I'm thinking of getting into Smash Bros. competitively.

[Gaminguy010]

I'm thinking of getting into Smash Bros. competitively. Any Advice?

 

[Ffamran]

Practice? There's not much I can say besides looking up videos, guides, and other info on characters you want to main, combos, competition flow, etc.

 

[Zero Suit Wario]

Have fun and stay true to your heart

 

[MioTinto]

Don't feel completely devastated if you get rekt a few times. Practice makes perfect.

 

[TeaTwoTime]

I'd recommend finding a good practice partner if you don't already have one. Playing against CPUs will only get you so far.

 

[RascalTheCharizard]

Practice under official or recommended rulesets; play with skilled human players as often as you can (training against the CPU can be problematic because you're training yourself to react to things that actual human players won't do); read what other players have discovered about your preferred character; don't give up if you get smoked your first time competing; and have fun doing it all or there's no point :>

 

[nintyplayer]

Look up combo videos and more advanced tactics and try to mimic EVERYTHING in training mode, then against computers, then against players.

 

[Phyr]

The most important tip to improving is wanting to improve, and working towards that goal.

First, play with people. Ignore training or reading guides or stuff. PLAY, the more you play, the better you'll get.

Think: Why do i lose? Why do I win? What can i do? Everytime you have free time, just meditate.

And the other key to be good: have fun. If you are having fun doing this, you will be more proactive and actually improve much faster.

Btw, practicing and looking at videos is terrible. Only do that if you have no other way to play with people. You will start copying people or start doing robot stuff... when the most important thing in a competitive game is knowing how to make decisions. Videos wont teach you why people do that.

Edit: For example, nintyplayer advice is a terrible advice from someone who rarely will get out of pools. I'm sorry, but that's truth. You can get valuable information or much precious tech skill but the most important thing is knowing how to play, and you only get that playing.

I can't stress this enough: don't copypaste player techniques. That is a HORRIBLE thing to get used to. You will reach ceiling and don't actually know what to do because you lack a lot of basis. Or worse, you will find yourself losing to worse players than you and get frustrated with the game.

Edit2: Going to tourneys is great. You get a fantastic time, lots of freeplays with losts of people of all levels, and a chance to prove yourself and rate your actual skill level.

Edit3: This doesn't mean watching videos and practicing are not important, but shouldn't be your main method of training and should be avoided as a form to substitute real playing experience against humans.

For example: if you get beaten by a certain strategy, you can watch some videos and look at what does that player do in these situations. Then think why they do it, timings, moves... then practice it and use that new tool the next time you face that problem.

 

[LancerStaff]

What I see as the biggest hurdle is not letting ideas like "better not spam cuz it's cheap" out of you and your friends heads. Seriously, use everything you got and play to win.

 

[Wanderer from Roseyard]

What I see as the biggest hurdle is not letting ideas like "better not spam cuz it's cheap" out of you and your friends heads. Seriously, use everything you got and play to win.

That's another good one. Don't impose rules on yourself if the game doesn't!

 

[tupelocase]

Focus on playing consistently. Playing in large spurts once a week is good, but playing at least a little every single day is amazing.

 

[KaZe_DaRKWIND]

Figure out basics and then research you character.

 

[Raijinken]

Play a lot, pick five characters to get good with, and have fun.

 

[Renji64]

Play with as much people as possible and also try to find some people close to your level as well. Stay true to yourself and have fun. Also don't give up a character if things are looking grim.

 

[Senario]

Play a lot, pick five characters to get good with, and have fun.

Correction. Pick ONE character to get good with first. Then you can go learn others. This is a common mistake among new players who play 3 or more characters trying to learn them all when really it just makes for overall slower learning. Pick one, maybe two characters at most and learn how to use them. I highly suggest project M and smash melee for a starting point since brawls scene is not very big and finding players would be tough. Project M is a little more imbalanced than melee but it is slightly easier to learn and will be updated in the future. PM is like melee with training wheels (not a bad thing).

 

[Megane-for-Life]

Be a super saiyan, every time you loose, get stronger! every time you win, get stronger! every time you die, come back... Stronger!

 

[Tino]

Playing against CPUs at the highest level should be a good place to start.

