Fairly New to Melee

[DeliciousOctorok]

So a few years back I used to play Brawl pretty seriously but never actually went to any tournaments. Back then I tried to also play Melee, but I already had become so accustomed to Brawl that Melee seemed way too complicated to play on a regular basis. I never was able to Wavedash well so I just stopped trying. Plus, there was no online and I just assumed I couldn't go to tournaments until I could drive.

When I hit 18 and got my license, I had already been on hiatus from Brawl and just Smash in general. I would only play games that had no competitive aspects to it. Even though I was on hiatus, I would constantly watch tournaments of Brawl, Melee, Ultimate Marvel 3, and League of Legends. Unfortunately, I never pushed myself to become competitive in any of them. One of the main reasons I was so unmotivated to become competitive was because I would always get super stressed over playing any of these games seriously. Whether I was winning or losing, I would always worry too much if I would win or lose. I never entered any tournament for any of these games. But I think what was holding me back the most was the fact that I had the mentality that “everyone has been playing much longer than I have and are already so much better than me, so why bother?” I’ve realized over these past few years that this is a horrible mentality to have. Because of it, I was so afraid of looking bad in front of other players that I never decided to enter tournaments.

This past summer though, through whatever means, I started playing A LOT of Brawl Minus with my friends. Now, obviously Brawl Minus isn’t a competitive game, but it reminded me so much of the times I would play a lot of Brawl and wanted to enter tournaments for it. As summer ended and everyone went back to their colleges, I suddenly felt empty because I didn’t have anyone to play Brawl Minus yet. Then, I recently heard my college is hosting a small Smash Bros. tournament. My first thought was, “Wow, how random. My school has never promoted video games before so why this?” But then I thought, even if this isn’t a “real” tournament, even if they have items on and it’s a free-for-all, even if everyone who enters is much worse than me and I don’t learn anything new, it’s still a tournament, and I really have no excuse this time to enter. As corny as it may be, this is what is motivating me to get competitive with these games. Although, there was a problem when I heard they will be hosting a Super Smash Bros. tournament. They said, “it will be a Super Smash Bros. tournament.” No Brawl or Melee in the name.

So, this is why I’m posting in the Melee section. I want to get good at the game so I have a good chance at winning the tournament at my school. I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine with Brawl since I’ve had experience playing it before and I can always look for matches online, but in order for me to get good at Melee I’ll have to enter tournaments. So far I’ve only played against level 9 computers. Obviously this won’t make me a great player, but I’ve mostly played against computers to practice Wavedashing, L-Cancelling, Ledge Guarding, Teching, DI, and combos. I’m slowly starting to learn how hard it is to do all of these things, but I’m sure I’ll get it down soon. Actually, I’m currently able to wavedash fairly well. I can’t do it nearly as well as people do in tournaments, nor do I ever use it in any practical manner, but what I think matters is that I can do it, and the fact that I couldn’t do it before was one of the reasons I never played Melee seriously. Turns out all I had to do was get used to the physics and gravity over a few days and just keep practicing it.

Anyway, I’ve started looking for tournaments around where I live, Palatine Illinois, and I heard about a tournament weekly hosted by EXPgaming down in Oak Park. I heard they mostly play Melee and Project M, which is another reason why I want to get good at Melee. It’s pretty far away and I’m not sure if I can pay for the fees on a regular basis, but if I’m going to want to get better at this game I don’t really have a choice. Now, I don’t want to go just to get better at the game, but I also want to meet new people who have the same passion as I do, and honestly I have no friends like that. None of them are interested in competitive gaming, which could be another reason why I’ve never competed in tournaments considering I have a hard time making decisions for myself.


I’ve had enough of just watching people play. I’ve felt guilty far too many times for never going to tournaments, and now it’s time to change that. I’ve gotten rid of the mentality of worrying about looking bad and losing. Now I just want to change the way I play video games. I want to progress in the games I play now instead of just staying at one level and doing the same things over and over again.

TL;DR: I stopped playing smash for a while but now I'm back because there's going to be a tourney at my school and I want to get good at Melee and Brawl, but mostly Melee because there's no online and I also want to enter these tournaments in Oak Park, IL.

