A guide to becoming a competitive Smash 4 player!

[Funkermonster]

Advice for breaking into Doubles tournaments? So far from the very few tournaments I attended (and am still losing badly), all of them are Singles. The very first competitive match I've ever done was a doubles in Melee, and I screwed up horribly and lost. I told the other players that I was a noob in competitive play and I played to learn, and one of them told me "You're not gonna learn much in doubles" and from the looks of it, he seems to be right!

From Smashwiki:
Doubles refers to the 2 versus 2 part of a tournament, also referred to as "teams". Doubles requires a different strategy, namely teamwork, to defeat your opponents. Although there are as many ways to play as there are players, several things remain constant: those who work together to attack and destroy their enemies stand a greater chance of winning, while those who separate to take on their opponents alone are easier to defeat as individuals by attacking them two-on-one. Strength in singles playing style does not necessarily translate into strength in doubles; the strongest team is the winner, not the pair of strongest individuals.

As someone who's still got a lot to learn and has hardly done Doubles before, I wanna try a doubles event sometime but have no idea where to start or what to do first, I don't think I can just find some random guy and request to team up.

1. How to choose a teammate or how are they chosen?
2. Bets way to practice strategy with each other before the tourney starts?
3. How to focus with fighting 2 opponents instead of one (and avoid hitting my teammate since Friendly Fire is on)? With or without my teammate still alive.
4. Best way to find Team Synergy amongst the mains both players?

Some of these questions are somewhat character-specfc and might be too complex to be a good answer, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

 

[DavemanCozy]

As someone who's still got a lot to learn and has hardly done Doubles before, I wanna try a doubles event sometime but have no idea where to start or what to do first, I don't think I can just find some random guy and request to team up.

1. How to choose a teammate or how are they chosen?
2. Bets way to practice strategy with each other before the tourney starts?
3. How to focus with fighting 2 opponents instead of one (and avoid hitting my teammate since Friendly Fire is on)? With or without my teammate still alive.
4. Best way to find Team Synergy amongst the mains both players?

Some of these questions are somewhat character-specfic and might be too complex to be a good answer, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

I recommend looking into this article @KirbyKaze posted a couple months ago. It's originally applied to Melee, but you can take the fundamentals he talks about and apply them to this game too.

In summary, KK talks about space control, roles, positioning, and assisting your teammate (and when NOT to).

 

[PedroSmashFan2014]

My main online is Pikachu, I´ve won 4 online matches with him!

 

[DblCrest]

I have to ask ...due to for Glory Mode only being Omega mode stages and no custom specials and the chance of input delay.

Is For Glory mode useless in terms of practice?

 

[SamuraiPanda]

Everyone's favorite Pikachu main (yes everyone's) told me about a cool new site he made for online play with a really good ranking algorithm, Smashladder.com so I added it to the OP. I'll eventually go back and edit the "Learn about the game" section to include more new resources and good threads that have popped up since I made this thread.

...Someday.

 

[TheBuzzSaw]

I have to ask ...due to for Glory Mode only being Omega mode stages and no custom specials and the chance of input delay.

Is For Glory mode useless in terms of practice?

No. There are many general concepts that you can work on in For Glory. Non-flat stages would certainly become a gaping hole in your knowledge if you only ever play For Glory, but that doesn't make it completely useless.

 

[Jackson]

Am I the only one just waiting for Wii U before going competitive? I want my GC controller!

I've been enjoying melee anyways,

 

[Terotrous]

I have to ask ...due to for Glory Mode only being Omega mode stages and no custom specials and the chance of input delay.

Is For Glory mode useless in terms of practice?

Not useless, but at some point you're going to want to do player matches if only so you can learn the other stages.

 

[xTmT]

Nice guide!

 

[Bunansa]

Until I get Smash on Wii U, competitive is a joke. The turn-outs are terrible and the play is sluggish in comparison to what previous generations have been simply due to the gameplay that is promoted BY the crappy 3ds controls, plus it requires a purchase that a lot of smash competitive players aren't purchasing due to the fact the Wii U one is coming out so quickly, with better... everything?

