1 wide not viable on higher level play?

[Jeroen]

So, I have been playing Tetris off and on for about a year and a half now, on Tetrisfriends, Tetris Battle, and Cultris 2. Now there is something that has caught my attention recently regarding Tetris Battle, when I started climbing ranks.

Let's just say I'm not one to be specialised in all the different builds. So my play is mostly just 1 wide (is that how you call it?) on the side, and if required, downstacking with (when possible) T-spins... When I started playing on Tetris Battle, I noticed most people played that way in the lower ranks (most of the time without the T-spins).

Now I've been climbing the ranks a bit (currently rank 105, as an indication), I don't ever seem to see anyone I play against, do this anymore... 70% of my opponents goes 3-wide or 4-wide and the remainder goes either 2-wide or ST stacking. But I never ever see anyone do the 1 wide build anymore. Is there a clear reason for this?

My first logic would say that 1 wide isn't as good an opener, but then I look at my personal statistics (3-wide and 4-wide I beat about 90% of the games I play, and 2-wide and ST stackers I beat about 60% of the games I play) and I kind of figured: If I have such high winrates with this against supposedly better builds, that doesn't really add up either...

So now I'm kind of wondering, why am I sort of the only person on this level on Tetris Battle to still be going for this, will I get in trouble with this in higher skill levels, and would I need to start teaching myself other builds necessarily if I want to keep getting better, or can I keep improving with 1 wide as well? I really prefer 1 wide as I don't have to think while playing... My hands just go on automatic pilot, and somehow that really relaxes me, but at the same time I do want to keep improving...

Ps: I'm sorry if this has been asked before, or if I placed this at the wrong spot. As you can see I'm not an active member of this community, and I'm just trying to learn. Thank you.

[dotamistern]

The reason 1w is ''bad'' is because you can't combo it really, so you'll send 4 lines only, you can send like 30 lines with a 3-4w full combo...or when you t-spin you clear 2 lines, tetris clears 4 lines but send the same amount of garbages. Btw I don't recommend tetris battle, you meet 100% bots unless you challenge somebody and there's no expert+ like in TF ( you counter garbage ). But this is only my oppinion of it all. Hope it helped

Nullpo Sprint: 31:88

Edit: Feel free to add me on TF if you would like to play some time  http://www.tetrisfriends.com/users/profile...amp;linkTag=nav

[Jeroen]

The reason 1w is ''bad'' is because you can't combo it really, so you'll send 4 lines only, you can send like 30 lines with a 3-4w full combo...or when you t-spin you clear 2 lines, tetris clears 4 lines but send the same amount of garbages. Btw I don't recommend tetris battle, you meet 100% bots unless you challenge somebody and there's no expert+ like in TF ( you counter garbage ). But this is only my oppinion of it all. Hope it helped

Nullpo Sprint: 31:88

Edit: Feel free to add me on TF if you would like to play some time  http://www.tetrisfriends.com/users/profile...amp;linkTag=nav

Thank you for your reply. I understand what you mean.

However, when I play 1 wide, I always keep the tetris until I can do a double tetris (8 rows at once). This means: 4 lines of garbage for the first, then 6 rows of garbage for the second (B2B tetris) and for the rest of the game the Tetrisses there will be worth 6 lines due to B2B. Also, not sure if the fact that I send 2 tetrisses at a time gives an extra line for combo as well. Would have to check on that. But it's not just 4 lines per tetris, at least.

Another advantage I get from 1-widing, is that my stack is nearly 100% of the time finished more quickly than their stack, meaning I can send 10 lines to them at the moment they're just at the top of their field. Pretty much every game, I will get 2 KO's for free at the start just by doing this, and when I keep downstacking after that, I can 'take the hit' from their big combo after that without getting KO'd or with just 1 KO.

So basically, I maintain the KO lead for the remainder of the game, and win by KO, often even reaching 5 KO's within the first minute of the game. It's not rarely that I win games where the opponent had double as many lines sent, but couldn't KO me.