 

[EpixAura]

I love how many new players are getting into competitive Melee recently.

I'll go ahead and list a few minor tips. All the major things are covered elsewhere.
If you play Falco or Marth, Wavedash back -> Fsmash works wonders. Also, at tournaments with more experienced players, try not to get too nervous. Some people's nerves start freaking out when it comes time to play a match, even for smaller scale tournaments, and that is not a good things more often than not. Some people play better under pressure, but you're better off playing to try and get a good placing rather than to win. You'll still have a little pressure on you, but that's what you want. Not a lot, not a complete pressure free environment, but a little bit of pressure to do well. Your mindset has a huge impact on how you play, so try to keep that in mind.
Lastly, be ready to adapt to your opponent. If you're playing Falco against a Fox who pretty much only dashdances and punishes, don't go for two many slow high-risk moves like Fsmash, and instead try to go for late aerials aimed at the back of the area his dashdance covers, or try to take a temporarily campy approach to make him change up his style, then go back to your original game plan. If they like to rush you down, try to realize how they're approaching, and react accordingly. Also, if your opponent plays the same character as you, take the opportunity to not only adapt, but to learn some more about your character. I know it seems like you can learn everything from guides, videos, and practice, but some things just don't quite click in your mind until it costs you your stock a good 5 or 6 times.
The most important thing (for most characters) is learning to SHFFL aerials correctly. Just practice it by yourself until you master it. From that point on, your skill should increase pretty linearly.

 

[DeliciousOctorok]

I love how many new players are getting into competitive Melee recently.

I'll go ahead and list a few minor tips. All the major things are covered elsewhere.
If you play Falco or Marth, Wavedash back -> Fsmash works wonders. Also, at tournaments with more experienced players, try not to get too nervous. Some people's nerves start freaking out when it comes time to play a match, even for smaller scale tournaments, and that is not a good things more often than not. Some people play better under pressure, but you're better off playing to try and get a good placing rather than to win. You'll still have a little pressure on you, but that's what you want. Not a lot, not a complete pressure free environment, but a little bit of pressure to do well. Your mindset has a huge impact on how you play, so try to keep that in mind.
Lastly, be ready to adapt to your opponent. If you're playing Falco against a Fox who pretty much only dashdances and punishes, don't go for two many slow high-risk moves like Fsmash, and instead try to go for late aerials aimed at the back of the area his dashdance covers, or try to take a temporarily campy approach to make him change up his style, then go back to your original game plan. If they like to rush you down, try to realize how they're approaching, and react accordingly. Also, if your opponent plays the same character as you, take the opportunity to not only adapt, but to learn some more about your character. I know it seems like you can learn everything from guides, videos, and practice, but some things just don't quite click in your mind until it costs you your stock a good 5 or 6 times.
The most important thing (for most characters) is learning to SHFFL aerials correctly. Just practice it by yourself until you master it. From that point on, your skill should increase pretty linearly.

Thanks for the tips! Fortunately I've really liked playing Falco while playing Melee, so this will actually help a lot. SHFFLing is very hard for me currently, but I'm pretty sure I'll get it eventually, especially since Falco has an easier short jump compared to other characters. I know practicing techniques by myself is important so I get them down, but I feel I won't learn how to use them in the correct situations until I play against other players.

Also, I have a lot of problems with DI, mostly Smash DI. Usually I just forget to DI correctly and get myself killed because of it.

 

[Marmalad3]

I'm getting that same kinda guilty feeling for never going to tournaments. I'm not to concerned about winning, so long as I learn something, but I still do get a bit stressed at the idea of playing with live humans. It's also rough not having a license, as it can be hard to get to locations without a car.
We young smashers will persevere though!

 

[DeliciousOctorok]

I'm getting that same kinda guilty feeling for never going to tournaments. I'm not to concerned about winning, so long as I learn something, but I still do get a bit stressed at the idea of playing with live humans. It's also rough not having a license, as it can be hard to get to locations without a car.
We young smashers will persevere though!

At this point, I'm not concerned about winning either since there's a very small chance I can win any tournament with the small amount of skill I have. I really want to learn how to play the game better and the best way to do that is to play with other players in tournaments.

