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Tom Hammerschmidt's Road to Relevancy

Nine

Nine

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Big Band
What's up, SGC? I have decided to make a training diary to document my journey towards becoming a competitive player - fun stuff! Let's get to the bullet points:

My first brush with eSports games began with StarCraft II when that launched in 2010. I achieved Diamond (about top 20% of the player base) before moving on to League of Legends in late 2012, where I never got past Silver 5 (bottom 50%). I have played about 5 LoL games over the past year due to burning out and friends leaving the game.

In late 2014, I began learning Melee competitively and attending locals for it. I'm trying to get into Smash 4, as well.

As to how I even ran into Skullgirls in the 1st place? I was re-watching EVO 2015 top 8 for Melee, and saw the top 8 for Skullgirls in related videos sidebar. Seeing Sig play Big Band and SonicFox completely demolish the competition was more than enough to convince me to buy a 4-pack and give 2 copies of them to my friends. I still have one left, tell your friends! :D

As of today, I am currenty 131 hours deep. The more tiny improvements I make, the more I realize just how brilliant and difficult Skullgirls is. My goal is to try and be a serious contender within 2 years of playing and practicing (The same applies for Melee and Smash 4, but I'm on Skullheart, so we're gonna stick with SG dicussion ;p).

  • Mechanics: I need to try and improve my reaction times, blocking, hit confirms, and consistency with finishing combos. Nothing much else to be said other than practice, practice, and more practice. I have to be thinking a lot more as to where I am going to be hit. I also am horrendously slow at reacting to being grabbed. I want to try and make sure that for every 9 out of 10 stray hits that I get, I can convert them into full combo situations.

  • Resets and Burst Baits: I need to sit down, watch some top players play characters on my team, and take notes on what they do for resets and burst baits - plain and simple. I only have 1 legitimate reset for Double, and my Big Band Resets are too predictable. I need to grind out the Fukua reset loop from Dekillsage's youtube video.

  • Neutral Game: I am finally starting to not get hit way less, but it still happens too often. I need to be WAY more proactive in knowing where both me and my opponent are on the screen, along with what hitboxes and assists we can use to keep one another in check. I need to watch more tournament VODs to see how top players react in the many situations that is the Skullgirls neutral game.

  • Playing Sets: I need to not play Quick Match as much and try and find sets with players around my skill level. I have to play some serious sets, and take mental and written notes on where I went wrong, and what I can do to improve/prevent certain things that my opponents do in said sets. I also need to start attending locals in my scene (where my BC BOYS at??).

  • Characters/Teams: I am absolutely in love with this team, and all three of these characters are super fun to play for me. I have no qualms with the current order, and I don't think I will ever be changing characters/teams during my time playing this game. The only problem I have is that I have no idea what assists to use when against a heavy zoning team.

    I currently run Fukua (H Drill) + Double (L Bomber) + Big Band (L Beat Extend) for my standard team and H Drill + H Bomber + H Brass for zoning teams. Is the H bomber fine for teams with Peacock/Robo, or should I use L Bomber? M Bomber!?

  • More personal goals: Within 2 years, I want to try and become a top 10 player in Canada, while being a noable Big Band player in North America - I just want to rep The True North and my favorite fighting game character 8)

  • I need to get my fundamentals down pat, I need to watch top players play the neutral and copy their resets and burst baits, I need to play more serious sets, and I don't know what assists to pick against a zoning team. I want to get pretty good at this game.
  • I think I might get a twitter, youtube, and stream set up. The community is pretty cool, and it would make the improvement process even more fun!
 
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Hammerschmidt said:
I currently run Fukua (H Drill) + Double (L Bomber) + Big Band (L Beat Extend) for my standard team and H Drill + H Bomber + H Brass for zoning teams. Is the H bomber fine for teams with Peacock/Robo, or should I use L Bomber? M Bomber!?
I don't feel like H Bomber is effective at countering zoning. It has good hitboxes but since it has no actual invincibility it tends to bump into a projectile before reaching the zoning character. H Brass is very good against zoning though. You shouldn't need two different assists just to counter full screen zoning anyways, that's kind of overkill.