 

[MAGMIS]

Until I get Smash on Wii U, competitive is a joke. The turn-outs are terrible and the play is sluggish in comparison to what previous generations have been simply due to the gameplay that is promoted BY the crappy 3ds controls, plus it requires a purchase that a lot of smash competitive players aren't purchasing due to the fact the Wii U one is coming out so quickly, with better... everything?

I don't have a 3ds, I am waiting for the wii u also. (wondering where to get friends to play against in smashboards) some may find it comfortable to play on the 3ds control. The characters are going to be played exactly the same on both version. The only issue for the competitive player on a 3ds is they have to adapt to the wii u version of stages, where most likely major tournaments will have the wii u one. But then again the 2 often used stages are on both version.




the way I got to play competitively when I was around 11 years old, had the game since I when I was around 6.

By (from 64 to brawl)
1. Playing with Lv9 CPU alot.
2. Playing against my Brother (which when we really got into and we were pretty even in skill) We learned alot more. Whole new level of play.
3. Played different characters and stayed away from mains for a while.
3. Then with friends (they started learning as well as me and got much better)
4. Then you feel like you can start reading+adapt much quicker with different players. It just come to you auto.
5. Watching tournament players. This stepped my game up a lot. I finally learned the lags, hitboxes, frames, etc....

Just keep playing competitively. You want to loose while playing at the best of you ability. That's how you learn by watching others really.

this what I do for each smash bros game but this time Im changing it up for this game because I'm not new to this version of smash. Its very similar to brawl 2.0. Nothing much to adapt to, which is good imo.

 

[NoviceSmasher]

I don't have a 3ds, I am waiting for the wii u also. (wondering where to get friends to play against in smashboards) some may find it comfortable to play on the 3ds control. The characters are going to be played exactly the same on both version. The only issue for the competitive player on a 3ds is they have to adapt to the wii u version of stages, where most likely major tournaments will have the wii u one. But then again the 2 often used stages are on both version.




the way I got to play competitively when I was around 11 years old, had the game since I when I was around 6.

By (from 64 to brawl)
1. Playing with Lv9 CPU alot.
2. Playing against my Brother (which when we really got into and we were pretty even in skill) We learned alot more. Whole new level of play.
3. Played different characters and stayed away from mains for a while.
3. Then with friends (they started learning as well as me and got much better)
4. Then you feel like you can start reading+adapt much quicker with different players. It just come to you auto.
5. Watching tournament players. This stepped my game up a lot. I finally learned the lags, hitboxes, frames, etc....

Just keep playing competitively. You want to loose while playing at the best of you ability. That's how you learn by watching others really.

this what I do for each smash br

I don't have a 3ds, I am waiting for the wii u also. (wondering where to get friends to play against in smashboards) some may find it comfortable to play on the 3ds control. The characters are going to be played exactly the same on both version. The only issue for the competitive player on a 3ds is they have to adapt to the wii u version of stages, where most likely major tournaments will have the wii u one. But then again the 2 often used stages are on both version.




the way I got to play competitively when I was around 11 years old, had the game since I when I was around 6.

By (from 64 to brawl)
1. Playing with Lv9 CPU alot.
2. Playing against my Brother (which when we really got into and we were pretty even in skill) We learned alot more. Whole new level of play.
3. Played different characters and stayed away from mains for a while.
3. Then with friends (they started learning as well as me and got much better)
4. Then you feel like you can start reading+adapt much quicker with different players. It just come to you auto.
5. Watching tournament players. This stepped my game up a lot. I finally learned the lags, hitboxes, frames, etc....

Just keep playing competitively. You want to loose while playing at the best of you ability. That's how you learn by watching others really.

this what I do for each smash bros game but this time Im changing it up for this game because I'm not new to this version of smash. Its very similar to brawl 2.0. Nothing much to adapt to, which is good imo.

please dont say its like brawl 2.0 the physics are similar ,,but there is alot of changes,,ur feeding the melee elitists with this,,no offense

 

[MAGMIS]

none taken, what I meant by brawl 2.0 is that its an upgrade from that version, more so then melee.

