Q&A Quickplay and Battle Arena

[Sean²]

Accept that someone out there will always be better than you and take the loss as a learning experience instead of humiliation. If they aren't actively trying to troll or antagonize, there's no reason to get emotional. Chances are, they're just sitting in front of their TV and playing, not sitting there laughing at you for sucking. Even then, if someone just keeps trying to go for a disrespectful move and actually hits it, try to figure out why it connected and adapt so it doesn't hit next time.

 

[J.I.L]

Thank you very much for your advice J.I.L.

I feel like the hardest part for me is the embarassment part. I know i'm not the best player out there, but I still want to improve and be the best I can, but I'm always scared that if I lose, my opponent will be straight up laughing at me and saying stuff like "Look at this guy, he's the worst player i've ever met" (I can't see them, so I never know). I know very dang well that's it's ridiculous, so I'll try my best to just stop thinking about this and go back to being able to let go of this when I lose.

Thank you again for the advice

No problem dude. This is the reason I joined this forum. To give advice to people who ask about smash.

Though word of advice, rage quitting when you are getting wrecked will most likely bring mockery and laughter your way through the TV. I’m way more to prone to laugh at someone who ragequits then someone who just sticks with it.

Don’t be okay with losing (as in don’t be content with it), but also learn how to take losses in stride. If you get the sense people are wrecking you and laughing at you through the screen by teabagging (which would probably be me), just take it. Roll your eyes and call them an immature child and keep it moving to the next one. Don’t get too upset about it (yeah, I just called my online tactics immature... I don’t care)Your goal should be to get gsp, or become a better smash player. Not to please others.when you focus on achieving the best you can or being the best you can be... you’ll be way more happier, and ironically you’ll most likely be able to be respected by more people then trying to play modest so you don’t get laughed at. Play fearless, and focus on bettering yourself.

 

[HeavyMaster]

I understand, and I will do my best to change! Thank you!

Hope we meet again, J.I.L.

 

[Sucumbio]

Accept that someone out there will always be better than you and take the loss as a learning experience instead of humiliation. If they aren't actively trying to troll or antagonize, there's no reason to get emotional. Chances are, they're just sitting in front of their TV and playing, not sitting there laughing at you for sucking. Even then, if someone just keeps trying to go for a disrespectful move and actually hits it, try to figure out why it connected and adapt so it doesn't hit next time.

Lucina is all disrespect

 

[Nutty Sponge]

Losing shouldn't embarrass you at all. Losing is quite helpful for fighting games seeing that you can learn from your mistakes and such. It's frustrating yeah, but don't feel humiliated.

 

[Xquirtle]

Might help just to spam QP matches with the goal of finishing the match and moving on to the next. It will help you get used to losing and just playing matches in general. You need to literally build the habit of not rage quitting, now that you have it. Replace your rage quit with a deep breath (seriously, thats how you change habits - you replace them with something else). Anyway, lots of people have "ladder anxiety" because they just can't handle competitive play and the thought of being bested. Playing more games will help that go away.

Also, a totally different angle, but you might feel like you're getting your ass kicked because thats just what happens to K Rool. Hes big and slow and just gets beat up for half of the match, even when you win. Pichu is the polar opposite where you feel like you're whooping the opponents ass all game long, but you just randomly lose since you die at 70. Maybe you won't have that sensation of getting ripped apart as often on a smaller character that doesn't get abused by design. Personally, i had this issue with Ridley where it was just annoying getting swagged on by everybody's training mode combos. You have to really understand that its just going to happen, and that characters like RIdley / K Rool have huge comeback potential. You can live to like 800% and kill people at 65.

 

[Steelmullet]

I swear there is some insane trickery happening with the online mode in SSBU. Forget input lag and all that, I'm talking p2p screen conditions!

Hear me out, I swear when I'm playing, my button inputs are being sent over to the hosting players switch and I see a video stream of the match instead of actual gameplay. That would explain the 1 second screen lag I get when I compare live footage to replays. (I'm playing on the switch itself, wired through USB C).

Instersting theory?

