The Flash

Hello boys and girls, and welcome to my blog.

I've never kept a blog before anywhere. So why start now?

I believe this might serve several purposes. First, there are some utterly selfish reasons: it helps me keep track of my progress in WeBL for myself, and I believe it might just help me improve my game (seeing your own thoughts in writing often clarifies them to yourself). Plus, I can blow off some steam here instead of the press when necessary.

However, I'm also planning to share some insight on some of my more interesting fights, how I've fought them and why... and I'm also planning to write some strategy tips every time I put in an entry. So hopefully this blog will be of interest to you as well.

One of my recent fights raised some interest: the Heavyweight bout between the 7'11" Turkey Thompson (Double I) and my 5'11" STR freak Mother Hugger. The decisive moment was in the 8th as Turkey was ahead by one point, his status was "obviously tired" and Hugger's "remains standing". At that point Hugger flashed him going Inside, got a stun, but took massive damage and went to "obviously tired" himself, which ended up costing him the fight.

People were wondering why I flashed at all, as I had Turkey in a difficult place and going Inside seemed unnecessary and even foolish.

Generally, when you face the not-so good managers, all you need is a good fighter and a flexible fight plan that's going to adjust to what your opponent does. This will give them a chance to screw up themselves and hand you the win. When facing someone like Double I however, you can't really count on that. You need to plan in advance exactly how you are going to win, how your opponent will most likely try to win, and what is most likely going to happen in the fight and when.

In our fight, the key question for me was: "when is he going to rest?" as this was going to be the decisive factor. I knew from my simming that if he'd allow me to hit him with a powerful body line or flash when he's resting, he would surely lose. I also knew that he wants to be ahead in score when resting (but not so much I'll be flashing him when he does), and I also "knew" that the most likely rounds he'd pick would be rounds 7-9, because those rounds are the optimal resting rounds in almost every case (for more information on the subject, see Peekaboo's article about resting).

So, my plan for the fight was to keep the score close, and either force him to rest under unfavorable conditions or risk getting flashed while he rests. In round 7, I was going heavy on his body and the score was even - a really poor round for my opponent to rest (which he also didn't).

Then, it's round 8. I'm down by one point, my opponent is tired, and the decisive moment comes. This seems like a perfect round for my opponent to rest, so Hugger drops his guard and goes for the big flash attempt. If Turkey rests that round, the fight is practically over. And even if he doesn't, I have a good chance to score a knockdown which will put me ahead one point - enough to catch my breath in the 9th myself, deny him a resting round where he would be ahead, and put me in a position to hit him with another body line in the 10th, leaving the decider to either the 11th or 12th round.

Unfortunately, Turkey has one AP more in his Chin than I had scouted, and won't go down. The 9th comes and Hugger hits his body, and he STILL doesn't rest, but wins the round with a body line of his own to keep the endurance levels close. Hugger is losing and tired, and jabs away from the clinch in the 10th - the round my opponent finally takes a breather, at the perfect moment - and my winning chances are gone.

So, the lesson is: flashing can be fun but it's also risky. If you're going to do it, pick the time and place carefully... and make sure you have an escape route in case something goes wrong.

Till next time,

FBG