Twenty to eleven may seem like a very nondescript, ordinary beat down. I felt like this match was anything but.

I've played moh 5 times this season. Lost them all. Most of them badly. Prior to this game, my best match was to seven, my worst was to four. I average better games against certain gold pilots. For whatever reason, moh's style does SOMETHING that is incompatible with my style, resulting in lopsided scores... so lopsided that the DCL says that I under-perform a whopping 5.5 kills per game against him.

So this game I play him in Neptune, because while I don't LIKE the level, I'm not necessarily BAD in it, and it's popular enough I really shouldn't say no, given I picked the last level. I say to myself what I said the last two times I played him... my goal is 5. A goal that in my last game I failed to reach.

And it quickly looked this would be just a repeat. This match started out the way all my others against moh have, with smarts to the face, vulcan bullet showers, and an opponent who's just a step quicker than me. This game was 9 to 2 at one point.

Then something clicked.

I saw a pattern. I rushed quickly into the big room and threw a smart down at the hallway. moh caught it like a professional center fielder catching a routine fly. I caught another quick kill on him, and a few points later, I look down and I have my 5 kills while he has 12. Confidence regained, I stopped looking at the game as a hopeless drubbing and started playing with more confidence. Those smarts that were hitting me on the nose, the vulcan that was piercing hole after hole in my ship... it all stopped happening kill after kill. Sure, I still ate some smarts and took some vulcan damage, but it almost SEEMED as though I was able to see what he trying to do, and prepare for it well enough to not only get my first 5 kills, but to get a SECOND 5 kills as well.

I try to play hard every game, win or lose, but this game showed me very clearly that I do have another gear available to me... and that the key to switching into that gear is simply confidence.

Thanks for the lesson, moh. :)