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How do I win if I get mentally scared if I start losing?

Wintermelon43

Smash Champion
Joined
Feb 13, 2015
Messages
2,767
As the title says. How do I win if I get mentally scared if somebody hits me? I lose aganist even crappy players just because I get scared I will lose. This causes me to lose, and once ai lose, I have to win again to regain so I can regain being able to win, but that's really hard, and if I lose again this regoes. So, any advice with this?

And another thibg that confuses me:I love music, and it makes stuff more funner, but whatever I play Warioware ir whatever omega (Wii U), where no music plays, I do better all of a sudden? I feel it should do the opposite?
 

ItsMeBrandon

Smash Journeyman
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I get similar thoughts sometimes, although I get more frustrated when I start losing more than anything else.

I can't tell you what sort of mindset is best for you in your case, but I'd first recommend figuring out why you're scared.

If you're just not used to playing against others, well, try playing a lot of matches against others, maybe friendlies. I remember the first tournament I've ever went to, I felt a lot better playing friendlies against others (despite losing a lot- but they're called friendlies for a reason, I really did have a lot of fun even if I usually lost).

If you think it looks like you're just not up to technical snuff, maybe take some time to work on your technique. I think it's understandable if you struggle to do certain things when under pressure, so practice, practice, practice. No one can be perfect, but the more you get used to doing this stuff, the easier it'll be.

If you just can't stand losing, well... the answer might be obvious. It will happen. It's best to take it and keep going. I find that when I play a string of matches and get super frustrated, I eventually move into a mentality where I just want to figure out what my opponent is doing so I can get around that. Because I lose any sort of expectation that I should win (which would lead to frustration when I don't), I focus on the match itself and how I can best approach the situation. It's usually pretty useful for me.

As for music... well, over time I've heard stories of Smash players doing well depending on the sort of music they listen to. Some wear headphones, whether to listen to their own music or nothing at all. Maybe experiment with this and see what sort of music-based situation helps you best. You can always listen to the music if you like, but just a suggestion if you're willing to apply any of this to your game seriously.

Now I'm not sure how useful this advice may be in general, let alone applied to your situation. I apologize if it's not particularly useful, but that's the best advice I can give.
 

Simperheve

Smash Apprentice
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Oct 20, 2015
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Sounds like you're focusing too much on the outcome of the match, and not what's actually happening in the match itself. Do you have any general fears of losing or anything like that? I'm quite used to losing as I used to always lose in whatever I did because I was too focused on the destination, not the journey.

It might benefit you to think more about your immediate situation (what's happening in the match) rather than whether you think you're going to win or not. Think about how to press an advantage / make an escape in your current happenings and you'll find you drown out the prospect of losing and just have fun playing. It'll also help you stamp out the noise and pressure you feel playing other people.

As a case in point, a few weekends ago at EGX I played my first Smash match against a complete stranger. He was really good and we had a crowd of around 15 people standing behind us, watching and critiquing everything we did. Focusing on the immediate situation helped me keep my cool since there was no room for me to process the fact that I could lose in front of a bunch of judgemental strangers. And that led me to win both matches we played.

Also, as everyone will tell you: Practice makes Perfect!
 

SonicNKnux

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It's odd, but try going in expecting to lose miserably. This way you have nothing to lose, and if you win you'll always be surprised.

BGM tends to have an effect on your anxiety levels at times, which can both positively and negatively affect your play. Playing with it turned off causes you to focus on the SFX instead, and thus, the fight.
 

Wintermelon43

Smash Champion
Joined
Feb 13, 2015
Messages
2,767
Sounds like you're focusing too much on the outcome of the match, and not what's actually happening in the match itself. Do you have any general fears of losing or anything like that? I'm quite used to losing as I used to always lose in whatever I did because I was too focused on the destination, not the journey.

It might benefit you to think more about your immediate situation (what's happening in the match) rather than whether you think you're going to win or not. Think about how to press an advantage / make an escape in your current happenings and you'll find you drown out the prospect of losing and just have fun playing. It'll also help you stamp out the noise and pressure you feel playing other people.

