Wafflez
Smash Journeyman
Aw jeez, I haven't made my own thread in such a long time. Hi, Link boards. Lately I have been pondering how I could contribute to the community as a whole.
My main choice would be to join tournaments and represent Link in the competitive scene, but I have too much busywork to do that I probably won't get around to it until about 2009. Instead, I have a story to tell all of you.
By making this thread, I wish to inform all you Link mainers, both new and experienced, about my journey through smash from the very beginning to where I am present-day. My purpose in making this thread is so that those who are new may learn from what I've done, and those who are experienced can get a different look at Link, as well as tell me what I may do differently. Overall, it's my personal account of what has transpired thus far to help the community understand me, my Link, and someone's process of learning from a different point of view.
I hope that this will help everyone not only see things from a different perspective, but also help newcomers delve into what to learn first, how to learn something, and to study up on Link efficiently, and hopefully more effectively and timely than I did.
If you feel this thread is useless, feel free to object to me making this topic, and I will let it die.
[Chapter 1: From beginnings]
Ever since I was a little kid, I played smash. I never knew what to do either, my friends and I would just have at each other and jump and slash, kicking wildly everywhere until one of us emerged the victor. We always had the same settings, 10 stock with items set on high. It was chaos, and it was one of the fun memories of my childhood.
Of course, we didn't understand smash competitively, we simply saw it as a tool for obtaining great pleasure very easily. I played Super Smash Bros. 64 before I reached my teen years, and it was the staple of all the sleepovers and parties I ever attended as a child.
I played white Link. I loved how his white outfit looked, because I thought it made Link look like some sort of sworded angel.
When Melee came, I didn't have a Gamecube, and none of my friends played the original smash anymore. The idea of smashing gradually faded out from my life.
I still played Melee every now and then, but it wasn't as prevalent as the old SSB64. I switched to blue Link this time, because it reminded me of the Zora tunic from OoT. Nobody ever wavedashed when we played, we all made cracks at how terrible certain characters were to us, nobody understood this game on a actual skilled level.
Most games we played consisted of running, smashes, occaisional aerials, and a mix of specials. Rarely was there grabbing, only when we tried to hold someone while the other Falcon Punched both of them. Items were once again present in every match we played. No 1 v 1s, no nothing.
By 2005, my interest in smash had died, and a part of my childhood was buried with the game that I had admired. My life drifted into different interests, skateboarding, piano, airsofting, and the likes.
Then I heard about the release of Brawl. I bought a Wii, just so I could play it. I felt so happy that I would once again be able to play the game that brought me so much joy. After owning it for a short while, my friend advised me of a website named the Smash World Forums.
4 months ago, on July 3rd of 2008, I registered on the smashboards. Immediately I went to the Link section and began reading up about everything. It was from there that I saw videos like Linkaggedon, Art of Link and such. I learned about tournaments and ATs, and it was then that my eyes were opened as to what Smash can truely be.
It was from that moment forward that I became dedicated to becoming one of the best Links in the Smash community. I stayed up late at night to learn all the terminology, who were the best, the techniques and what characters could do what. I had never played a 1 v 1 before, and I had no idea of what things would be like, but I was determined. I grabbed my controller and re-immersed my friends in the world of Smash. They too, have learned quite a bit over the years, mostly from Melee.
This is where my journey begins.
[Chapter 2: Second First Impressions]
By now, I had seen videos like Linkaggedon and realized just how much depth there really was to Smash, and it's community. I hadn't even scratched the surface of it, and I was ready to explore a new and fascinating world that was strange to me. I had never played a game competitively before, and I thought Smash would be an excellent choice to start with, since I love the game so much.
When I first started out, there was nothing I had really taken from all those threads and such. I did all the typical newbie things that become a very nasty habit if not taken care of.
I rolldodged EVERYWHERE.
I spammed DAC because I thought it was mega useful. (It wasn't THAT useful...)
