"To go from 'best of your character' to 'just another Sheik with an interesting style' has been really tough," he explained. "It goes hand-in-hand with expectations of yourself to perform better with a better character. I placed an expectation on myself upon finding out she was the best. It's weird to say that you miss being one of the only ones that play the character but at the same time there's such a wealth of meta showing what to do right that it helps to make growing pains that much less frustrating. Sometimes it just doesn't pan out right away."
Shockingly, he hasn't been bugged by newer players for 'just picking a top tier' either. "The newer players might be entertained with how I play the character since I'm unconventional, but they all usually know about my history with the character so I've managed to avoid any flack thus far. I get to be hipster Sheik!"
His 'Hipster Sheik' comes with a curious and suboptimal style from adjusting to the new mechanics of Smash 4. "I was so accustomed to how Sheik worked in Brawl," he confessed. "I still miss DACUS and all the little intricacies from her Brawl iteration, but slowly I've started to at least mesh what works between the different games."
While he loves playing as Sheik, this was not the character that got him started in Smash. It was the hectic arena of free-for-all matches with items on high. "Before I got competitive I was a full casual. Zelda won me over since she seemed to get the Smash Ball the easiest. Deep down, my casual side lives on." His Sheik entered the arena a few months later to help in difficult matchups commonly seen back in 2008, like Mr. Game & Watch, and the rest, as they say, was history.
While he does still enjoy Sheik, he truly misses using Zelda and would be attempting to use her full time for the current power ranking season in Southern Florida. However, when a program called TierBreakers was announced he grudgingly put her aside. The program takes lower level players and has them drafted by power ranked players to help strengthen the entire scene. "Not too many Zeldas running amok in the nation. We try to improve them as players overall but the placings of the captains also make a difference."
It has hurt Ed to watch his favorite character languish in the lower tiers with few to advance her meta. "It's tough since South Florida as a whole is really strong as a region, so remaining true to Zelda is a struggle. I absolutely will return to playing her more upon TierBreakers' end." It seems that Ed simply cannot hide from being a 'low tier warrior': "I think it's fair to say that. I was gifted an incredible character but still play her like she has so much work to do going into a match."
Being a 'low tier warrior' isn't always easy. Going from "the penthouse of the tier list all the way down to the bottom," as Ed put it, makes it all the more challenging. Through all his years of playing, however, he has rarely found himself chastised for not using a stronger character since he has the skill to succeed while doing so. "Even in the worst of matchups I was able to compete and generally only lost when I was bested in player vs player. In Smash 4, while the player vs player aspect has been diminished a little bit with game mechanics like rage as well as overwhelmingly bad Zelda matchups, I don't often get criticism for it. Plus I always felt that playing a low tier and then moving to a high tier only broadens horizons as a player and helps you see all the available options you can have."
As a low tier player forged from the era of Meta Knight and Ice Climbers in Brawl, it is difficult to find a deterrent for him to play the character he loves, and he finds it hard to see the new generation of Smashers clamoring for buffs or nerfs. "You either learned to deal with them or became a part of them," he said bluntly, referring to the two best characters in Brawl. "It may just be a smaller crowd with a loud voice about this issue in Smash 4, but it would be nice to see players grow rather than sit back and hope patches cure what ails them. Even if it does, it still places them behind the person that worked through the patches. It's all in the mentality."
Like many players, Ed also has passions outside of Smash. While he is able to attend the Versus Center Weeklies and most regionals and nationals in state so long as he can financially spare it, he juggles this with his love of attending metal music festivals. "System of a Down has always been my favorite band. I was lucky enough to have seen them twice," he told us. "Others include Static-X, In This Moment, Slipknot, Amon Amarth and so many others. That said, I'll listen to just about anything. Except country music. It takes a concentrated effort for country music."
To all those reading who want to bring the lesser-seen character they love to the forefronts of the scene, Ed leaves our interview with this advice: "Just keep going. You'll find ways to win even if you're committed to a lesser character. In losing, it's all about being able to keep going and roll with losses if and when they come."
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A special thanks to 'PurpleGuy' Ed for participating in this article. To keep up with his future adventures in Smash, follow him on Twitter @theRealEd59. To continue following the ever-expanding story of Smash 4, be sure to stay tuned to Smashboards: there is so much more to come.
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