Advice for a very new player

[roosterrat]

Hey guys, this is my first post, and I'm not actually sure if this is the right place to post this, but I'm just looking for advice on how to become a better player. I've been playing with my own little "crew" everyday at school during our free periods, and despite my obsession with analyzing smashers such as yourselves on youtube and stuff, I maintain one of the weakest members of our group. I guarantee that I practice more than all of them. I guess I just figured this would be the best place to find help. Thanks.

 

[Metal Reeper]

Don't play to win, play to learn and get better.

Read everything you can. Play as many people/characters as you can. Talk to people, ask questions.

 

[EPsilon933]

All you need is just a strong desire to get good and you'll get good

 

[roosterrat]

All you need is just a strong desire to get good and you'll get good

Well that's the one thing I have for sure. I've been reading guides and watching videos of competition for the past few weeks.

 

[Fly_Amanita]

Another thing to keep in mind is that while reading guides and whatnot is a good way to learn how to play your character, the things you can learn there won't always directly address why you lose. Try to figure out what sort of things are making you lose and prioritize fixing those.

 

[TheGoat]

Go to the character specific boards and read the walls of text. Also see if there is a tournament near your location and go to it. Tournies really help you improve and you get to meet the melee community. Welcome!

 

[Xyzz]

Try to figure out what sort of things are making you lose and prioritize fixing those.
can't be stated too many times. If it's possible for you, record some of your matches, these should be very helpful in figuring out those things; in the middle of the match it can be hard to self reflect and see your errors. If you can't, you can always ask your friends what they think makes them win against you.

some points that might need attention:
- do you know what you should be doing? (basically stuff like "my dair on falco is very good, am I (ab)using it accordigly?", "even though my fsmash on peach is not that good, but if the opportunity arises, do I recognize it?" What are the basic bread and butter combos of your character? What should your gameplan vs the other characters look like ("peach won't die to the side until very high percents, should I try to kill her vertically?")
- are you too obvious in your approaches / other stuff?
If your approach consists of dashing straight towards your opponent and dash attacking every time, it will probably be pretty easy for him to shield grab you (especially if you play against each other a lot ). If you mix it up with jc grabs / shffl'ed aerials out of his grab range / landing on the other side of him / ..., he'll have a much harder time.
- is your tech skill on par with theirs? Are they able to perfectly shffl / waveshine and whatnot, and short hop on characters other then bowser is still hard for you?

other then that you can view tournament videos of your character to see what good players tend to do in what situation, and try to implement this stuff in your play, and/or check the character sub forums for more specific help (including some more information on your play / your usual opponents / ... might result in more detailed information )

 

[roosterrat]

I'm in north-east Ohio, so there are a one or two tournaments in the next few months that I do plan on attending if possible. Thanks for all the advice guys.

 

[Problem2]

Don't feel bad if you go 0-2 (win 0, loss 2) for many of your first tournaments. Keep in mind, everyone that goes wants to win badly too. Not giving up and effectively finding ways to improve is what will set you past everyone else.

 

[The_Doug]

Have a blast at your first few tourneys and don't stop having fun with the character(s) you play.

I remember my first smash tourney in Norcal 2002 like it was yesterday still. Driving home I felt absolutely overwhelmed by the combination of playing smash competitively, meeting new people, losing a lot (over 90% of games played), and learning tactics, strategy, and generally how to play to win.

Don't feel shy, hesistant, or intimidated to ask others to play friendlies because it is perfectly normal. Just walk up to a TV and say, "Hey can I get next?".

 

[t3h Icy]

Learn RPS theory.

