Thoughts on My Marth
The best thing that happened to me this tournament was the fact that I now have videos of me to watch against good players, both wins and losses. This is by far the most I have ever learned bout my Marth and my playstyle.
After watching my matches, I feel motivated...Inspired, and determined. In times throughout this "quest," my motivation/determination level goes up and down. On average I'd say it's higher than most people's. I'm constantly thinking about Smash, playing it, or trying to improve somehow.
Sometimes though, rarely, it skyrockets through the roof. It's happened to me now. Why?
Because I now have a very clear direction to take my Marth in. I feel as if I know exactly what I need to work on to break through to that next level of play.
Watching my Marth, I was surprised. Very surprised. It's...like a wildfire. I just do whatever I want to do, and always go for the most lethal choice possible, even if the timing is super tight or the angle is hard. I'm not planned out. I'm creative and play with no boundaries, no concept of what "should or shouldn't" work.
Now, I am extremely excited about the above paragraph. First off, I wasn't bragging at all in the above paragraph. In fact, I feel like I could have done much better at the tournament if I DIDN'T play like that, so reckless and all over the place. I think if I took my time to think out more decisions and went for some simpler kills/combos, I would have won some matches that I lost.
However, it's not about the "now" that I'm worried about. The tourney's over with, what's done is done. But the POTENTIAL I now feel I have from watching myself is so overwhelming, I have an uncontrollable urge to realize it as fast as possible.
Looking at the top, top players, I feel after watching my Marth that my foundation is the same as theirs. Not the same as in I play the same, or choose the same moves. No, the qualities that make up the top player's foundation, at least I believe these to be true, are creativity, unpredictability, and intelligence.
Some skills can be worked on short term, like combos, edgeguarding, platform game, etc. You can work on those so much and bring them to such a high level that you can place very high in tournaments. But, then I feel there's going to be a plateau. The abstract elements of the game cannot just be practiced in a week. They take time to develop, they are a part of your playstyle's "identity," if you will.
I'm getting to a point here, so just bear with me.
Creativity, unpredictability, intelligence and a few more I can't think of right now. There can be a lot of debate about those terms and how they fit into a top player's playstyle. Debates that can go either way. But what is true about all top players that can almost never be argued? I'm talking about the TOP players. They all have one thing in common that even low level players can spot...
Uniqueness. It's the ultimate key. You don't strive to be unique, in fact I think by doing that you are hurting yourself. You can't "try" and be different because then you lose efficiency and general gameplan. But you CAN work on your creativity, your unpredictability, intelligence and others, and although they take a while to work on, these are the elements that I believe bind together to create the foundation of a top level Melee pro.
I feel that I've managed, over these years of playing with very limited people and not travelling much, in combination with thinking about Smash all the time, develop my Marth to the point where after watching it, I can't compare it to any other Marth, and that my friends, I see as a SIGN. A sign that the building blocks which I've worked so hard to develop and place carefully, have paid off.
Now it's time to study and sculpt. Rewatch my videos and smooth out everything that I possibly can. Where could I have gotten a kill earlier? How could I have recovered better? Do I have any habits that I've missed before? Where do I need to be more precise?
I'm going to look at my successes and study them, so I can replicate them at will, and also take what I'm good at and refine it to be unbeatable.
I'm super happy right now, because I always look at top Melee pros and admire their play, their thought processes, their movement and precision. It is an art form that I can watch for hours, and afterwards I am always inspired.
For me though, no matter what I can never see any beauty in my play. I never have for some reason, and it's depressing. Now though, I can see it beginning to emerge. For the first time ever, I'm looking at myself play and feeling at least a little fulfilled.
At any rate, thanks for reading that. I made a video blog last night about my trip to NC so hopefully I can get that up tonight.
