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Chopin

by Flag

The Chopper may have the most clearly defined playing style of any major player today, which may account for the flood of analysis of his game. Chop is a very skilled player, but he's extraordinarily inflexible. He virtually always tries to play a pillwar game. If he has ever dumped a deep spike, I can't recall it.

Chopin likes to march his pill line toward you very deliberately.. Keep an extra pill handy because Chop excels at the Bleak spin move to kill your man on rebuilds. Because of this, he rarely uses double-pill "forced" takes. The best way I've found to beat him (not that it's worked very often) is to spike his ass early and prevent him from getting comfortable. (On the other hand, you'd better support your spikes and rape quickly because he will take them down in a hurry..) But if you wait to attack until you've accumulated a substantial number of pills, he will generally have plenty of his own, and in the ensuing pillwar you'll be playing to his strength. If that's your idea of a good time, go for it. On maps with a CT-3 style triple pill setup, Chop almost always xav's his first pill or pills. This makes it difficult to interfere with his takes, and helps him get pills very quickly. Since the tactic makes it very difficult to mess him up, I suggest doing it yourself on another set of pills. You could try to heat up the pill that is still alive in order to complicate his pick-up, but if he does manage to make the pick-up, you've just made it that much easier for him to take yet another pill. He has shown some vulnerability to the vulture if you time it right though... the key is to rush in from an angle just as he kills the pills, picking up pills, firing on his tank, and hopefully spiking before he knows what hits him. Of course he reads these things, so that tactic may not remain all that effective. In any event, dogfighting with Chop is often a good idea.. it can be a good way to cut down the skill differential. Since Chop often has a couple pills on board, killing him in a dogfight can give you a big shot in the arm. The trouble is that his pill lines generally make it difficult to get at him. This may occasionally can work to your advantage, however... It seems to me that Chop is fairly confident that his pills will discourage his opponent from breaking through and attacking his tank in mid-take... so if you break through the pill front and attack from his flank, you can jack him up sometimes. Chop has very exact timing, which is ordinarily a big advantage to him... but it makes him particularly susceptible to lag.

Chopin is a really good player who enjoys the pillwar game. If you give him the opportunity, he will happily and easily march his pills across the map, taking yours in the process and ending the match. Unless you're better in a pillwar than he is (which you probably aren't) you're better off using more of a baserape style game against him. Chopin seems to prefer to stay in pillwar mode for the whole game.

Chopin and I have always had grueling 1x1's since I can remember. Outside of noriko and maybe xav he is probably the best there is at the advancing pill front/pill war. He relies on establishing a defined pill front first, followed by killing opponents builders which results in chopin accumulating a material advantage and winning a game. Many players will tell you that pill wars are slow ways to win a game and sometimes are hard to establish on the fast maps played today. That to a degree is true, but Chopin takes pills so quickly at the beginning of a game that he usually starts at a material advantage which allows him to steer a game into a pill war. What Chopin excels at, besides taking pills quickly, is identifying the weak pill in your pill line and taking that pill, usually killing your builder. Woe is the player with a slightly overextended pill in a pill war against chopin. I say let him have it. One of chops favorite tricks is to start a simple pill take on an overextended pill, hoping his opponent will try to time a rebuild from afar. Chop will pull up during mid take, spin and usually kill the builder as its rebuilding. The pill-takeus-interruptus is one of the most important weapons in chops arsenal. It leaves an opponent unsure about repairing a pill. My advice is to try and not get caught up in the pill war mind games Chopin plays. Sometimes he will leave a front undefended and you can actually make headway against him. Chopin occasionally will be a little sloppy with his blder too, killing it himself more than you killing it. I think that maybe one of chops weaknesses is that he will try to create a pill war that is positionally disadvantageous to him. I can remember a few times that chop positionally hurt himself like that. Unfortunately it doesnt happen very often and odds are hes still gonna beat you.

I think Chop is the smoothest player around. His game has a flow to it that is hard to express. He uses the Xav move (I think that's what it is called) and by doing that, he can take double pills faster than about anybody I have played with and against. He is a good pill line warrior. And a fast rebuilder and a lgm shooter. I would rather play with him than against him I think. Was in one game against him with Bers as my ally. I held my own end of the map, didnt lose ground and Bers took care of him. I think that was the only game I was ever vs Chop where we won. I think if anything, Chop is slow to finish the game off. Have been in a couple where he could have ended it by moving some pills quicker. Only thing I can think of that he might do better. If you are his ally, be prepared to be instructed as to what he wants you to do. He tells me do this do that - switch sides - defend this - whatever. I have no idea how you can play the game like he does and still find time to tell me off all at the same time. If you want to slow him down, you have to spike the heck out of his bases early to slow him down. Not easy to do though cause he takes neuts down as fast as anyone. Only other thing that will stop him is if he loses his lgm. I watched him 1x1 with Noriko (Killer Ninja). Was a super matchup but Chopin kept losing his lgm. He was sending his builder sometimes when he didn't need to (my opinion) and lost him way too much. Cost him the game. So I guess that's another small chink in Chops armor. Still I think he is one of the best players period.

Chopin is definitely not good at anticipating my manuvers/is generally transparent (if carefull) with his major moves. Get him surprised/off balance and he is totally predictable.

This page maintained by Black Flag, aka Erik Riker-Coleman
Last updated some time ago...