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Hey everyone, we’re back this week with another Mind Over Meta. Tournament games and high-stakes matches are a big deal. Who wins and who loses a tournament is a question determined by a lot of factors, including the preparation, mindset, and luck of all the players involved. This week, let’s talk with top-level competitor and Roy extraordinaire Sethlon about what makes a tournament mindset.
Before the Tournament
MoM: Sethlon, you've accomplished a lot, both in local scenes and national competitions, having won Aftershock in PM and placing very well in multiple other tournaments. What do you attribute to your success?
Sethlon: Knowledge. Endurance. Passion. A love of competition, and the thought processes therein, and an equal love for videogames in general. Other like-minded players being around for me to spar with. Over a decade of experience doesn't hurt either!
Motivation is an enormously important factor in performance; if you don’t feel up to a challenge, chances are that you will perform at a level well below your best. For Sethlon, the face of competition, combined with a deep passion, have helped motivate him to play as much as he has.
Sethlon also seems to suggest that lots of play and familiarity with the game help a lot in tournaments. This seems obvious, but many up-and-coming players seem to get frustrated when they are unable to win their third tournament with little practice. Don’t fall into this trap! Success takes time, even up to a decade for some.
MoM: How do you prepare for tournaments mentally?
Sethlon: A lot of my mental preparations have revolved around what players I expect to run into at the tournament. Top level players are obviously the highest priority, but even mid level players can be threats if you're not ready for them, especially if it’s a tricky matchup. In my head I'll run through the characters I expect to face up against, recall things that worked against them / didn't work, problems I had and potential ways to solve them, habits certain players might have and the best way to take advantage of them, et cetera.
Another one of the main ways I prepare for large scale tournaments is by making sure to practice a lot. I've found that my play is much more crisp and clean if I practice at least 10 minutes a day the full week before, and whenever a serious tournament would come up, I would do that, sometimes more. Just as physical as it is mental, really, but it’s important for the muscle memory to be there and ready to go without a hitch.
Mental preparation comes from understanding where your challenges are and taking steps to address those challenges before you even get to the venue. Studying up on matchups, against both specific players and characters, goes a long way, as Sethlon pointed out. In my own experience, I have found that making solid plans for fighting certain players or characters the day before a tournament has gotten me a lot more success than I would have had otherwise, getting an advantage to win close games, or making a close game out of one that would otherwise have likely been a stark loss.
Actually practicing is also a huge factor. Just a little time without play makes you really deteriorate (as I rediscovered just two days ago!). Technical or precise players, such as many Fox mains, will especially feel the pain of shaky tech skill on tournament day. Never go into a tournament cold! You would never run a marathon without stretching, and it is just as important you stretch your technique before competing in Smash.
But winners and losers are made on the day of the tournament, not before. Let’s fast-forward to the competition!
Tourney Time
Let’s take a look at a tournament through the eyes of a top-level player.
MoM: Sethlon, what is your attitude like at the start, middle, and end of tournaments (win or lose)?
Sethlon: My attitudes for these phases are more than a little skewed by my player status; for top players, the beginning of a tournament is something more akin to just going through the motions than really playing top level smash. Modern seeding means that for at least a couple of rounds, you'll be facing opponents that are nearly guaranteed to lose to you, if not a full pool of matches; the "real" competition doesn't start until you play the other high seed in your pool, or a few rounds into bracket. These matches are generally more endurance tests than tests of skill for a top player, so generally I'll use this time to make sure my tech is clean, figure out how I'm feeling that day, if my pivots/ledgedashes are on point, maybe test out something in game that I've been thinking of trying out. It’s generally much better to be getting these things out of the way then, before having to play against the threats of the tournament.
In general, for well seeded tournaments, the players considered the “best” usually play against the newest or lowest-level players early on, while more mid-level players will duke it out amongst themselves. If you feel that your early competition will not pose much threat, experimentation and skill-checks in the way Sethlon describes are great ways to prepare for upcoming matches later in the bracket. However, for the majority of players at a given tournament, the players you face early on will prove to be great challenges.