 

[Bones0]

Attend tournaments and ask for advice. If you enjoy that, the rest will fall into place in time. I would recommend not trying to practice strategies on your own (like against CPUs). When you're on, practice tech skill so that when you want to apply strategies against opponents you are able to do what you want. Tech skill is worthless without good strategies, but the opposite is true as well. If you find yourself making technical mistakes that cost you, address the problems one at a time. Example: If you play Marth, but can't double fair, just sit down for an hour straight and practice until you can do 10 in a row or w/e seems reasonable. Then just keep raising your bench mark to improve your consistency. This is great for a lot of simple techniques that aren't necessarily hard to use in game, but are pretty important in order to use the correct strategies (SHFFLing, wavedashing, jump cancelling grabs, etc.).

 

[roosterrat]

For sure. I'm definitely only looking to have fun at a tournament, I only expect to get better. And I have been working on my tech skills, I just recently got the wave dash down, and I'm working on SHFFL. I'm also still trying to decide on a main :/. After about 9 months of playing every character I still can't figure out who I want to single out.

 

[Zodiac]

I would highly suggest checking out gimpy fish's "players Progress" video's and the other smash lesson videos he has posted. But I would also like to stress that before you really hammer out technical skill learning your reading skills is more important. Just concentrate on stuff like

"When X player misses a tech what do they do?"

A lot of players will wait for you to go over to them and then get up attack. So you run up to them shield and then grab them out of that, or if you have the range just punish with an fsmash or something. If they spotdodge on wake up use a long move like sheik's Dsmash.

Its steps like that start you off on the path to being a better player. and Visa versa what are YOU doing when you miss a tech, do you always wait to get up attack? Are they reading that you will do that everytime? And then finally what can you do different that they wont predict?

Good luck and keep checking back with us, we love helping new players reach their goal.

 

[Fly_Amanita]

I disagree with learning how to read before become technically proficient. For one thing, it's much easier to practice tech skill without the aid of others than it is to practice reading. Also, if your tech skill is not on point, then you might lose to simple strategies even if you know what's coming. I recommend reaching a pretty solid level of tech skill before stressing about other things too much. Fortunately, reaching a decent level of tech skill only requires practice and nothing conceptually difficult, so it shouldn't be hard to do this.

 

[Teczer0]

I'm probably late but anyway, welcome to the melee boards

I wanna bring your attention to the stickied threads on top which are more general threads for advice. You should check those out too.

But continue using this thread too lol

 

[Deleted member]

Hey guys, this is my first post, and I'm not actually sure if this is the right place to post this, but I'm just looking for advice on how to become a better player. I've been playing with my own little "crew" everyday at school during our free periods, and despite my obsession with analyzing smashers such as yourselves on youtube and stuff, I maintain one of the weakest members of our group. I guarantee that I practice more than all of them. I guess I just figured this would be the best place to find help. Thanks.

to get better you need motivation and confidence you can get good at the game

and also a fairly dedicated group of people to play with that range from ur skill level to better than you

and tournaments (imo) that give u experience under playing pressure

there's four areas of any fighting game you want to improve on that definitely apply to smash

game knowledge- knowing what's best (or close to the best) in almost ANY given situation, what each move will do given good/bad DI, roll/tech distances, DI-ing optimally, which move is safer in a certain spot, tricks..

tech skill- more than being flashy, the ability to do exactly what you want to do. You don't want to correctly read a tech roll but miss because you messed up spacing.

Game knowledge and tech skill obviously go hand in hand

adapting

mixing it up

the best way is simply to play the game and learn it yourself although if u are lucky a teacher can speed things up a lot

 

[roosterrat]

Actually, a lot of your advice came in handy today. I was playing my friend who mains Marth, and he was using the same combo of: dash grab-f throw-f smash over and over and it was destroying me, and after assessing the situation I was able to alter my play and in turn force him to alter his.

 

[Zodiac]

Go back and read fly's post, from the I worded my post he is most definitely right. But what I really was trying to get across is while your playing concentrate on read's more than tech skill.

