Mindgame: Difference between revisions

Predicting an opponent's option is the most basic example of a mindgame. It involves observing an opponent's behaviour and discerning habitual patterns in their play-style, then predicting these actions and [[punish]]ing them. Successfully predicting a player's action is commonly referred to as a '''read''', and furthermore, there are two types of reads: a '''soft read''' and a '''hard read'''. The relationship between the types of reads is a matter of risk versus reward; a soft read occurs when a player punishes an opponent's options while covering other options (often resulting in sub-optimal punishment), whereas a hard read occurs when a player specifically reads a single option with its optimal punishment but at the expense of not covering other choices the opponent could have made. An example of a soft read would be covering [[tech]] options. For example, if an opponent is put into a tech chase, they only have four options: tech-rolling towards the player, tech-rolling away from the player, a neutral tech, or missing the tech on purpose. By dash dancing near the opponent, a player effectively covers three of the four options: the neutral tech, the missed tech, and the tech roll towards the player (since these three can be punished upon reaction). An example of a hard read would occur if, in the scenario described above, the player picked one tech option and charged a smash attack in the location the opponent would end up after picking that said tech option. Such an example of a hard read occurs in the GIF to the right.

An example of baiting commonly seen in competitive play is punishing laser habits from [[Falco (SSBM)|Falco]] with powershielding. In ''Melee'', many Falco mains fire lasers recklessly, or only fire lasers from a specific distance. By memorizing the timing and spacing a Falco player fires lasers at frequently, one can move to that spot, read the laser, and prepare to [[powershield]] the laser and follow it up with a grab or an aerial. In the GIF to the right, such a laser was baited, powershielded, and punished with a wavedash out of shield into a forward smash.

[[File:MangoDD.gif|thumb|Here, {{sm|Mango|c1=Fox|g=SSBM|size=12}} uses dash dancing to pressure {{sm|Armada|c1=Peach|g=SSBM|size=12}} into trying to take back stage control. Armada was pressured into trying to hit Mango out of the dash dance, but was unsuccessful and punished.]]

[[File:ZhuPressure.gif|thumb|Here [[Smasher:Zhu|Zhu]] uses neutral aerial-shines to successfully pressure [[Smasher:Mew2King|Mew2King]] into doing a hasty shield grab.]]

The most famous pressure seen in competitive play though is shield pressure, particularly with [[Fox (SSBM)|Fox]] and [[Falco (SSBM)|Falco]] in ''Melee''. They can use their shines and fast aerials to threaten a shielding opponent with a shield break, and thus force the opponent to try and escape the shield. With a few exceptions, most out of shield options are risky and have very explicit periods of vulnerability, meaning they can be punished very easily if read. Shield pressure is used to lure out one of the options to punish. An example of good shield pressure is shown in a GIF below.  

Having difficulty dealing with pressure is a pretty big weakness for some characters, such as [[Yoshi]], whose extremely limited [[OoS]] options without platforms and lack of reliable [[approach]] moves with considerable range gives him trouble against characters who can easily shield pressure him, and characters who can easily outrange his approaches (such as {{SSB|Kirby}} using his up tilt in ''Smash 64'').

'''Conditioning''', also commonly referred to as '''writing''', is about reinforcing your opponent's expectations by behaving the same way multiple times before mixing it up. While reading your opponent is about predicting what they'll do, writing your opponent is about dictating what they'll do for future reads, hence the term writing. This tactic is particularly effective against newer players, as they often don't have the mental fortitude to properly recognize this kind of behavior. Learning to write your opponent is often cited as the crucial step when going from a mid-level player to a high-level player. As such, it is extremely important to not only learn how to write, but to also recognize when your opponent is attempting to do the same.

This [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=273tHua4wGc video] by [[Mew2King]] is a great resource for when learning how to write your opponents.

====Unexpected Options====

Sometimes, situations occur where an opponent does not cover an option because it is known by both players to be inferior to other options, or is otherwise thought to be something "they would never do". Recognizing that the opponent doesn't expect something can make it notably more effective. A common example is Ike's forward smash; while it should generally never be used without a read or a setup, successfully throwing it out when the opponent doesn't expect it can result in a surprise hit.