Project Annotated Tournament Games

[iwa]

Hello everyone,
I recently made a post in the Technical Projects sub-forum on a replay annotator I wrote. Feel free to check it out :D. In fact, please read that thread if you intend to read this one... Here's the link to it: https://ps-replay-annotator.herokuapp.com/.
Since I wrote it with DOU in mind, I thought I'd try and start an initiative of annotating DOU games.

Whats the point of this?

In my personal experience of trying to improve at DOU, I felt that there was a lack of resources for learning how to pilot. For other tiers, the best piloting resources are generally found on YouTube (BKC, Blunder live-records smogon tour games, even 1v1 has consistent content creators etc). Doubles' niche is really squeezed out by VGC. IMO, DOU is also the most complex tier due to a larger decision tree each turn. Its harder to retroactively understand a move made as compared to Singles. (To explain what I mean: in one turn of singles, I might not know whether move a, move b, swap a or swap b is the best, but after seeing swap a, I can mostly reason out to myself why it was chosen. In doubles, there are way more options in the first place so its harder to understand decisions made.) Not everyone wants to become a YT star and sharing your YT video will always feel more like plugging than serving the community. Therefore, I think annotated games will serve as a premier piloting resource.

Feel free to annotate games and post them.

Some things to note:

1. Comments can be critical but obviously don't be mean/rude.
2. You can annotate tournament (preferable) or ladder games, but they should contain some learning value. A 6-0 sweep on low ladder is pointless.
3. You can annotate your own games or someone else's games. I doubt anyone would object to having their games annotated (its fair use anyways) but obviously once again rule one.
4. Don't feel like you're not good enough to submit annotations.
5. Feel free encouraged to discuss the annotations posted in this thread.
6. There's a web app that handles everything. It has a few idiosyncrasies so please read below.

NEW FORMAT TEXT

gameurl#https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1242164885
annotator#iwayasu
nochat#1
notime#1
0#team preview (before leads)
0*# team preview (after leads)
1#turn 1 early
1*#turn 1 late

NEW FORMAT SCREENSHOT

Format for annotations file:

1. gameurl: the url of the ps replay. CAUTION: get rid of any '/' at the back of it because the program uses the '<url>.json' version of the replay.
2. nochat: 1 or 0, all chat and join and leave messages will be deleted from/left in the replay. Can be omitted, defaults to 1.
3. notime: 1 or 0, all player time remaining messages will be deleted from/left in the replay. Can be omitted, defaults to 1.
4. annotator: annotations show up as a chat message sent by 'ANNOTATION by <annotator>'. Can be omitted, defaults to 'unknown user'.
5. # is used to break between turn number and annotation, so don't use it in the message body
6. turn 0 refers to team preview
7. annotations appear right after the turn counter
8. an asterisk (*) behind the turn number makes the annotation appear late. It will instead appear right before the next turn's counter (see image).
9. The program might throw an error if the input is bad, check you text file carefully for styling errors.

How to use:

1. write your annotations file on your computer with notepad or something.
2. paste it in the big white box and click the only button on the page.
   screenshot

   
3. Wait what could be a very long time (over 2 mins if you have bad internet).
4. You'll probably see a GitHub 404 page.
   screenshot

   
5. Change the number for '?ver=1' to any number. Its at the end of the url (e.g. iwas-alt.github.io/......6aa.html?ver=1). I know how dumb this sounds but basically this forces GitHub to update itself. It may take a few times just keep trying 2, 3, 4 etc (it should load by 4).
   screenshot

   
6. You can now share the link. If you want to download it for safekeeping, just press ctrl+s or right click anywhere on the page and click save as. You'll get a html file.

NEW FEATURE: Adding annotations to an annotated game (suggested by Qwello :D)
The app now takes 'iwas-alt.github.io/ps_game_bank/' links for 'gameurl'

screenshot

They stack!

screenshot

Hopefully this project will receive support from the community :D. Please report bugs/suggest features in the technical projects thread.

 

[iwa]

Reserved to showcase outstanding annotations.

 

[iwa]

To kickstart the project, I'll post an annotation I tried my hands at >_<
For context I've never played in tours and peaked 1739 (rank 22) on ladder playing sash spam cheese so I'm not a very good player. (Had my ass handed to me every time I played a tour player.)
The game I chose (arbitrarily) was from the crown tundra kickoff quarterfinals between lliama and nido-rus (game 2). Feel free to comment on/discuss my annotations but the main point of this thread is to share annotations.

edit: this one's also linked now!

