Tips to win first offline tournament

[johnnyitd]

Hey fellas.
My name is Johnny. I have joined TYM in May, but unfortunately wasn't active till now. I have read many useful topics on characters here, so I want to say thanks to all contributors and greet everyone.

Next week I am visiting an offline tournament in another city. The competition is not severe, but I believe there will be 3 stronger fighters. They have more experience in offline tournaments (i have none) and they have played MKX two times more than me. So you can say that I am at disadvantage, that's why I need advice from experienced offline players.

1. What characters to pick?
My best character right now is Ermac. I am also good with Kung Lao and Erron Black. Since the tournament is in the next week, the time is limited. Really don't have the desire to learn new characters. But I may try Tremor, kinda like him. Shall I practice Ermac more, or the other character would be better?

2. How to counter their characters?
They will be playing Sonya, Cacey Cage and Kenshi. Yeah, you have to counter both agression and zoning at the same time. What character of my pool will be good against pressers and zoners? Or maybe I shall learn a new character to counter theirs? Will Ermac stand up to this amount of press?

3. What my mindset should be?
Few general tips would be extremely useful. How shall one prepare for the offline tournament. Is it better to play safe or maybe try to improvize and surprise your opponents? Should I be calm or more excited?

All replies are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[JJV Phoenix]

Lab up on the matchups you'll be dealing with, how to defend against the character's dirt, and what your optimal punish is in every situation. You're lucky to play Ermac since he can convert for big damage on almost everything, however you generally have to commit to his mixups and that leaves you -23 on a blocked soul ball, IIRC. Work on your spacing, some of those characters have a strong footsie game that'll bank on you pushing buttons. Work on your AAs, you'd be surprised how many people thrive on a jumping game in a local tournament...

 

[Groove Heaven]

1. Pick who you have the most experience with. Pick who you know the most MUs with. Definitely don't try to get a new character ready one week before a tourney, that's total suicide.

2. Can't tell you how to play those MUs but I'm sure there's plenty of match footage if you look for it, could help you figure out what Ermac mains are doing against them.

3. Always be calm! Accept that this is your first tourney and the likelihood of you winning is slim, but don't let that discourage you; winning is still possible. Hope for the best but be prepared for the worst: I thought I was good at MK9 until I went to a VSM tournament and got bodied lol...the main thing is to learn from your losses and learn to identify an adapt to your opponents' tendencies.

 

[KIllaByte]

What tournament is this? Where?

 

[Zabru]

Your main concern with kenshi will not be zoning. Balanced zoning is underpowered, kenjutsu can only do highs from a range and possessed has no aerial hit box with his zoning and you can run straight through bf3. If you play ermac and either balanced or kenjutsu goes for bf3 you should be able to teleport punish or maybe, maybe even soul ball punish.

 

[Riyo]

As your first offline tournament, play for the experience. Don't worry about counterpicking at all. Play who you are best with.

Play as if you are playing casuals. Dunno how well you deal with nerves but its prolly the best way to think of it.

 

[Zabru]

Since they play cassie and sonya they sound like a pressure mixup whore so they will probably be playing kenjutsu.

 

[johnnyitd]

Lab up on the matchups you'll be dealing with, how to defend against the character's dirt, and what your optimal punish is in every situation. You're lucky to play Ermac since he can convert for big damage on almost everything, however you generally have to commit to his mixups and that leaves you -23 on a blocked soul ball, IIRC. Work on your spacing, some of those characters have a strong footsie game that'll bank on you pushing buttons. Work on your AAs, you'd be surprised how many people thrive on a jumping game in a local tournament...

Thanks, that should help.

 

[johnnyitd]

What tournament is this? Where?

It's a little offline tournament, not in the States.

 

[johnnyitd]

As your first offline tournament, play for the experience. Don't worry about counterpicking at all. Play who you are best with.

Play as if you are playing casuals. Dunno how well you deal with nerves but its prolly the best way to think of it.

Thanks for advice

 

[MrProfDrPepper]

Hey fellas.
My name is Johnny. I have joined TYM in May, but unfortunately wasn't active till now. I have read many useful topics on characters here, so I want to say thanks to all contributors and greet everyone.

Next week I am visiting an offline tournament in another city. The competition is not severe, but I believe there will be 3 stronger fighters. They have more experience in offline tournaments (i have none) and they have played MKX two times more than me. So you can say that I am at disadvantage, that's why I need advice from experienced offline players.