Imagine how many resources it would save if one screen in a pvp was just a spectator and the match was actually being played on the opponents switch...whoa.

Take with a grain of salt of course. Just a fun theory.

 

[Aquamentii]

Play some matches with no intent to win but rather to style and get as many shenanigans as you can. I find captain falcon and sonic are the best for this.
Particularly running around with Sonic and trying just to hit people with his first jab and then running away, and seeing how successful it is. Or mashing neutral b just for fun. Play an entire match only using one move. That kind of stuff.
Then when you lose, you still feel like a winner. Which you are in some sense, even when you play serious matches, because you learn and grow and blah blah blah.

 

[Khao]

Imagine how many resources it would save if one screen in a pvp was just a spectator and the match was actually being played on the opponents switch...whoa

An uncompressed full HD 60fps video with high-quality audio being streamed in real time takes an absolutely humongous amount of data compared to just sharing inputs and maybe other types of data like positioning. Sorry but... this doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Even if the video was heavily compressed and used like half the framerate, this would be pretty much the least efficient way to handle online gameplay. The less data you have to share between each system, the better.

 

[HeavyMaster]

Thanks for your advices all While i'm still working on not being embarassed, i can happily say it's not as bad as it was not long ago and I haven't rage quitted nearly as much today. It's still a work in progress, but I'll get there!

Thanks again all Hope we meet again!

 

[Steelmullet]

What happens with spectator mode? How are all players who are watching the match, watching the match? Via inputs sent to all connected players right? I suspect its the same as a live replay.

The game plays itself based on the inputs it's saved. Somehow my switch in handlheld mode is (sometimes) 1 second behind my opponents. I've tested this out, it's a fact. Record a live match, then compare it to your saved replay. 1 second behind. It is hard to play seriously when someone has a second advantage.

Real question is, why does this happen? That's what I'd like to figure out.

 

[Sucumbio]

Interesting...

Difficult to really say... I know that replays work as scripts and are always played back in normal time. Hence why if you save a wifi match during which you botched an input due to lag when it replays the mistake is still there but no slow down which makes it funny to watch sometimes like ike Quickdraw back to stage ends up releasing after he's almost out of the zone anyway hahaha

But that said playing a match the script is recording buttons and positions for accurate playback. It wouldn't normally be feasible to also be feeding that recorded data to you a second later as replay data to be displayed. Reason I say this is it takes the switch several seconds to load a recorded match script and the necessary elements (sprites bgm, etc) to render it in normal time, and the replay player itself which is tied to the full game engine. Basically you could theoretically set up two switches to do this but it'd be way more resource heavy than simply playing a p2p match as the game engine has been programmed to do.

 

[Predatoria]

Most people on quickplay are really there to practice more than anything else.

I know there are some obnoxious streamers who go to QP and make fun of everyone for an audience, but that's the 0.01% of people you'll run into.

The vast majority of people you're either winning or losing against are just people sitting in front of their TV focusing on trying to work on their neutral game, or new tech, or whiffing less, or some other aspect of their game they want to sharpen up on a bit.

It doesn't matter in what scenario you're playing Smash. The vast majority of the time, the only person who cares if you lose is you and you alone.

 

[yyy50yyy]

Another big thing you can do is go into Battle Arena and set the match details to Beginners only. There is a wide range of players down there who have low GSP and are really trying to learn some more basic parts of the game and sharpen up. This will remove the frustration of GSP from the equation.

 

[Arcane_]

You will never improve with that attitude towards the game

 

[HeavyMaster]

You will never improve with that attitude towards the game

That's why i asked for help towards changing my attitude, and recently, by applying advice from the other people who commented, my situation is getting better and better

 

[Richard & Blaziken]

Hey! I had a friend that was going through this just recently and I found something that has worked wonders for their attitude. Stop playing Quickplay, and instead join random arenas. You won't always find a hospitable place to be, but sometimes you'll find just the right person and you can play with them for hours. Arenas can also have the benefit of multiple people in the queue, so if you lose, you get a chance to watch the person that beat you. Study their habits and watch how they play, and maybe you'll do better next time.

