Help me improve spar.
 

I've caught some videos of my spars that I'm not happy with and I'd appreciate it if people could help me out and point out my mistakes.
You don't have to be a pro sparrer to help, any advice is nice.
This thread is also for myself to see how I progress.

In this one I actually start sparring at around 50 seconds

The second spar looked fine to me aside from the fact that it was in a sideroom.

The first spar looked ok to me as well, though I might be able to give some sort of advice if you wish to try.

So knowing where I was in the video I think the server had about 3.5k people on at that time, meaning it's going to be pretty laggy. And this is important because I noticed you went very offensive vs. your opponent in these conditions, which is all well and good. However, myself and a lot of other sparrers find it a bit easier to pace ourselves out when there's either server delay, or we are going against someone who has some delay. We like to take it slowly and try and read them, rather than go offensive most of the time. If that works for you then that's great, seeing as how you didn't do too badly anyways.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try it next time.

Sheesh,it's not hard.Just be determined and practice.One simply doesn't need tips for sparring,it's all about running and spamming.

It's archery that requires skills :)

Real shame that the other spar rooms receive neg rep, its almost as if you're either a good sparrer or you're a booster

It's just that the side rooms aren't what they used to be. It's just impossible to find any good sparrers in the siderooms since the addition of the streak room, so anyone who spars in the side room isn't playing against anyone good. It's not like they're dumped on for no reason. It's just how the game evolved.

This is true for the most part but some people are sort of in the middle of the skill spectrum, maybe Player A is somewhat decent but not good enough for the skilled players in the streak room so in order to better his skill he uses the side room and because of that he gets a bad reputation and classified a booster maybe it helps him get a good record more than the streak room would but people are aware of who's good and who isn't regardless of someone's ratio

I agree with the end statement there. And it's not always that they're even called boosters, cause it isn't boosting, what they're doing. It's more of a "selective spar" kind of scenario. And while it's not like Player A is intentionally doing this to benefit his record, it does still demonstrate that he is not yet blossomed as a sparrer, showing more how side rooms are so different from the primary one. It should be every new sparrers goal to be able to participate in the streak room without losing every single time, and I feel like most players can do this. The issue with side rooms really arises when players who can definitely handle themselves in the streak room choose to spar in the side rooms anyway.

Blu, I'm a give you the best tip. Take your opponents weaknesses and use them to your advantage. I just did that and now I have to check my pm's.

This is a good point, if you watch people spar in the streak room you can see what person spars with what style and it allows you to change your offense/defense plan to counter it.

It's good to be physically good at sparring but it helps when you can do it mentally as well. Improving will just be lots of practicing and try to change the technique you use every now and then spamming isn't a good method and most sparrers have no trouble beating it.

Pretty much the reason why it takes more than 3 spars to know who is really better/Often why people do series to find out who is better.

When I faced old pc players they didn't know my weaknesses (highly offensive, constantly moving to trick them and hit their side) and lose, but that's just first few. They most likely find my weakness after several spars and start beating me. If I have to name few people it's Thallen, Brett, Warhawk, Dante.

O yes you are right.You are owsum

When trollers become moderators

practice makes perfect.

The reason I was in a side room was that Thallen, PT and many other talented sparrers were in the streak room. The queue was also 16 players long, and that's a long time waiting.

Just tried this, and I won 3 in a row at the streak room :D

are you that canadian guy who boosted(selective sparred) in facebook client room? i might be wrong but your name seems familiar

Haven't sparred in almost a year now aside from guild sparring and my record isn't even that good so no I was not that guy, only time I used the FB streak room was when scores got reset or it had a lot of people in it.

Also, another thing that might help Blu is get a friend who's similar to your skill level or a bit better and spar them in a guild house which let's you both practice more - I did this with Dae and Slayer and it helped me improve a lot.

Fight them and go negative or never learn to actually spar vs decent people. That's probably your only way of actually getting better.

should record again on a weekday instead of a weekend, would have a lower ping and would just be better quality spars in general

Quick spar room isn't bad. I met this guy named Tykian. Assuming from his flag he's from France. We emptied the quick spar room and basically kept facing each other just like a series but without counting who won more or less. I won a lot from the beginning, but he didn't give up and at the end, I almost got flawed. Lol at that point, he found my weakness and used it as an advantage.

That can cause more harm than good. Being totally raiped by the upper echelon sparrers can shake their confidence and push them away from sparring.

It's just like boxing, need to take it step at a time. Not everyone can be a Mike Tyson.

Overall I agree with this statement, but the iclassic community has put way too much importance into spar ratios. Good advice for towering and pk since those don't carry a W-L record.