 

[Fran]

Cool stuff, I'll give it a shot if I see any cool games in Invitationals

 

[iwa]

I tried my hands at another game, duckpond vs yobuddy, 2020 DWCOP Finals MED vs APAC. Please feel free to post your own annotations or comment on the ones I posted... (at least give them a watch ;_;). I'm sure some of my analysis was flawed and it'd be great to start a discussion. And yes, the game is now a link to github pages! I found a way to upload the html files for easy viewing. You can find a bank for them here https://iwa-yasu.github.io/dou_annotated_games/ (doesn't look very nice rn). You can learn to do it to with just a bit of poking around on the net. Edit: now obsolete, there's a shared bank everyone can upload to without a github account.
Again, this is a piloting discussion thread as much as an annotate and upload games thread, so feel very free to watch my analysis and roast me about it.

DOU games are crazy short compared to singles games (mostly), so it really doesnt take more than 30mins to annotate a game in-depth turn-by-turn. Its basically studying mons while also writing your thoughts down. A lot of fun and helpful in improving your game. Please give it a shot :D

 

[iwa]

Working on a way to host the python script online so people won't have to download it themselves. Also trying to figure out a way for my github page thingy to easily accept replays from others so people don't have to fiddle around with html.

 

[iwa]

I have made a web app hosted on heroku that also automatically uploads the replay to GitHub pages after processing it :D. Took me the whole day flask is very unwieldy >_<. Go read the OP. I'll update this thread and the technical projects with a more detailed guide and some nice screenshots in like two days cause I'll be in the hospital tomorrow and the day after .
The ease of use has been very significantly increased. You don't even have to download the replay from showdown now. It can scrape the replay from a url provided. Literally anyone that can type, use the net and play mons can use this.

 

[iwa]

Hello again :D. This afternoon I studied game 1 of Crown Tundra Doubles OU Kickoff Tournament, Yoda2798 vs Nido-Rus and annotated it. This time I did it with the help of DOU discord so I hope the quality is better . This thread is still reaaally empty minus my own posts and its starting to make me feel self-conscious >_<. To encourage interaction, I have left 6 questions in the replay for points that I am not sure about and may warrant further discussion. They are stylised '@TEXT IN CAPS?'

here's a screenshot

Please have a go at explaining my queries or contesting my takes. Just make a post below addressing one or more (or all!) of these questions (or any other ones I didn't highlight).

cringy plug

It took me nearly 2 hours to do this (phew!) but I felt like I learnt a lot from just looking through 1 game (wasn't even that great of a game imo.) I'd like to emphasise that everyone can and should have a crack at this.
For players that are already good, you can share your expertise (and come on, no ones perfect. Everyone can do with a little studying :P).
For players looking to improve, it really forces you to slow down and think extensively about the game. You'd be surprise how much deeper you can look into each and every turn!
Also I should probably clean up the OP soon bight imma take a nap first. Just got discharged from the hospital after a small operation.

 

[Qwello Lee]

I really like the idea of this project, I think it's a great resource and I'd really like to see it take off, so I'll definitely try my hand at annotating some games if I see any cool ones in invitational. One thing I'd love to see (I have no clue how difficult it would be to implement) would be the possibility of collaborating on annotations, i.e. I'd like to be able download a replay annotated by someone else and add my own comments, which could be useful to answer questions posed by the original annotator without uploading a replay with just a couple comments.

As for the queries you made on the nido-rus vs yoda game here goes my attempt at answering:

comments

Turn 1: going hard kart on the incin slot could be bad in case nido went for fake out on fini and earth power on incin (a pretty safe play, worst case scenario you're just trading fake outs). It might not have been an ohko depending on spreads, but you're still taking 80ish% on kart.

Turn 3: this is a very tough situation for yoda, as nido can safely double into a slot and claim a ko without fear of the other mon koing one of koko/kyub, so I think he was pretty much forced to call the double and protect one of the slots. I'm not sure protecting fini and switching in incineroar would have solved much to be honest, next turn fini is still a sitting duck and nido is still threatening a hefty hit on that slot.

Turn 4: I'm assuming nido expected kart to protect, as fake out on the kart slot+ice move is very threating and he is still free to ignore the celesteela, so he decided to take the "free" kill. I'd chalk this up to good prediction on yoda's part rather than a mistake on nido's.

Turn 6: icy wind is a fine play imo: without the electroweb crit on incineroar yoda wouldn't have gotten a free switch, giving nido a chace to reposition to avoid the threat of cb zygarde/kart under tailwind in the endgame. I do agree that ice beaming the kart was a better play, but I don't think icy wind was necessarily a mistake.

