Getting pretty discouraged-seeking advice

[Caliburn89]

Hey all. I’m getting pretty frustrated and discouraged with playing. I’ve been a Link main since Brawl, and when Ultimate came out, I decided that I wanted to actually get good at this game, not just button mashing and spamming smash. I don’t need to be tournament good-I’m too old and busy with life to be able to dedicate that kind of time. I just want to be good enough to have a decent time online. I’ve been working on fundamentals a ton, and I just cannot get any traction online. Anybody in a similar spot? What have you done to get out of it?

 

[Predatoria]

What GSP rating are you hovering around?

One fact (yes, fact) about Elo rating systems is they will ultimately place you where you go about 50/50 in win loss ratio.

I'm willing to bet most players in Elite Smash go about 50 50, just like anyone else.

Is it your win / loss rate that's discouraging you? As it will ultimately do this regardless of skill level, unless you're ranked so high the game has a hard time finding equal opponents to match you with.

 

[Orlando BCN]

Play with someone who’s about your level of skill or better. It helps to have someone who can give you advice during gameplay, and it gives you a boost in confidence when playing online. Watching tutorial vids or pro matches can help your gameplay as welll.

 

[Caliburn89]

Lately with Link I’ve been hovering around 1 million. I’ll have bad nights like tonight and drop quite a bit, but that’s where I more or less level out.

It’s not so much the win/loss ratio (somewhere around 45-47%) as it is I just feel like I’m getting no better. I don’t really have anyone in real life with whom to practice, so it’s either online or CPU.

 

[Xelrog]

How are you liking the new Link? I've struggled a lot with his new bombs and just moved to Young Link (granted, I liked him better in Melee anyway, so there's bias there).

There's not a lot people could say here that don't follow under general advice like in the fundamentals videos. I would encourage you to watch character-specific videos if you haven't yet to see what some of the better moves for a character are, and if there's any character you're losing to a lot, play as them. You'll learn their weaknesses quickly that way.

 

[Caliburn89]

How are you liking the new Link? I've struggled a lot with his new bombs and just moved to Young Link (granted, I liked him better in Melee anyway, so there's bias there).

There's not a lot people could say here that don't follow under general advice like in the fundamentals videos. I would encourage you to watch character-specific videos if you haven't yet to see what some of the better moves for a character are, and if there's any character you're losing to a lot, play as them. You'll learn their weaknesses quickly that way.

I love playing the new Link. The remote bombs are a lot of fun, and I just feel like he is overall stronger and faster. I’ve been watching a lot of tutorial videos like Art of Smash and some character specific stuff, and I feel like it’s improved my knowledge of the game without a coresponding improvement in my skill or ability to win.

 

[Predatoria]

Lately with Link I’ve been hovering around 1 million. I’ll have bad nights like tonight and drop quite a bit, but that’s where I more or less level out.

It’s not so much the win/loss ratio (somewhere around 45-47%) as it is I just feel like I’m getting no better. I don’t really have anyone in real life with whom to practice, so it’s either online or CPU.

That's about where I started too. I ended up taking hard when I first started online matchmaking and fell pretty quickly from my starting point of, I think it was 1.6M, down to 500k or so. I stayed there for a while and slowly managed to get a little better each session.

I'd recommend really practicing just the basics of the game. Record your losses. Watch them a couple times over to see where you're losing traction. Sometimes you can identify one specific thing you're doing that's getting you hit every match. Perhaps it's a tendency to use and miss link's up B, giving your opponent an opening on you. Stuff like that can be hard to notice mid-match.

Are you able to easily access your tilts? I know that for me, getting used to using tilts instead of just smashing all the time was a major point of practice for me, and it improved my game a lot.

 

[Caliburn89]

That's about where I started too. I ended up taking hard when I first started online matchmaking and fell pretty quickly from my starting point of, I think it was 1.6M, down to 500k or so. I stayed there for a while and slowly managed to get a little better each session.

I'd recommend really practicing just the basics of the game. Record your losses. Watch them a couple times over to see where you're losing traction. Sometimes you can identify one specific thing you're doing that's getting you hit every match. Perhaps it's a tendency to use and miss link's up B, giving your opponent an opening on you. Stuff like that can be hard to notice mid-match.

Are you able to easily access your tilts? I know that for me, getting used to using tilts instead of just smashing all the time was a major point of practice for me, and it improved my game a lot.

I have tilts set to my C stick, so those aren’t a problem. I’ve got a couple losses from tonight recorded, and I do intend to watch them. I’ve been as high as 2 million, and it just feels like I’m going backwards the more I try to learn.