So I understand it sends fewer lines, and I see why that would be considered 'bad' but I've found some strong advantages to it as well. As mentioned before: I seem to win a rather high percentage of my games with the 1-wide. How come?

As for playing on Tetris Battle. I haven't yet played against bots (to my knowing), perhaps because I'm not the highest level yet I suppose? I like the 'bombs' aspect of that particular game. I occasionally play TF Arena and Cultris 2. And I've just downloaded Nullpomino after reading here, so I'll give that a try the upcoming days as well.

All in all, thank you for your reply. Any more opinions on this, or explanations for why I am wrong or anything like that?

I'm sure I am wrong, on my 1-widing, otherwise I wouldn't be the only one doing it. I'd just like to understand why since it seems to be working so well...

[Integration]

I guess 1 wide = Tetrising. I'll stay with the term 1 wide though.

1 wide alone is not viable on higher level play, but 1 wide paired with Downstacking is. But this also depends on which mode you're playing. In Battle 5P or in Battle 2P with solid garbage 1 wide is not the best idea.

Let's compare Tetrises and combos. A Tetris sends 4 lines. B2B Tetris sends 6 lines. Combos send:

0 combo    0 (0)
1 combo    1 (1)
2 combo    2 (1)
3 combo    4 (2)
4 combo    6 (2)
5 combo    9 (3)
6 combo    12 (3)
7 combo    16 (4)  
8 combo    20 (4)  
9 combo    24 (4)  
...
So in Tetris Battle a 3 combo (4w) is as powerful as a Tetris (without B2B). Plus its garbage is more messy. A 7 combo even sends more lines than 2 B2B Tetrises.

I guess the replays are not representive. Some requirements must be fulfilled so that your replays will be used against rank 100+. It seems your rank plays no role (I've been matched against players who had won roughly 100 games; no way they were even rank 50). The main requirement is how many lines you sent. As you can see above, you can send more lines with combos. Then, enough of your games must take 2 minutes. If 2 comboers play against each other, it may happen that the initial combos cancel each other. As a result 2 combo players may play full 2 minutes, even if they send 100 lines. It's more seldom that a game involving a combo player and a 1 wider will last 2 minutes (if the 1 wider sends 100 lines). The advantage of 1w is that you can time your attack. For example a T Spin Mini into 3 Tetrises sends only 19 lines, but might top out a comboer 3 times. And I think that Tetris Battle tries to avoid to give you replays with too much downstacking involved. It's because there might be discrapencies between the original game and a replay of it, depending on when lines are sent and when players are topped.  It may happen that you sent 100 lines with downstack/bombstack combos, but if somebody else plays against your replay, you'll just send 50 lines (because in the replay you downstack bombs which don't exist).

There's also a psychologic reason, why there are so many 3 to 4 widers. Most players just look on how many lines they sent. They don't pay attention to how many lines they downstack or how high they stack. Additionally, people try to imitate replays. If you see nothing than 4w in the replays,you'll try to 4w yourself.

[myndzi]

Also, the uncommonness of Tetris openings can alter the timing of the game, like a late perfect clear. I'm slow, so I get a kick out of topping out combo stacks by perfect clearing "as fast as I can"

[UJS3]

I think tetris battle 2p is one of the few games where 1 wide could be effective (against combo at least). Time your tetrises well for two KOs while your opponent is at the top of their screen, then let them finish their entire combo and get KOd once. It's just exploiting the asynchronous play.

[Jeroen]

Thank you for your replies. I suppose it comes down to the last sentence from UJS3:

"It's just exploiting the asynchronous play".

That clears up my remaining questions. Thank you very much everyone

[PolarisTR]

1w is not a viable strategy.

Statistically a 5 wide attack is best. Or putting yourself down after every missdrop - which is also know as the 'kata'

(Inside joke for you buddy)