Dealing with the stress of playing non-top tier

[ZTD | TECHnology]

Greetings.

I am struggling with an issue right now that is affecting me outside of tournament and I would like some perspective on how to deal with.

In short, I main . Metaknight is considered a bad character by a lot of (uneducated) players. He's pretty solid and possibly high tier. Definitely viable. I'm madly passionate about playing this character. Anyone who has met me knows that I put my heart and soul into this game and improving with this character. I switched to him about 3 months ago from /. I just ended up picking him up and falling in love with the character. I do not regret doing this. During this time frame, I saw my skills increase and I've been placing somewhat well in my scene. I'm not quite Power Ranked in Michigan; I'm just outside of it. I've beaten many players on our PR.

My issue right now is that I only play because he's the only character I really enjoy to this level right now. But he has a lot of disadvantageous matchups with commonly played top/high tier characters. Most of them aren't "hella" bad but there's a good 6 or 7 of them that I have to worry about every single tournament. Most of my tournament sets are matchups like this. My scene is huge and I am one of the only three reputable players in my state who do not use top/high tier characters. I sometimes lose to people that I feel that I am more skilled than because of the MUs. The stress of having to play these uphill MUs almost all of the time, putting in so much work but still losing some of these MUs, and always falling just short of my goal for each tournament is beginning to get to me. I'm not sure how to address it.

Obviously, one route to acquire a secondary for my bad MUs. But I have yet to find a character that is: viable, fits my playstyle, covers my bad MUs, and is fun to me. Despite there being over 50 characters in this game, I can't seem to find one that fits all of that criteria. So I keep just using only trying to grow and get better. I see progress. But not at the rate that I would like to.

For all of those who main similar characters, how do you deal with this? Did you pick up a secondary? If not, how do you stay so positive even when you encounter "bad" losses? I guess I'm just looking from insight from people who maybe understand what I am going through. Ultimately, I have to decide for myself what I should do. But it'd be nice to hear from those who understand the life of maining a character that's viable but really hard to use solo. Thank you for reading!

- Technology

 

[T0MMY]

If you think about it reasonably, there shouldn't be any "stress" about playing a (supposed) low-tier character - it's your choice to play that character, you know the stipulations, you know the matchup potential, so there's really no surprises, nothing you shouldn't have prepared for and therefore no stressing over something because you should have prepared for it (competitively).
Just an imo about the stress part.

Secondly is the questionable status of "non-top tier", that is referring to the character in a way that signifies a non-viable or low-tier status. Personally, I think he is viable character for competition on many levels (and I believe received a few more buffs since last patch). Just because a few "uneducated" players (as you refer to them) consider him bad does not affect the reality of the character's abilities and potential. In short, he's good and up to you to use the character to its fullest potential in the situations you find are most beneficial.
But there's something to be said with mental hardships being created for oneself by reinforcing the idea that he is "non top-tier" or "bad" or "stress" over the viability of the character. These kinds of thoughts as well as the words you may find yourself speaking as well as the words you have typed here on this site only seem to me to work as a handicap to your potential as a competitor. If you want to do better in competition you will have to not only change the mindset to be the winner of your next tournament but that also means changing what you say and type into something more positive which actively puts you on a very real path to your goal - go ahead and try it, post some blogs about how you are going to step up your game, talk to your friends about how you are working on improving, and most importantly say to yourself that you are going to give your next competition serious focus with the intent to WIN the whole thing - I guarantee you will see an improvement in your performance and most likely where you rank in the competition. Just remember the difference between creating expectations of winning (which can lead to feelings of disappointment due to losses/performance issues) and creating a drive of intent/willpower that points you towards a goal of improvement that is a prerequisite to winning a tournament.

Also, yes - pick up a secondary if you feel it better increases your chances in certain matchups. If your goal is to win then you must be prepared to put in some work and training however the situation demands. Don't let anything or anyone trick you into thinking you are doing anything cheap/unfair/top-tierz by "playing to win".

