bc | MismatchedSocks · @MismatchedSock0
1st Mar 2023 from TwitLonger
About midset
Going into set 8 midset, I wasn't very confident in doing well. Several factors have been leading up to the feeling. First, none of my practice partners qualified. Second, I've never liked this set. I was the very first person to say I don't like set 8 and the hero augment mechanic (mortdog can vouch that I was the first set 8 hater). Third, I haven't done very well in defender cup or corrupted cup. Fourth, I never once felt I had an edge over anyone. Even when I was rank 1, I was just abusing broken comps that everyone played like jax/yuumi and played it slightly better and had slightly better rng for me to get rank 1. I never felt like a real and decisive edge in a tournament.
In fact, I was so confident that I was going to suck that when Frodan invited me to be the guest host for the DTIDYK show for Wednesday, I had declined with the reasoning that "I'm not prepping for midset so you should pick someone else instead".
However, just when I've given up and started playing for fun. I suddenly realized by enjoying TFT, I've become the best again.
A huge part of it is that this is probably the most fun and balanced patch in the entirety of set 8. They fixed the hero augment issues by adding 4 rerolls. They fixed the flexibility of the game by making the AP tree viable, and the AP tree is incredibly flexible. It almost feels like set 2 and 4 where you play whichever units you hit and there's like 10+ variations of your standard comp.
I also stopped looking at data and started trusting my own instincts. There's one moment when I finally realized everything made sense. It was a 2-1 hero augment, I had a lulu2 and a poppy pair on bench, and the choices were 1,1,2 costs. Almost always I would've just rolled until I found the highest average placement hero augment on tactics.tools. But this game since I was playing for fun, I just picked poppy's steadfast presence (which is the 4th worst hero augment according to the stats). I winstreaked the entire stage hugely in part of that choice and it was one of the easiest games of my life.
Finally, since none of my practice partners qualified, I haven't really been studying TFT or watching TFT at all. But I realized that also comes with a huge benefit. Back in set 7 NA regionals, I was the best player by a mile but due to work I could not play in any of the inhouses. However, because I talked a lot with Aesah and Guubums and they constantly played in the inhouses, they had inadvertently leaked all of my techs and within a week of inhouses, I saw everyone started copying my strategies just from watching Aesah and Guubums. This time, I have a few edges and techs over everyone else, and I'm going to try not to leak most of it.
Going into midset, I know I'm the best. I feel like I don't have to rely on going fast 9 to do well. I don't have to rely on 2-1 undergrounds to do well. My one weakness that I'm fully embracing is that I can't play any samira, but I'm decided to sack that entire sureshot tree to better tunnel on the ap tree. This midset I'm winning out and qualifying for worlds.