preview processing etc.

[mindloss]

Found this site today. I've been browsing for a while and haven't seen anything that directly answers my question, so here goes.

I'm a decent tetris player by everyday standards, but the scores/vids on here blow my mind. I grabbed nullpo and played a bit for the first time in a while, and my best 40L times were around 1:15. I wouldn't have been too shocked to find out the best of the best were going maybe twice as fast as that, but times in the twenties?!

I figure practice alone would maybe shave another 10 seconds off my time without too much sweat. I wasn't aware of the finer points of finesse and kicks, and I figure that would help quite a bit too (I run about 50-60 finesse faults per game), but I'd be surprised if it got me much under a minute. My last fatal flaw is that I've spent a lifetime only looking at the first preview piece, which obviously doesn't cut it.

Okay, so two questions:

First, does anyone have an opinion about which of these things (practice, finesse, effectively using multi-block preview, and plain old talent) are the big contributors to the huge gap between someone like me and the top guys? I know they all play a part, but I figured someone might know which one is really a key factor.

Second, how does looking ahead several blocks work? If I try to look more than one ahead, I feel like I'm playing for the first time again... it takes me a good 5 seconds to come up with a plausible arrangement for several upcoming blocks. Is this one of those innate skills you just acquire if you play a bunch and keep an eye on preview? More to the point, are good players mentally planning out where to put pieces one at a time (albeit fast and unconsciously), or do good players recognize groups of upcoming blocks and sort of place them as a 2-4 block unit? That seems like it would be the only way to process the information quickly enough to hit the speed I'm seeing in these videos...

Sorry for the noob questions. I have taken a look at the wiki and the starting guides, but there's so much there that it's a little overwhelming trying to figure out what to work on first. Anyway, pointers appreciated!

[xenoslash]

i think looking ahead will help u improve faster than learning finesse/increasing finger speed. (not saying that these are not important). For looking ahead, i treat the minos as color's. So "o" just means yellow to me. Then when i play 40 line, if I see "yellow blue orange" , then I instinctively know what to do continuously.

[Kitaru]

I think they're all about equally important; effective training any given area will help contribute to your overall ability. If one particular area is giving you trouble, you can focus your efforts on refining another until you're ready to revisit the techniques you previously found too challenging to incorporate.

Multi-preview use is tricky. Some of it can come in the form of combining things down into a unit. Some of it can come in the form of small adjustments to a generally good placement that make it a great one given the extra information -- you might rotate a piece a certain way instead of placing it neutrally if you know it'll make room for a piece in the preview, for example. The "Recognizing Patterns" example with T followed by L or J from Belzebub's Sprint Guide is a good example of how the extra information can help improve your ability to accommodate upcoming pieces through small adjustments to your strategy for the current piece.

The guides do have a _lot_ of information to be absorbing all at once. It's probably not going to stick all at once, but I'd suggest trying to incorporate some of the advice little by little and occasionally skimming through or re-reading material to see what you've picked up and what you're now ready to take on.

[Mule]

Practice, practice, practice. Oh, and play a lot of multiplayer--it is more fun, competitive, and you do not want to be forever alone (just saying). Eventually the practice from playing multiplayer will kick in for 40L races.

[Integration]

Regarding the Cultris 2 highscores (Blink 30.5 s), I'd say some players could go sub 30 with one preview only (and bag randomizer). Regarding the Blockbox highscores (Apocalypse 21.5 s or less), I'd also say, more than 3 previews won't help you much to increase your speed.

One goal should be, that you always know where to move a piece even before it enters the playing field. With one preview, that's not always possible, e.g. when you drop 2 consecutive pieces (without moving and rotating), you won't have enough time to find a spot for the third piece. I can't say more, I am not pro enough.

[bigwig]

Watch your nullpo replays. It doesn't even matter if it's of a good run or not. You'll notice where you're putting the pieces in a suboptimal spot, even if it "works". Those mistakes will be repeated unless you recognize them.

[myndzi]

If I try to look more than one ahead, I feel like I'm playing for the first time again... it takes me a good 5 seconds to come up with a plausible arrangement for several upcoming blocks.

This is how learning all the important skills will feel at first. It's called... learning  The more you do it, the more familiar you are / more natural it is.

[mindloss]

Woo, 40L time's down to a minute after a night to sleep on it. I tried some Cultris, and I'm 200ish on all the multiplayer challenges, except for the number-of-tetrises one where I got 17th, which made me feel better  But man, I forgot what a non-7-bag randomizer is like...

I tried some multiplayer but after getting my a** handed to me a few dozen times I'm getting the sense that spamming tetrises doesn't work these days. I guess I gotta actually learn how to use spins/combos.

But back to the using preview thing. I'm trying to figure out a good way to practice that. My first thought is to play nullpo at 0G and figure out where I'm putting my blocks every time, and gradually ratchet up the speed. That'd be a lot more fun if I could figure out some settings to play on so that it was more like a game and less like an exercise, though...