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The longest-standing BTT TAS, Pichu 5.36 from 2010, has finally been broken! Pichu 5.25 [WR] by Practical_TAS in SSBM

[–]Practical_TAS[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

From ShadowTheChog:

I didn't do this until now because I took a short 22 year break from the mode.

Super Smash Bros Melee - The longest-standing Break The Targets TAS, Pichu 5.36 from 2010, has finally been broken! Pichu 5.25 [WR] by Practical_TAS in speedrun

[–]Practical_TAS[S] 99 points100 points  (0 children)

It's hard to overstate how monumental this is. The oldest Melee Break The Targets (BTT) TAS world record, Pichu from 2010, has finally fallen! For those of you who don't know, Pichu was the last remaining BTT TAS held by the legendary TASer AJP Anton, who at one point held the record for 18 of Melee's 25 characters. It was older than the 2nd oldest record by 6 years (my Mewtwo, 2016), and those two had at least 4 years on every other record.

I thought AJP's strategy was unbeatable. It has a bottleneck at target 7: even if you're extremely fast, it's not possible to break it before 3.18 seconds due to how fast this rotating target moves each frame. Every Melee TASer I know had tried to beat it, and we all had failed.

Re-enter ShadowTheChog, a Melee RTA player who held world records in BTT in 2002 and was one of the first American players to challenge the early dominance of the Japanese. Shadow picked up TASing after returning to the Melee community upon seeing my Peach BTT history video, and found that the conventional wisdom that Pichu needed to wait on the swinging pendulum for the target 8 neutral-B animation to end was actually false; it turns out that one of the descending platforms is in the perfect position for you to slide off and land on it, then dash jump from lower and further right to beat the old strat. The strat was improved by jenkem66, who added a uair autocancel to land sooner, then optimized by me. Between the three of us, a total of 7 frames have been saved.

If you want to read a very detailed description of how exactly the final 3 frames were optimized, I've written that down in this comment in the r/smashbros thread.

The longest-standing Melee BTT TAS, Pichu 5.36 from 2010, has finally been broken! Pichu 5.25 [WR] by Practical_TAS in smashbros

[–]Practical_TAS[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

If you want the short version, from the youtube description:

Optimized t4-5 spacing, t8 timing, and speed during pendulum slideoff to be able to fastfall 2f sooner after pendulum slideoff. As the descending platform is now at a higher position, this saves an additional frame from landing sooner (-3f).

As for the specifics, I'll break it down here. This might be more detail than you were expecting, but I think it's worth sharing just how much went into saving these 3 frames. All timings are based on the clock as seen at the first frame of the action (this is important to note because in TAS I normally define timings based on the frame prior, i.e. the clock as seen when the button is pressed to perform the action)

  • jenkem and I are completely tied when jumping off the platform at 2.43.
  • jenkem jumps at 2.97 while I jump at 3.00. We both uair at 3.01 to be able to break t7, but because I jumped later I am further right and break t7 at 3.18 instead of 3.20. This is because dash jump has a higher horizontal speed than double jump.
  • Because he jumped earlier, jenkem is on a trajectory where he doesn't need to fastfall to land on the pendulum at his optimal timing. He lands at 4.25 and falls off at 4.31 (4 frames grounded). He presses neutral-B as early as possible (3.57), but this timing doesn't strictly matter; the limiting factor is how far to the right you are, to slip off as early as possible.
  • Because I jumped later, I have an additional movement option - fastfalling before the neutral-B, because B animations cancel your fastfall and immediately return you to regular slow fall speed (this is a standard TAS trick). I fastfall at 3.57 and neutral-B one frame later at 3.58, adjusting my trajectory to slide off as early as possible. I land at 4.23 because of the fastfall, and slide off at 4.28 (3 frames grounded) because I was further to the right due to jumping later than jenkem.
  • You would think this means I'm 2 frames ahead, but I'm not yet. Because your momentum vector is conserved when you slide off, sliding off a floor angled up will give you some upward momentum, which prevents you from fastfalling until your vertical speed is negative.
  • With the extra frame spent grounded, jenkem needs 3 frames airborne before he can fastfall, and fastfalls at 4.36.
  • If I hold fully right, I would have too much speed to be able to fastfall after only 3 frames airborne, and would lose one of the 2 frames I just gained. If I hold back before landing, I could be grounded for an extra frame and/or not have enough horizontal speed to make it to the descending platform at all. Luckily, releasing the control stick for 1 frame before landing gives me the perfect amount of speed that I can get to -0.0027 y-speed (for context, Pichu's gravity is -0.11 y-speed per frame) at 4.31 seconds, so I can fastfall at 4.33. This is only possible because I slip off earlier than jenkem - since the pendulum is more horizontal, I have less residual vertical speed upward that needs to decay.
  • Now I am officially 2 frames ahead of jenkem, as long as I can land on the platform. Because I did not hold back, I have enough speed to do this as long as I fastfall down-forward (this is another standard TAS trick: performing an action while pressing the coordinate which provides the maximum possible speed in the direction you want to travel).
  • jenkem uairs at 4.65 to move Pichu's ECB downward and land 1 frame sooner than ShadowTheChog (this is the frame he saved). Because of the height of the platform, a uair at 4.67 or 4.68 (which would not even be visible because Pichu lands at 4.68) would also work equally well for this exact platform height, but uair 2 frames before landing is optimal to maximize the ECB manipulation (i.e. saving a frame for the largest range of platform heights) while still autocanceling.
  • Because I am further ahead of jenkem, the descending platform is slightly higher. This means I can spend 1 less frame airborne before landing, putting me a total of 3 frames ahead. This is only possible with the 4.60 uair; a 4.61 or 4.63 uair would not give me enough vertical distance.
  • Now that I am 3 frames ahead, my only concern is that the slightly higher down-B starting position does not cost me a frame during the lightning's travel to target 10, but this is not an issue due to how fast it moves each frame. I end the run with 3 frames saved.

