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Link to original post: [drupal=5023]Postmortem of my first tournament[/drupal]
It was a fantastic weekend, albeit slightly disappointing.
Almost all of this week's post has been copied and pasted from my other blog, since I explained it there pretty in-depth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by redfeatherraven
I've finally had the opportunity to truly determine how I play. I competed in the first Something 2 Do Tournament on 2/11/10, a double-elimination affair.
I had a 2/2 record and shared 13th place out of 28 with three other entrants.
For my first official standings, it doesn't look too shabby at first shake. After all, that's in the upper half of the standings, which is certainly respectable for my first tournament. In fact, out of any tournament I've ever competed in, this is easily my best first-go result.
So why am I dissatisfied with the result? It comes down to the balance of skill and luck, and how heavily the scales seemed to be weighed towards the latter.
My first opponent was also a first-time competitor - a Wolf main I curbstomped pretty thoroughly. It was significantly too easy and got me overconfident for my next match - which, as it turns out, was against an Olimar main who promptly curbstomped me into the losers bracket and went on to take 2nd place.
In the losers bracket I started off against yet another new entrant - a Pikachu main whom I'd engaged in friendlies prior to the start of the proceedings. It was a mirror match against an inferior opponent and it went precisely as one might think that'd go.
My final match was against a Peach main who was perhaps slightly more experienced than me. She tore me a brand new ******* and would go on to place just above me, sharing 9th place with another entrant or two.
The part about the match that incenses me has nothing to do with my opponent - her skill was commendable and it's only going to be better in the future. What gets me is that I understood her tactics near-perfectly about a minute into the match, and I kept falling for the same tactics again and again to the point of absurdity. In hindsight, my counterpicked stage, my approach, my recovery...EVERYTHING was wrong.
I was quickly intimidated after the first few quick, successful hits. She'd won the fight by then - not because she'd dropped my stocks, but because she'd dropped my confidence. I handed the match to her so simply, I may as well have SD'd, and that kills me.
In short, I won two matches due to luck, and lost two matches due to lack of skill. One of those matches was probably unavoidable - the Olimar was insanely good and it showed - but the other left me brooding because, in essence, I didn't fight back.
Not next time.
On March 18th, the second S2D tournament will commence. I'll be there, and I'll beat 13th place. I won't win yet - a good portion of my opponents have been winning tournaments since before I owned a copy of the game - but I won't settle for going down as anything less than a feisty yellow atom bomb.
Just wait. By the third tournament, they'll know who the ******* in the sexy hat is.
Last week-ish's post got a few sage replies to my fears about the upcoming tournament, telling me to essentially relax, play my best, and not be too worried about winning. I first read them tonight, sadly, but I thank you guys for the thought.
I knew I wasn't going to win, of course - there was a lot of fantastic talent on Sat, and I'm not on that level yet. In fact, I registered as "Dead," with the tongue-in-cheek explanation that, "if I'm not dead by the third round, I'll be surprised." I wasn't stressed or obsessed with winning - I was there to make connections, improve, and gauge where I am.
And you know what? Mission full well accomplished.
Here's to the next glorious battle.
It was a fantastic weekend, albeit slightly disappointing.
Almost all of this week's post has been copied and pasted from my other blog, since I explained it there pretty in-depth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by redfeatherraven
I've finally had the opportunity to truly determine how I play. I competed in the first Something 2 Do Tournament on 2/11/10, a double-elimination affair.
I had a 2/2 record and shared 13th place out of 28 with three other entrants.
For my first official standings, it doesn't look too shabby at first shake. After all, that's in the upper half of the standings, which is certainly respectable for my first tournament. In fact, out of any tournament I've ever competed in, this is easily my best first-go result.
So why am I dissatisfied with the result? It comes down to the balance of skill and luck, and how heavily the scales seemed to be weighed towards the latter.
My first opponent was also a first-time competitor - a Wolf main I curbstomped pretty thoroughly. It was significantly too easy and got me overconfident for my next match - which, as it turns out, was against an Olimar main who promptly curbstomped me into the losers bracket and went on to take 2nd place.
In the losers bracket I started off against yet another new entrant - a Pikachu main whom I'd engaged in friendlies prior to the start of the proceedings. It was a mirror match against an inferior opponent and it went precisely as one might think that'd go.
My final match was against a Peach main who was perhaps slightly more experienced than me. She tore me a brand new ******* and would go on to place just above me, sharing 9th place with another entrant or two.
The part about the match that incenses me has nothing to do with my opponent - her skill was commendable and it's only going to be better in the future. What gets me is that I understood her tactics near-perfectly about a minute into the match, and I kept falling for the same tactics again and again to the point of absurdity. In hindsight, my counterpicked stage, my approach, my recovery...EVERYTHING was wrong.
I was quickly intimidated after the first few quick, successful hits. She'd won the fight by then - not because she'd dropped my stocks, but because she'd dropped my confidence. I handed the match to her so simply, I may as well have SD'd, and that kills me.
In short, I won two matches due to luck, and lost two matches due to lack of skill. One of those matches was probably unavoidable - the Olimar was insanely good and it showed - but the other left me brooding because, in essence, I didn't fight back.
Not next time.
On March 18th, the second S2D tournament will commence. I'll be there, and I'll beat 13th place. I won't win yet - a good portion of my opponents have been winning tournaments since before I owned a copy of the game - but I won't settle for going down as anything less than a feisty yellow atom bomb.
Just wait. By the third tournament, they'll know who the ******* in the sexy hat is.
Last week-ish's post got a few sage replies to my fears about the upcoming tournament, telling me to essentially relax, play my best, and not be too worried about winning. I first read them tonight, sadly, but I thank you guys for the thought.
I knew I wasn't going to win, of course - there was a lot of fantastic talent on Sat, and I'm not on that level yet. In fact, I registered as "Dead," with the tongue-in-cheek explanation that, "if I'm not dead by the third round, I'll be surprised." I wasn't stressed or obsessed with winning - I was there to make connections, improve, and gauge where I am.
And you know what? Mission full well accomplished.
Here's to the next glorious battle.
