Hello all. Glad to be here after many years of lurking. Let me give you a bit of background on my relationship with Smash (it's love and hate):
First of all, my gamertag (exclusively used for Smash) "Bro AJ" was my idea of being clever when I was a teenager. Bro which is short for brother, as in I'm a "Smashbrother" (a little joke to myself that I was joining a cult of sorts, and they gave you this title before your actual name), and then AJ which was my nickname growing up.
I was always a big fan of Nintendo (the SNES was my first game system of any kind), so obviously I gravitated to Smash 64 when it came out in 1999 (I was 8 at the time). I loved the hectic battles, innovative mechanics, and familiar characters, but it wasn't something that I took TOO seriously until much later. When Melee came out I was blown away with the amount of content that was added, and I quickly had the desire to be the best there was. I dominated my friends, and thought of myself as competitive, but it wasn't until Brawl was on the horizon that I realized I wasn't even close to being considered "good".
If my memory serves me right, it was after I joined a lesser known smash community to get information on Brawl, Brawl Central, that I started discovering just how much depth Smashbros actually had in terms of advanced game-play. I sought to better myself, adopting advanced techniques such as short-hopping, fast falling, directional influence, etc. (I could never wavedash effectively), but I never really entered the tournament scene. This was partly due to fact that I suffer from depression (although I was not aware of this at the time), and lacked motivation to truly train myself to where I could hold my own against advanced players. Today I feel I'm improving when it comes to the illness, some days are better than others, and after watching the Smashbros documentary I feel more motivated to master this game than ever (although I don't want to forget to have fun).
I love Brawl and still play it to this day, but I have to say it was a disappointment due to mechanics like tripping which prevented it from being truly competitive IMHO. I am immensely looking forward to Smash 4 where I hope there will be more balance added to the game (plus HD and no tripping!). While I can't say I really care to join the Melee competitive scene at this time (I could always change my mind), I do want Smash 4 to be the game that I really start trying to grow as a player.
Just FYI: I am also a member of AllisBrawl (Bro AJ there as well).
Looking forward to exploring this community. See you.