A Sonic community tournament guide: What to expect from tourneys and how to cope

[Chis]

The purpose of this thread is to gather advice and information about tourneys and create a guide about it. This should help people who are about to go to their first tournament or help improve people's methods of tournament practice. If you've been to a tourney with Sonic, done well with him, or experienced in the matter etc please contribute and help you fellow Sonic's :')

However if you've just been to a tournament your contribution is also appreciated!


Eventually this will get filled out as a Sonic tourney guide.

1. Training and preparation:

Coming soon...

2. What to expect from tourneys and how to cope with pressure:
How will it be like? The environment, what are friendly, how is the regeristing process. Etc. However more importantly how to cope with pressure with money on the line?


Rules:

Do not spam this thread or I will report you
Do not lead this off topic, thank you

And remember...

They're too slow!

Discuss//

 

[Kinzer]

Everybody is stealing the word "community" nowadays! :laugh XD

Anyway lots of rest helps. Preparing yourself in advance for a long while helps, gives a lot of time to find opponents for your Shawnik.

 

[Blackbelt]

Before anything else, I cannot stress this:


Never sacrifice sleep for training. Many a time I have seen insomnia and fatigue render people helpless.


Now than, as for actual training....

Since Sonic lives off of unpredictability, mindgames, and punishing, I actually suggest playing a few matches, than watching replays, taking note of the actions you take


of you see yorself constantly make use of a certain move when a certain situation arises, it means that is a habit that must be broken.


Otherwise, just be very aware of what tricks the rest of the cast has, and eat a hearty breakfast before the tourney.


Hunger is distracting.

 

[Kinzer]

OMFG, you MUST eat Steak before the tourney, it's your only hope of even winning.

 

[Blackbelt]

OMFG, you MUST eat Steak before the tourney, it's your only hope of even winning.

......You know, this is actually better advice than many people would be willing to admit.


It's full of protein to keep your mind sharp, and it fills you up, warding off hunger.

 

[KirbyandSonicrock14]

Well I have been in a few smash trouneys myself, and I sau is that you coem to kick some butt when you get there. Don't show any fears to your foes. Don't talk a lot, and try to learn what they are doing.

edit: Stop stealing my joke kinzer!!!!

 

[Chis]

I mean training and preparation, one stage at a time people :o

 

[~TBS~]

i never been to a tourney, but i hope to go to one in the near future. KASR is completely right...trying to learn how your opponent plays is a key point. And OMG, how could i forget Steak??

Edit: To train and preparations? all i can say is play some of your friends in the meantime, and make sure you are well rested before the day of the tourney.

 

[Kinzer]

You don't have any copyright laws on your jokes, and besides, you'll be creditted when it gets famous...but whose to say it already isn't!?

On-topic though, we need to talk about what goes on BEFORE the tourney, what you said KASR is DURING. Also I know that Steak is good for you, it's the best part.

More On-topic though, if you hope to win, you need to squeeze in any kind of good practice you can get. But as BB said, don't neglect sleep. Also if you just want to attend to tourney to have fun, I guess you can always get experience from playing there, but yeah, if you want to get far...practice a lot.

 

[aeghrur]

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=200888 :D

 

[Kinzer]

Lol, but this is for Sonics going to tourneys, nowhere on that does it say you must (recover) eat Steak!

And for once, it's actually a (real) viable option.

 

[SonicX580]

Yeah also it's good to mentally mess with your opponent for example I just finished my round of my tournament and I completely won when you brawl it's a mental game if you do awesome combos then taunt your opponent he will probably get angry and mess up.

 

[Chis]

D:

1. Training and preparation:

How do you train for a tourney? How long? How often? On Wifi? For how many days/weeks?
How to prepare? Etc, etc, etc. You don't have to answer these as a question, I just wanted to give you the basic idea of what I was looking for...

as anyone figured the joke in my first post by any chance?

 

[thecatinthehat]

Do NOT play hacked Brawl or Melee beforehand. Do NOT.

Yeah, I'm still johning.

 

[KirbyandSonicrock14]

Train with some of your pals. And I mena offline ppl. This will get you ready if you haven't played offline before. And get lots of rest. Trust me a good sc player I know that main Talim lsot a troueny that he could have wo neasily. And the only reason he lost was of the lack of sleep he got,(i.e. he only got 3 hours of sleep.)

 

[aeghrur]

Lolz, didn't know sonic board people stayed up so late. :O
Anyways, so, yeah, my pseudo-guide helps and um, eat steak. So I had like a wendy's burger thingy today, sooooooo much beef. It was delicious. Lol. It was all cuz we went on a field trip. <3 today, lol.

 

[darkNES386]

Win the crowd... and they will love you for it.... and you just might learn to love them for that.

 

[KirbyandSonicrock14]

Win the crowd... and they will love you for it.... and you just might learn to love them for that.

How in the hell is that going to help anyone NES?

