To be fair, brawlpro and edge, neither you two nor any of us have the ability to ascertain your relative skill levels (at least at this point in time); this is especially true in a context as limited as recorded friendly play between two players who often play together. I myself have been in a similar situation. Whether consciously or otherwise, you two will adjust to the other's style and tendencies over time such that your sets and individual matches will constantly see-saw back and forth between you. As such, it becomes difficult to see who is on top, and this can only create more debate akin to what is happening right here.
Really, what you seek to accomplish for yourself simply cannot be done in this thread alone. Our textual guidance is all well and good, and the more experienced among us may even be able to comment on some aspects of your mental game, but reading the words of others can only do so much in helping one to improve. The only way for you to improve noticeably (if you are really serious about doing so, that is) is to go to tournaments, lose, and then try your best to
understand why you lost. You then head back home, change up your game (which could even happen in the middle of the tournament itself without your noticing), practice your technical game, and press onward to your next personal phase of development. Of course, you should always include your personal circle of Smashers in your practice sessions, but the only way for one to progress as a player is to expose oneself to various styles, mindsets, characters, tendencies, and so on, all of which cannot be done by playing consistently with the same group of people. This is the purpose of tournament play, to open your own unique play style to the scrutiny of others by competing in tournament-level play, allowing
others to see your mistakes and punish them, and then learn from those mistakes and grow as a player. The thing with playing constantly with the same people is that you will not receive varying input on your game; everything will always be seen through the same eyes, those of your local Smashers, and those often-inexperienced eyes will not always pick up on very many holes. Again, this is why tournament play is your key to improvement. We can only do so much for you here.
This all sort of ties back in to my first point. The only way for you two to determine who truly is the better player (if such is your goal, that is) is to compete
regularly in tournament play and see how you two each stack up to the rest of the field. The overall winner in your own personal one-on-one battles does not in any way determine the superior player. A player can be as skilled as they wish in one particular character match-up or against one particular player, but if he or she is demolished in tournament play by every other Smasher on the face of the Earth, what does that say about his or her overall skill? Only by competing in tournament play and looking at the
big picture created from that play can you truly determine who is on top.
Sorry if that seemed kind of lofty, but I just felt like saying something on this issue.
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