Actually now that I'm looking at it, your main team is also overkill in that you have two different reversal assists. If you have L Beat Extend on your team when are you really going to call L Hornet Bomber? I'd change that to M Hornet Bomber for a neutral assist that you can use to complement Fukua's zoning.
 
mcpeanuts said:
I don't feel like H Bomber is effective at countering zoning. It has good hitboxes but since it has no actual invincibility it tends to bump into a projectile before reaching the zoning character. H Brass is very good against zoning though. You shouldn't need two different assists just to counter full screen zoning anyways, that's kind of overkill.

Actually now that I'm looking at it, your main team is also overkill in that you have two different reversal assists. If you have L Beat Extend on your team when are you really going to call L Hornet Bomber? I'd change that to M Hornet Bomber for a neutral assist that you can use to complement Fukua's zoning.

Wow, I did not think about that at all regarding H Bomber. Looks like I'm going to stick with my Fukua assist, and just run M Bomber + L Beat Extend for my main team, with L Bomber and H Brass for the counter-zoning team. Thanks McPeanuts!

As for the continuation of my training diary, I don't have a lot of time to play the game until most likely Saturday or Sunday. I'll probably take notes on some recent tournament VODs throughout the week, and hopefully post my learnings on here later!
 
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Life has been really busy for me lately, so I will get to watching some VODs and sharing my notes hopefully soon! Looking forward to finally playing again lmao
 
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Should probbaly give the 2 people who check this thread occasionally a brief update:

Despite what I said about how much I love my current team, I might switch Fukua and Double in favor of Peacock point and Filia - these are the characters that I was initially interested in learning along with Band, but decided to play other characters because I had no idea what teams were good together. Big shoutout to @Skarmand for always being such a big help with all of my silly questions!

In terms of assists, I have no idea what my assist would be for point Peacock, but I think running H Updo and H Brass for Filia and anchor Band would cover a lot of different situations and teams.

As for the set that I decided to analyze, I am going to watch and take notes on the Sig / Dekillsage set at NEC16, as per recommendation from Skarmand/Liam! Really hype set, and I'm looking forward to sharing my notes when I have the time to sit down and really break down what the two players do with Big Band for resets, general neutral stuff, etc.

The Peacock and Filia thing is mostly an impulse decision that has resulted from me being unable to play and only think about the game as of right now. I understand that there is nothing wrong with Double and Fukua and that they are according to some people one of the more stronger characters in this game, I just want to try Peacock and Filia because... I honestly just like watching and playing these characters more!

Also, I am SUPER looking forward to watching Combo Breaker! Rooting for the BC boys to pull through into top 8 d(^.^)z
 
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Hammerschmidt said:
In terms of assists, I have no idea what my assist would be for point Peacock, but I think running H Updo and H Brass for Filia and anchor Band would cover a lot of different situations and teams.
Any of Peacock's bomb assists are pretty good. L Bomb stays out for a long time and can make your character difficult to approach. M and H bombs can be used for setups or to help you get in. Other than the bomb assists, M item drop is also a good setup assist and is more difficult to dodge than M or H bombs, but you have to be pretty close to use it. s.HP is a serviceable lockdown assist that can also be used as a projectile at neutral.
 
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If you're picking up Peacock/Filia/Big Band, I'm surprised you weren't reccomended to follow Beamsprouts, he's a good player that uses that shell and I love seeing him (+ the rest of Norcal) play. Hard to find recent stuff though, so I grabbed some matches that should give you an idea on what to do,


 
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Rattlesnakes, I meant to bring up Beamsprouts but it slipped my mind.

I really like the way Beamsprouts uses L Bomb assist with Big Band. He'll set it up so that the bomb is between him and the opponent, then he'll use A-Train. Even if they block or don't jump, the bomb being there usually keeps Big Band safe.
 
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I have an interesting question I'd like to ask everyone regarding competitive mentality. To preface this, I will dish out a brief story.

In StarCraft 2, there are 3 races that you can choose to play - Protoss (Blue Alien), Terran (Humans), and Zerg(Hive-minded, often purple and insect-looking aliens). The progamer Stephano was asked at an interview why he chose to play Zerg, and he simply said this:

"Because I believe that Zerg is the strongest race. Isn't that why everyone picks the race that they play?"

