My First Melee Tournament

[Showgingah]

I just signed up for my first Melee tournament next month. I main Link and Ganondorf. So, uh, any advice...

 

[Y-L]

Don't play to win, play to learn. Don't be disappointed if you go 0-2. After you lose, ask the person who beat you what you should be doing. Have someone record your match if possible and watch it back later. Try not to get tourney nerves.

 

[Griffin52]

Don't give up either, I know after getting beaten dozens and dozens of times is really frustrating but if you keep at it and practice other people a lot, your results will keep getting better.

 

[CptJPuff]

Expect a lot of people not to take you seriously when you're using Link.

 

[Showgingah]

If they don't take me seriously...is that a good or bad thing

 

[Dark Byte]

If they don't take me seriously...is that a good or bad thing

It's not a great thing. Link is cool to play in some matchups, but overall playing him will not be conducive to improving at smash. I'm a big advocate for learning a high tier first and then playing your low tier later once you've developed an understanding of the game. When you are a beginner, you will get slaughtered so badly as a low tier that you will have a hard time figuring out what you actually did wrong. There is a point where losing over and over is bull**** and you're not going to learn anything.

It's important that you learn how to learn how to win a game of smash against someone. This will be easier as shiek or any high tier, and incredibly hard as link. It's like if you started playing baseball yesterday, you wouldn't start by trying to pitch a knuckleball.

 

[Diosama]

Have a goal, like make it out of pools, win a set, etc

Try to play some really good players and don't be afraid to ask for advice, no matter what, tournaments should always be a learning experience.

 

[Ravengeance]

75% of people don't make it past round 2 of winners. Since it's your first tourney no matter who you played chances are even if you win a match someone is gonna bop you. The majority of players don't make it far in the tourney itself. So don't let that be of discouragement to you at all.
Play friendlies. That's the best advice I can give. You get people of all skill levels you learn it's relaxed and in my personal experience the smash community irl is pretty friendly. Whether you get wrecked or you destroy someone you still say good games and you can just genuinely have fun. Don't worry about the tourney itself. Just enjoy the experience. The atmosphere is a good time. Hope that helps.

 

[iAmMatt]

After you lose, ask the person who beat you what you should be doing.

I've heard that this can be annoying. While occasionally asking for advice can be beneficial, you should be able to observe what you are doing wrong. Some things I struggled with when starting out include neutral game, approaching, and application of tech skill. If all the friendlies setups are being used, just watch some other dudes play. Watch how they punish, what their neutral is like, when they approach, and how they apply tech skill. I believe that watching the game is almost as good as actually playing.