Your journey as a smash player

[Wretched]

What I would like to know is not your origins of how you got started, but rather, how you became good.
I played casually for a while. I never saw much depth.
I watched shinedblind, I practiced tech skill alone for a day or two, and then started going to local tourneys.
My friend was on the same level as me, and he was getting better and I had to keep up with him. That definitely helped.
I developed from there. Pretty simple.

 

[TREEZY DA KID]

At first I was just a casual player at smash melee. Back then knowone could have beaten me in 1 0n 1 matches. Im still a high level player in Brawl but I no longer the reigning champ im in second place now

 

[Wretched]

im in second place now

second place...
in what?

 

[TheZhuKeeper]

What I would like to know is not your origins of how you got started, but rather, how you became good.
I played casually for a while. I never saw much depth.
I watched shinedblind, I practiced tech skill alone for a day or two, and then started going to local tourneys.
My friend was on the same level as me, and he was getting better and I had to keep up with him. That definitely helped.
I developed from there. Pretty simple.

My story is almost exactly the same actually LOL.

 

[Fly_Amanita]

I first learned all the ATs and became proficient with them. I played some people for a while, and then became an HRC recluse for a few months, which hurt me momentarily when I started playing people again, but it did get me really familiar with a lot of the nuances of the different characters.

When I started actually regularly attending tournaments, there were two things that I think helped me a lot:

1) A smasher at about my level lived near me. We would play once every week or two for about 3 hours, which let me experiment around a lot, discover bad habits, try to fix them, etc.

2) I would always keep track of the things that caused me problems at tourneys and try to learn how to address them. I would first come up with my own solutions, both in an attempt to come up with something that works and just to better acquaint myself with my character, and then look up better players on Youtube to see what they did in the same scenarios. Then I would try everything out at the next tourney and repeat the process.

 

[Jonas]

second place...
in what?

Are you honestly telling me you haven't heard of Treezy the Kid, the famous Brawl player?
Get with the times, Melee players, there is new talent out there

Spoiler

but seriously though, maybe he's just saying he's no longer the best kid in his street

 

[rhan]

Yeah I've definitely heard of a Brawl player in the MELEE FORUMS.

__

But yeah I'm not technically good. But I've been playing for a numerous amount of years. I played with my Brother and my uncle a lot back in like 2004. We never played with items though. SO we weren't that scrubby.

Then I met my best friend/other hardcore smasher the summer of 2007. He was like the best player I've ever played and the best part was that we has a lot in common (Both hardcore LoZ fans n a bunch of other stuff). He played Link while I played Young Link. And he showed me Shined Blinded and he was like "we got to do one of these!" So then we started to train hard then we found out the local college had smashfests like every other weekend. We use to attend those regularly. Then our first tourney was Midnight Gaming Championship. Played hard and my friends played decently well while I placed dead last. Since then I've been training and trying to improve myself with each match. Trailing behind everyone that was in my crew, which consisted of 4 players at the time then built to grow to 8 of the closest friends I could ever meet. But my biggest rival was my best friend. Since he played Link I felt like I had to step up. I've just been following in his footsteps. Every step he made, I made one behind him. Getting better and getting known. At a local tourney of about 20-25 people: I finally made my mark in my region placing 4th with Young Link. But as always my friend was one step ahead placing 1st with Link. A few more tourneys later I decided to travel with the local smashers to a tourney in North Carolina Summer of 2008. Traveled to Jubilee V. Played all sorts of really good players like Chillin, Ace, PP (Before he became who he is now) and much more. After that experience I've came back to Virginia and played my friends and was destroying them.

Then I kept trying to convince them that we had to travel to other places to play more people because other scene are so much more different and better then us. So around the Summer of 2009. We went to a fairly large known tourney called HERB 2. We all got to play a vast amount of players that included. M2K, HBox, Chu, Scar, Greg, PP, LoZR, Dr. Neo, etc. This was mine and Shaeman's first big tourney teaming together. And what do you know the ultimate test. Second round we play against M2K and Chu. The frist match was hell. Got ***** pretty bad then the second match came around and we just went off. Rainbow Cruise <3 Got the match to it being a 2v1 against me and killed off Chu luckily. But I still had to take off 2 more stock off M2K's Sheik.. I did get one stock and then *poof* match was done.

The at our next big tourney was Pound 4. Missing Pound 3 because we had school we were determined and hyped for Pound 4. Meeting and playing against players like Vanz, TRC, Laijin, D20, Germ, Skler, Blazing, etc. And watching players like HDL, Armada, and Darkrain were amazing. Though highly disappointed in losing to EVERYONE in my pool. Spirit kinda broken and shattered... I had to pick them up and push myself to get better Greatest time of my life and smash career. I played all the great Young Link players and the Link players who hogged a set up to themselves for about an hour and a half. <3

And now I've been scrapping around trying to find places to go and play. Hosted a few fests at my house. Just trying to get my scene a little more active and also improving. By myself I would pretty much be on the boards discussion strategies and other types of intelligent discussions. Currently now preparing for Pound 5. Possibly our last big hurrah in the smash community.

It's been a nice ride. And I enjoyed it all.

See you at Pound V.

/blah blah blah.

TLDR: I ****ing love the smash community. <3

 

[Jonas]

But yeah I'm not technically good. But I've been playing for a numerous amount of years. I played with my Brother and my uncle a lot back in like 2004. We never played with items though. SO we weren't that scrubby.

So playing with items automatically makes you a scrub?

 

[rhan]

So playing with items automatically makes you a scrub?

I wouldn't say that makes us scrubby. But that makes us more aware of a competitive aspect of the game. Using teh character's strengths instead of using items.