I thought this was one of the most enlightening tid-bits I have ever found regarding playing to win and competing, and feel it can be easily transferred over to fighting games. Now I'm not going completely overboard and saying that this applies to EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER mind you (Having this mentality with Dan in USF4 or Kirby in Melee won't get you far IMO), I just think it can be applied quite fantastically to top tiers in many FG's.

I also understand the traps that this mindset can place you in by thinking that you have more options than you actually do in XYZ situation, however I think that the confidence boost compensates for it - Running into someone in bracket with such a huge amount of confidence in their characters is terrifying.

TLDR: If you believe that your characters/team is busted (within reasonable limits), then it can really elevate your performance and results, IMO.

If anyone disagrees with my thoughts on this, please let me know! I'd love to have some discussion on it.

Another note to myself:

Homework videos to review:
-Dekillsage vs. Sig - NEC 2016 (learn Big Band tings)
-Beamsprouts vs. Shademoneh - Youtube set (Take a LOT of notes, this is your developing team in action!)
 
Gonna jot down a few brief updates on my CB 2016 thoughts + updated list of videos to watch:

- Sonic's Filia is OUT OF CONTROL LMAO. Definitey am going to have to steal like, everything he did with her for this tournament - or at least attempt to do so.
- 159man is amazing.
- I wish Liam/Skarmand would have gotten a biiiiiiiit further cuz Canada bias, but I don't think that anyone can fault him for how amazing he played. Congrats man, you deserved it!
- McPeanuts + Kai are easily my favorite commentary duo. Great syngergy, and both do such a great job with their individual roles when commentating.

Players to watch to steal tech/other things from:
Peacock: SwiftFox + McPeanuts
Filia: SonicFox + WingZero
Band: 159man + McPeanuts and Dekillsage if I get the time after watching all of the other good stuff LOL

-A chunk of CB 2016 top 8 and 16!!!

-Shademoneh vs. Beamsprouts (youtube set)

-Beamsprouts vs. Dolfinh (Who Y'all Like, the one with the Mayor + Pickles set)

I don't have as much free time as I would like for SG this summer, yet I still want to try and put in a serious effort in improving with a team consisting of characters that I originally wanted to play.

It might not be right away, but expect big things from Tom Hammerschmidt. Looking forward to coming back here and asking dem good questons!!!!
 
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Wow, I must be giving everyone who looks at this thread a major headache with my character switches - THAT'S RIGHT, ANOTHER ONE!

I love love love Peacock and watching top players pick people apart with her zoning is so cool, but.... Zoning really just isn't my thing. I didn't really have a lot of fun practicing and learning zoning patterns with her, and I have found that to be a trend in other games as well - so I'm bringing back Double for my team's point. Sorry Peacock Players!!

Double point is just.. Wow. Super fun to play, really versatile and potent character in general IMO, and Car -> Gregor DHC so Filia can get in on 'em? Count me in! This brings me back to my assists being M Bomber +H Updo + H Brass. If anyone else thinks I should use another assist for Double, then feel free to correct me! I decided a neutral assist like this would be good b/c if in any situation I have Band out while both my guys are still alive (but actually girls), he's covered. If Filia is out while the other 2 are still in, M Bomber and H Brass can be used to help her close the distance.

Pretty happy that I finally have built a team that matches how I want to approach the game + consists of characters that I enjoy playing.

Once again, life has been more hectic for me than I would like, so my training is going to be pretty sparse. My list of matches to watch and take notes on literally changes with each time I post, so I will drop another revision for it:

Videos to watch:
1. Pretty much all of CB 2016 Top 16 lmao. Just watch top players play your characters and take notes!

The next time I post, I will ACTUALLY make sure to share some notes on what I watch. I've been putting it off for the longest time, and I'm sure all the empty promises are getting a bit annoying, LOL

Two questions for y'all:

1. What top players are in the SGC that are known for their Double? From my newbie perspective, it just seems like a lot of strong players happen to have a Double but it doesn't seem to be the defining factor for why they are so good. Once again, I could be wrong.

2. Is there like, a certain playstyle that Double is played in that makes her really strong? It seems like she can be pretty fluid (lol) in terms of how you can play her, making her just a versatile character overall. Buuuuuuuuut what do I know? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
I finally slapped myself to my senses! I'm back to my original team with a key adjustment: Big Band mid. McPeanuts gave a really enlightening explanation on why his team order is so strong, and I realized that works really well with my current team.