Turn 7: kyub was av mixed, there was no way it was max speed, so thousand arrows was completely safe here. Switching out the koko could allow kartana to get up a sub, which could be ugly, I think the best play here was to sack both and then go blastoise+pult to start spamming dragon darts.

Turn 9: I don't think there's any justification for follow me, the only thing that comes to mind is that nido forgot about life orb recoil and didn't want to lose pult to kartana coming in+ice beam on the pult slot.

By no means I think my analysis is perfect, but hopefully it helps :)

 

[iwa]

One thing I'd love to see (I have no clue how difficult it would be to implement) would be the possibility of collaborating on annotations, i.e. I'd like to be able download a replay annotated by someone else and add my own comments, which could be useful to answer questions posed by the original annotator without uploading a replay with just a couple comments.

That's a great idea, and it won't be very hard to implement. I'll get to it today or tomorrow :D

I really like the idea of this project, I think it's a great resource and I'd really like to see it take off, so I'll definitely try my hand at annotating some games if I see any cool ones in invitational.

<3

comments

Turn 1: going hard kart on the incin slot could be bad in case nido went for fake out on fini and earth power on incin (a pretty safe play, worst case scenario you're just trading fake outs). It might not have been an ohko depending on spreads, but you're still taking 80ish% on kart.

Turn 3: this is a very tough situation for yoda, as nido can safely double into a slot and claim a ko without fear of the other mon koing one of koko/kyub, so I think he was pretty much forced to call the double and protect one of the slots. I'm not sure protecting fini and switching in incineroar would have solved much to be honest, next turn fini is still a sitting duck and nido is still threatening a hefty hit on that slot.

Turn 4: I'm assuming nido expected kart to protect, as fake out on the kart slot+ice move is very threating and he is still free to ignore the celesteela, so he decided to take the "free" kill. I'd chalk this up to good prediction on yoda's part rather than a mistake on nido's.

Turn 6: icy wind is a fine play imo: without the electroweb crit on incineroar yoda wouldn't have gotten a free switch, giving nido a chace to reposition to avoid the threat of cb zygarde/kart under tailwind in the endgame. I do agree that ice beaming the kart was a better play, but I don't think icy wind was necessarily a mistake.

Turn 7: kyub was av mixed, there was no way it was max speed, so thousand arrows was completely safe here. Switching out the koko could allow kartana to get up a sub, which could be ugly, I think the best play here was to sack both and then go blastoise+pult to start spamming dragon darts.

Turn 9: I don't think there's any justification for follow me, the only thing that comes to mind is that nido forgot about life orb recoil and didn't want to lose pult to kartana coming in+ice beam on the pult slot.

Thanks for the long reply! Haven't looked at it in detail but I agree with most of it. Just two points:

Turn 3: I agree with this and this is what I think too. What I meant was that

1. fini usually doesn't carry protect, celesteela always does
2. fini seemed slightly more useful in that game state (could be wrong on this)

Thus the double into fini was p obvious. If yoda didn't want to risk accidentally saccing something useful, he could always attack/leech seed with it and get a bit of chip. In my eyes protecting and hoping that they double steela is too greedy (not that one leech seed would have made a huge difference so I guess its not a significant thing either ways).

Turn 4: In my eyes steela is not doing jack this game (especially in the short term). Koko and kyub hard check it (I don't think steela usually runs a steel move, could be wrong on this) and they won't be removed any time soon. Therefore it was worth keeping yoda honest. Better give steela a free turn than kart. Just comes down to no point removing a mon that was effectively dead anyways.

 

[iwa]

Heyo! Qwello's feature request to add annotations to annotated games have been implemented. Check OP for more :D

 

[Actuarily]

I've annotated my Game 1 vs Zikam in the DUU tournament. Hopefully this will give some players insight into DUU!

https://iwas-alt.github.io/ps_game_...ikam_by_Actuarily_fbb9ef8f70dcd3ab.html?ver=2

 

[iwa]

Heyo! I finally found the motivation to do more proper studying. Spent the last week laddering ~300 games, mostly testing my secret santa team. Whoever gets it better be appreciative ._. This time I looked at zstrats vs umbry game 1. Once again, discussion points are stylised '@TEXT IN CAPS?'. Feel free to make a comment addressing them. There are only 3 of them this time so also feel free to contest other parts of the analysis.

 

[Qwello Lee]

I tried annotating some of my games from the invitational but I found I was mostly ending up recounting my thought process throughout the game rather than giving a proper analysis, so I annotated g2 of shrop vs JRL for invis semis instead.
I probably missed stuff/made some mistakes so take my annotations with a grain of salt

 

[RochGull]

Can you make money on this?