Stop Watching Pro Replays

[@DigiMatt52]

Bold of you to assume us beginners are focusing on our opponent's character 😅😅 After 200 hours in Strive, I've only just recently began to try to not look at my character so I solely look at the opponent. Something I should have remember from learning how to drive a motorcycle - They had to teach us to NOT look down at the bike while we rode because, "It's not going anywhere without you."

[@baronbeefcake4701]

so it's better to focus on your opponent rather than yourself? I'm asking as a beginner myself.

[@clouddev8733]

@@baronbeefcake4701 yes it is, you know how you're moving and what actions you're making(or at least believe are making), only thing you need to know about your character is its positioning which normally comes naturally to most; watching your opponent though allows you to make faster reactions, evade properly, and also learn your opponents tendencies easier

[@HQRubbish]

Focusing on your opponent is ofc what you want to do mid-match, the tip is specifically for replay watching!

[@Marzimus]

@@baronbeefcake4701 That almost feels like learning everyone but the main, but as a casual fan of decades I'm not an expert by any means...

[@Stroggoii]

@@baronbeefcake4701 Depends, during neutral is good to look at your opponent so you can react faster. But it's also good to take long combos as a chance to glance at bars to check out the life/meter situation and some pros also look at life bars when fishing for a hit confirm because it's faster reacting to their opponent's life going down or not than their hit/block animation.

[@davidnew8202]

pfft, stop watching pro replays, yeah right, how else am I supposed to drown out my agonizing internal monologue

[@panetoneninjacanal2692]

One thing that i like a lot to watch is a youtuber showing a replay and explaining whats happening, it counters that problem of not knowing the context and its super useful

[@MrBranh0913]

Watching replays is crucial to learning. It’s crazy how little people watch their own replays. I’ve said the same thing about suggesting pro matches for beginners. An expert Blanka player isn’t going to spam 80 Blanka balls in a match where your Bronze opponent will. I think that is why practicing punishment is where most practice mode should be spent. What are your meteress punishes? What ranges should you fight at? Where can you dominate your opponent and also react to any “random” thing they do.

[@Stroggoii]

I hit 100 ranked matched in GBVS with an 74% WR. I had just done the tutorial and a couple arcade runs with my character before going online. But I also had been watching NLBC tournaments for 9 months. On DNFD I also did the tutorial and a couple arcade runs with my character before going online, but hadn't watched more than a couple combo videos before. And it took me 46 matches just to win one game. The amount of information we absorb by just watching intently is amazing. But it is true the experience to contextualize it is necessary as well. I was new to GBVS and DNFD, but have been playing fighting games since SSFII. Different learning tools increase or decrease in value as you learn more.

[@leonardoquintero1009]

Great vid! I find another reason beginners struggle with by watching pro players, or better players telling them how to learn, is that they are always addressing "what" instead of "how." What I mean is that a beginner is constantly told what they ought to do in certain scenarios, before they even understand how to be in those scenarios, or better yet, what it feels like to be in them. They are constantly told what certain moves are good for, yet they don't even know how to do the moves or how it feels to use them in a real match. This overwhelms new players, as they start looking for these very scenarios a top player discussed and start leaning on the moves a top player suggested so much so, that they miss any situation that comes by naturally, and lose before they see what the top player suggests, or if they do see it, they haven't built the natural feel to apply it in such a high-speed context. These "scenarios" come later, and just playing the game, getting a feel for things, while you slowly drill and memorize your moves, helps you start applying them in situations more naturally. Through experience, they begin to notice scenarios and apply moves accordingly, through their own feel for the game. Then, when they watch a pro player use these same moves optimally, they will A: Understand what move they are using, better conceptualizing the context in which they are being applied, and most importantly, B: recognize the scenario because they have been there before.

[@GohLow]

This is a really good video. I started watching more high-level matches, but have been very careful about what I pick out of them, and your video spells out why fantastically. There's definitely stuff to be learned, but going in with the understanding that you - as a beginner - are probably missing a bunch of context, filters out a lot of what you don't let sink in just yet. And you're dead-on about watching your own replays. That's where I've learned the most about how to improve my play.

