Establishing Momentum



If you watch competitive matches you will often find that there are distinct periods in which one player is in control and the other is on the ropes. In high level matches these periods are much more brief and tend to fluctuate constantly during the match. In a match with someone who is vastly superior in skill versus someone of lesser skill you will likely see the highly skilled person dominate the entire match. At first glance, one would probably just assume that he was in control because he was simply a better player, and to an extent they would be right, but there is a lot more going on there than meets the eye.



Every seasoned tournament vet is very aware of the concept of momentum and the flow of the match. These concepts are very important in matches, because they have significant psychological effects. If one was to establish the flow of the match and hold it, one gains momentum. The more momentum one has, the harder it is for the opponent to overcome it.



Imagine that taking control of the flow is rolling a small snowball down a hill. The longer it rolls, the bigger it gets. Imagine that your opponent has to stop that snowball. Obviously, the larger the snowball, the harder it is to stop it. In effect, the opponent has to stop this psychological snowball. The longer you hold momentum the opponent begins to feel as if he has little control over the match, and if the opponent does not have a strong resolve he will in effect give up.



Brick Walls



So how does one take control of the flow and establish momentum? The answer is that almost anything can, but it has to be done properly. The most commonly used method is to establish a brick wall. A brick wall is a strategy or tactic that has a specific counter. The purpose of the brick wall is to put up an elaborate illusion that one is untouchable. Inexperienced players are easily stifled by brick walls, because they are unaware of the methods used to counter them, or they aren't prepared to fight the psychological battle it takes to effectively fight against them.



Brick walls can be as simple as abusing one move over and over, or it could be elaborate, such as an impeccable zoning/spacing game. Once you establish a brick wall your goal is to maintain it as long as possible. If your opponent finds a way to break down your brick wall, you should try to quickly establish another brick wall while you still control the flow of the match. At worst, one's opponent will be very agitated, but at best the opponent will feel completely hopeless.



The following are some examples of fairly common brick walls:



Tech chasing.

Spamming tilts and/or aerials with good spacing.

Shield grabbing.

Gimping.

Camping, or otherwise forcing your opponent to approach.

Abusing stage mechanics.

Low Strong. (Muahah!)



Like I said, almost everything can be a brick wall when done right. Just make sure to tailor it to your opponent.



Mind Games



My favorite way of establishing momentum is to actively trick my opponent and make them feel stupid. This is done by making use of good observational skills and abusing your opponents patterns and consistent mistakes, as well as just being unpredictable and tricky. In other words, using mind games. The effectiveness of this strategy is that it constantly makes your opponent second guess himself and have a hard time figuring out what you will do.



Ironically, the "tricky" things I mentioned could simply be inferior strategies, or something that usually just wouldn't work. For instance, short hopping at your opponent without attacking and grabbing once you land is generally a bad idea; however, if you have been playing an elaborate aerial pressure game that is also the last thing your opponent would expect you to do. If you succeed with this mind game then your opponent has something else to think about, will you keep up with your aerial game or will you go for another trick grab? It definitely throws a wrench in your opponents gears by being tricky and unpredictable.



Establishing Fear



Another effective way of garnering momentum is to establish fear in your opponent. Several characters in Melee and Brawl have powerful moves that lead to low percent kills. The best example of a character that is capable of abusing this strategy would be Marth. In both Melee and Brawl, Marth is feared for his devastating tipped forward smash. Because of the power of this move, people tend to fear it. Remember the section where I discussed giving yourself goals in a match? Well, here is a great application for that. By setting your goal in a match to getting as many tippers as possible, you are more likely to land them, and you would be more aware of opportunities to land them.



This is a riskier strategy than the others; however, the rewards it reaps are very much worth that risk. Unlike most brick walls, it will likely never deteriate if you establish this early on in your set, because this is the kind of thing that will be stuck in the back of their mind even after you lose the flow of the match. If done in conjunction with brick walls and mind games it could destroy the opponent's morale completely. This kind of strategy can quickly dominate a player, and also is the kind of thing that will linger long after your match is over. It can literally cause a person that would have done well at a tournament to completely flop.



Once fear is established, or one has taken a considerable amount of momentum, you can easily toy with your opponent. I remember seeing some very old but legendary Melee vids of Wes (the east coast Samus player) in which he would walk around and catch people in forward smashes. This would never, ever, work when I tried it. Why? Well, it was because I tried it on people who weren't scared of me, and I would try it when I wasn't in control of the match. In order for that to ever work on anyone that is at least decent, you would have to demoralize or scare them effectively and to the point that they second guess everything they do.



As a side note, it was this realization that was the catalyst for everything in this essay. Without Marth and his dangerous tippers and me being in a funny mood one day, I probably wouldn't have stumbled onto the importance of observation, momentum, and the general psychology behind high level play. I learned something very important then, the goal of competitive play is not simply to win, but to dominate the opponent. Let me be the first one to tell you, dominating someone in a match feels very good.



Regaining Momentum



Everything that I have mentioned in the previous section can be done to you as well. Being able to redirect the flow of the match is just as important as taking control of it. This is where your mentality becomes your shield, and why I stressed the importance of having a strong positive mentality early on in the essay. A positive attitude allows you to keep going and to keep analyzing the situation when things look the bleakest. Remember, if you give up, you will lose. If you keep going, you may perform a miracle. Amazing comebacks have happened many times, and they will continue to happen.