 

[CableCho57]

and where are you from dude? there might be or probabaly are some people in your area who know how to play at an upper level that can teach you/give advice. its better to learn in person

 

[Deleted member]

first, pick a main character. doesn't matter why you pick them, although early success may hint at a natural talent towards that character.

learn basic tech skill first, as your character of choice. no switching

learn to make smart decisions after. don't switch character

find experienced people to share ideas with, even if you disagree with them. find a talented teacher if you can (a few exist on these boards).

keep your improvement steady and reasonable.

come back to this topic when you get there, we'll proceed from that point.

 

[n1000]

Actually, a lot of your advice came in handy today. I was playing my friend who mains Marth, and he was using the same combo of: dash grab-f throw-f smash over and over and it was destroying me, and after assessing the situation I was able to alter my play and in turn force him to alter his.

It sounds like you and your friends are at about the same skill level which is great for practice: owning noobs or getting beat up yourself both become tiresome much quicker than tight matches that go back and forth.

I'd recommend you try and play a lot of friendlies against a variety of people at the tourney. Most smash players are really friendly and will point out easy things that you can do to improve.

Tech skill is extremely important but a lot of new players practice the wrong way. More important than the quantity of techniques you know is your consistency at executing the useful ones. They say you have to walk before you can run; in Melee it's better to walk 95% of the time than successfully run 70%.

PS: the number one most important tech skill bar none is not jumping with X. That button is for noobs

 

[roosterrat]

and where are you from dude? there might be or probabaly are some people in your area who know how to play at an upper level that can teach you/give advice. its better to learn in person

I'm in Ohio. The Cleveland area.

 

[hubble]

pick a character with a good dash dance and dedicate a TON of time (months and months) to getting the most out of it.

 

[roosterrat]

Right now for me it's a toss up between Peach, Falco, and Falcon. I have fun and can hold my own against my friends playing with all of them.

 

[Mokumo]

if you get the chance to record your matches, do that. watch yourself play. it can be kind of sad, it is for me anyway, because you'll see your (bad) habits and patterns right away.

 

[Marshallmallowlol]

Right now for me it's a toss up between Peach, Falco, and Falcon. I have fun and can hold my own against my friends playing with all of them.

Except me, because I am the best out of our group of friends. Hahaha.
Though not even close to any sort of competition that exists on this site...

 

[Violence]

Hey, I went to Case Western for 5 years and played with a lot of friends there. Knew some of the smashers in the area, like Vidjogamer and Camper Bob.

If I were still around, I'd offer to play, but, seeing as I'm no longer around, I think the best advice I can offer is to just take things in stride and keep up a positive attitude.

 

[Deleted member]

also,

this is sort of obvious

but don't be afraid to take in multiple perspectives of the game, even if somebody is worse or seemingly wrong

whenever you play to learn, take in whatever you can get even if the opponent is worse. don't think you can't learn from someone just because you beat them 90%+ of the time. I've stolen a lot of stuff from worse players and a mistake that cocky lower-mid level players make is to assume they can't learn anything worthwhile from crappier players

 

[Puffinator]

Play fox. 10 char.

 

[Violence]

also,

this is sort of obvious

but don't be afraid to take in multiple perspectives of the game, even if somebody is worse or seemingly wrong

whenever you play to learn, take in whatever you can get even if the opponent is worse. Don't think you can't learn from someone just because you beat them 90%+ of the time. I've stolen a lot of stuff from worse players and a mistake that cocky lower-mid level players make is to assume they can't learn anything worthwhile from crappier players

this. Thisthisthisthisthisthis.

 

[ItalianStallion]

Right now for me it's a toss up between Peach, Falco, and Falcon. I have fun and can hold my own against my friends playing with all of them.

I am a rookie myself. I just started getting serious about smash about 6 months ago. I only have one person in my area who I can play with. And have only been to one tournament.

