t3h Icy
Smash Master
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2009
- Messages
- 4,917
Link to original post: [drupal=4141]tl;dr: I love Smash[/drupal]
I love Smash and I want to be a top player.
This is my long story, so if you get bored, you can just skip all of this. This is more for me to just put all of my thoughts and experiences in one place, but maybe it could be inspirational to other players. Besides, I love writing, even if I'm not great at expressing my ideas quickly and concisely. Anyway...
All the way back in 2005 when I was in High School, I played a friend of mine who was considered the big gamer of the school which I always thought was silly since he didn't know as much about games. So I challenged him to a Melee match: Final Destination, 10 stock, my Sheik vs his Luigi, and he won with 2 stocks left. And after being crushed, I became motivated to get better, and I discovered competitive Melee.
I've always had a desire to learn about everything possible that drew my interest, only I never really thought about the true depth of games, and never thought Melee could be deep, since I was just a dumb teenager. When I found out all the advanced tricks, I knew I had to learn them and did. I lived in Thunder Bay at the time and after getting a hang of a more advanced Sheik, I became bored of beating everyone in my city (casual player friends), including the Luigi guy and then learned other characters for fun. Eventually it got to the point where if I sandbagged and happened to lose a game, people would retire, lol. There was one "tournament" where I JV5'd a Falcon with Ganon, rofl.
Anyway, I stumbled upon competitive Smash 64 online, and got totally hooked. I learned that being the fastest, flashiest player won't let you win and I began to think a lot more about mindgames and outsmarting your opponent. Here's an old video of my Craptain Falcon when I was just learning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2UaAAQ9iSc
And also being addicted to statistics and knowledge, I went about creating the Smash 64 Match-Up Chart, and eventually Tier List too. Yay.
But, I still wasn't anything like a pro player, traveling, playing top players, etc. But being stuck with a dead end job and living in Thunder Bay wasn't helping, so I just stuck to Smash 64.
Eventually my family moved to Lethbridge, Alberta and immediately I went looking for Smashers. Calgary had a lot, Edmonton too, but not so much in Lethbridge, except for Brawl players. I went up to Calgary in November 2009 and that's where my Smash career began. I had watched ROM2 before and I was completely motivated to destroy everyone after seeing Kage defeat Mango.
For over 4 years, I've wanted to play other competitive players, those that have the drive to improve, to learn, and become good at the game for fun. I came in like any other noob would assuming he'd **** everyone. I watched a lot of videos of the players, and I felt that having superior mindgames, I would be fine with my lack of inexperience, even against FalseFalco.
My first real match was against a Ganon with my Sheik on Final Destination. I got 3 stocked, lol. Later on I also played a superb Kirby, who also barely beat me. Pretty funny, but I was a bit frustrated that I was doing so badly. That night though, a bunch of the guys and I did a ton of teams. I went to Calgary as a Sheik main with a Marth backup and over the course of a ton of team friendlies, I learned that Jigglypuff is pretty sweet.
Anyway, come the tournament, I was stoked. My first proper tournament ever, and I wanted to prove myself. I also have a ton of pride and did not want to lose. In Pools I was against Levi who played against me superbly and made me look like I should have never picked up a controller, lol. My other opponent in Pools was a Ganon main, and I had lost the first game. Right there, I felt this incredibly heavy feeling that I was going down effortlessly and I was so depressed. But it was weird, something just sort of clicked where I felt in complete control and understood everything. Like a massive adaptation and learning, kind of like a survival instinct, and I was chaingrabbing perfectly and reading with precision. It's the weirdest thing, but somehow I beat him in the next two games and got second seed.
In the bracket I was against a Jigglypuff, and I was kind of nervous about using Sheik, so I did Puff dittos. I felt I had an edge over him, but again, I was inexperienced and all the practice in the world against CPUs can't teach you the entire theories about the shield. I missed a Rest just at the end of a game, but I took the set, again with some sort of super power that just clicks.
Next was a Samus and while I have no idea about how to fight Samus, I main Sheik and it's a bad character, so what's the worry. Because I learn fast, I got 3 stocked. The following game, I took him to Battlefield with Jigglypuff and I played super well, but I didn't get the final hit and lost. That's okay, it was a fun set.
