Becoming too good?

[The Young Izzy Iz]

I want to preface this thread by stating that I'm not exceedingly good at melee and consider myself to be about average to slightly below average in terms of skill. Everything discussed regarding skill is in relation to the group that I play friendlies with.

The above being said I've really encountered a sort of problem with becoming 'too good at the game', meaning that the skill descrepency between myself and those who I play with regularly has gotten to the point that I can beat just about all of them with any character regardless of circumstance. If I had to guess at their skill level they all have solid fundamentals (Wavedash, SHFFL, jump canceled grabs, etc) but because of the difference in skill they have started to lose interest in playing even though they have the basics of melee essentially mastered. Because of my occupation/schooling I don't really have the time to visit locals in my area (Charleston) during the school year.

The point of this thread is to ask if anyone has encountered a situation similar to mine? When you first started learning to play the game competitively did you ever find yourself with a skill gap versus your regular gaming group? Did that skill gap push them away from the game? What, if anything, did you do about it? I'm always happy to practice with them and help them get better at the game but this offer appearently isn't very enticing. Should I sandbag/play subpar in friendlies against them? Any and all answers would be greatly appreciated!

 

[X WaNtEd X]

Sounds like your friends are frauds. I was much better than my friends for awhile but I tried to help them improve and they trained hard and now I'm not exceedingly better than them anymore, although I have improved as well. You should try to help them improve by just talking about the game as you play and mentioning **** as it comes up. For example, one of my friends would always try to cover the platforms with Marth with fsmash. I told him about how you can't do that on reaction the way uair, fair, and utilt can be used and he stopped doing it. If they still don't improve or just don't seem to have the desire, you just gotta find new people to play with. Can't always be training with people that are way worse than you.

 

[The Young Izzy Iz]

Sounds like your friends are frauds. I was much better than my friends for awhile but I tried to help them improve and they trained hard and now I'm not exceedingly better than them anymore, although I have improved as well. You should try to help them improve by just talking about the game as you play and mentioning **** as it comes up. For example, one of my friends would always try to cover the platforms with Marth with fsmash. I told him about how you can't do that on reaction the way uair, fair, and utilt can be used and he stopped doing it. If they still don't improve or just don't seem to have the desire, you just gotta find new people to play with. Can't always be training with people that are way worse than you.

This is true. I think one of the other reason for their waning interest is Smash 4, which is another game we all play together with a much lower skill differential. It really sucks though, because I feel like if I invest the time and energy to get good at that game as well they're just going to move onto something else?

 

[X WaNtEd X]

This is true. I think one of the other reason for their waning interest is Smash 4, which is another game we all play together with a much lower skill differential. It really sucks though, because I feel like if I invest the time and energy to get good at that game as well they're just going to move onto something else?

I don't know the psychology of your friends, but it sounds like they don't even want to be good at Melee. You should still play with them when you can, but find some new people to play with as well.

 

[The Young Izzy Iz]

I don't know the psychology of your friends, but it sounds like they don't even want to be good at Melee. You should still play with them when you can, but find some new people to play with as well.

Thanks for the help. I suppose I'll re-double my efforts at helping them improve and if that doesn't help try to find another group of peeps to play with whenever possible!

 

[StatusC]

Something similar is happening between my group of 5 friends that I play friendlies with. 4 of us are pushing ahead of 1 player, and he seems to be losing interest. He doesn't like it when we try to offer him help and advice because (I'm assuming) it makes him feel like the weak link even though he is. What should I do?

 

[The Young Izzy Iz]

Something similar is happening between my group of 5 friends that I play friendlies with. 4 of us are pushing ahead of 1 player, and he seems to be losing interest. He doesn't like it when we try to offer him help and advice because (I'm assuming) it makes him feel like the weak link even though he is. What should I do?

If you've got a locals scene maybe think about getting into crew battles? If he's only feeling bad because he's getting left behind try to built more of a team mentality within the group. Maybe make up a group name, get some T-shirts or something? Anything to make everyone feel more involved. I personally would have done this with my group if there was an actual local scene where I am and I had the time.

 

[elliotnz]

goods a relative term

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

The above being said I've really encountered a sort of problem with becoming 'too good at the game', meaning that the skill descrepency between myself and those who I play with regularly has gotten to the point that I can beat just about all of them with any character regardless of circumstance. If I had to guess at their skill level they all have solid fundamentals (Wavedash, SHFFL, jump canceled grabs, etc) but because of the difference in skill they have started to lose interest in playing even though they have the basics of melee essentially mastered. Because of my occupation/schooling I don't really have the time to visit locals in my area (Charleston) during the school year.

