New players feeling discouraged /Recruiting new players

[NackJicholson]

Hello everybody, I have a few friends and even a brother who seem to really like Melee and what it has to offer but I feel as if they easily get discouraged by the amount of tech skill and seeing it as "impossible". I've tried convincing some of them to just practice but it doesn't seem to help. In addition I feel part of it as they lose and don't want to play anymore, any advice I could give to a person trying to get into the competitive scene? or even how I could possibly get people who don't even play smash or play casually into competitive? thanks for your time reading.

 

[EPsilon933]

Smash Brothers is such an easy fighting game to learn. Just play it with them and they'll have a good time. Don't ever tell someone to practice. That'll only get new players bored and disinterested. Losing is part of every game. It happens whenever someone else wins. There's nothing wrong with losing. Don't 'get' them into the competitive scene. Let them join it on their own will. But you can still invite them to tournaments or Smash fests. If someone doesn't even play Smash, why would they ever want to play Smash competitively?

Just don't control your friends and brother

 

[Teran]

Try introducing them to the game with less technical characters. They don't have to be particularly technical to see some dramatic initial improvement with say Sheik, so it makes the initial difficulty curve a little more manageable for them.

It also gives them more time to learn the more technical stuff without feeling too pressured to do so.

 

[ZaXXoR]

to be honest, people want to have a sense that they can win/have potential/are a prodigy of some kind, although it is somewhat deceiving, against particularly weak players i don't tend to give it my all and will purposefully choose crappy characters against them so they have a chance of beating me despite my extreme edge over them. I know it's sad, but everybody enjoys winning/knowing they can win, when you overload people with info and just body them you turn them away from even thinking they have a chance, let them come to you when they want to learn because when they're finally into the game and your crushing them they're more likely going to be inclined to learn.

throw the smash ego out the window and just smile have fun, it's what the games intended for, don't throw them down and let them know you were going easy on them/choosing bad chars on purpose, you don't need to prove your worth to casual players

 

[Vorde]

There are some great ideas here. What I like to do is go onto a team, and choose a character I don't normally play. Then take the person that's new onto my team and fight some CPUs. It gets people used to the frantic nature of the game with having 4 characters on the screen at once, and also allows them to fight a CPU with help from someone else.
Getting new people into the scene or at least into smash bros so they are casual is important to me. It's an enjoyable game on so many levels, and it doesn't always have to be competitive.

 

[Massive]

You can't make someone want to be a competitive player.

They have to want it themselves. Usually the "I beat all my friends" people are your best bet, but smash adoption among the general population is pretty low. This game is actually pretty hard to play competitively, despite being relatively easy to pick up for a casual player.

 

[NackJicholson]

yeah sorry if it came off as me sounding forceful, it didn't mean to word it that way, but thanks for all the advice.

 

[gmBottles]

I always thought is was easy to introduce people to Smash. You don't have to be good to have fun. If they're actually really bad you can sandbag, but don't just let them win. To me, it's more satisfying to take the loss knowing the opponent tried as opposed to having them not try at all. But if you're trying to get them into it, they'll either like it or they won't. And if they do like it, they aren't guaranteed to want to get into competitive play.

 

[ZaXXoR]

There are some great ideas here. What I like to do is go onto a team, and choose a character I don't normally play. Then take the person that's new onto my team and fight some CPUs. It gets people used to the frantic nature of the game with having 4 characters on the screen at once, and also allows them to fight a CPU with help from someone else.
Getting new people into the scene or at least into smash bros so they are casual is important to me. It's an enjoyable game on so many levels, and it doesn't always have to be competitive.

I actually will fight some casuals 2v1 with a lvl 7 ganon/luigi on their team so they have a chance of winning

 

[Vorde]

I fought a casual last week as he told me he'd body me. I felt bad, I 4 stocked him 8 times =\