[@HQRubbish]

Yeah, super useful. I often wish all the "common sense" pathways beginners take to learn new stuff were the actually useful ones instead of it frequently being the other way around.

[@CosRozco]

Value of the information shared aside (which is good advice to watch your own replays), the editing on this video is very good. I could easily see this visual presentation being on a channel with a hundred times your current subscriber count.

[@HQRubbish]

I try to put a lot of energy into the visual aspect, otherwise I feel like I might as well just make it a written piece. Thanks for the kind words.

[@streetfightingman4240]

Agreed here. When getting into a new game, I play the arcade mode and other functions for a while before even thinking of online play so that the context of characters is there as a base. Once you've got a relatively good grip of a game, watching replays is definitely a good idea but it's a supplement rather than a go to

[@user-wl2xl5hm7k]

Excellent info, yet again. Perfect series.

[@Doktor_Jones]

good dog

[@user-wl2xl5hm7k]

@@Doktor_Jones 💩

[@austingoyne3039]

Just watched a TMM video on this very subject. Case in point: Heihachi pros constantly wavedash, but try doing that in Green Ranks and see what happens 😅 (the opponent *always* reacts with buttons). It really is a different game at different levels.

[@awesomerubbish7623]

Quick question: How did you get the footage for the cat-people fighting? Is that all just really good editing of game footage, or is there an engine you're using for it?

[@HQRubbish]

It's Tekken 7 footage with a greenscreen mod. Nice username.

[@awesomerubbish7623]

@@HQRubbish :P thanks for the quick answer!

[@atomu27]

I've thought about this before, I need to find the problems before the solutions, and that goes for anything, not just fgs

[@zangana3052]

The edits are crazy man! Way too underrated.

[@holdysnausages]

I remember when I first started playing competitively and I’d just watch Japanese to players because that’s what my friend told me to do and what he did. And I had no idea how to watch the matches at all. I was completely focusing on the wrong thing. It literally took years of playing to learn how to watch high level matches.

[@takeOnlyGreatness]

I remember when I was first getting into Tekken and how enamoured I was with watching high level replays (I think at the time they probably all just SEEMED like high level replays). I'd say that even now, when I watch replays of pros, I'm more or less looking at combo optimisation, and I've found that mentality has carried over to other fighting games I play as well. Really interesting video, and fuckin dope art. Good shit, Rubbish.

[@AhiruWho]

I feel like vod reviewing with company could help a lot, as each would have their own take on what's happening, specially good for a beginner if they have a friend who's really good to help them understand stuff like B's strategy against A

[@Revalence123]

Honestly so many high level players in many communities scream this from the rooftops and so many people who want to "git gud" completely ignore it and wonder why they can't progress. Studying your replays, and creating a small community around watching replays and getting better in a game is so important for improving in competitive 1v1 games like Magic, Starcraft, and obviously fighting games.

[@HQRubbish]

Absolutely, I think any learning is almost objectively going to go faster in a group of like-minded people.

[@whatamidoingwithmylife3068]

as a mid level player as soon as you did a mention to some move i instantly recognised where you commin from

[@MundaneAxiom]

I think good commentators can help bridge the gap for beginners. Beginner friendly re-streams can also create a good environment for learning. Although for me one of the biggest eye openers was playing in a discord server and talking to my opponent afterwards to discuss the set.

[@huevonesunltd]

Highly recommended to write things down when watching your own replays, look for specific confirms you miss, specific mistakes, where you get hit more often, moves you couldnt deal with, setups that went over your head, how you got hit, punishes you missed, bad conversions you made, bad habits you can spot, and the list goes on and on. There's probably a bunch of stuff that you can fix right now very easily in training mode, the reason why you want to write it down is because you will forget most of it by the time you finish watching and for sure you will forget all of it the next week if you didn't write it down. If you haven't watched your own replays, you will notice all the sloppyness in your gameplay that you never notice when you are actually playing, it might even look embarassing to you and you will wonder if it's really you. Watch high level matches when you want to expand, watch your own when you want to polish or fix the most aspects of your gameplay as possible until the remaining thing to polish is mindgames related issues which are much harder to fix, fix the easy stuff first, it will take you just a couple minutes depending on what it is (It's better to take care of that stuff as soon as possible rather than trying to only solve it during matches or keep making the same mistakes, this is dangerous because if you let them stay for too long they will become muscle memory and that's hard to undo), try to run out of things to practice, if you don't know what to practice just watch your own replays you will most likely notice right away.

