The Myth of "Perfectly Safe" Moves

[@avenger1825]

This was soooooo helpful as a numerical thinker. I've been having a really hard time reducing the abstract-nature of neutral into a more eloquent form, but this is an awesome basis to think through. Definitely gonna be using this idea to motivate my play in the future

[@DarwinDing]

hahaha i'm glad it helped :) more neutral videos also on the way too, and if you have any weird abstract neutral thoughts i'd also love to hear them

[@WhelmedCupCake]

This video was fantastic!! It gave me even more insight into the game and frames and what makes each person have unique playstyles. How do you only have 2.8k subscribers?!?!?! I believe that melees freedom of movement and precise control is what makes that grab/attack/shield rps game so intricate. Sure other games have similar things and frame advantage on moves. But having less restriction on the 2D plane and making a Stage instead of a Platform where you can even kill yourself, elevates the game to another level.

[@Haloeddster]

How is the best melee channel SO UNDERATTED?!

[@benmitchell8998]

This video was insanely well put together should help new players a lot

[@lucalyons-sosa9843]

I just discovered this channel.... You make my literal favorite type of Melee content, so leaving a comment is the least I can do. TRAVESTY that you don't have a bit more of a following. The editing was top notch as well.

[@DarwinDing]

[@lucalyons-sosa9843]

@@DarwinDing well whatever you put out Ill definitely be watching. There are a lot of buzzwords in melee that people have loose concepts of and going through things like this piece by piece is really valuable.

[@TKanoWrites]

Excellent video, awesome pacing and interesting/thoughtful script. Can't wait to see more!

[@texhnolyze03]

super worth it dude, i loved the blog post by druggedfox, blew my mind too

[@user-ds3bh4jt6r]

This is applicable to every fighting game.I really liked how you broke down the topic so even total beginners would understand and went from there to the effects this has on the metas of different characters and how the game plays out at high level in general.

[@SUPERritschi]

Sick breakdown of neutral with the right amount of meme shit. Awesome :D P.S. There was also a thread on smash boards by Forward which also breaks down neutral. Maybe its still a good read.

[@DarwinDing]

thank you! haven't seen the neutral breakdown but i will absolutely give it a read, big fan of all the old school smashboards breakdowns smashers used to write

[@0unavailableusername]

These videos are absolutely fantastic, keep up the awesome work!

[@squingywingy]

Awesome video dude, thanks for making this. I feel like you could use this video as a starting point and do more video essays about neutral game concepts that expand on the idea of frame advantage, like baits/overshooting/undershooting/mixups in general.

[@DarwinDing]

a bunch of other ones planned for the future :) thanks for the nice words

[@BlueGrovyle]

That "second round" of RPS is definitely something I need to improve on. I have to moderate my "bait and punish" tendencies to account more for when I'm too late on a whiff punish so I don't overextend.

[@AllstonMelee]

blow this channel tf up Darwin Ding going HARD in the paint rn

[@DarwinDing]

just tryna follow your sagely advice

[@christopheraustin1173]

Instant subscribe. Always dig fresh quality Melee content. I'll spend time tomorrow checking out your other vids.

[@DarwinDing]

[@B-Luna]

Excellent video my guy, I once tried explaining this concept to a friend of mine in the past but did a poor job at it. Gonna link him this!

[@incendiablo]

Best video so far, keep it up Darwin!

[@tehchives]

This was an awesome watch. I have to go show this to not only people I know that play melee but people I know that should play melee.

[@DarwinDing]

thank you!!

[@McNuttySSBM]

Extremely well executed and edited!

[@jjjjjjj7953]

Darwin is a legend! Super well thought out and executed video. Especially for a topic that's difficult for newer players to understand on a conceptual level.

[@DarwinDing]

OMG it's young i'm your BIGGEST FAN

[@puppystylexd]

Comment for the algorithm because I STILL love the content you're putting out

[@cairnsaiden]

same

[@Lagoa_real]

This is filling some of the melee content gap, and I’m all here for it

[@kylebower8167]

Oh my god this guy is finally saying everything about melee I've always thought but could never articulate to people!!

[@aphd8381]

bro my two favorite things in one channel! smash and drinking

[@DoyouphilsMee]

Great stuff! Thanks for taking the time.

[@eddiestilll]

luv ur content man. hope ur channel pops off still. dis gives me so much insight too as a pika player since a lot of his moves u need to b rlly methodical on what u use since a lot of his moves whiff or don't do enough knockback so it puts pika in a disadvantage state since da frames r da opp cost haha

[@DarwinDing]

:) glad to hear it -- haven't played much pikachu myself but can definitely see that as being a key part of learning the rat; are there any weird things you've run into when learning pikachu?

[@eddiestilll]

@@DarwinDing haha i think pika is a very unique char and dere is a reason he's so uncommon. like some weird things i wud say is dat u need to rlly understand his up air hitboxes since it has 4 diff hitboxes which all has a diff use case to b effective. also his quick attack recovery angles n movement wit it requires u to b more "sharp" rather than fluid as if u wud b playing fox or marth. im actually curious, who do u main and why? :) ur knowledge seems like u wud b so potent at many chars

[@Charby0SS]

Very cool video. I know that this video is a focus on frame advantage but whiffing also makes you loose SPACE which is a very important "ressource" of the game, in the falcon punch example the ganon gains a huge amount of space he's free to dash in as much as he wants.

[@DarwinDing]

totally agreed! haha i should've put that in near the end but honestly i was worried it was getting longwinded already

[@Soff.tie86]

Sick video bro. You are amazing. I love the info as a newer player!

[@MalixLight]

Melee needs more content like this! Just subbed and went to go watch your other vids. Guess ive already seen all of them. Looking forward to more content!

