A theory about "Mad Skill"

[Chief wiggums]

Mad skill: Is it real???

I have been thinking lately, and I often notice something:
After playing a game on matchmaking, and totally killing the other team, and getting the most kills of my team, I then start another game, and automatically get raped, and lose by 10-20 points.

I didn't know how to explain this.
Surely it couldn't just be a coincidence of the other team's players. It can't just be by chance that your enemies bow down to your knees in defeat in one game, then have it be the other way around in the very next.

No.
This is different.
I felt like everyone on the other team just couldn't kill me. Then I felt like I always had half shields.

This, I decided, was a state of mind, triggered by a great start of a match, whether by chance, or good tactics. I figured out that whenever I was winning by a large sum, I had a great start to the match, and when i had a bad start, I typically played worse during the whole game.

This state of mind, I chose to name after a common phrase my good friend always uses when he goes nuts on halo.

Mad Skill.

What is mad skill exactly?

Mad Skill: The state of mind that makes you typically play better during a match.

Other theories about mad skill:

It also occurred to me that I often had better/worse games on specific maps.
Snowbound, or boundless, i almost never experience "mad skill", while The pit, and Construct are both places I recall having the mad skill effect.

Originally Posted by Wraith

I found that if you just quit playing MM after a game in which you won with Mad Skill, lay back and play customs, then play MM again later, you won't have the down you get after having a good round using Mad skill.

I just thought about it, and I realized its just like a drug. You get an exciting, and energizing High, then a pathetic, depressing low follows right after.

A reason why Mad skill may appear, then disappear is:

Maybe right after you have a "mad skill" game, and you start another, you still have the excited feeling, and start the match overly confident. This may cause you to make reckless decisions, and take unnecessary risks during the game.

Am I crazy? I always have this happen to me, at least 3 times today, and 4 times yesterday.
Look back to experiences that you have had, and decide whether or not you have felt "Mad skill"

Have you?
Do you believe now?

[Wraith]

I get this all of the time in Big Team. Even in between rounds, you get the Mad Skill effect, as in do awesome one round, then suck the next.

I found that if you just quit playing MM after a game in which you won with Mad Skill, lay back and play customs, then play MM again later, you won't have the down you get after having a good round using Mad skill.

[Chief wiggums]

Originally Posted by Wraith

I get this all of the time in Big Team. Even in between rounds, you get the Mad Skill effect, as in do awesome one round, then suck the next.

I found that if you just quit playing MM after a game in which you won with Mad Skill, lay back and play customs, then play MM again later, you won't have the down you get after having a good round using Mad skill.

interesting, I'll try that. Here, ill also add it to the OP

[Wraith]

Originally Posted by Chief wiggums

interesting, I'll try that. Here, ill also add it to the OP

The reason why the Custom Game thing works is you forget about the MM game you did well in, so you don't start with over-confidence.

[Chief wiggums]

ok, yah i was thinking that might be how it works.
Idk, i just wish that I always had it... then i could pwn anyone anytime.

[FallibleDream]

Mad Skill: A move pulled by a person on purpose that results in a great ending to benefit himself/herself.


Accidental Mad Skill: A move pulled by a person that gives the same results as "mad skill," but instead surprises the person who pulled off the move.

[Chief wiggums]

Well, its more of an overall gameplay by you, atleast thats how i see it.

[Blanked]

To be honest, there is no such thing as "Mad Skill" unless the player has that "Mad Skill" type effect consistently, meaning that he/she is a "Madly Skilled Player". Most likely the reason you are doing bad after having a good round/game is that once you do good, you get over-confident or that urge to do more to where you start playing stupid and rushing in and forgetting about staying alive to the point where you are just playing for stats. Also the other reasons this might be happening is as simple as power weapon control. Naturally a person with a shotgun/BR combo on Guardian is going to have alot more kills then someone running around with an AR the whole game. But this whole "Mad Skill" concept is all mental really. The only real "Mad Skill" is the skill a player has as an individual to where they consistently have that effect.

[M.Jelleh]

One of the things I like to do before playing ranked is to play social slayer or rumble pit. It helps to get you in the right mindset if you do well. If you are sucking there, then just don't play ranked.

[Lcarnacieg]

It is like that with me, but it happens on different days. Like one day I'm doing really good, then the next day I'm getting killed a bunch.