 

[aeghrur]

Because winning the crowd means you have a more positive feeling behind you, more momentum. Thus it's harder to take you down.
Bring steak, give the crowd a little morsel of it, and they'll love you. Eat it in front of the other guy, make him jealous, distract him, then kill him. Yes.

 

[Terios the Hedgehog]

Eat a good breakfast beforehand. Lotsa protein. Steak works. ^_^ Eggs Bacon and toast with peanut butter is good too. You should aim for roughly 30 grams of protein in the morning. Make sure to take fruit smoothies. No joke. Natural sugars are MUCH better for keeping you sharp and focused on the match than energy drinks EVER could. That too. No energy drinks or soda. They'll **** you up. No lie. If there is a lunch break I suggest going out for Subway if it's an option. Avoid greasy things.

Make sure you get plenty of sleep. At LEAST 7 hours. Aim for Seven and a half to Eight and a half. Take a shower in the morning. It'll help you get woken up and let you feel refreshed and comfortable. (plus it's good courtesy. LMAO) Wear your favorite outfit. You'd be surprised how much being content has to do with performance.

If you can, study WHO'S going to be there and practice on those characters if you can. Always be prepared for MK.

Not to sound like a jerk but it MIGHT be best if you avoid Sonic in blind picks. The best first choice is usually your best character with the best matchups. Having MK or Marth yourself is pretty good here.

Winning the crowd is important. Since we're Sonic we should get a decent size of the crowd anyway for being "low tier" but having people AGAINST you can be a distraction.

as anyone figured the joke in my first post by any chance?

lol wifi

 

[Jim Morrison]

Hmm... I don't really think this thread was necessary, but well done.

 

[Chis]

Erm, Gf2tw it's not finished...

Remember this is training and preparation. Puffball? __X__? Anther? :o

 

[darkNES386]

I was half joking with the Gladiator line, but still being serious. The handful of tournaments I've been too, when you beat someone with Sonic and they're using R.O.B. or MK... all of a sudden everyone takes notice. Suddenly, no one wants to be the next person to lose to the Sonic player. Sonic's the underdog, people usually like to root for the underdog if they don't have any relation to either player.

Really though, I think what makes the best players at anything is that they're always preparing for their next match. Every game counts and they always believe they can do better and they are able to break their own bad habits and make themselves better players. I don;t think their mindset changes much before tournaments cause to them each game they play is just as important. Maybe someone massively disagrees with me. I'm just curious what "rituals" people do before tournaments. As I'm driving to tournaments I listen to "Sonic" music.

 

[Tenki]

Don't get pressured, watch your opponents, and have matchup experience `.`;

I had a combination of haters from FFA's and people cheering for me ("omg go Sonic!"), and against the worse players, I did flashy crap like going around the stage or taunting. Having people cheering for me instead of saying "omg u camper u suck go die omg sonic shud be disqualified he keeps running away" (lol I was chasing after people who were chasing after other people and dodging me, so I don't exactly think that's... "running away" XD) definitely helped relieve some of the pressure.

So that one tourney that I went to had like, 3-4 decent people.

I was watching HtH, who was using Samus for the majority of the time, and I thought, "crap, I might actually lose against this one, he's using Z-airs, so he might actually know what he's doing D:"
He didn't actually watch me play, because I guess he was on autopilot and thought everyone else was below him (and it pretty much was like that lol), so when he saw me pick Sonic, he picked Ike first round and got mauled. The next round, he picked Samus, and I was freaking scared of that thing and put myself into bad situations and lost it the round. The next round, he chose Pikachu, but I CP'd Brinstar and won the match.

That said, I was mentally cornered and afraid of fighting his Samus, and he earned that win well lol. I wasn't aware that Samus' D-air was nearly lagless, and that got me punished a few times. Mess around with your opponent's characters in training mode or something, or even resort to wifi and try to find matches with people nearby who main a variety of characters. Use it to be aware of what your opponents can do, or at least, get an idea of how they move. A Snake I fought was ezpz compared to others that I played online (lolAlly), so I had a wider scope/idea of what Snake could do and mauled that one. Samus... not so much lol.

 

[Jim Morrison]

I was watching HtH, who was using Samus for the majority of the time, and I thought, "crap, I might actually lose against this one, he's using Z-airs, so he might actually know what he's doing D:"

This cracked me up... In fact, I will siggy this...

 

[Camalange]

Training and preparation, eh?

1. Don't play Wi-fi or Melee for long periods of time before the tournament.
2. Play with people offline, even if they suck, it's better than Wi-fi and it gets you better at reading and punishing your opponent.
3. Watch videos of yourself and watch for things you do to much, or things you get punished on.
4. Watch videos of other characters to get an idea of how each character plays, play as a character you're really unfamiliar with, or lurk there boards for a little and learn what kind of AT's they have.
5. Watch videos of other people play styles that will be attending the tournament (if you can find them).
6. Get lots of sleep and eat plenty of steak.

This is all I got.