So to the journey in Losers' I was against Levi's bro who plays Marth and Falcon. After losing game 1, I knew this was over since he was beating me all the previous day in friendlies and I'm not completely comfortable with fighting Marth, lol. But maybe it's just me adapting super fast or something, but I beat him in the set. It's like being ultra focused and you just understand everything, it's so surreal. I imagine everyone has this, but I'm totally addicted to it, and I wish I could play like that all the time. Anyway, following that was Levi and I think I convinced myself that it was impossible to win, thus finishing 5th after an easy 0-2.
Teams wasn't as exciting in that sense, but me and my teammate made it to Winners' Finals. I felt nervous since I was teaming with Lemonlau, a multi-mainer from Edmonton who is a really good player, and I didn't want to drag him down since I was only playing for my second day. But it seemed to work with me stock tanking and getting Rests, while he played the front and we finished 3rd.
Winners' Finals 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgzG2VyD18U I was terrible, but it was the only game those two lost the whole tournament, so that was nice.
So I was extremely satisfied with how I had done, and of course, I wanted more. In March a few months later, Ministry from Ontario moved to Calgary and he offered to house me for a weekend, so I absolutely got on that. At this point, I had fine-tuned my Jigglypuff and worked on my Sheik, dropping Marth almost altogether. I also developed a ton of low tiers, which I pretentiously dubbed "The Low Tier Army". Yeah. Off to a Smashfest I go.
Everyone had improved so much and even that Jigglypuff I beat in tournament before was destroying me. Badly. Everyone I played I lost to, but Ministry and I did well in teams, mostly because he was above everyone around there, and I did my Puff stuff. I also got to play Victra, and like Samus, I thought Peach was a horrible characters. Getting 3 stocked changed my opinion on that.
Ministry is probably the coolest Smasher I've hung out with, if only because he has the same drive I do to improve and be the best. <3 Super fun weekend playing Smash non-stop and learning that I can't magically make Roy a good character.
But returning to Lethbridge, I was pretty disappointed that everyone was improving so fast and by so much, and I was stuck since nobody in my city played, so I finally quit Melee. I eventually met LA Fight Club, a group of fighting game fanatics who happened to play Brawl and Street Fighter. Cool, I'll hang out with them.
Long before moving to Alberta, I used King Dedede, but I never really got into Brawl since it wasn't my style of gameplay. I've always been defensive for all the ***** that rip on Brawl at any and every possible time, though I got into it myself. Eventually I got hooked, maybe only because I was able to play people on a regular basis, but I loved playing Brawl with them.
Brawl is a jerk game though and most top characters all have really gay tactics. The two main guys I played were a Diddy player, Age and a Toon Link player, Mystic. Being Dedede and playing with a desire to win, I played as gay as possible and eventually started using pink Dedede. And since I improved drastically and was able to actually beat them sometimes, I became really cocky. Note to the reader: this is a good way to lose friends.
Eventually in May, I went to a small Smashfest in Calgary with all the Brawl players, and one guy, T-Block from Edmonton came down too, who was power ranked 5th. He's also probably the only non-MK player there and when I was able to hold my own against him, I felt that the rest of Edmonton would be cake. After all, I did well against the rest of Calgary minus an Ice Climbers player, and Age and I were the top players in Lethbridge. Time to go to a tournament!
Edmonton was hosting their monthly in August and the Lethbridge folk thought it was time to slay everyone. Only Age and I went, since the other guys were busy, but that should be enough anyway, lol. The only thing is we weren't usually teammates, but we'll figure it out as we go. Besides, we ****.
So along the long road to Edmonton, we chatted about all sorts of stuff, strategies, etc. Fun times, I love road trips, I love discussing everything, and it was an amazing way to start up a trip. We went to Kuraudo's (the **** Sonic that went to WHOBO 3 and did **** things to people), who was nice enough to host us, despite not really knowing either of us. Some of the other Edmonton players were there and it was a night of friendlies. After playing KillLock, I realized taking the tournament might be a bit harder than I anticipated.
