Oh there was an arena here today o.o Guess I'll have to check out the next one :C
Instead, I played some of the saltiest games of Smash I've ever had with my brother. His salt. He was really excited for Simon before the game came out, but since then he's put a lot of time into him only to discover that Simon isn't that good. Or, at least, not that good unless you absolutely master him, which might take him a long time with no guarantee he ever will.
On top of that, two of his previous mains from Smash 4, Mewtwo and Pikachu, got some changes that he doesn't seem to like, so he hasn't enjoyed playing them, either. In Smash 4, he was actually damn good with those two, to the point that sometimes he'd be able to totally crush me, hence why his struggles in Ultimate are so upsetting for him.
He picked up Ike, since Ike is really good in this game and doesn't seem to bother him, but there was still a lot of salt even when he was playing him. He started playing Samus recently, too, but my Samus game is way ahead of his, so I know how to outplay him. Zelda's another character he liked playing in 4 and still in this game, but he can't seem to play her consistently well in Ultimate, either, so that's troubled him.
He also takes issue with the way the game handles inputs. The buffer system is different from Smash 4, and I guess he really relied on the old system, because he's constantly complaining about strange inputs or inputs not reading. In particular he wishes that he could turn off smash attacks being performed with the control stick and A. I don't really have the same issues he does, or at least don't complain about it.
Today it reached a head where he wanted to play, but after a dozen matches he was just getting so upset that it was starting to become more uncomfortable than usual. Often times when he gets like that, he starts picking random stages and random characters, since what he chooses himself doesn't work well, so he lets the game choose.
At one point he wound up with Pokemon Trainer, a character he was excited about before the game launched, but completely forgot about after a certain point. And he did well, with almost no complaints, and was having a much better time. Pokemon Fire Red is one of his favorite games of all time, hence is pre-release excitement for the return of Pokemon Trainer, but now he rediscovered it. He finally started winning a few games, actually.
Of course, I pulled out Dark Samus and stomped him, but he's going to start practicing Pokemon Trainer more, and it seems that his enjoyment of the game has returned, so I'm glad. Because my primary enjoyment of Super Smash Bros. is playing it, well, with my brothers, and one of mine not being able to do well/enjoy the game was a problem. Normally there's three of us, meaning that matches are less focused and intense between two people, but since the other one goes to a college that's 6+ hours away, he's only around during breaks and holidays.
Which means that when he's not around most of the year, playing Smash at home is me playing against the one that's still here, 1v1, while he's been struggling to enjoy the game for the past few weeks, and that's not good. Now hopefully he'll be able to really compete and have fun like he used to.