1. What characters to pick?
My best character right now is Ermac. I am also good with Kung Lao and Erron Black. Since the tournament is in the next week, the time is limited. Really don't have the desire to learn new characters. But I may try Tremor, kinda like him. Shall I practice Ermac more, or the other character would be better?

2. How to counter their characters?
They will be playing Sonya, Cacey Cage and Kenshi. Yeah, you have to counter both agression and zoning at the same time. What character of my pool will be good against pressers and zoners? Or maybe I shall learn a new character to counter theirs? Will Ermac stand up to this amount of press?

3. What my mindset should be?
Few general tips would be extremely useful. How shall one prepare for the offline tournament. Is it better to play safe or maybe try to improvize and surprise your opponents? Should I be calm or more excited?

All replies are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

pick ermac through and through, not to mention ermac is a bad match up for kenshi, although please forgive me since i will be rooting for the kenshi player you will be facing, after all there arent too many kenshi players. and just overall lab up, learn the match ups, variations, etc. and also, do not expect to win, that is the WORST thing you could do when entering a tournament is to be cocky ESPECIALLY if it is your first tournament, this first tournament will be a learning experience, however if you do win, that is fucking awesome. just stay laser focused the entire time, eat light throughout the day to keep your senses sharp and be sure to be hydrated and fully rested. play however makes you feel comfortable, and this next thing is THE MOST IMPORTANT, have fun!

 

[johnnyitd]

pick ermac through and through, not to mention ermac is a bad match up for kenshi, although please forgive me since i will be rooting for the kenshi player you will be facing, after all there arent too many kenshi players. and just overall lab up, learn the match ups, variations, etc. and also, do not expect to win, that is the WORST thing you could do when entering a tournament is to be cocky ESPECIALLY if it is your first tournament, this first tournament will be a learning experience, however if you do win, that is fucking awesome. just stay laser focused the entire time, eat light throughout the day to keep your senses sharp and be sure to be hydrated and fully rested. play however makes you feel comfortable, and this next thing is THE MOST IMPORTANT, have fun!

Thanks, that's the mindset I am going with.
I have a question, when I loose between matches I like to take a break for 30 seconds - 1 minute. Can I do that in an offline match, or is it rude? Can I do that when I am winning?

 

[I GOT HANDS]

Just play Ermac and keep your fingers crossed.

The risk reward is in your favor anyway, you won't get punished as hard as you'll hit if you go through, so unsafe-god it up IMO, take home what you learn from the event.

 

[Hitoshura]

This is too easy.

 

[MrProfDrPepper]

Thanks, that's the mindset I am going with.
I have a question, when I loose between matches I like to take a break for 30 seconds - 1 minute. Can I do that in an offline match, or is it rude? Can I do that when I am winning?

yes you can, go back to the character select screen and take a breather. i have done this before, it isnt rude, it is understandable. it is also a tactic used to get people off of their streak and their momentum, while you get time to compose yourself and think about what would be best to do in the upcoming match.

 

[Hitoshura]

In all seriousness though, find someone you happen to be comfortable with, then ask yourself this,"Does he/she have any tools that can help me defend or counter against the meta? Is this character tournament viable? Not top tier, but solid enough to compete?" If both are yes then you've found your character.

You want to try and win a tournament, if not win then be a threat to these people in terms of skill level, but simultaneously you want to have fun doing it, correct? If so, please keep this in mind. The FGC is can be stressful if it's taken too seriously. Now I'm not proclaiming that's this is a bad thing, but I just need to emphasize how stressful competitive gaming is. One has to be good enough to compete and there is a lot of talented players, especially in the NRS scene, in the FGC community.

Best of luck to you. And, if all else fails just face roll on your pad, or stick.

 

[IIINCORRUPTIBLE]

I'm the #1 ranked player in the world for Injustice Playstation 4 with the world record for highest Flawless Victory count, so I have alot of experience online. I've personally seen Top Online players, such as Season 1 Wednesday Night Fights Champion ArmedCalf (aka SplitMushroom) play almost equally as good offline as he did online.

There's a myth perpetrated by SOME people in the fighting game community that good online players can't play just as well offline, but it's exactly that: a myth. So I wouldn't really change too much from online to offline, but you have to be aware of the elite/fast timing that can accompany offline play. For me, it (literally) doesn't matter.

There's obviously very tight windows for certain combos that will work better offline than they do online, unless the online match is nearly perfect. But the truth of the matter is that I've played plenty of matches online (for Injustice) where the timing was practically perfect.

In clean games for Injustice, the frame data from offline to online has a probable difference of just a couple frames. Any scientific measurement would confirm my observation that I can determine simply by sight and feel. So my point is that it's best to do as the other person says: Practice offline before the tournament.