At the tournament, I made sure to play everyone since I rarely get to travel due to school and money. And I started to realize I hated Brawl. I was definitely starting to understand what Melee elitists felt about the game, but to each their own, so I would definitely not support them in that way, but I was definitely not digging Brawl. On top, Edmonton is incredibly liberal with stages, and has anything legal so long as it doesn't have a single broken tactic.
Teams we got *****. We actually almost beat the team that placed 2nd, but I couldn't get the final hit in game 2, and in game 3, Kuraudo did some weird grab where he held me off the stage. **** Brawl. But we weren't usual teammates, which was clearly why we lost.
In Singles, I got 2nd in Pools, only under KillLock, who I actually was pretty close to beating, and Age got 3rd in his. In bracket I was paired with one of the few guys I was beating in friendlies, so I was amped up. I have the best luck in bracket and have always got the most Byes possible in everything; Melee Singles, Teams, Brawl Singles, Teams, and always got the best opponents for me. This time was no different as I had a Bye for Losers' if I lost somehow. Well, in game 1 on Battlefield, it was my Dedede vs his Falco, and it was really close, but he got the last hit. Game 2 I salty-picked Battlefield and SD'd almost immediately. Right here I started to feel crushed, but just like that time last year in Melee, I just sort of went super saiyan. I can't really explain it, but I'm sure everyone knows what I mean. I came back after losing the first game and SDing the first stock, and capitalized on every grab, even if Dedede can't chaingrab.
And this is where I made a colossal mistake in banning Castle Siege. My idea was that of all the possible stages that I could ban, I would pick the stage where I could get gayed the most. Unfortunately I forgot about Jungle Japes. In a stage where my ******* penguin can't swim, making the blastline on the left hand side, essentially the water and getting the klap, I was fighting 1 stock to 3. As Falco, he stayed at the far right and there was literally nothing I could do. I definitely started to get that focus, but it was not nearly enough to come back after that. He's a cool guy though and knew that was gay so he apologized after, lol.
And in Losers' I had a MK player that I was doing fine against in friendlies the night before. Maybe I was doing something different, or he played on point, but I lost the first game. Great, after months of trash talk back and forth, I'm about to finish 9th. I thought to myself, **** it, I'm going MK. And going into super mode, I won Game 2, lol. From there, I banned Norfair since I was feeling confident about that match and was considering switching back to Dedede and take the tournament by storm from there. Except there was too many stages and I couldn't cover them all, and he picked Rainbow Cruise. So I went back to MK and didn't get the final hit. Funny enough, the top 7 except one guy was MK, so **** Brawl. Age did as bad as I did and felt the same thing about Brawl. We left early to just go home. The ride was depressing.
So basically the entire Lethbridge scene died and since we never did much outside of Brawl and I was a total douche in the game, we stopped hanging out. Coincidentally a couple days later, some new guys posted looking for Lethbridge players.I hung out with them and played Brawl with them, despite how I felt about the game, and we went pretty even. Was fun. I thought it might be fun to play some Melee with them since they've never played it with competitive players before. I used Falco and Falcon and I just felt like I was on fire that day and did all the sickest combos and 0-deaths I never knew I was capable of, and they both got totally hooked. Brad, "numonezeldafan" and I started to play Melee frequently, mostly Falco vs Marth, and I was starting to get back into Melee. I always stuck with Sheik and Jigglypuff since I was never technical, and I mentioned that in some random thread one day in Melee Discussion. Kirbykaze posted in disgust about anyone that says they have low tech skill, but I felt he was wrong. After some time spent on it, I've actually developed quite the Falco. Levi moved here from Calgary for school, and I've learned so much in such a short time, that I'm actually giving him a good fight nowadays, instead of him pummeling me to a puddle.
I'm finishing up my third semester at University right now and moving to Vancouver this Summer, home of Noobking, Blunted Object, Sion, Dieslow and Diakonos. Oh god YES!
On a side topic now, Pokemon RBY has always been an amazing experience to me, like many others all over the world, and like every Pokemon master, I wanted to be the very best. Oh wait...
