Quest to Become the Best: ROM 3 goals, Amsah vs Jman discussion?

[Silly Kyle]

I hope your secret character is Peach!!

 

[Sharky]

is it a brawl character?


=P

 

[ranmaru]

Lol it's probably luigi. And I don't think it's brawl.

Also, do you know how like when you play someone of a lower level, you have lee way of making mistakes, but you'll still win.

I think we all should remember that while playing people below us, maybe we should try to practice our precision while playing that person, although it's hard to do that because we have to simplify things to them so they can get the picture of what's really happening.

Me as a Doctor Mario, I cannot afford to make a mistake. One mistake, and a marth will destroy my stock. TIP. lol, one mistake from him and I MIGHT get in to him, and I might not. ;-;

I have been slowing down and trying to read my opponents instead of really focusing on tech, although I should practice some tech haha.

 

[JesiahTEG]

09-12-10 - Post Tournament Day

So yesterday I had a local tournament. Some people from out of region came, which was cool.

This tournament was significant in the fact that, for the past few weeks I've been working on mindset and tournament preparation. Also, unfortunately the tournament didn't even get to end. The power in my city went out. I'll get to that though.

So, before the tournament I was doing a lot of thinking, trying to get into that tournament mode. If there's anything I realized recently, it's that a tournament setting is MUCH different than every other match. Money matches are the closest things to a tournament, and even then those are less stressful.

So, I'm doing all this thinking about the tournament before we even get there. Once we get there and I set up my TV and cube, I start playing friendlies with people.

I start off feeling pretty good, I'm going my hardest, but I'm not putting pressure on myself to get the 4 stock.

Every match matters when I'm at a tournament, for lots of reasons. It's almost like a duty, a responsibility as a "good" player to play your best at tournament. Here's why:

1.) People want to play you as a way to judge how good they are, since the "good player" is the best, it's an accurate way to measure their improvement/progress. It's almost a slap in the face to sandbag or play bad or say you weren't trying.

2.) People want to play you for advice, and to get better. It's important to play as strong as possible so you can give them honest feedback.

3.) The most obvious, people want to see how good YOU are. If I **** up, other regions are going to hear about it lol. No one wants that. Gotta protect your rep.

So that's the first thing that's different about a tournament. I have to be in a very specific state. Very serious, as opposed to very relaxed. Very relaxed means I don't care enough about my tourney/mm/friendly matches. However, I can't be too serious. I have to be relaxed enough to think straight and enjoy myself and not lose focus/optimism if I mess up or I die.

So, with that being said, here's how my matches went.

1st match vs Da Kid

He plays Ganondorf, and I was focusing on Sheik this tournament...I also want to get very good at this matchup specifically, because I see Kage at a lot of tournaments I go to. 1st match was on Battlefield. I decided before the match that I wouldn't chaingrab. Don't need it. My opponent however was prepared to do so, and when he did CG me, I had an urge to CG back. But, I resisted and managed to win the match either 2 stock or 3 stock, again, Sheik vs Ganondorf on Battlefield. I did pretty good at getting grabs off and edgeguarding.

Next match he took me to Rainbow Cruise and I stayed Sheik. I managed to severely outmanuever him with Needles and Sheik's agility. Unfortunatlely I sd'd at very early percent early on, but I went on to win the match either 1 or 2 stock. I think 2 stock.

Next match was vs Dudutsai, a very good Jigglypuff player on the EC. Dudu's known for his good ability to camp the ledge. I had played him in many friendlies before our match, which helped since I had time to practice spacing and not getting rested.

1st match was on FD I think, and I won 2 stock. Second match was on Battlefield, and I won three stock, both were Sheik vs Jiggs. For some reason, I really love playing Sheik vs Jiggs, and I was very very patient and careful. I made very smart use of my needles, zoned very well, and even edgeguarded very well.

Next I had to play PikaPika, a Sheik player who is very smart and always gives me trouble in tournament. He's very good at performing in tournament conditions. Also, this was by far my most fun match all tournament. 1st match was a Sheik ditto on Battlefield, a matchup that I LOVE and I'm pretty good at I'd like to think. I feel very comfortable in the matchup.

We were going back and forth, and I was making some mistakes, admittedly. He was punishing them very well, something that a lot of players in my region don't do. When I messed up, he was there to punish me. He was aggressive with edgeguarding, he played a good needle game etc. His Sheik was pretty on. He won one stock on Battlefield.

This is funny, because whenever I play him in tournament he always at least takes a match off. After he won I was like, "Lol you always beat me in tournament." I thought about my character selection very hard next match, and took him to Pokemon Stadium, and switched to Falco. I won 2 stock on Stadium with Falco. I didn't do anything special, or risky or over the top.

I can do that stuff in friendlies, and I can pull it off consistently. Off the stage edgeguards, reverse lasers off of platforms, faster lasers, perfect shield pressure, etc. But, I'm not at the level where I can perform that stuff consistently in tournament, and I didn't want to SD, or risk being shieldgrabbed. It's a bad feeling, knowing I can perform better but having to hold back due to risk and being nervous. It's ok though. I played very safe, only approached when I knew I'd hit his shield, and ended my shield pressure fairly quickly with either retreating aerials or grabs.

Next, he took me to Rainbow Cruise. I thought very hard about my counterpick. I wanted to pick Fox, because Fox is amazing there, but I thought, Fox is so different from Falco, I might SD or mess up technically from just playing Falco...So, why not play Falco? Well, his up B sucks there, and on Cruise I find myself having to up b a lot.

What I REALLY wanted to do was switch to Marth, but I played him in a friendly earlier and my Marth is just in a slump now. Plain and simple, I haven't been good with him lately. I keep him warmed up when practicing though. It's like, if my Marth could play it's best all the time, I would use him for every single matchup, hands down. I've put the most time into him, my combos and edgeguarding are the best with him, I have the most matchup knowledge/experience. One day Marth...One day...

Anyways, back to the match. I decided to stay Sheik.

The first life, he death combo'd me when he was only at 20%. I was like...****. I remained calm, came back and did the same thing to him. We were both at 3 lives, 0%. We scrambled around getting off the boat, and making out way to the rocking platform at the top of the stage. We were both very careful and made some decisions to get better stage control rather then going for a hit many times.

We were both using our needles very well, but I was using them better. He was playing smart though, and I decided to take one of the logs down back to the boat, and for some reason I wasn't thinking AT ALL, and I just stood there on it as he slapped me from the right. It was a really noob move, but whatever. I brought it back to one stock, and we were dead even. I managed to get a pretty good combo off, and he threw him up to the middle platform on the boat and tech chased with a waveland. He was at like, 65ish percent. I dthrew him, he DI'd behind me which was not smart. I Upsmashed him and won.

When I went to shake his hand, he was shaking LMAO and I don't blame him. That was a super close match, and it was incredibly fun. I haven't felt that tenseness in a very long time. Mostly it's me battling against myself mentally if I'm losing to stop making mistakes. This time, I was actually having to concentrate on my opponent. It was awesome.

