Trying to get better in general.

[tangoberry]

Okay, first off, just reading some of the topics this seems like a fairly 'pro tetris' place. I am probably no where close to the average player here but this was the only real tetris forum I could find and better players would probably help me more.

The main places I play are TetrisDS, Facebook Tetris, and iminlikewithyou ('blockles' fairly fake tetris, no hold/t-spin but still fun). I've stopped playing Facebook Tetris but I have records there and is probably the best way to allow others to gauge my abilities. My 40 line clear record is 1'24"XX. My Tetris Ultra score (2:00 min) is like, 18000 or something I think.

I've realized that there are plenty of people better than me in all three versions I play.
And now the real point of this topic is how can I get better now?

I definitely hit some sort of wall in terms of how fast I can play. I'm not looking to learn to T-spin quickly yet (I'm very slow at setting them up), though I wouldn't mind advice on that. I rather just learn how to be faster in general. Also, I do sometimes get into really bad placement positions that require one or two I's to fix. I build just very naturally and I don't know how I'm suppose to build sometimes and just put it somewhere...I know some will just say to practice more but I've been around the same level for a long time now and I play at least an hour and a half hours or so a day.

Question is just like...how would I get better? Do I have to reach some sort of revelation or epiphany to suddenly jump over the wall? I'm assuming I just need to learn how to build more flatly and I do not rotate counter-clockwise generally. Whenever I try to build rotating the least possible, I always screw up and have to just rotate extra times.

Any advice would be helpful. Though if your advice is to just 'play more', it's not very helpful but if enough people just say that I guess there's not much I can do but hope I'm just getting better so slowly I can't even tell. http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif

-Rob
P.S. Hi to everyone! http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

[DIGITAL]

Yeah, T-Spins aren't what you should be focusing on yet. Though if you'd like to know where to start, I'd recommend this page (http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/../wiki/index.php/T-Spin_Double_Overhang_Setups). The first section is what most players intuitively memorize.

For general guidelines, I recommend you browse:
General Technique (http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/../wiki/index.php/General_technique)
This page explains some very basic but important concepts that you will have to learn. Rotating with both directions is one of them.

Tetris Stacking (http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/../wiki/index.php/Tetris_Stacking)
This one is a little more detailed but still quite basic. It explains some common situations that may help to reinforce flat stacking principles.

To get better, unfortunately, practice is a part of that. This might not be the answer you wanted to hear. BUT I'm going to make a distinction between practice and playing more. Practice is striving to improve through an effort to understand the underlying mechanics of the game. Playing more is just zombie training and improvement may take a much longer period to become noticeable. Not only that, zombie training reinforces bad habits.

I would recommend for you to do some reading on SRS and the games/modes you are playing. Learn SRS's movement finesse, its wallkicks to an extent, etc. Basically, learn what you can and cannot do. In other words, learn how the game works. Minimize the feeling of randomness in your games. This feeling of randomness can take many forms. You might feel an uncertainty in the movement and rotation of the tetromino and have to constantly look before you drop the piece. You might spam movement and rotation when you are pressured by gravity speed because you are unsure how the wallkicks/floorkicks work. It can even be the feeling where you are at a loss of where to place a certain piece like you mentioned. Once you feel more confident, you'll improve a lot more rapidly.

I just noticed this is your first post even though you joined awhile back. Welcome to the forums. http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

[XeaL]

to get faster, rather than playing 40 lines non-stop for a few weeks, i suggest playing marathon (its alot more than 40 lines) and try and do marathon faster. This forces you (in FB at least) to stack tetrises (tetrises remove more line goal) to get a faster time, as well as get used to high gravity (not 20g tho unfortunately).

Also learn the finesses and i'm sure digital explained everything pretty well, stack flat, both rotates, etc etc.

[caffeine]

Play multiplayer blockbox (http://www.spelpunt.nl/default.htm)! It'll work all your newbie muscles. Also, learn proper SRS rotation/finesse and clear garbage as you get it.