• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

Ugh, need advice.

FearTheMateria

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jun 17, 2009
Messages
128
Location
Ocean County, Lakewood, NJ
Every aspect of my game sucks (Spacing, Approach, Edgeguard, etc.)...

How do I fix it? Do I switch mains? Playing other people is nice, but if they are top tier players, you learn nothing! I have cousins and such, but I beat them too easily; they complain and get off the game.

Rather than being a Top Tier Recreational Player, i'd like to go Competitive; and yet I am stuck in some odd limbo between best in the house to worst tournament player.

(All I could scrape off at APEX was 1 win in a pool. Just one. And it was EXTREMELY LUCKY at that; my opponent tried to beat the Ike FSmash with a Pika one. Sent us both flying, Pika died faster. And don't get me started on how badly Gnes stomped me out.)


Help? What should I do? Restart basics? Switch mains? Get someone to teach me? What do I do??? TT_TT
 

Coney

Smash Master
Joined
May 25, 2008
Messages
4,160
Location
Rapture Farms
you actually have to make the decision, the jump to go out and try to find nearby players. there are people playing competitively all over the country, more in some areas than others. just find some around where you live by checking out your region's tournaments in the tournament listing section of this site, or cut your teeth at some smashfests beforehand.

you're going to lose. a lot. you're going to get frustrated and want to quit, and you honestly might, but if you can get past it, you'll develop further. you'll hit this wall multiple times on the road to being "good," and the more you break through them, the greater player you'll become.

there is no "quick fix" for an issue like being completely terrible at everything. you can't just pick a character and have all your spacing issues resolved. once you have a greater knowledge of your own skills and abilities, however, you can pick a character based on your own attributes. for instance, i'm a player that relies heavily on punish and prediction, but i have literally no technical ability or finger agility, so i play DDD. once you have a better understanding of your own game, you can choose what's going to be the best benefit for you.

until then, get out there, lose a lot, and learn.
 

FearTheMateria

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jun 17, 2009
Messages
128
Location
Ocean County, Lakewood, NJ
You can learn how to play with a top tier character... the best people that use metaknight and falco and such didn't learn how to play with lower tier characters. :p
I SUCK with MK. Even worse with Snake. Terribad with Diddy and Falco.

I can only get any wins with Ike by camping and punishing. But it is too easy to read. Way to easy. And then I overthink.

coney; even better advice; I know its not an overnight fix, but also transportation is a tad limited, lol...
 

Coney

Smash Master
Joined
May 25, 2008
Messages
4,160
Location
Rapture Farms
well yeah, you gotta be able to drive, or have understanding parents, or make friends in the scene, or take the metro, or ride a bike, or take the bus, or do something. there are tons of options. hell, i'm literally one of the five people in the entire region of MD/VA with a car.

if you care enough, you'll find a way. if you don't, then you won't. simple as that.
 

FearTheMateria

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jun 17, 2009
Messages
128
Location
Ocean County, Lakewood, NJ
well yeah, you gotta be able to drive, or have understanding parents, or make friends in the scene, or take the metro, or ride a bike, or take the bus, or do something. there are tons of options. hell, i'm literally one of the five people in the entire region of MD/VA with a car.

if you care enough, you'll find a way. if you don't, then you won't. simple as that.
Ah. I'm in the NJ area... driving laws suck out here. Nonetheless, i'll try busing from point A to Point B. ..
 

Coney

Smash Master
Joined
May 25, 2008
Messages
4,160
Location
Rapture Farms
wtf if you're in NJ you are in arguably the best state for competitive brawl in the entire nation, you have absolutely no excuse
 

Orion*

Smash Researcher
Joined
Jun 1, 2008
Messages
4,503
Location
Dexters Laboratory
are you kidding me NJ scene is SO active LOL

tournament every weekend, niggz ur bugging.

also try learning d3, very basic character

if that doesnt feel right, gaw, or kirby could go well for you to
 

Limeee

Smash Champion
Joined
Feb 5, 2009
Messages
2,797
Location
Edmonton, Alberta
i can tell you want to be good without putting in all the work

it took all those pro players a long long time before they got where they are

take your time bro

:009:
 

lilseph

Smash Ace
Joined
Aug 10, 2010
Messages
971
gaw or d3 is a great character to start out with, go to tournys often and just ask questions. Im sure the top players would be happy to answer.
 
