How to deal with frustration and becoming over competitive?

[Swamp Sensei]

The obvious solution is murder.


But I understand where you're coming from.

When it happens to me, my hands start feeling slower. It's weird to explain, but I think you get it.

Sometimes, just trying a different character can make the world. Not because of matchups, but because it's refreshing.

 

[TheHypnotoad]

This is the worst/scariest part to me. Losing against someone who doesn't play competitive (not that I do either at this point, but I want to and have been trying to train and practice) consistently and starting to get discouraged just makes me feel awful and question any ability I thought I had (to make it worse, he starts the night saying "I haven't played much, so you'll probably stomp me" and then I proceed to lose 75% of the matches). Like I mentioned, one particularly rough day with my ex-girlfriend and a couple guy friends (I lost every match, and the one I did win [using G&W at a safe distance to bucket and release] I was chided for "playing cheap" and "not playing fair") was enough to make me quite playing smash bros all together for over half a year. I still get frustrated flashbacks playing Brawl or even hearing some of the music from the game... and sadly I got a few of those negative associations back but now for Sm4sh after playing with that guy the other day :/

Sorry for unloaded my "life story" haha... tl;dr negative reinforcement does not work for me

Free-for-all with friends is a TOTALLY different ballgame from one-on-one. I can bop any one of my friends 90% of the time in a one-on-one, but we almost always play free-for-alls, and I almost never win (unless I'm one of the final two, in which case I usually win). This is also compounded by the fact that we play >50% of our games on Temple (I hate that stage so much, but I get overruled almost every single time I ask to play on a different stage), and they're better at teching than Mew2king, so they end up living to over 300% sometimes.

 

[srn347]

It sounds to me that since you only get angry in "serious" matches, a gradual transition from fun matches to serious ones might make the problem go away in time. Detach yourself from winning (still try to win, but be prepared not to). Your opponent may deny you the win, but they can't deny you fun and/or improvement unless you let them.

 

[GioGio]

I feel you. I'm incredibly competitive when I play Smash with my little brother. Whether it be Sm4sh, PM, or Melee, my goal is to win. I can get really pissed off after consecutive losses to him. So mad in fact that I thew my GCN controller on the floor so hard that it split in half. Another time he 4 stocked me and I kicked a hole in a wall in my room, LOL. It's only when I play with him though. Put me against literally anybody else on Earth and I'll surely have a good time.

My suggestion is to just put the game down and play again when you've cooled down.

 

[Diddy Kong]

The obvious solution is murder.


But I understand where you're coming from.

When it happens to me, my hands start feeling slower. It's weird to explain, but I think you get it.

Sometimes, just trying a different character can make the world. Not because of matchups, but because it's refreshing.

The last line exactly! It's a reason for me to try many different characters.

Am actually quite evenly skillful with most characters I'm interessted in. Diddy however remains my absolute best and is played more than others, but when I get bored I'll easily switch to DK / Ness / Ike / Mewtwo to refresh my game. It actually really helps my Diddy to improve as well.

Currently, am quite interessted in learning more difficult characters as Fox and Olimar. Captain Falcon really has my interesst as well as of late, as does Wario.

 

[GameBird]

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who can get really frustrated by Smash at times haha. I've been trying out the advice offered and it's been helping. I played with a smash friend last night, who I have a good time playing with and we even found a few really fun matchups (Mario VS Diddy and Little Mac vs Ganondorf are a lot of fun). Switching characters and taking breaks during the match just to talk helps too I've found, since you can have a little breather and not just be "go go go fight fight fight" the whole time.

@ GioGio Holy cow, I've never gotten frustrated enough to cause property damage haha, but I've felt like doing it before!

 

[GioGio]

@ GioGio Holy cow, I've never gotten frustrated enough to cause property damage haha, but I've felt like doing it before![/quote]

I never thought I'd get to that point either. Getting 4 stocked gets me angrier than anything. I've thrown my controllers plenty of times, my Mario classic controller for Sm4sh toughed out a decent amount of throws, but eventually the ZR and C stick broke. My GameCube controller has endured more throws than I can count, it's a shame it's busted now.