Alongside during the time I spent playing Smash, I've been playing RBY, learning everything, all the mathematics to the games, how to predict your opponent, and everything to help me become a superb player. But let's be honest, it's the oldest generation of the series and nobody really plays anymore, so I've run a community for it since March 2010. It's been pretty good so far.
But the main thing is game theory, and RBY is where I've really learned about game theory. I've also been interested in Sociology and learned how people think. Through years of playing, I've become one of the top players and have pushed the game to its mathematical limits with the help of a whole community. I think this has been able to help my Smash game since I understand how "mindgames" and such work and how to throw your opponent off, etc. This has also helped with my super quick learning and adaption skills.
This isn't the main thing though, since this is about Smash and I. Like RBY, I want to become a top player of Smash, or more correctly, I want to play tons of people, that are all superb players, have the same drive and passion as I do, and naturally, I should become a top player. I am totally motivated by players like Dr. PeePee, Armada and JesiahTEG, PeePee proving it is never to late to become a top Melee player, Armada connecting the world of Smash together and Jesiah for being exactly the type of person I want to be more like and doing what I would love to. But I'm a bit more realistic and can't throw school and money away for Smash.
Anyway, right now I'm sort of a Falco main, Falcon secondary, but I play so many characters since they're all fun in their own ways. This is contradictory to what I believe in, being a perfectionist, all or nothing with a single character. Maybe once I can play top level players in BC, I'll make a more permanent decision, but at least for now, Falco keeps my tech skill up to level.
That's pretty much the main parts of my Smash story, and I learn and contribute to the community in ways I can for now, waiting for my chance. The rest of this blog, I want to address a few things about becoming a better player and what you as a lone Smasher can do.
For starters, like me, you probably want to improve and wish you could play people that love the game like you do. Well, that probably means you play CPUs, which everyone says is a horrible idea. And it is if you don't do it the right way.
Don't play Level 9s, because they are aggressive and make you have to "fight" them. This will teach you bad habits, even if you resist, they'll be hardcoded into your brain somewhere. Play Level 3s, who are basically punching bags with moderate DI.
Practicing combos against them teaches you the physics of you and the opposing characters. Don't tell yourself that these combos work on everyone, because they won't, and don't think every hit will combo, because they won't, and don't think you can **** if you become confident practicing this way, because you won't. Practicing them is strictly to get more fluent with your character, and to learning the basic structures of what can and can't work. Practicing using the name entry glitch to play alone is also a good time to boost tech skill.
Also, ALWAYS have a pocket Falcon. I don't care if you main Fox, Jigglypuff or are too cool for upper characters, have a pocket Falcon. Why? Falcon is by far the most satisfying character and funnest to watch. When you introduce new players to Melee, you want to leave them a lasting impression that this game is pretty badass. If you shine spike them with Fox, drill spam with Falco, Rest them with Puff, chaingrab them with Sheik, or rangegay them with Marth, they won't get to see the game the same way you do. Don't force it on newer players, but show them how fun Melee can be. Falcon is the character for this.
Eat healthy, stay healthy. I've noticed my tech skill and general gameplay is top notch if I've been working out recently and eating healthy, while it goes to hell when I junk out. Axe talked a lot about how healthy he stays in the Smasher Diet topic, and I think his actions speak for himself. Armada is an oddball though and drinks soda like it's water.
And one weird thing Kage said once is not to watch other players' videos for new strategies with your character, but instead develop and learn on your own. He mentioned that it's awkward to implement a new idea into your gameplay if it's not natural to you. I can't argue for or against this, but I can see how that makes sense.
So why the hell am I, some random noob of tons of other people think that I'm seriously going to be a top player someday? I have the drive and passion; I can spend all day for days straight playing, so long as I have people to play, and I absolutely love game theory and learning, which is also why I did the match-up charts as a way to sort of contribute to Smash, even if they didn't turn out so well. I also feel that I'm way more aware about how to outsmart your opponent. I'm by far no Mango, but just watching a lot of videos, I see little habits and patterns people do over and over and it's silly that they're not getting abused for them. Maybe that's just more talk from watching videos; easier said than done.
