Original thread idea stolen from Flamer's thread. Approved by Hikari.
You've got the team of champions at your fingertips. Your Pokemon choices are sublime. Your movesets could blow minds. Your EV spreads are a goddamned masterpiece. You're ready to take the world by storm... and then you actually play a few battles, and find yourself going down in flames. Where did you go wrong?
It's easy to focus on teambuilding and metagame theory, but to truly improve at this game, there is another aspect perhaps even more important: battling. What makes a good battler? What can you do to improve?
Enter the UU Better Battlers Project. Here, you can hear from veteran battlers about their thought process throughout games, and even have experienced battlers analyze your gameplay to help you perform better. The purpose is twofold: to help newer and more experienced battlers alike sharpen their skills through critical analysis, and to showcase the thought process of veteran battlers during high-stakes games.
Each week, the panel will select a featured replay from a tournament or other high-level battle, and we will hear from the players as to why they made the choices they did. Questions and discussion are highly encouraged! Feel free to discuss the battles and ask the battlers about their choices throughout the match.
In addition, you may submit one of your own battles for analysis by the panel. The process is simple: post a replay of one of your battles, alongside an importable of the team you used, and someone from the panel will analyze your battle. This way, you can see that same level of decision making applied to one of your own battles, and hear from veterans as to how they would have played things if in your position.
Featured Battle
Submitting a Battle
The Panel
You've got the team of champions at your fingertips. Your Pokemon choices are sublime. Your movesets could blow minds. Your EV spreads are a goddamned masterpiece. You're ready to take the world by storm... and then you actually play a few battles, and find yourself going down in flames. Where did you go wrong?
It's easy to focus on teambuilding and metagame theory, but to truly improve at this game, there is another aspect perhaps even more important: battling. What makes a good battler? What can you do to improve?
Enter the UU Better Battlers Project. Here, you can hear from veteran battlers about their thought process throughout games, and even have experienced battlers analyze your gameplay to help you perform better. The purpose is twofold: to help newer and more experienced battlers alike sharpen their skills through critical analysis, and to showcase the thought process of veteran battlers during high-stakes games.
Each week, the panel will select a featured replay from a tournament or other high-level battle, and we will hear from the players as to why they made the choices they did. Questions and discussion are highly encouraged! Feel free to discuss the battles and ask the battlers about their choices throughout the match.
In addition, you may submit one of your own battles for analysis by the panel. The process is simple: post a replay of one of your battles, alongside an importable of the team you used, and someone from the panel will analyze your battle. This way, you can see that same level of decision making applied to one of your own battles, and hear from veterans as to how they would have played things if in your position.
Featured Battle
- Each week, the panel will choose a featured battle, usually from a tournament, to showcase good battling skills. I'll also ask the players a few questions about the battle and link them to the thread.
- These battles are posted to encourage discussion - so please, discuss them!
- If you have suggestions for a featured battle, please PM them directly to me.
Submitting a Battle
- Make sure to include a replay of the battle, an importable of your team, and a brief summary of the match.
- Try to choose a battle where the outcome wasn't mostly determined by hax - it's hard to analyze someone's gameplay when all their Kyurem counters get frozen on the switch-in.
- Our panel will be analyzing your battle, not your teambuilding skills - if you want suggestions on the team itself, I suggest starting an RMT or checking out the Simple Questions thread.
- Don't feel like you have to be new or inexperienced to submit a battle for analysis. Anyone may submit a battle for analysis, even a member of the panel.
- Be courteous and civil to those who are analyzing your battle, even if you disagree with them!
- UU battles only, please.
- When analyzing a battle, make sure to think of things from the player's perspective.
- Try to focus on all aspects of the battle - don't just focus onwhat moves they should have clicked or what switches they should have made. Instead, try to talk about things like what you can tell from team preview, choice of lead and what you feel like the game's pivotal turns were.
- This isn't a team rate; if you feel like giving suggestions on the team itself you are welcome to, but the focus is on how to play the best with the team they are using.
- Don't shy away from being critical, but please, no flaming or being actively rude. If someone is submitting a battle it means they have an honest desire to improve.
- I will keep an updated queue of battles that have not yet had analyses done - try not to leave any battles unrated!
It is impossible to perfectly analyze someone's playstyle from a single battle. However, there are some specific things you can focus on to make sure that the feedback you are providing is helpful.