In general, losing is the best teacher there is. You'll learn so much more from losing, painful though it can be, than you'll ever learn from winning. Also, just try to remember that you losing, even to something you deem cheap or unfair, has no bearing on you as a person. Take a deep breath and think about why you lost. Save replays of your losses too, they're extremely useful in figuring out what you could have done better. It can be hard to do, but trust me, it's worth it.

That's about all I've got. Just try to relax, stop putting pressure on yourself to win, and shift the focus to learning. You'll get better with time and practice.

 

[Arcane_]

Hey! I had a friend that was going through this just recently and I found something that has worked wonders for their attitude. Stop playing Quickplay, and instead join random arenas. You won't always find a hospitable place to be, but sometimes you'll find just the right person and you can play with them for hours. Arenas can also have the benefit of multiple people in the queue, so if you lose, you get a chance to watch the person that beat you. Study their habits and watch how they play, and maybe you'll do better next time.

In general, losing is the best teacher there is. You'll learn so much more from losing, painful though it can be, than you'll ever learn from winning. Also, just try to remember that you losing, even to something you deem cheap or unfair, has no bearing on you as a person. Take a deep breath and think about why you lost. Save replays of your losses too, they're extremely useful in figuring out what you could have done better. It can be hard to do, but trust me, it's worth it.

That's about all I've got. Just try to relax, stop putting pressure on yourself to win, and shift the focus to learning. You'll get better with time and practice.

This. Quickplay is frustrating because you lose to someone who immediately quits, giving you no time to sit down and figure it out. You learn the most from a long arena session.

 

[HeavyMaster]

Arcane_ Richard & Blaziken

Thank you for your answers! It's true that Quickplay really isn't fun for me anymore, for multiple reasons. But unfortunately, in arenas, hosts tend to kick people after a best of 3 or 5, or very often after 1 single match. I'll try to find arenas where people actually want to stay and chill (probably voice chat)

 

[Steelmullet]

Interesting...

Difficult to really say... I know that replays work as scripts and are always played back in normal time. Hence why if you save a wifi match during which you botched an input due to lag when it replays the mistake is still there but no slow down which makes it funny to watch sometimes like ike Quickdraw back to stage ends up releasing after he's almost out of the zone anyway hahaha

But that said playing a match the script is recording buttons and positions for accurate playback. It wouldn't normally be feasible to also be feeding that recorded data to you a second later as replay data to be displayed. Reason I say this is it takes the switch several seconds to load a recorded match script and the necessary elements (sprites bgm, etc) to render it in normal time, and the replay player itself which is tied to the full game engine. Basically you could theoretically set up two switches to do this but it'd be way more resource heavy than simply playing a p2p match as the game engine has been programmed to do.

Makes sense. I wonder then where the one second advantage comes from. It was so bad that I've stopped playing until they fix it.

In my replays my character has literally sat still for a second before reacting. Talk about a sitting duck. So many stocks lost to spikes that could have been avoided...

I thought at one point it was physical cartridge vs digital download but technically they're both on SDs so I don't think that is it.

My other theory was that the undocked switch ran a second behind due to performance drop. I thought for sure an undocked switch would be better for smash as the screen lag would be non-existent. But who knows...

Maybe I should do a YouTube video showcasing the issue. Side by side comparison, live vs replay.

 

[Sucumbio]

Makes sense. I wonder then where the one second advantage comes from. It was so bad that I've stopped playing until they fix it.

In my replays my character has literally sat still for a second before reacting. Talk about a sitting duck. So many stocks lost to spikes that could have been avoided...

I thought at one point it was physical cartridge vs digital download but technically they're both on SDs so I don't think that is it.

My other theory was that the undocked switch ran a second behind due to performance drop. I thought for sure an undocked switch would be better for smash as the screen lag would be non-existent. But who knows...

Maybe I should do a YouTube video showcasing the issue. Side by side comparison, live vs replay.

That would be ideal. Especially if you can have them on separate networks... In general there are several factors that play into lag input delay not counting slow downs. The controller, the TV, the network stability etc. It's not uncommon for input delay to be anywhere from barely noticeable to a second or even longer.