An upgrade carries changes. The most recent I played was brawl.

Anyways, thanks for the warning. lol

 

[Visionary]

I really hope the Online mode will get more people to play together, so we can group up regions' bests instead of countries'

 

[DunnoBro]

Okay well since people were talking smasher names earlier I guess it won't be too off-topic to ask this here.

I just made this username on-the-fly almost 10 years ago and don't use it in any other gaming communities or sites. I go by "DunnoBro" but during brawl period when i tried getting into the scene most just kept calling me powerhouse cause it was my smashboards name or said it was just better

I don't think it really represents me well, and is kinda simple imo. So any input if I should just keep it the same or really push my "Dunnobro" name when I get into the smash 4/pm 3.5 scene and likely change my username via premium or something.

 

[servbot 42]

I want to try and start a community in my area because I live far away from the closest community. I live on the border between san diego and imperial beach. The closest san diego 3ds community is all the way in fashion/misión valley. This isnt a problem if I had a car. Public transportation sucks, not to mention that at night it can be dangerous carrying expensive stuff depending on the time and location.

Of all multi games, smash is different for me. when I played in the arcades(MVC2, CVS2, etc.) people would stick their nose up to you when you ask for help or wanna rematch after losing. One thing i hate about the fighting game community is that there is a certain audience that feels you should be priveledged to talk to them. Of the two tournaments I have played smash 4 in, i made like 4 new friends who wanted to just play, which is 3 more when I was playing at local arcades, and I was going to those things for years. I want to start a community in my área so that one day I can have steady get togethers with people around my área, because there is no one in my residence that I know plays smash. Hopefully that can chnage.

 

[NoviceSmasher]

what im most looking forward to in smash wii u is that you can punish those godamn rolls more effectively,,,i hate rolling so much

 

[Matthew Meyers]

Thank you Panda for the advice, maybe I can get better with Megaman this way.

 

[Matthew Meyers]

what im most looking forward to in smash wii u is that you can punish those godamn rolls more effectively,,,i hate rolling so much

Rolling is a strategy, but I agree it can get pretty annoying sometimes.

 

[NoviceSmasher]

Rolling is a strategy, but I agree it can get pretty annoying sometimes.

i think people are goin to abuse it online becaz ppl got used to rolling unpunished in the 3ds version,,but ye rolling can be good sometimes,,,

 

[G-Sword]

rolling and rolling and rolling the whole game is back!!!!

 

[κomıc]

My advice: Before you waste money on entering tournaments right from the start, play lots of friendlies and ask advice from the good players when you can. Paying just the venue fee is good enough (and honestly the only thing that matters the most). Save that $10 entry for lunch.

And Smashfests. They're the best. And probably the best and cost effective way to get better

 

[Hon Si Zi]

A very nice guide, and truth be told, it's pretty universal for any competitive game out there.

My advice: Before you waste money on entering tournaments right from the start, play lots of friendlies and ask advice from the good players when you can. Paying just the venue fee is good enough (and honestly the only thing that matters the most). Save that $10 entry for lunch.

And Smashfests. They're the best. And probably the best and cost effective way to get better

I have to really disagree with you on not entering tourneys early. There is a difference in pressure and style that can only every be truly experienced in tourneys or when something is really on the line. I learned much more quickly in Soulcalibur because I entered tourneys as soon as I could.

 

[Mr. Freeze]

Anyone got advice for practicing? I'm getting better with Pacman, but I've noticed that playing against lvl 9 CPUs isn't a good reflection of how people play Smash. My friends only come over once a week, and my roommate is OK with Sonic, but not great overall.

 

[κomıc]

A very nice guide, and truth be told, it's pretty universal for any competitive game out there.