So without sounding overly complicated: I'd spend several hours (every day) leading up to the tournament in offline practice mode, then a significantly shorter amount of time in online fighting real people.

 

[juicepouch]

Don't go in with win or bust expectations at your first tourney

Play your best character, and lab up how to punish your expected opponents

And remember, stay hydrated first and foremost

 

[MrProfDrPepper]

Thanks, that's the mindset I am going with.
I have a question, when I loose between matches I like to take a break for 30 seconds - 1 minute. Can I do that in an offline match, or is it rude? Can I do that when I am winning?

oh yeah and dont listen to incorruptable, he is full of shit, thought that might have been obvious but oh well, never know, he brags about being 1st ranked on the leaderboards on injustice when it doesnt mean shit, he is a mediocre at best deathstroke player, one that preys on the weak/people that dont know how to play and he tries to compare online play to tournament play. so yeah, he is full of shit, just fair warning in case you didnt know

 

[johnnyitd]

Don't go in with win or bust expectations at your first tourney

Play your best character, and lab up how to punish your expected opponents

And remember, stay hydrated first and foremost

Didn't think about that, hope some water will help.

 

[johnnyitd]

In all seriousness though, find someone you happen to be comfortable with, then ask yourself this,"Does he/she have any tools that can help me defend or counter against the meta? Is this character tournament viable? Not top tier, but solid enough to compete?" If both are yes then you've found your character.

You want to try and win a tournament, if not win then be a threat to these people in terms of skill level, but simultaneously you want to have fun doing it, correct? If so, please keep this in mind. The FGC is can be stressful if it's taken too seriously. Now I'm not proclaiming that's this is a bad thing, but I just need to emphasize how stressful competitive gaming is. One has to be good enough to compete and there is a lot of talented players, especially in the NRS scene, in the FGC community.

Best of luck to you. And, if all else fails just face roll on your pad, or stick.

I will try to take it easy, thanks!

 

[IIINCORRUPTIBLE]

Didn't think about that, hope some water will help.

Yeah, I wouldn't really try to change very much besides adjusting to the offline frame data. Try doing some of the combos and tech you use online offline, and see the difference. I was able to very quickly identify the difference between offline and online play, especially since I do all my practicing offline (solo).

A concrete example is the Deathstroke uppercut with Injustice, which is Down+2/Triangle. Offline, when I have someone in the corner, I can do a jump in combo starter with a jump+2, and then doing three uppercuts into a full combo. Online, the frame data might be SLIGHTLY behind a couple frames where landing all 3 doesn't work, so I usually just go for 2 (try it yourself).

 

[KidVanDal]

Don't be afraid to use what some may consider "cheap" tactics. If just throwing or just d3ing your opponent over and over wins you the game then do it.

A prime example of this is sonicfox against Tom Brady in WB8 when he divekicked him to death.

It's at 2:30 of this clip.

 

[IIINCORRUPTIBLE]

Don't be afraid to use what some may consider "cheap" tactics. If just throwing or just d3ing your opponent over and over wins you the game then do it.

A prime example of this is sonicfox against Tom Brady in WB8 when he divekicked him to death.

It's at 2:30 of this clip.

I don't remember the last time an Aquaman beat my Deathstroke online. Even when someone tries to counter zone with From the Deep, the frame data (even online) lets you block it then counter with a quick shot (and land) 100% of the time. So he's at a strategic disadvantage.

I'd say that there's no such thing as a cheap tactic unless it's outside of the rules and/or cheating. If it's not against the rules, then the other competitors agreed to abide by it. You can't just walk in a tournament and spam the same thing over and over though, because really elite players already expect it and can get around it.

 

[KidVanDal]

I don't remember the last time an Aquaman beat my Deathstroke online. Even when someone tries to counter zone with From the Deep, the frame data (even online) lets you block it then counter with a quick shot (and land) 100% of the time. So he's at a strategic disadvantage.

I'd say that there's no such thing as a cheap tactic unless it's outside of the rules and/or cheating. If it's not against the rules, then the other competitors agreed to abide by it. You can't just walk in a tournament and spam the same thing over and over though, because really elite players already expect it and can get around it.

Didn't say there were such a thing. But a lot of new players rather do fancy setups and good looking combos. If you throw them til they die, that's "spamming"
There is no such thing. At least not if it makes you win.
A good player will recognise that you only block high, thus only do low hitting moves. Or that you don't tech throws, thus throw you a lot.
What I meant were if you win by just doing one/two things then just do those two things, especially if there's money on the line.