Is it too late to be a competitive player?

[onlyaaron17]

So one day I went to uni at around august and i found a spot where fellow smash players hang around and have setups to have fun and play competitive. I noticed that there wasnt brawl setups only pm and melee setups. Im a brawl person but i sat down and asked to play next. I played melee with my best friend when i was like 10 (18 now) but i never really looked too much into the game. I makned roy and pichu but this i knew the matches were going to he serious in teams. I just picked marth because hes the last character i touched. I started to like melee more considering all the things people did t **** me lol. I sticked with marth i love him as a character . But now in questioning myself. Pm isnt too large to be sponsored due to copyright and brawl is dying. Im stuck between melee and sm4sh both great games. Boyh fun. So my question to you is...is it to late to try to play competitjive melee considering what the top players do now in melee?

 

[EPsilon933]

It's the best time to be a competitive player. Lots of new players are still joining. You'll find someone of equal skill when you go to a tournament

Also, only a few players are top players. Don't worry about them since only a few people can even get close to their level. No one gets close near day 1. Maybe someone can do it in a year or 2 if they're absurdly talented which is absurdly rare

 

[m0ll0y]

Yeah definitely , im 16 now , had the game for like 10 years played it on and off , and just got into it competitively last spring . Its pretty hard to catch up with other players , but if you put in the time and play for like 15 minutes everyday , you progress like crazy

 

[AirFair]

Yeah, playing against people will help you improve. It takes awhile to show results, but it's great to play, and you will find yourself improving over time.

 

[Crawfiish]

Play the game you want to play, regardless of the size of the scene

 

[moofpi]

I sort of feel the same way. I played Melee with friends for years on end and I knew there were local tournaments and stuff but I never knew how big the competitive scene was. I got invited to the local scene a month or so before Smash 4 came out, which I had been hyping about. Here everyone is Melee and PM, but I'd never played the latter or really knew what a wavedash was. Needless to say my Mario got its face stomped in, followed by some trash talk. Then when 4 came out, a lot of us were quarantined from "the real Smash games." But I've been advocating and pushing Sm4sh in our local scene and now it's as big if not a little bigger than Melee and PM attendance. I basically dedicated most of my competitive attention to Smash 4 since it's at the beginning of its meta, the wild west and I don't necessarily have to catch up on 14 years of meta. That isn't to say I play it exclusively though. I have been sharpening up my tech skill in Melee and PM and in a way it helped people "respect" me a bit more as a player (which shouldn't be the case, but I get it) and take my notions on Smash 4 more seriously, but it has also helped my game in all iterations of Smash. (Competitively) Coming from Smash 4, it's actually helped my Melee/PM game a lot because apparently I just play differently than Melee/PM players. Whether that's going to be a benefit in the long is to be seen, but it feels good improving at Smash in general.

You can aim to be #1 in competitive and still probably do very well, but personally I just love playing the game and seeing small improvements over time until there are people that don't want to play you because "I'll just lose." You don't necessarily have to git gud to compete, but you definitely need to compete to git gud. So don't sweat getting your face knocked in a lot at the beginning, because the only guaranteed way to not get better is not to play.

 

[Poe]

It is never too late to join the scene.

 

[Deleted member]

most of the top players are in their early thirtys to mid twenties, the smash scene dosent get older, you get older. snatch your chance when its there!

 

[HolyHam]

Melee has been growing in size, and more new players are joining than ever before. I joined the competitive scene recently, and we have regular events in my area now. It's great being able to play with my group and see everyone get better. You should definitely join a competitive scene.

 

[Omegaspike_]

I don't think it's too late to become a competitive player, I'm trying to get into competitive melee now, it just seems hard to get started out and find small/local tournaments.

 

[Little ShOcKeR]

yeah ive been playing melee for like 2 months im the best marth already in my area. not sure compared to az or vegas right next to my area. completely possible.

 

[Spoice]

Considering the game only recently came back to EVO (2013) I would say the competitive scene is still popular, hell I still get invites to meet ups on my facebook via groups, and I live in the UK. IF you're from Sweden or North America, you should really have no problem getting into the scene, if you have the time and can communicate with others to set up meet ups and what not.

 

[Little ShOcKeR]

Considering the game only recently came back to EVO (2013) I would say the competitive scene is still popular, hell I still get invites to meet ups on my facebook via groups, and I live in the UK. IF you're from Sweden or North America, you should really have no problem getting into the scene, if you have the time and can communicate with others to set up meet ups and what not.

yeah scenes are just randomly popping up in North America.

 

[goobaje]

yeah scenes are just randomly popping up in North America.

Yeah if you live near a college or something (I live in michigan so I'm pretty lucky) you should have no problem finding some tournaments. Even if you get bodied to all hell its still really good experience, and you can always go just to watch and play friendlies.

 

[dahuterschuter]

Nah man.

As the saying goes, "standing on the shoulders of giants". 14 years of development on tech, strats, match-ups, etc is available to every new player right now. Just takes practice.

 

[Ifrit_Smash]

i think it's never too late, especially with melee. I want to get into it but im in a place where there isnt a smash scene for miles. once i move back to the states I might have a better chance at finding some people, but i still dont even have melee. i used to (think i gave it away, stupid me) but now i dont, hope i can get it soon (prrolly main marth or sheik)

 

[ValiantNorth]

i think it's never too late, especially with melee. I want to get into it but im in a place where there isnt a smash scene for miles. once i move back to the states I might have a better chance at finding some people, but i still dont even have melee. i used to (think i gave it away, stupid me) but now i dont, hope i can get it soon (prrolly main marth or sheik)

Same here, not much of a scene but honestly - In my opinion I think it's never been a better time to get into Melee, or any other of the smash games really. I find that as a new generation of smashers comes along it will give quite a breath to the scene and it's already happening with the recent exposure Melee has gotten in the last few years.

...is it to late to try to play competitjive melee considering what the top players do now in melee?

If you're looking to go competitive you'll just need to put the time and effort in. It's never too late to start, and you'll only get out of it as much as you put in, I'd suggest maybe making a schedule and trying to make room every day for practice. It'll give you a good place to start from - but honestly I personally think you everyone has a shot as long as they put the time into it.