Then, the power went out across my town. I was kind of upset because I really wanted to finish the tournament and test my Sheik out in tourney. The only other alternative was to play the rest of the tournament out at my apartment, and at that point it wouldn't even really be a tournament. I'm also broke right now, and needed the 80-90 dollars I would have gotten from winning...But, everyone else just wanted to split, and I thought I don't play Smash for money anyways, I'll split. I only got 23 dollars, but I think everyone knows I would have won and that's what's most important to me. If anyone thought I wouldn't have won, I would have been like, "Then let's get our ***** back to my place and play it out." But that wasn't the case.

That's about it. It was a great tourney, and I did amazing in doubles. I'm learning doubles with certain characters very well. I wish we could have finished, but there's another one on the 25th that I'm very excited to go to.

Also, Dudutsai if you're reading this, any chance you can just explain just how it felt to play against me in our friendlies? I don't get a lot of feedback anymore so if you have time it'd be cool to hear your side of the story y'know? If not that's cool too.

 

[JesiahTEG]

Perfect Tech Skill

It's been a while since I've played bad. Almost about 2 weeks now. I never play perfect, but I always play decently enough to do most of what I want. Here's something I've been working on.

I've been reforming my tech skill. I was so inconsistent, I thought, let me go back to the beginning. Let me go back to the basics, and go through the physical hand motions of wavedashing, fastfalling, short hopping, etc. I went back and consciously remembered the angles to press the control stick, the pressure for short hopping, l cancelling on shields with fastfall aerials, everything. Then, I practiced them consciously alone, and then in matches. It made my tech skill more consistent, remembering and relearning the basic, physical motions for my executions. I've been relying on muscle memory too long.

I have to get to the next level of tech skill though. It includes the following;

*Higher consistency for my executions
*Better control/longer wavedashes/longers
*Being able to execute everything on the first frame possible
*Being able to lightshield consistently
*Never messing up WD from/to ledge
*Never messing up CG's/autocombos
*Making sure my spacing is perfect at all times
*Perfect shield pressure and become consistent with it
*Always fastfalling when I need to
*Perfect wavelands
*Always jumping out of shines
*Never messing up JC Usmash

A lot more too. I've been taking my tech skill and remolding it, shaping it into what it is now. And, it's very very good. It just needs to be better. I need more repetition and more conscious effort applied to it.

 

[ranmaru]

****, you are getting **** DONE. Respect. <3 I will re-read your recent posts and try to do the same... I need DISCIPLINE. Not only with smash, but with my LIFE.

 

[dudutsai]

A lot of our matches, I felt like I was getting dominated by a solid strategy that I didn't know how to beat. I started by playing aggressively, the way I played against most Sheiks I've played (Bank$, Copycat, Aniolas). Trying to get in was extremely hard, but it was paying off, at least in the beginning.

You adapted, and started putting up a wall of needles/fairs to counter my nairs in, and I ran out of ideas. I've had it done to me, but never really bothered to look up videos on how to get around it. Ended up getting rolled, and I was so stuck that I asked you.

When I first played you at SNES, we went rather even, with me having the upper hand at first iirc. I've never thought of you as an unbeatable player, so I always go into matches with you with the hope of pulling out a close victory. More and more, I am realizing that you are definitely a step or two above me, so I'm very happy when you agree to play friendlies with me, a person you have no trouble beating.

Having swallowed my pride, I only wish you would give me more advice during our matches as they go on. I understand the last thing you want to seem is arrogant, but I go to you seeking improvement, because while asking you directly isn't below me in any way, it requires a different sort of humility.

I ended up watching a bunch of matches of Hungrybox vs Amsah, and I was shocked how accurately you described my failures in the matchup. You pretty much nailed it, and I wish I could play you more so that you can catch more of my mistakes, in all matchups.


I thought about what I was doing wrong (too bad I could only remember general things from our matches), and I am now more confident than ever in the matchup. Look forward to playing you more so I can test out my ideas.

 

[JesiahTEG]

Dudutsai- Thanks a lot man, I really appreciate that.

Yesterday was a tough day for Smash.

I was playing pretty badly, and I let it get to me. My mindset training went down the tubes and I got so angry I slammed a wall (lol) and left for a walk. After that, I got even more angry at myself for letting it get to me.

It's very clear that compared to where I want to end up, my mindset is still too frail and immature. Too easily shaken. It's so hard to remain calm. I spend so long practicing to become technically consistent, when my tech skill fails it's just the worst feeling in the world.

On a different note, there is a tournament coming up on the 25th of September. I think I'm going to bring my laptop along with my setup, so I can record all of my friendlies and tournament matches. I'd like to be able to analyze myself in a tournament setting.

Back to this whole mentality issue. A few things I want to say. First, I think I also need to give myself some more credit. I only see the good in myself when I'm playing my best and (usually) 4 stocking everyone, sometimes 3. I catch that glimpse of myself, and I feel the invincibility. I feel the feeling of knowing my opponent's actions before they happen. I know the feeling of getting a grab at 0, and pushing the advantage until death for my opponent. I know what it feels like to be at 140 with 4 lives with my opponent at 0 with 1 life, and adjusting my play to become untouchable.

But that is not my consistent play, and I'm too mentally immature to be able to play like that all the time. There are things I say to myself in my head, feelings I'm trying to control. At this point, I have 2 battles to fight. One is against every player who is better than me, and can beat me when I'm playing my best. I have to improve beyond their level in order to become better.

The second is the mental battle against myself, and winning this battle will ensure that I consistently beat the players who are my skill level or under. Losing this battle makes my play unpredictable, and losing to any player becomes a possibility.

In all honesty though, although this is by far the hardest and most frustrating part of Melee yet, I also feel very privileged to have a medium (Melee) in which to go through this process. I think to some people, it comes easier. I think there are some people out there who just play and they can be consistent. Azen is one of them, and I'm sure there are others.

There are probably people out there who realized it was going to be a challenge, winning the mental war with themselves, but they overcame it and became great players. It was a roadblock for them, but they did it.

Then there's me, where it is much more than a roadblock. It's a mountain to climb. A very big mountain that takes a long time to climb.

And don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are other players out there who experienced what I am going through, and it was probably even harder for some than me, so I really can't complain...And like I said, I'm not. I am kinda, but I also feel grateful to have something like this to work towards and work through. I think it will make me stronger outside of Smash as well.

You know, I recently got done watching the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. When I watch the show, I can't help but to compare myself to the protagonist, Aang. Essentially, he is the only person in the world with the ability to master all 4 elements, Air, Water, Earth, Fire, but he starts the show only having mastery over Air, and even then, he can only reach his full power in what seems like random situations to him, and he can't access it consistently. Not only that, but Aang is just a kid, so he's very immature, constantly letting his emotions get the best of him.

