I didn’t go to a tournament this past week. Every tourney I could have gone to was canceled so I don’t have a bracket to talk about. That doesn’t mean I didn’t play smash though. I had a few grind sessions. One of them was with Miloquinn, a Peach from Nothern Colorado who is super talented. We played for 4 hours and had some great games. I felt like I was playing well but Milo seemed to win a majority of the matches. Later that same day, I went over to ACID’s place and played some matches there with some other people. I felt like I wasn’t playing my best and I think I was smashed out for the day. It was the first time I noticed my play struggling after playing a lot of smash beforehand. I also played some wifi with Chop and Lt.L on my stream after we went over some VODs for this piece. I was playing well which I think was helped by the analysis of my play beforehand. L’s Roy was giving me some problems as many Roys do, but I got some Lucina practice in that match-up and hope that I can start to rely on her more for the young Lion.
VOD review is something I have never fully understood. I watch a ton of Smash, including my own sets, but I never feel like I ever learn much from it. When it comes to watching other people play, I get new ideas, but these ideas tend to be regarding advantage state and sometimes disadvantage. They are also very specific. I notice lots of silly situations where moves will beat other moves or obscure tricks but basic decision making and neutral are harder for me to analyze. I think that’s a side effect of how my brain works. I filter the information I absorb constantly, trying to focus on the most important bits and ignoring the rest. This helps me a lot in life but I think it has harmed my ability to take away good information when watching VODs. I would filter out neutral because it’s not as obvious to my dopamine brain, and only focus on the part where people were hitting each other. It’s very counter-intuitive because neutral is how you get those hits, and that’s more important than the hits themselves at higher levels of play. I’ve gotten much better at neutral and understanding it as of recent and was hoping I would be able to take more away from my VODs now.
To help me learn VOD review, I asked Chop and Lt.L. They’re both friends of mine that I met in Fort Collins and they do VOD reviews for people. I invited them to my stream to help me review some sets and they both agreed to come on.
I asked what helps make a successful VOD review and Chop said to look for things to work on inside and outside of friendlies. Try to find scenarios you can lab out and then apply them in friendlies. He said to also try to learn something about your playstyle and the match-up. Find something you struggle with, practice it, try it in friendlies, and work to apply it in a tournament. That should be the ultimate goal. I think it is better to focus on a few things at once rather than multiple things because that can become super overwhelming. Find out what was giving you the most trouble in the set, and focus on that. Even if that thing alone doesn’t solve all your problems, you are one step closer to eventually solving your problems. Improvement takes time and results won’t just happen immediately.
The first set we looked at was my most recent encounter with Chronos, Number 2 in Colorado this last season (but should have been number 1). I practice with Chronos a lot and while he’s a vastly better player than me, I know a lot of his habits. Here’s the VOD.
We found some things I can improve on like my juggling, avoiding getting cornered, and how I can better play the lead. I was given the advice to watch how Chag (one of the best Palutena players) juggles in his matches and to practice z catching items to help against Snake’s grenades. All of these things are specific to me, but when you go to review your VODs, look for scenarios like these where you can improve. Something like z-catching might seem obscure, but if you’re losing to a Diddy or ROB, practice it. If you see yourself retreating to the corner, acknowledge that. Think about why you’re throwing out the moves you do and consider other options. It’s hard to notice everything, but the more you ask why you do certain things, the more you’ll be actively thinking about your gameplay.
We went over 2 other sets after the Chronos one. You can view the whole stream VOD here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfl26QpBVx4&t=2486s&ab_channel=TheICYShowYo
I learned a lot from the experience and shout out to Chop and L. Follow them on Twitter. Chop-https://twitter.com/chop3NW Lt.L-https://twitter.com/Lieutenant_L5
To VOD review, you need VODs… And if you’re not making it on stream, or your tournament doesn’t have a stream, VOD reviewing can be hard to do. The easiest solution is to play on your switch if you can and save the replay afterward. Obviously, this isn’t always possible, so another solution is a portable capture card. I had one of these but never used it. It was a capture card that you could use without a computer and save the video on an SD card. I know mine was an AVerMedia, but I’m sure there are other brands of portable capture cards out there. You could also just save replays from matches on wifi, or friendlies. This might not be as helpful if you play differently in tournaments, but it is a step towards being more self-aware. I know for most people, a tournament is a much different scenario than friendlies because nerves impact how you play, but if don’t have sets to analyze, you need to start somewhere. You could also do money matches or serious sets with your friends to try and simulate tournament play if you need VODs of yourself and your opponent playing under pressure.
Now I’m lucky to have amazing friends who are great at Smash and VOD reviews, but even if you don’t have friends who know how to VOD review, send a VOD to a friend and ask them what they see. Obviously, not everyone has time to review your VODs, but see if anyone will help. If you have a friend who also wants some tips too, trade VODs and critique each other. Some people might not know the game well enough to give great advice, but another opinion will usually help you even if it just reinforces something you already know.
Reviewing your VODs and becoming more aware of the player you are helps with confidence. Confidence is so important and knowing yourself is very important in building it. There are steps to building your confidence in Smash that you need before VOD review, but that all comes with the knowledge you gain from playing the game and your mentality. I wonder who might be able to help you with mentality?
Well, I hope you found some good ideas on how to VOD review. I hope this helps you become a more self-aware and confident player. I know I still have a long way to go in understanding VOD review but hopefully, the tips I’ve gotten can help you grow along with me. We never stop learning, and in a game like Smash, improvement is constant. Don’t get discouraged when you under-perform and instead use that energy to VOD review… or improve in other ways. I think I want to go into how I view smash next week. This might sound like mentality and it is, but not like how I covered mentality before. I want to talk about how I view competition and my mindset regarding Smash in general. Stay tuned for that and thanks for reading!
Bernard Lamar Rice 
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