I have to really disagree with you on not entering tourneys early. There is a difference in pressure and style that can only every be truly experienced in tourneys or when something is really on the line. I learned much more quickly in Soulcalibur because I entered tourneys as soon as I could.

To each their own.

 

[Sugistyle]

I hope Europeans start to run more tournaments in near future.

 

[Gligarman]

I have two mains but my general policy is that if I choose to switch characters I won't do so unless I lose. That seems to have been helping me get better with both.

 

[luke_atyeo]

Advice for breaking into Doubles tournaments? So far from the very few tournaments I attended (and am still losing badly), all of them are Singles. The very first competitive match I've ever done was a doubles in Melee, and I screwed up horribly and lost. I told the other players that I was a noob in competitive play and I played to learn, and one of them told me "You're not gonna learn much in doubles" and from the looks of it, he seems to be right!

From Smashwiki:
Doubles refers to the 2 versus 2 part of a tournament, also referred to as "teams". Doubles requires a different strategy, namely teamwork, to defeat your opponents. Although there are as many ways to play as there are players, several things remain constant: those who work together to attack and destroy their enemies stand a greater chance of winning, while those who separate to take on their opponents alone are easier to defeat as individuals by attacking them two-on-one. Strength in singles playing style does not necessarily translate into strength in doubles; the strongest team is the winner, not the pair of strongest individuals.

As someone who's still got a lot to learn and has hardly done Doubles before, I wanna try a doubles event sometime but have no idea where to start or what to do first, I don't think I can just find some random guy and request to team up.

1. How to choose a teammate or how are they chosen?
2. Bets way to practice strategy with each other before the tourney starts?
3. How to focus with fighting 2 opponents instead of one (and avoid hitting my teammate since Friendly Fire is on)? With or without my teammate still alive.
4. Best way to find Team Synergy amongst the mains both players?

Some of these questions are somewhat character-specfc and might be too complex to be a good answer, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

1.
try to choose a team mate that you can team with all the time, making friends in your scene helps alot, also try to choose someone around your own level of skill so that there isnt the frustration factor of someone being dragged down
2.
you really just need to play alot so you can get a feel for how that person plays so that you can play around that, it can also be good to have set plans with each other for what to do in specific cercumstances, for instance, if you get a grab on an opponent, if you've already discussed with your team mate that when you get grabs you'll always do an up throw, then your team mate will know how to follow up off your grab, knowing what your team mate will do in specific circumstances will improve your synergy immensely.
3.
This is hard to answer since it comes down to what character you are, and what characters your fighting against, and also what character your team mate is (for instance if you were teaming with a little mac, you'd want to stay in the air alot since he'll always be throwing out attacks on the ground; staying in the air will prevent him from hitting you and help the two of you cover more options. likewise, if you were teaming with someone with good air game, like mario, you'd want to try and stay out of the air when he is around) generally you want to try and avoid fighting 2 enemy's at once if you can.
4.
The best way is to pick a set partner, play with them, discuss setups and what to do in certain situations etc.


doubles can be tricky to break into, in singles you always want to have your eyes focused on your opponents character, but in doubles you really need to zoom out and watch the whole screen so that you can see both opponents and where your team mate is, this might sound simple but to zoom out and watch everything properly is difficult and takes practice. Against lower level players you can really make use of this, if you and your team mate are both off fighting two seperate 1v1's against the other two, you need to be watching the guy you are fighting whilst looking for opening in the other enemy. for example I'm fox and I'm fighting against ganon or whatever, the other enemy is a lucario, I see lucario grab and throw my team mate, I know that grabbing and throwing has quite a bit of end lag, so I very quickly disengage from the ganon I am fighting, run over and punish the lucario with maybe an upsmash or something, and then run back to keep fighting ganon. If the lucario wasnt paying attention, to him it will seem like he suddenly got hit by an upsmash out of nowhere. Its important to watch the screen so that you can both see opportunitys like this, and also so that you can prevent such things from happening to you. If the lucario was paying attention to my fox aswell, he might have been able to avoid the punish.