I feel I resonate well with this character, and after watching the first few episodes I knew I had to watch the rest, and I'm starting season 2 soon. I'm curious to see what Aang goes through in the next 2 seasons, and although it's just a show, maybe I can learn a thing or two.

I think in order for me to fully mature as a professional player and in order to truly reach my potential, a lot of pieces to what seems like a puzzle to me, must have to come together. And I think the changes necessary for this to occur are going to have to take place on many different levels.

 

[Silly Kyle]

I had a tough day for Smash recently. The night before Tuesday, I had trouble sleeping that night, I've had a lot of pressure from my mom to find a job. I'm actually kind of excited, I have an interview in an hour and if I get the job, I think I have a chance to go to MLG Dallas and hopefully Pound V if I save up enough money to go.

I went over to GG7's house to practice. Early on in the session, I was doing pretty good. I was holding my own and taking games off him... then it all went down hill. I was playing slopping and my tech skill with Peach was inconsistent and sloppy. I was becoming agitated and eventually had a defeatist's mentality. God ****, I hate the Falcon vs. Peach matchup!! It's so hard. And not only that, his Fox was giving me the business too. In the past, I usually have good success against it, but his tech skill was overwhelming and my Peach was not up to par.

I'm not sure what it is, but I think I've reached a plateau. Since I decided to pick up Peach competitively last summer in both Melee and Brawl, I have improved dramatically over a relatively short period of time. And since then, it has slowed down and it's frustrating that I'm not getting better at the same rate... I'm trying to improve all the important aspects of my game, spacing, timing, technical skill, prediction, mindset, etc. but what it all boils down to now is mostly experience and hammering down the basics.

I wish there was this magical answer to all my problems that I'm currently facing... I just hope to keep the hard work up, because I know it will pay off. Even Axe told me I was really close to reaching that next level in Smash. I can feel it too... I just wish I could reach it a lot sooner haha. Hopefully it will just click someday in the near future. I believe I have the potential to be Top 5 in my state, and that's a pretty lofty goal considering I have Forward, Axe, Taj, GG7, Vectorman, etc.

Love this blog!! I relate to you in smash and in real life. Your awesome, Jesiah! I regret not playing you more when you here in Arizona. I still remember beating you our first match on FoD, ending with the famous Armada back air off stage... then you two stocking me on PS, then you beating me on FD one-stock, if only I didn't miss that **** chain grab!! I still remember how technical and smart you played. It was refreshing.

 

[JesiahTEG]

I had a tough day for Smash recently. The night before Tuesday, I had trouble sleeping that night, I've had a lot of pressure from my mom to find a job. I'm actually kind of excited, I have an interview in an hour and if I get the job, I think I have a chance to go to MLG Dallas and hopefully Pound V if I save up enough money to go.

Yeah, parents getting on you to get a job is something that sounds super stressful. Good luck with the interview dude.

I went over to GG7's house to practice. Early on in the session, I was doing pretty good. I was holding my own and taking games off him... then it all went down hill. I was playing slopping and my tech skill with Peach was inconsistent and sloppy. I was becoming agitated and eventually had a defeatist's mentality. God ****, I hate the Falcon vs. Peach matchup!! It's so hard. And not only that, his Fox was giving me the business too. In the past, I usually have good success against it, but his tech skill was overwhelming and my Peach was not up to par.

Haha, GG7 is awesome. I miss him, he was super cool. One thing I can say is that both of you have actually kinda the same mentality, from what I got. Almost exact. All 3 of us need to work on our mentalities, don't get me wrong, but my negativity is different than the negativity of you guys. When I played GG7 one night, not my MM with him but a different night, after he started losing a lot he started to get very frustrated not with me, but with the matchup, Fox vs Falcon, and he was upset with how hard the matchup was for like, an hour.

And you just said you don't like the matchup. Pretty much the same thing.

I'm kind of different. I get down on myself suuuuper hard, and only yell at myself for not doing good. I've never gotten frustrated with matchups surprisingly. Maybe it's because that's something that's the most fun for me in Smash, is analyzing matchups and figuring them out. I take a lot of joy in that, as opposed to other players who see it as a challenge they have to overcome, kinda like my bad mentality.

And, I'm not trying to diss GG7 either. He did complain when losing to me yes, but when I lost to him in an MM I locked myself in my room LMAO so, if anything he's farther along then I am mentality wise. I don't even really have any advice..Well I guess I do. Like I pointed out, it seems like both of you have the same mentality problems, and if you practice with each other a lot, then it will be an endless cycle of negativity. If one of you changes and blossoms as a new player with a stronger mindset, then maybe the other will follow. Maybe during practice sessions you should set goals, like whoever complains first has to buy the other person dinner after we're done Smashing, haha. Idk, something like that to consciously improve your mindsets, both of you.

I'm not sure what it is, but I think I've reached a plateau. Since I decided to pick up Peach competitively last summer in both Melee and Brawl, I have improved dramatically over a relatively short period of time. And since then, it has slowed down and it's frustrating that I'm not getting better at the same rate... I'm trying to improve all the important aspects of my game, spacing, timing, technical skill, prediction, mindset, etc. but what it all boils down to now is mostly experience and hammering down the basics.

I can completely understand that, being frustrated with your rate of improvement. I always start thinking, that while I'm improving slowly, other players who are ALREADY better than me are improving even faster, making it impossible for me to catch up. I know that's just my mind talking though. PP and I were talking about this one day, and he said you have to focus solely on doing the best you can do as a player, without thinking about any other players or how fast or slow they're improving.

I wish there was this magical answer to all my problems that I'm currently facing... I just hope to keep the hard work up, because I know it will pay off. Even Axe told me I was really close to reaching that next level in Smash. I can feel it too... I just wish I could reach it a lot sooner haha. Hopefully it will just click someday in the near future. I believe I have the potential to be Top 5 in my state, and that's a pretty lofty goal considering I have Forward, Axe, Taj, GG7, Vectorman, etc.

I'm just as confident as you are that you can reach that goal. After talking to you in this thread, I can see you have the determination, and that's where everything is driven from.

Love this blog!! I relate to you in smash and in real life. Your awesome, Jesiah! I regret not playing you more when you here in Arizona. I still remember beating you our first match on FoD, ending with the famous Armada back air off stage... then you two stocking me on PS, then you beating me on FD one-stock, if only I didn't miss that **** chain grab!! I still remember how technical and smart you played. It was refreshing.

Haha, wow that's very interesting that that's what you remember from those matches. I remember playing and all I could think about was how technically bad I was playing. That's all I remember from playing you, it's interesting that one thing you remember is how technical I was.

That just goes to show how much work I have to do mentally haha. Thanks for the post though!

 

[ranmaru]

Dudutsai- Thanks a lot man, I really appreciate that.

Yesterday was a tough day for Smash.

I was playing pretty badly, and I let it get to me. My mindset training went down the tubes and I got so angry I slammed a wall (lol) and left for a walk. After that, I got even more angry at myself for letting it get to me.