If I'm point Fukua and I get abolutely BODIED, I am almost at 2 bar of meter already. I get Big Band incoming, where I can SSJ -> Safe Double DHC which gives me my L Beat Extend back. In terms of actually playing video games? I played some casual matches with a friend, and I'm already loving this team + recognizing silly mistakes/habits.

If I get time today, I will watch a set from Combo Breaker 2016's Top 8 and write notes. For real.
 
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My journey towards serious improvement as a competitive player is on indefinite hiatus until furter notice. Just way too much real life stuff that I have to deal with right now. Hopefully I can get back to the grind soon! :)

In the meantime I'm just going to be chilling and trying out new characters and teams. See what I find the most fun to play, essentially.

I'll also be on the SG discord where anyone and everyone can chat with me if they like - I promise I'm all right lol. I made a twitter too, feel free to add me @ TomHammerShmit !

I'd like to thank all of the players that have chimed in and have given me advice, I really appreciate it. I'm already counting down the days until I can get back on the road to improvement.
 
Ayyy I'm back and I'm playing Receita's team. Val is LOTS of fun.

I'm gonna keep this brief. I'm going to watch Receita's Kumite that happened recently so I can get a solid grasp of how this team works, and jot down some notes on cool stuff that he does with the team. Other than learning a solid Val combo, I think I now have my work cut out for me.

Now I just have a question for @mcpeanuts : Does the Double + Beat Extend vortex get a lot weaker if I use M Extend instead of L? I really like L, but Receita and other players kinda sold me on M Extend with how it's a stronger alpha counter and can give a bit more assistance with blockstrings, etc. TLDR: I'm unsure whether to run L or M extend with this team. Double is definitely my strongest character, if that helps at all.
 
Hammerschmidt said:
Now I just have a question for @mcpeanuts : Does the Double + Beat Extend vortex get a lot weaker if I use M Extend instead of L? I really like L, but Receita and other players kinda sold me on M Extend with how it's a stronger alpha counter and can give a bit more assistance with blockstrings, etc. TLDR: I'm unsure whether to run L or M extend with this team. Double is definitely my strongest character, if that helps at all.
I think it works with both. The only thing I know for sure only works with L is the OTGless conversions off ground throw, which I don't even usually remember to do so I don't know why I still insist on using L lol
 
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Annnnnd I'm back to Filia! I like Val's movement, but her combos felt kinda... eh. Not my thing. I'm going to enter Get Gr8 this weekend, where I can finally get comments on my gameplay! I will upload the replays too when that is done, so people won't have to sift through the entire VOD.
 
Get Gr8 Upd8:

Here is where my 3 flat matches begin versus Royal, and here is where my flat 3 matches begin versus Salty Eliza.

I'm gonna rewatch them later today and elaborate a little more in-depth, but here are a few things where I go wrong(apologize if this is scrambled as hell):

vs Royal:
---------------------
-I pushblock obvious and unsafe moves A LOT. When I see stuff like Beowulf raw tag, I just pushblock when I can get a free punish. I think an easy but not-so-permanent fix could just be to recognize slow and unsafe stuff and make the effort to just not pushblock them.

-I keep trying to punish stuff with Filia using c.lk and end up being just too short or geting out-poked. I think in the situations where that happened, I should just do stuff like IAD j.hp or just block because they probably threw a hitbox out before me.

-Dropped a LOT of combos. Practice, practice, practice.

-A bit disappointed with how I played Big Band during these matches. I need to work on just getting out beat extend when I need to use it, and making sure I am in safe c.lk/grab range when trying to get a hit or mix up my opponent.

- Need to be more on the ball when DHCing into Double when I use Gregor.
---------------------

vs Salty:
---------------------
-After playing a few warmup games with Salty I STILL GOT GRABBED AND AIR GRABBED A TON LMAO. Just have to be more aware of tendencies, and make sure I'm not holding down on the stick when attempting to tech a grab.

-I'm playing too lame as Filia when against a solo with the life lead.

-I'm also being really predictable with my offense as Filia, too. It feels like everyone just blocks anything I throw out as her.

