate this lack of understanding. The Cloud9 I remember, the one I feared was the NA Galáctico squads.

A team of absolute star players, a team that would constantly bash heads with Team Liquid and would stand head and shoulders above the rest of the continent.

This is the only North American team that has won a CSGO major. That team of Skadoodle, Stewie2k, autimatic, RUSH and tarik. Cloud9 have set a precedent with everything we have been talking about.

As of the writing of this blog, Cloud9s current squad (JT, motm, oSee, floppy and Sonic) is a poor reflection of that history. This is nothing against these players they are all capable players but if this team was named anything else, they would not even be giveing a second look at them. Would those fans who bought jerseys two years ago be proud to stand behind that team? No not a chance.

When you play for Cloud9 the expectation is be “Best in America” and at the moment they are 3-4 placings at best, behind where they should be.

Is it even a problem?

For a lot of people that are into esports there is always a temptation to compare ourselves to the established mainstream sports that exists.

Sometimes we have waved that flag in their face to go “pfft, who cares what you think, we do it better then you” while at the same time behind close doors try to emulate them more and more.

Maybe the real motivation behind this whole post was just an excuse to talk about how much I love Liverpool and how much I want to rub it in every Mancs face (especially you Tyson!) but I do wonder at the day where I would feel the same amount of emotion I did last Thursday when I woke up and actually cried because something amazing had happen. Will I ever be that invested about an esports team? I'm not sure yet.

- Krisna “kastle09″ Siv

[kastle09]

FGC Rite of Passage: The Post Tournament Dinner

“What?! You haven't had El Jannah?”

(yells behind) “Hey kastle hasn’t had ElJannah we're gonna take him to El Jannah”

“Bro... this Garlic sauce, let me show you this garlic sauce” This was the reaction that was given to me by GG|bksama when I told him I'd never had ElJannah Charcoal Chicken before. Charcoal Chicken is somewhat of a Sydney FGC Rite of Passage, its a sign that you know you have “made it” when someone invites you to have it with them. 

  Being in lockdown and with no offline events to go to reminded me of the things I miss the most, and when any new player asks me why they should go to locals, the dinner afterwards is a strong reason why I love offline meetups.

My “real world” job is in food service and the hospitality industry so I kind of get what it is about food that connects with people on a very emotional level. Crossing that culturally divide when you get to invite someone to experience your traditions and your interests is something that we warmly embrace as humans.

When the guys came back from SEAM (Which in the future one day hope to attend) one of the first things they came back with was pictures of food and Singapore cuisine. I know the OCE boys love their food, and its experiences like that that really highlight the reasons why you want to go and play a video game, that you love, in another country that love that game as well.

DS| ZG and GG|Rumours vs A lot of Crab

I find though as well that it doesn't just happen when international communities collide. When we are just travelling interstate for majors its a similar experience. Especially when you are the host state you have a responsibility to know where the good food is, invite and show the other players from outer state whats good. When someone has taken the time to come out to where you live, and spend time in your city you want to express that thanks by showing them a good time and that’s usually in the form of food. When I lived in Sydney, every monthly would break out into an argument on the “Best Ramen in the CBD”. We go somewhere different all the time: “This is amazing!”, “This sucks, _____ is better” etc.You start to know who to trust and who not to by the end, Especially when you are talking something as particular as Ramen. 

If I wanted to get a bit philosophical about why Ramen more than any other food speaks to the FGC more has to do with the similarities in process between making a good bowl of Ramen and Learning Fighting Games.

Ramen is built on 5 key aspects: Broth, Noodles, Tare, Oil, Toppings.

To get all 5 to come together to your particular pallet is something that is somewhat of a journey. The way you prepare it the way you start to understand what each element is there for, and then what each element is doing to the dish as a whole. That’s something that Fighting game players can feel intrinsically and I think that’s why they appreciate it as such.

Unless you are from Newcastle where I'm from . Our entire community only seems hell bent on only hitting fast food joints.

But even that in itself is quite gratifying. Sometimes its not really about the food, its the conversation and its the chat you get to have as well. Which for me that means lots of complaining about stuff!

One of my traditions is if I go 0-2 in all of my brackets, I'm allowed to have the biggest nastiest Hungry Jacks meal I can possibly afford. Calories go out the window and I can bury my salt into a Double Ultimate Whooper with Cheese with Large chips and a side of 10 chicken nuggets and whatever else I can think of. Is it good? Well at the time it feels pretty good, I know this food is TRASH... but its good.