It's very clear that compared to where I want to end up, my mindset is still too frail and immature. Too easily shaken. It's so hard to remain calm. I spend so long practicing to become technically consistent, when my tech skill fails it's just the worst feeling in the world.

On a different note, there is a tournament coming up on the 25th of September. I think I'm going to bring my laptop along with my setup, so I can record all of my friendlies and tournament matches. I'd like to be able to analyze myself in a tournament setting.

Back to this whole mentality issue. A few things I want to say. First, I think I also need to give myself some more credit. I only see the good in myself when I'm playing my best and (usually) 4 stocking everyone, sometimes 3. I catch that glimpse of myself, and I feel the invincibility. I feel the feeling of knowing my opponent's actions before they happen. I know the feeling of getting a grab at 0, and pushing the advantage until death for my opponent. I know what it feels like to be at 140 with 4 lives with my opponent at 0 with 1 life, and adjusting my play to become untouchable.

But that is not my consistent play, and I'm too mentally immature to be able to play like that all the time. There are things I say to myself in my head, feelings I'm trying to control. At this point, I have 2 battles to fight. One is against every player who is better than me, and can beat me when I'm playing my best. I have to improve beyond their level in order to become better.

The second is the mental battle against myself, and winning this battle will ensure that I consistently beat the players who are my skill level or under. Losing this battle makes my play unpredictable, and losing to any player becomes a possibility.

In all honesty though, although this is by far the hardest and most frustrating part of Melee yet, I also feel very privileged to have a medium (Melee) in which to go through this process. I think to some people, it comes easier. I think there are some people out there who just play and they can be consistent. Azen is one of them, and I'm sure there are others.

There are probably people out there who realized it was going to be a challenge, winning the mental war with themselves, but they overcame it and became great players. It was a roadblock for them, but they did it.

Then there's me, where it is much more than a roadblock. It's a mountain to climb. A very big mountain that takes a long time to climb.

And don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are other players out there who experienced what I am going through, and it was probably even harder for some than me, so I really can't complain...And like I said, I'm not. I am kinda, but I also feel grateful to have something like this to work towards and work through. I think it will make me stronger outside of Smash as well.

You know, I recently got done watching the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. When I watch the show, I can't help but to compare myself to the protagonist, Aang. Essentially, he is the only person in the world with the ability to master all 4 elements, Air, Water, Earth, Fire, but he starts the show only having mastery over Air, and even then, he can only reach his full power in what seems like random situations to him, and he can't access it consistently. Not only that, but Aang is just a kid, so he's very immature, constantly letting his emotions get the best of him.

I feel I resonate well with this character, and after watching the first few episodes I knew I had to watch the rest, and I'm starting season 2 soon. I'm curious to see what Aang goes through in the next 2 seasons, and although it's just a show, maybe I can learn a thing or two.

I think in order for me to fully mature as a professional player and in order to truly reach my potential, a lot of pieces to what seems like a puzzle to me, must have to come together. And I think the changes necessary for this to occur are going to have to take place on many different levels.

Well, just so you know... Aang pulls together. Maybe when you finish watching all the seasons, you'll understand WHAT you need to know to become fully mature.

Let me ask you something.

If you are at last stock, what do you do? Let's say you are at 1:2, do you try harder? how about 1:3? And finally, 1:4? and then what do you do at 1:1?

what do you do/think when you are at an advantage?

I just want to let you know, that it seems I have a good mindset for smash, I'm just not good yet xD (been a little lazy though, but I have started practicing my tech again, from 1 am to 3 am, and then again in the morning, I'm not playing around)...

I mean, when I'm at 1:3 or 1:2... I just try REALLY hard. Of course, when you are trying really hard, if you succeed and reach 1:1, thats when you get nervous... lol...

But yeah... My friends even notice how I play... I ALWAYS try to recover fully, even if I probably can't make it. (I'm a doctor mario) but rarely do I come back from something that could kill me... but sometimes I can come back, and surprise the person.


I mean, it seems that you are doing VERY well with your tech and consistency...

well take time to think what you think during a match.

Post it and I'll give you what insight I can give. (Probably will be a ton, I do type alot, lol)

 

[Professor :3]

you will never become a progamer being a fag like this

 

[JesiahTEG]

Working on lots of tech skill today. Trying to increase my consistency and also move faster and be more precise. That's about it really. Here's a good question for everyone: How do you all practice your tech skill? Do you do reps of certain things, practice against a computer, music etc. all that stuff...figure it'd be cool to see what everyone does for their tech skill if u feel like sharing

 

[da K.I.D.]

I master it in practice mode until I can do it every time i want to.

And than I play against other people and try to implement the new tech in any situation that it might be viable in.

Usually when i get to step two the pressure of a match gets to me, and I cant do it every time i want to. Than I just go back to step one. lol

 

[ranmaru]

I practice against a level 1 computer and just **** it. With awesome music to accompany me.

I'm a doc though so I only have to practice my preciseness with things... like chain grabs and such.

 

[JesiahTEG]

So, I have a tournament coming up, a small local this weekend. I'm very excited, as I've recently become very aware of how different playing in a tournament is then playing normal matches, and I want to use this local to get a better understanding of how my mind and technical execution work in tournament, set goals, and ultimately learn as much as I can.

When trying to think of what to work on this tournament, the first thing that comes to mind is mindset. Let's break this down a little further though.

What's my main goal for tournaments? To consistently play at my maximum ability. That's it. I can't expect to play better than my maximum current skill level, so I think that's what everyone should, or already does aim for in tournament.

In tournament, because I can't play my best due to tournament conditions, I hold back. I camp more instead of aggressively shield pressuring, and other situations like that I have to hold back. I don't want to risk getting shieldgrabbed, I don't want to risk getting gimped...

But, I realized something. That will NOT suffice. I'm basically lowering how good I play because of fear of failure. How about instead of doing that, I focus on playing my best in tournament, all the time no matter what?

Basically what I'm saying is, in this upcoming tournament, at that point in the match where mentally I feel that little bit of fear when there's a risky situation, and I consciously think to myself, "Play it safe, stay back, less risk..." I will not do that. I'm going to go for it. I'm going to go for everything I can do consistently when I play normally, because those are huge advantages I am giving up.

This tournament is going to be my first time in a long time trying to go all out. I don't expect it to work either. I don't expect to start playing absolutely incredible. I actually expect to kill myself a lot and get shieldgrabbed and drop combos, which will also be a mental challenge to me to remain calm during those times.

Back to mindset. I'm going to paying attention closely to how I feel at all times during the tournament, and explore strategies to remain calm and as close to technically perfect as possible. I'll have a few tools to assist me in this, the main being friendlies.

I'm going to be playing friendlies nonstop, and I'll be acting as if they are tournament matches. There are also pressure in tournament friendlies as well, for me at least, so it will be really good practice for me.

I'm going to have my own recording setup, and I'm going to record everything and reflect on every video.