The best piece of advice I can give you is what someone already said. Play to learn, instead of playing to win. I was losing to my friend all the time. It was aggravating since I really wanted to be at least even with him. Then I started changing my mindset. I started playing not to win, but to become more effective in general. I practiced utilizing certain tech-skill stuff in matches. I started experimenting instead of doing bread and butter stuff. By doing that, I started losing even harder. But after weeks of playing like that, I can now say that we are pretty evenly matched. My tech-skill has improved a lot, and I am becoming more creative with my play-style. It was because I played to learn, instead of to win. And eventually, playing this way helped me start winning.

As for which character to use out of those three, I would go Falcon. He is really fun to use and using him helped me improve my tech-skill. Plus, his moves can be linked quite creatively.

If I were to suggest someone to use outside of those three.....Mewtwo!

 

[dgracian0]

Try to figure out what sort of things are making you lose and prioritize fixing those.
can't be stated too many times. If it's possible for you, record some of your matches, these should be very helpful in figuring out those things; in the middle of the match it can be hard to self reflect and see your errors. If you can't, you can always ask your friends what they think makes them win against you.

some points that might need attention:
- do you know what you should be doing? (basically stuff like "my dair on falco is very good, am I (ab)using it accordigly?", "even though my fsmash on peach is not that good, but if the opportunity arises, do I recognize it?" What are the basic bread and butter combos of your character? What should your gameplan vs the other characters look like ("peach won't die to the side until very high percents, should I try to kill her vertically?")
- are you too obvious in your approaches / other stuff?
If your approach consists of dashing straight towards your opponent and dash attacking every time, it will probably be pretty easy for him to shield grab you (especially if you play against each other a lot ). If you mix it up with jc grabs / shffl'ed aerials out of his grab range / landing on the other side of him / ..., he'll have a much harder time.
- is your tech skill on par with theirs? Are they able to perfectly shffl / waveshine and whatnot, and short hop on characters other then bowser is still hard for you?

other then that you can view tournament videos of your character to see what good players tend to do in what situation, and try to implement this stuff in your play, and/or check the character sub forums for more specific help (including some more information on your play / your usual opponents / ... might result in more detailed information )

Where's the best tutorial on wavedashing? right now as falco, I can't do more than 2 in a row :/ any advice? I see all the other falcos constantly wavedashing very quickly across the map...how do i get to that level?

 

[Beat!]

Since you can do it twice in a row, it probably means it's just about getting consistent. Keep practicing and it should become more natural after a while.

 

[l0telephone0l]

Where's the best tutorial on wavedashing? right now as falco, I can't do more than 2 in a row :/ any advice? I see all the other falcos constantly wavedashing very quickly across the map...how do i get to that level?

Practice practice practice. Trying to wavedash in a match a few times doesn't count. It took me at most about 2 hours to get down wavedashing, short hops, l cancels, teching, and most of the rudimentary AT's. I still can't always ledge tech when recovering, but you'd be surprised with what you can do with just 15 minutes of focused practice. Most smashers just don't have the attention span.

 

[Xyzz]

Where's the best tutorial on wavedashing? right now as falco, I can't do more than 2 in a row :/ any advice? I see all the other falcos constantly wavedashing very quickly across the map...how do i get to that level?

wak's advanced how to play has all the information you will ever need: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n4s5yB7ZkE is the first part
The answer to getting to the point where wave dashing is second nature is pretty simple actually: practice, practice and some more practice (if you can do it on other characters, you might need to alter the timing a bit, since WD is based on the time before a character leaves the ground after the button press (you must not airdodge before this time), and that time differs a bit from character to character, check super doodle mans frame data page for more of that info).
Simply focus on getting the timing between the button presses and you should be fine.

I'd prefer to play other people to getting tech skill down though, playing smart is really important as well!

Oh, and WDs utility is really overrated by some people. WD back to quickly grab a ledge, or faking a approach, baiting your opponent to strike and retreating with a backward WD and then punishing his lag are pretty nice things, but using it as a main means of transportation is imho only useful on characters with a really low traction (ICs / Luigi / samus, to name a few)

 

[Dragoon Fighter]

Play fox Jiggily Puff. 10 char.

Fixed that for you.