I will do my best and try my hardest to become a power player come next Summer.
I love Smash and I want to be a top player.
This is my long story, so if you get bored, you can just skip all of this. This is more for me to just put all of my thoughts and experiences in one place, but maybe it could be inspirational to other players. Besides, I love writing, even if I'm not great at expressing my ideas quickly and concisely. Anyway...
All the way back in 2005 when I was in High School, I played a friend of mine who was considered the big gamer of the school which I always thought was silly since he didn't know as much about games. So I challenged him to a Melee match: Final Destination, 10 stock, my Sheik vs his Luigi, and he won with 2 stocks left. And after being crushed, I became motivated to get better, and I discovered competitive Melee.
I've always had a desire to learn about everything possible that drew my interest, only I never really thought about the true depth of games, and never thought Melee could be deep, since I was just a dumb teenager. When I found out all the advanced tricks, I knew I had to learn them and did. I lived in Thunder Bay at the time and after getting a hang of a more advanced Sheik, I became bored of beating everyone in my city (casual player friends), including the Luigi guy and then learned other characters for fun. Eventually it got to the point where if I sandbagged and happened to lose a game, people would retire, lol. There was one "tournament" where I JV5'd a Falcon with Ganon, rofl.
Anyway, I stumbled upon competitive Smash 64 online, and got totally hooked. I learned that being the fastest, flashiest player won't let you win and I began to think a lot more about mindgames and outsmarting your opponent. Here's an old video of my Craptain Falcon when I was just learning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2UaAAQ9iSc
And also being addicted to statistics and knowledge, I went about creating the Smash 64 Match-Up Chart, and eventually Tier List too. Yay.
But, I still wasn't anything like a pro player, traveling, playing top players, etc. But being stuck with a dead end job and living in Thunder Bay wasn't helping, so I just stuck to Smash 64.
Eventually my family moved to Lethbridge, Alberta and immediately I went looking for Smashers. Calgary had a lot, Edmonton too, but not so much in Lethbridge, except for Brawl players. I went up to Calgary in November 2009 and that's where my Smash career began. I had watched ROM2 before and I was completely motivated to destroy everyone after seeing Kage defeat Mango.
For over 4 years, I've wanted to play other competitive players, those that have the drive to improve, to learn, and become good at the game for fun. I came in like any other noob would assuming he'd **** everyone. I watched a lot of videos of the players, and I felt that having superior mindgames, I would be fine with my lack of inexperience, even against FalseFalco.
My first real match was against a Ganon with my Sheik on Final Destination. I got 3 stocked, lol. Later on I also played a superb Kirby, who also barely beat me. Pretty funny, but I was a bit frustrated that I was doing so badly. That night though, a bunch of the guys and I did a ton of teams. I went to Calgary as a Sheik main with a Marth backup and over the course of a ton of team friendlies, I learned that Jigglypuff is pretty sweet.
Anyway, come the tournament, I was stoked. My first proper tournament ever, and I wanted to prove myself. I also have a ton of pride and did not want to lose. In Pools I was against Levi who played against me superbly and made me look like I should have never picked up a controller, lol. My other opponent in Pools was a Ganon main, and I had lost the first game. Right there, I felt this incredibly heavy feeling that I was going down effortlessly and I was so depressed. But it was weird, something just sort of clicked where I felt in complete control and understood everything. Like a massive adaptation and learning, kind of like a survival instinct, and I was chaingrabbing perfectly and reading with precision. It's the weirdest thing, but somehow I beat him in the next two games and got second seed.
In the bracket I was against a Jigglypuff, and I was kind of nervous about using Sheik, so I did Puff dittos. I felt I had an edge over him, but again, I was inexperienced and all the practice in the world against CPUs can't teach you the entire theories about the shield. I missed a Rest just at the end of a game, but I took the set, again with some sort of super power that just clicks.
Next was a Samus and while I have no idea about how to fight Samus, I main Sheik and it's a bad character, so what's the worry. Because I learn fast, I got 3 stocked. The following game, I took him to Battlefield with Jigglypuff and I played super well, but I didn't get the final hit and lost. That's okay, it was a fun set.