Right now we have to stay put still to keep each other safe but if you are currently still an online warrior, the bonding and the friendships over a simple meal is certainly one of the reasons to try and come out when all this is over.

 Because guys, El Jannah garlic sauce. Its pretty legit!

-Krisna “kastle09″ Siv

[kastle09]

The Art of Commentary Storytelling (Part 2 of 2)

Storytelling the Arc, Series, Game

And we are back in more commentary theory, talking about the Arc, the Series, The Game.

Let me first define each of theses

The Arc: A players story in the competition, including previous tournament results, how they have done so far in the bracket/tournament. This is the most pre prepared content a caster can do.

The Series: The story of the set played between two players/teams. This is describing how players have adjusted and evolved in the moment. If a player is faltering or exceeding more then usual. If a player has had a mental adjustment and getting himself back in a series or is completely shutting down. This is the story that usually gets told in between games.

The Game: The story of a round, a play, a moment. This is the most difficult, because it happens the most quickly and is an automated response.  The key to this one is giving yourself outs In an anticipation of what may happen next.

The Arc

One of the reasons I wanted to write about this topic is I think when most people think “stories” they only think of it in terms of the Arc. Its certainly the easiest to conceptualise.

During Gfinity pre production meetings all the talent would come together as a group and try and think how we wanted to push the matchups that week. If one team had been on a bad streak recently, if a team was trying a new lineup, if a team was pushing for a spot for finals etc. We wanted to know, from the hosts, to the analytics, to the commentators how we were going to, collectively,  present what was so interesting about this week of matches. Especially if you are a neutral fan, it can let you choose a team/player you didn't know previously and root for them making it collectively more enjoyable and makes you more invested when you could be indifferent before.

Something I learned from Redeye, is the story can be something grown from statistics for example; A good team who haven't been able to beat this opposition in the head to head for 6 months.

But Storylines can also be incredible personal stories, and in fact some of the great stories in esports come from this.

Although not nice to consider but a person who has just experienced a loss in their family, someone who has been under great stress to perform recently, or someone who has an incredible important connection with the game for example.

These make the audience understand that these are very real human beings and can help in not trivialising the players solely down to just how well they frag, or how far they get in the bracket. Something extrinsic to the game that makes the players feel really relatable.  

The Series

How the series itself gets shaped is a little bit more spontaneous, but is still related to the Arc. Storytelling in the series is about finding similarities and differences to how you would usually expect them to play. In other words, try to think of the Arc as the baseline of your expectations of a player, while the Series is how far they stray from that baseline, whether that be far below or way above.

The example I often think about is 2017 EVO Grand Final between Punk and Tokido.

From the point of view of the Storytelling of the Arc, a few of the points James and Sajam spoke about:

Punk having an incredible run in the lead up to EVO, and being the favourite to win as an American.

Tokido has great history in Evo competitions but has never been able to close on main game with 2013 EVO being the closest he has gotten

Punk is equated with raw skill, fantastic reactions, excellent mechanics

Tokido is equated with time and experience, technical ability with Akuma, incredible mental fortitude and self control

And from there they can contrast it. James talking about how he has never seen Punk run into so many normals and buffers or the surprise from Sajam at Tokido doing a taunt combo to finish. They are very statement pieces from these players and the duo want to highlight what makes this different to every other time they have played. 

I especially like the way James frames the traits we associate with Punk like whiff punishing and uses it to both describe how well Tokido is playing and how unusual it is for Punk to be outplayed in this area.

The second is the way they adjust their vocabulary to emphasis especially after the reset. Sajam talking about Punk being unable to handle the pressure:

“its looking miserable for Punk”

“its so out of control, out of Punk's hands. He's gotta stop the bleeding”

“he Is marching all over him”

These are very emotive sentences, if you are a fan of Punk, the word choice from Sajam lets you inside and feels the same as he feels.

It became perfectly encapsulated when James said “Its all slipping away from him”.

That line is a perfect example of encapsulating what we feel as the audience. Its not boiled down to Punk playing off his game, its talking about someone who got so close and has seen the prize just out of his reach.

The Game

Telling the stories of the rounds, the moment by moment action is probably one of the hardest things to do, even though its what you are doing most of the time. Is it even possible to do it? 

Whenever I've had trouble thinking of how I'm going to call action I think about how Sadokist called the Snax 1v4 Pistol clutch.

As Well as the Clip to follow a long at home

Lets go back to the pacing curve we talked about in part 1, and to keep it really simple we are just going to use each frag as the story beat.

