Where Confuse The Enemy Came From
The off-count challenge that broke the dancers
Where The Challenge Came From
Confuse The Enemy started as a choreography on a cut that sits off the down-beat. The move itself is simple; the timing is the trap. The beats land on the and-counts, so a dancer counting to the beat is early every single time. The name came from the dancers who could not lock onto the off-count - the challenge is the one that confuses the person doing it, and the game keeps that exact structure as four lanes on a syncopated pattern.
How To Lock The Off-Count
Step 1 - Tap along to a steady beat first; count the down-beats out loud.
Step 2 - Now shift your taps to land between the counts, not on them.
Step 3 - Run a row of taps on the ands; that is where the arrows actually land.
Step 4 - Add the four lanes and keep the off-count, not the down-beat.
Step 5 - When the rhythm feels late, it is because you are on the down-beat - shift to the ands.
Step 6 - Bring it into the game version and feel the same shift under the four lanes.
Why Dancers Miss It
The instinct is to count to the down-beat, and the down-beat is exactly where the hit is not. A rhythm that lands on the ands reads as late to anyone counting the eights, which is the whole joke of the name. The game is built the same way - the pattern favors the and-counts, so a player who counts down is early by the time the first arrow crosses.
The One Rule
Let the tap fall to the off-count. If you are counting, you are on the down-beat, and the arrows land where you are not looking.