 

[MegaJoseph32123]

So I was at a local talking to some people and the discussion of ultimate online was brought up. A few of them brought up how bad it is and how they always have input lag compared to offline gameplay. Me personally, if i'm playing in a friend arena and it's not lagging, I don't have any input lag as far as I can tell. When my internet is being good I don't have these issues, but others make it sound like it's a constant issue. Do you regularly have input lag or no? Are you in a similar bout where it seems one way but others say it's another?

 

[Tvv1n]

Dragonball fighterz used dedicated servers for their fighter and the online gameplay was ****ing solid, idk wtf you guys are talking about when you say dedicated servers are a bad idea for fighters. They should program the game and netcode around a dedicated server, instead if p2p. because if I get matched against a player in china on dedicated and I've been properly sorted into the proper region, then they're going to have a bad time, and they should because they've chosen the wrong region, However, On p2p if I get matched against a player on the other side of the world, we're both legitimately screwed.

 

[Sucumbio]

Dragonball fighterz used dedicated servers for their fighter and the online gameplay was ****ing solid, idk wtf you guys are talking about when you say dedicated servers are a bad idea for fighters. They should program the game and netcode around a dedicated server, instead if p2p. because if I get matched against a player in china on dedicated and I've been properly sorted into the proper region, then they're going to have a bad time, and they should because they've chosen the wrong region, However, On p2p if I get matched against a player on the other side of the world, we're both legitimately screwed.

Wasn't that only 1v1? And from 15 years ago when Nintendo didn't mind paying for it? These days they're trying to save money over quality it seems...

 

[Tvv1n]

Wasn't that only 1v1? And from 15 years ago when Nintendo didn't mind paying for it? These days they're trying to save money over quality it seems...

Dragonball Fighterz is a relatively new fighter released on both consoles and PC. Also another good example of dedicated servers for fighter games is
Brawlhalla. The gameplay was always smooth and I never once experienced input lag. I hate hearing the excuse that dedicated servers don't work for fighter games. That is almost always the excuse that Elitists in the fighter community give, but the reality is that they are only relaying things that they've heard from other fighter elitists instead of doing their own research and finding other examples where fighter games have found success on dedicated servers. If its online, we should AWLAYS be going the the reliable method, which in this day and age is dedicated servers.
Starcraft 2 ALSO uses dedicated servers and they are a 1v1 RTS, and yet we still have players claiming that dedicated servers are bad for fighters but noone has EVER forwarded or showcased ANY proof of this. (Aside of a tweet from some random Japanese twitter that said "dedicated is bad for fighters", which I do not in any way shape or form consider proof)
money is also no excuse. I understand that they want to increase their profit margins, but they are worth 40 billion USD and can afford dedicated servers
which will bring MORE people to the online community because of how smooth and responsive (competitive) their online game is.

 

[Sean²]

There are quite a few factors that could make them have worse input lag than you. Quality of internet connection can vary from person to person. Access to a LAN adapter can mean the difference between having decently low lag and being unplayable for some. I know a lot of people who don't keep their Switch close enough to their router to easily hardwire, don't want to look into other options like powerline adapters, or just flat out refuse to buy an adapter, so they just try to play on Wifi.

 

[Sean²]

Dragonball Fighterz is a relatively new fighter released on both consoles and PC. Also another good example of dedicated servers for fighter games is
Brawlhalla. The gameplay was always smooth and I never once experienced input lag. I hate hearing the excuse that dedicated servers don't work for fighter games. That is almost always the excuse that Elitists in the fighter community give, but the reality is that they are only relaying things that they've heard from other fighter elitists instead of doing their own research and finding other examples where fighter games have found success on dedicated servers. If its online, we should AWLAYS be going the the reliable method, which in this day and age is dedicated servers.
Starcraft 2 ALSO uses dedicated servers and they are a 1v1 RTS, and yet we still have players claiming that dedicated servers are bad for fighters but noone has EVER forwarded or showcased ANY proof of this. (Aside of a tweet from some random Japanese twitter that said "dedicated is bad for fighters", which I do not in any way shape or form consider proof)
money is also no excuse. I understand that they want to increase their profit margins, but they are worth 40 billion USD and can afford dedicated servers
which will bring MORE people to the online community because of how smooth and responsive (competitive) their online game is.