The point of this thread is to ask if anyone has encountered a situation similar to mine? When you first started learning to play the game competitively did you ever find yourself with a skill gap versus your regular gaming group? Did that skill gap push them away from the game? What, if anything, did you do about it? I'm always happy to practice with them and help them get better at the game but this offer appearently isn't very enticing. Should I sandbag/play subpar in friendlies against them? Any and all answers would be greatly appreciated!

I remember this happening and it did not push them away from the game. Simply away from the game whenever this 'too good' player came by. It takes a particular individual to keep at the game against someone much better than they are. A type of thing you cannot really convince someone to do.

The best I think you can do is sandbag to keep their interest so you at least have someone to play against. Hopefully, individuals get better at some point.

 

[The Young Izzy Iz]

@ E Elyssa Xey Hexen

Well, I always did want to pick up Bowser in some capacity.

 

[Segnifs]

I have this issue sometimes with friends, you could switch to any low tier characters you like & that should help even the skill gap. Also you could use handicap mode if things are still too easy.

 

[Charple]

I get this too. Usually I just play Roy or something I'd they're bored of getting four stocked

 

[EPsilon933]

In my experience, teaching bad players about advanced techniques bored them out of playing the game (this was in a college dorm). With another group of friends in the same setting, wrecking them discouraged them from playing the game with me. They thought of me as a messiah and 1 of them even thought I was nationally ranked. The best you could do is to play low tiers you enjoy to lessen the beatings and hope that they'll want to keep playing with you. If they can persevere through seemingly endless losses, they'll catch up to you. It's really up to them to keep going

I think one of the other reason for their waning interest is Smash 4, which is another game we all play together with a much lower skill differential. It really sucks though, because I feel like if I invest the time and energy to get good at that game as well they're just going to move onto something else?

The skill gap in Smash 4 is much lower. You won't wreck and discourage them as easily. Also, have you tried playing Smash 4 with them then during the same session switch to Melee? It's a good way to compare games and that might help show them that Melee's a bit more fun. Don't worry if your friends move onto something else. Just don't control them too much. Even if you got good at Smash 4 and they left, you'd still improve at some abstract skills like spacing and reading which can be applied to Melee

 

[-Philip Coast Philip-]

I can beat just about all of them with any character regardless of circumstance.
...
The point of this thread is to ask if anyone has encountered a situation similar to mine? When you first started learning to play the game competitively did you ever find yourself with a skill gap versus your regular gaming group?

This happened to me with Smash64, to the point where I played with one hand, vs.'d two people while playing two controllers, JV6-stocked if I played pika - but I had to find a way to have fun for my friends to play me, otherwise they wouldn't want to, so I found a way to have fun while at the same time 'trying', think Goku using only 10% of his power, but still trying. But I'm mainly a Samus main in Melee, and I was always worse than the players around me, and while this pushed me in particular to play harder, I never got super good.

Being better allows you to see options more clearly, since you have more 'room' to practice in. Smash64 taught me spacing and those mindgames in that.

 

[Segnifs]

In my experience, teaching bad players about advanced techniques bored them out of playing the game (this was in a college dorm). With another group of friends in the same setting, wrecking them discouraged them from playing the game with me. They thought of me as a messiah and 1 of them even thought I was nationally ranked. The best you could do is to play low tiers you enjoy to lessen the beatings and hope that they'll want to keep playing with you. If they can persevere through seemingly endless losses, they'll catch up to you. It's really up to them to keep goingThe skill gap in Smash 4 is much lower. You won't wreck and discourage them as easily. Also, have you tried playing Smash 4 with them then during the same session switch to Melee? It's a good way to compare games and that might help show them that Melee's a bit more fun. Don't worry if your friends move onto something else. Just don't control them too much. Even if you got good at Smash 4 and they left, you'd still improve at some abstract skills like spacing and reading which can be applied to Melee

I think it has more to do with laziness, most people don't want to work for something for free, so they will come up with excuses not to learn it. True, back when i was into competitive online mmo fighters i just kept beating my friends over and over while being respectful and helpful & they ended up getting a lot stronger and out of the hundreds of battles they started getting a few wins also they started beating up average players a lot more now.