Sethlon: The middle of tournaments is where things start to get a little more interesting. At this point there will be players who aren't necessarily "supposed to beat" a top player, but who are good enough that they might still have a curve ball to slam you with, if you aren't paying attention. I'll sometimes still try some more experimental stuff in matches like these, but they tend to be more "honest" overall, so focus is important.
In the middle of the tournament, after a few rounds of the bracket are done, the lowest-level players are usually sieved out. For an average player, this is probably where your real test begins, and is the equivalent of what Sethlon sees at the end of tournaments. Those players who usually place near or in finals can probably experiment in matches mid-tournament, but in general, this is where the average player’s preparation and motivation begins to really show in results. Stay on guard!
Sethlon: And then you get to the top section, where all the top players meet. Its at this point where all the preparation really comes into play, where the polish the day of has to shine, where your focus after the day-long-endurance-run gets tested. Against top players even the slightest misstep can be fatal, so it’s imperative that you play as cleanly as possible, make little moves that leave you open, and capitalize on your opponent’s mistakes as harshly as possible, yourself.
Indeed, the endurance Sethlon credits for his placings comes into effect at the end of a day, when surviving players are battle-worn.
An interesting comment is that at the top level of play, it is important to play “cleanly,” and “make little moves that leave you open.” Slightly more conservative play at the top level, when your opponents are expected to consistently punish small errors, often is the factor that makes one player eke out the “W” over another. This is the stage both where punish game and the ability to exploit mistakes into a punish opportunity are both polished, so it is important, at this stage, to make sure that your own abilities in these points are up to par!
Sethlon: The proper high level tournament attitude for these phases aren't really too different from proper lower level tournament attitudes, but lower level play quickly cuts through the endurance and makes it a test of skill earlier on in the tournament. Lower level players in general aren't likely to have the nuanced knowledge to optimally play head-to-head in matchups, so it often becomes a test of fundamentals, game understanding, and adaptability. Immediately after the tournament is over, I'm often too wiped out to be concerned with attitude, though if problems have cropped up I'll make a note of what they are, so I can sit down and think through some possible solutions.
I can at least attest to early bracket matches being a test of fundamentals and adaptation. Many times I have played against a variety of characters that were unpolished or spammy, but that gave me trouble until I took note of what they were doing and made quick adaptations. The changes were simple to make (like focusing more on baits), but I would have lost had I not made those changes, despite playing against players much less experienced. In this way, the early tournament is like a pop-quiz for the higher levels of the game; if I can’t adapt to the little things early on, how can I earn a chance to play against higher level players, against whom I need to constantly be adapting my style in response to theirs?
So there’s a lot of detail in approaching a competition on and before tournament day. But is there any sort of simple, hidden special secret that makes Sethlon the serious competitor mindset that he has?
Ready To Compete
The short answer is: probably not.
Sethlon: This one is difficult to answer. There isn't really any secret formula; you would probably get a wide variety of answers, if you asked a lot of different players, and each would likely hold elements that are certainly good for a competitive environment.
This week’s Mind Over Meta is a little tricky, because as it turns out, there’s no particular guaranteed way to gain a competitive mindset. People vary widely in how they learn and process things, and hence which mental strategies work and don’t work for them do too.
That said, are there things players can still keep in mind to progressively become better competitors?
MoM: How can you ‘make a man out of us' the intermediate or new players, in terms of mindset?
Sethlon: Simple! You must simply be tranquil as a forest, but on the inside, in your heart and soul, be as if one on fire.