The important thing to note is how Sadokist will adjust his pace and tone to suit the tension of the spot. Remember that the situation for Snax is so unlikely. For HenryG and Sadokist you are probably ready to think and talk about Navi winning the pistol round, build into the next 3 rounds and think about building momentum to get back into the map.

And Sadokist tone still suggest that at first, it isn’t overblown or ramping up yet.

Seized: “Does find one, lets not leave him out of this”

Allows a line to set himself up but what I find most interesting in this period is just after the first kill and before Snax is about to enter site, you will hear Sadokist reset by first pausing and then starting back down at a lower tone: “already got 1 kill on the USP (Pause) … low hp as well ...”.

This allows him to do two things. The first is he gets a breath in to begin a long piece of action and the second is it lets him manage and control crowd expectations.

If say Snax gets clipped in a trade kill, he hasnt said anything outlandish and can smoothly transition with Henry into the next round.

s1mple: “as he dances BACK and FORTH between the box oh ...”

guadian: “what a SHOT ON s1mple! Oh Guardian Bye Bye”

Next two happen very quickly and mid sentence as well

Its clear that he is building naturally with excitement. But also what I think is interesting beside the increase in tone and pacing is the sentences themselves need to be shorter. Its to catchup to the action at first but I think it also acts perfectly in big moments like this.

The more intense and hyper the action gets the less you need to say because its going to speak for itself. Sadokist first describing Snax baiting into 1v1s and using the Box cover is great for the setup but as each beat happens, the less you need to say. Does it mean anything to explain anything hyper analytical in that spot? Definitely not and that's also why Henry doesn't feel the need to say anything during the whole 40secs apart from a bleak “oh no”

flamie: “WHAT IN GODS NAME IS THAT FROM SNAX, UNBELIEVEABLE!”

Oh I get chills every time I listen to that line. The play gets better and better the more I watch it.

At this point as both a commentator and an audience member you are at a peak level of your excitement. We are at the climax point but like I said in part 1, you need to be able to bring the audience back down. Not all the way, mind you because its another beat in the story of the series, but just enough to not overwhelm the crowd and allow the chance for other moments to stand out, or to let this one stand out as an important moment in the set. Contrast remember.

Sadokist's line is the equivalent of the follow through your bat swing. It's the turning point to release all that tension that we built up and readying to lead you to the next bit of action.

Its a masterclass by Snax, but I think it also shows why Sadokist is one of the best play by play commentators in the world.

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If you have read the twitlonger I posted along with this article you will know that this topic has something I’ve been long thinking about and wanted to write about but have had some reservations in how to present it and if I had a right too. To be able to explain to people just one aspect of something I really enjoy is a real pleasure and if you are a commentator or not, I hope you enjoyed seeing a different kind of perspective.

It may be a while before I release another article. with online tafe about to start back so I will have something to do in quarantine. Until next time!

[kastle09]

The Art of Commentary Storytelling (Part 1 of 2)

This is the first non-Street Fighter piece so bare with me.

Like a lot of these blog posts, there are always caveats I have. I am still very much an amateur commentator. I've been lucky enough to cast at a couple of our Australian major tournaments for SFV as well as being apart of the short lived Gfinity AU series.

From those experiences I've been able to talk, learn, and found inspiration from a lot of very talented people who have been doing it for far longer then I have and are much better and more experienced then me.

Along those lines I wanted to touch on one aspect that I tried to develop and learn very early and something that I will always gravitate to before I cast at events which is telling the story.

Sports and esports are entertainment by nature and as the commentator you are the narrator, so a lot of the principles that they use in other entertainment mediums to captivate an audience carry over greatly.

The “and then...” mistake

Something I watched a couple of years ago were the South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, talk about how they write episodes. It revolved around the idea that your story should not be dragged along aimlessly. Instead every story point (or beat) should have the words “Therefore” or “But”. If instead your beats have the words “and then...” you're in big trouble. A story that goes:

“this happens …

 ... and then this happens...

 … and then this happens...” The reason its dull is because it could be a list that can be placed in any order. Yes sometimes on the mic especially in hype moments you can absolutely let the action tell the story itself (Thats the art of dead air which could be its own essay).

But especially for play by play casters, who feel its up to them to talk through the action, simply linking beats together can go a long way because the audience don't jump around trying to follow you. Getting to tell a story that goes:

“This happens...

… and therefore this happens ...

… but this happens...

… and therefore this happens...”