[@yuridisseamarmoset1459]

Awesome stuff, keep em coming.

[@mgyoshi]

sick video! looking forward to more!

[@thedevilyoyo]

sick vid, your explanations are super helpful

[@ssbtonic]

great editing and insights

[@rajaselvakumar853]

*words mean things except when they don't*- proceeds to reevaluate life

[@DarwinDing]

suh dude

[@Luper1billion]

I dig the game theory approach to breaking it down. I think mind games is something we dont see enough tutorials on

[@cyfer115]

Dinky little fun fact just might be my favorite segment on KZbin rn 🤩

[@DarwinDing]

bottom of the smash mountain might be my favorite segment on spotify rn :)))

[@cyfer115]

@@DarwinDing What an honor thank you 😊

[@Synthwave596]

Couldn't stop watching

[@trilokshahi9361]

In addition to frame advantages/disadvantages, another opportunity cost in these exchanges is stage positioning which also dictates the options that become better or worse as mixups. also hi

[@DarwinDing]

u still playing these days? and yeah totally - i was a little afraid about talking about too many concepts at once haha

[@trilokshahi9361]

@@DarwinDing still learning b0xx even though rehab fixed my hands

[@MA-ym8pl]

7:17 had me laughing for 5 minutes

[@mitchschrader1647]

Liked, subscribed, here's my comment. This is some of the best melee content out there keep going!

[@Patrick-bn5rp]

Well, I don't play melee, but this video was well made and should be beneficial to my Ultimate play, so I just subbed.

[@MarthMain]

This was sick af.

[@Heisenbear]

This was incredibly helpful in 2024! Awesome!

[@Radarssbm]

Nice! This was great

[@DarwinDing]

wow thanks :) big fan

[@wijjet]

Nice informative video. Who do you think is the most technically skilled player in the scene currently?

[@DarwinDing]

it's probably u dude

[@Jinduckey]

Bump this video to the top of KZbin

[@DrZaiusDrZaius-xp5fw]

Why tf does this only have a few thousand views? Insanely good video

[@colinmurphy2214]

Excellent video!!!

[@letswisp7640]

sick content for players of any character :)

[@HelloAxi]

you nailed it, this is perfect for newcomers

[@simon62821]

UNDERRATED

[@3katzen]

i'm gettin LEARNT

[@jonatancerwall6905]

yoooooooooooooo i think i mightve elevated as a player

[@julesolivier2994]

as a new player, thanks a lot for this high quality video, you're really eloquent

[@vikaspydah9306]

Damn so educational :o

[@alexbtoogood4u]

amazing video :)

[@mangarino94]

Commenting for the algorithm

[@bluelane]

Do you do coaching sessions?

[@DarwinDing]

haha don't feel qualified to do so, but if you ever want to chat smash, i have a discord!

[@PJ_qd]

I feel like my 1 braincell grew into 2. Great video! I don't wanna know how long it would take me to figure this out on my own lol.

[@Cheef521]

Interesting video

[@swozzlesticks3068]

I honestly don't understand what people mean when they say something is _______ in a fighting game (where the blank is one of those buzzwords). It makes more sense in mobas when the situation can be distinguished. People will say ¨in X situation, doing Y is optimal¨ and it will be basically true because your opponent has absolutely 0 way to punish you for it and it gives you an advantage. The most common way i see this said is ¨cheater recalls¨ in league of legends. But in fighting games it makes no sense, really anything is punishable off of a read, and that read -> punish interaction can literally be just one second long so theres no way to analyze the situation and be 100% sure that something is optimal or safe in neutral.

[@XObseanX]

melee flowcharts!

[@fxlkpunkrapper]

fun video!

[@GoodieM8]

good video

[@swank8508]

It might be a downer video, but i would love to see a video about survivors bias and why just because mango doesnt practice or hbox doesnt play friendlies doesnt mean you can copy them and get the same results

[@DarwinDing]

that's a really interesting idea for a video!! gonna need to mull on that one because for sure i feel like learning can't 100% be done based off of what the pros do

[@sharkobark0]

awesome video! liked and subbed. hope to see more! :)

[@Skantaq]

hey please make more vids. They really help get people deeper into the game and they are /actually/ really good and funny. If it's a side thing that's fine but a real esports org should pick you up

[@ariesomega2487]

This honestly took me way too long to understand as a "new" player. i learnd it a few months ago and i was playing or 2 years nice

[@adrianm6065]

Actually , I think m2k thinks in frames since he is who he is right? lol

[@DarwinDing]

hahaha i think that's the meme but he's still a human! there's honestly no way he sees every individual frame BUT he definitely knows more about mechanics and frame data across all smash games than basically anyone on the planet

[@adrianm6065]

@@DarwinDing i had to joke. 😅 great content!

[@KaidoKid]

L

[@callingblades]

I’m at the gym, watching this dope video about “Safe Moves”, and I’m SO glad you included the video of yourself at the end. Dude, Darwin! What’s up! We met and played hella friendlies at SmashCon 2018. Hope you’re well man, hmu on Insta for some friendlies on Slippi! @christophergmatis

[@DarwinDing]

hahaha oh my freaking god, what's up dude will add you right now :)

[@Mike.Sutton]

Ezvip baybeeee

[@DarwinDing]

wow look its u

[@anthonyl149]

great video comment for algorithm

[@megahertz23]

Algorithm senpai pls notice darwin

[@penfifteengamer5521]

Wow this only has 1k views???? Algorithm bugging

[@franciscoalejandroheredias517]

comment here great content

[@JohnMata003]

Nerd

[@kraftyk1dhoops286]

Commenting for the algorithm