• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

Mind Over Meta #30 - Struggling Uphill

LiteralGrill

Smokin' Hot~
Joined
Dec 9, 2012
Messages
5,976
Location
Wisconsin
Mind Over Meta is a weekly series of articles on /r/SSBPM, the Project M subreddit. Written by several different authors, this series covers many of the mental aspects of playing smash and other subjects related specifically to Project M. This week user orangegluon wrote about "facing opponents stronger than yourself. The original article can be found here, and to read the rest of the series check out the Mind Over Meta Archive. Sit down, read, and enjoy.

---​

Hey everyone, we’re back this week with yet another Mind Over Meta (#30!!). Returning to our norm of competitively-focused topics, this week I want to look back at our discussion a few weeks ago, on beating “scrubby” players you feel are below your skill level. What about the converse scenario? Staying afloat above worse players is generally not your primary aim; you want to paddle forward to new horizons, more challenging waters, rougher currents, and come out on top. The only way to improve your rank is to best the trials ahead of you, and by trials, I mean the players above your level.

This week, let’s talk about the uphill struggle of fighting players ahead of your rank, no matter how big the gap.

Big Fish

There are only a handful of “bests,” maybe even one or two, so chances are that if you are reading this, you are not the best player in your region. Someone else is.

If you want to improve, maybe even become the regional champion, you need to aim at that person’s spot. You need to show everyone that you are the superior player. That is, you need to beat them. But maybe not right now. Chances are that there are people between you and that player, and the way that tournament brackets work, you likely need to step over all those people before you get a chance to prove yourself as the best.

But who are these people exactly? A lot of times, it’s hard to tell exactly who the big fries are, since skill gaps can vary widely within a single event. But generally, what I want to address in this week’s MoM are situations where you are up against an opponent who, on the outset, looks like the prime candidate to take the “W.” While player levels are still difficult to define, we can talk about larger gaps in terms of the tiering explained in this insightful post, where you might be fighting someone at least one tier above you or someone who places consistently better than you in the same tier. That means that by definition, you, in this scenario, are the underdog. And if you win, it means you have caused an upset (and maybe upset your opponent!).

Upsets - are - exceptionally - common - in Smash. It’s almost a regular occurrence, paradoxically. The takeaway here is that at any given moment, you can, in fact, come out on top, no matter whether you’re fighting McCasual Wiiremote or Mew2king himself. PM greats like Westballz and Lucky can be beaten, at least occasionally, by players with far less clout. (NB: these upsets are only so notable because the losing players are so damn good).

Relative to these players, you are a scrub until proven otherwise. Players who are ranked well tend to be adaptable and competent, and understand the game to a beyond-superficial level. If you are considered a lower player, chances are you are less proficient at the game in these respects. But that doesn’t mean you must lose!

Rocky

The underdog is an old hero of stories. Opponents look down upon the hero, powerful and invincible, all odds in their favor. And despite a grim outlook, despite an incredibly improbably success, the hero, through cunning, wit, and pure strength, defeats their wretched antagonists, winning fame, money, respect, glory, or the fate of the world. We see this trope repeated in movies, books, and televisions; in the darkest hours, light breaks when all seemed hopeless. In our human nature, at the deepest core, we all root for the underdogs.

The same narrative can easily play out in Project M, a game where matchups often determine outcomes of matches and high technical skill ceilings can easily sieve players. A player on the wrong end of a steep matchup, or one without the technical know-how hoopla that their character can potentially draw on faces a big disadvantage in brackets. But don’t lose hope! Be the hero!

When you are in a tournament match, your goal is to win within the scope of the rules and honor, by whatever means possible. That’s it. Anything else you try to do is an unnecessary obligation you’ve put on yourself, for better or worse. That means you use whatever advantages, again within bounds of fairness and good faith, that you can get to earn a victory. It doesn’t matter how scrubby or amazing your play is. You are always aiming to get that “W.” Make this your mantra.

When you play against someone at a higher level, you should carry this principle into the ring with you.

When you fight an uphill battle, you must be prepared to be the underdog. Put yourself in the mindset. You haven’t got the ranking your opponent has. You might not have their tournament record, or their bracket seeding spot. You might not have a character advantage. You might not even have their looks. But you do have two advantages: you have something to prove, that you are not an easy opponent or someone who falls without a fight, and you have a crowd waiting for you to create the upset, looking for the underdog to win out against the odds. If the opponent wins, no one is surprised. But if you win, it will be historic. Do you feel that sudden drive? That impassioned flame kindling inside? That’s the underdog spirit, and that is what will fuel your victory.