Because each beat drives the next bit of action,  it will be easier for an audience to be able to understand why a players actions had repercussions or understand how they were able to get themselves into a winning position.

The first thing you might want to say is “But how do you tell a story where you don't know what happens, UNTIL IT HAPPENS?!”

You are right in that nothing is scripted, but you can also set yourself up to have “outs” or different directions to take and explain the action and this is why I think “Therefore” and “But” is a really good tool because they can apply directly over to conflicts in game

Lets say we are following the story of this player and use his story as our first beat, any positive contribution he makes can easily snowball into a “therefore”. For example:

“dev1ce has to be careful, (beat) WHAT A SHOT onto kennys! (therefore) mid now open for Astralis”

“Tokido, he's looking for that poke,(beat) NICE! gets the whiff punish! (therefore) Meter to work with, whats the mixup?”

And conversely if they mess up or get beaten in the exchange thats an easy place to insert a “But”

“dev1ce has to be careful, (beat) THATS WHY (But), Kennys trying to keep G2 alive on this map.

“Tokido, he's looking for that poke, (beat) BEAUTIFUL again from Daigo! (but), Tokido is in trouble, he's running out of time.

Knowledge will give us what to say, “Therefore” and “But” will give us the way to say it.

Pacing curve

A few years ago, I watched an episode of Extra Credits on Pacing and In that video they described a pacing curve, measuring the level of  engagement over time in relation to Star Wars: A New Hope.

What's important to consider here is that pacing is a succession of peaks and valleys. It is not a line that grows exponentially upwards nor is it turning everything up to 11 and trying to keep it there. This is true for every entertainment medium: Movies, Novels, Plays, Comedic stand up, Video games, they are all about keeping levels of engagement to aim for a curve in exactly the same way.

Think about when you eat your favourite chocolate. Great for the first bite or two. But the more you eat the less fulfilling it becomes and suddenly you start to need eat a lot more to have the same level of satiation.

You need to give the audience periods of rest in between periods of hype. If you don't, one of two things can happen.

1. The audience becomes so overwhelmed It becomes exhausting to keep up.

2. It becomes so routine that you can no longer differentiate between what’s actually a good play, and what's normal.

Remember that if you push everything as hype! Then nothing will be hype because the audience no longer knows what hype is any more.

Think about any survival horror game you have ever played. The building up of tension before the scare is equally as important as the scare itself. Equally is getting them to climb down from that tension so you can scare them again.

Another conclusion that EC demonstrated is that this pacing curve comes at every level. The piece holistically of course but also applies to levels and funnels down to single moments in games. When I personally have to prep for casting the 3 things I think about are Story in the Arc,Story in the Series and Story in the Game

_____________________________________________________

Okay its a two parter but the 2nd part is available right now so go check it out. There I will elaborate more on The Arc, The Series and The Game.

[kastle09]

What Poker can teach about Decision Making

There was a video that Core A Gaming did on “How Hadouken Reinvented 2D Fighting” and towards the end he mentions the parallels the fireball game and Street Fighter had to Poker. Reading players, looking for tells, misdirection and bluffing are kind of the most notable things I think normies associate with poker, but there is a lot even if you just barely scratch the surface (which I'm gonna try)

I hear complaints about “guessies” and “50/50s” in SFV constantly and yes some of those criticism are justified. But even in this regard, are there ways to control these spots better? Poker is a game about managing and controlling a game that is inherently up to luck and randomness. So maybe we can learn something about the strategies they use to help mitigate that and still be consistent.

I'm just going to touch on two that I've stated on commentary before, and if you hear me on the mic you might get a better understanding of where its come from.

Disclaimer: I am a poker casual, I enjoy the game and have dug in a little bit but I may butcher or over generalise some things. I apologies to anyone who is an actual Poker player that knows these concepts much better then I do, hopefully they still make sense enough to apply.

GTO, Exploitative and Mixed Strategies

Somewhere in the last 15 years GTO (Game Theory Optimal) strategies have popped up as a new way to think about Poker. What GTO essentially is you create a strategy that is “unexploitable” so across an infinite amount of hands, you will always be in the positive. In the ideal world GTO would beat all other strategies.

The easiest way to explain GTO is with Rock, Paper, Scissors. Simple game and used a lot in video games as a balancing tool anyway.

So what would be the GTO strategy in RPS? Its approx 33% for each option right? Every option has the same value in this case so If you are balancing correctly and throwing each option you are unexploitable. You have no discernible pattern which your opponent can take advantage of.

