Community Mental Edge

[Captain obliviius]

A question to many players who don't ladder much

How do you practice?
On showdown I see people from PP that blow in and out randomly, usually to top the ladder in a couple of days of play to then not appear again for a while; sometimes a long while.
So what do you do to stay sharp for tournaments? Has the game just been burned into your brain over the 20 years of rby so deeply that you just don't need to practice? I hold a gxe of about 85 give or take 2%. Depending on who is playing that week. I'm still chasing that 90% gxe mark that seems to be a dividing line between elite players and better than decent players.

 

[Disaster Area]

I think you reach a point where you don't "need" to practice to be sharp: playing in tournaments is enough for me to keep myself sharp.

That being said, practice always helps, and if you have the time to do some regularly, you should. That being said, as u get older, u often have less time to play.

 

[marcoasd]

It's hard to tell, it depends on what happens around you too. The metagame changes, players change...
Playing with a player of your level or better works fine; personally, I don't think I would unlearn playing RBY the way I do now just like I don't unlearn riding a bike or jumping a rope due to inactivity.
So yeah, it's kinda consolidated: I play only one generation and obviously I do at a certain level, not sure how it works for everyone though.

Reaching that 90% GXE on the ladder won't make you an elite player: playing against them and learning their tricks will, and it will make it easier to get to that 90% once you go back to the ladder to get that satisfaction.
Actually, you'll need to adjust your aim when on the ladder - I would really beware of random Explosions and other things like weird movesets or usages out there. Anyway, if you have the background you'll be able to.
Laddering is only the beginning of the trip, after that you really want to meet specific opponents there (PM'ing them is easier I guess) and the things you're writing here kinda prove the previous statement: players go there to get the satisfaction/loosen a bit and don't "train" there.

 

[Captain obliviius]

[QUOTE="Reaching that 90% GXE on the ladder won't make you an elite player: playing against them and learning their tricks will "=QUOTE]

Yea I can see how my wording of that sounded now. What I meant by that was reaching that gxe was a symptom of elite level understanding of the game, not so much the gateway to it.

 

[Ortheore]

I definitely think that you need to play to maintain your skills, but that the amount you need to play to maintain those skills is incredibly low. Basically, as long as you don't completely abandon the game you should be fine to maintain your existing skill level, which is why playing in tournaments and maybe the occasional ladder match can be sufficient.

Actually improving is another matter, and for that you do need quite a high volume of games. As much as I dislike the ladder, it is easily the best means of getting lots of games, but it's important to supplement it with tour play as much as possible imo, because tournaments tend to have a different dynamic than ladder play and also the metas can be different. At least, they are in RBY, as unless you're at the very top of the ladder people are waaaaaay more intent on getting freezes rather than spreading para.

 

[ThrashNinjax]

Uh tbh I'm dubious of the value of laddering in general so take my words with a grain of salt, but yeah I don't think anyone who hits ladder is doing it to 'practice', at least not if they're reasonably good to begin with. Only reason top players even ladder to begin with is for bragging points / to test teams for tours (bc they're guaranteed to face a super-wide range of stuff on ladder so if it holds up vs that it should be solid). I really don't think ladder winrate or ranking is a reasonable indicator of player skill because like others have said tournament play is a completely different kettle of fish, there have been plenty of ladder fiends who couldn't translate to the more specialised expert environment of tournaments and faded away.

As for actually maintaining an edge at the game, honestly? I think once you hit a certain level you're pretty much good, and then you can keep your level up by just playing intermittently with your friends (who have to be good players too, btw), bc if they're good then you have to be good to keep up with them even in testgames (even in tests idt anyone fucks around, people may make mistakes due to lack of full-concentration but no-one does anything super wild at least not in my experience). You don't unlearn mons, it does burn itself into you pretty easily, and once you've reached a certain level it doesn't take all that much effort to shake off the rust and get back to it.

 

[Lusch]

Well... My personal experience is that while you don't unlearn to play Pokemon, you will not be able to maintain the highest level without practice. I myself experienced that this SPL. In the first half I did not play my "normal" level. And I believe the reason for that was that I was out of the game quite a bit. I did not play tours here regularly anymore and did not even want to play SPL to begin with. I got back up again by laddering for Cerulean Cup. In the second half of SPL it was old Lusch playing, and a big reason was that I got my practice on the ladder.

there have been plenty of ladder fiends who couldn't translate to the more specialised expert environment of tournaments and faded away

Yes... but I want to point out that there are countless of opposite examples as well (players coming from the ladder performing well in tours (Kaz, roudolf13, FOMG come to mind)

you can keep your level up by just playing intermittently with your friends (who have to be good players too, btw).