Never Give Up, Never Surrender



Yes, for those wondering I just quoted Galaxy Quest. Get over it. Anyways, I've said this many times, and even though you are probably sick of reading it, I will devote another paragraph to it. If you give up you will lose. If you give up you have no chance of victory. If you give up, you will likely suffer damage to your morale that will affect your other matches. Don't give up, if not for the sake of your current match, but for the sake of your morale. Even if I have lost a match, I feel far better if I gave it my all than I would if I gave up half way through.



Always Analyze Your Situation



Logic is your weapon against fear and doubt. If you are being shut out by a brick wall, mind games, or just fear itself, work it out in your head. If you feel your opponent is untouchable, realize that feeling is betraying you. No strategy is untouchable, it's just an illusion. Don't allow yourself to fall prey to it. No matter how daunted you get, keep changing up your approach until you find something that works.



If someone is tricky, keep tabs on what they are doing. Are they moving around a lot? If they are moving around then they seem like they are on the offensive; however, they could simply be trying to trick you into thinking that, and are using the movement to camouflage their true intentions. Are they using unorthodox tactics and strategies? If so, even though it does force you to be on your toes and think more than normal, these strategies are still inferior to the stuff you are used to. They usually have an easy counter, and the only reason it is working is more than likely a pattern that you have displayed in your play. Adapt to the situation, and shut out his strategy and then put the pressure on him.



If someone gets you scared, keep analyzing. If you are afraid, they are probably banking on that fear to help them out. They may try to bring in some of the above mentioned unorthodox strategies to throw you off more. Strengthen your resolve, let your logic do the thinking, and push fear to the back of your mind. Make sure that you aren't being too careful, and try to play as normal as possible. Try to use their strategy against them. If they rely on a single move, like a Marth tipper, then position yourself to where it is hard to land, or at least to where it minimizes it's effectiveness against you. Whatever you do, you have to maintain being a proactive player, because whenever you slip into just reacting you are one step closer to losing the match.



Learning Strategies for Momentum



Now that you have an understanding of the flow of the match and momentum you are ready to work on improving your ability to both take control of the flow and prevent the flow from damaging your morale. Here are some things you can do to help.



Know Yourself



Do you really know yourself? Do you know your habits? Do you know your tendencies? Do you know how you react when pressured? These are important questions you should ask from time to time. If you are having problems identifying these things there are two things you can do. One is ask a friend that you play. Hopefully he is willing to tell you about your problem areas and tell you what kind of patterns you typically fall into. If you don't have a friend like that, or want to supplement your knowledge of yourself even further, watch videos of your play. Look at them with the same eye you would an opponent. Analyze it, and detect holes in your play.



Know Your Opponent



Do you know your opponent well? If you do, what kind of person is he? Is he timid, confident, laid back? These are very important things to take into the equation. It determines how they will react in given situations. In general timid people tend to be more careful, but more susceptible to giving up. Confident people tend to gain control of momentum, but often lose it quickly if they get too complacent. Laid back people are sort of random. If you know the person well before hand you have an idea as to how things could play out. If you don't, don't worry too much about it, you can figure out what kind of person they are in the fight, and if you don't know them then they likely won't know you either.



Overcome Your Fears



Do you hate a certain matchup? A certain move? A certain stage? If so, it would do you a lot of good to practice and fight against the things that you are most afraid of. Training against them will help you find effective strategies, get you used to your problem areas, and also boosts your confidence. Tournaments are a lot less scary when you are not worried about running into *enter character here*.



Practice Yo Stuff Mangz



Do you not have a favorite brick wall strategy? You should at least have one, if not many. While some brick wall strategies are concocted on the fly for a specific opponent, there are many that you can learn by just investigating your character. Peruse the character specific threads at the smashboards, that's a good place to start. Remember, try one brick wall at a time.



If you been working on your observational skills for a while I recommend to start trying to work on being tricky and unpredictable. Develop a good sense for mind games, and get into the habit of thinking that way in your matches. Mind games are different than training other things, because it's so situational. It really has to become a habit, but you have to consciously try to do it for a good while before it becomes second nature. Establishing fear is in the same boat as developing mind games. A good way to practice these things is to set goals to be tricky/instill fear during practice matches and not worry at all about the outcome.



The Rest?



Everyone is different. Some people find developing tech skill is easy, while some struggle with it. Some people are capable of realizing and understanding mind games and observation skills early on. All in all, there are many many other ways of improving yourself I haven't mentioned. I can only vouch that these things have seriously helped my play, and helped me progress to the level I am now. I feel as if many people get so bogged down in "play to win" that they never spend time trying to learn. It is possible to purely play to win and become an incredible player, but that doesn't work for everyone. Playing to win doesn't mean that one should focus so much on winning that they lose sight of the big picture, which is becoming the best player they can be. Hopefully by reading this your mind has become open to many ways of learning and improving, and if some of these methods don't work great for you that you will seek other ways of improvement. In any case, I wish you, the reader, success in your gaming and non gaming endeavors.