To put it in better words,

Contrary to popular belief, going into competition as the underdog is extremely advantageous. In a David vs. Goliath fight, Goliath is the one with everything to lose. He is the one with the reputation, the strength, the prestige and all of the accountability. As the unsuspecting rival, David has every opportunity to use the element of surprise to be victorious.

Positivity is the first element of creating this underdog mentality. You must be hopeful, even nonsensically so, in order to keep your drive strong enough to push through a challenge. But thinking really hard is not enough on its own to turn around a victory. We need to put our positivity and drive into action.

Who The Hell Do You Think I Am

The first step to winning out against an opponent is to focus on the game. We’ve talked about focus a few times before, but in this scenario, more than almost all others, it is crucial that you pay attention properly, so you can adapt and react well to your opponent’s tricks. (For information on adaptation and paying attention, you might check a previous MoM on the subject here). Respecting the opponent's options, space, and threats is crucial to avoiding an unfortunate turn into painful punishments, and to respect those things, a player must closely watch the opponent's movements and habits.

The second point is that you must use the advantages in-game that you have as much as possible. That multishining, ultratechnical, button-mashing Fox player across the room you need to play next round? “Let’s try to outperform his technique with more high-octane technical inputs, right?” The campy, projectile-heavy Ivysaur? “How about trying to outcamp her?” Presumably, if you can’t hold a candle to the Fox’s technical ability or the Ivysaur’s patient item use, this is obviously a bad idea. If you are more consistent with these tactics, you can pull ahead a bit at a time, but the bigger the skill gap between you and the other player, the less likely it is that you can use this strategy successfully.

Instead, adaptation to the player itself is a better bet. Every player has a weakness, and therefore every player can be exploited. Maybe your opponent has a hidden susceptibility to crouch cancels, or they always approach the same way. Even though these players are better than you, they are still people with foibles of their own. The key to beating them is to find their weaknesses and poke into them consistently. The ultratechnical Fox may well have a very weak recovery game that could be exploited, and the campy Ivysaur, while dangerous to approach, might be very vulnerable once launched into the air for a combo. You have to find out clues of these weaknesses by experimenting in the game. And if you pay attention closely, you will be able to figure out exactly when and why players expose their weaknesses, and capitalize.

I mentioned in the article on scrubs that all players, to some degree, are scrubs. Players who perform well in tournaments are those that mask their scrubby habits better than others. Predictability or weak combos might be covered up with a strong neutral game, powerful edgeguards, or highly technical rush-downs or chain grabs. They use their character, or a particular tactic, or some other crutch for advantages, rather than drawing from themselves. And literally everyone does it. Including your opponent. Realizing this puts you in a mentality to scout out weaknesses.

Smash often comes down to sheer consistency. The player who can most consistently land hits, recover at high percents, and take stocks one at a time is the one that can eke out a steady advantage over time. In our article about “scrubby” play, we discussed how scrubs often have low-level strategies that are easy to beat but consistent. But somehow, these scrubs cause a pain in the side for more experienced players… I wonder if there’s something to learn from them that might help us out in facing higher level opponents?

Say Cheese

So, say you can’t quite outmaneuver this Ganondorf’s tricky option coverage, or that Falco’s intense laser pressure. These players know they are better than you, and that you are a scrub. Maybe it’s time to quit.

No, don’t give up! Use your scrubbiness to your advantage! In a game so lopsided in skew you can’t help but look like a “scrub” compared to your opponent, your best chance may well be to adopt the label, internalize it, and own it. Because your best chance to win may be when your opponent does not play at their best. That is, when they are on tilt.

Let’s revisit Bo’s definition of “scrubby” players from our other article:

A "suboptimal" player is someone who plays a style... that is very different from the "textbook" styles of play. These styles are usually considered styles that are almost guaranteed to fail at the highest levels of professional play but can be extremely tricky to play against at lower levels... Usually these "suboptimal" players are very strong in one area but are very weak in a lot of other areas, but that one strong area ends up causing a lot of trouble for those who don't know how to play against that style.

“If it’s stupid and it works, it isn’t stupid.” Take some advantage you have and run with it; if it gets you a percent or stock lead, keep abusing it as much as you can. Make the opponent adapt. If they can't keep up, tough cookies. This sends a message that you are prepared to win however you can. These advantages might be as stupid as Kirbycides, Dedede gimps, Link’s projectile spam, whatever you have. Playing in this way makes your opponent uncomfortable. They aren’t used to your weird style. They usually don’t play against someone willing to spend a minute tossing out Din’s Fire into your face while waiting on the other side of stage, or someone who crouch cancels every one of their aerials while responding with a downsmash.

