I Just Got Served!

[interyernan]

The temptation was too much for me and i decided to have a quick online tourny before my Mrs. got home from work. It was an 18 Hole Okinawa Reg Strong Wind, No Spin. I chose Alex as i get on best with her and have her at max loyalty. Now the no spin tends to be a slight minus for me but not by much and i consider a decent -17 quite a good effort for my first Japanese tourney especially with the nerves tingling and the flu on overdrive. NO DICE i'm afraid i finished 5th and 1 place outside the pods with a nice eagle on 18 only to see 2 alby's leapfrog me and a winning score of -20 in a G3. If this is a taste of things to come i think i'll be happy with getting to G2 in less than 50 outings!

[the_smug_one]

It's a sick world over there. Hope you didn't fill up, because you're in store for many, many more servings.

[rinoshark]

i dont get it. they cant be THAT GOOD. you guys need to hold ur head up, be confident, and try to do your best right now cause im coming to minna, and i plan on gobbeling up all the trophies, dashing all thier hopes and dreams, and settling this whole super japan Ooooo myth. hey, do i win anything special for dominating the whole server???? a special outfit maybe??

[interyernan]

Yeah rino it's the "Man, Bear, Pig" outfit. Currently no-one on their server has dominated enough to suffice it's reward.
Trust me when i say it's no exageration what some of these guys are doing over there. In the Okinawa tourney i described earlier in the thread most are using Big Mag Club, they don't care about the control level of the players cause their reactions are so exact. On the first par 3 for the course there were 4 hole in ones. One thing i will say is they tend to muck up some of the easier par 4's. Maybe they go for the green with rabbits and turtles and get into a little trouble off the tee....but.... they eagle every par 5 and with the amount of aces and albys flying arouns seeing really was beleving.
I really do hope you start playing minna cause people keep trying to talk to me and i haven't got a f^&king clue what they are saying. My wife even downloaded a Japanese translation program for her nintendo DS - I didn't work!

[the_smug_one]

For the record, I don't think it's a confidence issue Rino.

Just saying that I recognize they are very, very good over there. I'm a competitive Minna G1, and while I do expect to promote to G0 at some point, I don't expect to be a consistently competitive G0 on their server -- much like I wouldn't expect to dominate a gameroom filled with mace, kbongg, urrr, jess, dre, shihiko, KX etc...

[rinoshark]

i got minna. or its coming. and i love the control thing!!! i have been arguing with you guys all week on other post about that control is least important. i think im bringing something special for them. do i get to pick one outfit? or do i get them all???!!!!!

[clint_westwood]

i dont get it. they cant be THAT GOOD. you guys need to hold ur head up, be confident, and try to do your best right now cause im coming to minna, and i plan on gobbeling up all the trophies, dashing all thier hopes and dreams, and settling this whole super japan Ooooo myth. hey, do i win anything special for dominating the whole server???? a special outfit maybe??



they are that good, unfortunaltey rino no offense but your muhamad ali speak of " gobbeling up trophies" aint gonna get you anywhere, i mean this in the nicest way...........your in for a shock and minna is littered with world class female playeys too.

and with the new points system in place then and with mace flipping between G1 and G0 as are the regular main stay level 20 JP players........then you will not be doing any gobbling........well you might but not at minna!!

i am G1 and romped G2 easily in 8 games only to go back down to G2 under new rules...........romped G2 again........and guess what.......it looks like i am heading to G2 again.

i will say that G1 is tougher than in the international G0, i can win there, and i have a pretty decent pod ratio of about 34% .........as for G1 in japan.......my stats suck.

unfortunately by mouthing off i doubt this will do much to make me win sadly.....but good luck anyhow

hope to see you in G1 or G2 very soon.

good luck

[interyernan]

I really pulled something out of my backside last night - 18 Highland with nick, no power mode. I shot an amazing -21 to win my first G3 outing. I played like a man possesed eagled every par 5 (lipping an alby on 18) and netted a hole in one in the process. No word of a lie my pi was around the 70% mark and i think i was outside the 3m mark on all but 1 approach shot.