 

[Xyzz]

At this point, I'm not concerned about winning either since there's a very small chance I can win any tournament with the small amount of skill I have. I really want to learn how to play the game better and the best way to do that is to play with other players in tournaments.

Good attitude

If you're pretty much literally just starting out, not having the basic techskill things down, there imho isn't much that anybody can just tell you on the interwebs, except for some fairly obvious tips:
a) Get your techskill down by practicing. There is no short cut, you just have to do things over and over again, until they are no longer a conscious effort on your part but a autonomous unit. E.g. it's not "okay, I want to wavedash, let's see, i'll press y -> move the stick into slightly below horizontal position -> then press R right after the jumpsquat animation finishes", but rather "I think wavedashing would be pretty good here. Thanks for just doing it right when I had that thought, based fingers of mine". It's definitely not necessary to get these things to perfection (or even a decent level) before entering some tournament or even playing other people though. Just something you can always practice on your own as much as you have time and the motivation to spend it on the game.
b) Don't be afraid to ask the guys you're playing for advice. We might have trouble to pinpoint where exactly you could do better, or what you need to know about melee, because there's just sooo much going into it (I think we could non-stop talk for a week and there still would be more details to mention, haha), but I suppose pretty much anybody would try. E.g. if you're playing a half-decent Falco for the first time, you might notice that the way he shoots lasers is pretty much single-handedly winning him the game. If you don't say anything, he doesn't really know if you even care to learn about the issue (or he might not even notice your predicament if it's something less obvious), but if you just go like "how do I deal with Falco's lasers? I feel I can't move at all against them, what do I do?", he will probably say something like "haha, yeah, that was a real pain for me when starting out too. It's super hard, and there is no easy solution, but you might try, ..."
c) Find a main, and stick with that character for the time being. After giving everybody some games (I suppose you have already done that), just decide who was the most fun for now (and is a decent character. S tier is perfect, but A tier is just fine as well on the current tier list). Maybe have a look at some high level games and see whether that guy still looks fun. Sure, if at some point in your smash career you realize that "actually, now that I really know what's going on, I realize that I need to do things with my main that I really don't want to do, and it seems nobody has a good solution, and I don't have one either... but that other character is really so amazing, I want to play him", then by all means, do the switch. Just don't go back and forth all the time; it's a lot more helpful in your smash-development to learn to overcome the issues that your character has (every character has some issues) instead of swapping back and forth, never really learning to play anybody well.
Once you have chosen some character, head out to the character boards and start reading the discussion thread (and probably the stickied thing). These tend to be the places where the respective mainers of that character hang out, and usually there's some interesting discussion going on (unless you play Peach. Then the discussion is not that tactically relevant, but might still be interesting if you're interested in funny GIFs and a slightly more colorful way of life :D). These guys can help you out a lot more specific than some general advice thread thing ever could. If you start learning Marth the most beneficial areas to improve in vastly differ from what a new Iceclimber main needs to learn.
d) Your mind is hopefully still rather unpolluted by bad habits; try your best to avoid them. Supposedly there's lots of things that can be said here like "predictably rolling all the time is bad; always rolling to the middle of the stage is bad; using the same approach too often is bad", but that's really getting out of hand to list all that jazz here, so I'd recommend to try and not automate anything here. That might sound contradictory to the techskill thing where I'd recommend to get everything to the point that it just happens without conscious thoughts, but it's really not. You should be 100% conscious about WHAT you want to do, just the HOW is what should happen on its own (mostly so you can spent all your precious mental attention resources on the WHAT ). E.g. if you and your opponent stand at some spacing your thought process could be like "okay, over the course of the match it has worked out super well to just SHFFL at him from here, so I will do just that", and then the SHFFL just happens. And it should never be just something you do, because when you arrive at that spacing the SHFFL is just "what you do".
e) stay positive. We all were bad at some point <3


I guess I've written waaay too much already, so uhh, yeah, have fun and welcome to smashboards! (:

 

[DeliciousOctorok]

Thanks for the post Xyzz! I pretty much have wavedashing down, but I just need to learn how to use it in the right situations. Although I don't have SHFFLing down yet, so I'll have to work on that. Also, I should probably try playing an a CRT if I can find one in my house.