1. Focus on long-term decision making. One common problem among newer battlers is that they do not think about the game in the long-term, instead playing everything turn by turn as it comes. When analyzing the battle, think about what you can see from team preview and what it tells you about the opposing team, and how that influences your plan. Try to identify how you intend to win the match, what the opponent's biggest threats are, and what some key concerns are. Then, go into how that changes throughout the course of the battle.
2. Don't get too hung up on "making plays" or individual turns. A lot of newer battlers think that being a great battler is all about "making plays" - getting into their heads and predicting what they'll do before they do it. Of course, in actuality, those really ballsy plays are actually just a careful case of risk versus reward. In general, try not to focus on predictions during individual turns.
For example, if I've got a scarfed Mienshao that I bring in against my opponent's +2 Cobalion, and the opponent has a Chandelure sitting in the back, I'm essentially facing a 50/50. It doesn't really help to say "Oh, you should have clicked Knock Off, he obviously was going to switch to Chandy."
If you want to focus on that turn at all, then instead try focusing on the potential implications that the turn has for the rest of the game. Does his Cobalion sweep the rest of my team at +2? How will the game play out if I use Knock Off or U-turn and he stays in? How will the game play out if I risk a High Jump Kick and he brings out Chandelure? Which wrong prediction am I most likely to recover from? There's often no 100% correct answer, but our goal when analyzing battles is to encourage players to think critically rather than clicking buttons blindly.
3. Try to first give general advice, then use examples from the game to reinforce them. The goal is to improve someone's battling overall, so zeroing in on particular turns is rarely helpful. Instead, try to give general advice to encourage planning and proper decision making, and then use specific examples from the game to reinforce that advice.
For example, if you see that the opposing team has a Slurpuff, and the only things I have on my team that stop a +6 Slurpuff from sweeping are Crocune and Forretress, you might want to point out that I need to make it a priority to keep Forry healthy, as Suicune lacking Roar is an unreliable counter to Slurpuff (since Scald doesn't KO, and Slurpuff can KO with Drain Punch + Play Rough if it doesn't catch a burn).
Then, when looking at the actual match itself, you can point out times where I recklessly brought in Forry to tank a hit that it didn't have to, as a way to reinforce in practice what you discussed in theory.
1. Focus on long-term decision making. One common problem among newer battlers is that they do not think about the game in the long-term, instead playing everything turn by turn as it comes. When analyzing the battle, think about what you can see from team preview and what it tells you about the opposing team, and how that influences your plan. Try to identify how you intend to win the match, what the opponent's biggest threats are, and what some key concerns are. Then, go into how that changes throughout the course of the battle.
2. Don't get too hung up on "making plays" or individual turns. A lot of newer battlers think that being a great battler is all about "making plays" - getting into their heads and predicting what they'll do before they do it. Of course, in actuality, those really ballsy plays are actually just a careful case of risk versus reward. In general, try not to focus on predictions during individual turns.
For example, if I've got a scarfed Mienshao that I bring in against my opponent's +2 Cobalion, and the opponent has a Chandelure sitting in the back, I'm essentially facing a 50/50. It doesn't really help to say "Oh, you should have clicked Knock Off, he obviously was going to switch to Chandy."
If you want to focus on that turn at all, then instead try focusing on the potential implications that the turn has for the rest of the game. Does his Cobalion sweep the rest of my team at +2? How will the game play out if I use Knock Off or U-turn and he stays in? How will the game play out if I risk a High Jump Kick and he brings out Chandelure? Which wrong prediction am I most likely to recover from? There's often no 100% correct answer, but our goal when analyzing battles is to encourage players to think critically rather than clicking buttons blindly.
3. Try to first give general advice, then use examples from the game to reinforce them. The goal is to improve someone's battling overall, so zeroing in on particular turns is rarely helpful. Instead, try to give general advice to encourage planning and proper decision making, and then use specific examples from the game to reinforce that advice.
For example, if you see that the opposing team has a Slurpuff, and the only things I have on my team that stop a +6 Slurpuff from sweeping are Crocune and Forretress, you might want to point out that I need to make it a priority to keep Forry healthy, as Suicune lacking Roar is an unreliable counter to Slurpuff (since Scald doesn't KO, and Slurpuff can KO with Drain Punch + Play Rough if it doesn't catch a burn).
Then, when looking at the actual match itself, you can point out times where I recklessly brought in Forry to tank a hit that it didn't have to, as a way to reinforce in practice what you discussed in theory.
The Panel
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