I learned to play probably in the most brutal way possible. As people have probably seen over the years, I only ever play in a competitive setting. Whether its duels, clan wars, events, or sometimes bet servers. I don't play unless there is something on the line. I started playing in 2009, a lot of my time was played on the standalone version of Toribash so I don't have an accurate time but I probably have somewhere between 6,000 to 8,000 hours.

This way of playing was effective in becoming very accustomed with the physics and gamerules for mods you played, learning how to play in a current meta and to counter certain playstyles and openers, and knowing what is needed to win. I think the aspects that best show off your skill in a mod is survivability, movement, and finding opportunities where others may not see them.

With all that being said, playing singleplayer or doing other forms of replaymaking could very likely have made me a better and "more aware" player. Playing in such harsh conditions definitely lended to my ability to adapt, but that hardly has much transferrable skill when you move onto a different mod. My strengths are in my ability to quickly adapt within the mod's turnframe timer, but I struggle to plan ahead. I imagine singleplayer replay makers are really in tune with their vision for the replay they are creating. Singleplayer could also expand one's knowledge of the game engine and what needs to happen to create certain outcomes, like a boombit or generating speed incredibly fast. At times I regret how narrow mindedly I've played the game over the years, and the "dueling only" experience itself has been extremely volatile, but that's just how I got enjoyment out of the game I suppose.

I went through my saved replays over the last couple years, and to be honest it was difficult to find replays that showed something truly special and not just mod silliness or a cool save here and there. These were some of my favorites though.