Huge losing streak

[MolotovMocktail]

I started out doing well enough in this game, already a 2-time MAW champion, and won the Tri-State Regional Title in NYCW. But now I've lost 12 in a row to guys I was beating regularly. It seems they always counter or avoid one of my moves, hit me with several things in a row I can't avoid, then I eat their finisher in 7 minutes or less. Should I focus on building certain stats, or what can I do? Already my wrestler's morale is sinking badly.

[Greg McNeish]

I'd be more interested in hearing your match strategies, than looking at stat increases, which take a long time to have any effect. You need quick results to turn around your morale, and stats can't do that.

 

From my experience, the most important thing to focus on in matches is Momentum. Build yours, and shrink theirs. Use simple holds to deep 6 their momentum, then focus on strikes to build your own. Don't go for bigger moves unless you're high, and they're low. This doesn't just apply to early in the match; use this approach continuously, and you'll find that it's your opponent that can't get out of the starting blocks.

 

I'm hardly an expert on stats, but I suspect (and have had success with this approach) that the Physical stats (Athleticism, Toughness, Stamina) are the best place to start. Make it harder for your opponent to put you down, and you'll have more opportunities to turn the tables on them.

[MolotovMocktail]

I know the stats won't do anything for morale, but figured they might help me with winning matches. Lately I'm working on endurance and athleticism, as I tend to get drained quickly.

 

My basic match strategy actually involves wearing them down with strikes first-I go for a lot of back kicks, kicks to the knee, Kitozon chops, Mongolian chops, and throat thrusts. After enough of those, I'll throw in some suplex variations, and the occasional arm wringer takedown. On the mat, I go for arm bars, knee bars, grapevines, and once they're worn down enough, Boston crabs. My main finishers are the animalistic spear, mandible claw, and scorpion deathlock. Usually these get countered/blocked/avoided, they go on a quick rally, and again, they hit their finisher on me for the win (in MAW, I've been paired up with Flex a lot, who has been released from the SWF, and he'll just wear me down and hit Romeo is Bleeding).

 

Thing is, the opponent is usually given the first offensive strike, so my momentum's already pretty low by the time I can go on the offensive.

[Greg McNeish]

Whenever I gain the advantage, no matter what time of the match, I always make a point of taking my opponents Momentum down as low as I can. Pay attention to which of your moves are "Attacker +" and which are "Opponent -". Whenever you gain control, focus on some "Opponent -" moves, so that when they get control back, you've got a good chance to stop them before they get going. Your own Momentum can be problematic, if it's too low, but in general, it's better to have your opponent's Momentum low, than yours high. Get their's down first, then raise your own.

 

Besides that, it sounds like you jump around body parts a lot. That does you no good. Your finishers hit the Body, so you should focus there. Other than that, the Head and Legs are good choices, as the Mandible Claw hits the one, and the Scorpion Deathlock hits the other. Completely avoid the Arms. Any damage you do to them is completely wasted.

 

Especially when you're in the lower leagues, it's very important to have a gameplan, and to stick to it throughout the match. If it's not working (which yours isn't), then it's time to refine it, to see where you can make it better. I hope some of my tips are helpful.

[MolotovMocktail]

Thanks for your advice. I'm managing to pick up a few wins with your strategy, but I still lose quite a bit. It's baffling, since I could have a full momentum bar, while my opponent's is half empty, and he'll catch me with a small package (5% success rate) or German suplex (20% success rate), and get the 3-count.

 

And even after a win, my wrestler's morale will continue to go down. Why is that?

[Greg McNeish]

Do you have any other factors, on the Morale page? As well, I believe that having "lost more than I've won lately" is still something that reduces Morale. Just not as much as an actual losing streak.

[MolotovMocktail]

Right now, I have lost more than I won (and I'm heading into another losing streak-I try to go for a lot of head damage to soften them up for the Mandible Claw, and while this does have some success, I've also been pinned mid-match with BS moves like a cross-body, German suplex, and small package that I should easily have kicked out of. Plus, I'm really struggling when I'm in tag matches, which is a topic of its own), though all my other factors-employment, lifestyle, and finance, are all at full satisfaction. Right now, overall morale is about 80%, but it's dropping with every match, win or lose.

[MolotovMocktail]

I started to turn it around, but have struggled again as of late. I got fired from MAW, so now I'm taking losses once a month in 4C, USPW, and ROF. And my morale seems to decline even between shows. Now I'm down to 69.5. And for some reason, my opponents are not even letting me get out of the blocks. On my last event, I didn't even get any offense in. I got hit with an eye gouge, jab punch, headbutt to groin, and punch flurry before eating the finisher and being pinned all within 1:20. And in a match before that, I got pinned with a small package with a 5% chance of being pinned while I still had a large momentum bar and some energy, while my opponent's was significantly lower. Any reason why that's happening?

[Pinke]

Mostly I just slide out of the ring and exploit the AI.

 

You can prevent a pin just by hanging around outside the ring till you're ready to finish it. It's cheap, and rather Macho manish but it works.