descentchampions.org

I'm trying my hardest to get to Gold....

What should I work on to actually get to the next level?

(This was Luke's idea)

Cyrus thinks he needs to continue to improve his vulcan before moving on to learning some other aspect of the game.

I disagree.

I think that the #1 thing for him to focus on is 'the mind game'...being tricky...unpredictable.

not more vulcan training...your vulan is more than good enough to now focus on something else that will help get you to the next level.

Have the Eye of the Tiger on loop while you're playing. It'll help.

Remove your best weapon or tactic. Are you still able to win?

Way back when, I was really good at fusion, and that was it. Take away my fusion? I had no answer.
Now, I will sometimes deliberately use Not Fusion until the middle of the match, so I have it as a tempo changeup.
Could you win without your vulcan, Cyrus? Yes. But it would be a very ugly win.

What levels do you play? Core and a few essentials on occasion?
Explore. New levels open your mind to thinking about new spaces, or the same spaces differently. Sometimes a new perspective is all that is necessary to unlock a new tactic.

What strategies do you use? I find that you always use the same one in our games:
-Acquire vulcan.
-Apply liberally to Morf's cockpit.
-Repeat ad nauseum.
-If Morf makes himself scarce, panic.
-If Morf is guarding the vulcan, acquire missiles and boat.

And I suppose that there's no need to change it if it wins you games, or if it allows you to reel it in close. But I have to ask you. When you wallop me 20-12, are you playing any differently than our games that go down to the wire?

Strategies and tactics are different, and the tendency is lean on tactics to get you out of failed strategy. You can win 20-17 and still have played a sloppy game that relies on reaction, twitch, and tactics to weasel your way out of repeatedly bad situations.

A Gold pilot has gears. Often, more gears than they even realize they have. I have had games in hand, 18-12, and lost them because of that mystery gear a skilled pilot can shift into.

A bit rambling, but I hope that helps.

Edit: Speelign Correckshunz

Don't tilt.

I watched you tilt HARD against Morfod in Take2, and you took it with you through the end of the game. That kind of thing kills momentum and hands the game to the other player.

I tilt a lot. It's hard not to, we're human after all. Even in games I might end up winning 20-9 I might get upset at the way I play. Sometimes it results in a free kill for the other player because I get too angry. But what I usually end up doing is try to pull it together for the next kill, and step my game up a level if I can. It works a lot more often than I give it credit for. A few examples I can think of are my 20-12 loss against PFunk in Logic, my 20-16 win over Swarthy in Flea, and believe it or not a 20-6 win over caniplaydad in Ascend. It's usually not my opponent that causes me to tilt, it's me, and I try to recognize that quickly and pull it back as best I can.



Also, you literally need time. Your bronze-level games are not going to fall out of the algorithm any time soon, and you have such a huge sample size that you're not really going to be able to do a lot to counter that without just waiting. You don't play 497 games in 2 months and expect to turn it into gold in a few games. You either have to play ANOTHER 497 games at a level HIGHER than your previous 497, or you just have to wait for your early games to fall off. Simple as that.

I like Morfod's advice a lot. Excuse my cheekiness, I haven't had the pleasure of playing you. So, I have little to go with.

- If a tactic is winning for you keep using it. If your opponent fails to adjust, there's no reason to change anything.
- Be at least proficient with every weapon. I wouldn't recommend practicing a weapon in a DCL match. See if a couple people want to play a FFA, and stick with the weapons you're worst at. Learn how to get a kill with everything.
- Jedi and I have talked about this in the past, and I think we both agree it's one of the most important piece of advice to give: know where your opponent is at all times. You want to limit the times people are able to get behind you or surprise you. YOU want to be the one that controls the match and picks the engagements.
- Practice all styles of the game.
- Watch demos of your games, especially your loses. Figure out what you did wrong that got you killed, and what helped you get kills against certain opponents.

Djcjr....u must PLAY MATCHES!!!!

Hey! I played yesterday! I played 'til I got 100 kills, damnit! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME, JEDI?!? HUH?? IT'S NEVER GOOD ENOUGH, IS IT?!

I do need to play some matches, though.

u played?? I did not know this.....that's a good start!

Keep it up!

Micro-manage every aspect of your game. Master of all is master of one. And one more. And another. A complete game will lead to complete domination... Domination of one's self. My approach is to control what I can control; myself! I can influence others with my moves, or lack of moves, etc. but cannot "control" any opponent. Therefore, I must master every aspect, because Vulcan and Spreadfire are great, but if my opponent won't show themselves, I must control myself.