[clint_westwood]

yes but i bet you even at G3 you effectively played to you ultimate best under those conditions and i bet you still did not romp it!!

i had g1 -20 euro and i did not even get a pod, thats why i think rino should not be toooo gobby!!! she is in for a shock

[interyernan]

I'm generally a quite player when i'm on a course with players i don't really know, i'll say nice bird or putt or eag etc if it warrents but rino plays better when she's giving it her banter. But i agree that she's in for a harsh shock when she plays her first G3 and realises that just an average round won't even get you a top ten. Bonus point to my win was my first prize was a rather fetching red hairstyle that i've not even got on our server after numerous pods and bonus prizes.

[clint_westwood]

they have loads of lobby parts that we dont have i think.......

[the_smug_one]

Played an Oceania reg tee recently where the leader started out with FIVE consecutive eagles (no lie), so he was -10 through 5 holes. After seeing what he did on hole #4, I was half-expecting an alby on #5.

Not bad considering there's only one par 5 in that group.

[reeja19]

What score did he finish with smug?

[rinoshark]

hey, im just building up the suspense, dont rain on my parade!! i gotta share my g0 tourney last night story w you guys. going into 18 at ocieana im tied for lead. perfect drive. next shot water!!! as you all know i dont leave myself much time to spare, so i throw a safe 2nd attempt way left on green away from water. im on the green, 45ft monster curve w only 5 seconds left when i first look at my putt. with out a second to spare, i just slap a ridiculously way left putt who knows how hard..........straight in for par! another win. most exciting shot i ever saw

[the_smug_one]

He actually bogied #6. I'd just mesaged someone to tell them his score and it felt like I'd jinxed him. I want to say he finished at -22 or -23.

[clint_westwood]

thats awesome shooting smug aint it!!!

i bet these guys are like 95% PI in Japan

[MasonR]

A few people I've talked to (a Mr. and a few lv 17/18/19 guys), a lot of them said 60-70% or so. One guy claimed an average of 80%+ PI, but I'm pretty sure he was talking a little bit out of his ass, probably his average "<i>on</i>" round.

There's also turtle/rabbit shots, which negatively effects your PI%.

There are some that probably have 80%+, but I doubt there are more than a handful.

[the_smug_one]

I'd still like to see a screenshot from someone with a 100% PI rating for the round. While this would obviously be an extremely rare occurance, I am POSITIVE it's happened before. I'm now averaging ~65% PI, but my absolute highest in a single round was 93.8% (this was for 9h, meaning that I must have missed PI once).

[reeja19]

Cars told me he got 100% for a 9h round before, so maybe he has a screenshot of it, my personal best is only 66.6% and I would say my average is now up to around 37.5% :-\

[MasonR]

I've been in the 80s more than a dozen times (not that many when you consider ~1000 or so competitive rounds), but I've only been in the 90s once.

I've got 100% pi for OT2 several times for 9 holes though, although it's much easier in that game.

[the_smug_one]

I'd still really like to see a screenshot from someone with 100% PI. For obvious reasons, it's much more likely to happen on 9h than 18h. Have a crazy feeling my 93.8% PI wouldn't have lasted a full 18h... call it a hunch.

[MasonR]

Well, I've got no Minna/OOB access until the weekend...but I might pull it out of my ass on OT2, I'll certainly grab a pic of it if I do.

I think that's something I'll try on Minna/OOB when I get home to knock off some rust, you'll be the first to know when I do it, smug. :)

[the_smug_one]

Nice.

I'm also unfortunately about to go through some OOB / Minna withdrawals. Hope to get a game or two in tonight while packing, but after that I'm out through Sunday. In the mean time I will spend plenty of time in the air, so hopefully I can get a few OT2 rounds in for some relief.

[MasonR]

Maybe if we find some mutual free time we can squeeze in a game or two this week. I'll certainly be around the forums more often without a PS3 handy.