So, let me just recap for myself here, so I don't get confused. The main goal is to begin developing my tournament persona so to speak, my mindset and attitude during tournaments that will give me every advantage I can possibly have.

Now that that's settled, I can't use that as an excuse to play poorly and not take 1st. This is a tournament, after all. I have a few subgoals.

*I don't want to drop a tournament game. Not a single game.
*I don't want to lose a friendly. Even if I'm working on some aspects of my game other than directly winning, when I'm on my last life, maybe even second to last, I'm going to change up my playstyle and go as hard as I can to not lose. That's good practice in itself.
*I want to be able to give the most useful, applicable advice to anyone that asks for it. I want to be able to analyze their game for them and after the match, tell them everything I can to make them a better player.

Oh, some more goals too. Character diversity. I've gotten very good with multiple characters. I want them all to be tournament useable, so I'm going to be picking different characters in my matches depending on how I'm feeling, counterpicks, etc. That's another interesting challenge, being able to switch between characters effectively and maintain good tech skill. Not only that, but just mentally play good in general.

Each character I play has a vastly different moveset, and a different feeling and flow to them. I don't know how fast my mind will be able to adapt, but I'm going to explore this area of my game to see. There's more things I want to post about, but I'll leave it at this for now.

 

[da K.I.D.]

I read the first 3 paragraphs or so.

Sounds like hopefully Ill be shieldgrabbing you much more if we play again.

 

[darkgirku]

Good stuff man, and good luck with this new "experiment" you're gonna do at the local.

I'm going to my first real tourney in a month (since 2 years ago...and my 2nd tourney ever...) hopefully, and you've helped shape some of the goals I will be working at. Mainly mental strain and mindset. And technical consistency before the tournament of course

 

[ranmaru]

Good luck to the both of you. : D

 

[JesiahTEG]

Ok, today's the day after the tournament, and I have a lot to say lol.

Pre-Tournament

First off, I have videos. Lots and lots of videos, including all of my tournament matches. I'm going to analyze them within the next few days, and I'll upload them as well so they're on youtube.

When the tournament started, I played a few friendlies, for maybe about an hour, and I felt very stiff. I was thinking pretty well, but I wasn't dashing properly, messing stuff up, etc. You'll see when I upload them, if you care to watch haha. What's interesting was that I was still ****** pretty hard, or at least it looked like that to everyone watching. It's crazy that I can do "well" when I'm not really playing that well, and to me it just looks like I'm sucking. Interesting.

After that, I started to switch characters and just relax and get warmed up. I still felt stiff, but I figured I should just keep moving around and playing with people. I took a break for about 20 minutes, then sat down with a player named Flaw. Next thing I know, I'm playing amazing. Like, never messing anything up. Ever. With Sheik I mean, I was doing everything perfectly.

It was the best feeling ever, and I was so excited to play in tournament. I decided to switch my goal of being able to use multiple characters this tournament. I actually wanted to see if I could go the whole tournament not dropping a game with Sheik.

So, my mindset going into the tournament was extremely confident after seeing how good I was playing. I'm going to talk about teams and a few matches of singles, because I learned stuff from them, although I'm saving the most important stuff for the post afterwards.

Teams

Teams was first, and I actually played a little bit of Marth to begin with. I have vids too

Teams was awesome because I had full awareness of everything that was happening. I was saving my teammate left and right, not really getting hit by anything unnecessary, and I was living very long as well.

Oh I forgot, my teammate had a flat tire so we automatically got sent to losers, and we had to fight our way back. We lost 2 matches the whole tournament. We lost one on Kongo Jungle to Peach and Ganon, and one time on FD vs double Jiggs, I went Falco and we got gimped over and over lol.

Our hardest matches were in grand finals vs Double Jiggs, where I played amazingly, and it's recorded as well. I saved my teammate so much, and I was really outthinking the opponent. Jiggs is easy for me to bait and beat. At any rate, teams was very fun and challenging.

One thing I'm gonna give myself some praise for was my consistent and smart use of lightshielding during teams. I really saved myself tons of times by lightshielding. The great thing is, I'm prepared to deal with their answer to my light shield as well. I'm ready to WD out or dodge or if they grab me, DI perfectly. I'm really excited about this small aspect of my game, because it's something I've developed on my own and have a good grasp on it.

Another thing too, is that my teammate whose tag is Vicious, played extremely well. Our synergy at this point impresses even me, although it's not quite up there with the top players haha, but we're getting there. One thing that just blew my mind was, at one point he was on the ledge as Fox, and I was already in the middle of my Up B, and I had to choose where to go. I went for the ledge, and he got off perfectly without either of us even saying anything.

And normally I wouldn't be impressed, because we have good coordination normally anyways...But how quickly he made the decision to get off the ledge, and how quickly I took the risk of going for the ledge, with only the subconscious communication between us dictating our actions. That's impressive to me.

Singles

Singles was interesting and I learned a lot. My first match was against Eaode I believe, a new player from long island who just moved up here. He plays Falcon, and has decent combos and is fairly smart. I played Sheik and stayed near the ledge the whole time. I played very defensively and managed to win with two three stocks. Oh wait, I think the second match was a 2 stock on FD, because he caught on to my method of getting up from the ledge. I just used the normal get up, where you press left or right on the control stick from the ledge, and he kept knee'ing me for it.

I actually learned something very important from playing him. Even vs. a player who is a lower level than me, in addition to not underestimating them, don't underestimate any of their individual abilities. In this case, his ability to read the way I got up from the ledge was costing me damage and stocks. Thinking back on it, I think I blinded myself to the fact that he was reading that, because I don't remember consciously realizing it. I guess 2 things learned. Don't underestimate any aspect of your opponent's game, and stay fresh on the ledge. I could have baited that knee and ***** him for it. Another thing too, my strategy vs him was very defensive and he didn't really adapt to it, which is why I won. A better play would figure out ways around it. I felt too rigid and one dimensional playing against him. I'm going to look into more ways to **** Falcon besides just putting up walls.

Next match was against Beta I think.

Beta is an extremely technical and fast Fox. As time goes on, he's also getting much smarter, and I learned a ton from playing him, and I recommend you guys watch some vids to see this kid play. He's very good, he just needs to work on his smarts a little more.

He made very good recovery decisions, and got me down to my last life on the second game. There was a good chance I was going to lose actually, but luckily I didn't haha. I underestimated his intelligence while he was recovering. I tried gimps that covered many low level recovery options, when I should have been predicting his recovery instead. Lesson learned I spose haha. I also want to analyze those matches and see what I did wrong. He played very good those matches, and I was playing well too, which is why I'm excited to watch these vids.

 

[JesiahTEG]

Significant Singles Matches

I had to play against Neil, or PikaPika next. He usually gives me trouble and he's been my rival since I started the game, although we're good friends now. Sheik dittos on Battlefield. I won the first match, but it was close. Next match I SD'd out of nerves, and I actually almost made a 3 stock comeback, but he won.

I didn't let it get to me, and won the next match on Battlefield.