-also in addition to everything said in the OP about getting better, after you play tourney matches, make sure you get a hold of some replays of you playing. sit down and watch them carefully to see all the mistakes you make.
It can be helpful while watching to think about how you could have done things better. for instance you see yourself get owned in a particular instance in the video, think about what you could have done instead that would have caused you to not get messed up but instead win in that instance.

 

[Tobi_Whatever]

Your guide makes me depressed. I live in east Germany and there is absolutely nothing to be found here.
I just want to settle it in local Smash ;_;

 

[luke_atyeo]

Your guide makes me depressed. I live in east Germany and there is absolutely nothing to be found here.
I just want to settle it in local Smash ;_;

http://www.smash-bros.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1144 maybe you might find something/someone here?

 

[Tobi_Whatever]

http://www.smash-bros.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1144
http://www.smash-bros.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1144 maybe you might find something/someone here?

Wrong country. I already checked the German smash forum and it's pretty much dead.

 

[ToxicWolf1132]

If you're new to the scene (like me!), think of yourself as an amiibo; you WILL suck early on, but only through playing more and more can you truly get better. The more people you play, and the more play styles you get introduced to, the more you learn how to adapt to them

 

[Nate22Hill]

Thank you for this. I intend to go to tournaments for Smash 4, and maybe have an opportunity to make a name for myself, as stiff as the competition is in Florida.

My skill in previous Smashes capped because my friends aren't as invested in the game and I don't need to improve to beat lower-skilled players. With my Smashboards account and better online in Smash 4, finding good players will be easier than ever. Let's hope I have the free time to compete.

what part of florida are you from

 

[Nintendrone]

I'm from South Florida, in the Miami area. Not a bad spot since there's tons of people, but I'm sad that the East Coast is so conservative in their rulesets.

 

[StarBlue]

I've been trying to get in on the competitive scene since Smash 3DS came out, I never exactly cared about being serious in the other ones. My problem is, even though I have entered tournaments, online only though, I can neither make a scene nor ever find one, as I'm in Egypt and to say the least I doubt the majority even know what Nintendo is. Which forces me to rely on For Glory, and even then it's a terrible training ground (I'm looking at you, Down+B spammers and smash mashers) as well as the fact that tournaments hold stages that you wouldn't get used to if you mainly train on that mode. I've had a hard time adapting to stages like Battlefield and the like because of that reason. Your guide is really appreciated though, I've just recently signed up to SmashLadder, and I'm honestly hoping to join a tournament in a few years/months if I travel again. If anyone has some tips though to deal with the normal neutral stages aside from Final Dest., they're greatly appreciated.
TL;DR, The guide is great and I hope more people acknowledge it.

 

[Diagonal_Smash]

I'm not aware of one. If someone else is I hope they share it with us all!

Oh. I'm very late on this!!!

I use this chatroom on occasion https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.rizon.net/#smashbros

 

[bound_for_earth]

thanks for this i was smashing competitively since brawl but thought no tournaments were held near me. but then i found a group of competetive smashers in my state!

 

[IdkLmao]

I really think the smash 4 community has a nasty problem with overthinking this game and seeing depth that doesn't really exist. Its like you're kicking a tin can down a street and trying to learn physics and high level math to kick the can at ideal forces to interact with the wind trajectory to give you more speed with the can etc

All I see when I look at smash 4 no matter what I read or who I play is a very simple plain and dry game that does not require much skill at all to master. It would not surprise me at all if somebody picked this game up today and became the best in the world in 2 months.

 

[Pippin (Peregrin Took)]

I'd really like to get more involved in the competitive scene in my area but life gets in the way, generally whether I have to work that night or get up early the morning after the tournament. I am trying to be active in the community though, even if it's gonna be more social for me than competitive, again due to lack of time. Any recommendations?

 

[MonkBard]

This guide is tight. I got some friends that have helped me get my foot in the door of competitive Smash, and now I just need to practice more and go to more tournaments