-And another meh Big Band performance!! I should have been quicker in converting off of the OTG with my Sweep -> H Extend in my midscreen combo.
---------------------

If anyone has any comments/constructive critique, I'm all ears!
 
I've been playing duo Big Band/Double for one big reason:
  • Big Band Fundamentals: As much as I hate to admit it, I basically only knew how to call M Extend (Be it a good or bad assist call is another problem in itself). I wanted to change that. Playing Big Band point has already improved my neutral marginally (but noticably!) and I honestly might prefer this order. Safe DHCs rule. I also am going to stick with this order (and keep playing duo) because it's a lot of fun! I noticed I play a lot better when I am enjoying myself, or playing characters/teams that I have fun playing. I might run L extend again, but I'm undecided.
  • Picking a 3rd character (yet again): I know I have talked about this a jillion times, but I'm just going to list all of the candidates.
  1. Cerebella - I like doing the big damage, and watching Mocktopus and Mike Z play Bella/Band teams have made me think "Man, that is how I want to approach the game". Being able to delete my opponent's health bar off of one opening sounds like too much fun (Might be difficult in a trio, but hey let's try it out).

  2. Eliza


    Nuff said.

  3. Beowulf - Similar to Cerebella, but I thought of a team with Point Beo behind L Luger + H Brass. A little less damage than a Bella team but oki setups backed by H Brass?? Sign me up.

  4. Filia - I played Filia earlier, but I got disheartened with her when I realized how awful I am at getting a clean hit with her and converting into full combo. If I played her again, it would definitely have to be 2nd. Gotta love fullscreen L Luger -> Car -> Gregor.
  • I've also decided to buy a fightpad when I am done with errands/RL stuff this week. I was thinking of a Hori Fighting Commander 4, but might consider a slightly cheaper one (thinking of a default PS3/PS4 controller). The main reason? I didn't have enough room to pack in my crummy Hori Mini!!! ;_;
I really dislike the noise that fightstick buttons make anyhow, so I'm not gonna miss the Mini any time soon.

  • I also want to try and get in a serious set every weekend now that school is rolling around for me. The goal is for me to record the set, and jot down notes on where I went wrong, and hopefully SGC peeps could give me their 2c as well(I'm now on EC, so holla at me). Oh, and watch top player sets and steal tech/neat things that happen in their neutral + combos.
 
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Hammerschmidt said:
Filia - I played Filia earlier, but I got disheartened with her when I realized how awful I am at getting a clean hit with her and converting into full combo. If I played her again, it would definitely have to be 2nd. Gotta love fullscreen L Luger -> Car -> Gregor.
Since you also listed Cerebella, I should mention that this also works with her, as long as you save your OTG. L Luger > Car > Dynamo > OTG f.HP + Beat Extend assist. After the assist you can hit them with basically whatever you want. You need to make the car come from the side closer to the opponent in order to save the OTG.

Also, depending on the distance to the corner, sometimes Car > Dynamo gets you a full combo by itself. Keep in mind you can DHC late in order to choose which side Cerebella comes in on, that can help you carry the opponent to the closest corner.
 
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My Hori FC4 is about to ship, so I'm pretty hyped for that. Cya, Mini!

I've decided to pick Filia for my 3rd character, and it's for an emotional justification rather than a logical one.

I always had fun playing Filia over almost every other character (minus Double and BB of course), and I'm going to listen to that gut feeling. I have more fun playing her and watching her over other characters, so it's gotta mean something, right? I'm sticking with this team for good now, because funny enough I have now gone full circle in terms of the characters I first started playing the game with. That, and I feel like this team already is quite strong to boot.

As for what I'm going to do with the rest of this diary? I probably will talk about my results in online tournies and keep asking the good people of the SGC those good questions on what I can do better.

Some mental notes before I go to sleep:

1. Watch the VODs for CB 2016 and review SonicFox on Filia, and McPeanuts for Double + BB. Gotta take notes on neutral, because man I need to develop one.
2. Develop/copy a corner and midscreen combo for all 3 characters.
3. Try and enter an online tourney or FG local once a week to get more competitive experience.
4. Stop overthinking about the game, and just play the game with the characters you have fun playing (Your favorite characters).
5. Man up and ask some players for sets. Keep them at FT5's to keep yourself honest and on a deadline to make adaptations within a tournament set.