No but seriously, proper emotional control is really important. I can't tell you how many times I've played against opponents and been surprised by their aggression...until I listen to how hard they're mashing the buttons on their controller and falling in a predictable rhythm, and then crush them when i start baiting that rhythm out. In their anxiety and impatience, they don't have the control to understand what’s happening or properly change their patterns up. Other times, I'll have played against solid mid level players who are keeping the playing field even, and then one misfortune suicide/kill puts them on tilt, and they practically fall apart by themselves. It’s vital to be able to keep a clear head, and to understand when your emotions are affecting you negatively so you can work them back under control.
I say "under control", which isn't necessarily to say "have no emotions as all". Some players/competitors subscribe to the belief that emotions in general should play no part in your game, and I wholeheartedly disagree. Just as much as negative emotion can hinder your play, positive or energetic emotion can be fuel...when properly utilized.
In my own experience, I have lost games from losing control of my emotions, even throwing the controller across the room from the most extreme trenches of frustration. I have also taken sets over players I should have probably lost to by breaking their concentration and letting their emotions take over them as well. Playing on tilt really changes a person’s playstyle plasticity, and it can even prevent a player from adapting at all unconsciously. Music, a deep breath, and some time to think can all help with controlling negative emotions, but ultimately they are no cure; the cure must come from your own inner psyche, and that skill takes a lot of time to learn.
Using your own positivity or hype to your advantage, though, is an aspect of play I had never paid much attention to. For a lot of players, confidence is a powerful strength that drives them to just push yourself over to a close victory, and it can even manipulate opponents in and of itself. It’s often even infectious. Confidence in Project M is a big topic, and worth exploring in future articles.
Sethlon: Another thing that many (especially newer) players don't understand is that there is no mandatory code of honor in competition. There are rules to the game, but outside of those explicit rules, the game doesn't care. A game that finishes with a nail-biter last stock last percent edgeguard, a game that ends via time with a projectile character running away on a big stage, a game that ends via an Ice Climbers player wobbling you every single stock...the game doesn't care how a win happens. A win is a win. You may subscribe to a certain code of ethics when competing, that winning in certain ways “doesn't count" or different ways of winning "mean more", but understand that your opponent is under no obligation to keep to that code, or to care.
It is vital to understand that, because until you accept that, you won't truly start examining the situation and dissecting it, searching for the reasons why it played out as it did and what you could have done about it...and that is at the core of learning and getting better.
I had a conversation a few months back with /u/Applejacks15 about something like this; a player had complained that Luigi’s neutral air, in both Project M and Super Smash Bros: Melee, was unfair against Fox. The player had argued that, because Fox was able to successfully grab a slippery Luigi and use a uthrow, he deserved to nail a uair for a kill.
What Applejacks15 responded was that in Smash, you never deserve anything on paper. Every gain you make is purely from having earned it, because the opponent fell into a trap, or failed to punish your move, or misspaced a movement. Conversely, if you were, for example, KO’d or lost ground or were comboed in some way, you earned that small loss as much as your opponent earned the small victory.
Even if you win by a lucky misfire or a ridiculous stitchface turnip, you earned it. As Sethlon says, the game’s results screen doesn’t care about who you are or what you feel entitled to, and therefore the opponent shouldn’t care about your personal rules either. Using this type of mindset has helped me think clearly and focus on results, rather than some vague and unfounded notion of entitlement to victories. I mention the player in this story not because I intend to single him out, but because I hope he sees this and improves for it.
While it’s not possible to describe every facet of something as complex as the “correct” mentality of a winner in Smash, Sethlon has pointed out several important factors in a productive competition mindset that will most certainly help you in your quest toward becoming a winner.
The Very Best
I don’t claim to have the perfect winning competitive mindset or instructions to attain it, and I don’t think that Sethlon does either. However, I do think that the things Sethlon points out are helpful in shifting to a positive, successful paradigm geared toward approaching competition with success as a goal.
I hope that you all see yourselves grow as players and competitors! Special thanks to @Sethlon for participating in the process of this week’s Mind Over Meta; it was a privilege to get a look inside of a top player’s head and share it with all of you.
Take care, -- The Mind Over Meta Writing Team.