I just sat there charging and shooting arrows for half the match.
I always landed with Dair.
I had always seen Smash games in a different perspective. Since I was a child, I assumed smash was all about random mayhem and chaos. Naturally, I just carelessly ran after my opponent and started attacking him with everything I had. Our 1 v 1 matches never really progressed anywhere, most of our matches ended up as me standing from afar, shooting arrows and Fsmashing everywhere, jabbing constantly and DACing at the opponent.
The thing was, I knew how to do the ATs, but I was so focused on doing the ATs during the fights, that I wasn't using them properly. I had a very nasty habit of rolldodging everywhere I went, and rarely went into the air. The few times I was actually IN the air, I landed with a Dair, eager to score that hit.
So many nasty habits had developed in such a short amount of time, less than a week. I was so eager to do ATs all the time, I ignored when it would be effective to do them. I almost forgot entirely about the fight and would concentrate too much on doing a DAC or ZAC instead of actually hitting the opponent. This set me back majorly.
I had so many playstyle flaws, it's hard to know where I had to start. My Link never left the ground unless I was hit or something. Fsmash, Dsmash and arrow spamming were all I could do. The arrow spam was the worst, because it meant sitting there and charging up arrows constantly. I didn't use grabs effectively, or at all. Most of Link's moveset was ignored and I didn't FF anything. I had too many basic problems to correct. The entire time, I was focusing on making Link do these flashy tricks, or to rush in and attack that I lost all focus on actually connecting hits on the opponent in a quick, precise manner, and playing smart.
Instead, I focused on DACing everywhere, walking up to an opponent and trying Fsmash them, and arrowing them from across the stage.
I played Brawl in almost the same way I had played the first SSB, plus some ATs. I still thought the most important part of the game was bashing your opponent senseless and getting them offscreen. I failed to realize that in order to win, I had to play smarter, not just randomly attack all the time.
At this point, I didn't even have my foundations ready to start playing Link, or Smash in general, on ANY competitive scale whatsoever. My mind kept telling me that I had to use all these ATs, and when I kept DACing and such, it started to hinder my playing rather than improve.
After recieving feedback from my first-ever Brawl video I had recorded, I rewatched Linkaggedon to see what Izaw was doing differently. It was at that moment that I knew I had to completely erase the playstyle I had then, and build up one that would be effective. I noticed my matches lasted up to 7 minutes long, while most matches concluded in a 3 minute time-span.
Visual example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEv9qXxcjQM
I had a lot of work to do, but I wasn't about to give up.
[Chapter 3: The Night of a Thousand Stocks]
Now that I had a general idea of what to start working on, I re-watched Art of Link as well as read every guide on the smashboards. I kept in mind the ZAC, Zair and arrow cancelling. The problem with this was I was reading, but not truly compredending the information.
I didn't quite understand the playstyle of Link. I was overly aggresive, approaching periodically with ZAC and such. I chased my opponents everywhere, and often I would end up getting killed for it. I hadn't then learned the importance of projectile spam. I kept hucking bombs, boomerangs, arrows and everything short of the kitchen sink at my enemy while I chased them, which often proved ineffective to me.
So my friends and I decided to make a Brawl group, we would meet at my place every other week on Fridays, then have at each other with free for alls and 1 v 1s.
One of my friends kept blocking and punishing just about any attack I had. It really frustrated me, but it taught me that I was being too predictable. This is where a new word was added to my vocabulary:
Mindgames.
Soon, I started to realize that my ground attacks and predictable attacks weren't enough to defeat an enemy. At this point, I learned the importance of shorthop, as well as just jumping in general. However, I still had a nasty Dair habit, so it hindered my progress. At the same time, I started looking up ways that might break the predictability.
I recorded the matches my friends and I had made and I started watching them. It's surprising to see what my character was like when the controller was not in my hands. Most of my moves were all habits and acting without thinking. I hadn't fully shaken the entire habit of knowing exactly what I'm doing.