****SUPER IMPORTANT SELF REMINDER****

Stop caring about others' results and progress in SG, and focus on yours alone. Be process-oriented rather than results-oriented and try and have more specific goals when you try to adapt/improve mid-game.

Who cares if someone has X less hours played than you and is outplacing/outplaying you? Focus on YOU, and focus on playing well and improving. Nothing more, nothing less.
 
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I'm currently playing Big Band/Filia/Double because calling M Extend has been a huge crutch in my play, lately (thanks to Keninblack for the advice). The goal behind this is to improve my neutral and to only call my assists during times when it actually makes sense, rather than saying "Huh, M Extend is pretty good, why not I just call it now? I might (hint, will) get double snapped when I get punished for it but ehhhh who cares".

My biggest problems I have seen in my play over the last few weeks:

  1. I get on tilt REALLY easily against Fortune, Peacock and Bella. I need to learn those matchups, no excuses.
  2. My conversions off of random hits in neutral/scrambles SUUUUUCK. Gotta grind out various hit-confirms for Band/Doulbe/Filia.
  3. Stop dropping really easy links in your combos!
  4. I still flub my DHCs, and supers for combo enders. Practice practice practice.
  5. Practice the DP input over and over and over again until it's strictly muscle memory. 9 times out of 10 I NEVER get Extend/Updo/L Bomber when I need it in a match.
  6. Reaction times are not where I want them to be. I can see Para b.HK from a mile away, and I STILL get hit by it.
  7. Probably my most important one: Static defense. Cadenza pointed that out to me a few days ago, and now it's crystal clear. Too often I autopilot and only upback, and I get punished repeatedly for it. My adapatation to that? Exclusively downback! Inevitably, I get punished for that, and now I'm in a vicious circle where I can't play the video game.
What I am going to do next weekend: I will play FT3's against people (be it my skill level, top player, or day 1 player), and record the entire set. I will look over my mistakes, and try and take note of what I did wrong. Seeing the trends of my mistakes could really see what I should focus on first, especially when I can quantify how many times I do x or y bad habit.

If anyone watches my match analysis vid when that is uploaded, I will gladly welcome constructive criticism for both my SG gameplay as well as how I conduct my match analyses!

A parting note: Looking back on when I first joined the SGC with SG being my first fighter, I'm pretty proud of my progress. My Melee play is a lot better as a result of playing this game, and I have too much fun playing SG with buddies on discord. I don't know where I am going with this. : P Oh, I think I'm less free than I was when I started, so yay! Oh, and I also have been taking notes on top players. That has been super helpful
 
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Went 0-3 in Skullbats tonight, and forfeited my last one. I'm not mad at the tournament or any of the players, but at my own play and the bad connections that I had during the match. Was it from maybe other people using my network? Could have been, but I always have a stable connection vs many players. Today was an anomaly tho.

I fucking suck with Filia and Double. I uninstalled both retail and beta, and I'm unsure what I will do the next time I play.

I'm thinking another character in a duo with Band. I like being able to get a lot off of a single hit, while still having defensive options.

I'm just mad and disappointed at myself. I have spent 305 hours, and I am still garbage at this game. I feel like I should be a lot better than where I am now. I get that this is a whiny post, but I had to get it off my chest. I'm sorry if I came across as antagonistic to anyone who had to deal with me at Skullbats tonight.
 
Hammerschmidt said:
I have spent 305 hours, and I am still garbage at this game.

Hard thing to accept is that no matter how many hours you have in ANY activity, the way you spend those hours is much more important than the amount itself.
 
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If you're that frustrated it may help to take a break and play something else, or maybe even do something that's not a video game. It's fine to want to improve, but it's important to keep perspective that this is a thing you're doing for fun, and if it's not fun it actually has no value. Plus a lot of the time I find that when I take a break, when I come back to Skullgirls I have a fresh perspective and stuff clicks that wasn't clicking before.
 
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I appreciated the advice I received on here re. my mindset issues.

