Watching matches from high elo player

[tonymok977]

I recently want to learn some good strategies by watching how other players play.
However, I found that there are just so much games and it is hard to distinguish which game is much worth watching.

Just curious if there are any good way to do this filter?
E.g. sort by elo, or highlight when some players get like 75 points in round 3

[SluggerBaloney]

The game is like 90% variance. There are no "dominant strategies", it's all up to the cards you draw, the round goals you get, and the bonus cards you see. The actual placement of birds is almost always obvious.

The people at higher ELO's are just the ones who ran good more often. There's nothing to learn from watching the games. Wingspan is basically Yahtzee with bird cards instead of dice. Very little skill.

[tonymok977]

I disagree with 90 variance, I think if someone reaches certain skill level, they can get 90-100 fairly frequently.
Yeah if we are talking about 110+ that might be

[Zibest7]

So i am a high elo player but before that i also really learned a lot from watching games from 'pros'. The best way is just look at the current ranking from arena or all time ranking (doesnt matter really much) and then just watch games of the top 5 players. I totally disagree with the 90% variance that is mentioned earlier. There are certain dominant strategies, grass engine is king.(with exception maybe of wood duck/piletead/chipping engine in forest). I can know because i am currently ranked number 1

[Andrewsmile]

The people at higher ELO's are just the ones who ran good more often. There's nothing to learn from watching the games. Wingspan is basically Yahtzee with bird cards instead of dice. Very little skill.

Has to be a troll message, the top player has 900 games played with an 80% winrate, to think that everyone with a high elo is just lucky is statistically impossible with how many consistently high winrate players there are and how many games they play. Although I did laugh when I opened this users profile and saw they were "131 years old" with the only game they were above 300 elo on is connect 4, a solved game.

On the miniscule chance this is serious the competitive aspect of wingspan is not knowing how to build the perfect engine or whatever, anyone can find synergies, the skill is in managing what your opponents have access to and capitalizing on lucky breaks. knowing when to take suboptimal actions when they deny your opponent, being able to predict what your opponent could be holding so you know how to win the goals (and when to move on to the next one if they are unwinnable) and just in general maximizing your odds. The best players seem to "get lucky" more often because they play to their wincons and set themselves up to get lucky.

Regarding which games to watch, watch matches from high elo players that are really close- theres no value in watching blowouts where their engine builds itself, look for super close games and try to find pivotal moves that inched them ahead of their opponent.

[SpaOwner]

Honestly, just go to the games in progress and watch anyone labeled “expert”. Or check out when the top 10 are playing. The big things are fairly obvious, but the little differences are what I have noticed separates players. When to take one action vs the next, when to fight for a goal vs not, when to use a single draw to deny a card vs being more efficient. I think the best metric is average score of finished games. People can run hot and cold or have an off day, but if you routinely average 91-92 a game, you’ll win more often than not.

[posymay]

Funny funny troll

[SquashEngineer]

There is definitely a skill element (that I have not yet discovered), because I get my tail feathers handed to me regularly on BGA. I have yet to score over 60 ever, after 10's of games played so far, and not even thought about getting close to 100+ ... I can't imagine yet how that's even possible.

People talk about good birds, and building engines, and I just never seem to get the right combo going when I have the opportunity to draft those good birds - the Ravens never provided an auto win for me. And at the end of the scoring phase, I'm left looking at the other guys board full of high VP birds, all rows filled with tucked flocks, and a mountain of eggshells and food spewn all over the place. How was that possible?? I seriously thought I was making the best move possible for myself on every turn!!!!

lol

I still like/love the game (both digitally and at the table). I just want to be able to unlock the secrets to improve. To the table!!!!

[detlefchef11]

The people at higher ELO's are just the ones who ran good more often. There's nothing to learn from watching the games. Wingspan is basically Yahtzee with bird cards instead of dice. Very little skill.

Has to be a troll message, the top player has 900 games played with an 80% winrate, to think that everyone with a high elo is just lucky is statistically impossible with how many consistently high winrate players there are and how many games they play. Although I did laugh when I opened this users profile and saw they were "131 years old" with the only game they were above 300 elo on is connect 4, a solved game.

On the miniscule chance this is serious the competitive aspect of wingspan is not knowing how to build the perfect engine or whatever, anyone can find synergies, the skill is in managing what your opponents have access to and capitalizing on lucky breaks. knowing when to take suboptimal actions when they deny your opponent, being able to predict what your opponent could be holding so you know how to win the goals (and when to move on to the next one if they are unwinnable) and just in general maximizing your odds. The best players seem to "get lucky" more often because they play to their wincons and set themselves up to get lucky.

Regarding which games to watch, watch matches from high elo players that are really close- theres no value in watching blowouts where their engine builds itself, look for super close games and try to find pivotal moves that inched them ahead of their opponent.

Agreed on the absurdity of that post. As for what makes the best players better than the rest of us, I also agree that it has little to do with knowing how to max out an engine with great cards because any decent player can do that. I think where I fall short of the best players is an inability to pivot and put together a decent game when little is going my way.