I then compared my videos to the playstyles of other Links. I took note of which moves they use more than I do, and which moves they don't use as often. At this point, I knew there was no way I could keep Dairing so much.
That weekend at night, I got on the Wii and started up Brawl. I practiced these techniques well into the AM. Although I still didn't have a grasp on SH projectiles and spamming effectively, I first focused on the close-quarters combat side of things. I played numerous matches on Wi-Fi, or even against CPUs.
I played all night until I knew by heart what each of Link's moves did. I practiced the execution of each move in a fight, then I gradually worked it into a part of my playstyle. By the time I had the bare basics down, I knew the next step would be to start using ATs effectively.
However... that proved to be a challenge for me.
[Chapter 4: Roll the dice, never think twice]
This next section involves a short amount of no-lifing.
It was here that I wanted to speed up my gameplay. I'm sure I'm not the only person who's sat in an infinite timed match with a level 7 CPU. I practiced my fastfalling and shorthopping. I tried getting a hang of comboing and the likes. My biggest focus was using ATs at the right time. I took note of when I got punished for DACing, and when an arrow cancel really came in handy.
I did this for about an hour a day. What concerned me the most was if I kept playing against CPUs, I would forget what I had learned by playing against people.
In order to solve this, my friends and I agreed to have a little Brawl party every other week. We would take turns playing 1 v 1s as well as just Free for Alls for good fun. As far as practice went, I had it covered, now I just had to work on it a bit more.
At the same time, I was trying to learn who the big-deals were in the Link community. After browsing the boards, I got a general idea of who's-who.
Deva, Legan, Izaw, Finns, ArkiveZero were of the first top players I started hearing from. I watched their videos with much interest and looked at their playstyle extensively. I hadn't made any connections in the community yet, and I didn't actually talk to any of them yet, but watching the videos they had to offer were very helpful.
Next I saw a Blu Link fellow who had quite a lot to say to the smashboards. It seemed to me, he was like the smarts and technical guy of the Link boards, who always had something to discuss when it came to playing Link. He contributed to metagame discussion, posted some of his findings and it looked like he was a real member of the community.
That leads me to where I fit in on the Link boards. I realized that I sort of didn't. I wasn't going to tournaments, repping Link. I wasn't a fascinating Link player, and I still had some fundamental problems to fix. I wasn't good enough, or helpful enough to really be considered anything on the Link boards. I posted where I could and provided my thoughts on certain topics, but I knew it wasn't enough to be a true Link mainer.
My next chapter will cover everything from that point to today. I had a whole lot of work to do, and I wasn't about to start second-guessing myself.
[Chapter 5: Beginning of the End]
My next step in the world of smash is to refine what I have learned into complete skill and unstoppable domination.
Many people are at this stage in their smashing lives, and I'm no exception. The only way up is to practice what has been learned, perfect and master each technique. Even today, I work at it everyday to fine-tune my playstyle, and make myself faster and more unpredictable.
I need to get my thumbs to go perfectly with what I want to do, execute each move cleanly. Even with the schoolwork burying me, I find time to practice my techniques against standing targets, then utilizing them in a fight.
As I stand, I have mastered DAC. I am on the way to FFing perfectly, and refining my SH combat as well as my spacing. I'm learning to make my gameplay faster and my moves less predictable, as I have now laid out the foundations of my smash game.
No longer am I a smash noob. Training with a handful of trial and error, I'm determined to proving my worth on the Link boards, and the smash world altogether.
Blu Link, ArkiveZero, as well as the entire Link community is backing me. Chances are, they're backing you too.
I, along with the rest of this community will make the name "Link" one to be feared.
This is a short chapter, true. The next chapter in my quest has not yet been written. This is the end of my story, but the beginning of my journey. Perhaps one day, my journey to becoming a great Link main will cross yours.