The above "playing to win" philosophy can be summed up by the phrase "get good" (sometimes lovingly phrased "git gud")

 

[DaRkJaWs]

I'm probably one of the top 5 dks in the world (well I feel I'm #1 because of something I do which they don't, which I'll get to shortly) so i understand your frustration especially so given that dk has a few matchups that are just terrible. I had a rough go of it for so long and felt I definitely needed to have another main to compete with the likes of a Rosalina or zss. But then one day a few months ago I learned something about dk nobody else knew: you can b reverse ALL of his specials. And I mastered all of the intracacies of b reversal with all of his moves recently (finally) and I'm the Better dk for it by far, can't express to you how much this changed my game. As a dk the final thing that I didn't quite have down is how to play in the neutral game. It took me a while but I discovered only recently how fantastic dks jab is, it's range is actually pretty long and it keeps ppl at bay. The problem I always had is that I always thought down tilt was the best way to do that (in brawl it was), and it made things so much harder on me for so long. One last thing: I've watched other great dks and there is one thing I noticed in their play Even if they didn't have the best approach: they carried out their moves with confidence. Having confidence in what you're doing really takes you places, and in order to have that confidence you need to be absolutely certain that this or that approach is the best one given the circumstances. Case in point? Just yesterday NorCal was on stream again and the metaknight ITO is winning against all of the other great players there. But one secret someone nonchalantly shared while talking about them was that Ito knows what move he wants to do given what % they are at (and if applicable given his rage as well). So to sum it up: if you can b reverse anything, learn how to do it. If you have trouble in the neutral figure out what move best either gets you in or keeps you safe from their pressure. Don't resort to habit necessarily. Finally know with certainty what move(s) you will do, if you ever go in blind this will bring you down. And (good) habits and timing develop from this! EDIT: someone recently posted this video and I think it extends on some of what I said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDDHM6vUjDY
And btw, about dk: I'm the only b reversing dk in the world, and I KNOW they are all useful. I don't know how many idiots, some of them dk, wonder how they could possibly be useful, and I just have to smh. Anyone who faces me knows though, they figured it out the hard way.

 

[Ijuka]

Pressure? Isn't the pressure entirely on your opponents.

Generally the advantage of playing as a low tier is matchup knowledge. Most difficult matchups aren't really that difficult unless the opponent is extremely familiar with the matchup, which they practically never are(if you have so bad matchups that they can just wing it and be 70-30, then your character is too bad to play imo).

 

[NotAnAdmin]

You think you've got it bad?

OP please, I've mained from day one.
Yeah he's been "buffed" now but he's still Falco "I have no mobility" Lombardi in the end. His major problems have not been fixed and I don't think they ever will.
That aside I know these feels. I've never really chased the tiers. I just go for my favorites / who feels right. Falco probably has 6 (or probably a few more) match ups that gives him a good chance. It may be a bit better now with his new inner workings but a new nair and fair only help so much. Almost every battle with a decent player seems like it's uphill, but sometimes it gives you a feeling of accomplishment. Beating a Rosalina at anytime is considered a major win for me. I assume the same for any other Falco.

Honestly in my opinion there's no correct choice. This is a time for thinking hard about what you want, having a good secondary really can throw an opponent for a loop, but there's a chance that you could be missing out on playing the character that keeps you coming back and honing your skills.

I'm sort of hard headed which is why I haven't switched yet. I'll probably be a Lombardi boy forever.
I want to prove he's still that cocky bird in the arwing sarcastically calling you an "ace" because you just shot him.

 

[DaRkJaWs]

yeah admittedly metaknight is a solid mid tier character, not low tier.

 

[RayNoire]

Matchup knowledge is ostensibly the reason to pick a low tier character (Although some top tiers like Yoshi are surprisingly unpopular too).

But maybe more importantly, top 8 with Mewtwo just feels more satisfying than top 3 with Sheik or whoever.

I won't deny that it's a bit scrubby, but it's true.

 

[S4C]

If you think about it reasonably, there shouldn't be any "stress" about playing a (supposed) low-tier character - it's your choice to play that character, you know the stipulations, you know the matchup potential, so there's really no surprises, nothing you shouldn't have prepared for and therefore no stressing over something because you should have prepared for it (competitively).
Just an imo about the stress part.

Secondly is the questionable status of "non-top tier", that is referring to the character in a way that signifies a non-viable or low-tier status. Personally, I think he is viable character for competition on many levels (and I believe received a few more buffs since last patch). Just because a few "uneducated" players (as you refer to them) consider him bad does not affect the reality of the character's abilities and potential. In short, he's good and up to you to use the character to its fullest potential in the situations you find are most beneficial.
But there's something to be said with mental hardships being created for oneself by reinforcing the idea that he is "non top-tier" or "bad" or "stress" over the viability of the character. These kinds of thoughts as well as the words you may find yourself speaking as well as the words you have typed here on this site only seem to me to work as a handicap to your potential as a competitor. If you want to do better in competition you will have to not only change the mindset to be the winner of your next tournament but that also means changing what you say and type into something more positive which actively puts you on a very real path to your goal - go ahead and try it, post some blogs about how you are going to step up your game, talk to your friends about how you are working on improving, and most importantly say to yourself that you are going to give your next competition serious focus with the intent to WIN the whole thing - I guarantee you will see an improvement in your performance and most likely where you rank in the competition. Just remember the difference between creating expectations of winning (which can lead to feelings of disappointment due to losses/performance issues) and creating a drive of intent/willpower that points you towards a goal of improvement that is a prerequisite to winning a tournament.