 

[ROOOOY!]

I work miles better when I'm tired.
It's not unusual for me to have like 2 or 3 hours sleep a night. I actually play Brawl/Melee best at night too.

 

[Tenki]

1. Don't play Wi-fi or Melee for long periods of time before the tournament.
2. Play with people offline, even if they suck, it's better than Wi-fi and it gets you better at reading and punishing your opponent.

I guess that goes differently for different people lol.

`.`; it works fine for me.

sort of.

with wifi, I became mentally prepared to read/punish moves, but offline, apparently, sometimes opponents' reflexes are 'slower' than the 'predict-and-punish-ahead-of-time' people that you can meet online lol. In friendlies, I found myself doing a roll bait, doing a F-smash in the direction of the opponent's roll, and then watching the opponent roll into the spot lol.

I generally pay attention to my hits in wifi, so I can usually tell when I hit them in idle time (times where they could have dodged, or times where I could have blocked, and even kills that should/shouldn't have happened without lag), so I generally don't make too many openings or try to punish things that I can't offline lol.

 

[Kinzer]

Dang, I just got another idea from this thread, it's surprising what people come up with.

I must listen to "Live and Learn" from now on.

Let's make this the Sonic boards' specific tournament advice thread, all other similiar threads are now null and void.

 

[Camalange]

lol Tenki, when I play on Wi-fi, I just get so frustrated that I don't even bother trying sometimes, lol. Getting hit by something I KNOW I would never get hit by or losing to someone when I KNOW I could 3 stock them in person is just too much. I've tried "adjusting" but then you suck in real life. I'unno Tenki, maybe you're just cool like that, lol.

I guess Wi-fi could work well for training for some, but seriously, don't play Melee for along time then play Brawl. It's a fact that you'll suck. It's been proven.

Oh shi-, I somehow have forgoten we have a freakin' Tournament Discussion thread stickied you damn kids!!

 

[Chis]

It's called: Sonic Tournament Results, Rankings & Steak Discussion

Also I'm making a guide so...

 

[infomon]

WiFi is good for getting used to opponent movesets. Like, I'd played against CPU Pokémon trainers, but that didn't train me at all for when I fought my first Ivysaur on WiFi. I say it was just Ivysaur, because I was 3-stocked lolol, I didn't understand what a human-controlled ivysaur was gonna do to mess me up. Sooo, stuff like that... you can learn what different strategies for different characters are, even if all your counterattacks and stuff will fail, and you have to rely on timing-safe mindgames o_O

 

[memphischains]

this... is kinda dumb

if you want i'll throw this **** into my tournament thread because the idea is good, but have its own thread won't go anywhere

 

[Chis]

I disagree. I'm compiling info into a guide. It's going somewhere as it's got 34 posts under one day.

 

[memphischains]

This is the sonic boards, i'm surprised it doesn't have 100 yet

 

[da K.I.D.]

Do NOT play hacked Brawl or Melee beforehand. Do NOT.

Training and preparation, eh?

1. Don't play Wi-fi or Melee for long periods of time before the tournament.
2. Play with people offline, even if they suck, it's better than Wi-fi and it gets you better at reading and punishing your opponent.

lies, lies, and more lies.
1. i WHOLE HEARTEDLY advocate playing melee before a brawl tourny but only under SPECIFIC conditions
a. dont play too long because you want to stay acclimated to brawl
b. play link.
c. seriously... play link.
d. playing link involved minimal l-canceling and wavedashing so you get to play a game that is much faster paced than brawl, so you get to work on your mindgames and you can get used to the speed of melee, which makes your mind think that much faster and so brawl will seem to move in slow motion, and than you can play better, because with you mind moving so quickly you can pay more attention and be more precise in a slowerr game.

Win the crowd... and they will love you for it.... and you just might learn to love them for that.

definitely, having croud having your back helps you play better always, makes you feel better and want to play your best.

however, if it is your first tourney, you are going to be scared and you are going to get stage fright, its just part of the coming up process, man up take your losses, no johns and get your nerves right for next time, i know puffy will totally agree with me on this.

this... is kinda dumb

if you want i'll throw this **** into my tournament thread because the idea is good, but have its own thread won't go anywhere

yours is a how does sonic place in tourneys thread, this is more of a how can new sonics to the tourney scene perform their best in tourney

 

[memphischains]

if we had it to mine it will be one universal tournament related thread

 

[Kinzer]

Is there such a thing as moving TOO FAST?

I'm not sure if that applies to Sonic, ut I know that if you try and rush some things *coughyourgf*, it won't have the expected results...

 

[infomon]

Do you play your gf the way you play Brawl? o_O

Spoiler

1v1, items off?

... with me it's usually a coin battle :<

 

[da K.I.D.]

i dont think thats what he meant fizzy...
unless coin battle is some kind of double entondre...

but anyway, kinzy, are you asking for advice, or are you just being dumb?
p.s. how old are you