 

[Predatoria]

Sometimes what I do is press the A button as fast as I can and glance off-screen so I can't see how much my GSP is going up or down. It helps me keep my head focused on taking the matches one at a time without getting as salty (especially if you lost to someone much lower rated than you, which can make you super salty), and it helps me rematch people I lose to so I can try to beat them while doing my best to ignore that I'm tanking my GSP hard fighting that same Captain Falcon that just 2 stocked me over and over and over. I hate watching that number go up and down.

 

[Caliburn89]

Sometimes what I do is press the A button as fast as I can and glance off-screen so I can't see how much my GSP is going up or down. It helps me keep my head focused on taking the matches one at a time without getting as salty (especially if you lost to someone much lower rated than you, which can make you super salty), and it helps me rematch people I lose to so I can try to beat them while doing my best to ignore that I'm tanking my GSP hard fighting that same Captain Falcon that just 2 stocked me over and over and over. I hate watching that number go up and down.

It honestly helps knowing I’m not alone in feeling like that.

 

[Predatoria]

It honestly helps knowing I’m not alone in feeling like that.

Ratings in games like these are a great example of what is known as the Hedonic Treadmill:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill

Players want to improve. People want to improve. One's happiness or level of content often is not a representation of their current standing, but moreso a representation at the rate at which they are improving their standing.

Players stuck at 1M strive to hit 2. Players stuck at 2M strive to hit 3. Players stuck at any rating where they aren't seeing steady improvement tend to get dissatisfied with their status, regardless of the actual rating involved.

Even at a tournaments, players who are failing to see improvement get very frustrated, tell themselves they suck, berate themselves, and ultimately start hating the very game they used to love all over getting stuck on the Hedonic Treadmill. The fact is, even a player who is in the upper 99th percentile of smashers will feel exactly like you do right now. They feel stuck, like they can't get better, and that they aren't seeing improvements.

It really is a tough, psychological situation.

It's also why it's so important to make sure you're playing for the right reasons. Improvement will come with practice, regardless of the individual, as long as they're taking active steps to identify their shortcomings and work on their mistakes. The biggest thing of importance is to try to have fun and avoid what triggers you.

For me, it's dropping rating, so I try my best to shut that part of the experience out and just enjoy trying to beat a tough opponent, even if I'm 0 and 5.

 

[Kiddip]

You should stop playing online and start playing arenas for a while for a couple of reasons:
- If your wifi is good or you have a good LAN adapter you can ensure that your games are relatively lagless by hosting arenas.
- You get to play against people who are much better than you. This is important because playing against players who aren't so good teaches you bad habits. Why? Because bad players reward you for doing stuff that just does not work if you were playing with experienced smashers. If you play with against good players then you get punished much more often. It really helps you adapt your playstyle.

LASTLY... you don't have to worry about your GSP! Getting better is so much easier if GSP wasn't in the equation. In my opinion, GSP is a ****ty ranking system but it really matters to you then that's fine. You can experiment, try new characters and playstyles without having to stick to what you think at the time works best (Because it most likely doesn't work best).

I know this works because I've done it myself. I was in your position so I decided to spend a few weeks in arenas playing with good players and getting my ass handed to me until I learned what actually worked and what I thought worked since I was just playing with ****ty players. Once I felt confident, I went into online and got my ROB which was previously 2 mil into 3.7 mil.

Also, watch some of the best players for your main(s) in competitive matches. Watch how they play neutral, choose from their options and punish. In my case this was WaDi.

I think that if it worked for me, it should work for you. GOOD LUCK!

 

[Caliburn89]

You should stop playing online and start playing arenas for a while for a couple of reasons:
- If your wifi is good or you have a good LAN adapter you can ensure that your games are relatively lagless by hosting arenas.
- You get to play against people who are much better than you. This is important because playing against players who aren't so good teaches you bad habits. Why? Because bad players reward you for doing stuff that just does not work if you were playing with experienced smashers. If you play with against good players then you get punished much more often. It really helps you adapt your playstyle.

LASTLY... you don't have to worry about your GSP! Getting better is so much easier if GSP wasn't in the equation. In my opinion, GSP is a ****ty ranking system but it really matters to you then that's fine. You can experiment, try new characters and playstyles without having to stick to what you think at the time works best (Because it most likely doesn't work best).

I know this works because I've done it myself. I was in your position so I decided to spend a few weeks in arenas playing with good players and getting my *** handed to me until I learned what actually worked and what I thought worked since I was just playing with ****ty players. Once I felt confident, I went into online and got my ROB which was previously 2 mil into 3.7 mil.

Also, watch some of the best players for your main(s) in competitive matches. Watch how they play neutral, choose from their options and punish. In my case this was WaDi.

I think that if it worked for me, it should work for you. GOOD LUCK!

This is great advice. I’m definitely gonna follow it and put quick play to bed for a little while. Thanks a lot!