CGS Pan Asian Final 2008 Wuhan China

Hi guys. I will be going to China representing KL Taufan for Championship Gaming Series Pan Asian Final 2008. So i'll try my best to update our progress there and will also try my best to upload some pics so that we can share together with everyone our experience there.





My jersey:

Front: KL Taufan




Back: My nickname and my number. Woaa number 10!

Haha sorry for the bad quality of the pic. Kinda rushing things out rite now making sure everything done last minute. Summore did you guys know that they have given me wrong size shirt? My size is M but they mistakenly made it XL. I look like a hip hop artist without the bling-bling yet. LOL so wish us luck ok~ KL Taufan will try our best to make Malaysia proud ^^

Attacking: Scoring

Basically when it comes to scoring, there are 3 things we need to be aware off which is:

1. The distance between the striker and GK.
   
2. The angle of the shot.
3. The power of the shot.

Example:





This is a very nice position to score. Usually the nice distance between the GK should be around 2-3 fingers distance. In this position as well it is best if you target the far post since its not well guarded compare to the near post. So the angle should be 250' with 60-70% shot power. If you can get it right the chances to score is nearly 95%.





This is in assumption that the GK didnt come out from the post. What about if the GK rush out? The same rules still apply but never release the ball too early or too late. Always wait for the right distance which is 2-3 fingers distance. You must anticipate and wait for the right distance only then can you load up your shot.





So no matter how the situation is, in the end the 3 simple basic rules still applies. So practice more on getting the rules right. Once you understand the rules, no matter in what position you can definitely improve your finishing ^^

Attacking: Manual Crossing

Previously i have write an article about Crossing in the February 2008 list. Now since for competition purpose the crossing has been set to manual. Although its not auto anymore, it still apply the same rules which is:




"When we wanna do crosses, it always follow 3 simple rules: "



a. The position of the striker
b. The direction of the cross
c. The power of the cross



eg: A striker is running towards the far post,(position) so its best if we can target the ball infront of him (direction). The power should be more than 50% of the bar(power).










Now for manual cross, the direction is very important, normally in this position, the direction should be 90 degree straight up:






If your winger is not in the same angle as as your striker, for example a little bit infront of him, then aim the cross a little bit to the back around 80 degree to the left. Since the crossing is in manual now, those who are using gamepad have more advantage in getting the angle right. But nevertheless keyboard players can also do nice crosses because sometimes the game engine will help to adjust the angle by itself. So no worries.




If you find that getting the angle is hard, one of my trick that i always do is when ever you've done a cross be it successful or not, always look back at your finger, see if the angle is right or wrong. From there you adjust it slowly. Always apply the Trial and Error principle.



So happy crossing! This tip is dedicated to yhwong and all The FIFA Blog readers who love to cross as well ^^.

Morning, Afternoon or Night?

In order for The FIFA Blog to help all the readers here, first we need to know what do all The FIFA Blog readers want. This is to ensure that The FIFA Blog can actually improve the way it is representing itself.





So i would like to ask a few question:


1. What is the time you USUALLY read the tips here at The FIFA Blog?


2. What is the time you PREFER to read the tips? Izzit when you just woke up in the morning, or during lunch or maybe after you finish all your activities at nite?


3. Any suggestion with the time? Maybe you want to have 2 tips in a day? or maybe you feel that there is too much rite now and i should slow down?




As many of you guys know, i always publish the post usually in late afternoon or night usually after i finish with my daily routine as well. But i would like to know would it be convenient if it were publish in a better slot of time. So i would like to hear your thought as well.




Help us to improve The FIFA Blog. And The FIFA Blog will help you ^^

Training Tips: Work Your Weak Point

Everyday we practice. Some train maybe 1 hours others might train for 4 hours. But no matter how long we practice, if we never know how to train properly, all the hard work will be wasted.





In order to improve at a faster speed, 1st we need to know where our weakness lie. If we just practice like a normal match without any objective, it is useless. Many people neglect such thing. When they touch the keyboard or gamepad, they just play. And the only thing in their mind is to score goals. Although its a good motivation but the rate of which they improve their game will be slower compare to those who work on their weak point.






Here is a step by step guide:






1st. Identify Your Weakness






Before you do anything, find out 1st where do you feel your weakness is. Weakness can be divided into 3 section:

1. Attacking
2. Defensive
3. General Play

For example in the attacking part, try to see where you lack. Are you playing too direct? Too slow? Having problem with crossing? and etc etc. Once you identify your weakness you make a list. The top on your list should the one you feel is your most biggest weakness. From there you work your way down from the biggest until the smallest.




This will train your mind to be more systematic in how you solve your problem. This can be apply to in your life as well.






