Although I feel stupid since your right next me (Davey) lol
But if I may I'd like to share my smash upbringing.
I had smash 64 when i was a kid. Liked playing that a lot. But, like I did with all my games, stopped playing as soon as a got a new game. Same with melee. Played it hard when it was new but stopped when I got a new game. It wasn't till I was a freshman is high school when Johny. For what ever reason Johny had the urge to play smash64. And I would play it with him.. Had some fun remembered what a cool game it was. After a while we stopped playing again..
Then one day I was in study hall with my buddy's and it was a drag. It was the last period of the day and noooo one felt like doing anything productive. So the next day I bring in my n64 and we started playing 4foralls every day in study hall. And it was HYPE. It slowly evolved from everyday in study hall into every morning in home room.
We played that for a while. And then moved onto GameCube. More characters better stages (FD Corneria and hyrle temple were the only ones we used. Lol) more items. It was unreal fun. We used to all wear tags and record our KOs to see who had the most at the end of the month.
Then in 10th grade i start distincing myself from the rest of the kids. Always had the most KOs. Able to jump out and meteor smash with falcon. (used to be my favorite thing ever) and this was around the time that brawl was being released. So when brawl came out I playe that at my friends house a lot. Never noticed the big differences since I wasn't really that good. So I played that at home and melee at school. (thank god that wiis were really expensive because of I would have felt comfortable bring that to school. Or else I might be a brawl player... Lol)
But since all my friends played melee at school I stuck with that. Slowly we started moving away from four 4 alls with items to 1v1s with no items. We played 2 stock and winner stayed. I dont wanna say I'm the best. I would still lose sometimes but I knew I was.
Then one day at lunch my friend (Lon, falco player) told me about this guy named PC Chris. So I look him up and watch some of his MLG matches. But since he didn't play falcon I really didn't care to much to pay super close attention. But what I did see was a couple of techniques. Edge hogging was one of them. (I'm pretty sure I always knew how to tech. Idk I just remember alley doing it. Lol) but I remember showing my friends that and we started stealing the edge from each other. I couple of my froends started gettig good with me. My friend Kevin's yoshi/sheik/luigi (black shout caster guy from my tourney) my friend beau (an alright falco) how had their own little things. Dash dancing and stuff. That was about it technique wise until 11th grade.
Then about way thru my junior year me and Lon start playing hard core with each other. We start slowly learning some simple ATs (short hoping, dash dancing) and I remember not being able to do it with falcon so I switched to falco. I starting using short hop dair all day. Although eventually when I started being able to do it with falcon I switched back.
Then in my free time I started lookin t smash stuff in my free time. I was on smash wiki and YouTube all the time. I heard the name ken a lot so I looked him up. And once I saw "the ken combo" I fell in love. It was like a spike that you can set up! Looked awesome! So I started messin with marth. Saw some m2k marth matches and i was in awe.
So as Im watching all these Marths I start learning the more advanced things I saw them doing. (wavedashing and chain grabbing)
And my marth started playing my consistant then my falcon. So I stuck with him. At the same time. Lon was playing samus, ICs and spacies.
We played everyday and and slowly started getting a general feel for the metagame. So I googled "smash tourneys" And found smash boards.
I saw a ohio tourney in the summer and that was me and Lon's first tourney.
So since me, nor Lon had our licences at the time. Lon's dad drove us all the way to columbus for our first tourney.
We get there early and started warming up with each other and feeling alright. Then real players start showing up. COK showed up first. (drephen, watty, big R) we watched them play each other and were amazed. Other players showed also and we got started. Grand total:9 people. So the TO ran 2 pools. Me and Lon in seperate pools. ME AND LON PLAYED ALL OUR MATCHES AND GOT *****... both of us last place in our pool. (look up "Lon focus cancel" to see lons first tourney matches ever.)