Also, yes - pick up a secondary if you feel it better increases your chances in certain matchups. If your goal is to win then you must be prepared to put in some work and training however the situation demands. Don't let anything or anyone trick you into thinking you are doing anything cheap/unfair/top-tierz by "playing to win".

The above "playing to win" philosophy can be summed up by the phrase "get good" (sometimes lovingly phrased "git gud")

Thanks for this post! Its so useful cuz I fall into that 'tier blame game' and get so negative.

 

[Trogdorbad]

I generally just go with the flow, and considering I main Dedede, I have to. I fully understand why he's considered mid-tier at best and I certainly have a number of problem matchups, but sometimes those are mostly due to not encountering those characters as often as others. Ness and Falcon have always been problems for me and recently, Pikachu became a threat to me. For a while we only had one guy who played Pikachu, but I always lose to him because he's way better at the game even when he isn't playing Pikachu. However, someone I usually beat decided to pick up Chu recently and I can't do anything now, whether I play Deeds or my secondary, ZSS, because I have no practice against Pikachu and he plays him like a For Glory Pikachu. (see: jumping into light fierce Thunder Jolt spam) So I guess this counts as a post where I need to know how to handle Pikachu, and if there's any specific characters who are a good match for it. I don't have any particular playstyle I have to have (as ths huge difference in mains should show) so I'm open to almost any suggestion.

 

[Purin a.k.a. José]

Just adapt to other characters' playstyle. Meta Knight is not really "bad", actually. I would say he wasn't nerfed THAT badly. I thought he would be among the worst characters this time, but they did make his playstyle pretty similar to Brawl's while making him actually balanced. However, I would recommend learning other characters to avoid bad matchups against MK.

 

[KeithTheGeek]

If you're seriously going to consider a secondary, I think you need to ask yourself what aspects of Meta Knight's game you find appealing. Speed? Recovery? Is there a potential for conditioning and mind-games other characters might not have?

You say that you are having trouble finding another character that fit those criteria, which I find just a little hard to believe. I think some characters may not click at first until after you've given them a few shots.

In my case, I ended up picking up ROB because he shared several of the traits that I like in Dedede, while holding enough differences to deal with some negative match ups. I'm sure there's a character like that for Meta Knight.

 

[Axel311]

I know exactly what you mean. I main and I feel just like you do. I'm madly passionate about the character and I don't enjoy playing any other character near as much. I play in tourneys and like you've I've felt the pressure to switch because Dedede has some TERRIBLE matchups to characters like and . I faced a ton of sonics last tourney. I beat 1 in pools and 1 in first round winners but another one knocked me out in 3rd round losers. And it was really close.I know I'm skilled enough that if I had put the same amount of work into a better character I would have won that match. I've been trying really hard to find a character I don't hate playing in top tiers and luckily I've found somewhat fun so that's helped. Still though, I've put a few months of work into him but I still feel much more comfortable and that I perform better with .

At this point I'm really hoping for a buff to atleast get my character to where he was at on the tier list in Brawl. But yeah I feel you. I believe I'm as skilled as other top players in my area but I know my character is holding me back. I'm been forcing myself to use and lately. I'm hoping at some point when I start clobbering people with them I will find using them more fun.

 

[Dr. Bread]

Im not gonna be one of those people who say 'tier lists dont matter' because honestly thats a pretty absolutist thing to say.

Tier lists matter, but they're not there to tell you your character is ****, they exist to help decipher the viability of every character in a given metagame. They're only there to help you, so if you see that one of your characters is lower on the tier list, it can help you learn to watch out for threats to your character.

Tier lists are never about what characters let bad players beat you, because the character you play is just another aspect of what makes you a good player, and likewise having good players is part of what makes certain characters good. If you play a character better than you play any other character, then for you it might as well be the best one in the game, so show people what the character has to offer, and do your best to cover its weak matchups.

 

[Mario766]

Playing a low tier just means you have to play harder and better than top tier players to win, nothing more nothing less. Reads help a lot with low tiers leading to heavy punishes.

