Occasionally I’ll have an online session where something clicks and I start beating people who are much higher ranked than I am. I’ll start playing far more aggressive, reacting faster, doing more mixups and just generally outsmarting people. My play style becomes more unpredictable and relentless.
There’s no one reason I can point to because sometimes I’ll get into this state even after a few beers or after a poor night of sleep.
It could be that you’ve just figured out either what your opponent is up to and/or how to stop what the opponent is up to and from there you’ve gained the momentum to start doing what you want to be doing and going for those mixups ect. whilst they are having to backtread and rethink what they are doing to get back in the game.
Either way it’s a good thing to happen, especialy if you feel like you haven’t really been making much progress recently.
No no no he means something more than “on point”.
More like that your play style changes completely, and becomes a lot better, but you can’t recreate that at will.
You’ll find yourself going in amazing unpredictable patterns that you never do in regular play, even if you wanted to. No hesitation, no limitations. You don’t even think about what you are going to do. You just let it flow and it’s like your brain already knows better what to do on its own and you just sit and “watch yourself play”.
Am I describing it well, Uroboric?
to what was said above I can say that somewhat similar has happened to me, possibly minus the autopilot part. I still think, but a lot more of it becomes sort of gut feeling, and I make really really risky but continually correct reads (as well as all the above statements). This probably happens to me once a month or once every few months, and during the play session I literally smash people who usually mindrape me.
My two cents.
It’s an adrenaline rush helping you see more frames than you normally could.
Normally you see around 30fps ish but during a rush you can see double or more.
People who are good when they have momentum probaby talk about seeing in slow motion all the time.
I can block anything during these moments.
I had a video to explain it further but I didnt fav it and it was a long time ago.
Captain Falcon is my greatest high
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I would say that my execution really doesn’t improve, but I suddenly have typical player psychology dialed in and just start toying with them, doing exactly the things they won’t expect without even thinking of it. It almost seems like it’s instinctive knowledge of human behavior and I’m just temporarily able to use it on the fly.
I remember a few years ago when I opened a thread about it on this very forum just like you did and got the usual responses of "stop doing cocaine lolol"
These are the answers you’ll usually get from anyone who has never experienced it himself.
Sirlin wrote a post about how he managed to get into a mental state where his perception of time became sharper, and how he managed to train himself into achieving that state consciously. If we believe him, then maybe you entered into that state by luck sometimes.
I do know sometimes I go the opposite way - I’ll be playing a game, then going to the toilet or whatever, and when I come back and unpause everything is as fast as hell and I’m like wtf?!?
Weren’t there a few articles back in the late nineties about video game players getting “in the zone” involving some science talk about beta brainwaves or something? I recall that one of them even used Virtua Fighter as an example.
This happens to me a lot. I think it’s definitely a breathing thing. I have one side that has trouble getting air and I can definitely feel a difference when it is more open. I make better decisions, I don’t drop basic stuff (especially tiger knees) and I feel like I can plan 2 moves ahead of my opponent, even if they are “better” than me. I can also feel the blood rush to my head, which is a physical indication that I’m firing on all cylinders. Also, after I’m done, there is an adrenaline rush.
Literally, if I can’t get that side of my nose open to move air up to my brain, I’m screwed. So I have to make sure I have coffee, Sudafed, a breathing strip, ANYTHING to get the job done beforehand.
Watching Viscant do his breathing exercises between matches kinda reinforces this.
Edit: Also, I subconsciouosly notice the backgrounds more. With all the little details in Marvel backgrounds, I just know when I’m more in the zone, I’m noticing the details that I won’t usually pay much attention to otherwise.
I’ve had this feeling a bunch of times too and I don’t have a name for it either.
Most of the time, it happened when I was playing SSB with four people and managed to perfectly keep track of everything onscreen without actually moving my eyes around. Also happened with other games, but with 4 players on SSB it happens 100 times more often. It’s similar to how I feel like when I’m drawing for long periods of time, wich reminds me ofthis book.
yeah we are definitely talking about the same thing
Inconsistency is the biggest killer for me. Sometimes I fare very well and other times well… it really comes down to dedication and match-up knowledge. Pros are pros because they are the most consistent players around. Some of the best players tend not to take huge risks or do anything to Jeopardize there lead and the payoff is sometimes boring but remarkable at the same time.
I feel I deff have off days. Yesterday being one of them…it also did not help that my Internet was dropping packets like crazy and causing input drops in huge chunks (like seconds apart). Dumb.
This is basically it, I LOVE it when this happens to me. Its such an amazing feeling and especially doing it to someone thats sitting next to you playing because they’re like “what the fuck just happened” and you can’t even tell them lol.
If I had to describe it, it would be like this: You know how your eyes usually follow either your character or the opponents, well when I enter this state, I’m not looking at anything in particular. It almost feels as if I’m just looking through the screen and my hands are doing the predicting/reacting on their own.
People who havent experienced it will tell you whatever, you’re just getting used to your opponent or try and dismiss it as something like a fluke, but it’s really like a switch goes off in your head and you feel a distinct change in the way you think.
Sometimes I’ll play someone I’ve never played before and instantly be able to read him like a book, and I’ll play flawlessly wihtout overcommiting or making spacing mistakes with perfect on point execution.
Other days I’ll lose to people I play all the time and drop basic fucking bnbs and Anti air too late and get counterhit all day.