But lets say you play against a player who throws Rock... a lot. Like every time. What does that mean for you. Well 33% time you will win, 33% of the time you lose, 33% of the time you draw, So while you aren't losing, you also aren't winning a whole lot either.

This is where exploitative play is usually heard, and probably what most people think of when they think poker because its that very romantic old school approach where you stare deeply into your opponents eyes and know exactly what he has. So in the scenario above you might think:

“This guy is constantly throwing rock, I'm going to constantly throw paper.”

So you start throwing 100% of the time as Paper. Yeah you are going to beat him a whole heck of a lot now but you have also given reigns for them to notice and think

“Wait a sec, I see what you are doing”

Now you become the one exploitable. Every time you deviate from the GTO it makes you vulnerable to being read. Another way of identifying the difference between the two options is being exploitative is about maximising the value in each exchange, while GTO is about securing a minimum positive EV play to all your options.

So how can we use this idea in fighting games?

Thinking in GTO is a way to baseline your options for a given situation. It would be as if you took the human element out, and had two computer playing the game perfectly weighing up as the best range of options and risk reward to think what mathematically is the right play. Especially in situations such as ranked, or ft2 tournaments where you have never met your opponent before, you need to think about a road map that will allow you to stay as safe as possible. If you wildly swing at them off the bat or make a read with less then ideal information to base it on, you can end up in a lot of trouble.

The disadvantage FGs have against poker is simply the repetition is a lot shorter and the goals are quite different.

You may get to play thousands of hands, and the goal is to end the night with more money then you have lost. But in FGs where you have first to 2 sets with 3/5 rounds max in each, you may not be able to reach the ideal equilibrium in time for GTO to be effective. The other things is obviously you aren't up against a computer.

So its still important to identify and know the situations where your risks have sufficient backing from your reads. GTO is a great starting point, and knowing where and when to deviate is when being exploitative is really going to shine through.

Back in the RPS example, instead of throwing paper 100% giving a chance for our opponent to clearly notice and adjust, we may instead want to instead bump paper to 40-50% of the time. Our opponent isn't going to notice our strategy as easily and our win -  loss percentage will still increase. So we have bumped up past our baseline to extract more value from this player.

This is called a mixed strategy and what most top poker players argue for as true GTO doesn’t exist as of yet (Big argument, not for me to weigh into). It both allows a solid foundational base that a GTO like strategy provides while also presenting opportunities to extract more value on opponents through reading tells, tendencies etc.

Table Image and Player Metagame.

In Poker table image is the perception that other players have about you. This was especially happening as more people were playing with the TV poker personalities and famous internet players that have now had their hands and playstyles analysed a lot by the community. The more people know about you, the more assumptions and pre-conceptions they have going in and you need to be aware of that.

Damosk (right) playing vs Dankscorpio (left) at OHN16: courtesy  koukiphotographynz.com

This happened to a friend of mine, Damosk who is a fantastic Boxer player (and Crash Team Racing savant) and he developed a reputation for V-skill overhead. Anyone that talked about Damo would always include in the next breath “Always block high, overhead coming every time”.

Well he knew he had this reputation and because of it he would play off it constantly and use it as part of the meta game he had with people, and even he would talk it up sometimes before only going low for entire sets.

When a player sits down next to you, what is their perception of you? How much do they know about you? How does that dictate how you are about to play against them?

If someone identifies a trait you have, something you might consider “Your style”, because it is something that they identified it means its something they want to take advantage of.

In essences your style is your mistakes. If you were a perfect robot, you would have no style.

While you may get defined at your local tournaments by your play in game, you equally can give off information out of game in real life as well. The most notable one being Tilt.

Seeing someone on stream seething or fidgety, the players that hold their head in their hands, or if you are the kind of player to take your shirt off giving off odours of salt. Knowing how a person acts when they are on tilt can be incredible valuable.

Some players may try and become very risky, seeing the game where nothing has gone their way and trying to force an opening, force a situation. But some players are the opposite. They start to not press when they should, they are in constant fear of getting blown up by some meme option again and so instead start to play super safe, no risk, easily exploitable letting you get away with a lot more.

________________________________________________________

This is probably one of those ideas that are a bit divisive and in fact in the poker world there is a lot of disagreement in the effectiveness of GTO vs Exploitative vs Mixed. Even if you don't agree with my conclusions I do find especially on commentary its something I've used to identify how particular players like to think about the game.

Speaking of commentary, the next topic I want to write will be about Commentary and how I came to understanding telling a good story.