[interyernan]

Mason is there any advice you can give some of the newer guys like me who are just starting out on minna they may make things if not easier them more bearable?

[Roughdawg4]

Get birdies.


And when you can get eagles.


And when you can get albys.



You are ready my son :)

[MasonR]

Eagle the 5s and the short 4s, birdie everything else.

Example, Novice Highland? Bigmag/Inf. Period

Sounds stupid, I know, but it's a mindset that's different from the Int competition. You won't see -10 to -15 win on Minna, when it can realistically have a chance to win on our server.

Every course aside from Crown has realistically reachable par 4s, practice those shots with all character types (Novice/Int/Exp) to see what's possible.

Don't get overconfident after playing G3 and G2s if you breeze through those blocks. Scores fluctuate wildly in those tournaments, really depends on who is playing. I will say most players from HSG should get through G3 in 2-4 games, no prob. G2 can get tougher, but you can also get a good string of tourns and gun through. Don't think this means you're going to play similarly in G1/G0 though. Confidence is good, but I've seen players crash and get depressed with their game after not producing the same results in higher levels.

Practice rabbits/turtles a LOT. Find your aiming lines on certain holes so you can produce consistent results, simply aiming far right and turtling a shot isn't enough, you need to be somewhat accurate.

Practice in perfect conditions. Jp players are pampered, never rain, never hurricanes, the game even wipes for them.

Practice laying up for a chip or two on the closing holes (not on eagle ops, of course), sometimes you'll see a 20-way tie for [insert # here] under and points will make all the difference.

Hit your drives to favorable distances. Example, screw a 71y ap, find a yardage that plays to a full sand wedge.

Be humble. Sometimes your best isn't good enough, gotta learn to live with that. Learn to play for a pod if a few people start running away with the tournament.

I got no problem talking all day about strategy (seriously, I could write 300+ kbs simply on shot-by-shot strats), but if I don't stop here, I won't stop at all. I'm always up for conversation in the lobbies if you see me.

tl;dr: Go low, go REALLY low. :-\


Glad to see you bought Minna, hope to play with you soon. ;)

[the_smug_one]

I'd definitely be up for an OT2 game over the break but sadly where I'm headed there is no wireless internet (hasn't yet been invented).

Excellent post on Minna strategy, btw.

<b>Take notes kids, Mace has probably forgotten more about HSG OOB / Minna strategy than 99% of you will ever know.</b>

[MasonR]

The professor created a coconut radio, right? Coconut wireless router isn't too far behind. :P

That sucks though, as I still don't have a new router at my place (most likely when I get home I guess). We'll play sometime for sure though.

And of course, thanks for the kind words, smug. ^^

[The-Dreamcaster]

see. i'm happy with my european version atm, but once i start getting really good, eg (lvl20) ish. i might consider getting this. Is it really true that people hit -18 novice on crown on Minna? and being a golf game, there is a limit to how good people can be surely? there is a very slight amount of luck involved on the control, so even the best of Minna can't hit every shot in... can they?

[interyernan]

Mate i've played in a rainy crown novice only G0 tourny with mason and watched him hit -18 and better and i agree with you on the element of control and luck it can't always go in your favour.......... but some of these guys on minna have super computers for a brain working out elevation, wind, lie on slope to percentage of shot power added to the ability to hit pi more often than not that even when they do land 10+ meters away, their brains compute the putt in to the center of the cup.

[MasonR]

You won't see -18 Crown novice too often, but it happens, it's not as if you'll see more than one, at the very most two scores like that in the same tournament though. There's still the big number out there considering how aggressively a lot of these guys play (the biggest fault of a lot of the better players, they get WAY too aggressive at times) In a 50 man tournament someone is bound to get really hot, and since they play in perfect conditions it's not surprising to see someone go really low. There's a -20 Crown novice score up on the board right now, a testament to how ridiculously low some players can go.


there is a limit to how good people can be surely?

All I can say is you've got to see it to believe it. They're not unbeatable, but you've really got to be on your game.