Good Days, Bad Days, and Ugly Days

[Prince777]

Does anyone else have those days where you're on fire, your performance isn't as good as it normally is, and other days where it feels like you're playing the game for the first time?

For good days specifically--you have tons of momentum, your techs, baits/punishes, and reads are on point, and your overall performance is solid. You feel like you can take on anyone, including those in the top 50 PGR.

And then there are other days in which you're not doing so hot. You may have a handful of redeeming moments, but you would often do things like playing into your opponents' hands, falling for the obvious, having little to no momentum. and just a generally subpar performance.

Lastly, there are the ugly days in which everything is going completely wrong. It's essentially a bad day multiplicative of a 100 fold. You lose to noobies and low-level players that you would normally beat any other day, and your overall performance is abominable.

---

As for my background, I currently have 1,400 hours logged into Ultimate (been playing since launch). I'm considered a very good player by my peers (many who are experienced), but have very little competitive experience outside of a few Smash 4 Wi-Fi crew battles and participating in two Ultimate tournaments (including Mega Smash Mondays) early in the year prior to quarantine. I play every character but main Palutena and Olimar.

There are several friends I play with on Discord frequently, and many of them are quite talented. Most of them have very little competitive experience as I do, and we've been playing Smash more or less for the same amount of time. Each time we 1v1 or play doubles with other friends, they never seem to suffer the same consequences that I do. Their gameplay is consistently solid and they always garner clip-worthy moments each session we play.

I feel as though being consistently good is my main roadblock, and occasionally become very discouraged when I see my friends retain a better performance than me on regular basis. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong; this is a stigma that has been affecting me since Smash 4's heyday and I don't know what to do about it.

As for two possibilities I could assess: I feel that I could be approaching my opponents' too much and not applying enough defense; and I tend to burn my jumps fairly early. But other than those two, I'm not sure what to do about a lack of momentum.

Any thoughts?

 

[yknowlikenia]

I absolutely have this experience, and I think it's something people in a ton of hobbies can relate to. This sounds exactly like people going through art block or bad days at work, and I figure it has something to do with failure and our attitude. If you start the day with an unlucky 3-loss streak, your motivation is going to be stunted for a good while, and it's incredibly unlikely that you can simply "shake it off" and start playing well without taking an actual break or doing something else. If we have a day where we start playing hyper-motivated and get numerous deserved/lucky wins, I can say for certain we're gonna get set in that cocky, full-send sort of mindset.

In your case, I think the reason your wins or losses might seem to affect you more is thanks to both your own attitude and how you perceive them. For one, they might be the sort of "naturally" good players, or the kind of person with great reaction time and solid gamesense overall. The unfortunate truth is that some people don't have to work as hard as others to excel at games, and if you're the person who seems to have to work excessively hard, it's natural that losing is going to affect you more than it does them. You've put in substantial effort to reach this point and having it barred by continuous failure sucks. It sucks so much.
On the other hand, it could be that they are in a situation exactly like yours without you realizing it. A friend of mine who I play friendlies with dealt with serious anger issues a few years ago, and losing seemed to affect him really obviously. But even if he was the one to vividly showcase how much a loss upset him, losses on my end against him affected me in the same way internally. I would watch our replays over and over again, laying awake at night and staring at the ceiling wondering what I could've done differently.

Whew! Long response. So to answer your question of, "how do I deal with a lack of momentum", I think there's a few answers. Firstly, take your mind off of Smash for a bit and come back to it when you feel motivated again. Creating art without inspiration is just laborious, and playing a game without being excited to play it is just the same. And second, although it seems counterproductive, really cherish those moments where your losses might eat away at you. Those nights where I lay away and pictured my matches in my head are what lead me to consistently beat the players I struggled with before. Caring about your losses is the first step to excelling beyond them.

Apologies for the long response - your post really struck a chord with me and I wanted to give you my own insight and experience. I hope you can get that motivation we all strive for!

 

[Prince777]

I absolutely have this experience, and I think it's something people in a ton of hobbies can relate to. This sounds exactly like people going through art block or bad days at work, and I figure it has something to do with failure and our attitude. If you start the day with an unlucky 3-loss streak, your motivation is going to be stunted for a good while, and it's incredibly unlikely that you can simply "shake it off" and start playing well without taking an actual break or doing something else. If we have a day where we start playing hyper-motivated and get numerous deserved/lucky wins, I can say for certain we're gonna get set in that cocky, full-send sort of mindset.

In your case, I think the reason your wins or losses might seem to affect you more is thanks to both your own attitude and how you perceive them. For one, they might be the sort of "naturally" good players, or the kind of person with great reaction time and solid gamesense overall. The unfortunate truth is that some people don't have to work as hard as others to excel at games, and if you're the person who seems to have to work excessively hard, it's natural that losing is going to affect you more than it does them. You've put in substantial effort to reach this point and having it barred by continuous failure sucks. It sucks so much.
On the other hand, it could be that they are in a situation exactly like yours without you realizing it. A friend of mine who I play friendlies with dealt with serious anger issues a few years ago, and losing seemed to affect him really obviously. But even if he was the one to vividly showcase how much a loss upset him, losses on my end against him affected me in the same way internally. I would watch our replays over and over again, laying awake at night and staring at the ceiling wondering what I could've done differently.

Whew! Long response. So to answer your question of, "how do I deal with a lack of momentum", I think there's a few answers. Firstly, take your mind off of Smash for a bit and come back to it when you feel motivated again. Creating art without inspiration is just laborious, and playing a game without being excited to play it is just the same. And second, although it seems counterproductive, really cherish those moments where your losses might eat away at you. Those nights where I lay away and pictured my matches in my head are what lead me to consistently beat the players I struggled with before. Caring about your losses is the first step to excelling beyond them.

Apologies for the long response - your post really struck a chord with me and I wanted to give you my own insight and experience. I hope you can get that motivation we all strive for!

Yo, first, I'd just like to thank you for taking the time to write all that out. I completely agree with everything you said too! I think refusing to focus on my defeats is what kills me in the long run. Because with defeat, you're able to acknowledge what you're doing wrong and how you can improve; so it's an innate aspect of being a better player.

I'll take this advice and start applying it to my gameplay. Thank you so much! Wishing you the best this game/era has to offer.