Rant / Other How to not let this game get to you mentally?

[boysilver400]

Nothing I’m doing is ****ing working I keep getting bodied by everyone and my character crisis has somehow gotten worse

Are not working out for me because of how bad their recoveries are. I kept switching back and forth between the two for which one I prefer but every time I chose one I kept regretting it. Roy has sour spots that have cost me games due to not killing when things are supposed to and Chroms recovery is even worse than Roy who already has a bad one. I got hit with a ****ing FALCON PUNCH in my video game club at school because Chroms recovery doesn’t snap to the ledge coming up for some god forsaken reason. That **** happened a month ago and I’m still salty about it. So, feeling that it wasn’t worth it to try and use these two I’ve decided to drop them altogether so now I’m back to square one on not knowing what the hell im gonna do

I have so much frustration with this ****ing game I need help. How do you guys have a good mentality with this game? How do y’all not get tilted because it seems borderline impossible to me.

**** this game.

 

[GhostM]

I understand your frustration, since I once got frustrated because of the many issues with Falcon that caused me to take a break. One suggestion I will say is to get rid of that mentality that you have. That mentality is holding you back from your true potential because you are forcing yourself to believe that nothing you are doing is improving your skill as a player. You have to understand that losing is actually more helpful than just winning matches over and over. Playing the matches to learn is more effective to improve your skills. There are going to be times where a loss will frustrate you, and I understand, but just remember that it is helping you improve your skills in the long run.

Another good tip is to let go of those judgements that you have. Don’t set high expectations for yourself only to be frustrated when things don’t go the right way or if an opponent turns the tables around you. You have to let yourself focus during the match, and accept what happens when playing. Understand the reason why you lost and figure out a new strategy or plan to adapt to your opponents. Everyone will sometimes win and lose. It’s not only a principle that applies to you, since it applies to everyone else. Taking the loss as a learning experience will help aid your strengths and weaknesses as a player, but taking it as a failure will only push you further away into a negative mentality that will only serve to hold you back. Also, understand that a loss does not represent your true skill and ability, since your opponents can turn the tables against you and outplay you. Again, remembering it as a failure will only hold you back more and more.

I’m not sure if this would apply to you, but if you do have anger issues than I would say to find something that can help you calm down after a match if a loss gets to your head. Even with all the possible control that you have, it’s still normal that a loss or two can still get to you. I’d say to play some music or take some short breaths to help you calm down, and get you back to the positive mentality of taking a loss as a learning experience. It’s also bad to have a cocky mentality that you’re the best player, since this will also hold you back since you’re setting high expectations for yourself, only to get frustrated. Don’t be ‘that guy’ who does this since it’ll only help to frustrate you even more.

 

[Oz o:]

You seem like the kind of person who is willing to pick up any character that just happens to be good, regardless of whether you're all into them or not (no offense). There's nothing wrong with choosing better characters in competitive play, but I do happen to think it's a problem if you're not really all that into them. Am I making too big of an assumption? I'll take the risk.

I just recommend people to choose the character they love and most enjoy, regardless of how "bad" they may be. I, personally, don't think any character is truly bad, other than Little Mac (someone with an actual, really bad recovery). Chrom and Roy manage, and you can see it's true with people like Shoyo James (or "RIVERS", I suppose) and Mr.R always mix them up. And if they can do it in the highest levels of play, I'm sure it's not as much of a problem against people our level.

And if you truly want to know, I've been very resentful towards competitive and online play towards this game in the last couple of months. I've also had a very defeatist attitude towards it, and it's not of any surprise it was around the time my tournament performance and results have started declining heavily... for months. It's only as of late that I'm starting to understand, being this way is just a downward spiral, and it most definitely won't get you through. So, what helped me cope and not have it grind on me so much? I simply came to understand that all bad times in life are an illusion thrown at us by The Universe, in a way to throw us off. It gives us ****, and it's testing us. It's really bothersome when you don't understand how it is, but it has helped to see the bigger picture. In a year, it won't matter that a crappy Terry player 2-stocked me in For Glory and left. In a year, it won't matter that I dropped a set for underperforming (as I tend to do). In a year, it won't matter how bad I felt today, how bad I played today, because I faith in my ability to get better- not now, not tomorrow, but it will happen, as long as I follow my path (and not what people told me to do aka pick up a "good" character).