Right now, I am in a bit of an odd spot. I'm currently trying out Sev's Big Band team, and am really liking it. Now you may ask "Why, Tom??", and I get that. Why keep switching things up? To answer that, right now I was in a bit of a rut. My Filia movement is just too wooden with how much time I invested in her, and my old team plays around her as the main part of the team. If Double Dies, then I have my worst character with Beat Extend - which is still great, for the record - but against someone with good defense/zoning? I just straight up lose the game when 1/3rd of my team dies more often than not. I liked the setplay I could do with Filia c.MK, so I decided to crank that up to 11 and run Axe (M Extend/M Bomber/Axe). I really like how the team plays so far, and I've always wanted to learn Eliza.

Playing different teams is also helping me understand the game/other characters more, and it's fun! I might do this more often when I feel myself getting burnt out of SG. I also wanted to share some advice that Liam gave me a while back that still resonates with me. This was after Skullbats when I was complaining about my lack of progress and how much I sucked, how I wanted a new team, etc. He told me that the biggest thing holding me back as a player was I kept changing up my team/habits because I considred them "too strong", or "unfair". I kept trying to hide that from myself, but another perspective helped with me realizing that. Who cares if I run lame assists that prevent you from ever playing neutral against me? Who cares if I run assists that can replace my neutral during specific situations? I'm playing to improve, have fun, and to win. They're in the game, they aren't going away.

Below is a recorded set between me and Shuckle, a solid BellaBand player. I'm trying out my new team in this set, so... Feel free to roast how much I suck with Point Band / Eliza, haha.


Something spicy for y'all:
I've been thinking about my goals that I want to achieve in SG, so I want to try and set myself a lofty, but still-reachable goal. Here it is:

1. Be a top 3 player in the PNW region.

They aren't ready for me.
 
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Hey, I agree w/your points of playing different teams for fun/to keep interest & to understand characters more.
But if I'm playing someone really tough, I tend to just stick w/the mains.

That third match was a tough one, considering the life lead you had. A few things I noticed:

-Learn the full combo off that BE you nailed early in the match.

-4:51 After KOing Bella was a good time to switch out to gain that health back.

-You had some Band corner combos that were a bit on the short side: Maybe try pushing for longer combos from he B&B topic, etc.

-Be sure to convert off throws (I don't play Double, but I've seen her conversion in matches over the years- Flesh Step?).

-Keep it up!
 
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Some tips from getting bippity bopped today:

1. Further optimize my BB combos.
2. Practice random hitconfirm situations in the lab.
3. Note the links that I drop, and practice those in specific drills.
4. Watch footage of top Eliza players, and take a lot of notes on her neutral + various combos.
5. STOP DROPPING COMBOS STOP DROPPING COMBOS STOP DROPPING COMBOS!
6. Lab sliding knockdown setups with BB + Axe. Practice better non-corner resets with BB.
7. Keep recording my sets with better/noteworthy players.

I have a set with gllt that I want to post and go over later, but I won't be able to do any respectable self-reflection at this hour of the night. Another time!
 

Finally took a game, but that was more me just getting lucky rather than actually outplaying.

I've already re-watched this set more than a few times, but I will post my notes and reflections on it later tonight. Advice and constructive criticism is always appreciated - even if it's blunt! :p
 
Hammerschmidt said:
Finally took a game, but that was more me just getting lucky rather than actually outplaying.

I've already re-watched this set more than a few times, but I will post my notes and reflections on it later tonight. Advice and constructive criticism is always appreciated - even if it's blunt! :p
Stop calling your assists like they're Beat Extend (except for Beat Extend assist). If you're cornered there's absolutely no reason you should be calling Double or Eliza.

Learning the Big Band Emergency Brake conversion off throw would be helpful. It lets you save your sound stun for later in the combo, which is useful. Dash c.MK also works if you find that easier.
 
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One thing I noticed is your Eliza just sort of... died. She'd be incoming and then you get hit and then she was gone. Also, the one time you did get a combo in it was looking pretty standard until you got into the air then you did j.mp>j.hp>adc>j.mp which got blocked, I'm not sure what you're going for with that or if you just messed up the combo.
 
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mcpeanuts said:
Stop calling your assists like they're Beat Extend (except for Beat Extend assist). If you're cornered there's absolutely no reason you should be calling Double or Eliza.

Learning the Big Band Emergency Brake conversion off throw would be helpful. It lets you save your sound stun for later in the combo, which is useful. Dash c.MK also works if you find that easier.