Thing is, you can do a P2P system properly and have it function properly. Games 10-15 years old were able to handle massive matches with 8-16 totally separate players connected to one host, on WiFi a majority of the time, and lag was generally minimal unless the hosts themselves were lagging. If that was the case the game would just roll to a new host, or roll to a new host and auto-kick the lagger. Worst thing that could occur, is that if it was a team game, you could be down a teammate with no replacement due to this (though in doing so, it presented a fun challenge for some. Lots of fun trying to strategize when a lagger gets booted and the other 2 guys ragequit because they're down a man and it turns into a 4v1 - should be nearly impossible but you don't feel bad if you lose and it felt amazing to win those). Anyway, I'm not really advocating for either side. I just don't think they implemented p2p properly. They made a system unprepared to handle a game that requires twitch reactions like Smash, and the game prefers quickness over quality in the matchmaking system they built. Any system without a built in ethernet port should probably not have a game in which people try to play seriously online, but here we are.

 

[Tvv1n]

Thing is, you can do a P2P system properly and have it function properly. Games 10-15 years old were able to handle massive matches with 8-16 totally separate players connected to one host, on WiFi a majority of the time, and lag was generally minimal unless the hosts themselves were lagging. If that was the case the game would just roll to a new host, or roll to a new host and auto-kick the lagger. Worst thing that could occur, is that if it was a team game, you could be down a teammate with no replacement due to this (though in doing so, it presented a fun challenge for some. Lots of fun trying to strategize when a lagger gets booted and the other 2 guys ragequit because they're down a man and it turns into a 4v1 - should be nearly impossible but you don't feel bad if you lose and it felt amazing to win those). Anyway, I'm not really advocating for either side. I just don't think they implemented p2p properly. They made a system unprepared to handle a game that requires twitch reactions like Smash, and the game prefers quickness over quality in the matchmaking system they built. Any system without a built in ethernet port should probably not have a game in which people try to play seriously online, but here we are.

The sad things is, even nintendo advises getting the Ethernet attachment. That being said, if they are so FOR an Ethernet, why not include it in your console, at the very LEAST add it to the dock, which I have to use for my controllers anyway.

 

[boysilver400]

Hi. I wasn't sure whether or not to put this on the competitive forum or here, but since all of the videos I have are online, I put this here.
So...I suck at this game. My gsp is abysmal with nearly everyone, with my highest being at only about 2.5 mil. I've been trying to lab with characters other than just Kirby, but it hasn't been successful. Here are a couple of vids of me getting bodied(fair warning that the quality is pretty bad on these since I recorded the replays on my phone. My SD card doesn't have enough room thanks to 2k19.)

I'm the Pichu in this match. My Pichu isn't that good and it shows tbh. At some point, I ****ed up and thought I was close enough to grab the ledge off of one jump, and then I SD'd because I thought just one agility boost straight up would be enough to make it back. Also some bs happened at the end of the video with u-throw thunder which caused me to just give up, because I was already feeling Pichu's nerfs. They aren't pretty.

This is a vid of me(Lucario) in a battle arena. I was ahead for a little while but I screwed that up lol. I tried to wall cling a couple times which resulted in me almost SD'ing. Don't have much context to offer outside of that.

The last match I'll post for now. I'm Joker in this clip. There were quite a few times where I honestly have no idea wtf I was thinking in all of these vids. It could've been pressure getting to me, or the stupid buffer system messed up my moves(which happens a lot, and often costs me stocks and games).

I'd appreciate responses soon. I really want to beat these online people and the fact that I'm losing and I don't know why or how is driving me insane.

 

[J.I.L]

Hi. I wasn't sure whether or not to put this on the competitive forum or here, but since all of the videos I have are online, I put this here.
So...I suck at this game. My gsp is abysmal with nearly everyone, with my highest being at only about 2.5 mil. I've been trying to lab with characters other than just Kirby, but it hasn't been successful. Here are a couple of vids of me getting bodied(fair warning that the quality is pretty bad on these since I recorded the replays on my phone. My SD card doesn't have enough room thanks to 2k19.)