But moreso than direct effects on the game, these types of playstyles change the entire pace of the game. They set the flow of battle in your hands, because you are the one who is telling your opponent what to do. You are the brick wall, and your opponent, despite all their rage, can’t bust through. If your opponent cannot adapt, they will lose.

And you’re a scrub to them! This is your great advantage, as I mentioned earlier. Getting into an opponent’s head is an easy way to make them deteriorate a little at a time, and making them confused, flustered, and angry by beating them with simple, even juvenile, but consistent tactics, the brick wall strategy, works wonders to that end. Think about how frustrated you become when you’re on the losing end of this type of play. Your opponent could well react the same way. Use that as an opportunity.

Once you start winning, you may well find yourself excited. "Am I really in the lead against someone this good? Holy cow!" This is the moment when you might find your play deteriorating. Focus more intensely now, and ignore the stock counter. If you keep playing every stock like your last one, you will continually force yourself to go for smart decisions, and keep yourself from becoming anxious or overzealous trying to close out the game, an important but subtle habit I've often struggled with in these types of situations.

All of these possibilities for winning out against your higher-level opponent are strategies to employ at the tournament, when you have your opponent next round. But trying to win by intentionally being “scrubby” is not a long-term viable game plan.

Just Get Better

When it comes to it, the most reliable way to come out against an opponent who is better than you is just to be better than them. The little psychological tricks and internal motivations I’ve discussed are powerful, but ultimately limited in that they can only work for certain opponents a certain number of times before your foe realizes what’s going on, sees that you are still less developed as a Smasher, maybe reads through MoM #28 again, and makes adjustments to try and make sure you remember why they are considered to be the better player.

The things we discussed were certainly useful in the context of the guiding principle I set out: that you are aiming to get the “W.” But in the long term, Bo cautioned us two weeks ago about relying on suboptimal tactics:

In the long-term, one would need to first develop strong fundamentals and consistency. The reason why "suboptimal" players lose at the highest levels is because the best players in the world are just not volatile enough to lose to "suboptimal" players on a consistent basis.

In order to beat the best players consistently, you must become one of the best players. That is what in large part defines the tip-top elite; in Melee’s competitive scene, Mang0, Hungrybox, Armada, Mew2king, and PPMD all were considered “gods” for a long time because of their unparalleled consistency, only facing real competition from each other. Despite crafty, nuanced ploys and powerful curveballs from left field, most other players not considered elite simply did not stand a chance at real victory. It was only after intense practice, improvement of fundamentals and consistency, and a winning mentality to improve that players have recently been challenging the “gods” more closely. However, these players still regularly lose at other levels in big tournaments, and generally do not place among the tip-top spots at large majors.

Indeed, one win against a high-level opponent does not make you better (despite what so-called “Inui Logic” might lead you to believe). It makes you someone that turned an upset and gained glory. But glory fades unless you have the mettle to back up your wins consistently, and sooner or later an angry loser learns to adapt to scrubby tactics and repetitive mindgames. While relying on cheeky options your character can try to crawl away with victory is tempting in the Project M metagame, given a cast of a lot of characters with huge potential, spending time developing fundamentals in the context of using your character has a more rewarding long-term payoff.

This means you need to practice outside of tournaments. At home, with friends, wherever. Nobody gets to become the best at anything without effort, and in Smash this is especially true. If you want to challenge the best players in your region, you need to do your homework ahead of time, weeks or months before the tournament, grinding out your abilities for the sake of improvement, and not merely to beat a few big names. Spacing, combo game, mixups, and precision are all things that you must practice to be consistent in tournaments.

And when you are consistently placing high in tournaments, you will know you have finally improved.

Up the Mountain We Go

It turns out that scaling a mountain isn’t a task accomplished in an hour. It takes days to climb to the top, coupled with proper preparation. You can certainly make big strides in a short time, skipping footholds and climbing through break times, but those tiny advantages are peanuts compared to the real task of getting to the top.

And so it goes in Smash. Your advantages that you get in short term can net you an upset over an opponent regarded as “better,” but if you aren’t consistent, people might think your victory was a fluke. By all means, in tournament you should do what you need to to win and place as well as possible, but at the end of the day, the game is to do well in many tournaments, not do great in one and unremarkably in all the others. As a competitor, your goal is to do as well as possible in tournament, but as a player, your goal is to get better. That is how you make a well-respected name for yourself.

