Playing Down in Tournament Matches

[HRR2b23]

Hey guys, I've been having a bit of a problem in my tournament matches. I'm still relatively new to tournaments, I've only been to around five, but a problem I've had at pretty much every one of them is that I can never play my best unless I'm playing against somebody better than me in terms of skill. At the last few tournaments that I have gone to, I've been knocked out because I've played down to the level of the person I'm playing against, and that's kind of a problem. I know it sounds like I'm being kind of bigheaded here, but it's the truth. I think my problem may be that I try to do too many ATs and get fancy and just screw up and end up getting KOd, but I don't really think that's the whole thing. Has anybody else had this problem? How did you guys overcome it?

 

[Nicco]

If you lose to someone, they're better than you.

Stop screwing around in matches.

Being fancy is fun, but you're nothing more than a mere clown. I speak from experience http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V0WVFeGsKM

All that matters is the score.

 

[Nicco]

In that set I miss alot of opening, because most of the time I'm just wavedashing/landing around not knowing what the hell im doing. As the crowd gets excited I get even more encouraged to screw around, and I counterpick Mute City, even tho that stage sucks ballsacks against jiggs.

 

[N64]

Remind yourself before and during the match that you want to win. Any time you lose a stock is a good moment to refocus and take things seriously. Don't take for granted that you're going to win. Slow down if you have to and just watch your opponent, normal i'm-losing-a-match stuff. The other person, regardless of skill, is trying to beat you.

I used to play down on some matches as well because it was less stressful to give every match my all. But in a tournament, it's what you have to do.