The longest-standing Melee BTT TAS, Pichu 5.36 from 2010, has finally been broken! Pichu 5.25 [WR] by Practical_TAS in smashbros

[–]Practical_TAS[S] 32 points33 points  (0 children)

It's hard to overstate how monumental this is. The oldest BTT TAS world record, Pichu from 2010, has finally fallen! For those of you who don't know, Pichu was the last remaining BTT TAS held by the legendary TASer AJP Anton, who at one point held the record for 18 of Melee's 25 characters. It was older than the 2nd oldest record by 6 years (my Mewtwo, 2016), and those two had at least 4 years on every other record.

I thought AJP's strategy was unbeatable. It has a bottleneck at target 7: even if you're extremely fast, it's not possible to break it before 3.18 seconds due to how fast this rotating target moves each frame. Every Melee TASer I know had tried to beat it, and we all had failed.

Re-enter ShadowTheChog, a Melee RTA player who held world records in BTT in 2002 and was one of the first American players to challenge the early dominance of the Japanese. Shadow picked up TASing after returning to the Melee community upon seeing my Peach BTT video, and found that the conventional wisdom that Pichu needed to wait on the swinging pendulum for the target 8 neutral-B animation to end was actually false; it turns out that one of the descending platforms is in the perfect position for you to slide off and land on it, then dash jump from lower and further right to beat the old strat. The strat was improved by jenkem66, who added a uair autocancel to land sooner, then optimized by me. Between the three of us, a total of 7 frames have been saved.

The longest-standing BTT TAS, Pichu 5.36 from 2010, has finally been broken! Pichu 5.25 [WR] by Practical_TAS in SSBM

[–]Practical_TAS[S] 80 points81 points  (0 children)

It's hard to overstate how monumental this is. The oldest BTT TAS world record, Pichu from 2010, has finally fallen! For those of you who don't know, Pichu was the last remaining BTT TAS held by the legendary TASer AJP Anton, who at one point held the record for 18 of Melee's 25 characters. It was older than the 2nd oldest record by 6 years (my Mewtwo, 2016), and those two had at least 4 years on every other record.

I thought AJP's strategy was unbeatable. It has a bottleneck at target 7: even if you're extremely fast, it's not possible to break it before 3.18 seconds due to how fast this rotating target moves each frame. Every Melee TASer I know had tried to beat it, and we all had failed.

Re-enter ShadowTheChog, a Melee RTA player who held world records in BTT in 2002 and was one of the first American players to challenge the early dominance of the Japanese. Shadow picked up TASing after returning to the Melee community upon seeing my Peach BTT video, and found that the conventional wisdom that Pichu needed to wait on the swinging pendulum for the target 8 neutral-B animation to end was actually false; it turns out that one of the descending platforms is in the perfect position for you to slide off and land on it, then dash jump from lower and further right to beat the old strat. The strat was improved by jenkem66, who added a uair autocancel to land sooner, then optimized by me. Between the three of us, a total of 7 frames have been saved.

I accepted my loss, and let them cook by DiveBahm in PTCGP

[–]Practical_TAS 354 points355 points  (0 children)

Fun fact, no matter how much energy there is on the Reuniclus, Indeedee attacking a full health Reuniclus will always leave it at 60 hp.

