Mithost
Smash Ace
Warning, probably a long read.
Hey guys. I just got home from my first Smash tournament, McSmaster. As you may know, a few big names (M2K, T.O. Joe, Hammertime, and others) were there. What you might have not known, is that for a group of four players, it was their first smash tournament. I was part of that group along with three of my friends, and this is a little long story about how it went, through the eyes of the newbie.
A few weeks ago, I started asking everyone I could find on reddit about their first tournament. What did they do? What did they wish they did more of? Less? To my surprise, most (if not all) of them replied. Something more shocking than the people who replied was the reply itself.
"Play to learn, not to win."
This was the message that absolutely everyone I asked sent back to me. At the time, I understood fairly well that I would not be the best one at the tournament. I focused on the fact that everyone was telling me I was going to lose. I didn't take offence to it, but I felt dumbfounded. If I wasn't going to win, how hard would I lose? Would get 0-2'd in bracket? Would I make it out of pools?
Then it struck me. Play to learn.
The tournament was hosted at McMaster University, in Hamilton Ontario, Canada. After spending two nights at a nearby friend's house, it was finally time to play some smash. Four of us were going as a group, playing in both doubles and singles. We have heard about the live stream and a few of the big names who were coming, so it was a big event for us. When we arrived at the 3rd floor tournament hall, there were around 8-10 people scattered within groups, talking around tables with gamecube controllers in hand, conversations being surprisingly unrelated to smash. I guess we were early.
After around 20 mins of waiting around, we see three or four people walk into the room. One carrying signs, one carrying a money box for the entrants, another person with a large CRT, and the familiar face of GimR carrying what appears to be recording equipment. Before the first TV was setup, the VGBootCamp group came back with another load of CRTs... and then another, and another. My friend brought his wii, so we picked a TV and booted it up. Finally, we could play some smash.
My and my one friend were playing smash all night, but today felt different. My hands were stuttering. Wavedashing was difficult. People were watching. I decided to jump off the setup to let my friend play friendlies.
I started watching matches. Lots of matches. Safe to say, I had high expectations for these people. However, I think these expectations were a bit too high. There was lots of rolling. SDs. Failed tech skill and failed ledge guards. I needed to play one of them. I needed to win.
After a few more minutes of that, a gentleman by the name of Professor Labcoat requested a game of friendlies. I obliged. We moved to a TV fairly far away from the crowd, and picked our characters. He played bowser, if I remember correctly. It was even around half way through the match and I was very slightly ahead, but then some people started peeking at our TV. My fingers began stuttering again. I failed my wavelands. I failed easy punishes. I lost that match. This happened with around 3 or 4 other players. I wanted to win infront of these players. The only game I won at that point was a game against my friend, and that was before people really started watching. I wanted to win in front of these people. I wanted to win.
This one man came up to me and asked me for friendlies. I sadly forgot his tag. I accept his invite, and we go at it. He plays ness, I play yoshi. I've played against a lot of ness players back home, so I fundamentally knew the matchup. He was much better than the ness players back home, but the matchup was the same. Avoid PK fire, gimp his recovery, avoid being combo'd at all costs.
He caught me off guard enough times, but we got down to the last stock. I proved that Yoshi is scary up close, so he started camping with his PK Thunder. I just kept getting hit with it, but I kept my range so he couldn't combo off of it. He got me up to around 200% this way. What happened next however, is what changed the day entirely for me.
I learned.
He throws PK Thunder at me. I jump towards him, and kick the projectile with Yoshi's Nair. The kick hitbox was still going, so I end up landing on him with it. He is at 50%. He tries again, I nair again into a small combo, 70%. He gets a nice grab on me and throws me. I DI and live. He PK thunders to take advantage of me being hit, but I nair and hit him again. I'm at 260%. He starts to mix things up, but he himself being at 90% is enough to keep him at range. I have practice against Ness camping with PK Fire, so I stay unharmed. He gets a dash attack on me and gets a successful PK thunder to bring me at 300%. I double-stick DI and barely survive. He goes for another close up attack and runs into my nair, and he flies off the stage.
Everything clicked right there. I was not going to win this tournament. It wasn't going to happen. However, there are well over 70 P:M players here with different power levels and playstyles, and I have 8 hours to learn from them. If they are better than me, I learn. If they are worse, I can practice what I just learned.
The tournament started shortly after I gained this mentality. Doubles first. The TO gets up on a chair with a hand drawn bracket written on a piece of paper. He goes down the list, and then we hear it. I heard about how TOs do this, pairing best vs. worst early on. I just didn't expect my first tournament match to be this.
Mithost and Avira vs. T.O. Joe and Mew2King
We walk over to the setup M2K is at. He is sitting next to an empty chair, texting someone on his phone. His controller is in his lap, and a worn, white cardboard box with hundreds of postal stamps and stickers on it rests under the table. We introduce ourselves and explain that we are the team, and then we sit there. T.O. Joe hasn't arrived yet. M2K didn't talk much during this time. When we ask him where he thinks T.O. Joe is, he gets up, walks over to the commentary table. He comes back with his partner. T.O. Joe talked to us. He asked how we were doing, commented on the whole first tournament thing, then we started a match. M2K insisted that we picked the first stage, so we did.
There is something people don't tell you about playing against M2K. His playstyle is different. In neutral game, you can hit him. I got chain grabs on him and my team mate got his fair share of hits in too. When you make your mistake however, M2K makes sure to highlight it. The mistakes can be as simple as spacing, but both me and my friend could study the match in real time and figure out why we lost our stock each time we did.
In the second round, M2K just random'd the stage.We lost that one too.