I've played Ike since Brawl, so I know all about playing low tiers, esp through all the Meta Knights. Trying to learn a 7:3 match-up turns into 'Don't **** up or you die.' It's better here in Smash 4 but sometimes Sheik feels just like the MK match-up except you live longer.

 

[Speed Boost]

I main Pit/Dark Pit who is in the middle of most tier lists although some recent ones have shown him a little higher. He certainly isn't a top tier character because of poor approach options among other things. He does have some elite skill though and he is very solid in a lot of other areas. He has a great dash game, decent speed and decent range. He also can go super deep off stage to edgeguard and recover from the depths.

I'm sure you understand the strengths and weaknesses of Metaknight and have matchup plans for characters you typically see at tournaments, but there is always room for improvement. It has been proven by players like Nairo that middle of the road characters can win at the highest level in Smash 4. Although, most of us will never touch the skill level of someone like Nairo we can also find solice in the fact that our opponents likely wont either. So, we just need to be better prepared for our matchups and cleaner with our tech. We need to pick up and adapt to habits faster to make up for our consistenly worse options. If you can do all of these things you can be successful. Most of all, respect anyone that beats you so you can learn from it instead of brushing it off as cheese or luck or a better character.

One last thing before I stop rambling. MIXUPS! Constantly looking for more mixups in every phase of the game. Different mixups in nuetral, when recovering, edgeguarding, defensive mixups. The more different ways you can change your play in a match the harder it will be for your opponent to adapt. Most of us are guilty of autopilot and character watching so, DETAILS!

Keep your head up, and keep grinding.

 

[CommanderRin]

I play in my scene, and tho I can sympathize with the decisions of changing to a "currently" more viable fighter, I love knowing that I'm winning with the character I love.

My scene is rather obscure as generally the average participation at our weekly tournaments is about 15 people, but I can still feel proud of myself when people ask who the top ranking player is and who they use.
"I'm actually currently ranked at the top, I use !"

Just say that to yourself with any character in the game, if Meta-Knight is who you love then you WILL succeed if you continue striving for success (Our 2nd is actually a MetaKnight).

So coming from a "top-ranked" player, use only a character you can lose with and still smile afterwards and know that you're proud of representing him/her.

Challenge your fate OP!

PS: I've heard "Lucina sucks" countless times.

 

[DaRkJaWs]

I play in my scene, and tho I can sympathize with the decisions of changing to a "currently" more viable fighter, I love knowing that I'm winning with the character I love.

My scene is rather obscure as generally the average participation at our weekly tournaments is about 15 people, but I can still feel proud of myself when people ask who the top ranking player is and who they use.
"I'm actually currently ranked at the top, I use !"

Just say that to yourself with any character in the game, if Meta-Knight is who you love then you WILL succeed if you continue striving for success (Our 2nd is actually a MetaKnight).

So coming from a "top-ranked" player, use only a character you can lose with and still smile afterwards and know that you're proud of representing him/her.

Challenge your fate OP!

PS: I've heard "Lucina sucks" countless times.

Eh bruh add me at sharifi_shuffle I want to face your Lucina

 

[Dr. Bread]

one thing i wanna say though, i can totally understand being bitter about your character lacking certain tools or getting nerfed irresponsibly.

Ganondorf for example, is a character whose moveset has quite a few options that are not only unrewarding, but also unsafe.

If youre attached to a character, you'll definitely notice the game's failure to deliver a viable character. Or in other cases, perhaps you'll notice when a patch fails to nerf a character in a way that maintains their core strengths in favor of just trying to make them crappy in a subtle way.

 

[TheHypnotoad]

I can relate as a Robin main with a Jigglypuff secondary. The only "high tier" I play is Captain Falcon, and I'm not very good with him. I used to play ZSS, but I'm awful with her, so I dropped her. Robin just has so many bad matchups, and Jigglypuff and Captain Falcon don't really cover those matchups very well. I've been thinking of just biting the bullet and start learning Luigi because he's so easy to use (and also hoping that he doesn't get nerfed).

 

[Dr. Bread]

luigi is the new diddy kong :v
not really, because nobody ****s on luigi players except idk shofu

I used to 'main' falcon but i stopped because i realized i only played him because i thought he was cool and "show me ya moves" but his lack of approach options and safe pressure just dont suit me.

 

[Scarlet Jile]

Play Sheik or suffer endlessly, scrublords.

 

[Rhus]

I main Fox and second Robin.