2nd. Work Your Weak Point





Once you identify where your weakness lies, now is the time to work your weak point. In order to work this out, you need to be creative. What i mean by creative is not create something new, but have the " Trial And Error" Principe.





Although it will be very tiring and frustrating, this is the only way to work your weakness. You need to have "What if.." attitude. Everytime you fail to try something new, say to yourself "What if i do this? or maybe if i do that?".





For example you want to find out a way to cross. Then you try to do a direct cross.. but it doesnt work. What if you try an indirect cross? What if you try cross which go to the far post instead of the near post? So must keep on asking yourself until you find your strength.





You need to keep on trying until you find the solution. There is no short cut to success ^^






Ok guys thats all for today. Happy training! Remember its not the quantity of the training, but its the quality that matters. Like what my lecturer used to say "There is no use reading a book for 10 hours if you dont understand a single word at all" ^^

Defensive Move: Bringing Gk Out

I think we dont usually have the habit of bringing the GK out. Even when its a clear cut that the striker going to score we just prefer to let the GK handle it by default. But bringing out the GK has it advantages as well. Especially during certain events which is:





1. Long Ball Play







This is a very tricky position as well. To rush out or not to rush out. A nice tip i want to share is you just bring out the GK if the ball has been played in the center of the field. If the long ball is being played of the wing then better just guard your post since it is not a direct treat to your goal.


When you bring out always estimate the speed of the ball. If its too fast for you to rush out then stay in your box. If its high in the air go out and get the ball. For me i just bring out the GK until near the end of the box and estimate the speed of the ball. Its a save distance for me to actually plan my move base on the situation.






2. 1 on 1 situation






If long ball is your problem then this should be your no.1 problem in your list! This is the most confusing and tricky part in the game. Its either you stay back or you let them score. You go out and they might shoot the ball into the net. So which is the most safest route?



Another tip is you must test your opponent composure as well. Same like you, they feel nervous to score. Since its only you and him at the back end, his confidence to score is higher than your chances to save. So you must do something which he cant predict.


One of the move is to measure the distance between him and you GK. Bring out your GK a little bit to test his composure. Then see how he reacts to it, if he started to show an act of scoring, go back. If he show a sign of running go and get the ball from him. When it come to this point, all it matters is how you play mind games with him. Its not about skills anymore. Its all about the mind.





So try to test this out and please do tell me does it work for you or not. Remember in the end its all about be in control of the situation.



No matter what you do, be in control! ^^

Motivational Songs

Here is some songs that i would like to share with everyone that truly inspire me during tournament. Remember i sang this song while playing. So here it goes~!



1. I Believe I Can Fly - R.Kelly


One of the song that has truly inspire many people. The lyrics are so touching and deep. It always keep my spirit high.








2. Fikirkan Boleh - Malaysia singer


One of the local oldies which i really like! I always remember this song and i always sing it no matter where i am and what i do. It is true that if you think you can do it, you can do it!










3. Standing In The Eyes Of The World - Infinatez originally sang by Ella.



The 1998 Commonwealth song! One of my favourite. I'll sing the song everytime im on the podium. It just touch me. The song is about hardwork and never give up attitude that will result in getting success.










4. Remember The Name - Fort Minor



Man this song is hot! I like the song, i like the video, i like everything about yo dawg! Haha well i dont really know how to rap but i just sang the parts which inspired me only. Anyway enjoy the clip!













I hope you guys would be motivated and enjoy with some of my choices. Please do share with me your choice of songs as well. It would be great to exchange a lot of thing with all of you. ^^

Mental Preparation

Mental preparation is very hard to practice. Usually this where the difference lies between the pro and the amateur. You may have a solid body, a healthy lifestyle and can withstand the north pole but when it comes to mind game it is totally a different stage.









I might say mind game is the 80% reason why people like Michael Schumacher and Tiger Woods always be no.1. The way they think and the way they react to mind game is different than anyone else. Its a prove that no matter how things look bad on them, they will always be in the end no.1. I really admire both of them.










To train your mind require a lot of practice and match experience. Otherwise physical preparation doesnt require you to experience playing with other people in order to be physically prepared. Usually it takes up to 3 years to actually train your mind to be ready. But this all depend on the person itself. Some are fast learners while others just take too much time to understand.










Ok now i'll explain one by one every part of the mental preparation:










A. Thinking Mentality




Thinking mentality can be divided into 2 categories; Positive and negative.





In order to achieve victory we must know how to use the power of positive thinking as well as negative thinking. I know some of you though that all you need is to be positive. No its not true. You need to be negative at the same time. Use the negative energy into your advantage.






Every time when im in a tourney, i never expect myself to win. In my mind i always expecting myself to lost! I know its hard for many people to believe this but this is what i always think. Because i always expect myself to lost i fight back and play harder than usual. By using this negative thinking im forcing myself to not allow any mistakes to happen. This in the end will generate more positive than the negative.