I'll post more later. I have to go to school.
Hey guys. I just got home from my first Smash tournament, McSmaster. As you may know, a few big names (M2K, T.O. Joe, Hammertime, and others) were there. What you might have not known, is that for a group of four players, it was their first smash tournament. I was part of that group along with three of my friends, and this is a little long story about how it went, through the eyes of the newbie.
A few weeks ago, I started asking everyone I could find on reddit about their first tournament. What did they do? What did they wish they did more of? Less? To my surprise, most (if not all) of them replied. Something more shocking than the people who replied was the reply itself.
"Play to learn, not to win."
This was the message that absolutely everyone I asked sent back to me. At the time, I understood fairly well that I would not be the best one at the tournament. I focused on the fact that everyone was telling me I was going to lose. I didn't take offence to it, but I felt dumbfounded. If I wasn't going to win, how hard would I lose? Would get 0-2'd in bracket? Would I make it out of pools?
Then it struck me. Play to learn.
The tournament was hosted at McMaster University, in Hamilton Ontario, Canada. After spending two nights at a nearby friend's house, it was finally time to play some smash. Four of us were going as a group, playing in both doubles and singles. We have heard about the live stream and a few of the big names who were coming, so it was a big event for us. When we arrived at the 3rd floor tournament hall, there were around 8-10 people scattered within groups, talking around tables with gamecube controllers in hand, conversations being surprisingly unrelated to smash. I guess we were early.
After around 20 mins of waiting around, we see three or four people walk into the room. One carrying signs, one carrying a money box for the entrants, another person with a large CRT, and the familiar face of GimR carrying what appears to be recording equipment. Before the first TV was setup, the VGBootCamp group came back with another load of CRTs... and then another, and another. My friend brought his wii, so we picked a TV and booted it up. Finally, we could play some smash.
My and my one friend were playing smash all night, but today felt different. My hands were stuttering. Wavedashing was difficult. People were watching. I decided to jump off the setup to let my friend play friendlies.
I started watching matches. Lots of matches. Safe to say, I had high expectations for these people. However, I think these expectations were a bit too high. There was lots of rolling. SDs. Failed tech skill and failed ledge guards. I needed to play one of them. I needed to win.
After a few more minutes of that, a gentleman by the name of Professor Labcoat requested a game of friendlies. I obliged. We moved to a TV fairly far away from the crowd, and picked our characters. He played bowser, if I remember correctly. It was even around half way through the match and I was very slightly ahead, but then some people started peeking at our TV. My fingers began stuttering again. I failed my wavelands. I failed easy punishes. I lost that match. This happened with around 3 or 4 other players. I wanted to win infront of these players. The only game I won at that point was a game against my friend, and that was before people really started watching. I wanted to win in front of these people. I wanted to win.
This one man came up to me and asked me for friendlies. I sadly forgot his tag. I accept his invite, and we go at it. He plays ness, I play yoshi. I've played against a lot of ness players back home, so I fundamentally knew the matchup. He was much better than the ness players back home, but the matchup was the same. Avoid PK fire, gimp his recovery, avoid being combo'd at all costs.
He caught me off guard enough times, but we got down to the last stock. I proved that Yoshi is scary up close, so he started camping with his PK Thunder. I just kept getting hit with it, but I kept my range so he couldn't combo off of it. He got me up to around 200% this way. What happened next however, is what changed the day entirely for me.
I learned.
He throws PK Thunder at me. I jump towards him, and kick the projectile with Yoshi's Nair. The kick hitbox was still going, so I end up landing on him with it. He is at 50%. He tries again, I nair again into a small combo, 70%. He gets a nice grab on me and throws me. I DI and live. He PK thunders to take advantage of me being hit, but I nair and hit him again. I'm at 260%. He starts to mix things up, but he himself being at 90% is enough to keep him at range. I have practice against Ness camping with PK Fire, so I stay unharmed. He gets a dash attack on me and gets a successful PK thunder to bring me at 300%. I double-stick DI and barely survive. He goes for another close up attack and runs into my nair, and he flies off the stage.
Everything clicked right there. I was not going to win this tournament. It wasn't going to happen. However, there are well over 70 P:M players here with different power levels and playstyles, and I have 8 hours to learn from them. If they are better than me, I learn. If they are worse, I can practice what I just learned.
The tournament started shortly after I gained this mentality. Doubles first. The TO gets up on a chair with a hand drawn bracket written on a piece of paper. He goes down the list, and then we hear it. I heard about how TOs do this, pairing best vs. worst early on. I just didn't expect my first tournament match to be this.
Mithost and Avira vs. T.O. Joe and Mew2King
We walk over to the setup M2K is at. He is sitting next to an empty chair, texting someone on his phone. His controller is in his lap, and a worn, white cardboard box with hundreds of postal stamps and stickers on it rests under the table. We introduce ourselves and explain that we are the team, and then we sit there. T.O. Joe hasn't arrived yet. M2K didn't talk much during this time. When we ask him where he thinks T.O. Joe is, he gets up, walks over to the commentary table. He comes back with his partner. T.O. Joe talked to us. He asked how we were doing, commented on the whole first tournament thing, then we started a match. M2K insisted that we picked the first stage, so we did.
There is something people don't tell you about playing against M2K. His playstyle is different. In neutral game, you can hit him. I got chain grabs on him and my team mate got his fair share of hits in too. When you make your mistake however, M2K makes sure to highlight it. The mistakes can be as simple as spacing, but both me and my friend could study the match in real time and figure out why we lost our stock each time we did.
In the second round, M2K just random'd the stage.We lost that one too.
I'll post more later. I have to go to school.