Well I dont consider myself anywhere near a top player but I have been in the scene a decent amount of time and seen alot of players and observed how they play, enough to give some good advise to new comers to tournaments and people that want to get better in tournament play (once again, I`m not top but I have placed well at a few tournaments)
My best and strongest advise to people....if you ever go to a tournament and have a chance to play or even watch people in casuals beforehand, I STRONGLY ADVISE YOU DO SO. Not everyone will sandbag and can give you a chance to observe the players that you could be going up against.....which brings me to my main advise:
PLAY AGAINST THE PLAYER.....NOT THE CHARACTER!!!!!
I read and hear about "Against this character you should spam this move." "Or never use this move against this character, you'll get raped without a reach around."
-Now in some ways yes you should listen to do but in more cases you shouldnt and here is why. Not everyone that go to tournaments are a human library that can memorize or even know what characters are unsafe with what or what moves to use/not use against them
-Most players develop a "ritual" syndrome, which means after certain moves, you will almost always see a certain follow up. If you look for it and spot it, you can either punish/GI/Auto-GI/Duck/Jump/or Block depending on the move itself
-Frustration, now I know after getting poked in the face or foot about 3 or times can get just about anyone frustrated. the key here is to see how many pokes it takes to break someone out of their turtle stage and make them start attacking you so you can evade/block and punish/ or start a little mix up game of your own
-Attack Attack Attack!! Some people cant help but to keep attacking because they believe they are at + frames every time, look for an opening
Now I can go on and on but hopefully you get the idea. Keep cool, analyze the opponent, and play your game. PLAY AGAINST THE PLAYER AND NOT THE CHARACTER.