Positive thinking is more like the power of faith. You must have faith in whatever you do. Doesnt matter the outcome of your match, you must have faith in yourself. You must believe that you can do the impossible. If you believe you can do it, you can do it!







B. Pressure and Nervous




This is where many people fail to adapt. This is where big names can fall. The pressure. The horror...






Handling pressure and nervous is a very difficult thing to do. Even when i play someone in a very pressuring match, my whole body will definitely be nervous! Although not many people can see that but the truth is i shake! I shake my leg,my hand and my body (No its not a lyric from a song.)







One of my tips to handle pressure is to control your breathing. Because in such a tension we need more oxygen than ever. With all the adrenaline rush the heart will definitely pump faster than normal. So you need more oxygen. So breath. Breath in... breath out... breath in... breath out... then push! push! and we have a baby! (Joking!)







But actually i'll always forgot to breath too. What i do is sing a song! Yup i sang songs while playing. By actually singing you can actually help your breathing as well. If you sing motivational song it will increase your spirit to compete better. I sing as loud as i can just that i dont let my opponent hear if not later he get inspired as well and im dead!






C. Attitude





Attitude is part of ethic and who you are actually. Its your core heart and personality. Some people play with a very shy manner. Some people like to brag everytime they score. While some just cant face defeat and run away when they lost.






So what is the right attitude to win? The right attitude is to be as gentleman as possible. If you win, shake your opponent hand and smile. If you lost, shake your opponent hand and smile(with tears if you cant take it). If you score goals, enjoy it but do not overdo. If you conceded, admit your mistake and move on. Do not look back.






Having the right attitude keep you positive in all way. Do not intimidate your opponent by shouting at his face or showing some amazing finger movement. Because in the end it will fire back to you if you fail to beat your opponent. And believe me get fire back is more hard to handle than normal pressure.





Doesnt matter if you are winning or losing, the right attitude will always make you the winner in the end. Although people say nice guy finish last, then the last is the champion spot. ^^







D. Spirit




Im not talking about ghost(spirit) here. And please do not use those dirty trick as well. The spirit is your spirit. Your self believe, your emotion and your passion. Spirit is very important. Its part of patriotism. Many people willing to die for their country because of patriotism.






Before you join a competition, you need to cleanse your spirit. You need to have clear mind and at the same time high enthusiasm and passionate in the game. If your mind is full of other things beside the competition, most probably your chance to win is slim. You need to be focus and concentrate in the competition. The only way is to have a clear mind in what your objective is. Clear mind,high spirit and passionate, thats the key to success.










This are the basic part of the preparation. Although its basic, its vital to master it because without the basic you are always expose to mistakes.



So be prepared! ^^









Do you guys have your own motivation song? I have a few. One of it is " I Believe I Can Fly" ^^

Physical Preparation

The physical preparation consist mainly on your physical well being. Your health, your fitness, your tolerance to the cold and also gaming skills. Now why do i put gaming skills here instead in the mental part? I'll explain later once i go through all the part.




A. Health






Health is vital. You dont wanna play when every few minutes you gonna sneeze or cough. Or even having a cracking headache every now and then. Or the worst for me is the stomach forcing you to go to the "bank" every hour. This one is very hard to sustain.



Myself when i 1st join WCG 03 i had a cold fever. Maybe because im nervous or what im not sure. For some reason i feel the cold help me to focus more in my game. But the headache just killing me. It is not a nice feeling. And i lost because i couldnt take it anymore with the headache. So make sure you stay healthy before the game.










B. Fitness






One of the example of fitness is when you play with an empty stomach. It is cruel believe me. When i play during CGS 07 it was the fasting month. The only thing in my mind was food. Nothing else. With lots of drama and issue during the tourney i started to lost focus. In the end i was just hoping to eat at least. So fitness is something like your focus or concentration of your body to endure abnormal condition.











C. Gaming Skills







Ok now why do i put gaming skills in the physical part? The only way to obtain gaming skills is to practice. With no practice you will never get the finger feeling skills anymore.



For example the last few weeks i didnt touch FIFA at all because i was pretty busy with my business. Then i started to play FIFA again. In my mind i was thinking about doing a low cross. But when it comes to my hand, in the end it ended up with a normal high cross. It is pretty weird that your hand is not doing what your mind asking you to do. In the end i couldnt do those amazing moves that i normally do although it was in my head.




So you see the gaming skills fall down in the physical part because it require practice. Without practice you dont have the practical training for your finger.











4. Tolerance to cold







Me personally i can only tolerate coldness into a certain extend. This cold thing is very dangerous. It can actually numb your finger and you wont feel anything when you press. So in the end you wont have the skills feeling anymore. I really dont like to play in cold places because my finger could not react as fast as it should. In the end i'll definitely miss those easy to score chances just because my finger get numb.










