Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii... I think I'm a lost cause. 2500 matches and I still can't beat the average little mac player. Tags used on me include "REKT" "IDIOT" DIE4RL" and "SWAG" all in one day. I know this sounds dumb, but I actually feel like I want to cry; I haven't learned a thing despite all the advice I've been given, videos I've watched, guides I've read and games I've played. Whenever I play a match, I'm so scared of losing I go blank. I absolutely NEED to have a talent in life - I have none whatsoever, and I want Smash to be the thing I'm good at. Something relevant and something I can show the world I'm good at. Nope. Not likely.
I still stare open-mouthed instead of reacting to things, I still go on the offense because the other player never does, I still don't react to things I know are coming, I still drop my shields early or randomly smash attack, I still attack people where they are instead of where they're going, I still lose to rolling/dodging spam, I still get defeated by EVER SINGLE Captain Falcon, Little Mac and suchlike I come across. And on Anther's too, I lose to people who openly admit they've only just picked up the game, despite my hours-upon-hours of practice. I have no main, a reputation for being awful - I was officially voted the world's worst player on one sordid forum - and people are getting sick of me asking for help.
Is it time to uninstall the game from my consoles? I feel like I'm an idiot who has only just realised they're an idiot, but I can't make myself quit. I'd rather have someone else tell me "You're hopeless, give up" instead of being nice and saying "Don't give up." Surely people like me, who were never any good and probably never will be, SHOULD give up?
Sorry to vent - I'm ready to admit I have an autistic side to me as well as horrid memory issues, so I just wanted to share the angst. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Dude, I can relate to all of that. That's exactly how I felt about this game a few months ago. It was especially frustrating after coming from brawl, where I was
just good enough to hold my own against some of the top players. At least somewhat.
But I've slowly been getting better, and it's not because I've been trying harder, It's not because i had some epic breakthrough that suddenly made everything I used to struggle against make sense, it's because I changed how I practice.
First, you have to realize that there are Four basic stages to learning.
There's Unconscious incompetence, Conscious incompetence, Conscious competence, and Unconscious competence.
The first stage is where you do not want to be. You haven't recognized where your shortcomings are, and in most cases, you would not be able to fix them even if you did.
Good News! is that this is not you. You just listed the things you're struggling against. You're already passed the first step!
The Second stage is where you curently are. You know there's a problem. You can't beat X, but you still don't know how to fix it.
The best thing you can do is to focus on your problems one at a time. Instead of saying "I wan't to beat captain falcon" start small and try to identify what it is about the character that's giving you trouble.
Maybe you always get dash grabbed.
Okay, so now you look at why you're getting dash grabbed.
Maybe you panic in your shield too often
So now you go into a match and you tell yourself. I'm not going to panic and hold shield!
If you still get dash grabbed a lot, look at what else you're doing that's causing it. Repeat the process until you no longer struggle with the dash grab.
Keep doing this for all the little things you struggle with, and you're certain to improve bit by bit. It's not a quick process! Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to getting good at smash. You're going to lose. A lot. But once you start looking at those loses as opportunities to improve, you'll start to notice yourself getting better much faster than before!
Then, once you start winning, start analyzing those games!
"I won, I didn't get dash grabbed at all that game!"
Analyze what you did that won you the match, that's probably a good tool to add to your gameplay.
The third stage is a good one.
At this point you know what you struggle with, and you're able to overcome those things... albeit with a ton of focus.
I'm going to go ahead and say this. As you're focusing on improving one aspect of your gameplay. It's very likely that
everything else you do is going to suck.
You'll miss space moves that you didn't use to miss space before, you'll accidentally SD, you'll do generally dumb things. Don't worry about that. You're focusing super hard on improving that one thing, you wont have as many mental resources to focus on everything else. Just keep at it until you no longer have to focus as hard on that one thing, and you'll finally be in the final stage!
Now you're at Unconsious Competence.
This is where you want to be! You don't struggle with that one thing anymore, and you instictively know how to beat it.
You'll barely even have to think about it anymore. If you think Falcon is going to dash grab you, you'll spotdodge, and punish with your quickest option.
Once you get here, it's time to start all over. Find something else you struggle with and start from Step 2.
If you don't know what else to focus on, that means you're in Step 1, and you should focus on finding something that you struggle with so you can start at step 2 and fix it.
And that's it! Just stay positive, and keep working on improving! I hope this helps you, and that it wasn't too confusing!
) but after all these close games, I strive to improve and realize my mistakes. My anger hardly comes up nowadays but eventually you'll hear me complain every now and then.
