How did you become better?

[Starkiller2]

Link to original post: [drupal=5459]How did you become better?[/drupal]



Hello, my name is Starkiller2. I'm a Canadian smasher who is trying to work into the competitive scene for SSBM and SSBB. Over the last year I have made the most progress towards how I play smash today. I'm very curious as to how other people came into the competitive scene. I'll shortly explain where I come from:

I played SSBM with my friends, and slowly became the best in my neighbourhood. When I got to high school, I met this other kid (a year older) and he brought Melee in to play (we have a GC at school). He was the best player I had ever seen, besides myself. After a while, we decided that it was completely 50-50 between the two of us. As years passed, we grew in ability but never surpassed one another until I was in grade 11. Then I became slightly better than him (maybe 55-45 me). However, at that same year this other kid joined our group. He proved to be another serious competitor. My main at the time was Mario, both of these guys main'd Link (down-throw to spin attack!). The new kid also played as Falco, who I now know to be one of the scariest characters to play against. I believed I was as good as I could get, but after losing more than winning against this new kid I changed to main Marth, as I assumed he was better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBz2SVg4WYo&feature=plcp
^^^^how we play.

This worked, but I would still classify myself as his inferior. I kind of fell into slight desperation, as fighting hordes of lvl 9's and self-training were not helping. I dould not believe that the road to getting better ended there. So I scoured the internet looking for how to improve my game.

That's when I discovered the Advanced Techniques (Wak's Tutorial videos).

I was completely baffled as to how this entire world existed without any of us knowing! So I practiced these techniques without telling anyone, but kept Marth as my main. Naturally, I got weaker while I tried to implement these into my style. But I decided that to reflect my advancement into this new level of play, I needed a new character. So I trained as Fox for weeks, and used him and Marth in a tourney against me and my friends. It worked out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c931OakOjhs&list=UUMlt2GIK9Zb69jkdJ-7TMOg&index=5
but I knew I was still a long ways away from the likes of Mew2King, Dr PeePee, Armada, HBox, and so on.

I currently main Falco now, and I have, at least in the eyes of my friends, attained a level of playing they can only define as "Super Saiyan". But I know I am simply Goku at the start of DBZ, and there are many "Friezas" out there.

 

[Sizzle]

The best way to improve, in my experience, is a combination of playing as many different opponents as possible, and practice by yourself. You want to experience playing against someone much better, a little bit better, your equal, worse than you, etc. With all of this experience, you can do a lot of things. Playing people better than you helps keep your ego in check, shows you what high level play is all about, and gives you a goal to attain. Playing people your skill level helps you put into practice the things you have been training on your own, and helps give you confidence to keep playing and having fun. By playing people worse than you, it allows you to be creative, enjoy the game, try new characters, etc. If all you have around you are players worse than you, travelling to play better players is a must. It's also possible to get stuck developing bad habits when playing worse players, so make sure they aren't your only source of practice. Other than that, watch videos, read and post in the character specific forums, learn the metagame and become a part of the community. I've long given up on trying to become a "pro" but I've made so many friends from this community, I doubt I'll ever stop playing. Never forget that it's a game and it should be fun.

 

[Chronodiver Lokii]

The best way to improve, in my experience, is a combination of playing as many different opponents as possible, and practice by yourself. You want to experience playing against someone much better, a little bit better, your equal, worse than you, etc. With all of this experience, you can do a lot of things. Playing people better than you helps keep your ego in check, shows you what high level play is all about, and gives you a goal to attain. Playing people your skill level helps you put into practice the things you have been training on your own, and helps give you confidence to keep playing and having fun. By playing people worse than you, it allows you to be creative, enjoy the game, try new characters, etc. If all you have around you are players worse than you, travelling to play better players is a must. It's also possible to get stuck developing bad habits when playing worse players, so make sure they aren't your only source of practice. Other than that, watch videos, read and post in the character specific forums, learn the metagame and become a part of the community. I've long given up on trying to become a "pro" but I've made so many friends from this community, I doubt I'll ever stop playing. Never forget that it's a game and it should be fun.

I didnt get better...everyone around me just got worse!
(kidding!)
(that is unrelated to me quoting this...noooow i will discuss Sizzle's post)

Basically, what he said. For instance, I played someone who I was a little worse off against for YEARS when I started playing Brawl. I still only barely go toe to toe with him. But, I've improved greatly from it. I used to get 3 stocked by people in Brawl who were a lot better than me, but lately I've been giving a few higher leveled players a run for their money in friendlies and in bracket (lol I still lose most of the time...BUT VALIANTLY!)