"Nothing in life worth having comes easy." -DrK
Posted November 18th. (Happy birthday to me.)
My main choice would be to join tournaments and represent Link in the competitive scene, but I have too much busywork to do that I probably won't get around to it until about 2009. Instead, I have a story to tell all of you.
By making this thread, I wish to inform all you Link mainers, both new and experienced, about my journey through smash from the very beginning to where I am present-day. My purpose in making this thread is so that those who are new may learn from what I've done, and those who are experienced can get a different look at Link, as well as tell me what I may do differently. Overall, it's my personal account of what has transpired thus far to help the community understand me, my Link, and someone's process of learning from a different point of view.
I hope that this will help everyone not only see things from a different perspective, but also help newcomers delve into what to learn first, how to learn something, and to study up on Link efficiently, and hopefully more effectively and timely than I did.
If you feel this thread is useless, feel free to object to me making this topic, and I will let it die.
[Chapter 1: From beginnings]
Ever since I was a little kid, I played smash. I never knew what to do either, my friends and I would just have at each other and jump and slash, kicking wildly everywhere until one of us emerged the victor. We always had the same settings, 10 stock with items set on high. It was chaos, and it was one of the fun memories of my childhood.
Of course, we didn't understand smash competitively, we simply saw it as a tool for obtaining great pleasure very easily. I played Super Smash Bros. 64 before I reached my teen years, and it was the staple of all the sleepovers and parties I ever attended as a child.
I played white Link. I loved how his white outfit looked, because I thought it made Link look like some sort of sworded angel.
When Melee came, I didn't have a Gamecube, and none of my friends played the original smash anymore. The idea of smashing gradually faded out from my life.
I still played Melee every now and then, but it wasn't as prevalent as the old SSB64. I switched to blue Link this time, because it reminded me of the Zora tunic from OoT. Nobody ever wavedashed when we played, we all made cracks at how terrible certain characters were to us, nobody understood this game on a actual skilled level.
Most games we played consisted of running, smashes, occaisional aerials, and a mix of specials. Rarely was there grabbing, only when we tried to hold someone while the other Falcon Punched both of them. Items were once again present in every match we played. No 1 v 1s, no nothing.
By 2005, my interest in smash had died, and a part of my childhood was buried with the game that I had admired. My life drifted into different interests, skateboarding, piano, airsofting, and the likes.
Then I heard about the release of Brawl. I bought a Wii, just so I could play it. I felt so happy that I would once again be able to play the game that brought me so much joy. After owning it for a short while, my friend advised me of a website named the Smash World Forums.
4 months ago, on July 3rd of 2008, I registered on the smashboards. Immediately I went to the Link section and began reading up about everything. It was from there that I saw videos like Linkaggedon, Art of Link and such. I learned about tournaments and ATs, and it was then that my eyes were opened as to what Smash can truely be.
It was from that moment forward that I became dedicated to becoming one of the best Links in the Smash community. I stayed up late at night to learn all the terminology, who were the best, the techniques and what characters could do what. I had never played a 1 v 1 before, and I had no idea of what things would be like, but I was determined. I grabbed my controller and re-immersed my friends in the world of Smash. They too, have learned quite a bit over the years, mostly from Melee.
This is where my journey begins.
[Chapter 2: Second First Impressions]
By now, I had seen videos like Linkaggedon and realized just how much depth there really was to Smash, and it's community. I hadn't even scratched the surface of it, and I was ready to explore a new and fascinating world that was strange to me. I had never played a game competitively before, and I thought Smash would be an excellent choice to start with, since I love the game so much.
When I first started out, there was nothing I had really taken from all those threads and such. I did all the typical newbie things that become a very nasty habit if not taken care of.
I rolldodged EVERYWHERE.
I spammed DAC because I thought it was mega useful. (It wasn't THAT useful...)
I just sat there charging and shooting arrows for half the match.
I always landed with Dair.