I'm the Pichu in this match. My Pichu isn't that good and it shows tbh. At some point, I ****ed up and thought I was close enough to grab the ledge off of one jump, and then I SD'd because I thought just one agility boost straight up would be enough to make it back. Also some bs happened at the end of the video with u-throw thunder which caused me to just give up, because I was already feeling Pichu's nerfs. They aren't pretty.

This is a vid of me(Lucario) in a battle arena. I was ahead for a little while but I screwed that up lol. I tried to wall cling a couple times which resulted in me almost SD'ing. Don't have much context to offer outside of that.

The last match I'll post for now. I'm Joker in this clip. There were quite a few times where I honestly have no idea wtf I was thinking in all of these vids. It could've been pressure getting to me, or the stupid buffer system messed up my moves(which happens a lot, and often costs me stocks and games).

I'd appreciate responses soon. I really want to beat these online people and the fact that I'm losing and I don't know why or how is driving me insane.

I’m not even going to bother to look at the vids, it’s probably going to be to hard to watch. But I think I know some ways to help. This sort of stuff is my specialty and why I joined this forum. *cracks knuckles*, let’s get to work.

First, need to find a character you are good with and stick with it. Understand him (or her) and devolper them. If you can’t find the person, just pick cheap easy to use characters like ganadorf, bowser or king k rule. If you’re just an average player, they should be able to get your gsp to the 3+ million. Also might want to think darkpit.

2nd, make sure you have the right controllers and control set. Joy cons are mediocre. GameCube is okay, but pro controllers are the best IMO. And I have my own unique control option too. Like my B and X are my grab, y is my special and A is smash attack.

3. Have devoted concentration when playing. If you’re getting driven insane by your failure to even meet average amongst all online players, taken the game less seriously is not an option. Unless you want to lose more and just quit. Trust me, when you’re concentrated you’ll win more.

4. Do whatever it takes (don’t cheat like lag switch... that’s disgraceful). Don’t feel “bad” if you see a certain playstyle helps you win games. There’s 100% no mercy in this game. Either see victory and feel pleased with yourself or see loss and be “driven insane” as you nicely put it. For example, my ness is one of my mains. I just do pk fire spam. And I keep doing it and have built my playstyle around doing pk fire. Yeah, it sounds horrible and toxic, but I win. My ness gsp is 4.960 million. My point is dude, show no mercy and try to desotry any person that gets in your way of winning. You say 2k19 right? I’m sure you’re familiar with GOAT micheal Jordan. He was ruthless, that’s why he won.

And then when you do these things, take heart and patience. Doesn’t come over night. Look for small improvements everytime you play. Make small goals. Try to just make a goal of okay, My goal is to break into 3.5 million gsp. And only be concerned about that. 4 million gsp doesn’t concern you nor Elite smash. Only that 3.5 million gsp threshold. And from there make bigger and bigger goals once you accomplished prior. Observe how certaain characters (oppenets) fight and get used to their moves so you have an advantage. If you get to angry, take a break and come back later. Be patient but competitive, and you’ll be a better smash player.

 

[Coolboy]

a few things i can tell you from my experiences, of course i am not saying they work for everyone else but it wouldn't hurt to try right?

1 - ok firstly is when it comes to being to offensive.. if this doesn't work out and you are always the 1 getting hit first or punished then it's time to be more defensive! let the opponent come to you! and if they make mistakes or fail to hit you then punish them if you can, it can be very frustrating for someone if you play defensively and they fail to hit you so they might make mistakes that you can easily punish :D

2 - do not worry about whether you can do combos or not..of course it makes you look cool but it's not everything! focus on your strong points and own playstyle,

3 - for beginners i do suggest to play characters with projectiles and easy to use recoveries, do not mindlessly spam them because that won't get you anywhere! but these characters go well with the defensive/avoid close combat playstyle..you make sure to stay away and if you can try to hit the opponent with projectiles but do not mindlessly spam them because it can make you very predictable!