As a case in point, a few weekends ago at EGX I played my first Smash match against a complete stranger. He was really good and we had a crowd of around 15 people standing behind us, watching and critiquing everything we did. Focusing on the immediate situation helped me keep my cool since there was no room for me to process the fact that I could lose in front of a bunch of judgemental strangers. And that led me to win both matches we played.

Also, as everyone will tell you: Practice makes Perfect!
I'm both scared that I will lose, and that My win streak will be even more crappy

It's odd, but try going in expecting to lose miserably. This way you have nothing to lose, and if you win you'll always be surprised.

BGM tends to have an effect on your anxiety levels at times, which can both positively and negatively affect your play. Playing with it turned off causes you to focus on the SFX instead, and thus, the fight.
Oh yeah, when I play aganist aomebody on here, I know I will lose, and somehow I do better
 
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Ze Diglett

Smash Champion
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I have this problem, too. If I lose multiple matches in a row, I get super demoralized and my performance just gets worse and worse from there. Doesn't help that most of the people I find online are total *****.
In my experience, the best way to handle it is to just take a break if you start losing a lot. Sit back and watch some videos, listen to music you like, do anything to get your mind off it, then come back later once you're feeling better. Lowering my expectations has helped me a lot as well, so maybe you could try that?
 
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Luggy

Drawing like a tramp
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Dude, why even thinking about the consequences of losing ? Just relax, have some confidence instead of being insecure about everything. You just have to enjoy the game.
maxresdefault (2).jpg

You gotta get schwifty in here.
 

krosswerks

Smash Rookie
Joined
Oct 7, 2015
Messages
15
It might benefit you to think more about your immediate situation (what's happening in the match) rather than whether you think you're going to win or not.
Jumping off this. It may seem intuitive to want to be engaged in constant thought while you're playing, but that is not the case. Think of walking/driving/breathing/any sort of semi-automatic activity you do. You breathe naturally and the process works, but you don't ever consider yourself as someone who is "good" at breathing, do you? You never walked down a hallway and said to yourself "damn, I won the **** out of this hallway, I objectively walked this hallway in the best manor possible," have you? No, you just do that stuff without thinking because your mind/body connection is very strong and you don't need to devote any mental task-managing to those activities.

This is how you must be at Smash. Just as you trust your legs to carry you down the hallway without thinking, so you must trust your hands, your eyes, and your experiences to see you through the match, independent of the input of your ego (the part of your brain that begins to light up and say "you're losing! you're losing! ahhhhhh!!!").

If this all sounds very vague and abstract, honestly it's not: focus is a vital skill but it is not inherent, and it does require practice. Leading to my next point:

And another thibg that confuses me:I love music, and it makes stuff more funner, but whatever I play Warioware ir whatever omega (Wii U), where no music plays, I do better all of a sudden? I feel it should do the opposite?
This basically supports the point I'm trying to make. Music conjures up all kinds of mental and emotional associations in the listener. It engages the mind. This is usually a good thing, but when you're playing Smash with the intent to win, you want your mind engaged on one thing and one thing only: the match.

When you play Wario Ware, you're playing without any music to flood your mind with distracting sensations. Now, this works differently for different people; some people thrive while listening to music, and specifically bring headphones with them to tournaments in order to increase their focus. When you have your own music, you have a greater degree of control over what kinds of sensations you will experience during the match. So although you might be getting distracted by the default stage music, you might try listening to something relaxing from your own collection next time you hop on For Glory, and see if that improves your focus.

You want to give yourself a point of focus to return to whenever you start to feel your thoughts creep back in, even if these are positive thoughts; my personal bane is when I have control of the match, and my ego brain begins to notice and tell me how good I'm doing... and just like that, my flow is broken, personal judgments begin to cloud my thought process, and things don't end well, even though I was "positive thinking". However, if I have some music on in the background, when I feel my mind start to wander I just return my attention to the flow of the music, the instrumentation, some specific element of the piece... usually I am able to melt back into the match. It may be cliche, but honestly I like to listen to classical -- no distracting lyrics, and there's a flow to the classics that seems to really calibrate my brain like nothing else.