[@TensuKawakab]

Thanks for the information. I'm actually going to take your advice and watch my own replays.

[@Duskoi]

Bonus Tip: if you play Tekken, in your replays the game gives you helpful suggestions on how to dodge or counter certain moves or setups that your character is getting hit with. That or in DOA 6 there are missions that teach you how the game works mechanically and they are all character specific.

[@Silverado-pq6xe]

How did i not know this about tekken

[@comrade33dawn]

Another great video! This makes me think of HiFightTH's replay analyses and how I'd never have been able to understand the clip without a literal frame-by-frame breakdown. A Guilty Gear Strive player on reddit suggested watching replays of people 1 or 2 floors above someone's current skill level in order to understand the skill expectations in those ranks, such as anti-airing, comboing, or using more option selects. I think this was really insightful because instead of seeing a "finished product," like a competitive player who has already mastered anti-airs, combos, hit-confirms, etc, a beginner/lower skilled player can see only a few skills to improve. Also, your meeples playing GG on a NeoGeo offends me! lol

[@HQRubbish]

That GG tip is pretty cool and practical, I like it! The cab is ofc a gutted one with a PC inside.... ofc...

[@fergs1561]

Great video. I completely agree with this not as a gamer but in chess, looking over master games by themselves is unproductive because so much goes under the surface if they aren’t annotated by another master

[@attackofthecopyrightbots]

ok but whos the thumbnail fanart by

[@HQRubbish]

Yours truly.

[@jeako777]

Great tips and incredible editing!

[@stolensentience]

If you want to learn a matchup from a high level player you’d have to watch him play many random different players of that same character.

[@ColorWheelHero]

As someone who's admittedly a slow learner, whenever I try to give advice to players, I ask questions like "where do you feel you're getting confused" or "where do you think you need help in your gameplay", or even "how do you learn the best (visual, auditory, physical)", so I can better gauge what they need help in. These questions may be very basic/obvious questions, but when I was first learning, I didn't think of these questions. At the very least, it gets the brain going. However, if they can't think of an answer, that's completely ok, no one will know the answer to their questions immediately. These games are trial and error, it's just the nature of them. No matter how you learn, you'll get where you want eventually

[@mbfun9298]

On the topic of focusing on a opponent's or your character and yet somewhat unconnected. I am having a hard time not looking at my character almost exclusively when playing fighting games and as far as I understand it that is a incorrect thing to do, yet I am not sure how to change that.

[@Freakin_Fazed]

You have to do muscle memory training for basic strings and react on opponent animation.

[@transformerssurprise7563]

I like to play low tier characters and I’ve noticed that if a pro using that character loses then the comments will be filled with criticisms. Like the audience thinks they know better or something. A lot of the time the criticism they mention are just like the A B scenario. They don’t know enough to know how much they don’t know.

[@user-wl2xl5hm7k]

Good point

[@nashwaan2956]

2:00 anybody knows what the background song is?

[@nashwaan2956]

Nvm. It's been a month since I've posted this comment and literally no one has seen this comment. I found the background music on my own, which i feel is a good thing.

[@user-wl2xl5hm7k]

Did Shazam not work for it? Check it out if you’re unfamiliar

[@annaheritage931]

I have thousands of hours. I still stare mostly at my own character

[@ggshnick8159]

Don't know what you mean novice. I am new in BlazBlue and watched a lot of high level playes. It helped me to choose character. And was very helpful for me but I have 4k hours in Guilty gear before it. Ami novice? Well in BlazBlue yes. In fighting games especially like in old philosophy arcsys games no. I understand why what they are doing and why in BlazBlue most the time there I am confused with combos. In gg I have been maining millia in ac+r I started to play Bridget and watching ru from my very beginning makes my movement on him make the unique en with rosters of players. So if I had an experience on other characters and in game am I a novice on new character in game?

[@bahjont]

That's exactly why I usually search for good players vs diamonds on CFN. That way you can see what they do and how good players deal with it.

