I remember a long time ago it was said that Daigo would sometimes sandbag the first round of a match especially in casuals to get a gauge of the player.
The thing he says that makes a lot of sense is that in tournament (which could be applied to 2 outta 3 ranked) you dont have a shit ton of games to assess the opponent. You have to make a real decision on how the player plays within the first set of things they start doing. Which he equated to about 30 seconds. 30 seconds into the match he already has a decision on what the type of style the player is and what to do in response.
I donât know if I do it that fast but Iâve always known to change my style based on how the opponent starts to press buttons or move early on. If I notice they are being passive they are probably going to be passive unless I make them panic so I go on that. If they are going nuts immediately odds are they are nutty and I have to play to that. I dont get thrown off by someone who plays random since even back to like 3rd Strike you have to play against people who throw out buttons randomly differently. If you try to parry at timings that are good vs people who play solidly, youâll miss lots of parries vs a random opponent. You have to do a bit more counter poking and blocking vs random people until you find patterns to parry later
Overall though I never assume one or the other completely. A passive player can get random and panicky once you force offense on them and scare them into realizing they dont have the reactions to make their passive style works. Which suddenly makes them go nutty. Vice versa as well where an offensive or nutty person will back down and get passive once you show that you can react to their offense and jumps. The latter is usually easy to beat since most people who play nutty do it because they dont have the reactions or discipline to perform passive/neutral heavy play.
Iâve basically found it to be like that as well. But a couple of caveats:
My ability to âreadâ this about a person is very commiserate to my skill in the game. I could read a player in 10 seconds in skullgirls and have a complete all encompassing game plan against them. In sf4 this would usually take me 30 seconds to a full round. In sf5⌠shit, 3 games in and a lot of times I still donât know wtf to do to people.
The actual read changes during the course of a match. Once I told a fellow skullgirls player how I read people⌠it basically goes like this. If they are pressing a lot of buttons and doing a lot of movement, they will tend to also be very active on defense. If they have a bit less movement and buttons at neutral, they will tend to be use fewer buttons once I get in.
It gets a lot deeper than that and I could write a fuckload more about it in relation to old school games and stuff, but most of the time I can tell what my opponent is going to do before they do it. Sf5 is one of the few games where that ability is much harder to use because the game is so simple that people know what they are doing and can tend to mix it up, whereas in more complicated games people arenât even aware they are being read In that fashion.
I can still read people like this in dbfz, as an example.
Well, today was much better for ranked. Ended up with 2800 points and even had a 10 win streak with Miss Mesmerizing smile.
Could have been better if I didnât lose my cool after two laggy matches that started a losing streak.
I am so not ready for Latam South 1 next Saturday, but it will be fun.
I took the âsandbag/download aka spend the first match analyzingâ to heart when started to take SF alil bit more serious
Nowadays Iâll just extend that to 2 games in a FT3 so Iâll be done 2 games then come back with a 3 win streakâŚthe best thing is when theyâre not having ANY of that crap and finally start doing some unique stuff last game
SFV is fun but itâs still stale in many waysâŚif I have to teabag for 3 micro seconds to trigger a player to show me something different then Iâm going to do it. Everyone plays GuileâŚEveryone plays UrienâŚEveryone has an AkumaâŚEveryone has a Cammy⌠shit is ZZZZ
For what itâs worth I agree with a lot of your points.
Two other things I found interesting from that interview:
They sort of touched on this but experience plays a big role on being able to figure the other person out in that first 30 seconds. One of the reasons Daigo is good at it at this point is because the guy has been playing SF for a long time and has a big mental database of player archetypes and tendencies to draw on when he is building that 30 second profile.
I mention that because I think a lot of players especially at lower levels donât even know what theyâre looking at or for when theyâre observing the opponent (assuming they are doing that observation). Building that database takes a lot of time and effort when youâre starting out. This is my first real SF game Iâve played and really the first fighting game Iâve played seriously online so building that reference has been something Iâve been working on for the past like year+ and I still feel like I have a ways to go.
Daigo says what really matters is if you can give yourself a passing grade. What is amazing about that is how divorced of ego it is. No pride, no points, no prize pool. Just, can you give yourself a passing grade on how you played based on the criteria of playing well (which can be itâs own nebulous thing). It makes a lot of sense as to why he doesnât feel those nerves like Chris T or I do; when youâre only playing to try to achieve your own goals there isnât as much to worry/stress about. Just interesting to think about and maybe something good to work towards.
Random but always remember guys
If youâre going to have FLCL, wear a condom
Just found out my 19 year old cousin is preggo LOOOOOOOOORDDD NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SHE AINâT EVEN IN COLLEGE YET wHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
MY ANGEL looooooooooordddd I need to play some SFV
