• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

I'm terrible

PrimeTF

Banned via Warnings
Joined
Jun 11, 2015
Messages
49
Every single character I try in Melee and PM, I get completely destroyed, often 4 stocked. I'm completely **** tier with the entire roster. I feel like ****ing quitting, because it's near impossible for me to get good at anything in these games!

I ****ing quit
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Stride

Smash Ace
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Messages
680
Location
North-west England (near Manchester/Liverpool)
Being bad currently doesn't mean it's impossible for you to be good.

There's no such things as "just bad"; overall skill level is the combination of your skill level in each individual area of the game. Therefore, to improve your overall skill level, you improve your ability in specific areas. What are you doing wrong, specifically? What can you work on and how? What do the people 4 stocking you have to say about why you're losing? At the very least, you can always benefit from getting better at techskill and guaranteed punishes.

Your character isn't the problem. If you have a main you should just stick to them, and if not you should try to narrow your character pool down until you find one.
 
Last edited:

EmpireCrusher203

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Dec 21, 2015
Messages
79
Location
Florida
3DS FC
3926-7161-9170
Trust me dude, I know how you feel. However, it's important to know, we were all **** at one point, in fact I'm in that phase right now with melee. I'm pretty experienced with Smash 4, however I still remember my friends kicking my ass when I first got the game, and now I am at the same level, or even above in some cases. The only reason I did this is because I never gave up.

However, these a some few tips to learn how to play Smash:

1. Watch a lot of videos
My entire Diddy Kong is based off of everything I learned from watching ZeRo. I literally just pick him up one day and did amazing with him. Watching sets is important because it gives you a visual representation of how the current metagame is played. The same is true for all smash games, and Melee is no exception. Melee is a very complex game, it has had at least 15 years of competitive play, and through the hard work of the players over many years, we now have the current Melee. However, it is overwhelming to learn all of this. Watching match analysis videos are super useful for learning how melee is played ( I recommend watching some of druggedfox's vods). Watch as many tournaments as humanly possible, and make sure to take a lot of mental notes, this would all be useless if you didn't learn anything. In particular, watch videos of top players playing your main, as this will give you a general image of what you should do in game.

2. Choose only one main
Now I have nothing against switching mains, in fact I went from being a Sheik main to an Icies main, to a Falco main, and then back to Sheik. However, it is imperative to only have ONE main at a time. ONE. The reason being is that learning one character is much easier than learning three, at the same time. I say this to EVERY newcomer I come across, because the notion of having multiple mains is what really holds back a lot of players. Yes, you may have secondaries and other mains, but only after mastering your current main. For example, look at Hungrybox, he has been a Jigglypuff main since he first got into melee. Mango, was originally a solo Jigglypuff main, until he switched to the Fox/Falco that we know today (with falcon and marth also temporarily being in there). Armada was a solo Peach main, until he became the best in the world and added Fox to his arsenal. Do you see a pattern? These gods all started off with only ONE main, and once they mastered that one character, they moved on to others. Basically, only have ONE main, it will make your life easy.

3. PLAY OFTEN
You can't expect me to git gud at melee when I dont even play it. A lot of things, such as the neutral, can only be formed by sheer experience. Sure, you can read thousands of online articles, but you won't learn anything unless you dont put it to practice. Play often, and very often. Attend to any and all tournaments in your area, even if you are a scrub, the experience you will gain is invaluable. Play often, against friends, as playing friendlies is a great way of learn how to play melee, since you have no pressure and are free to experiment and make mistakes. Maybe you can try a new character, a new technique, a new strategy. Basically friendlies are opportunities to learn and experiment. EVEN IF YOU LOSE, you still gain valuable knowledge on one thing, how not to lose in the first place. Now if you know how to lose and what makes you lose, then you can learn to avoid it. ALSO, NEVER GET SALTY. When you lose, accept your loss. No johns. You won't learn if you keeping blaming it on something else and can't take your defeat. In this case, you don't know how to deal with a loss. And that's bad, because for the next few months, you WILL have a huge losing streak, and this saltiness will drag you away from the community, stopping what could have been your rise to glory.

What's even more important is that playing often opens you to a whole new community, literally. A community full of friendly people. You may make a friend or two. You are going to want to be a sociable person, or at least attempt to be, because it will really make the next two years much more bearable.

Yes, netplay also works too when it comes to this.

4. PRACTICE
Consistency is a term we hear a lot, especially with the Gods. The five Gods are known as gods, because they are SO consistent at winning, that if you ever go against them, you are 99.9% of the time going to lose. Now consistency can only come with (A. frequent play with others) or (B. constant practice). Now the gods practice, A LOT, like several hours a day, straight, nonstop. Now what can you practice? Tech skill, spacing, micro situations, character matchups, etc.. Now practice can range from watching vods, to grinding punish game on a 20XX cpu. However, tech skill is VERY important, as it opens a whole new door. Basically if you suck at a particular area, such as your wavedashes, shield drops, wall techs, etc., its about time you hit the training room and practice until your fingers are numb. Now, I actually find grinding tech skill to be a great stress reliever, you may not. So listen to some music, or something, to keep you entertained for the next 3 hours. I also find it fun to read up on articles about tech skill, smash theory, the nuetral, and so on. You may not, but at least put in the effort to do so, because it will really pay off.

http://www.meleelibrary.com/
That link is your savior. It's a collection of ****loads of articles. As a fellow newcomer, the content in the Melee Library is a godsend. Please take the time to read EVERYTHING in it.

5. Be patient

Now, on average it will take you about two years for you to even be able to win tournaments. Now don't let this deter you, because I've seen people do it faster, but only because of their dedication. You will lose, a lot. And you will feel like quitting. And you will feel like throwing your controller to the ground. And you will cry and make the person next to you uncomfortable. And you will attempt to throw your gamecube out the window. However, you must be patient if you even want to get close to being good at this game. You can't expect victory to come by a simple character change, or by a new tech skill. Only through sheer practice, experience, and dedication will you be able to achieve victory. I am also on that painful two year journey, so don't give up on me, because then I'll get pretty lonely.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom