This piece is a re-written excerpt of notes that I took from an August 2015 set I played against IPK. I wanted to share the intentional and unintentional decisions that can surface during a relatively tiny sequence. Because almost all of these plays and moves are done at the subconscious-level, the only time we can actively meditate on what can be improved on is during reflection, or match review.

Hopefully this helps those that want to know more about what they should be looking for to maximize their research / review experience.

I appreciate and welcome criticisms, comments, and questions.

Gfycat - YouTube

As of this writing, it's been precisely 4 months since this match was uploaded to YouTube. I can say with sincerity, that I'm a better player than I was back then, and I can also say, that I'm a worse player too. But that's the nature of playing this game and its various incarnations.

A Melee player named Dunk once quipped that "[Smash] is a conversation" and I feel like IPK and I have much to talk about when it comes to this match-up. It's the one match-up I've obsessed over for so long for various reasons. What I've learned from studying the subtleties of our exchanges over and over again is that I can pull deeper Smash concepts from focusing on small samples of gameplay. And the small sample we'll be focusing on today for this particular discussion is a 11 second sequence in match 1 of my loser's set with IPK at PM in the PM.

It starts at 07:47 with a perfect shield.

One of my more predictable approaches include running into an opponent that is landing, and shielding their aerial. I do this, as expected, and I shield-grab. From here, the punishment chart opens up. If I throw the opponent, and he DIs correctly, am I prepared to react to a "failed" mix-up? Does the opponent tend to DI a certain way all the time? Will our positioning actually make a successful DI attempt from him the "wrong" choice? What about the percents?

Observe the throw, IPK's DI, and my responses.

Today, I know that IPK favors DI'ing for the back-throw. But back then, when I threw him, he flew outside of the range I expected him to fall in. You can see it in my pre-emptive dash, and my subsequent wave-dash back. I observe that he's off-stage and I jump up to hit him with full needles. While I successfully maintained momentum and positioning, I can still learn so much from this throw alone based on some micro-failures and micro-successes.

For starters, look at the position from which I threw him. I was very close to the ledge and me choosing to throw him backwards was all-around gain, as opposed to a 50-50 that most people think Sheik's throws devolve to. Because we were at the right distance and he fully DI'd away, he was immediately off-stage. I could have hit him earlier with needles if I didn't blindly dash in. Also, look at the Smashville platform. As it's moving away, it lessens the probability that it will interfere with the trajectory and path of my needles. I had a clear shot.

But what if he DI'd the back-throw in? He suffers more percent-based damage. Maybe a re-grab? Maybe an running Up-Smash? Because he was still at a very early percent, my goal is to tack on damage until he reaches at least 50% which will open him up to my dash-attack openers. Me getting that exact grab at that exact spot was perfect for me, and with more practice, I should be able to capitalize harder in the future.

After I needle him, you'll see that he immediately Up-B's out of habit or fear. If are to follow theory, that was a bad choice for him because his Up-B would overshoot the ledge and whatever angle he chooses from that distance would leave him vulnerable unless he expends aura. In the back of my head, I think I knew this because I jumped to punish with Fair, but I misjudged the distance and was clipped by his Up-B.

Regardless of him clipping me, you'll see that he was in a tough spot, therefore he expended the aura to cancel his Up-B into a very risk Nair. This was out of fear or habit. Fair or Uair would have been better options, because they would have had less lag on landing and come out slightly faster. I can only assume that he chose Nair for the priority and the knockback, but I was not hit. I flubbed on landing and instant Uair'd and I was on my way to landing on the worst possible spot: right in front of him.

For this brief millisecond, IPK played like himself. As I was landing from my Uair, you'll see that his Lucario crouched pre-emptively. He must have been thinking that I was going to land with a Fair and he would have crouch-canceled it and punished accordingly. But at some point he changed his mind, and IPK intercepted my Fair attempt with a Fair of his own. He was being aggressive. This was a very good choice by him. Lucario's Fair is his fastest aerial, and it's great for picking at landing opponents. It also combos very well (as we'll see at the end of the match).

I am now panicking. When I land, I immediately go into shield, fearing the worst, but I already know that getting stuck in shield against Lucario is a horrible idea when he is approaching with aerials. He Dair'd and I rolled back, twice, because I feared a follow-up. I end up on the other side of the stage at super disadvantage with him right in front of me.

My instinct was to get back to center and reset this scenario. I used jab, which covered almost all of his options except for holding shield and rolling away. He shielded in time because he probably felt open after whiffing his dash-attack, but he threw away a good choice by spot-dodging. But I threw away this great opening by not reacting fast enough. I had enough time to notice that he was spot-dodging, wait for it to end, and then grab, but I went for a SHFFL-Fair on his shield, and even drifted closer to him, which placed me in shield-grab range. But another twist! He attempted to shield-grab, as expected, and I toss out another a jab to intercept that. Once he's in stun, I confirmed and attempted a dash-grab as he ran away. My mistake was pivot-grabbing when I didn't mean to, but I'll have to live with that.

Again, we should have been paying attention to percents. With Lucario at 24% it was very risky of me to go for the jab-to-dash-grab. Lucario recovered from the hit-stun way too early. In fact, he was able to start dashing away. In this scenario, IPK could have gone for a jab of his own to stop me, and any traction I scrambled to build, would have been thrown aside. And when I missed the actual dash-grab, he shielded because he was afraid of the dash-attack. Unless Lucario is above the magic percent (50%), we both should have been aware that if I dash-attacked I would be leaving myself incredibly open. It should never work because of how Lucario can crouch-cancel. This part of the exchange is incredibly sloppy and it shows just how oblivious we were at the time.

Yet, with Lucario stuck in shield, and our backs to each other, I'm actually in a good spot. Lucario cannot do anything out-of-shield that would hit me. When he tried to back-air and I reacted with a spot-dodge, I could have grabbed him. Unfortunately, I was afraid and I executed a panic double-roll and he missed his attempt at a crouch-cancelled down-tilt.

But either we're back in neutral again.

So what did I lose, and what did I gain? From the early part of the exchange, I had him off-stage and I predicted his recovery; he was dead-to-rights; I had my prey. So I lost that, and I also lost psychological balance because I was letting fear dictate and cripple my movement and execution. Granted, he was afraid too because he made a few suspect decisions, but it's important to note that much of Smash Bros is guess-work and gambling. He was never guaranteed to die, nor was he guaranteed to get back momentum and control. When playing Smash, you learn to accept that the guarantees are rarer than the vocal minority would have you believe. Clearing your mind, and also coming to terms with the emotions and habits that your body generates under specific triggers will also make you a better player.

My next targets? Wario, Game and Watch, and Fox.

TL;DR

• Keep an eye on percents
• As Lucario be mindful of your Up-B travel distances as you may put yourself in a bad spot
• Understand that even if you missed your ideal punish, consider back-up plans to maintain momentum and the punish
• Review a match with questions on hand, so that instead of wasting your time looking for questions, you'll be answering them as you review your matches
• Study how you react to stressful situations and most forms of pressure, count how many times you repeat the same escape and watch if your opponent catches on
• Even if you're down and losing and rolling away and executing all of your worst habits, do not be afraid and do not panic. You are playing a game, and you can maintain composure. Focus on tiny victories and let those carry your momentum.