Should I go to a tournament?

[Sass~E]

I'm a young player who is unsure of how good I am. I'm a Rob main and I barely loose online, but when I do I lose bad, like 3 stocked. I want to go to a tournament for fun, and I'm not expecting to win or anything but I also don't want to make an embarrassment out of myself. Any advice?

 

[Orlando BCN]

Tournaments are great learning experiences. As long as you don’t act like a scrub, everyone will treat you nicely.

 

[UltimateXsniper]

If it makes you feel any better, there have been people who've claimed that they're the best and destroy all their friends. Then they get demolished in the first game. But that's ok, as long as you own up to some losses, you're going to learn from them and will make you a better player. Give everyone respect and they will treat you the same, regardless of skill.

 

[DelugeFGC]

Just know online is sort of rocking a different meta at the moment due to factors such as lag and quickplay ruleset jank, but overall it's not like none of the skill you've picked up online won't translate. In my experience over the years even small little locals tend to have a greater skill floor than even the toughest of online matches in Sm4sh / Ult. Netplay on Melee is another story.. still an ugly one though. Regardless, if you intend to play the game at any kind of greater / more serious level (be it for money via competing or not) going to at the very least locals is something you'll definitely want to do. The diversity and matching yourself against the best of your area.. it does wonders over time imo. It's invaluable experience that you can't get anywhere else, it also teaches you to either do or die when under pressure which online just doesn't give you.

The community aspect is also unlike anything you're gonna get anywhere else provided you don't show up and act a total fool.

 

[Sass~E]

Thanks, I think I'm going to a tournament now. I don't really care about winning or losing, just to play with people who are good and to have fun, and it seems like from what I hear now, the tournament community seems great.

 

[DelugeFGC]

If you ever do get bitten by the competitive bug that DOES make you care if you win or lose.. well.

Godspeed. You don't ever go back after that, I came into the competitive scene with Melee back in 05-06 and even though I've had my share of breaks and down periods I've never left. Once you become a part of the competitive smash community, you're fused with it for life just about.

 

[MalanoMan]

Thanks, I think I'm going to a tournament now. I don't really care about winning or losing, just to play with people who are good and to have fun, and it seems like from what I hear now, the tournament community seems great.

This 100%. Just go, have fun, play some good matches, and learn as much as you can! And wear deodorant!

 

[TheDuke54]

If you really want to go to one, just do it. Life is too short. It's not like you're going there with a toxic attitude or thinking you're the best and everyone else is trash. As long as your respectful of everyone else, they'll treat you the same. Or should. If they don't, they're not worth your time.

Go to have fun. Maybe make some friends. Or just have a good time to look back on to.

 

[Uffe]

If you're capable of going to a tourney, do it. First one I went to was back in 2015. I did pretty well, so you might, too. If you are really good, don't let your ego go to your head, because bragging is frowned upon. I remember meeting someone at the second tourney I went to and he had a huge ego. He lost against me in a set and blamed his short-comings to the "bad players" he was fighting against in friendlies. The thing is, I was also playing with these so-called "bad players", but I did fine. Don't be like that guy. I didn't know anybody, so I had to talk to people and ask for friendlies. Don't expect people to come up to you.

 

[DelugeFGC]

If a player calls another player bad, and then loses to them, well what does that make them?

I've truly never understood that logic, "I ONLY LOST BECAUSE YOU DID X, Y OR Z LIKE A SCRUB!" well maybe don't lose to 'scrub' strats then Mr. Badass? It's always funny to see "The best Marth in the state." die to projectile spam on the ledge all 3 stocks like a complete buffoon.. only to turn red-faced and yank his controller out as he does the walk of shame out.

Don't let that guy be you, for sure. There's MANY instances of 'that guy' at tournaments, he comes in all shapes and sizes.

 

[Mischiiii]

In the last 4 weeks i attended at my first two local tournaments. I can only recommend going to tournaments. There are so many nice people to talk to and play friendlies with that makes it simply the best method to train your skills.

Of course you should know that you will probably lose right away but that’s part of starting out. On my first tournament I got bodied in winners and loosers. But my second time was already better. I started out losing once but then beat two guys in loosers bracket until i was knocked out of the tournament in the next match.

I don’t care about getting knocked out pretty early as the friendlies are the most fun for me. Although i can’t deny that it also feels great to beat someone in a tournament setting.

 

[DelugeFGC]

At least you made it out of pools to fight in W/L's, most people go 0-2 their first time (lord knows I did) and do the whole "well maybe I just suck and shouldn't do this" thing with yourself for a bit. The third tournament (small local) I actually won, but I confused the system and made myself look stupid by not realizing the player from loser's resets the bracket if they win because at that point both the W's and L's finalists have one set loss. I didn't know that and popped off, looked real bad.

 

[Mischiiii]

At least you made it out of pools to fight in W/L's, most people go 0-2 their first time (lord knows I did) and do the whole "well maybe I just suck and shouldn't do this" thing with yourself for a bit. The third tournament (small local) I actually won, but I confused the system and made myself look stupid by not realizing the player from loser's resets the bracket if they win because at that point both the W's and L's finalists have one set loss. I didn't know that and popped off, looked real bad.

If this was for me:
I lost my first tournament with no game won and i always got 2 stocked.
The second one was where i lost in the first bracket fight of losers

 

[DelugeFGC]

I was assuming it was a larger tournament with RR pools where you'd seed into the bracket, which is why I said that. My bad.

 

[Mischiiii]

I was assuming it was a larger tournament with RR pools where you'd seed into the bracket, which is why I said that. My bad.

No problem. I probably did a bad job explaining it in the first place.

First one had no pools and the second one had pools build like small brackets where you need to win twice to succeed. I lost 0-2 in winner “pools” and won two times 2-0 and got into bracket where i lost 0-2 again against a inkling.

 

[DelugeFGC]

Most of the initial tournaments I went to in TN required a bit of travel, and they were the type of events where several people from the entire state community would all sort of converge on the one venue. So it led to some pretty big 'small' tournaments of usually 150-200+ people at times, so I got pretty used to pools. I've been to smaller locals that don't crack 50 where they still have pools as well.

They usually don't ever have them at weekly's and such for obvious reasons, and I HAVE been to a few smaller locals with no pools (or traditional brackets, for that matter, just straight up RR pairoffs until two remain to fight in finals.. dumb system but you worked with what you had back then) at all. You didn't explain it bad, it's just what my mind naturally assumes when I hear 'tournament' at this point.

 

[Mischiiii]

Well that’s big. The tournaments where i went were 50 and 64 attendees. So they where pretty small although the last one had a stream going on twitch.

I guess the german scene is smaller compared to US

 

[DelugeFGC]

I live in Tennessee and this was back in I think late 05 - early 06, I cannot recall exactly. The scene back then for Melee, here, was TINY.. getting that many people from the state (and a few from outside it) into one venue was a miracle in my eyes and the eyes of many there. That wasn't a local, either, I had to travel over two hours to attend. This was set up over an online forum I cannot even recall the name of anymore and Myspace, god how times have changed.

Now I can easily attend 'small' locals that have 150+ in attendance if it's for Ult (Melee scene here isn't kicking too strong anymore, but it's there) in 2019, but very small (50 or less) do still occur and in my experience, still tend to have pools for whatever reason. Not all, but most. Local TO's are an odd bunch sometimes.