Kopaka said: Went from solo training to training with a partner. The last two days of my solo training have been in repeating simple strings over and over and it has made a difference in my play with my partner. (Strings like dash forward wavedash down, dash forward wavedash forward dtilt) Like doing the same punch over and over again until the movements are condensed and you surprise yourself with a stronger punch, I've surprised myself with these strings working out in my favor, and seeing mental energy leaving the execution side over to the observing side. I haven't gone to a tournament since doing this so all the solo practice has just been put to use in training with a partner, but it's been really interesting. Click to expand...

Kotastic said:



http://kodorinssbm.blogspot.com/2018/05/572018.html

https://challonge.com/UCIweekly53 | https://www.twitch.tv/videos/258955312?t=01h28m40s



Additionally just yesterday, I competed again and got 3rd beating many good players and conquering hard matchups for me. I will have a lot of questions about various situations now that my tournaments are done for the week, but once again, thank you so much PP for giving me so much knowledge and advice throughout the months. <3 Monday, I had the craziest tournament run of my life placing 2nd, beating multiple SoCal PR players and top 100 level players. Words cannot describe how much this thread has contributed towards my current upward trend. I have written a blog post of my tournament run, along with bracket and streamAdditionally just yesterday, I competed again and got 3rd beating many good players and conquering hard matchups for me. I will have a lot of questions about various situations now that my tournaments are done for the week, but once again, thank you so much PP for giving me so much knowledge and advice throughout the months. <3 Click to expand...

Sylarius said:





PP, how do you think Zain has gotten so good at playing keep-out in neutral so fast? When I watch him he is specifically the Marth that will do SH falling fair and nairs in the right positions, and especially in the ditto vs M2K I saw him doing pivot sh fair a lot at ranges where M2K was in the corner (often shielding) and unable to attack him with anything quick because of the distance between the two.



Do you have any tips for me if I play M2K in the ditto this upcoming weekend? I should be second seed...



It seems like Zain tries to avoid putting himself in situations where he is close enough to the opponent to be hit, and doesn't have a hitbox out. And that he tries to play safe or to trade as much as possible, especially with his aerial placement. Plup also tweeted about how hard it was to hit Zain after their set. It seems different than how you play but I can't often remember you just running into a hitbox almost at all even though you are good at keeping up pressure and often bait them into whiffing at you, and when you do go for a grab in neutral it's rarely punished or expected even if it misses. Do you think you could explain some more?



In these interactions I put myself in a ton of bad situations in neutral, and I think it's because I'm overextending too much. I'm going to try and do some safe stuff and waiting next time I play vs Fox and be more careful or rare with how I approach, but do you have any other suggestions? Like he probably dtilted cause he knew I was just going to run up to him and then dtilt or panic shield. I usually took my time more in the past...

https://youtu.be/B2qAx25GS74?t=607



Edit: Like at 10:29, was my additional dash back not a bad choice? What would you have done in a lot of these situations? I was thinking he may buffer spotdodge or shine which is why I chose to wait more instead of immediately grabbing.



You don't have to answer this one and I'm honestly not sure if I should ask but at Smash Summit Leffen was saying how he knows the most about Fox:Marth in the world. But from what I remember, he didn't really listen to you when you tried to help him with the matchup. Has much changed in the way he approaches it and what he knows in your opinion? Good job dude ^PP, how do you think Zain has gotten so good at playing keep-out in neutral so fast? When I watch him he is specifically the Marth that will do SH falling fair and nairs in the right positions, and especially in the ditto vs M2K I saw him doing pivot sh fair a lot at ranges where M2K was in the corner (often shielding) and unable to attack him with anything quick because of the distance between the two.Do you have any tips for me if I play M2K in the ditto this upcoming weekend? I should be second seed...It seems like Zain tries to avoid putting himself in situations where he is close enough to the opponent to be hit, and doesn't have a hitbox out. And that he tries to play safe or to trade as much as possible, especially with his aerial placement. Plup also tweeted about how hard it was to hit Zain after their set. It seems different than how you play but I can't often remember you just running into a hitbox almost at all even though you are good at keeping up pressure and often bait them into whiffing at you, and when you do go for a grab in neutral it's rarely punished or expected even if it misses. Do you think you could explain some more?In these interactions I put myself in a ton of bad situations in neutral, and I think it's because I'm overextending too much. I'm going to try and do some safe stuff and waiting next time I play vs Fox and be more careful or rare with how I approach, but do you have any other suggestions? Like he probably dtilted cause he knew I was just going to run up to him and then dtilt or panic shield. I usually took my time more in the past...Edit: Like at 10:29, was my additional dash back not a bad choice? What would you have done in a lot of these situations? I was thinking he may buffer spotdodge or shine which is why I chose to wait more instead of immediately grabbing.You don't have to answer this one and I'm honestly not sure if I should ask but at Smash Summit Leffen was saying how he knows the most about Fox:Marth in the world. But from what I remember, he didn't really listen to you when you tried to help him with the matchup. Has much changed in the way he approaches it and what he knows in your opinion? Click to expand...