 

[Raijinken]

Correction. Pick ONE character to get good with first. Then you can go learn others. This is a common mistake among new players who play 3 or more characters trying to learn them all when really it just makes for overall slower learning. Pick one, maybe two characters at most and learn how to use them. I highly suggest project M and smash melee for a starting point since brawls scene is not very big and finding players would be tough. Project M is a little more imbalanced than melee but it is slightly easier to learn and will be updated in the future. PM is like melee with training wheels (not a bad thing).

I assumed that if he's getting into competitive, he already has a main he considers himself good at. From there, it's important to expand your roster to encompass more matchups and stage preferences.

If that's not the case, then definitely one (or at the very most, two) to focus on until you know their tricks inside and out.

Also, I will quietly disagree on PM's balance vs Melee's balance, both on a roster viability stance and from the patchability.

 

[Senario]

I assumed that if he's getting into competitive, he already has a main he considers himself good at. From there, it's important to expand your roster to encompass more matchups and stage preferences.

If that's not the case, then definitely one (or at the very most, two) to focus on until you know their tricks inside and out.

Also, I will quietly disagree on PM's balance vs Melee's balance, both on a roster viability stance and from the patchability.

No, that isnt how competitive play works. You do not learn new characters for specific matches you keep playing the one character you like to play until you are very good and know that characters matchups in and out regardless if it is a good or bad matchup. Anybody who has played for a while knows this. You do not learn 5 characters unless you are already very good at the game. I dont pick up spacies for one matchup, marth for another, sheik, then and jiggs. One or two of those will always be more on point than the rest. And if you are evenly skilled on all characters you likely are not very good at any of them. Usually closer to mediocre.

And there isnt anything really enjoyable with a big scene that you can compare both of those games to. They are the most balanced as you are free to choose at least half or nearly any character and do well as long as you learn the character. Even the old brawl guys in my group switched over to PM and I didnt say anything to them. There are more PM players than brawl atm and a competitively playable smash 4 isnt out yet. I dont think some players want to ruin their 3ds controls, I wouldnt want to.

 

[Reila]

Play a lot, pick five characters to get good with, and have fun.

Aren't five characters a bit too much?

 

[Raijinken]

Aren't five characters a bit too much?

I, at least, get really tired of playing the same character or two every game, but that's largely because I haven't the resources to travel to play outside my group, where I'm already at the top. That's why I typically pick at least three, if not five, mains.

Like, we have such a massive roster, I see it as a pointless waste of content to not use at least a decent slice of it regularly.

 

[TheZapp]

Aren't five characters a bit too much?

Yea, im gonna start with 3
Robin Shulk Villager. and hey, I might not even end up liking them

 

[pants name guy]

-_- Please don't pick five "mains." That's not what a "main" is. There's a reason why there are "mains" and "secondaries."

I can't really say anything specific to character choices since i don't know which game you mean, but remember to play with other people as much as you can. Have fun doing it, too. I play Melee and Brawl because I love them. Seriously, I basically quit competitive Pokémon for them. Don't take winning/losing too seriously and stuff, too. Always listen to your heart before you listen to your brain. Someone in the documentary (I forget who) once said "it's not about winning or losing, it's about performing kickass awesome ****." Something like that. Best of luck to you.

 

[Reila]

Like, we have such a massive roster, I see it as a pointless waste of content to not use at least a decent slice of it regularly.

Yea, I agree. Even it hinds my potential with my main, I don't like the idea of playing only one character.

 

[DougX]

Use Luigi and everyone will bow at your feet instantly.

In all seriousness... Pick a character or two that you're comfortable with, practice with them, get to know the character more in depth, fight other players with proper competitive atmospheres, all that good stuff. I'm no competitive genius, but I think these tips could be of some kind of assistance. :3

 

[Raijinken]

-_- Please don't pick five "mains." That's not what a "main" is. There's a reason why there are "mains" and "secondaries."

I can't really say anything specific to character choices since i don't know which game you mean, but remember to play with other people as much as you can. Have fun doing it, too. I play Melee and Brawl because I love them. Seriously, I basically quit competitive Pokémon for them. Don't take winning/losing too seriously and stuff, too. Always listen to your heart before you listen to your brain. Someone in the documentary (I forget who) once said "it's not about winning or losing, it's about performing kickass awesome ****." Something like that. Best of luck to you.

In my defense, I did not say five mains.

All the rest of that is of utmost truth. If you aren't having fun with the game, either play a different character, play against different players, or play a different version of the game. Find out what makes it fun, and stick to that.

 

[ADAPT Chance]

Practice a lot and watch your own replays [losses] to try and learn from your mistakes.