Wow, people could write forever on this subject. It's one that applies more than to just smash, that's for sure.
If I could assign one quality to answer this question with, it would be drive. More than hard work, drive is like that pushing force that keeps you going and allowing your hard work to keep coming forth. There are plenty of people who can work hard at this game but just don't have the drive to overcome all of their obstacles, so the hard work is inconsistent and fizzles. Drive is not dedication either, as dedicated players could put more time into the game but not necessarily have that burning passion to win like driven players.
Drive is, as best as I can explain it, the true competitive spirit. You want to prove your worth to every single person out there and you won't stop until you're recognized as the best. Drive allows one to overcome their hardships and obstacles(like my and m2k's lack of natural talent for the game for example) as well as not take a loss sitting down. It's why Mango and I can make comebacks, because we cant settle for seeing someone outperform us. Drive pushes players to work on themselves longer and harder than anyone else would do. I personally used to think about my game and every single situation that I could be faced with all of the time. So long as I was upset with the way I played, I would spend my time solving these situations in order to improve.
That's the way to get there. To stay on top.....that's a different story. Everyone has access to your videos and people start learning how to fight your character better. Plus, you've proven you're the best, so what's left to prove? Well, this is an interesting predicament that I think got to Mango. Would've happened to Ken too but the relative skill level was higher back then. Chances are though, you can't sleep on a given tournament if you're just becoming the best, as everyone has access to your videos, knows your style the best, and probably has extensively trained against your character because they're all looking to take you down. There are always people you have to prepare for, and it wouldn't be until you had a very well-established reign that you could really feel comfortable in your position as #1(like Mango certainly has on his own plane). Once that happens, the nature of competition is kind of null and it makes sense why Mango wouldn't enjoy winning anymore, though some could argue ethical qualities that void him of a title such as "champion" then.
Basically I think it comes down to drive lol. I'm gonna go practice some Melee now because I got distracted and started thinking about that during that last paragraph and couldn't stop lol.