Your focal point doesn't have to be music, but it should be something independent of your conscious thought process. I like to make myself look at the character models in intense detail, really take in the movement of every attack and movement of limb. There's no objective (i.e analyze the movement of the characters for weaknesses), it's simply a process for returning my mind to a fixed point and abandoning any kind of evaluation that may be going on in my head ("I'm playing well," "I suck right now," "I'm losing to a crappy player," etc.).

Hope this makes sense... play to achieve a state of focus and excellence, don't play to win (or to avoid losing).
 

Wintermelon43

Smash Champion
Joined
Feb 13, 2015
Messages
2,767
Thanks for the help guys! Sorry to say this, but right now all advice won't work already now since my only non- Wii Remote control isn't working properely. I WILL get another controller or get that one fixed though, so I still need advice, so you should still reply.
 

Simperheve

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Oct 20, 2015
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143
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Jolly ol' Britain
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Jumping off this. It may seem intuitive to want to be engaged in constant thought while you're playing, but that is not the case. Think of walking/driving/breathing/any sort of semi-automatic activity you do. You breathe naturally and the process works, but you don't ever consider yourself as someone who is "good" at breathing, do you? You never walked down a hallway and said to yourself "damn, I won the **** out of this hallway, I objectively walked this hallway in the best manor possible," have you? No, you just do that stuff without thinking because your mind/body connection is very strong and you don't need to devote any mental task-managing to those activities.

This is how you must be at Smash. Just as you trust your legs to carry you down the hallway without thinking, so you must trust your hands, your eyes, and your experiences to see you through the match, independent of the input of your ego (the part of your brain that begins to light up and say "you're losing! you're losing! ahhhhhh!!!").

If this all sounds very vague and abstract, honestly it's not: focus is a vital skill but it is not inherent, and it does require practice. Leading to my next point:.
Well I dunno about you, but I like winning the **** out of the hallway :p

I understand what you mean. I usually only think maybe one or two steps ahead, but a lot of moves ends up bypassing concious thought. Maybe it's to do with habit?
 

Cylent

Smash Cadet
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Feb 23, 2015
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If you're trying to work on your mental state before a tournament I honestly recommend meditating. It clears your mind and can give you a fresh start before a match.
 

Jamble

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Oct 5, 2015
Messages
135
At the end of the day, you have to understand that Smash is just a video game. And one that was never even originally INTENDED as a competitive game. Just calm down, there are so many things in life way more worth getting worked up about than a game. Try to get your win, but don't take it too seriously, kinda get a certain "zen" going on. I find that any decision you will make in smash that is based on emotion at all will inevitably be a very bad one. Enjoy the match itself and just view matches you lose as learning experiences.
 

KirbCider

Smash Ace
Joined
Jul 2, 2015
Messages
688
Location
East Texas
Firstly, if you're going to be playing Online you have to accept you are going to lose.

When playing Online you're going to face a wide variety of opponents and no matter what you will eventually find someone better than you. You're going to lose eventually against someone no matter what you do. We all get winning streaks, and we all get losing streaks. If you put too much value into winning then losing is going to have that much more of an impact on you as well. It's just that simple.

I understand nerves can get the best of everyone. It's natural to feel nervous and I am not saying trying to win is a bad thing either. It's okay to have the desire to win; however do not get upset when you do not. It happens. You can't expect to win every single game.

The most important thing you should be focusing on is just having fun. Games are supposed to be enjoyed after all.

You can play competitively and try to win all you want, but you have to remember to have fun. Don't take a loss so seriously as it holds no weight over you. Losing doesn't exactly mean you are a terrible player, but rather you have more to learn. Everybody has to start from the bottom and work their way up and everyone had to suffer their fair share of countless losses as well, but in the end we all get better.

Seriously, the more weight you give a loss the less you are going to be able to enjoy the game.
 
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