Joined
Oct 9, 2008
Messages
8,908
Location
Vinyl Scratch's Party Bungalo
NNID
Budget_Player
TBH, if you want to win, don't stray below like A or B tier. Have you tried Marth? She's a great character to learn spacing with, as she rewards you very, very well for spacing correctly and punishes you for poor spacing. Also, she only has like 3 bad matchups, only one of which is really worse than 55-45. Added bonus: if MK ever gets banned (yeah right lol), Marth is probably the best in the game.

But really? Get better with MK.
 

Coney

Smash Master
Joined
May 25, 2008
Messages
4,160
Location
Rapture Farms
DDD may or may not be a good starter character; he may because he's relatively simple and player-friendly. you live long, you lack any real ATs and he's mostly about plain punishes and smarts.

he may not, though, because of how good your region is. DDD has a much harder time at higher levels than some other characters, because he's so simple (as stated before) and you'll need to find ways to compensate for that later on.

i'd probably say marth too, to be honest. marth is a great character that rewards precision in spacing, prediction and timing.
 

Damage Points

Smash Ace
Joined
Apr 22, 2010
Messages
925
Location
Apex, NC
Just gotta stick with it. Ive only been playing brawl since late march. Ive almost quit a few times. But if I look at my progress it's insane. I was getting 3 stocked by **** players to ****** **** players to now I can take almost everyone I play to last stock. Stick with one character and learn that character. Even if u ise Ike. I suggest studying San. Ike is fully capable of hanging with top tiers. You def get frustrated but you'll be rewarded if you stick to it.
 

Mccoy_Krypto94

Smash Rookie
Joined
Aug 7, 2010
Messages
5
Location
Rawlins, Wyoming
You can learn how to play with a top tier character... the best people that use metaknight and falco and such didn't learn how to play with lower tier characters. :p
What he said. If you go to the teir list, try using the characters on the top. Then, you actually have to work your way down..
 

KoSa!

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Oct 2, 2008
Messages
481
Location
NJ
If you do go to a tourney remember you don't have to enter singles or anything for that matter. Just get as many friendlies as possible, and watch other players. Ask yourself if you lose why and how did that happen. The obvious answer is he is better than you, but try and figure out if it was something like stage control or spacing or something else. When you watch people don't get caught up trying to find "sweet combos" but watch the spacing and why did they choose to do a certain move. How did it benefit them, position/damage/annoying?

I personally don't watch any videos anymore for combo purposes even melee stuff. That's what combo videos are for which I don't even watch myself. I watch matches for technical skill and make a habit to learn something positive from them.
 

Delta-cod

Smash Hero
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
9,384
Location
Northern NJ or Chicago, IL
NNID
Phikarp
If you do go to a tourney remember you don't have to enter singles or anything for that matter. Just get as many friendlies as possible, and watch other players. Ask yourself if you lose why and how did that happen. The obvious answer is he is better than you, but try and figure out if it was something like stage control or spacing or something else. When you watch people don't get caught up trying to find "sweet combos" but watch the spacing and why did they choose to do a certain move. How did it benefit them, position/damage/annoying?

I personally don't watch any videos anymore for combo purposes even melee stuff. That's what combo videos are for which I don't even watch myself. I watch matches for technical skill and make a habit to learn something positive from them.
To add to this, ask the person you're playing what he did to beat you. Some players won't be able to answer this well, but nearly everyone can give you basic pointers and advice.
 

KuroganeHammer

It's ya boy
BRoomer
Joined
Jul 15, 2012
Messages
15,985
Location
Australia
NNID
Aerodrome
Not everyone wants to use MK.

And he said he sucks at him.

I'd say pick up Marth. Or maybe Sheik.
 

soif

Smash Rookie
Joined
Aug 19, 2010
Messages
22
Location
UK
Let me tell you what my mentor told me...