I'm definitely not good at spar, but I once tried to learn from someone who was and some of the advice I remember is: Not to wear bulky hats or clothes while sparring, always try to guess your opponents next move, don't just randomly swing your sword hoping for the best (I'm sure that's a given, but I always did that anyways), and obviously practice.

Then again, like I said, I'm terrible at sparring. I started doing really well for awhile, but got bored because I didn't have anyone to spar with. Good luck out there!

I'm not really a good sparrer I still consider myself lucky when I win a few, All I could say is now a days you can't just go on the offensive anymore, Its like Fulgore said you have to take some time and read your opponent see what movements he's doing so you can get him from any open sides and be sure to use the whole ring.

There were a couple of slashes you could have avoided. You didn't take opponent lag into account. Spectators really ought to be switched to UDP (or a similar protocol) to minimize their contribution to lag.

There's a difference between fighting decent people and putting up a fight, and getting trapped in a corner and not dealing any damage.

A series after being called a noob.
I still lost

I am usually always open to giving people pointers when I'm online. I respond to 9/10 PMs, and will happily spar around in my guildhouse with you.

My general advice is to spar people that are a little better than you and work your way up from there. If you do nothing but spar low skilled players, then sure your record will look neat but you'll lose when anyone of substantial dexterity goes up against you.

I don't think sparring while you are recording at full screen is going to help you. From my experience recording at full screen it makes you slow/laggy. Just record the size of the spar square or have a friend record you.

just listen to lil b while sparring

agree with goat on this

This is why I don't spar in mixed rooms much.
Why is it that quick rooms have worse rep than this?

I'm not going to continue with this thread as I know not many people are interested, but I'd just like to know why a room full of laggers, delayers and hackers has a better reputation than other rooms?

Lag is a part of the game. Some people do, some don't. As a sparrer looking to improve, you should just accept that first I think. As stated before, try not to move forward a lot when going against someone who does. It helps me to stay back and play the "safe" game. If I don't get a hit in with some swings that's ok, as long as I don't get sniped by them either. Spars like this have a much more strategic element than ones where neither player lags a lot, which are naturally more reactionary. The mixed room is still where you'll find all of the best sparrers, hands down.

Also, if you ever want to contact me in game for help, feel free to do so. I'd be glad to do as much as I can.

I only see you having 2250 wins, do you really have that much exp in spar?

don't judge someone by their record.

lol

I'll leave it at this. Won't go into too much detail.

Given he's in Alumni and has won GST multiple times I'd say he has experience.

Another thing that could help Blu* is guild sparring against all the boosting guilds right now which would give you plenty of practice.

Try to remain on the topic of helping and not picking at other members

Sarah, Zid likes to get a partner and do 2v5 in gs. It's their way of practicing their skills.

I get rekt in 2v5. I'm much more like a 1v1 sparrer. Trying to get used to 2v1 by guild sparring more before the GST.

What are the W-L stats for if it's not to be judged by? Losing too much=bad sparrer.
A good sparrer wouldn't lose much, it's not an arguable thing.
I personally don't see him spar that much, too many sparrers in the "big sparring guilds" are picking against who they're against. GST's guild subs win without doing anything, it doesn't show much skill.
I am on the topic, I cannot see how can someone with 2000 wins be experienced in spar. You clearly have been picking at me, deleted 2 posts of mine that were totally appropriate and on topic.

Look, I'm doing the best I can to help this person, and it's up to him to take my advice for what he appraises it to be. If you don't feel this way, that's fine, just don't come in for the sole purpose of attempting to insult someone legitimately trying to help.

ehem... -.- bch

^^^

You said having only 2250 win is a lack of experience, you weren't talking about W-L ratio.
If you are talking about W-L. Mel is a good example. She has a lot of losses, but she's better than many others.

Arguably, It's pretty easy to manipulate the spar system. I can choose to spar selectively and have a 10-1 ratio. Does that make me a good sparrer? No lol, I will still get owned by players in the Streak room. However if I kept sparring in the streak room, gain a lot of losses and eventually become really good. Then I am not a bad sparrer.

BTW Fulgore plays Unholy Nation, he plays a lot of spar events. I think that counts as your experience.



Just for you 3301. This is Thallen's list of approved top tier sparrers from UN.
http://www.graalians.com/forums/atta...0&d=1430785906
Some of them plays iClassic. You can ask them for an advice. Pretty sure most of them have sparred like 100,000 times on UN.

Fulgore, is one of the best sparrers in my eyes.
He helps people, as shown in this thread. Is polite, is a good sparrer and is a nice guy.
Just because he has less wins than some people, doesn't mean he's worse.

A lot of people selectively sparred until they got to a record they felt good about and then used GS to improve their spar skills. Point being that a lot of players used GS to become better sparrers, so they wouldn't get bad ratios.