So we leave humbled. Knowing that we put in all that work just to be in the bottom again. At this time I think Johny started playing with us more seriously. He used stupid chars like Kirby ness and then picked up sheik after I told him I got ***** by drephen. We still played everyday and went to another tourney. This time it was tourney at cohead and cambrias apartment. We played friendlies all day. And lost about 90% of them. We played a lot of the Ohio guys for the first time. (Minty, immp, dippindots, skyson, ect) long story short. Got super *****.. Again! But before I left I grabed a set vs THE Mew2king. Marth dittos, FD (ninja picked..lol) first game I got 0 to deathed twice to start off.. I didn't get JV5d.. But I only got maybe 24%.. But second game I grabbed him... And I was like omg. But still got *****. But I f throw into daired him (almost died, but he was like "I wasnt at 48%" lol) and I almost ken comboed him buy I missed the dair.. Got 4 stocked again.. But I almost took a stock of m2k. So I went home inspired.
Then came my senior year. We brought back the cube and started playing with the group of guys again. Only this time.. It wasn't even close.. I would get off on them all with any character. 4 stocking most kids. And I started to see real improvement. Me and Lon were so dominating in school that no one wanted to play anymore. Around this time me Lon and Johny went to pound 4. It was crazy!!! Playing and watching every good player I've ever heard of! This is where I actually met Taki. I had a Pittsburgh hat on and Taki came up to me and asked if I was from there. And he starts flipping out laughing. We talk a little about how crazy it is we met at pound and not in Pittsburgh.
But any way. Me and Lon entered singles and doubles.. And although we felt like we came so far. Me and Lin didn't win a single game in our pools..
Lon got ***** by d1, hdl, spawn. An I got ***** by skler, crismis, utto, and
alanspectro@gmail.com.. Looooooooool
My marth got so **** on in tourney that didn't use him the rest of the weekend. Used my low tiers. Yoshi an Mario. I still probably lost 90% of my friendlies but it was an awesome tourney and had a blast.
Then came hope 1. It was a Pittsburgh tourney so me Lon and Johny and our friend chad entered. Me and
Lon teamed and first set was vs Hbox/Lake... Lon gets rested while it still says go.. He got owned.. But next we played. Roh and cave dweller and won. OUR FIRST TOURNEY MATCH AND SET WON!!!! It took us till our 3rd touney to win one game. So we were
Rollin!! We won another and ended up getting 4th. Out of 6. Lol
But then came singles. First round.. Lake... **** on me. With marth then zelda.. So of to losers (still never won a singles game or set at this point) so in losers I have to at my friend chad. A guy a played with a lot at my house. I knew I would win but i was closer then I thought it should have. I win 3-2 (Bo5 lol.) although I was my first win in singles it didn't feel legit because it was my friend I knew I was better then. So next I played some game named samsonites. I guy that just moved here from CA to go to CMU. Marth dittos. Idk how but I won. And it was great. Finally after about a year of practice and exp, I won a legit game and set. I was ontop of the world. So next I had to play Alan. Loooooooool marth vs falco. This was and still is my fave MU since I played it with Lon for hours. I lose game one, 3stock him game two
and then I SDd to kill myself game three. Heart breaking but today MY FOURTH TOURNEY. I finally won a game/ match.
And sometime after I graduated high school me Lon and Johny started going to duq. And met all the Pittsburgh smah guys again and the rest is history.. I've been to 20 more tourneys and have been going to duq every friday since.
And just for the record. (I beat Taki the first 2!!!!! Times I played him!!! Marth vs falco)
TL;DR
I know It gets discouraging from time to time but this game is hard.. I played on a causal level for months and played/practiced everyday. And it took me a whole year to win a game.
But if you really want to start taking smash seriously you gotta put on the time. start learning the techniques and applying them. Watching videos and learning from other players. (although thy sounds more like a job, trust me itll be so much fun.) seeing your self slowly get better will drive you to want to reach that next level.
I mean look at Johny. Me and Lon use to take turns 4 stocking him and doing absurd combos. But he stuck with it, learned the game, PRACTICED ALOT, and now is beating really good people. All in less time then me. (also fun fact: Johny won his first ever tourney set. 2-0d john boney. Loooooooooool)