Try playing blindfolded. I did this for a number of weeks, and while I felt stupid at first things soon became intuitive. By the time my training had finished and I took my blindfold off all the furniture in my house was gone and my cat was dead. However my play had vastly improved and if I still had a tv to play on I feel I would have been able to beat m2k COMFORTABLY.

Does this help?
 

Kaffei

Smash Hero
Joined
Feb 8, 2008
Messages
7,048
You COULD try Wifi.. (lol)
It's decent with a good connection.. I guess.
go to AiB and play people.

but you live in NJ, which is really smash active. Try to find people.
 

Inferno3044

Smash Master
Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
3,755
Location
Teaneck, NJ/Richmond VA
You COULD try Wifi.. (lol)
It's decent with a good connection.. I guess.
go to AiB and play people.

but you live in NJ, which is really smash active. Try to find people.
This one actually isn't bad if you really don't have anybody to play. The only downside to this is that there are timing issues with wifi (harder to powershield things). NJ is really active, one of the best states, and best of all (imo) its a very small state. Just check the Atlantic North thread. You'll find the NJ PR/Social thread and links to tournaments. Just look around. Maybe there's someone that's not far from you.

@Pierce - **** Metaknight.
 

TheOriginalSmasher

Smash Ace
Joined
Feb 18, 2010
Messages
605
Location
Smashville, Pennsylvania
TBH, if you want to win, don't stray below like A or B tier. Have you tried Marth? She's a great character to learn spacing with, as she rewards you very, very well for spacing correctly and punishes you for poor spacing. Also, she only has like 3 bad matchups, only one of which is really worse than 55-45. Added bonus: if MK ever gets banned (yeah right lol), Marth is probably the best in the game.

But really? Get better with MK.
Bahahahahaha!
 

TheReflexWonder

Wonderful!
BRoomer
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
13,704
Location
Atlanta, GA
NNID
TheReflexWonder
3DS FC
2492-4449-2771
(This might sound like a silly question, so please don't take it as my insulting your intelligence. I've seen it in more than a few people.)

Do you think about -why- you do your moves?

Everything you do should have a purpose. You need to understand why certain moves are the best possible option and why the other ones will get you punished. You shouldn't have situations where you have to press the panic button (say, ROB D-Smash or Marth Up-B) often because you can't think of anything else. You need to have control of your character.

Spacing stems out of that somewhat naturally, as well as approach options and edgeguarding. Experiment with the uses of your moves and try to find the best uses for each. Think of the beginner whose world is opened up when he realizes that using short-hop aerials is an option (and not just and option, but an excellent one!).

While most discoveries won't be so drastic, understanding how to make yourself as safe and as dangerous as possible will really make you see your character in a whole new light, you will have even more tactics to expound upon, and your general ability will accompany that.
 

Rvikwd

Smash Rookie
Joined
Aug 10, 2010
Messages
3
Location
India
I started with Pikachu in Melee.... and BOY was that fun?? i had a really good friend named Victor... he told me that i would lose a lot of times but every failure just made me stronger and now im really good at brawl even though i go to my friend's house to play bcoz i dont have a wii..!!!......//~
 

Sonic_Masta

Smash Rookie
Joined
Sep 6, 2010
Messages
2
My suggestion: Pick a character, learn his moves, and spend LOTS of time brawling computers. Build up till lv 9's aren't a problem, then try your hand at real players. And also, learn technique. Any good brawler can kick the crap out of a spammer, and many have fun doing so. (Sonic Secret: The spin dash is a nice way to wheedle away at your enemies damage, as it's fairly risk-free (Incredibly hard to avoid and countering is useless against it), and is easy to go back and forth over and over. over the course of 10 seconds you can easily get your opponent up to 60 or 70)
 

Pierce7d

Wise Hermit
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
6,289
Location
Teaneck, North Bergen County, NJ, USA
3DS FC
1993-9028-0439
Sonic's Spin Dash is a good move, but not as so reliable as to expect that amount of success against anyone who knows what they're doing.

The best thing to do, is get yourself to a tournament, announce yourself as a new player, meet and identify the top players in your area, and ask them to teach you a few of the basics. Hell, say, "Pierce said, I should ask you to teach me a few of the basis."
 
Top Bottom