[kastle09]

Why the Health Bar can lie

I know I was suppose to do the poker analogy article first but I need to vet it with a friend who actually plays poker so because its been so long in between drinks I want to talk about a more basic topic, Health bars.

It seems like when most people think “Health” they think “Blood”, and therefore just like blood, they think health as some kind of liquid that can be measured in millilitres and therefore someone with 405 mls of health has more than someone who has 395mls (I'm Australian, we use metric) as if that means that that person consequently has a “Life lead”. Which in the abstract makes sense, Player A has more health then Player B, therefore Player A has the life lead.

But if you think about how attacks work in Street Fighter, besides Fang's poison, there is no attack in the game that actually leaches out 1 hit point at a time, your health isnt dripping out, So instead of thinking “Blood” think Blocks.

Why Blocks

Attacks do chunks of damage at a time. Most light attacks for example do about 30 damage, a heavy attack 90-100, your standard bnb combo maybe about 200-250, a CA confirm somewhere between 350 to 450+. In other words your opponent can take set increments off of you at a time.

What this really means is the amount of life you have is intrinsically related to how much damage an opponent can output. This Idea is not something I came up with, this is actually something I learned from watching and speaking to RAZER Xian when he came to BAM 11 last year.

Story Time: RZR|Xian vs Dooky

I was sitting behind Xian and watched him play a lot of casual sets against 5-6 people and the last set he played was against a friend of mine, Dooky. Very good Akuma player, pretty aggressive in his play.

The set came down to last game last round and Xian was on pixel and had run out of kunai, Dooky with about 1/3 health decided he had enough of a health lead to try and push and look for the last pixel. In his mind because of his life lead, he felt the risk reward to look for the last pixel outweighed any damage he may take in doing so. Effectively trying to force a scramble where even a trade gives him the win. By also being present and threatening he doesn’t give Xian an opportunity to reload kunai. Dooky lost the round slowly losing health being aggro and by the time he backed off and played more reserve they were both on pixel.

What Xian would tell us after and what Dooky didn't take into an account was that Xian had full CA bar. So even though Dooky had more life then he did, Dooky was still one hit from death as well.

When Dooky was on pixel health instead of 300, he did not play nearly as recklessly as he did but because of Xian's resources he effectively was already the same as if he was on pixel health, so his plan needed to account for that.

The Idea of Health and Meter as a single currency

If we go back to the idea of thinking in blocks of health instead of just the health percentage itself we will see that people who have the “same health” are in very different situations.

Lets say for example you are playing vs a Karin player. They are on 30 health and you have 300 health. In one situation they have Full CA and the other they have 2 bars.

Even though the life totals are the same in both cases, can you start to see why you might act a little differently in both those instances. It maybe the difference in whether you walk freely in neutral or not. Or whether you attempt to micro walk back from strings because of the risk of a c.mk xx tenko confirm.

In other words the simple act of them having one less bar means you have more life to play with even though your health bars are the same in both cases.

What this can also do is try some different tactical decisions during an earlier part of a match, It may be worth trying to get the opponent to spend bar or two on somewhere they have to DP anti air or a reversal wake up for example and take the trade off of losing 120 damage if it then leads to lower damage potential in the late game.

This is essentially another aspect to factor into your risk reward play, and with this understanding you might find yourself changing and reconsidering how you choose to approach and adjust mid match depending on health, ex meter and v meter

____________________________________________________

This may have been quite a simple topic for some of you (Health bars are the most fundamental part of the game), but its something I think people either haven't thought about very deeply or they forget it all the time when they try and make a play that goes for a win and either wondering why they couldn't get the player to bite, or found the only way to lose from a winning position.

[kastle09]

4 Reasons Players Stagnate (Part 2 of 2)

So last time we looked over the first two reasons people stagnate, players who try to get better by looking for tricks, and players who skip over fundamentals to get to the “good stuff”. 

Time to finish and were bouncing very much into mentality and strategy side of the game. These two points I find are much more prevalent especially with players who are on the cusp, maybe top 8 finishes but wins offline are inconsistent.                                                   

“I don't know, I just do it because it works”

One of the best players in the Oceanic region is 'ZG' and one of the things that happens when you get to play sets with him is afterwards he will constantly question what it is you are doing, why did you go for the things you go for, what is your end goal. Did you have a reason structured behind your actions. If not he will s*** on you for it (but its helpful s***ing)

If I had to boil this down to one word : Autopilot.