4 - try to read your opponent..ok this 1 isn't the easiest i admit, but if you are familiar with your opponent's character then try to predict what they might do and what they are able to do! and of course do not forget to use shield and dodge roll they can keep you from getting hit to many times if you predict it right

hope this helps a little bit at least! :D

 

[shade3134]

Watch videos of pros who use the character you're trying to learn and mime their approaches and tactics. Don't worry about losing. This will slowly reveal why these options are what they chose and from there you can improvise and expound.

 

[The Rhythm Theif]

If your main is Kirby, like mine is, you need to think on which moves to use and NOT use. Some moves to use are F-Smash, Side B, F-Throw, D-Throw, and U-Throw, while moves like D-Tilt, N-Air, and B-Throw aren't really that good. Some reasons why moves like the three previously mentioned are bad are Down Tilt leaves you open to attacks from above, N-Air has a LOT of end lag for a good aerial attack, B-Throw has low knockback rate and KO potential, and so on.

 

[FartyParty]

If you can’t find the person, just pick cheap easy to use characters like ganadorf, bowser or king k rule.

Odd character suggestions there. Lucina, Palutena, and Wolf are all easier to use and flat out superior characters to the ones you mention.

I'd appreciate responses soon. I really want to beat these online people and the fact that I'm losing and I don't know why or how is driving me insane

To the OP directly, my first advice to you is to find a main. You need to learn one character in a lot of depth if you want to get good. If no one character really stands out to you as someone you feel more comfortable with than anyone else, you can't really go wrong with Lucina, who doesn't require any tricky combos or advanced tech to succeed. Good fundamentals are all you need to play well with Lucina, and she will help you learn those fundamentals. If you want to move on to a different main later, that's OK. But you need to pick someone you feel you can succeed with sooner and stick with that character for a while.

My second piece of advise is to adopt a structured daily practice regimen. Going into training and practicing without structure does not develop muscle memory and does not yield real improvement.

Here are a couple of guides with specific recommendations for structuring your training:

This first one is probably more appropriate for your skill level. In this guide, Jtails explains the key fundamental movement options, and offers a specific training regimen where you perform each move until you do 30 in a row without failure. No cheating. If you get 29 in a row and fail on #30, you start over. I can personally attest to the effectiveness of this routine. A few weeks into the game, I was maining Lucina and playing terribly with my GSP under 200K. I followed this routine everyday for months, and saw great improvement. The best part is that you can easily add more advanced techniques to the routine as you learn them, and once you're good enough, you can even scale back your practice of the basic stuff (e.g. I still practice plain short hop fast falls but no longer everyday because now there are other things I practice that require me to do empty short hop fast falls anyway.) I now main Joker with a high GSP of 4.873 million, and following this practice routine played a huge role in helping me get there.

This second guide is more in depth and advanced. Definitely a longer routine too, so it's harder to fit in as daily practice. Very good guide though, covering more techniques than the first.

Note also that if you pick a main with some character specific tech, you will need to include that stuff in whatever practice routine you use. But the key here is that your training can't be random or based on how you feel at the moment. Your practice time needs structure to be effective.

 

[FartyParty]

So I was at a local talking to some people and the discussion of ultimate online was brought up. A few of them brought up how bad it is and how they always have input lag compared to offline gameplay. Me personally, if i'm playing in a friend arena and it's not lagging, I don't have any input lag as far as I can tell. When my internet is being good I don't have these issues, but others make it sound like it's a constant issue. Do you regularly have input lag or no? Are you in a similar bout where it seems one way but others say it's another?

Online play invariably has more input lag than playing offline. Even if you're not experiencing noticeable network lag slowing down the game, there will always be additional input lag, whether you can tell it's there or not. It might only amount to 1 or 2 frames, which can be very hard to notice and might seem insignificant, but it's there, and it does affect a person's play. An extra 1 or 2 frames is the difference between landing a successful whiff punish and your opponent's shield coming out just in time to block the punish. If you don't notice the extra input lag online, it is probably a matter of the character(s) you play requiring less precision than other characters. Compare your main, Incineroar, to my main, Joker. Incineroar is slower than Joker. He has larger hitboxes than Joker. A lot of those hitboxes both come out slower and last longer than Joker's hitboxes. As a result, you playing Incineroar will be less affected by an extra frame or two of input lag than me playing Joker. Because you are less affected, you are less likely to even notice the extra input lag.

