Welcome to Pyro's analysis of smash post.
I've been playing Melee competitively since last summer. Since then I've been learning how each person plays, how each region plays, and what to do differently with my skill to win.
Everyone in WNY knows me as that kid that plays Roy and Zelda in tournament and never really places particularly high (at least that's what I suppose). I'll pull out a new high tier main for each tournament, and each time get ***** hard when I use it. Probably a bad thing.
So I'm in NJ right now, next week is apex, and last night, I had some kind of break through after talking with some top players (mainly zhu).
When I played in Rochester, I knew and still do know, that everyone tries to play exactly like Jesse. There are a few exceptions of people that play differently, but overall, everyone has the same style. This isn't a bad thing, because Jesse is a good player, and there's nothing wrong with trying to play like him. But in general, our region is really easy to read.
Now I came home, and I've played against a long list of really good players, and another list of players at about my skill level. The huge problem I'm having however, is that I can **** everyone at my skill level. And can't get anything done against people of a higher skill level. So what does that mean? Well, unfortunately not much. I was telling myself for a while that I just need to get better. I just needed to learn how to read my opponent better, and then i'd be doing fine. Well, I still think that. Reading is the second biggest thing in this game next to spacing. But I've decided something new about my play style that's going to have to change.
I was driving zhu around NJ yesterday, and in that time we just chatted for a while, he put up with my incessant fanboyism and my overall awkward chattiness. But one of the things that stood out through our whole chat was when he told me about how he started playing. He told me how he used to play a whole bunch of characters, and that at his first tourney he placed really well doing random stupid stuff. I thought it was really cool how he was just naturally talented. But when he told me that playing characters like samus, ICs, and others was holding him back, I was kind of surprised. He said that after he started playing falco as his main, he was able to go back and play his alternates so much better just because he'd been playing a character that was easier.
He put it into what he called layers:
the first layer is knowing the situation
the second layer is knowing how to respond and attack back from a certain situation
the third and more layers are what to follow up with after the attack
When he would play a higher tier character, it gives more options, allowing for you to get to the 3+ layers way more often. But when you go back to a low tier, you understand the situation a lot easier and are able to get to all of the layers easier.
Essentially what all that layer stuff means, is if you play a better character, you can spend less time thinking about reading, and more time doing the right thing. When you play a low tier character, you have to spend more time trying to get into the position where your best option is available to use. So when you play that high tier character, analysis of a situation, knowing how to respond, and continuing to **** comes much more naturally. Then when you go to a low tier, you think so much clearer, and you understand everything much easier.
So if you're still with me and reading this, you may have already jumped to the conclusion that I will be switching my main. You're close. I'm not switching my main, I will always consider myself a low tier main. But at least for the time being, I will be playing marth. I will be trying to make myself better, in order to make my Roy better. I will always feel that playing low tiers are the most fun part of the game, yet I have this burning need to get better, and if I don't exert all my options at getting better I won't be able to play my Roy at my highest possible skill level.
So thank you for reading this, and for those of you still going to apex, I'll see you there, and for the rest of you, I'll see you in the fall hopefully.