If you are purely on autopilot when playing a fighting game, you might as well be playing a single player game. Because it means no matter what they are doing, you would be doing the same thing regardless.  

Very often these types of players are executionally, very competent. They could very easily teach you how to play their main character for example, but there is a difference between knowing the information, and being able to use it intelligently. They have read the guides, they have watched the tutorials, they have practiced the combos and the setups.  But what they aren't doing is thinking with their brain

Lets say for example we have two Cammy players playing the mirror match together.

Now player 1 goes in and thinks:

“Standing medium kick is a good button, I am standing in range where s.mk is good, I am going to press my s.mk”.

What’s the problem here? I watched NL, he used s.mk in this spot, why is it bad?Lets look at the other player. 

“Okay he seems to want to press s.mk as I approach this spacing, let me walk around this distance and look for a whiff punish.” “Okay he is afraid to press maybe I can now poke with s.mk and see what his response is.” “Okay he is looking to pre-empt the poke by jumping, this range is now a spot where I look for the anti air”

There is of course, many different situations that can arise from this example and you probably aren’t thinking out loud if full sentences like that. But the most important thing I want you to see here is player 2's ability to critically think about what is happening. And because of that he is able to create a decision and a plan that goes “I saw __________ therefore I will do __________”.

Its important that you can follow through your train of thought to the logical end. What you will find is you will be able to understand situations and decisions in hindsight and be able to ask yourself “Did that make sense? Was there a better option? What is my adjustment?”.

Adaptation comes from being able to ask and answer these kind of questions. You will make poor decisions, sometimes you may even win games by those decisions, but you still need to be able to look objectively and be able to understand why what is happening happens. Why does it work, and when does it fall apart.

If you don’t you will play obliviously and try and bulldoze your way though opponents with technical knowledge.

“This guy is playing so dumb, does all this random s***, he's not playing the game”

For those who have came into SFV as their first game and weren't around for the famous Gandhi vs FSP match go give it a watch. Its a great laugh, everyone has a great time (except FSP) and I'm certain at one point or another you will be both Gandhi and then FSP.

While this was probably on the more extreme end of possible examples. I have often heard people say things like: “I do so much better against the good players. You can't read these guys! They do things that makes no sense”.

In Poker there is a term called playing “tight” and to be a tight player (I have a lot of poker analogies, if you are interested you can vote for it as my next article). 

In very simple terms playing tight means you only play the hands with very high win percentage. In this way you are minimising and avoiding the situations where randomness can affect outcomes resulting in higher win percentage against very “loose” players. You aren't getting suckered into playing situations that are unfavourable, you aren't leaving it up to chance.

The FGC equivalent of this is a term which gets thrown around a lot is “Let them hang themselves”. 

Think about what options like tick throws, frametraps, mixups, plus on block normal pressure etc. What are the goals of these options? They are options to open an opponent up.

But if an opponent is jumping in randomly, If they are dragon punching at every opportunity, trying to take large amounts of space by dashing. Then what are you trying to open up? They have already opened themselves up, so you don't need any of that stuff. The risk in trying to play a scramble with them in this spot leaves more opportunities for it to work, Why leave it up to chance if you don't have to.

Sometimes it isn't even the fact they play this way that makes it difficult, sometimes its just the fact you have to play in the most boring way possible in order to win, which is an ordeal in itself. But learning that patience learning to step back, talk to yourself and say “I'm not going to play their game, I'm going to sit tight, block and punish, keep it simple”.

As my hero Day[9] once said “If the opponent is doing something weird, the best strategy, Is just to go fucking kill him”

Both of the things I've talked about today are very different ways of thinking about the game because these are both examples of things that aren't easily measured in training mode. 

This isn't a question of “How do I beat x character” its a question of “How do I beat x player”, and that solution is often not a technical solution, its a strategic/theory based one. 

Often I feel even at the very highest levels of play the people that you may go to for tech videos and the people who are actually winning tournaments has a relatively small overlap.

                                                                                          I hope you enjoyed this first article (even though it was divided in 2), If you would like to vote on the next topic I'm running a poll on twitter. The options will be”

              - Why the health bar is a lie.

              - What Poker can teach about decision making

              - The art of Storytelling as a commentator

[kastle09]

4 Reasons Players Stagnate (Part 1 of 2)

I feel like I need to preface this by saying, I'm about to say a lot of stuff with the caveat of “In general”. These aren't the only reasons people plateau and I can imagine someone reading this and going “Well I don't do any of these things and I’m still stuck” Which maybe true (or you are lying to yourself), these are just the 4 things I hear the most.

