This can be done by selecting a quickplay preset, or by clicking "Advanced" and configuring parameters manually.ģ. The spy chooses the mission setup and the venue. Usually players agree in chat who will do what role first.Ģ. Whoever selects their role first gets it, and the other player gets the other role. One player selects a role: either the spy or the sniper.
Both players have tools at their disposal the sniper can mark people to keep track of their behavior, while the spy can simulate the behavior of AI characters and employ a number of deceptions to attempt to throw the sniper off their trail.ġ. Watching the party from an outside vantage point is a sniper, whose sole mission is to identify and terminate the spy with a single shot. How have I survived Diamond? What is it like for me to play in that terribly strong division for years on end? To understand my answer to those questions, you need two pieces of context.SpyParty is an asymmetric, one-versus-one game of perception and deception.Īt a party populated with a number of AI partygoers, a spy is tasked with completing a number of missions within a time limit. The first piece of context has to do with a quote about love. Whoever that was, they were talking about someone they loved dearly: “You are hard work.” It describes a concept that I’ve lived by since I read the quote, though I’ve now forgotten who wrote or said it. The meaning, as I take it, is that even (especially!) the best and most rewarding things in life, including true love itself, demand our hard work -our attention, our focus, and our effort, to the best of our ability to give it. Playing SpyParty competitively is hard work for me. In SCL, I constantly have to play matches against the absolute best players in the game. I show my respect for my elite opponents, and for the game itself, by giving it the hard work they deserve. I’m not sure anyone comprehends what that means to me- the amount of time and mental energy consumed for my preparation process for competitive matches in general and even more so for SCL. I spend an immense amount of time trying to review every replay of my opponent that I can get my hands on. I look for trends I look for anti-tells that are never taken I look for anything that might give me an edge in the match to come.
I see what they pay attention to as sniper. I see how their laser moves on different venues so I can get the jump on timing bugs and such. I jumble their spy replays and snipe against them. Then I spend as much time as possible going over my own recent replays. I look for the same information I dissect my own play for weaknesses. I find my blind spots as sniper and how they might be exploited by that next opponent. I try to analyze what different kinds of snipers would be looking for against my own spy games, and what they might think of how my spy game would look to them. I continue to do this until just before a given match.
It takes an immense amount of time and energy.
#Spyparty scl replay free#
#Spyparty twitter free#Ī huge proportion of my free time is spent in this way when a competitive event is running. I spend much more time working on my competitive SpyParty game than I do playing SpyParty, competitive or otherwise. As of the date I’m writing this, the SpyParty leaderboard says I have spent 29 days, 19 hours, 23 minutes, and 37 seconds in active games of SpyParty, the third most of anyone. It also says that I have played 23,874 games of SpyParty, the most of anyone. But I must have spent at least triple that time studying for competitive matches just over the time SCL has been running alone, and I’ve certainly looked at that many replays, at least.Ī player searching for the path to SpyParty mastery and looking to my experience for guidance might be tempted to conclude that the secret to top-level success is lots of opposition research and grinding hard work. The second piece of context you need to know has to do with another concept I’ve integrated into my life for a long while now. It’s sort of related to the concept that things you love demand hard work, but it is not the same. It is the idea that “Everything has a Way.” When I say “Way,” I mean the optimal way possible for a particular person to do something. And when I say everything, I mean everything: even the most menial or ordinary of tasks.