Revival of Melee 4
I almost want to do separate posts talking about this tournament and then about Mango, but that would mean I'd give Mango more satisfaction and I'd be writing about why I'm pissed more instead of fixing it, so that's not happening don't ask.
I've never really written about a tournament experience just from just a smash(and not smash+social) perspective before, but I'll write this out chronologically and see how it feels. Maybe I'll find a better way to write about Apex.
Riding up to RoM4 in Yay's small car, I didn't think about anything except how much I wanted to beat Mango. It was literally my only goal of the tournament. I sort of added wanting to do well in teams while I was there, but that's a different thing entirely and still involves beating Mango. RoM4 was supposed to be my stepping stone into Apex where I bring out salty tryhard Mango and we played in finals after I beat Armada and redeemed myself and it would be amazing. However, I believe I got too caught up in my vision and confidence and this cost me before and during the tourney.
We get to the hotel pretty late like 4 AM or something so I don't get as much sleep as I'd like(maybe 7 hours) but it was enough to function for most of the day. I ate pizza on my own when I arrived at the venue both days(nothing was closer even though I know pizza is bad for your smash game I didn't want to have cold hands or be away from the venue more).
Day 1 I pretty much only played Mango and did pools. I came in, saw him friendlying against M2K's team, and then watched until M2K's team(and another that cut in front of me forgot who though) left before finally friendlying Mango.
Mango went Fox first. Things were kinda even then got pretty bad for me. I couldn't really bring myself to get incredibly into the match and quit trash talking because I just felt like I shouldn't have to and couldn't shake that notion for a while. It was really annoying and part of the reason I'm contemplating holding off trash talk so I have nothing to convince myself to hold back with next time I ever play a game of Melee. This mindset screwed me over throughout the entire tournament and in finals.
Eventually, I got serious and started beating up on Mango's Fox. He recognized it was going too badly for him so he switched to Falco(I would **** Mango's Fox in tournament for anyone reading.....I have a theory about Mango's Fox but just know that).
The dittos were pretty intense initially. He was going neutral Falco(it matters). He definitely won more of them though. I was pushing hard though. Eventually this pushing wore me out(I was learning a lot I didn't realize I didn't know about Falco and the ditto that Mango did and was showing through his play) and Mango would beat up on me several games in a row and it was tough to listen to. Then I would catch my mental wind and go back to pushing hard and jockeying for position etc etc tryharding.
Eventually I forced Mango to play full on seriously. He plays blue Falco when he does this(so you all know). I was playing pretty well vs him by then but I was so mentally fatigued from trying to figure out what was going on with his new approaches and mixups he did(had to relearn since it was harder/newer than what neutral Falco did) and he already knew a lot of what I would do so it seems fairly uneven in terms of how much stamina was required to play those friendlies but it was a good learning experience. I only took 2 games off of serious blue Falco I think and we played upwards of 15.
We played again after singles pools and I was so worn out by that time that it was mostly me getting whupped by Falco(I wouldn't let him go Fox because I wanted to spend my time getting ***** learning about what he was doing instead of trying to win).
I played PC afterward. I couldn't hit confirm to combo really by this point but I managed a 4 stock in our second game and then decided it would be okay if I didn't pop an eye vessel trying to play with whatever mental stamina I had left for the rest of our friendlies so I dropped a couple games. He's incredibly smart though and surprised me quite a few times. The man would have clocked in at RoM4 for sure. Definite top 5 at that tournament in my opinion.
Day 2....
I friendlied Mango again as soon as I got some free time. I think he tracked me down that time. He didn't friendly anyone besides me I think. I warmed him up super well and I think he likes playing me for that reason.
Those friendlies were similar to the second session of the previous day in that it was neutral Falco mostly whupping me, but I couldn't get into gear for some reason. I also think he thought about how I played overnight and wanted to test out his ideas. I feel like my mentality was pretty poor this day as well and I didn't let those friendlies get to me. This was good because I didn't get emo, but it was bad because I didn't get salty and try to fight back really and **** everyone to get to him in bracket. I just....was annoyed. It was a really confusing and lame feeling. Maybe I'll try embracing more emotion in my play or I'll just play every match of Melee very seriously from now on to where emotion won't be needed for good play, I'm not sure. This is something I'll start to work on soon.
Mango wanted to friendly me again before he played teams finals but I was in a goofy Marth ditto rotation with Tec0, Niko, and Reno(lol) and he got pissed when I told him I didn't want to get tired again. Those friendlies(in combination with my friendlies with DoH and Darrell that gave me much needed experience vs their respective characters) did make me want to play pretty well though, and that may have been what caused me to play better vs Jman or something, I don't really remember when they happened. I just know I felt good about Melee after that.
Playing everyone in bracket was disappointing for me. I didn't go in fired up and felt like I was forcing all of my plays. The only exception to this feeling was when I played Mango the last 2 games of GFs. Far too late then obviously.
vs M2K both times I guess, I was surprised he planked me. I could have taken the edge by doing that waveshield thing I talk about all of the time, but I just didn't. I don't even know why. I killed him once for taking the edge and for getting him to up-B onto the stage several times I got hits or kills. I wasn't mad he was doing it(until the car ride home somehow), but it didn't make me nervous either. I just....was there. I don't know. I did feel like I finally wanted to go in there and **** when I played M2K last game of LFs and that's when he innovated that quit out he did.
vs Jman, I sort of recognized what was wrong with my mindset and fired myself up, telling myself how fun it was to combo Fox and how I ***** Mango's Fox so this should be really fun. I even made a point to aggro Jman on FD so no one could say I camped him(it was my reasoning and I remember thinking it before I fair'd him out of his attempt to come out of shield). Then I saw him talking to his NY buddies and knew I was about to get platform camped. Sure enough, BF and he starts running away. I got bored and didn't try to figure him out. This isn't even like me but my mindset was so bad I just didn't really try much. Then he got the lead and I got annoyed and said okay I'll Uair his Nair he keeps doing over and over to shut up NY and I comboed him for it because their yelling isn't fun to listen to when it's against you.
against Mango he picked red, I thought he wasn't trying, so I didn't take it seriously. apparently he was trying sort of which he told me in GFs after I won the game I won and I got really serious but it was far too late then. whatever.
then I came out putting all of my tricks I SHOULD HAVE BEEN USING ALL ALONG BUT DIDN'T BECAUSE I'M STUPID in game 4 and got a 2 stock lead and Mango had to play very serious to not get *****(like better than red Falco I don't care if you disagree) and I still should have killed him after that stupid side B at the end but I wanted to uptilt combo and somehow messed that up because I'm dumb and then he bair'd me.
I know this is the least professional write up I've ever done but I'm very frustrated so this is what it is.