Breaking playing in a pattern?

[crimsonstardust]

So I was talking with one of my local players today about troubles I seem to have in any game universally, he pointed out that I get stuck playing in patterns all the time. I was kind of aware of it but at the same time didn't realize how predictable I was.

We basically talked about each button press should be about pressing buttons to get information on things like patterns or habits players have and I seem to have trouble adapting to situations and learning from what's going on.

Any advise on how I can break away from playing in patterns and actually start to slowly improve on the "reading opponent" aspect as well?

[TD]

Well you already have the information you need to stop this pattern thinking, you just need to apply it. Part of it is consciously paying attention to what you are doing, giving yourself reality checks to make sure you are in the moment. You also need to know why you press the buttons you press in the first place, playing to both you and your character's strengths. That comes with matchup knowledge, so jotting down which of your moves are generally good vs your foes and those move's counters (so you can counter those counters) will help give you more knowledge to adapt with. You can also ask for more specific help in your characters sub forum.

[mAc Chaos]

Study your replays for patterns and ask better players to point any out. That's always the best way.

[Airk]

Study your replays for patterns and ask better players to point any out. That's always the best way.

 

Finding patterns, IMHO, is less than half the battle. It's usually pretty easy to look at a replay and go "crap, I did 5B > 6B practically everytime my opponent blocked";  It's much harder to stay entirely cognizant of what you are doing in order to not do that.

 

I suggest that, after you identify some patterns, you pick ONE to try to break first.  And then keep that one pattern in mind.  If you do 5B > 6B too much, hold that in your head and tell yourself "I'm only allowed to do that once per round." and then once you've done it, hold onto that idea and DON'T DO IT anymore.  This will probably cause you to lose MORE, because you'll be focused on correcting your behavior instead of focusing on winning, but once things become second nature, you can STOP focusing on that one thing, and there's a pretty good chance it will stay 'fixed' and you can move on and try to fix something else, or just relax and play and look for new patterns.

 

It's important to note though that while this will help treat individual problem cases, it probably won't help "loosen you up" mentally so that you can keep track of patterns while you play.  I think only lots and lots of playing and conscious effort can do that.

[susano]

I have that problem as well., something I've been trying to break for a while now.

[Blade]

Related question... how do I get my opponent "out" of my head?

 

Yomi and Set players tend to set up ideal situations in which nothing you do is the right thing to do... so I'm wondering what's a good way to break out of all that mess?

[TD]

It's still going to be a guess, however you can analyze what you were doing and try to do something that is the polar opposite of that, such as if you were turtling before you can become more aggressive. You have to rock the ship a little and sometimes that takes bold measures for a bit until you can go back to normal. If a little ship rocking doesn't fit you, you have to play safer until you can get ahead into the information race. Eventually, against a decent player, you will have to rock the ship.

[silverhydra]

 

Related question... how do I get my opponent "out" of my head?

 

Yomi and Set players tend to set up ideal situations in which nothing you do is the right thing to do... so I'm wondering what's a good way to break out of all that mess?

 

 

You still kind of have to guess.  You have to make a read on whether your opponent is going to target the same vulnerabilities you've been displaying, or if he's going to assume you've adapted without you showing it and target something else.  For example, if I'm in your head getting counterhits for days, I can make a determination of your skill level and figure out if you're going to figure it out and quit trying it and the next time I'll just throw you.  You're "out of my head" if you play on that level and tech my throw out of nowhere, basically.

[Airk]

Yeah; This is  tricky, because on the one hand, you want to change what you're doing, but on the other hand, if they know you want to do that...

 

It depends on how long they've been "in your head" for.  If they called you out ONCE, you need to make a judgement about them - was that a smart read, or are they just attacking that same option every time and hoping you fall for it? If it's the former, then they're gonna expect you to do the opposite.  If it's the latter, then doing the opposite is exactly what you want.

 

Another way to look at it is to look for tells - if someone is "somehow" DPing you on wakeup ONLY when you go for a meaty, odds are that your movement before you do a meaty is different from your movement before you bait a DP.   Examine your own play to see if you're giving away information.

[Blade]

One thing's for sure, I have a bad habit of blocking low, which results in them spamming overheads on me, and then as soon as I block high to counter, they poke me with lows and sweeps.  Empty jumps especially stump me.

[GKHiryu]

Followup question: while you play seriously, do you hear a voice in your head or not?

 

One thing I found good for practicing thinking during a match is actually playing against CPU. There's very little tension in arcade mode, so it's much easier to shift focus and start thinking instead of just pressing buttons.

An example from "my" field - I play Bedman i Xrd, who has a particularly good combo that starts with instant OH followed by RC. This of course means that it requires 50% meter to do. While I easily learnt the combo itself I didn't pay enough attention to actually use it in matches against other players. So while alone, I went to arcade and said to myself "The goal of this arcade run is to do the combo as soon after I gather 50% meter as possible".

 

Turns out it was very easy in the first few games and started being progressively harder as it went on and I zoned out. However, slowly but surely I'm getting the effects I want. It's just a matter of keeping the schedule and practising often.

[vrj_rrls_2015]

I'd say record yourself playing and trying to find patterns in your playstyle and really try to mix up your attacks

[Codename Exia]

Almost everyone falls into patterns as they start to feel comfortable playing any fighting game; of course, this isn't good.

The trick to recognizing and remedying patterns is two simple questions in anime games:

• Did I even get punished for being predictable and repeating my pattern?
• How did my opponent adapt to my pattern?

If you weren't even punished for it: just keep going, being predictable isn't always bad if your opponent can't deal with it.

If your opponent adapted and took away your momentum for being predictable take note of the situation and what they did to stop you. Do you have an answer? If no, find an answer to the option, if yes, switch gears into beating the option your opponent has put on the table.

I mean it's a little more complicated than that, and yomi definitely plays a part in these things, but that's the basic of the basics.