So we must get ready with all of this 4 condition in order to make sure we will stay in the optimum competitive state. I will continue tomorrow with the mental part. So stay tune! ^^









I always wear a jacket to any tourney and i think everyone should too. Now im thinking maybe i should wear a glove or not. ^^

Tourney Preparation

When we join tournament, the most important part is the preparation. Everything is about preparation. You can predict the outcome of the tournament just from preparation. If you didnt practice well you are not going to win the tournament although you are talented. If you practice hard then you have the chances to win the tournament. Although we cant measure how long or how hard everyone prepare for the tournament but at least can see the different from those who did prepare and those who dont.









So how do you really get ready for the tourney? What is your preparation?









For me there is two type of preparation:

1. Physical preparation
2. Mental preparation

Physical preparation included:

1. Health
2. Fitness
3. Gaming skills
4. Tolerance to changes in temperature (Most of the tourney is very cold. Some cant tolerate)

Mental preparation included:

1. Thinking mentality
2. Handling pressure and nervous
3. Attitude
4. Spirit

Tomorrow i'll discuss one by one about the preparation. Preparation is quite vital because you can know the outcome the tourney just by looking at the preparation ^^

Make Your Own Combo

Today im going to share to you how to do combo moves with a very basic and simple way. Its so simple that a 5 year old boy can even try.






All you need is:

1. A piece of paper
2. A pencil or colour pencil.

Ok now draw the desired formation that you wanna used. Let us use 442 as an example. Draw 442 formation on paper like the picture below:
















This is the basic 442 formation. Now the 2nd part is to choose from where you wanna attack. Let say you like to attack through the wing. So we start the attack from the wing back. Then imagine how are you going to release a cross to your striker. Obviously you need your winger to be free in order to do that. So we try to create some movement which will release the winger:













*** Instruction:

1. With your wingback make the winger run by pressing Q (the default run button)
2. Then pass to your midfielder.
3. When your winger almost run pass the opponent defender pass to your striker.
4. With a 1 touch pass straight away pass to your winger again once he is free.
5. Then time your far post striker and cross into the box.

***








Remember this is still on paper. Meaning in theory it would work. Now the 3rd step is to test it against CPU. From here on you will know how to use this combo and alter a little bit here and there to make it more perfect. So must do a little bit experiment with CPU and human players as well.











So to sum it up:

1. Draw the desire formation you wanna use.
2. Draw the desire area you wanna attack.
3. Test it with CPU and human players.

See isnt it simple? The combo that i just showed you was one of the combo i used to win in WCG Asia 06 and im still using it now. Although its very simple but its deadly.










So start picking up your drawing tools and get in touch with your artistic and creative side ^^









Forgive my drawing. Im not good in expressing my emotion in a piece of paper ^^

Apologize

I would like to sincere apologize to all readers of The FIFA Blog for not updating this blog last week.






It was a very busy week for me because im in the verge of closing a business deal as well as completing a website for my business. I never thought that it had drag up to straight 3 weeks to complete all the task.





Nevertheless its not an excuse for me to neglect my responsibility to this blog. For that i apologize.







To make it up to all my beloved reader i will give special tips for this week so check it out tomorrow ok!






Thank you everyone and dont stop supporting The FIFA Blog! ^^

April Fool

I think since its April Fool why not i share a trick on how to fool your opponent in FIFA.




Example:



In order to do this you must know where is your strength is. If you like to play thru the wing obviously you are pretty good in crossing. So most of the time your goals come from crossing.









When you score a goal or 2 from crossing, your opponent will start to be aware of your strength. Naturally he will tighten his def in that area of the field thus making you a little bit more harder than before.








So now that you've know that he has tighten his def, should you keep on doing the same thing? Of course not. But usually people realize this too late. They tried a few times attacking at the same place and feel that its getting harder, only then they change their tactics. Or even sometimes they dont realize and just keep on attacking the area blindly. Usually its too late or too early to do it.









But the trick to do this is not when your opponent starting to def that area. You must change your tactic even before he start defending the area. You need to anticipate your opponent's movement.









Let say you start your attack thru the left flank, you can see or feel that your opponent will start to get aware of your tactic. So instead of doing the normal thing why not you change your course of attack thru the mid or the right flank? Once you change the course of your attack, your opponent will definitely start to panic and you can start go thru their hole in the def. Thus creating a panic rush to your opponent everytime you attack.









So the concept is:




"Do your thing and change it before they anticipate"








Although its easy to understand the concept, but its require a lot of practice.





Thru practice you will develop your sixth sense to know when is the correct timing to do so. ^^









With this tactic you can fool your opponent not just on April Fool but any month of the year ^^