The E-Brake conversion is something that I actually have been labbing out lately (My new favorite reset is ground chain -> s.HP xx H A Train E-Brake -> Air grab. Still trying to find more mixups for that), I just let my bad habits take over. I noticed that when I grab someone in the corner, I can just straight up hit them with c.MK rather than doing any sort of special conversion. As for the assist calls? Yeaaaaah, reallly bad habit. There is no excuse for calling Double like that, and I justified the super armor to be my excuse to randomly call her. Not gonna work against good players, and I just burn meter for no reason.

Salty Eliza said:
One thing I noticed is your Eliza just sort of... died. She'd be incoming and then you get hit and then she was gone. Also, the one time you did get a combo in it was looking pretty standard until you got into the air then you did j.mp>j.hp>adc>j.mp which got blocked, I'm not sure what you're going for with that or if you just messed up the combo.

You have no idea how surprised I am to see you post something not mentioning my apparent lack of hair :^)

In all seriousness, you're totally right, Salty! My Eliza consists of the Skullheart midscreen, and nothing more as of right now lmao. As for that air chain that you noted, it was just me being nervous since my Eliza is garbage and me being like "holy crap I got the hit vs a guy who is better than me but Im so bad with this character compared to my other 2 dont fuck up dont fuck u-"... I'm sure you get the picture.

I think my biggest problem with Eliza is that I don't really know what normals/specials she has that she centers her neutral around. I know boat is good for getting through projectiles, you can use Upper Khat to dodge some mashed supers like Car, c.MK is just plain unsafe and free to pushblocking... Other than that and the good stuff like iad j.LK, I'm unsure how to avoid getting hit and landing the hit with her.
 
Tom what the heck! I told you if you were to pick up Eliza I'd be super happy to help you learn eliza. smh, you better ask me for a training room when you get time :^)
 
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Now I feel bad for everyone who watched my video and gave me advice... Cuz now I shelved Eliza and am back to Filia, a character I am definitely more comfortable with, yet I always justify that I suck with her compared to other characters. I like how she plays and I enjoy the cool role she plays in this team order (Pickles' BB team with different assists, MBomber/c.MK/MExtend). My next final exam is in a week, so I think tonight will be where I get in a bunch of sets with people (I was thinking sets with my main team DB/FI/BB and some 1v1 sets w/ Solo Filia).

Things to take away here:

1) Stop rationalizing your team choices and play what you like, dammit. I have fun playing Filia. Who cares if she is your worst character? Just play her and get good.

2) Watch some Filia players

3) PRACTICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4) I also have to be patient with my pushblocks/blocking in general - that has been a huge hole that I only noticed recently (shoutouts to tossle).

I also feel like I've been improving a lot as a player in general, lately. Might just be me, but the optimism will help me out regardless.
 
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I'm really frustrated with the Double vs. Parasoul matchup. I'm don't know what to do, even when I have one of the best neutral assists in the game behind me, with a character that has a good MU versus Soul.

I don't have any sets that I can show as of right now (I will record some with my main team when I have the time), but here are my frustrations, and maybe players can clear up some misconceptions I have.

1. I can't use jHP as much as I want to in neutral because Soul has amazing jumping light normals to call it out all the time. This leaves me trying to wait for the Soul player to mess up, rather than me being aggressive.

2. Napalm shot + zoning assists really limit my Double movement, so I can't be as ambiguous as I want to be in neutral. I don't know what to do to accomodate with her constantly doing that.

3. Her height makes me trying to do side-switch mixups really awkward. Maybe I'm just being a noob.
 
Welp, a lot has happened lately. I've ben playing Solo Filia A LOT in Quick Match, and that has helped me a lot in terms of learning how to play more intelligently in neutral rather than relying on my assists to give me solutions in neutral.

However, my dpad on my Hori FC4 is pretty much busted, and coincidentally I have also gotten more and more tilted with my progress and gameplay. Because this game is only making me more frustrated and upset whenever I play it, I'm just not going to bother playing it until I figure out how to improve this poor mindset I have whenever I play Skullgirls.

I don't know when I will get back to playing this game (if ever), but it has been a hell of a ride. Until next time.
 
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