[@HQRubbish]

Big brain strat

[@Bagger_0]

I used to play brawlhalla a lot from 2017-20 and ofc everything I heard was “oMG sAndsTorM is SoOOooO gOoD, I waTcH hiM all tHe tiMe” and I never got it, many people who played the game w me were obsessed and playing the same character as the pros but it didn’t have any appeal for me so I moved to a legend with the lowest play rate at the time (Sir Roland) and I got better very quickly. (Moral of the story: play your own game)

[@Mushiotaku]

Big power

[@ryanp652]

babe new rubbish dropped

[@namespeepo4514]

got called out

[@randosavich]

Remind me to cancel my ambien prescription...

[@user-wl2xl5hm7k]

Your rude comment has no use. Nothing to be proud of

[@CurlyHairedRogue]

_Sigh…_ Right… so, I should watch gameplay, except I shouldn’t. I should play arcade mode, until I shouldn’t. I should look at the wiki, but actually no, don’t. Set goals for yourself, except no, that’s a bad idea. I’m startin’ to wonder if there really isn’t a way for me to learn this genre.

[@user-wl2xl5hm7k]

Did you watch the 1st three videos in this series? That’s all you need to know

[@CurlyHairedRogue]

⁠@@user-wl2xl5hm7kI did. Nothing about this makes… _any sense._ Like… if I had the ability to analyze my own gameplay to figure things out, then I wouldn’t be watching this. I can remember facts about a ton of different games but none of this genre parses.

[@user-wl2xl5hm7k]

@@CurlyHairedRogue I didn’t say anything about analyzing your own replays. Forget that (why do you keep repeating that??) The first 3 videos have nothing about replays. Just the essential info. If that info doesn’t help you then this genre probably just isn’t for you. No need to get down on yourself, and no need to get down on the genre. Just walk away without bothering other people. Best wishes.

[@CurlyHairedRogue]

@@user-wl2xl5hm7k brother, nothing has helped me at this point. I understand the premise of the calculations in fighting games, mathematically. The problem is that I don’t understand how you all make tactical decisions when the math is fuckin’… (Startup + Active) - Meaty Frames - Blockstun = X Where X is the startup frames allowed on the next move you use to continue pressure. And that’s just… _the simplest possible fuckin’ way it could be._ It isn’t considering distance, momentum, possible cancels… …And this is supposed to be easy?? What am I getting wrong here?? How do I still not know what I’m doing after looking into this stuff for 6+ years?? What dark magics are you all using to make these decisions in these split second time frames?? Is it caffeine?? Do I need to get more Red Bull?? What is the secret sauce to making this click??

[@Doktor_Jones]

Lol, the fucking irony of saying "veterans forget what it is like to be a beginner" and then saying "watch your own replays" which doesn't help at all, since how should they know what to look for

[@user-wl2xl5hm7k]

Your comment is rude. And honestly your criticism makes little sense to my knowledge. I can tell you’re upset, but it’s no excuse to be rude. If you watched the 1st three videos in this series you’d know exactly what to look for. You really don’t need anything else.

[@Doktor_Jones]

@@user-wl2xl5hm7k go and simp for your favorite streamer or whatever.

[@user-wl2xl5hm7k]

@@Doktor_Jones I gave you the info, you should be thanking me. You need to graduate 3rd grade before you comment. You clearly aren’t an adult. Enjoy your youth kiddo.

[@Doktor_Jones]

@@user-wl2xl5hm7k I'm not part of the FGC circle jerk. I don't need to thank you and kiss your butt when you shit in my boots.

[@Doktor_Jones]

@@user-wl2xl5hm7k I'm not part of the FGC circle jerk, so I'm not here to kiss your butt. I know, your brain was washed by hours of pro streamers that tell you that every player is a subhuman if he doesn't accept him and his other colleagues and return every advice that is born out of that thought with massive amount of groveling.

[@carikat7615]

Another great and informative video...I've shared the entire Fighter's First Aid Kit with my server members and we've all found it incredibly helpful from the rookies all the way up to the veterans! 🏳‍⚧💜

[@HQRubbish]

That makes me super happy to hear!!!