MDragon DRO scale

👻 Zip2Rip | MDragon 🐲 - Yesterday at 11:43 AM
You can call this the DRO scale (I suck with names and that's just Defense-Read-Offense), but essentially it's a mental tool/strategy used to read your opponent as well as to help you adapt yourself.

Before I start, I want to say the core of this is to evalue both your mindset as well as your opponent's mindset constantly throughout the game.

But how do you see someone's mindset of all things, you may ask

Well, through their actions

For example, let's move back to the glorious For Glory days of fun. When someone just rushes at you in your face constantly with attacks, they're being extremely aggressive or offensive. When someone just stands there and either shields or spot dodges, they're being defensive.

The guy who constantly tries to throw out attacks, like your little brother or cousin or newbie friend? Let's call that "Offensive-3" on the scale- that's the simplest (or most mindless/careless) offense-based sort of mindset you can do.

That part where you just stand and shield or spot dodge, letting your opponent absolutely come to you? Let's call that "Defensive-3" on the scale- that's the simplest defense-based sort of mindset you can do.

Now, what if you wanted to take into consideration your opponent's character just a little bit? On the offensive side of things, you may think about position, character itself, and even go for a few mixups. However, you primarily just want to attack your opponent. Let's call this "Offensive-2" (or O2 for short)- when we're beginning to truly account for our opponent but still pretty aggressive.
On the flip side of things, a defensive mindset sort of player who starts to take into account opponent a little bit may move a bit, crouch, or even Captain Falcon infinite jab in place (or Metaknight infinite jab in place) in hopes your opponent simply sucks at jumping over it and will fall into your attack. Let's call this "Defensive-2" (or D2 for short)- we're beginning to account for our opponent and their options, albeit we don't account for all that much.

Now should be a good time to introduce the picture here- the key element on the gauge-looking thing is that it's split into three sections, Defense, Read, Offense. The parts wayyyy on the sides - O3 and D3 - are the simplest sort of For Glory defense or offensive play you can think of, where the player doesn't really account for the opponent.

However, as you move inwards - towards the read section - you account more and more for your opponent. We already covered O2 and D2, so let's quickly cover O1 and D1- these mindsets include actually choosing offensive and defensive options with your opponent's options/positions/percentage/everything in mind. This involves being Diddy and using fair, dtilt, or actually throwing a banana (for Offensive-1 or O1) or being Rosalina and actively using Luma to create a wall to cover all of your opponent's options specifically in mind (for Defensive-1 or D1).

But what about when Rosalina just stands there or uses great ground movement to bait and punish you? What about when Diddy just has a banana in hand, staring you in the eye at high noon, pressuring you with the fear of a stock gone? This is where things get a little harder.

Let's jump to the middle- RR, RD, and RO (Read-Read, Read-Defensive, Read-Offensive). This is where your #1 priority is to "read" your opponent or otherwise think, observe your opponent, and act. Read-Defensive is the more defensive side of things, where you're not really approaching and usually goes hand in hand with baiting plus punishing (such as Rosalina above). RO involves pressuring your opponent and focusing primarily on reading their actions to punish em (Diddy with banana in hand).

A key aspect to note is that the second you attack or choose a defensive option, you fall into O1 and D1. Furthermore, RR is where you don't want to be- when you're so lost in thought about your opponent you're not in the here and now (realistically speaking).

Another key aspect to note is that the lines blur. That Pikachu spamming thunderjolt, is he in D2 or D1- is he truly covering all my options and accounting for them (D1) or is he just trying to cover my approach options in a broad stroke? You don't know 100% in a single instance BUT this is where the fun comes in.

A key rule (Rule 3) in the image is that (good) players are constantly switching between phases- both you and your opponent are constantly switching between levels. What a player must do is keep track of the switches- when they happen,,where they happen, your opponent's choices then, and whatnot. This requires experience in knowing the common patterns but even the simple act of noticing the switches helps with one adapting when your opponent immediately adapts.

However, if you notice the switches and patterns really well over the course of a round, you can become amazingly accurate at not only knowing what phase they really are during the game, but also become really good (within that round) at truly reading your opponent (particularly with hard reads).
I probs forgot some stuff, so lemme cover Rules 1 and 2:
> Rule 1: Opposite sides "counter". O3 counters D3 and D3 counters O3. D2 <-> O2. RO <-> RD
> Rule 2: Closer to center (outside of RR) counter. O1 counters O2, O3, and even D3. RO counters O1, O2, O3, D1, D2, and D3.
> Rules 1 and 2 assume even skill and proficiency in the given phase

Additional notes:
> If you're in the same phase as your opponent (say both in O2 or O1, which is the most common and relevant here), you're relying on two key things: your character does better in the MU in this phase and/or you're truly more skilled (at least in the MU and/or this phase) than your opponent. You usually don't want to play this game, especially as Pikachu (especially if you want to level up and do better against higher and higher level opponents)

> Technically, RO and RD beat everything (and go even vs one another), BUT to capitalize on them, you need to switch to another phase (usually O1 or D1 then O1 as a punish). And if someone tries to stay in RO+RD, they're not reacting well/fast enough either- thus, even though they "counter" everything, it's the switching (and how well those switches happen) that truly counts (at least in my opinion there).