Though, I get rusty really quick due to college. The scene here is mostly Melee, so despite being able to learn melee with really amazing players, I don't have anyone at a competitive level to play Brawl against. I get into really bad habits and have to constantly correct myself. Though, playing against players that are worse than me has given me a chance to practice getting better at reading and predicting what the other player will do. I'm learning to set things up in a safer environment before trying them against people that won't let me get away with stuff easily.

So just keep practicing against ANYONE who you know would like to play you. Try out as many characters as you can until you get the right fit. Other than that, I couldnt say it any better than Sizzle can.
I wish you luck! The smash scene can be a bit goofy at times, but they really are a welcoming bunch, and are probably the only reason I still want to keep competing and hosting events.

 

[deepseadiva]

Practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice.

 

[Vinylic.]

You just keep playing and ask for assistance.

 

[Twinkles]

playing people who are 100000000x better than me

 

[Fly_Amanita]

When I first got into competitive smash, I mostly just watched lots and lots of videos of good players and practiced execution very often, so that I was able to at least very superficially resemble a proficient player. Of course, I still sucked since I didn't actually know anything about the game (and in the grand scheme of things, my execution still had a lot to be desired), but it seemed to be a decent framework to start with. After that, I just focused on figuring out what I struggled with and coming up with solutions to those problems. I think being able to solve your own problems instead of constantly relying on advice from better players is a valuable skill, seeing as there will be times in your career when your opponent will bust out something weird you hadn't seen before and you won't have a KK/PP/etc sitting over your shoulder to tell you what to do better. Plus, you might come up with things that are about as good or better than the standard options anyways. Even if some of your ideas don't work out, if you understand why they don't work, you'll learn something valuable nonetheless. That all said, it's still good to be aware of the modern metagame and watch videos to see what better players do in response to the things you struggle with, especially for the times when you feel overwhelmed and just don't know what to do better. When doing that, explicitly try to find videos of the things that cause you difficulty; for example, if you're getting overwhelmed by a particular player, look for videos of that player or one who plays similarly against better foes; if you can be a little more specific about what's causing you problems, that's nice, too, although finding videos of specific situations can be tricky and you often ending having to sit through a bunch anyways. Asking people on the boards what to do about things is still okay, too, but it's much easier to see how to apply things if you're actually seeing it done in the middle of a match, especially when you haven't been playing long and you might not be able to translate an idea in text to a strategy on the battlefield very easily.

Regarding all the "practice, practice, practice", I'd amend that to "practice with a purpose". Playing a little bit while paying attention to what you struggle with or what you could be doing better (coupled with thinking about all of this when you're done playing) is way more valuable than just playing a lot on its own; don't expect hours to translate into progress unless you actually put meaningful effort into those hours.

 

[Starkiller2]

I recently lost a 1v1 against my brother (me: Falco, him: Luigi) and I couldn't figure out what went wrong. Apart from the fact that he would dodge roll EVERYTHING and needle me until he could kill me with his Fair, I was in complete control. But on my last life he was at 80% but managed to win anyways. I thought and realized that I was making the same mistake over and over. During the match I didnt see it, but I was recovering with side-b above the ledge and he would catch me with his u-smash everytime. It's little things like that that I would be able to catch on if I had better players to play against. maybe next time a tourney comes i'll be able to go.

 

[Sol9000]

How to become a "pro" at surviving without ever fighting another player

1- Special Brawl- Fast, Health-Based.
2- Set Yourself at 1 HP.
3- Turn On All Idle-Damage Items (ie Koopa Shells, Bom-Ombs etc)
4- Select Team Battle
5- Generate 3 Level 9 CPUs with 300 HP
6- make those CPUs on the same team: against you
7- Play as a Slow character (ie Bowser)
8- Select Big Blue
9- You will become a quality when you win the match blindfolded, facing the other direction, with the TV on Mute, Drunk
10- Optional: Turn on the Smash Ball but only let the CPUs use it

 

[Fly_Amanita]

I recently lost a 1v1 against my brother (me: Falco, him: Luigi) and I couldn't figure out what went wrong. Apart from the fact that he would dodge roll EVERYTHING and needle me until he could kill me with his Fair, I was in complete control. But on my last life he was at 80% but managed to win anyways. I thought and realized that I was making the same mistake over and over. During the match I didnt see it, but I was recovering with side-b above the ledge and he would catch me with his u-smash everytime. It's little things like that that I would be able to catch on if I had better players to play against. maybe next time a tourney comes i'll be able to go.

This isn't one of the things that you need to play against better people for. You yourself noticed that you kept getting punished for this, so you should have been able to adapt to it. I know it can be difficult to make adjustments on the fly, especially when you're inexperienced (I was terrible at actually thinking mid-match for years), but it's not something you necessarily need intense competition to improve at.