So, about versus mode and unfairness

[Michel Baie]

There's still a lot of tetris players out there thinking Puyo has an unfair advantage over Tetris in versus mode.

I'm pretty sure this misconception comes from the skill levels of the players and how they perceive themselves.
And for that, seeing really top level players doing miraculous comebacks doesn't help, even if it's fun to watch.

So, let's see some average gameplay.

I uploaded two matches I did today (well, yesterday), as a puyo player, in puzzle league.
Full disclosure : I consider myself as a really average puyo player : I played the series for a long time now but never really bothered to learn the theory or actually training myself to get better. It really shows.
Prepare to witness the epitome of Puyo mediocrity : good enough to somehow climb the ranks (on switch), while still playing pretty randomly.

With that in mind, this is what happens when I encounter an average tetris player :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5D_HO98boM

This player is pretty good but is too slow and tend to give way too much time to his opponent : see what happens at the end of round 3.
He also goes too high by himself, putting him at risk.
Also I don't really understand some of his placements, but I'm not a Tetris player in the first place, I suppose they make sense.

Compare this guy :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t95HM9rUPR4

He's really fast and while I'm not at my best during this match, I wouldn't have time to do much before getting buried anyway.

So, yeah.
If you can't beat Puyo as Tetris, forget advantage and balance excuses, look at those videos and think as where do you actually stand skill wise.

[1.2M | Missingno.]

I think a lot of the frustration stems from the fact that many casual players picking this game up for Tetris don't know anything about Puyo. And when you lose to something you don't understand, that can bring out salt. All you know is that you were doing your thing until the other guy busted out some massive chain and you died in one hit. WTF, right?

Successfully completing the big chain is Puyo's win condition, which means that Tetris's win condition is to simply prevent them from doing that. The key to beating Puyo is the fact that garbage comes from the top, and that means even one well-timed strike - or just many indiscriminately-timed t-spins - can completely ruin your plans and block you from ever getting to set off that big chain in the first place. Either watch their board for the perfect moment[puyonexus.com] that lets you ruin everything, or just keep hitting them so fast and so hard that they can't even breathe.

For anyone who still thinks Puyo is OP, I invite you to try playing from the Puyo side and see for yourself how hard the matchup really is! Just watch what other Tetris players do to kick your ass, and then you'll know how to do it too.

[Sяεтzø]

Tetris = Sonic Speed
Puyo Puyo = Mass Garbage
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Based on my experiences, tetris player tend to play spam garbage by quickly do 4 Lane Clear (Tetris) and some expert even done it with T-Spin Combo/Spam.

Meanwhile Puyo doesn't have much block space so the garbage from tetris will get reduction to the closer amount of equal block size (that was my theory, correct me if i'm wrong). 1 Puyo block size is equal 4 times tetris block size.

Puyo puyo player able to KO Tetris player with just 5 chains (without any interuption). Tetris player should distrupt puyo player from maximize their puyo chain. Always check on your opponent panel if he/she ready to send massive puyo chain to you. Hoping your garbage will cover the puyo where the chain going to start. (Some tetris player having hard time to check number of puyos chains that opponent set up. also be aware bunch puyo player may tend to cut off their chain while still be able to do massive garbage to you.)