Have you ever had one of these moments?

[Sabre]

I felt like I had a breakthrough tonight when I was practicing with a friend of mine, and I can honestly say that I was playing the best I've played in the last few months of playing nearly every day. Although I've been working on it, one of my biggest problems is that I tend to go on autopilot and make dumb decisions. I don't see the best options until it's too late, so I just default to whatever I'm comfortable with. But tonight, I was playing with him for nearly two hours and nearly always picked what I would think as of the best option. I was extending combos far beyond what I'm normally capable of, and nearly every edge-guard meant death. We're about the same skill level, so when we're both playing decently then our games are pretty close. Maybe I have a slight advantage, but it's rare that games go drastically in one person's favor.
Tonight I was 3-4 stocking him nearly every game with either of my mains, and I could really see the way that the game worked in order to predict what he would do. I was able to guess how he would approach me, and when I reacted, I saw every possible option and chose the best one for a combo. I've never played like this before tonight, and particularly since I've recently felt like I reached something of a plateau, I'm freshly inspired to keep pushing and seeing how far I can go.

I'm curious to know if this is a common phenomenon, where players have moments where they feel like this? I felt like I was on another level tonight, and it's something that's never happened to me before. Has this happened to you?

 

[20YY SS | Saiblade]

It's happened to me quite a few times, and I recommend, that if you see yourself playing that well, keep playing. It helps you implement all these crazy new things you're doing into your regular play.

 

[EPsilon933]

Sounds like you were in the zone

 

[AirFair]

That's some inner game of tennis stuff. Relaxed concentration can be powerful, but it can be hard to knowingly achieve.

 

[Sabre]

I was playing again today and found that the same thing happened, so hopefully I actually made a breakthrough in my gameplay rather than just having a really good day.

 

[AirFair]

Well, the more you play, the better you will be getting at the technical aspect of it if you try.

 

[Deleted member]

Last Saturday I went to a Melee tournament and the same thing happened. Just started playing like a beast. It was pretty coo.

 

[Dandy_here]

I got this before but since I started attending tournaments I haven't had this happen

 

[Spak]

I got this before but since our locals shut down about a third of a year ago I've only had it happen about twice. I still get together with my smash group about once/twice a month, but I don't get to play friendlies with some of the best players in state as often as I used to.

 

[Mightymitchell99]

It's happened to me quite a few times, to say the least. The after effect, when you look back at it, makes me wonder how I was able to combo so well. 10$ on somebody here being a psychic.

 

[Zalak]

I think that means you're improving, yo! I've had this happen to me a few times, and every single time it's happened I've felt a lasting effect of improvement. I think for me, being focused on Smash Bros for a really long time is the trigger to get to that state. When I sit down to practice, I almost always feel like I'm playing like I normally do. When I go to tournaments though, I'm in a Smash Bros state of mind for the entire day, and I find I get into that groove eventually if I manage to stay in the tournament long enough, or if I play a ton of friendlies. It's like I'm climbing a mountain on foot, but I know I'll reach a ski lift eventually.

 

[Eggggggggggbert]

The planets just aligned, dude. Its the same thing as those days when you perform abnormally horribly.
(although i do think playing abnormally bad seems to happen a lot more)

 

[nuev0_]

It's happened to me quite a few times, and I recommend, that if you see yourself playing that well, keep playing. It helps you implement all these crazy new things you're doing into your regular play.

I agree with "keep playing," when stuff like that happens.

I have those moments a lot, but they go away the next day rofl.

 

[Shchoo]

The planets just aligned, dude. Its the same thing as those days when you perform abnormally horribly.
(although i do think playing abnormally bad seems to happen a lot more)

I don't really feel like I'm "in the zone" that often, but I can't count the amount of times I've played hungover, and just completely got annihilated.