I didn't accomplish my goal of not dropping a match throughout the tournament, but on the positive side, I didn't let it get to me. My mindset was strong and consistent. Now, the next thing that I'm going to describe is something very significant, and a realization I made that I'm very grateful for.

Neil has always gotten close to beating me, and used to beat me all the time before I improved. I respect him so much as a player for his natural ability to outthink his opponent, and I'm convinced that if he practiced the game at a high level he could beat anyone he wanted. However, that attitude has actually been hindering me. I never get upset losing to him when I do, and I always say he's a great opponent...But, what that did and I didn't realize it until now, was create a mental block against him.

I have a lot of respect for him like I said, but that lowers my confidence when I play him. I need to stop putting him on an equal level as me, and I've done it before. Last time we played in Syracuse, and there's videos and I suggest watching them because they're interesting...He beat me in Winner's Finals because I was nervous vs him.

The matches vs. him in Grand Finals were all very close until my mindset changed. It is SUPER interesting to me, and kinda cool...As the matches went on, I kept getting small little reads on him that helped me get hits off...The more reads I got, the more I began to realize...I'm better than him. By a significant amount. I know what he's going to do most of the time, and I punish harder. That gave me confidence, and I started ****** him.

That happened again this tournament, in Grand Finals. Before I even went into the match, I went in knowing that I'm a step above him. In a way actually, I never wanted to admit that. I was holding myself back. At this point though, I can't do that. I have to just ****, and that's what I did. 2 stock, 3 stock, 3 stock. There's vids, and they're awesome haha. At any rate, I felt I had a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders after that win. I broke through mentally to a new level, and I gained so much confidence from that match.

Let's back up actually now, to Winner's Finals. I had to play against Minh, a Link player that is actually extremely smart. He has the most amount of natural smarts out of anyone in our region, and I actually think he's a top Link player.

This was a very interesting match for me. The first match I had adrenaline in me, and I just wanted to ****. Luckily for me, Minh's strategy wasn't properly solidified in the first match. He wasn't collected enough, and I ***** him. 4 stock, and there's videos. :-P

The next match however, Minh changed his strategy and got more collected. He had so much stage control on Yoshi's story with his bombs and boomerangs, and I found myself chasing him around the stage. That's actually not what I want to be doing. He didn't have complete control though, because although he was making me chase him, he was also being pressured at the same time. I managed to win the next 2 matches 1 stock.

At one point in the second match, I started thinking to myself..."Is he going to be the one that's referred to when talking about good mindsets? Getting ***** the first match and then making an epic comeback?"

And when you read about these players, the players with the ability to shift momentum and make dramatic comebacks, you envy them, and you want to be them. That's why when I thought of that in my head, it motivated me. Now I'm the player stopping that comeback, and I think that player is not really talked about enough. It's a hard mental struggle to stop someone from doing that, especially when they're a great player. But, I went on to win the next 2 matches so it's all good.

I'm going to post about my afterthoughts, conclusions and what not next, but I need a break from writing. Vids soon, too

 

[TheManaLord]

viiiiiidsss

 

[Silly Kyle]

I love it!!

Please upload videos soon!! <3

 

[ChivalRuse]

Awesome. Can't wait to see you in action again.

 

[JesiahTEG]

RIT 9-25-10 Tournament Videos, and Friendlies

Videos!

I've posted the ones that I've uploaded so far, and I'm going to be adding a lot more to this post throughout the rest of the night. I'm also going to be going back and editing this post after analyzing each video individually. You can come back and check on this post if you want, since it will be constantly updated over the next few days.

Tournament
​

JesiahTEG vs Beta 1, 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkJtEDFG7gg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5rCE88C2QQ

Beta definitely caught me off guard, and made a lot of good decisions that I didn't expect from him. I hard a hard time feeling him out, and overall I think it was a great set.

JesiahTEG (Sheik) vs PikaPika! (Sheik, Jiggs) Grand Finals 1, 2, 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2o_3LLGTUA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrURYUV-d-Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH7bVr-jGJI

I played really good in Grand Finals, aside from one or two choking moments. I played especially good the last two matches, when I had a ton of confidence.

JesiahTEG (Sheik) vs Minh (Link) Winners Finals 1, 2, 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gfVZ8mKm7E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZVPSqoK8_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fRiGrGcRM8

Friendlies

JesiahTEG (Falco) vs. Beta (Fox)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpRRT_D4NBY - lol @ 2nd match xD

 

[da K.I.D.]

no doubles recorded?

i wanted to watch rob being amazing with a small amount of help from myself.

 

[RTF]

You seem to have a large focus on the players themselves. While that has it's place, sometimes you have to ignore how "good" someone is and defiantly pull out a win. Everyone is vulnerable.

PS: I feel the exact same about beta. He'll be really scary soon if he keeps it up imo.

no doubles recorded?
rofllllllllllllllllllllllllllll invisitext keeps getting better and better THE GAME.
i wanted to watch rob being amazing with a small amount of help from myself.

The view from the driver's seat is pretty sick :D gimme the keys to the batmobile XD spoilers text in quotes ftw.

 

[JesiahTEG]

I have a lot of recordings, but I have to use Paco's computer to upload them and I don't get much time on it.

Tonight was a good night. I started playing alone in my room about an hour and a half ago, two hours. I chose Marth and started CG'ing Fox on FD, just to practice...Then, something amazing happened. For the first time in a while, I started thinking of good, solid strategies to test.

Normally when I practice I'm practicing one or two specific things. Some tech related, some not. However, for the longest time now I've been in a slump when it comes to thinking of new strategies and gameplans. Finally, something clicked tonight and I just started thinking. I have them in my laptop, and I really want to test them as much as possible so I can refine them into tournament ready strategies.

I still have to write about my tournament conclusions and what not, but I'm not in the mood now. I'm going to go practice more, haha.

 

[Kuraudo]

I wanna play you some day.

 

[RTF]

I have a lot of recordings, but I have to use Paco's computer to upload them and I don't get much time on it.

Tonight was a good night. I started playing alone in my room about an hour and a half ago, two hours. I chose Marth and started CG'ing Fox on FD, just to practice...Then, something amazing happened. For the first time in a while, I started thinking of good, solid strategies to test.

Normally when I practice I'm practicing one or two specific things. Some tech related, some not. However, for the longest time now I've been in a slump when it comes to thinking of new strategies and gameplans. Finally, something clicked tonight and I just started thinking. I have them in my laptop, and I really want to test them as much as possible so I can refine them into tournament ready strategies.

I still have to write about my tournament conclusions and what not, but I'm not in the mood now. I'm going to go practice more, haha.

Strats are where it's at! imo that's a big step most of our area's players need to work on.

 

[JesiahTEG]

Kuraudo- From your Avatar, i want to play you too
Rob- agree 100%

On a really random note because I need somewhere to post this...Just saw the girl I want and wow. She is ****ing beautiful. That's my other goal, in addition to becoming the best. Get tha girlll

I'm going to try to upload the rest of my friendlies, but I also have other people's vids to upload, so we'll see what happens.