Kellen said: Hi PP! First off thanks for the advice earlier!



I have another question and its about time management and it might also relate to mentality. I've been struggling with trying to incorporate Melee and Tournaments into my life because every time I go to a tournament I lose out on time on my projects for Grad school as well as fall behind in my day job since I work from home. As a result, when the projects pile up, I can no longer make time for tournaments until about a month later and I feel like I lose any progress I just made because the progress doesn't get time to sick (if that makes sense lol). I still go to tourneys when I can but I definitely can't go as much as I used to before. I had much more time as an Undergrad. My friends keep telling me that its fine because I have other obligations but I don't want to accept that as an excuse for being a low level player. I'm sure other people have had other commitments and still managed to improve. How do you balance out time for Melee and other important things? Are there time commitments and schedules that you abide by that you just never drop? Click to expand...

Sorry for the delayed response today everyone. I was busier than usual, but that also included playing Melee. I was playing $mike some and decided to test Uthrow Utilt when Marth is at the lower port vs Falcon's DI forward on Uthrow(mix this with Fthrow to get this DI). You can still get the Utilt at 25% if you're the lower port(closer to 4) but not 24%. I don't know if Kadano ended up testing ports or whatever when he did his Falcon throw chart, and this obviously doesn't matter if they don't DI in(you could probably still get DI behind a couple percent later) but even if it is common knowledge that's important to remind people of. I also did some legit stuff like reversal killing out of an edgeguard setup with a reverse weak Uair starter lol, but anyway on to the questions.Awesome I'm glad it's working! I think this type of improvement is very healthy, and let's you go into tournaments with a clear focus of how you want to play a deep connection with the game. If you're also seeing more observation come out already, that's a really good sign as well as it means your gameplay will be flexible even under pressure.Yo beating Squid and Faceroll? Very nice man keep it up!The Marth babies are growing up and I'm mad proud of you all <3Zain plays much more with attacks than I do. This zoning style hasn't been done well since Ken and Azen so it's normal to see it as odd. Threatening with Marth's big range and using movement as a mixup or way to move that range is how you think of Zain's play, instead of using movement to change your threats around more often while establishing them less. If anything, Zain's play should be easier to follow than mine because his is based on very clear threats, though he hasn't refined the play quite enough to always make a conscious decision yet. As for specifics, Zain may do late Fair into fadeback AC Nair to catch any ambitious attempts to punish his Fair lag and also to give him a minimalistic action that lets him observe his opponent.That extra dash back didn't really help you much there since Fox could still quickly reach you. I'd say retreating Bair/Fair/Nair maybe(Fair/Nair out of dash away pivot) or just WD away would all be more effective options. Really though Fox landed beside you in lag as he drifted forward, so it should be a free grab and not a dash away or anything, but if you reacted late or just wanted to move away those are your options.Glad I could help!And while I don't think I ever have or ever worked with someone in your situation, this is how I'm thinking about it. I believe I'd focus on doing tourneys minimally and focusing much harder on practice and friendlies and analysis since you don't need to travel much or any for those and don't have kill your day for them. Occasional tourneys can be good, but to me tourneys are application of ideas. You can just build your ideas up for a while and keep improving that way and then occasionally apply super hard at tourneys. If this makes you unable to practice or analyze etc for a month as well, then it may not be worth doing tourneys until you get some free time. Even so, that doesn't mean you can't get better with the other methods I was talking about. You can find stronger opponents and run serious sets with them to apply your training if need be, so there are other solutions. And if you miss socializing, you can always drop by fests sometimes when you can control your time more freely. That's how I would approach it anyway, does this help?