So to the journey in Losers' I was against Levi's bro who plays Marth and Falcon. After losing game 1, I knew this was over since he was beating me all the previous day in friendlies and I'm not completely comfortable with fighting Marth, lol. But maybe it's just me adapting super fast or something, but I beat him in the set. It's like being ultra focused and you just understand everything, it's so surreal. I imagine everyone has this, but I'm totally addicted to it, and I wish I could play like that all the time. Anyway, following that was Levi and I think I convinced myself that it was impossible to win, thus finishing 5th after an easy 0-2.
Teams wasn't as exciting in that sense, but me and my teammate made it to Winners' Finals. I felt nervous since I was teaming with Lemonlau, a multi-mainer from Edmonton who is a really good player, and I didn't want to drag him down since I was only playing for my second day. But it seemed to work with me stock tanking and getting Rests, while he played the front and we finished 3rd.
Winners' Finals 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgzG2VyD18U I was terrible, but it was the only game those two lost the whole tournament, so that was nice.
So I was extremely satisfied with how I had done, and of course, I wanted more. In March a few months later, Ministry from Ontario moved to Calgary and he offered to house me for a weekend, so I absolutely got on that. At this point, I had fine-tuned my Jigglypuff and worked on my Sheik, dropping Marth almost altogether. I also developed a ton of low tiers, which I pretentiously dubbed "The Low Tier Army". Yeah. Off to a Smashfest I go.
Everyone had improved so much and even that Jigglypuff I beat in tournament before was destroying me. Badly. Everyone I played I lost to, but Ministry and I did well in teams, mostly because he was above everyone around there, and I did my Puff stuff. I also got to play Victra, and like Samus, I thought Peach was a horrible characters. Getting 3 stocked changed my opinion on that.
Ministry is probably the coolest Smasher I've hung out with, if only because he has the same drive I do to improve and be the best. <3 Super fun weekend playing Smash non-stop and learning that I can't magically make Roy a good character.
But returning to Lethbridge, I was pretty disappointed that everyone was improving so fast and by so much, and I was stuck since nobody in my city played, so I finally quit Melee. I eventually met LA Fight Club, a group of fighting game fanatics who happened to play Brawl and Street Fighter. Cool, I'll hang out with them.
Long before moving to Alberta, I used King Dedede, but I never really got into Brawl since it wasn't my style of gameplay. I've always been defensive for all the ***** that rip on Brawl at any and every possible time, though I got into it myself. Eventually I got hooked, maybe only because I was able to play people on a regular basis, but I loved playing Brawl with them.
Brawl is a jerk game though and most top characters all have really gay tactics. The two main guys I played were a Diddy player, Age and a Toon Link player, Mystic. Being Dedede and playing with a desire to win, I played as gay as possible and eventually started using pink Dedede. And since I improved drastically and was able to actually beat them sometimes, I became really cocky. Note to the reader: this is a good way to lose friends.
Eventually in May, I went to a small Smashfest in Calgary with all the Brawl players, and one guy, T-Block from Edmonton came down too, who was power ranked 5th. He's also probably the only non-MK player there and when I was able to hold my own against him, I felt that the rest of Edmonton would be cake. After all, I did well against the rest of Calgary minus an Ice Climbers player, and Age and I were the top players in Lethbridge. Time to go to a tournament!
Edmonton was hosting their monthly in August and the Lethbridge folk thought it was time to slay everyone. Only Age and I went, since the other guys were busy, but that should be enough anyway, lol. The only thing is we weren't usually teammates, but we'll figure it out as we go. Besides, we ****.
So along the long road to Edmonton, we chatted about all sorts of stuff, strategies, etc. Fun times, I love road trips, I love discussing everything, and it was an amazing way to start up a trip. We went to Kuraudo's (the **** Sonic that went to WHOBO 3 and did **** things to people), who was nice enough to host us, despite not really knowing either of us. Some of the other Edmonton players were there and it was a night of friendlies. After playing KillLock, I realized taking the tournament might be a bit harder than I anticipated.
