trust me, bro. my 20 deaths are definitely necessary for flanking bro

The best way to avoid getting psyched out seeing a top player is to not know who is and isn't a top player.
This message was brought to you by Blissful Ignorance

You do feeding.
Kyo does flanking.
I do fleeing.
We are not the same.

The Kyo boss meter had me dead. Just accurate experience.

I once faced Kyo in a Ranked Open match. I didn't realise who the Tri Nouveau was who kept killing me but then I read the name.
"... is that actually Kyo?"

Wouldn’t it be cool if I could actually flank due to the maps having flank routes

in MOBA competitive analysis efficiency is a really big topic because of the RTS roots, so there are two terms for flanks: ganks and space. Ganks (as was discussed on the wonderful April Fools video) are flanks designed to kill, like the fight you broke down, a simple 2v1, whereas when someone is "making space" they're flanking on the map, so pushing somewhere the rest of their team isn't. Instead of withdrawing and giving up something on the map to guarantee a 5v5, a player may engage into a losing fight with the aim of stalling the enemy team, just taking up their time: they can't ignore the random player engaging on their backline so they will fight them, where in the meantime the engaging player's, the player "making space", team can do something that would ordinarily be really risky, since the enemy team can't punish the 4-man (or 3-man in Splatoon) while they're all busy with the lone player. I think it's valuable to distinguish between these because a player making a gank is looking to win (to get value from a 2v1 you need to get a splat without any significant losses) but a player making space is looking not to lose, and I think that Kyo's play at bunker is much more like the second. Great analysis as always, Gem! I 100% agree with reasoning you talk about in the video.

You're a skirmisher now, you're a slayer now 🎶

8:20 one example that I find very funny is in Museum d'Alfonsino, the player going right at the start of a match will immediately be splatted 90% of the time. Every time I see a player going the flank route at the start I'm like "so you chose death"

The short version is that it's about attack timings.  Attempting to flank when your team is dead or not in a position to take advantage of it gets no value even if it succeeds.  This is obvious, but something people definitely struggle with, as anyone who played Tricolor during the Splatfest can attest.

I think there's also some hindsight bias, where any play that succeeds is automatically a brilliant idea and any play that fails is a stupid idea.  You see this a lot with fighting games and Dragon Punches.  If the DP hits, it's a godlike read, if the DP is blocked, you're an idiot, why would you DP there?, even though it's basically just luck either way.

Hey gem! I'm pretty sure you aren't gonna read this but I wanted to say thank you. I'm slowly getting into the competitive scene thanks to your discord and I am learning some fact I never would have thought.
So yeah I can say that you taught some cool knowledge to me

I'm a casual player and I've seen Kyo an unhealthy amount of times in my matches it's scary 💀

the boss music at the beginning jumpscared me 😂

Thanks Gem you just contextualized what I've been doing. I'm probably going to refine my strategy with your advice.

That intro is perfect lol

"there are some weapons that SLAY better than others" i couldnt have said it better myself

Its only Kyo, just ignore the guy.

my biggest flex is splatting kyo once in a turf match

The tl;dr to answer the title is team cooperation. If you're getting around the opponent while your teammates are taking attention, that's a flank. If you're going off into enemy territory on your own, that's feeding.

S+ tier title