“What’s the secret to beating this guy? What’s the trick to winning?”

Have you ever watched those commercials that are screened at 2AM trying to convince you you have been doing it wrong all your life but don’t worry with this “One simple trick” you can have it all fixed.

I see this often happen especially when players find some trick or gimmick that will land them a lot of wins, and then all of a sudden it will stop working and they won't really understand why. So they will try some other trick, and eventually that stops working. 

The problem is your brain is trying to solve problems by going “Ah, I need to find the right trick, and then ill be good”. That the only difference between you and a pro is you are missing some key insight that they know and you don't yet and that is what’s causing the skill difference.

You can imagine this happening in really obvious places, for example the Ken player relying on the hk.tatsu into throw/ex.dp but it can happen more subtle as well. But the most evident example is when players feel they need a secondary. “My main just loses in this match up, I can't do anything. I need to find someone that wins this match up”

I remember talking with Travis Styles (arguably the best player in Australia) on commentary and he talked about players being too quick to try and solve solutions by totally switching characters for a match up. 

There maybe a time you will need to do that, but only after you have exhausted every other option first. Travis talked about when trying to improve with Balrog for example, he would watch players like Brian F and Smug and they do things that he never would have thought about before and would work on implementing them as tools he can use to face new problems. 

These players have clearly understood something he hasn't yet so there is a clear process to advance and improve, adding an understanding to help him come up with new solutions against different players. If they can do it, and they are able to figure it out, I can do it too.

And that is the clearest difference. Instead of thinking in terms of “Knowing secrets = Skill” think “Process = Skill”. Think building an understanding over time, with process it can allow you to make decisions to problems, even if they are problems you may never have faced before but its okay because you have an understanding of the tools, that can allow you to come up with solutions on the fly or course correct based on what you see working and what doesn't.

“I can't win until I land the stuff <insert player here> does, that’s why they wins games”

There is a quote from John Wooden (revered college basketball coach)and he said: When you see a successful individual, a champion, a “winner,” you can be very sure that you are looking at an individual who pays great attention to the perfection of minor details

The term “fundamentals” can get lost a little bit sometimes especially when you are first learning. And its especially difficult because when you watch the pro players your first thoughts turn to the things that look flashy and brilliant, and its natural you want to emulate those things. But notice that in that quote Wooden does not talk about the players who have the most skill/talent, its not about the players who can pull off the most amazing plays. He talks of the people that are just so fundamental sound. Bringing absolute perfection to the small details, the things that most people look at once, read up once, land it once and immediately close that book because they think “I've learned that, I don’t have to do it any more, I'm past that level”.

One of the most common scenarios I’ve come across when coaching is someone will learn some very complex but of tech like a kara demon setup a v-trigger mixup, a 550 high damage combo, and they can execute it perfectly. But they can't Anti air, they can't punish a tatsu on block. They know the combo, I know they know the combo because when they are aggressive jumping in they can hit it every time.

Even if you just ignore for a moment the reasons to be fundamentally sound. Just simply consider this. How often does the situation of Anti Airing come up versus the situation to land a kara demon for example. If you are good at Anti airing, you are good at an aspect that is useful and applicable in 25-40% of the time (conservative estimate). If you are good at a kara demon, you are good in an aspect that only comes around maybe 1-2% of the time. If you are putting the same number of hours into getting good at one or the other, you tell me what’s more worthwhile.

Mastering fundamentals is boring frankly. It is a grinding mentality because its not just that you have to learn them, or you can't form a base to move forward without having them, its also the fact that they require that they be maintained, that they are constantly being reassessed and looked after.

Think about the best players in the world in their given sport, do you think a player like Ronaldo is constantly practicing his dribbling, or Lebron James is constantly practicing his jump shot. The things that you would get told day 1 when learning the sport for the first time, they are still being drilled and practiced even when you do get to that professional level. It shouldn't be any different for fighting games either.

What I think this topic shows more then anything else is this kind of practice lets you have the ability to be able to hit the easy stuff not 6/10 times but 9/10 or 10/10. This is what will drive your consistency. If you hear people that say “this guy is a great player, but he can be inconsistent” this is the reasoning. This is training the ability to let you win games when you aren't at 100% when you aren't playing at your best. The flashy plays, the complex setup is what will win you games, the fundamentals is what wins you tournaments.

Holy crap these are taking longer then I thought, wait up for part two when I talk about the player that feel they “deserved to win” and the players decision making boil down to “I do it because it works”.