I have always been 100% dedicated to playing Fox in all smash games. It's not because of 20XX, it's not because Melee is my favourite Smash game, it's simply because I enjoy his character and his playstyle.

That being said, Fox has some pretty annoying matchups where you have to work like 4x harder to make the matchup even. These seem to be characters that are incredibly easy to use (Luigi, Yoshi etc.), which just rubs salt on the wound. It's annoying, but I've learned to really try at adjusting how I play. Honestly, I don't even think about Fox's problems when I play (small hitboxes, low priority, no projectile space control, linear recovery etc.) and I only try and play to his greatest strengths (fastest character->mixups, mindgames, hit and run). My only suggestion here is to cross analyse your character and figure out the best ways to play to their strengths.

Robin's matchups are often miserable, but most can be dealt with better when you are incredibly on the ball with your micro managing of his spells.

 

[ZTD | TECHnology]

Thank you all for the responses, very much appreciated.

 

[Zorai]

You can win with any character, and in your case, MK is especially capable of doing so. He's definitely high tier.

Find out what makes his 'bad' matchups bad and then work around it. Try to optimize to the point where your character's weaknesses aren't being exploited but you can still make reads and get appropriate punishes. Part of playing a character that isn't top tier (if you think it isn't) is knowing the top tier characters like the back of your hand.

Remember this: in every match you play there are always gaps and opportunities that allow you to accomplish your goal. You have to seize the moment and get the win that way.

 

[Fatmanonice]

This is just the simple reality of playing characters who are not innately the best in the game. If your character isn't one of the best, it's going to be an uphill battle and you're just going to have to accept that. I believe this is easier to accept for players of low tier characters than middle tier because middle tier characters can sometimes practically taste being viable that it's downright painful when they just fall short time and time again. With characters like , you kind of go into them knowing that you're going to have to be stupidly good or hilariously lucky to win major tournaments with them but with characters like , making top 16 at big tournaments is hardly a pipe dream so getting to the top always seems to be reasonably in reach. If you want to be the very best (like no one ever was), you're pretty much going to have to pick a better character or a secondary or two (or just a pocket if you're feeling particularly ballsy) to carry your main through bad matchups. Even with a mid/low tier character, you should still have a decent amount of success at smaller tournaments but if you're wanting to make your way up to major tournaments like Apex and Evo, you're either going to have to settle for less, double down your efforts, or follow up with the advice I gave earlier. Either way, you can still play for fun and work to competitively develop your character to help others along so it kind of boils down to how important consistently walking away as the champion is to you.

 

[NGUY (guitarstage)]

one of my country goes mostly mr game and watch and he almost beat Mr R so yeah nothing is impossible look at armada

 

[Metal Fish]

The trick to maining non-top-tier is knowing your match ups. Try to get into the mindset of adapting to change, rather than get frustrated with it. It doesn't matter if you're losing over and over as long as you are thinking about what you need to change. The best way to get better is to consciously learn and implement knowledge.

 

[Meek Moths]

i totally understand the OP, playing diddy is very stressful

 

[Baby_Sneak]

practice ground movement

 

[SevenYearItch]

one of my country goes mostly mr game and watch and he almost beat Mr R so yeah nothing is impossible look at armada

Yeah, take a look at Armada who just abandoned his lower tier main to play Fox

 

[NGUY (guitarstage)]

Yeah, take a look at Armada who just abandoned his lower tier main to play Fox

o i forgot that :v well better look at aMSa who uses yoshi who isnt top tier but its highed tiered

 

[Teh Sandwich]

Every character in this game has mad potential. It's not like maining mario in melee.

 

[bc1910]

Instead of worrying that MK's not top tier, focus on the fact that he's viable and, as a result, learning tough MUs with him is not a waste of time because they should be winnable.

You should also be especially grateful for the fact that you've got a high level MK rep (Ito) who consistently places well with him, even taking 1st place in tourneys, proving his viability. Most mid-tier mains, myself included, do not have that luxury.

 

[NGUY (guitarstage)]

im a falcon main and he is high tierd but you know people dont expect mid tier so what i did? i started using Jiggs as a secondary

 

[warionumbah2]

MK isn't mid he's low tier.

 

[Pazx]

MK is a really bad character.

 

[PUK]

MK sucks, and i play zelda so i know what it means

 

[Teh Sandwich]

Those mk buffs though

 

[ZTD | TECHnology]

Well guys all the other MK mains said he's low tier so he's gotta be low tier.

 

[NGUY (guitarstage)]

you arent helping him in anyway possible
lol but you know the meta changes every patch so