Yes and no. It does not help your level of play if you play friends and they make the most unreasonable (read: very risky plays no one would make in a serious game) all the time because nothing is on the line. This does not sharpen your skill needed for a tour game. Granted, ladder is very different from tours as well...

Back to my answer of the OP. If you have your standard teams and you know how to play them not that much practice is needed with them (maybe play the occasional ladder battle just to remind yourself of how to play this certain team again). However if you have new ideas and want to build teams around them, I personally often don't feel ready to bring them to tour games to test them. So ladder is a good tool to test them.

 

[Roostur]

Well... My personal experience is that while you don't unlearn to play Pokemon, you will not be able to maintain the highest level without practice. I myself experienced that this SPL. In the first half I did not play my "normal" level. And I believe the reason for that was that I was out of the game quite a bit. I did not play tours here regularly anymore and did not even want to play SPL to begin with. I got back up again by laddering for Cerulean Cup. In the second half of SPL it was old Lusch playing, and a big reason was that I got my practice on the ladder.


Yes... but I want to point out that there are countless of opposite examples as well (players coming from the ladder performing well in tours (Kaz, roudolf13, FOMG come to mind)


Yes and no. It does not help your level of play if you play friends and they make the most unreasonable (read: very risky plays no one would make in a serious game) all the time because nothing is on the line. This does not sharpen your skill needed for a tour game. Granted, ladder is very different from tours as well...

Back to my answer of the OP. If you have your standard teams and you know how to play them not that much practice is needed with them (maybe play the occasional ladder battle just to remind yourself of how to play this certain team again). However if you have new ideas and want to build teams around them, I personally often don't feel ready to bring them to tour games to test them. So ladder is a good tool to test them.

For me personally, as some one who played ladder exclusively and then only entered a couple of tournaments, the only difference I found was in the mental game and not the level of play. On the ladder it is always in the back of your head "if you lose this game you can always try again, you'll meet this opponent again in a little while." . But in tournament that is taken away and you have to perform and win right there and now. And that puts a little bit more mental stress on you. But other than that I didn't find tournament play more difficult than ladder play.

 

[TuffHunter]

I usually need a week of a mental ladder refresher because otherwise I make stupid decisions in tournaments; hence my early exits .

 

[ALLALA]

I go to server, marcoasd challenges me, we fight, he challenges me again, it continues till I run out of teams - that's how it usually goes.
I got to 91.5 GXE in ladder, that doesn't mean anything and should not be a goal lol, most of the matches I just played fun teams and haxed with them or my opponents were just not that good.

Anyways, that's just my story. I would recommend finding a few RBY players on main server that have a will to fight and are not afraid to spoil their teams or playstyle for the tours (>rby). Then just start practising. Ladder can be dead most of the time and good players might just not click that Find Battle.
Repeat until you are tired of getting haxed and quit the tier or until you become #1 RBYer in the world (#2 is ok as well)

 

[Mister Tim]

I go to server, marcoasd challenges me, we fight, he challenges me again, it continues till I run out of teams - that's how it usually goes.
I got to 91.5 GXE in ladder, that doesn't mean anything and should not be a goal lol, most of the matches I just played fun teams and haxed with them or my opponents were just not that good.

Anyways, that's just my story. I would recommend finding a few RBY players on main server that have a will to fight and are not afraid to spoil their teams or playstyle for the tours (>rby). Then just start practising. Ladder can be dead most of the time and good players might just not click that Find Battle.
Repeat until you are tired of getting haxed and quit the tier or until you become #1 RBYer in the world (#2 is ok as well)

thats how bind tauros faces kingler

 

[Lojh]

I think tour is slightly easier because you can scout and counterteam, where in the ladder its harder to do. You also know who your opponent is which helps a lot

 

[GGFan]

You'll gain a mental edge when you realize every game means nothing whether it's a master tour, a ladder game, or a team competition. Every game means the same: nothing.