Being an underdog, however, puts you into a mental advantage. I once participated in an academic team competition with several friends, and asked our captain what the strategy would be. He said: “Go into every game like the underdog.” We performed exceptionally well with that philosophy in mind, and I have carried that with me to tournament performances in Smash. Sometimes I do well, sometimes I don’t, but the underdog mentality always helps greatly in letting me test what I have practiced and learned to the fullest of my ability.

Thanks for tuning into another long, rambling MoM this week. I’d like to hear your thoughts and experiences on the subject. We’ll be back next week with another Mind Over Meta.

Til then, take care. --Mind Over Meta Writing Team.

---​

SmashCapps hopes readers enjoy these articles as he always finds them well thought out and insightful. To keep up with his own writing adventures be sure to follow him on Twitter.
 
Last edited:

busken

Smash Ace
Joined
Nov 28, 2014
Messages
677
I think the most important thing about fighting somebody better then you is to champion the fact that they are not perfect and they can make mistakes.
 

Phoenix502

Smash Ace
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
706
Location
Chipley, FL
NNID
Phoenix502
3DS FC
4811-6967-8095
Once you start winning, you may well find yourself excited. "Am I really in the lead against someone this good? Holy cow!" This is the moment when you might find your play deteriorating. Focus more intensely now, and ignore the stock counter. If you keep playing every stock like your last one, you will continually force yourself to go for smart decisions, and keep yourself from becoming anxious or overzealous trying to close out the game, an important but subtle habit I've often struggled with in these types of situations.
hmm... that's actually a very handy mental tool. unforunately with all the information on the bottom of the screen, it's very hard to avoid looking at it.
 

Pazzo.

「Livin' On A Prayer」
Joined
Oct 3, 2012
Messages
9,187
Very good read.

For someone like me, this only motivates me to try harder... Not because I deserve to win, but because I can improve!
 

TheHopefulHero

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
149
Needed to hear this today. Keeps reminding me why I keep going against all odds.
 

OninO

Smash Journeyman
Joined
May 19, 2014
Messages
289
Something that will dramatically improve your confidence is making sure your punish game is good. If you know you can kill when you get your opening it doesn't matter if you're a stock or two down.
 

Phoenix502

Smash Ace
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
706
Location
Chipley, FL
NNID
Phoenix502
3DS FC
4811-6967-8095
so, for the sake of brainstorming, anyone got some ideas on how to condition oneself to remain focused?

turning off percents on the options menu during friendlies would be a start, especially given I fight my Amiibos regularly, the information won't be there, the only cue you get is rage through high damage. no info, no realization, no point in panicking too much about what damage you're at... right?
 
Last edited:

badangadang

Smash Apprentice
Joined
May 30, 2013
Messages
121
so, for the sake of brainstorming, anyone got some ideas on how to condition oneself to remain focused?

turning off percents on the options menu during friendlies would be a start, especially given I fight my Amiibos regularly, the information won't be there, the only cue you get is rage through high damage. no info, no realization, no point in panicking too much about what damage you're at... right?
I wouldn't recommend that. Knowing percents is a big part of the game. It affects what combos you should know you can do, and when moves will net a KO. Turning the stock count off if possible isn't a bad idea, or just playing with infinite stocks.

In a real match you're going to have the numbers there, and they're beneficial to know. But the point is that if you play like every stock is the last one you have and you're always trying to turn around a 1-to-3 stock or 1-to-2 stock situation, it puts pressure to play smarter on your end.
 

Phoenix502

Smash Ace
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
706
Location
Chipley, FL
NNID
Phoenix502
3DS FC
4811-6967-8095
Knowing percents is a big part of the game. It affects what combos you should know you can do, and when moves will net a KO. Turning the stock count off if possible isn't a bad idea, or just playing with infinite stocks.

In a real match you're going to have the numbers there, and they're beneficial to know. But the point is that if you play like every stock is the last one you have and you're always trying to turn around a 1-to-3 stock or 1-to-2 stock situation, it puts pressure to play smarter on your end.
unfortunately, thinking this way isn't something that happens just like that... and there's no option to really turn off viewing the stock count.

besides, I'm still looking for ideas on how to develop said mindset, so I'm open to suggestions...
 
Last edited:

GuySensei

Smash Rookie
Joined
Aug 4, 2015
Messages
12
Location
Your dreams
NNID
Guy
3DS FC
1349-6208-4229
First MoM I've read, really good read and might just help me out at future tourneys. Gonna check out some older ones as well.
 
Top Bottom