I had always seen Smash games in a different perspective. Since I was a child, I assumed smash was all about random mayhem and chaos. Naturally, I just carelessly ran after my opponent and started attacking him with everything I had. Our 1 v 1 matches never really progressed anywhere, most of our matches ended up as me standing from afar, shooting arrows and Fsmashing everywhere, jabbing constantly and DACing at the opponent.
The thing was, I knew how to do the ATs, but I was so focused on doing the ATs during the fights, that I wasn't using them properly. I had a very nasty habit of rolldodging everywhere I went, and rarely went into the air. The few times I was actually IN the air, I landed with a Dair, eager to score that hit.
So many nasty habits had developed in such a short amount of time, less than a week. I was so eager to do ATs all the time, I ignored when it would be effective to do them. I almost forgot entirely about the fight and would concentrate too much on doing a DAC or ZAC instead of actually hitting the opponent. This set me back majorly.
I had so many playstyle flaws, it's hard to know where I had to start. My Link never left the ground unless I was hit or something. Fsmash, Dsmash and arrow spamming were all I could do. The arrow spam was the worst, because it meant sitting there and charging up arrows constantly. I didn't use grabs effectively, or at all. Most of Link's moveset was ignored and I didn't FF anything. I had too many basic problems to correct. The entire time, I was focusing on making Link do these flashy tricks, or to rush in and attack that I lost all focus on actually connecting hits on the opponent in a quick, precise manner, and playing smart.
Instead, I focused on DACing everywhere, walking up to an opponent and trying Fsmash them, and arrowing them from across the stage.
I played Brawl in almost the same way I had played the first SSB, plus some ATs. I still thought the most important part of the game was bashing your opponent senseless and getting them offscreen. I failed to realize that in order to win, I had to play smarter, not just randomly attack all the time.
At this point, I didn't even have my foundations ready to start playing Link, or Smash in general, on ANY competitive scale whatsoever. My mind kept telling me that I had to use all these ATs, and when I kept DACing and such, it started to hinder my playing rather than improve.
After recieving feedback from my first-ever Brawl video I had recorded, I rewatched Linkaggedon to see what Izaw was doing differently. It was at that moment that I knew I had to completely erase the playstyle I had then, and build up one that would be effective. I noticed my matches lasted up to 7 minutes long, while most matches concluded in a 3 minute time-span.
Visual example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEv9qXxcjQM
I had a lot of work to do, but I wasn't about to give up.
[Chapter 3: The Night of a Thousand Stocks]
Now that I had a general idea of what to start working on, I re-watched Art of Link as well as read every guide on the smashboards. I kept in mind the ZAC, Zair and arrow cancelling. The problem with this was I was reading, but not truly compredending the information.
I didn't quite understand the playstyle of Link. I was overly aggresive, approaching periodically with ZAC and such. I chased my opponents everywhere, and often I would end up getting killed for it. I hadn't then learned the importance of projectile spam. I kept hucking bombs, boomerangs, arrows and everything short of the kitchen sink at my enemy while I chased them, which often proved ineffective to me.
So my friends and I decided to make a Brawl group, we would meet at my place every other week on Fridays, then have at each other with free for alls and 1 v 1s.
One of my friends kept blocking and punishing just about any attack I had. It really frustrated me, but it taught me that I was being too predictable. This is where a new word was added to my vocabulary:
Mindgames.
Soon, I started to realize that my ground attacks and predictable attacks weren't enough to defeat an enemy. At this point, I learned the importance of shorthop, as well as just jumping in general. However, I still had a nasty Dair habit, so it hindered my progress. At the same time, I started looking up ways that might break the predictability.
I recorded the matches my friends and I had made and I started watching them. It's surprising to see what my character was like when the controller was not in my hands. Most of my moves were all habits and acting without thinking. I hadn't fully shaken the entire habit of knowing exactly what I'm doing.