At the tournament, I made sure to play everyone since I rarely get to travel due to school and money. And I started to realize I hated Brawl. I was definitely starting to understand what Melee elitists felt about the game, but to each their own, so I would definitely not support them in that way, but I was definitely not digging Brawl. On top, Edmonton is incredibly liberal with stages, and has anything legal so long as it doesn't have a single broken tactic.
Teams we got *****. We actually almost beat the team that placed 2nd, but I couldn't get the final hit in game 2, and in game 3, Kuraudo did some weird grab where he held me off the stage. **** Brawl. But we weren't usual teammates, which was clearly why we lost.
In Singles, I got 2nd in Pools, only under KillLock, who I actually was pretty close to beating, and Age got 3rd in his. In bracket I was paired with one of the few guys I was beating in friendlies, so I was amped up. I have the best luck in bracket and have always got the most Byes possible in everything; Melee Singles, Teams, Brawl Singles, Teams, and always got the best opponents for me. This time was no different as I had a Bye for Losers' if I lost somehow. Well, in game 1 on Battlefield, it was my Dedede vs his Falco, and it was really close, but he got the last hit. Game 2 I salty-picked Battlefield and SD'd almost immediately. Right here I started to feel crushed, but just like that time last year in Melee, I just sort of went super saiyan. I can't really explain it, but I'm sure everyone knows what I mean. I came back after losing the first game and SDing the first stock, and capitalized on every grab, even if Dedede can't chaingrab.
And this is where I made a colossal mistake in banning Castle Siege. My idea was that of all the possible stages that I could ban, I would pick the stage where I could get gayed the most. Unfortunately I forgot about Jungle Japes. In a stage where my ******* penguin can't swim, making the blastline on the left hand side, essentially the water and getting the klap, I was fighting 1 stock to 3. As Falco, he stayed at the far right and there was literally nothing I could do. I definitely started to get that focus, but it was not nearly enough to come back after that. He's a cool guy though and knew that was gay so he apologized after, lol.
And in Losers' I had a MK player that I was doing fine against in friendlies the night before. Maybe I was doing something different, or he played on point, but I lost the first game. Great, after months of trash talk back and forth, I'm about to finish 9th. I thought to myself, **** it, I'm going MK. And going into super mode, I won Game 2, lol. From there, I banned Norfair since I was feeling confident about that match and was considering switching back to Dedede and take the tournament by storm from there. Except there was too many stages and I couldn't cover them all, and he picked Rainbow Cruise. So I went back to MK and didn't get the final hit. Funny enough, the top 7 except one guy was MK, so **** Brawl. Age did as bad as I did and felt the same thing about Brawl. We left early to just go home. The ride was depressing.
So basically the entire Lethbridge scene died and since we never did much outside of Brawl and I was a total douche in the game, we stopped hanging out. Coincidentally a couple days later, some new guys posted looking for Lethbridge players.I hung out with them and played Brawl with them, despite how I felt about the game, and we went pretty even. Was fun. I thought it might be fun to play some Melee with them since they've never played it with competitive players before. I used Falco and Falcon and I just felt like I was on fire that day and did all the sickest combos and 0-deaths I never knew I was capable of, and they both got totally hooked. Brad, "numonezeldafan" and I started to play Melee frequently, mostly Falco vs Marth, and I was starting to get back into Melee. I always stuck with Sheik and Jigglypuff since I was never technical, and I mentioned that in some random thread one day in Melee Discussion. Kirbykaze posted in disgust about anyone that says they have low tech skill, but I felt he was wrong. After some time spent on it, I've actually developed quite the Falco. Levi moved here from Calgary for school, and I've learned so much in such a short time, that I'm actually giving him a good fight nowadays, instead of him pummeling me to a puddle.
I'm finishing up my third semester at University right now and moving to Vancouver this Summer, home of Noobking, Blunted Object, Sion, Dieslow and Diakonos. Oh god YES!
On a side topic now, Pokemon RBY has always been an amazing experience to me, like many others all over the world, and like every Pokemon master, I wanted to be the very best. Oh wait...