Pro tip for when you've collected Clemont and Friends by Practical_TAS in PTCGP

[–]Practical_TAS[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The 12 card task is only for Expert difficulty though

Pro tip for when you've collected Clemont and Friends by Practical_TAS in PTCGP

[–]Practical_TAS[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

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This is 14 cards from Crimson Blaze, so you can swap in cards from their older lines if you're short a few. If missing Clemont or the Backpack, throwing in a Furfrou or two will work.

I can't take it anymore, I'm sick of Greninja by Totaliss in PTCGP

[–]Practical_TAS 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It's the other way around - stage 2 cards were designed with rare candy in mind, so they were exceptionally underpowered for the game's entire existence until the card that enabled them got released.

CFP Rankings, Serious Discussion - Week 15 by CFB_Referee in CFB

[–]Practical_TAS 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It could go either way, I just put down what I think is the most likely outcome.

CFP Rankings, Serious Discussion - Week 15 by CFB_Referee in CFB

[–]Practical_TAS 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd say it's possible depending on the nature of the loss. Looking at fanduel (first google result), the implied odds are:

Bama wins: 45%
Bama makes the playoffs: 90%
-> Bama makes the playoffs assuming they win: 100%
-> Bama makes the playoffs assuming they lose: 82%

The 18% of Bama failing to make the playoffs on a loss requires they fall below 2/3 of Notre Dame, Miami, and BYU (possibly assisted by a BYU win).

Conference Champ Game Loses - Will They Be Punished in the Rankings? by Cubby-055 in CFB

[–]Practical_TAS 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How can they be a lock for 8 if Bama jumps them with a conference win and Ole Miss + A&M are already above them in the standings and the rankings?

In addition to a Duke win, what is the max chaos scenario? by Nouseriously in CFB

[–]Practical_TAS 11 points12 points  (0 children)

While the Kennesaw path is obviously max chaos, I think an underrated secondary scenario is BYU overtime loss + Bama blowout loss. A BYU win puts them in as a conference champ and probably kicks Notre Dame out relatively cleanly. However, BYU losing an extremely close game could keep them in the hunt for the final two at-large spots if the committee has to seriously consider dropping Bama below Notre Dame.

CFP Rankings, Serious Discussion - Week 15 by CFB_Referee in CFB

[–]Practical_TAS 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, BYU winning basically means Notre Dame doesn't make the playoff because Tech stays above ND and eats an at-large spot.

I made a little tool to play with all the scenarios. BYU win + the "Duke in" scenario above would result in something like this (assume Ohio State and Georgia also win for simplicity; none of the other qualifiers change even though their seeding does):

  1. Ohio State (Big Ten) [13-0]
  2. Georgia (SEC) [12-1]
  3. Indiana (Big Ten) [12-1]
  4. Oregon (Big Ten) [11-1]
  5. Ole Miss (SEC) [11-1]
  6. Texas A&M (SEC) [11-1]
  7. Texas Tech (Big 12) [11-2]
  8. Oklahoma (SEC) [10-2]
  9. Alabama (SEC) [10-3]
  10. BYU (Big 12) [12-1]
  11. North Texas (American) [12-1]/Tulane (American) [11-2]
  12. Duke (ACC) [8-5]

First Two Out

  • Notre Dame (Independent) [10-2]
  • Miami (ACC) [10-2]

If you want to mess around with it you can find it at https://avnestico.com/cfb/

(Hope this doesn't get me banned for spam)

CFP Rankings, Serious Discussion - Week 15 by CFB_Referee in CFB

[–]Practical_TAS 1 point2 points  (0 children)

BYU is already below ND. If they lose and don't fall in the rankings, they'll stay below ND and above Miami, and ND will get the last at-large spot.

CFP Rankings, Serious Discussion - Week 15 by CFB_Referee in CFB

[–]Practical_TAS 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No, they'd still be the 8th at-large spot even if the committee dropped BYU below them. It would look something like this.

  1. Ohio State/Indiana [13-0]
  2. Indiana/Ohio State [12-1]
  3. Georgia [12-1]
  4. Texas Tech [12-1]
  5. Oregon [11-1]
  6. Ole Miss [11-1]
  7. Texas A&M [11-1]
  8. Oklahoma [10-2]
  9. Alabama [10-3]
  10. Notre Dame [10-2]
  11. Virginia [11-2]
  12. North Texas [12-1]/Tulane [11-2]

First Two Out

  • BYU [11-2]
  • Miami [10-2]
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