It's hard to be motivated to get better at a game where one single character dominates the metagame (Meta Knight? Metagame? lulz).
There are ways around it(sorta). Your best chances of doing well in this game is MAINING and 2NDING the following characters:
S: Meta Knight
A: Snake, Diddy Kong, Falco, Wario, Marth, Ice Climbers
Any one other than that you are forced to use your "natural" skill and intelligence to overcome the huge disadvantages your character will face.
"exceptions to the rule" obviously do not fall under these rules.
With that said, I have been playing Brawl competitively in the Houston scene since the game was released and have tried to improve, but with no luck. I have asked better players to "train me" but none seem willing. Plus now I moved back to Austin, where everyone plays lower-tier characters and so I would not get any match-up experience against the more frequently played characters.
Though you are surrounded by low tier players (ike/yoshi/bowser) you CAN get better. You can improve on things that will make you better vs higher tier character.
1. Spacing. If you dont hit with the tip 80%% of the time, you have things to work on.
2. Stages. Play on every stage that can possibly be legal. LEARN how the stage works with and against your character and WHY. See if u can pick up some new CP stages.
3. PowerShielding. If you cant power shield 80% of the time, you have things to work on.
Those 3 things will INSTANTLY make you better vs the WHOLE cast and u can learn that stuff just from playing low tiers.
To add to that, my opinion is that you have to be naturally gifted at the game to be a "great" at Brawl, at least for the most part. RT has been around forever, and plays high-tier characters, and has never placed very high, and yet someone like Illmatic, with only Wifi experience and playing Peach, comes along and starts placing extremely well right away? No offense meant to either of you.
That is incorrect.
1. Illmatic is NOT as good as u think. Hes gifted(no doubt in my mind) but he still gets beat by people like me(who dont place high) and loses to people like dphat/jnig and others who are better than him(which is expected). Lots of times his bracket is rather easy. Hes a normal GOOD player.
2. TBH, Rocket Trainer and several other players dont WANT to get good. They play because that is where their friends are. They play because its FUN. They play cause they have nothing better to do. P4 could be used as an example but even with him i have seen improvment. Ever played his pit/zs/gw/lucario a year ago? GARBAGE(no joke)! Played his mk(instantly he got better but it still was trash). Now that hes been with mk for a while, look at him.........GOT ALOT BETTER(disciple+p4 vs trela+xyro made me realize it). Some people are slower than others.
3. Yes there is natural skill that you are born with. Razer/royr for instance. Then there are others who must EARN it by working their *** off(ozz/me). Its not gonna happen instantly and its not gonna be easy(especially if u main **** chars) but it WILL happen. it takes time.
Ok, ok, I was holding this till Sunday but I’ma type it out anyway. Ok whatever, I seriously think we need get better as a whole state at smash, I mean we have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to many bad players; like 10 good ones and 3 amazing ones. Look at our f tier, its kind of embarrassing lol, (no talking trash to our f tier players btw, when you constantly have to play someone like gnes first round, it’s kind of hard to place high, right)? (I feel for our f tiers k?) Back to my point, MLG Dallas is in 2/3 weeks? What’s going to happen? Texas might win, we might lose, but I would love to see like all of the top 32 taken up by Texas players. (Ahh this is so jumbled) What I’m trying to say is OUR state needs to improve, our f tier should be a tier filled with people who don’t even play anymore lol. Every single one of us needs to step it up for MLG, and show people that Texas is a hard *** state to compete in, and to fight against sync. I want to see you rapin players like san, I want to see people say yea esams really good but that pika main leaf? he will annihilate you(not saying you’re bad, just using you as an example. you take matches from me right? and I’m c tier except for when I got put into e tier because of a DQ I was hungry ALLAN!) Our B,A,S tiers, if someone asks you to friendly, that means they want to fight your main not get ***** by your 2 minute old [insert char], beat them and give them tips to help them improve. We want to leave pro players in our places when we quit. (that’s just something that was on my mind, make fun of my punctuation stuff if you want to idc, just felt this matter needed to be addressed).
A few things
1. If a match is saved on your Wii, take the time to read the bracket and see if it’s a tourney match. Our people want see their replays, don’t deprive them of the chance to fix their mistake ya hurd? (Allan your a good example of this, you deleted me vs. razer off your Wii from hobo 25 saying you thought both matches were friendlies even though you were the one who called us to play our matches, had you uploaded it, maybe I would have fixed all my mistakes and not get ***** like I did at hobo 28 lol) you’re a boss *** TO, and you brought me to my first hobo where I got dead last cause I have the worst handwriting and dugfinn couldn't read my name right lol. Love you xyro =]
2. Guys who don’t think you’re good, SEEK OUT PLAYERS LIKE JERM ,HYRO, AND LEE! THEY WILL PLAY YOU! ASK THEM TO PLAY AND HELP YOU GET BETTER! SAME GOES TO YOU DOJO AND RAZER! gnes get to helpin please plz plz plz lol.
3. MLG DALLAS IS COMING UP, WE NEED TO HOLD FEST MONDAY, TUES, FRIDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY, FRIDAY, SUNDAY, to prepare. Same to you Dallas San Antonio etc. get your ***** in gear, shape up, it’s training time, LETS GO KICK SOME OOS ***!!!!!!!!!!!!
4. NO MORE SALT THROW AT TOURNEYS it was pretty funny the first time but now its getting scary, if you lose don’t be mad be happy why? Because it means you need improvement and improving = getting better. And that’s always A GOOD THING SAY IT AINT I DARE YOU MOTHER*******
You want the fastest way to get better over all? What i am about to say is 100% fact with no jokes.
1. MAIN and 2nd two of these chars(any combo): Meta Knight, Snake, Diddy Kong, Falco, Wario, Marth, Ice Climbers or Lucario. The rest have next to no gimmicks, require mass amounts of skill/intelligence and have obscene disadvantages. Completely forget abut low tier, there is no hope unless you are the "exception to the rule"=espy/san/boss
2. Learn to space your attacks on command.
3. Learn to power shield and counter attack correctly.
4. Learn to play/abuse every stage in the game(that could possibly be legal).
No joke, if you focus on these things right there, you WILL instantly be 10x better than you were AND you will start winning money/placing high. These are all facts.