 

[Dr Peepee]

Lmao Jesiah. XD

Good stuff.

 

[RATED]

Kuraudo- From your Avatar, i want to play you too
Rob- agree 100%
.

I want to play some day , Jiggs vs Sheik against you.

 

[Sephiroths Masamune]

I wanna play you some day.

I would like to play both of you.

 

[JesiahTEG]

Haha, I love the FF7 avatars.

I played for like, 3-4 hours already today. Most of it was tech skill practice, the other was teaching a new Smasher.

I've been working on perfect execution with all of my characters. Ironically enough, my most technically weak character right now is Marth, haha. I took a break with him for a long time now, and I've been building up my other characters. I need to get him back in shape by Syracuse though, the next tournament I'm going to.

In other news, my Fox is getting even technically better. I'm trying not to get shieldgrabbed 100% of the time, as well as capitalizing on my opponent's shield as much as possible. If they shield, that should turn into a hit for me.

I have so much to work on, I never know which to choose haha.

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

First page is glitched; can't view it, it doesn't show up in your blog, either. Programmers need to call to undefined function handle_bbcode_drupal() in /var/www/smashboards/releases/100806125629/public_html/includes/class_bbcode.php on line 1337 (lol)

 

[Kuraudo]

A new and improved version of your avi, Jesiah. This is great to follow. I wanna see you go far.

Marth ditto if we ever play? Otherwise I'll just use Ganon.

 

[JesiahTEG]

Thanks so much for the avi man, it looks awesome!!! However, i like the fact that my avatar is the exact profile picture from FF7, so I don't think I'm gonna swap it out any time soon haha.

To anyone that's just bored or wants something Smash related that's productive to do, check out this thread that Forward created.

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?p=11315983&posted=1#post11315983

We always talk about obvious things in Smash, like spacing, combos, edgeguarding, etc...But what about the niche situations that most people overlook? Situations that separate top players from just good players? This is what his thread is aimed at talking about so it will be really insightful, especially from a great player like Forward. Plus, if we generate enough discussion, maybe some really great players will post and discuss as well haha.

 

[JesiahTEG]

This is going to be an important post.

So, I'm not sure how to even start this post, but I guess I'll start from the beginning.

I woke up at Noon, went to Mcdonald's real quick, came back and turned the gamecube on.

I just stopped playing Melee. I took a few 15-20 minute breaks, maybe about 5-6. The rest of the time, I was playing.

At about 4 AM, I had one of the most satisfying, accomplished feelings I've ever had playing Melee. And, I think I can break it down and analyze it, making it even more awesome.

In short, it was the best I had ever played. Technical wise, and mentally as well. It was absolutely unbelievable. After thinking about it for 2 hours, I'd have to consider this the most significant breakthrough I've had yet. I'll explain it in a second, but first let me explain the background.

I play this game a lot. Way too much, probably more than a lot of players who are better than me. Maybe I have a slow learning curve, maybe it takes my hands and mind longer to commit executions to muscle memory, who knows. I'm not really sure. However, I am constantly playing Melee, watching videos, or thinking about it.

And I'm not going to lie. Sometimes I get upset, for various reasons. One of the main reasons is because I feel like my improvement rate is too slow. I put so much time and effort into the game, and my improvement is so gradual. Up until maybe a few months ago, I was so technically inconsistent I literally had a little bit of doubt that it was possible for me to reach my goals in this game.

However, with a ridiculous amount of tech skill practice, I slowly, and still am becoming more and more consistent. I play bad once in a while, yes. It still happens, and even though people say no one ever plays perfect 100% of the time, I'm just going to keep practicing until I get as close to possible to getting to that level. However for the most part, even when I'm playing "Bad" now, I can still execute well enough to win my local tournaments, and that is a HUGE improvement for me.

At any rate, the point is my improvement has been so slow and gradual I feel. I'm always getting discouraged and frustrated when I don't play to the level I want to. But today, I surpassed that level. I hit a new peak, a new level that, now that I have caught a glimpse of it, I am obsessed with reaching...Consistently.

If I were to describe how good I was playing, the first words that come to mind are, "The game just made sense. Complete, perfect sense." or, "Everything was clear." That's a bit abstract though, and after analyzing this experience, I think I can break it down.

First off, my tech skill was automated. I didn't have to think about my executions, and I never messed up. This means never getting shieldgrabbed, perfect invincible wavelands with all of my characters without having to think about it, comboing beautifully...My actual executions didn't feel like executions. I literally did not feel like I was pushing the buttons, or even holding a controller. In fact, I wasn't even thinking about my hands at all, I forgot they were even there. And when I did remember and I thought about my executions, it just felt like my hands were moving. No conscious thought whatsoever.

And that allowed for a new...Well, I don't even know wtf to call it. A new skill? A new goal to strive for? A new level of play for me? Idk...But basically, everything I was thinking in my head, and everything that I wanted to happen did. I had no technical limits. There was no risk in any of my executions. Flawless, like a new technology. Imagine playing videogames with your mind. That's what it felt like. I think you get the point now. :-P

But that first part of this whole breakthrough for me...Perfect technical executions...That is just the beginning. That's just the first piece of the puzzle, and once that piece was in play, it allowed for the rest to just fall in place.

Not having to think about executing was just the greatest feeling ever. Now, normally that would mean I could focus my conscious thoughts and efforts on other important things, like spacing, comboing, mindgames and all that stuff right? Hahaha, I'm so happy that I can honestly say this, so I will: It gets even better.

My spacing was automated. It just made sense. I didn't think about where to position myself. I was also in PERFECT range for everything. When I say perfect, I mean like, down to the pixel. A good example is, when I'm baiting shieldgrabs, I'll slowly walk up close to someone while they're shielding. Just BARELY inside their grab range. Then I'll slowly walk out, and punish them when they grab.

This is normally retardedly hard because of how tight the spacing is. If when my opponent is shielding, I walk even slightly too far into their grab range, then I won't have enough time to walk out of the range to punish. I would walk into their grab range, their brain would recognize that and they would grab. But, I'd still be trying to walk out of the grab range, so I'd end up getting grabbed. So to reiterate, I have to be at pretty much the maximum distance of their grab.

Next, I can't even lessen the risk or difficulty of this technique by not going so far in. You see, in order for this to work, I'm basically causing a subconscious reaction within my opponent. I'm making them think they can grab me, so they subconsciously press the button to grab. Any smart opponent knows it's bait, but since it happens so fast, it's all subconscious.

In order for me to trigger that reaction, I can't be too far away from my shielding opponent. I have to be in their grab range for a split second, otherwise they won't grab at all. So, I can't be too close, and I can't be too far.

With this new level I reached, I didn't think about ANY of that. I was just in that range whenever I wanted to use that strategy.

And there are more examples of my spacing being automated, but I'll get to those later.

So now my spacing and my tech skill are not only perfect, but THEY'RE being subconsciously implemented.