 

[Oz o:]

And for the record, you should know I've always used characters on the lower end of the spectrum, and that's never kept me down and influenced my decision on using them. I've mained Bowser in Brawl & Smash 4 (since the start of the game, before the U-Throw combo), and I currently main Zelda in a supposed "inefficient" way. I'm aware of my character's weaknesses, but that doesn't stop me from finding a way, a better way.

There's no such thing as a bad idea, only poorly executed brilliant ones.

 

[boysilver400]

Update...things haven’t gotten any better

I did my first online tournament in a while and I went 0-2 because I’m bad.

I feel like I physically can’t improve at this game because of the online climate and thanks to quarantine, it’s the only way I can practice this game but I feel like I’m learning jack **** because people keep lagging or using bs WiFi characters and WiFi strategies that I can’t do anything about. Even when I save and get critique on replays and change my style I still lose to button mashers and zoners

my character crisis is still pretty bad but I’m trying to limit my characters to or but I always sd when I use the latter and I threw a game to a Lucina in an arena because of an sd.

on top of that, lately I’ve been getting literal headaches because of how many toxic characters are in this game and how much of them I have to play against whenever I play, and it’s not just the top tiers, I can’t fight bad characters like without getting whiplash when fighting them, let alone characters likeor

at this point I barely enjoy the game anymore and I wish it got an entire rework from scratch

 

[StoicPhantom]

Update...things haven’t gotten any better

Try taking more frequent breaks and not playing long hours (if you do). I find that my tolerance for the bull**** in this game goes down the more frequently I play and it is better to moderate your play when you start getting that frustrated. I'm not particularly fond of the limited neutral and how it lends to mashing more than it should. But other aspects of the game, including my main being the best she's ever been by orders of magnitude, keep me coming back. If you don't have such things, it might be time to move on.

But if you still want to stick around, understand that Greninja and Sheik are difficult characters to play and will take a lot of experience to do well with them, especially Sheik. So you should pick one for now and learn them really well. I don't know much about Greninja, but I feel like I'm knowledgeable enough with Sheik to give you some basic pointers if you want.


Going to be putting this in the context of Sheik, but dealing with mashing and zoning requires lots of patience and subtle movement on your part, as well knowledge of MUs and both characters. For Sheik, you'll want to be playing whiff punish most of the time and use needles to discourage camping and provoke attacks. Once you got your opponent attacking you, time your attacks so that they connect right after your opponent's move ends.

For example, if Lucina tries to poke at you with an aerial and retreat, you can often sneak a dash attack under it and catch Lucina's landing. The timing is a bit tight, but if you learn it, you will decimate most swordies in the game at even mid level. Hitting those brief moments in general is how you want to play Sheik and that's why it takes a while to get good.

From there is where you start dishing out as much damage in advantage as possible. This goes for all characters: IMO advantage is the most important thing in Ultimate, so learn your combos and confirms until you can do them without thinking. I never formally studied how to play Sheik, because I have my hands full with my main and I'm lazy, so I find needle confirms to be essential to help close out the stock in some MUs. Aerial Needles to Bouncing Fish, either in neutral or after a sour spot Nair/Bair at high percents is pretty powerful stuff.


But patience and keeping a cool head is the most essential thing. I know it's difficult to do with how degenerate this game can be, but making sure you don't get aggressive and frustrated is vital to coax mashers out of their campsite. They want you to charge in and approach, because they would have to actually go out and commit to a KO attempt otherwise. Counter camping requires lots of patience on your part, but if you have the lead, then they will have to approach sometime. And if they have the lead, get close enough to their space to make them nervous, without putting yourself at risk. They might do something silly, like jump or try to attack.

 

[Rex4Smash]

You get used to the bs until it makes you numb to whatever is happening to you.
That was how things were for me on Overwatch. When upsetting things happen to you so much that you eventually stop caring and learn more about what you can do to advance to the next level.