cool endeavor you're taking on but I would think the first step of building your legacy would be to change your name to something nongay like kevinITG or kevinPIU. EDIT: and i can't wait for the chapter where you talk about holding the piece in play and swapping it with the exact same one. should be awesome stuff!
Well... I'm still kind of guilty of this, except I generally use IHS, so it's not really hold whoring (and definitely not kevholding, hehe). Generally, this occurs when I make my plan for the next piece when I'm placing another, after looking for a use for hold for a while. I tend to look at hold before looking at the next pieces, I guess. Sometimes this is good, sometimes it is bad.
I strongly disagree. Recently I have given the opposited advice to players who desire to start. You and DIGITAL are the perfect examples of the 2 strongest global TGM players and you started on TI. Then TAP and TGM came much faster for you, than me, c_t and jago who have made the opposited training : (TGM and TAP --> TI) But anyway, don't stop on my notice and continu, it is very well writen for the moment.
furthermore, starting with the most frustrating video game ever created (aka tgm1) might discourage newcomers
I agree with Kevin. Starting with TGM and TAP makes things easier in the long run. The main jump from TAP to Ti gameplay that requires learning is hold. This can take a bit of doing, but it's not particularly difficult. There's also three piece previews instead of one, but that's a fairly trivial difference to get used to. On the other hand, starting out with Ti and then going back to TAP means you need to adjust to not having floorkicks, and to a far more disciplined form of stacking. Suddenly stack shape and the ability to use IRS is crucial, while in Ti you can get away with being far more relaxed about it. In my opinion it is far more difficult to adjust a playing style to accommodate no floorkicks than it is to accommodate hold. And, most importantly, it is possible to play Ti competently with a style that does not use hold, which is completely not the case for playing TAP with a style that expects to have floorkicks. I'd recommend dabbling in Ti fairly early on, just to get the feel for it, but I'd definitely agree that players should start out on TGM and TAP to learn the basics first and to become good at stacking.
I remain opposed, I am boring I know. You don't speak objectively, HOLD looked easy to you because of your experience on TDS, but for my case, After 2,5 years I only start to feel a bit confortable today with the HOLD. And I don't speak about jago's TI style which is desesperating. C_t as well struggled for a while when he started on TI. But DIGITAL, Kevin, rednefed, TWF and many other players were brillant on TAP in a few months, where other players spent 3 years or more to get a similar level. And Edo is an exception, I have at least 4 counter examples.
There are some problems with this argument. DIGITAL still isn't as good at TGM/TAP as he is on Ti by a decent margin. And Kevin's speed of improvement is kind of illusory: he played an amount in 2 years comparable to what everyone else would have played in 5. And I'm not even kidding, you can ask him yourself. Keep in mind that there is some time needed to transition into Ti style, but it's a hell of a lot easier to deal with if you've already got a strong base in the more restrictive styles. Then the only real hurdle is the ridiculous speed.
I think you're inherently wrong to say "Person X did Ti->TAP really easy and Person Y took ages with TAP->Ti". Firstly for the simple fact that I'm fairly sure the people you name (Digital, Kevin, etc) didn't play Ti exclusively before they started playing TAP and TGM1 as well, but most of all because you're using specific people and comparing them, and we all play different amounts and develop at different rates anyway. You can't compare people who ultimately have completely different amounts of practice and hardcore training. Personally I think that the same person would be more comfortable switching from TAP to Ti than the other way around, and would improve more as a result. It's not necessarily about how quickly they adapt to the new style either. I believe TAP forces players to develop good habits early on to become good, while Ti allows players to form bad habits, which will come back to haunt them later on. Even now there are elements of my playing style that are clearly influenced from starting out on Tetris DS. It's much easier to start out with a solid base for skill development and then add things in like hold, than it is to form a lot of bad habits and then try to cover them up and iron them out later on.
There's a bit of truth in what Amnesia's saying, but the method that I'm going to propose should compensate for that. All I said so far was that it's best to initially play only TGM1 and TAP. TGM3 comes in just a little later, but the focus is still on TGM1 and TAP.
I see either way as having tradeoffs. No matter which you pick the other stresses different skills that you'll have to develop later. Personally I always recommend, especially when starting out, playing whatever is most fun because if it's not fun you won't keep playing will you? And to build the fundamentals, more than anything else you just have to get some experience.
c_t too god like. I too agree with play whatever's fun. I know I've tried to push games too hard on people and forgot you gotta let people have fun and then if they want to improve they will begin the process. unless you're like digital and you can hold your brother down and force him to play you got to let them explore and just gently guide them. it's like you got a friend that becomes a crackhead. if they want to get better and get clean then it's worth the effort to help them but if they don't care and just want to smoke crack then you can't do anything for them. also what are you doing with your other buttons, kevin? can i have them? gimme!
Holy crap!! I actually updated the guide! This chapter talks about the "road to TGM1 GM". I promise it gets more interesting next week. Hey, at least I used this newfangled TeDiGe thing this time.
In your 2-5G diagrams, you've got the I pieces spawning in the wrong locations. Check http://files.dropbox.com/u/790563/TGMGUIDE/5.htm if you're not sure.
great stuff kev, enjoying this guide! few things. 1. in section 8, the following line appears: "When using IRS you will not wallkick if that would've happened if you rotated after landing normally, as seen with the J here." I have no idea what this means...there must be a better way to word that. 2. In Lesson 13, under Zangi moves, there are two typos in the first sentence. 3. In Lesson 13, you talk about TAP, then link to TA on hardrop wiki. It's a bit confusing, you should probably link to TAP instead. 4. In Lesson 14, you say "During the run from Lv.1 to 900 the delays shorten every section." Don't they stay the same after 500?