I then compared my videos to the playstyles of other Links. I took note of which moves they use more than I do, and which moves they don't use as often. At this point, I knew there was no way I could keep Dairing so much.
That weekend at night, I got on the Wii and started up Brawl. I practiced these techniques well into the AM. Although I still didn't have a grasp on SH projectiles and spamming effectively, I first focused on the close-quarters combat side of things. I played numerous matches on Wi-Fi, or even against CPUs.
I played all night until I knew by heart what each of Link's moves did. I practiced the execution of each move in a fight, then I gradually worked it into a part of my playstyle. By the time I had the bare basics down, I knew the next step would be to start using ATs effectively.
However... that proved to be a challenge for me.
[Chapter 4: Roll the dice, never think twice]
This next section involves a short amount of no-lifing.
It was here that I wanted to speed up my gameplay. I'm sure I'm not the only person who's sat in an infinite timed match with a level 7 CPU. I practiced my fastfalling and shorthopping. I tried getting a hang of comboing and the likes. My biggest focus was using ATs at the right time. I took note of when I got punished for DACing, and when an arrow cancel really came in handy.
I did this for about an hour a day. What concerned me the most was if I kept playing against CPUs, I would forget what I had learned by playing against people.
In order to solve this, my friends and I agreed to have a little Brawl party every other week. We would take turns playing 1 v 1s as well as just Free for Alls for good fun. As far as practice went, I had it covered, now I just had to work on it a bit more.
At the same time, I was trying to learn who the big-deals were in the Link community. After browsing the boards, I got a general idea of who's-who.
Deva, Legan, Izaw, Finns, ArkiveZero were of the first top players I started hearing from. I watched their videos with much interest and looked at their playstyle extensively. I hadn't made any connections in the community yet, and I didn't actually talk to any of them yet, but watching the videos they had to offer were very helpful.
Next I saw a Blu Link fellow who had quite a lot to say to the smashboards. It seemed to me, he was like the smarts and technical guy of the Link boards, who always had something to discuss when it came to playing Link. He contributed to metagame discussion, posted some of his findings and it looked like he was a real member of the community.
That leads me to where I fit in on the Link boards. I realized that I sort of didn't. I wasn't going to tournaments, repping Link. I wasn't a fascinating Link player, and I still had some fundamental problems to fix. I wasn't good enough, or helpful enough to really be considered anything on the Link boards. I posted where I could and provided my thoughts on certain topics, but I knew it wasn't enough to be a true Link mainer.
My next chapter will cover everything from that point to today. I had a whole lot of work to do, and I wasn't about to start second-guessing myself.
[Chapter 5: Beginning of the End]
My next step in the world of smash is to refine what I have learned into complete skill and unstoppable domination.
Many people are at this stage in their smashing lives, and I'm no exception. The only way up is to practice what has been learned, perfect and master each technique. Even today, I work at it everyday to fine-tune my playstyle, and make myself faster and more unpredictable.
I need to get my thumbs to go perfectly with what I want to do, execute each move cleanly. Even with the schoolwork burying me, I find time to practice my techniques against standing targets, then utilizing them in a fight.
As I stand, I have mastered DAC. I am on the way to FFing perfectly, and refining my SH combat as well as my spacing. I'm learning to make my gameplay faster and my moves less predictable, as I have now laid out the foundations of my smash game.
No longer am I a smash noob. Training with a handful of trial and error, I'm determined to proving my worth on the Link boards, and the smash world altogether.
Blu Link, ArkiveZero, as well as the entire Link community is backing me. Chances are, they're backing you too.
I, along with the rest of this community will make the name "Link" one to be feared.
This is a short chapter, true. The next chapter in my quest has not yet been written. This is the end of my story, but the beginning of my journey. Perhaps one day, my journey to becoming a great Link main will cross yours.
"Nothing in life worth having comes easy." -DrK
Posted November 18th. (Happy birthday to me.)