Alongside during the time I spent playing Smash, I've been playing RBY, learning everything, all the mathematics to the games, how to predict your opponent, and everything to help me become a superb player. But let's be honest, it's the oldest generation of the series and nobody really plays anymore, so I've run a community for it since March 2010. It's been pretty good so far.
But the main thing is game theory, and RBY is where I've really learned about game theory. I've also been interested in Sociology and learned how people think. Through years of playing, I've become one of the top players and have pushed the game to its mathematical limits with the help of a whole community. I think this has been able to help my Smash game since I understand how "mindgames" and such work and how to throw your opponent off, etc. This has also helped with my super quick learning and adaption skills.
This isn't the main thing though, since this is about Smash and I. Like RBY, I want to become a top player of Smash, or more correctly, I want to play tons of people, that are all superb players, have the same drive and passion as I do, and naturally, I should become a top player. I am totally motivated by players like Dr. PeePee, Armada and JesiahTEG, PeePee proving it is never to late to become a top Melee player, Armada connecting the world of Smash together and Jesiah for being exactly the type of person I want to be more like and doing what I would love to. But I'm a bit more realistic and can't throw school and money away for Smash.
Anyway, right now I'm sort of a Falco main, Falcon secondary, but I play so many characters since they're all fun in their own ways. This is contradictory to what I believe in, being a perfectionist, all or nothing with a single character. Maybe once I can play top level players in BC, I'll make a more permanent decision, but at least for now, Falco keeps my tech skill up to level.
That's pretty much the main parts of my Smash story, and I learn and contribute to the community in ways I can for now, waiting for my chance. The rest of this blog, I want to address a few things about becoming a better player and what you as a lone Smasher can do.
For starters, like me, you probably want to improve and wish you could play people that love the game like you do. Well, that probably means you play CPUs, which everyone says is a horrible idea. And it is if you don't do it the right way.
Don't play Level 9s, because they are aggressive and make you have to "fight" them. This will teach you bad habits, even if you resist, they'll be hardcoded into your brain somewhere. Play Level 3s, who are basically punching bags with moderate DI.
Practicing combos against them teaches you the physics of you and the opposing characters. Don't tell yourself that these combos work on everyone, because they won't, and don't think every hit will combo, because they won't, and don't think you can **** if you become confident practicing this way, because you won't. Practicing them is strictly to get more fluent with your character, and to learning the basic structures of what can and can't work. Practicing using the name entry glitch to play alone is also a good time to boost tech skill.
Also, ALWAYS have a pocket Falcon. I don't care if you main Fox, Jigglypuff or are too cool for upper characters, have a pocket Falcon. Why? Falcon is by far the most satisfying character and funnest to watch. When you introduce new players to Melee, you want to leave them a lasting impression that this game is pretty badass. If you shine spike them with Fox, drill spam with Falco, Rest them with Puff, chaingrab them with Sheik, or rangegay them with Marth, they won't get to see the game the same way you do. Don't force it on newer players, but show them how fun Melee can be. Falcon is the character for this.
Eat healthy, stay healthy. I've noticed my tech skill and general gameplay is top notch if I've been working out recently and eating healthy, while it goes to hell when I junk out. Axe talked a lot about how healthy he stays in the Smasher Diet topic, and I think his actions speak for himself. Armada is an oddball though and drinks soda like it's water.
And one weird thing Kage said once is not to watch other players' videos for new strategies with your character, but instead develop and learn on your own. He mentioned that it's awkward to implement a new idea into your gameplay if it's not natural to you. I can't argue for or against this, but I can see how that makes sense.
So why the hell am I, some random noob of tons of other people think that I'm seriously going to be a top player someday? I have the drive and passion; I can spend all day for days straight playing, so long as I have people to play, and I absolutely love game theory and learning, which is also why I did the match-up charts as a way to sort of contribute to Smash, even if they didn't turn out so well. I also feel that I'm way more aware about how to outsmart your opponent. I'm by far no Mango, but just watching a lot of videos, I see little habits and patterns people do over and over and it's silly that they're not getting abused for them. Maybe that's just more talk from watching videos; easier said than done.
I will do my best and try my hardest to become a power player come next Summer.
