This friday night. Don’t miss it.  

idiots  

Loser has to kiss the winner on the lips  

Heh, I have nothing going on this evening, I wanna see yeye.  

Oh god I thought I unconsciously signed up for something for a second there.  

Posted by Green

Oh god I thought I unconsciously signed up for something for a second there.

Lmao  

Posted by Green

Oh god I thought I unconsciously signed up for something for a second there.

Love how your avatar got the perfect reaction  

Congrats to Sully  

Damn, missed it. Hopefully the beef was cooked to perfection. Congrats to Sully. Should see more spars like this.  

imagine finding spar fun  

Posted by Yami

imagine finding spar fun

It's fun, just too many people outside the U.S sparring, and that sucks, as terrible as that sounds. And I'm active duty, don't have time to keep skills maintained. Oh well.  

Posted by McCullough

It's fun, just too many people outside the U.S sparring, and that sucks, as terrible as that sounds. And I'm active duty, don't have time to keep skills maintained. Oh well.

It's not fun, It's terrible. Compare sparring to practically any competitive activity in, Maybe anything. It's super bland, Repetitive, And overall there's practically 0 actual effort or skill placed into it. Even chess is more competitive as it isn't the same thing every time.  

Posted by Rusix

It's not fun, It's terrible. Compare sparring to practically any competitive activity in, Maybe anything. It's super bland, Repetitive, And overall there's practically 0 actual effort or skill placed into it. Even chess is more competitive as it isn't the same thing every time.

I can understand why it might be boring. But, at the highest level of sparring, things are actually quite intense. Both players may try some ridiculous maneuvers around just to outsmart the opponent for .5 damage.

The truth is, a lot of good sparrers don't play anymore, so I guess you can say some of the art has been lost. A lot of sparring nowadays is very simple and dumbed down, and I see a lot more of the stupid kind of sparring with C as the primary movement.

The skill comes in learning really quickly the opponent's tendencies, patterns, strong points and weak points. It may actually take more than one or two spars to really understand how to best combat an opponent. Some players get so good at sparring that they don't think about how or why they react a certain way when someone does a certain thing. It becomes muscle memory to just feel where to go react accordingly to a specific movement your opponent is making.

Some guys can react better and faster than others against a person who's style they've never fought before. This is why when we competitively spar 1v1 in Graal, we do a series of 10 spars per match, for two matches.
Both players will have enough time to learn their opponent's tendencies and patterns, and adjust accordingly. Theoretically speaking, near the end of the first match, both players should be playing slightly different and trying different things.

By the time match 2 begins a few days later, both players should have a strong idea of each other and should both spar more effectively. Spars might be closer. In the end, it comes down to who can be more consistent and unpredictable in spar, who can learn quicker and learn from mistakes.

All in all, the mechanics of spar are simple. Right, Left, Up, Down, Diagonal, Diamond C, 3, \/, jukes, etc. But it isn't always boring.  

Posted by McCullough

I can understand why it might be boring. But, at the highest level of sparring, things are actually quite intense. Both players may try some ridiculous maneuvers around just to outsmart the opponent for .5 damage.

The truth is, a lot of good sparrers don't play anymore, so I guess you can say some of the art has been lost. A lot of sparring nowadays is very simple and dumbed down, and I see a lot more of the stupid kind of sparring with C as the primary movement.

The skill comes in learning really quickly the opponent's tendencies, patterns, strong points and weak points. It may actually take more than one or two spars to really understand how to best combat an opponent. Some players get so good at sparring that they don't think about how or why they react a certain way when someone does a certain thing. It becomes muscle memory to just feel where to go react accordingly to a specific movement your opponent is making.

Some guys can react better and faster than others against a person who's style they've never fought before. This is why when we competitively spar 1v1 in Graal, we do a series of 10 spars per match, for two matches.
Both players will have enough time to learn their opponent's tendencies and patterns, and adjust accordingly. Theoretically speaking, near the end of the first match, both players should be playing slightly different and trying different things.

By the time match 2 begins a few days later, both players should have a strong idea of each other and should both spar more effectively. Spars might be closer. In the end, it comes down to who can be more consistent and unpredictable in spar, who can learn quicker and learn from mistakes.

All in all, the mechanics of spar are simple. Right, Left, Up, Down, Diagonal, Diamond C, 3, \/, jukes, etc. But it isn't always boring.

I don't really play graal anymore, Not for a whole year. Probably won't come back. I did a lot of sparring in 2011-2014, Still did past it when I moved, Just had annoying delay. To me it just felt like the same thing over and over, You just avoid getting hit and make sure to hit them. It's somewhat fun until you realize how bland it is. I found Guild house sparring, If anything was more interesting than any normal arena spar, which is why most spars I did in the end was in a Guild house, despite I had s really good score of 3000-700 something ( I think, could've been 4000-700 I can't bother to go back on graal to check)Simply due to the fact you can set up obstacles in the area you fight.


Maybe it is just me, But I find it to be so downright boring, Just the thought of going back into graal to spar just sends a massive boredom chill through my body. I don't think I even found high end sparring with the "better" Players anymore entertaining. I been playing summoners war ever since, Which just has a lot of more actual skill and strategy into it than I've ever seen in graal, It always is something new everyday to face  

@Rusix

Again, Graal sparring is very simple and there isn't a lot to it. But, there is a skill tree and clear difference between a beginner, novice, and expert sparrer. 3000-700 is an impressive score. The difference here is that sparring is very fast-paced, so decisions are made reactionary, limited to 2 directions. There are 50/50s in spar, which is good.

It's pretty unfair to compare a game like Summoner's War to Graal. They're different games with different mechanics.

Despite the simplicities of Graal sparring, that isn't to say it still can't be challenging to get good at. I know it took me quite a while to be able to compete against real good players.

Guild House sparring is much smoother. But that's a different debate.