Applicable Games Smash 64, Melee, Brawl, Project M, Smash 3DS, Smash Wii U

For most, if not all people, it’s impossible to actively remember your opponent’s every move during a match. Pattern recognition in Smash Bros must be balanced. Jackie Chan probably said, “To best know your enemy, best know yourself.” He might have been quoting Wesley Snipes. Too much time spent thinking of your opponent’s patterns and you’ll start playing sloppy. (Missed techs & bad spacing)





To balance pattern recognition in your meta, narrow it’s focus to situations that are most likely to create habits for players. Before I give an example I need to point out that percentage is also a factor in most situations





Actively remembering 2 patterns is an effective balance. One situation should be broad enough to cover all the characters. These are general reads.





High pressure situations commonly develop bad habits for players. What does your opponent do when their attack fails while in the neutral? For example, on the super rare occasions you face a Sheik, you’ll notice that short hop approaches are popular. Are they aggressive? Do they follow up failed short hop attacks with a jab or a grab? Do they switch it up with occasional spot dodges or shields? Maybe they play it safe and dash away to either reset the neutral or approach with dash dancing? At high percentages do they tighten up and shield too much?





If the Sheik is aggressive, Up-B out of shield is an effective option if you’re a Little Mac main. And if you’re not a Mac main, you’re probably playing Club Penguin which is why this guide is so confusing. If Sheik’s failed short hop attack follow ups are aggressive at low/mid percents, but more balanced at higher percents with shields, then grabbing out of shield is a solid option. And if Sheik is overly aggressive at high %, Up-B out of shield kills around 95%. If Sheik is conservative after failed short hop attacks and dash dances or dashes away to reset neutral, follow up with dash attacks or projectiles.





Other high pressure situations for general reads are landing and stage recovering patterns. Do they tend to recover to the ledge or do they tend to recover on stage with a Down-Air? (I’m looking at you For Glory Link.)





Maybe, your opponent doesn’t fall into any habits with their follow ups to failed attacks. But you have a second focus point. And the second focus point is how you measure the progress of your skill to read opponents.





When beginning to develop your skill, both focus points should be for general reads. As you better learn your character and it’s match ups, your second point of focus during a match should be more character specific. The general read option will serve as a placeholder for match ups you aren’t familiar with. When someone busts out a Duck Hunt Dog with some real game at a tournament, it's easy to become rattled and pulled away from playing your game. A second focus point will help keep you grounded when you’re frustrated with jank. (Jank is something you haven’t figured out how to counter or punish, yet.) As you develop more character reads, the game will begin to slow down and your pattern recognition will improve and eventually become a natural part of your game play. So what’s a character read?





Maybe you have superior frame data in a punish option for a character’s missed grab or shielded dash attack. An example of a character read is looking for patterns when ZSS uses a stun charge. Short charged stun shots are canceled by Little Mac’s jab & forward tilt. Some ZSS players have a habit of short charged stun shots with quick approach followups. They like to get to Mac quick enough to be struck by the second hit of his forward tilt. Luigi and Mario players sometimes have similar bad habits when quick approaching after a fireball, not knowing Little Mac’s jab/f-tilt eats fire.





How do you choose situations to focus on for reading your opponents? A game of Smash Bros is a collection of rock/paper/scissors situations. (attack/defend/grab) Maybe one of your attacks puts the opponent in a tumble animation with a spacing that you are comfortable with. For example, at mid % Little Mac’s forward throw puts the opponent in tumble animation with a spacing I feel comfortable with because it forces quicker decisions than forward throws at high %. At high %, the angle of Mac’s forward throw increases, which extends the spacing (leaving fewer safer follow up options) and allows more time for opponents to react.





So what does my opponent do after being in tumble animation from the forward throw? Do they cancel landing lag with an attack, like Link’s neutral-b? Maybe they’re more defensive and prefer to tech the landing (which creates another rock/paper/scissors situation when they decide to tech forward, away, in place) or maybe they like to jump out of the tumble animation. Some players may use one of those choices as a way to set up grabs. An example of that is a Donkey Kong that’s looking for the jab so it can be followed up with a grab… which is usually followed up by some salty jank cargo throw. You suck Donkey Kong. You kidnap princesses, you aren’t responsible enough to take care of some bananas, and wearing a tie is the least impressive thing I’ve seen a monkey do.





Seeing Smash as a series of rock/paper/scissors situations helps build the foundation for your ability to read opponents. Knowing when your opponent is going to attack is how you begin building your skill. As you get better, you’ll begin knowing when your opponent is going to attack and which attack option they are most likely to use in specific situations.





Attack/Defend/Grab is a wide beginning to improving your ability to spot pattern recognition. From there you’ll slowly narrow down to character specific pattern recognition. This approach to pattern recognition allows you to know how to stay out of trouble in the beginning, which transforms into knowing how to punish opponents as your skill develops over time.



Reading opponents is a skill that can be practiced. We call them ‘hard reads’ because it sounds cooler than ‘reads’. Don’t let the hype fool you. Reads aren’t luck.