I know I'm repeating myself over and over, but I'm really trying to get this point across...Hmm...Ok let me put it this way.

It felt as though my thoughts were being manifested directly into the game, with no lag time. Sounds kinda gay and maybe even surreal, but that's literally what it was.

Ok, so this all sounds amazing, and it was trust me, but then the question is, where were my conscious thoughts and efforts going?

2 places: Mindgames and comboing.

Ok, let me try to explain this haha...This one's going to be hard. Actually, I'm making this a 2 part post.

 

[JesiahTEG]

This post may not make sense if you didn't read the one above it

There are lots of necessary skills in Melee that one needs to have in order to be a high level player.

First, every good player has a general gameplan. Shiz is rush down aggro with lasers and ridiculous tech skill. Jman likes to rack up damage from far away as much as he can, and do simple but quick, smooth pressure strings up close, going for the grab a lot. Azen used his superior prediction skills to punish his opponent with simple moves, like Fsmash.

So, every player has a gameplan. But a gameplan is not enough. After that, the player must have good prediction skills. They have to be able to read their opponent and how their opponent reacts to their gameplan/strategies, and be able to punish.

In very rare cases, some players have prediction built into their playstyle. One example, which I mentioned above, is Azen. The percentage of his successful playstyle that comes from prediction alone is probably between 30-40% i'd say, which is abnormally high for even the best players. To keep it simple, Azen uses pure prediction 30-40% of the time.

Every top player uses prediction as well, but for a variety of reasons, the percentage of their gameplay that is prediction is not nearly that high. Take M2K for example. M2K's memorized so many situations and has practiced them so much, he's able to react much quicker to his opponent's actions. It might seem like he's predicting, but most of the time it's just him knowing what his opponent can do, knowing what his opponent is most likely to do, and punishing it. He doesn't have insane reaction time, but having an idea of what you're opponent is going to do makes it look like your reaction time is really fast.

I'm going somewhere with this, just bear with me.

So, there's many different ways to play, lots of styles and different methods of achieving success. But I felt something different today. Different from any player I've ever seen. I'm not saying it's the best playstyle out there, but it's definitely my own. It's the first time I've ever had such an immense amount of pride in the hard work I've put into Melee. Haha, how do I even begin to describe it.

It was a rhythm. I think it mostly came from my automated perfect spacing. What I mean to say is, without having to think about the spacing, I was able to think about what effect it was having on my opponent. This created a surreal rhythm nearly unlike anything I've seen before. I didn't overwhelm with tech skill, and I didn't predict them left and right.

I just...led them. I moved in such a way that provoked reactions and movements from my opponent. They were following my lead, always a step behind. Nearly every single one of my opponent's actions, whether it was rolling, attacking OOS, wavedashing backwards, jumping up towards me, throwing out a move, using a projectile...All of these actions were just responses to my actions, whether it was tilting their shield, dash dancing in front of them, jumping up to a platform and wavelanding off...Even SUPER subtle things, like my general spacing.

Here's a good example of something I've never seen anyone do. My opponent (Peach) was in his shield near the edge. I walked up inside of his shieldgrab range (read the above post), and walked just barely out, trying to provoke a shieldgrab. He didn't fall for it, and instead of resetting to neutral, or worse, throwing out my punish out of habit and not reaction, as I was walking outside of the range, when I saw he didn't fall for the shieldgrab, I turned my character (Falco) around to face my opponent. I walked slowly forwards, this time outside of his shieldgrab range. Then, I turned my back to him and took one step away from him. Then I turned towards him, took a step forwards..Then backwards again.

In short, I was just outside of his shieldgrab range, and I just turned around in circles about 3 times. When I saw him jump to float out of shield, I did it again, this time only twice. I just turned around in a circle about twice, and then he landed. He basically jumped out of shield, floated slightly towards me to see what I would do, and then back to his original position, where he landed.

At that point, I stopped turning in circles and slowly walked away. He wavedashed towards me, and did a dash attack. As soon as I saw him get closer, I started in a full out run, and he I ran outside of his dash attack range, and when he whiffed, I turned around and Dtilted.

Idk if that made sense, but all I did was walk back and forth in different spacings to provoke a reaction. He was just following my lead, perfectly. It was beautiful, it really was. It was just as beautiful as Shiz's amazing lockdown game, or M2K's style of perfection. The whole game was like that.

I never second guessed myself, and I was always leading and controlling the match. There was a certain rhythm that was created. A rhythm of perfect spacing, baiting and punishing.

I felt so free flowing. I didn't have to fight the urge to resist any habits, because every situation felt fresh and new. I had no preconceived actions ready to execute in my head. It was just, let me lead you into my punish.

I may not be making a lot of sense right now, because my brain is fried from playing Melee all day.

I'll try to wrap it up. Over the past few months I've been seeing myself become slowly more consistent. I've been having less bad days, more great days, and even more average days. I consider average the minimum level I need to play in tournament, so that's good.

I've caught glimpses of myself doing amazing gimps, creating brilliant traps, and making insane predictions.

These all come and go though. It's not like I practice gimping and then I can consistently gimp. I'm never satisfied, because I never feel like I'm playing to the level that I should be, after everything I've practiced.

It's not like I practiced Wavedash Out Of Shield for 4 hours straight, and then I can do it 100% of the time.

It's more like, I started off being able to Wavedash Out Of Shield maybe 75% of the time successfully, and after 4 hours of practicing it and a week of practicing it in friendlies, now I can do it about 90% of the time. And then, when I start practicing something else, I lose the timing for WD OOS and it drops back to maybe 80% of the time, so I need to practice it more to get it back up to just 90%.

It's slow improvement. It's painfully slow. It's a process of practicing and then failing, over and over and over. It's a test of patience and determination, of mental stamina really. That's how it is with everything I practice. It's just really hard for me.

But finally, for one of the first times ever, it all came together. All of the puzzle pieces fell into place perfectly. It's as if life just said, "Alright Jesse, you've been working your *** off, and we've only been giving you small rewards here and there. Have a sample of what it feels like to be at the level you've worked for, and the level you deserve."

It's like, I finally got cut a break. That's what it feels like.

Sorry for ranting and sounding probably really gay.

For the first time ever though, I've felt what it feels like to have 100% confidence. Confidence is something that I struggle with. I don't have much OOS tourney experience, so I never know where I stack up against the top players. That combined with my random tech failures developed in me an attitude of, "Ok, I CAN win this match, I just hope I'm playing good enough to do it."

That's what my mentality has been up until tonight. Tonight, I finally understand what it feels like to have no fear. Full awareness of everything, full confidence in my abilities. It's a great feeling.

At this point, I have new direction now. I want to be able to consistently play at this level, and that's what I'm going to be working towards. My next 50 posts are probably going to be me complaining about how I can't figure out how to play like that again haha, so to all of the people who actually read this blog (Which is really nothing more than me thinking out loud), be prepared. :-P