 

[boysilver400]

To the OP directly, my first advice to you is to find a main. You need to learn one character in a lot of depth if you want to get good. If no one character really stands out to you as someone you feel more comfortable with than anyone else, you can't really go wrong with Lucina, who doesn't require any tricky combos or advanced tech to succeed. Good fundamentals are all you need to play well with Lucina, and she will help you learn those fundamentals. If you want to move on to a different main later, that's OK. But you need to pick someone you feel you can succeed with sooner and stick with that character for a while.

I already feel comfortable maining , but I have several secondaries like , , , and . I've considered and as well.

This first one is probably more appropriate for your skill level. In this guide, Jtails explains the key fundamental movement options, and offers a specific training regimen where you perform each move until you do 30 in a row without failure. No cheating. If you get 29 in a row and fail on #30, you start over. I can personally attest to the effectiveness of this routine. A few weeks into the game, I was maining Lucina and playing terribly with my GSP under 200K. I followed this routine everyday for months, and saw great improvement. The best part is that you can easily add more advanced techniques to the routine as you learn them, and once you're good enough, you can even scale back your practice of the basic stuff (e.g. I still practice plain short hop fast falls but no longer everyday because now there are other things I practice that require me to do empty short hop fast falls anyway.) I now main Joker with a high GSP of 4.873 million, and following this practice routine played a huge role in helping me get there.

This second guide is more in depth and advanced. Definitely a longer routine too, so it's harder to fit in as daily practice. Very good guide though, covering more techniques than the first.

Note also that if you pick a main with some character specific tech, you will need to include that stuff in whatever practice routine you use. But the key here is that your training can't be random or based on how you feel at the moment. Your practice time needs structure to be effective.

Thanks for the vids. These will help also.

 

[Mental Surge]

I get that Nintendo is incompetent and that the online in this game is terrible but.. really? They can't even figure THIS out? If I don't manually pick my control setup every single time I want to do this mode it doesnt save it. What makes no sense is that it still has the control setup name selected but the controls are reset to default. So apparently it can remember what character I want to play and the control setup I want to use but it can't remember what the control setup was for that name unless I actively pick it every time. Brilliant. It's annoying enough that it barely ever remembers your skin but your ****ing controls? How did Nintendo **** up the basics in this game so badly? It doesnt even save your skin for your profile in smash mode ffs.

 

[Silask20]

Title says it all. Why arent players with bad connection simply suspended from online play with a notice that their connection is unstable and they are selfishly pulling everyone down to their level?

I dont wanna play out a 7 minute game that ends up being 40 minutes i will take the suspension

 

[Dark 3nergy]

I don't like that I cannot use my own rule set for arenas. I just default to Battlefield only, and I do 5 man free for all so everyone can play. I played in those large arenas before and it does feel bad to be waiting that long without warning up. I feel more people get more matches when we do ffa and just pick a side to fight on.

 

[mrguy321]

ok so i win about 5 matches in a row, and im as far as i can get without getting into elite smash for my character, which is 4.88 million. last time i checked elite for my character is 4.89. so i lose this next game because i sd twice, and it drop me down 50,000 gsp. through this 5 game win streak, i was only getting at most 30,000. what hell is going on with the ranking system? i have 2 characters at the same gsp, and i lose more gsp than i gain, even when on a win streak? i won the next game, get 20,000 gsp, then lose the next game, and it drops me down to around 4.81. so i lose 40,000 from just one loss? this is extremely pissing me off, as i always go on win streaks, and at the border of elite smash, one loss ****ing kicks me all the way to where i started. WHAT THE **** IS GOING ON? this has happened EVERY SINGLE TIME i plan to get into elite smash.