 

[Geist]

I got to where I am from practicing with a small circle of friends back when I first started playing competitively. We sometimes traveled a few cities away for a tourney, but we didn't do it much. After I moved away temporarily, I practiced tech skill completely by myself in order to keep up with all my friends.
When I moved back I decided I actually wanted to go somewhere in Melee, and put more effort into travelling around to play the better players.

 

[Wretched]

blahblahblah purple

Your tldr was too long.
No but seriously
you met all of those players?
that's ridiculous
I've met like two famous smashers >.>

 

[Archangel]

Yeah I've definitely heard of a Brawl player in the MELEE FORUMS.

__

But yeah I'm not technically good. But I've been playing for a numerous amount of years. I played with my Brother and my uncle a lot back in like 2004. We never played with items though. SO we weren't that scrubby.

Then I met my best friend/other hardcore smasher the summer of 2007. He was like the best player I've ever played and the best part was that we has a lot in common (Both hardcore LoZ fans n a bunch of other stuff). He played Link while I played Young Link. And he showed me Shined Blinded and he was like "we got to do one of these!" So then we started to train hard then we found out the local college had smashfests like every other weekend. We use to attend those regularly. Then our first tourney was Midnight Gaming Championship. Played hard and my friends played decently well while I placed dead last. Since then I've been training and trying to improve myself with each match. Trailing behind everyone that was in my crew, which consisted of 4 players at the time then built to grow to 8 of the closest friends I could ever meet. But my biggest rival was my best friend. Since he played Link I felt like I had to step up. I've just been following in his footsteps. Every step he made, I made one behind him. Getting better and getting known. At a local tourney of about 20-25 people: I finally made my mark in my region placing 4th with Young Link. But as always my friend was one step ahead placing 1st with Link. A few more tourneys later I decided to travel with the local smashers to a tourney in North Carolina Summer of 2008. Traveled to Jubilee V. Played all sorts of really good players like Chillin, Ace, PP (Before he became who he is now) and much more. After that experience I've came back to Virginia and played my friends and was destroying them.

Then I kept trying to convince them that we had to travel to other places to play more people because other scene are so much more different and better then us. So around the Summer of 2009. We went to a fairly large known tourney called HERB 2. We all got to play a vast amount of players that included. M2K, HBox, Chu, Scar, Greg, PP, LoZR, Dr. Neo, etc. This was mine and Shaeman's first big tourney teaming together. And what do you know the ultimate test. Second round we play against M2K and Chu. The frist match was hell. Got ***** pretty bad then the second match came around and we just went off. Rainbow Cruise <3 Got the match to it being a 2v1 against me and killed off Chu luckily. But I still had to take off 2 more stock off M2K's Sheik.. I did get one stock and then *poof* match was done.

The at our next big tourney was Pound 4. Missing Pound 3 because we had school we were determined and hyped for Pound 4. Meeting and playing against players like Vanz, TRC, Laijin, D20, Germ, Skler, Blazing, etc. And watching players like HDL, Armada, and Darkrain were amazing. Though highly disappointed in losing to EVERYONE in my pool. Spirit kinda broken and shattered... I had to pick them up and push myself to get better Greatest time of my life and smash career. I played all the great Young Link players and the Link players who hogged a set up to themselves for about an hour and a half. <3

And now I've been scrapping around trying to find places to go and play. Hosted a few fests at my house. Just trying to get my scene a little more active and also improving. By myself I would pretty much be on the boards discussion strategies and other types of intelligent discussions. Currently now preparing for Pound 5. Possibly our last big hurrah in the smash community.

It's been a nice ride. And I enjoyed it all.

See you at Pound V.

/blah blah blah.

TLDR: I ****ing love the smash community. <3

Revival of Melee 3!!!!! don't wait till pound 5 for Puff dittos

From what I'm reading alot of us have almost identical stories.

 

[EPsilon933]

As if I could ever get good at Smash Brothers.

I don't even know how to tell my story. Everything that's happened to me happened initially by sheer chance and continued with attention whorism. It's way too long to even type out.

 

[Dragoon Fighter]

I would like to think my journey has just begun. I have not traveled very far yet. I plan to travel far however maybe time will tell?

 

[everlasting yayuhzz]

I didn't ****.

Little while later.

I did ****.

 

[Archangel]

As if I could ever get good at Smash Brothers.

I don't even know how to tell my story. Everything that's happened to me happened initially by sheer chance and continued with attention whorism. It's way too long to even type out.

It's takes guts to type it out.

I didn't ****.

Little while later.

I did ****.

You know I remember watching you play a long time ago and I was like...that guy sucks!

now your in Finals vs PP....wtf!

 

[EPsilon933]

It's takes guts to type it out.

Yeah, I guess it does, but I don't have guts anymore

 

[Crazy Cloud]

Story via results (that, and the fact there was another topic identical to this that I already posted in <_< )

September, 2008
ESTICLE: Melee Edition
*****
Also disqualified

November 21st, 2009
Revival of Melee 2
Didn't make it past first round of pools.
Won first set in tournament ever
Played my first pro, G-Money.
4 stocked twice

January, 2010
Pound 4
Made it to 2nd round of pools
Played my first Pro Fox, Raynex.

First set ever won by double time-out

September 11th, 2010
Viva La Smash III
Played G-Money.
Only 2 stocked both games.
Getting better at this game.
Didn't get ***** and/or 4 stocked.

Sepetember 25th, 2010
Connectidots
Got to GF in doubles
Made money
W00t
Didn't get ***** and/or 4 stocked.

 

[Zodiac]

I was never really casual about the game, I held tournies all the time with my friends before I found out about competitive smash. But I started getting good when someone came over and started using fox like he was supposed to be used,(link main) And I knew I had to really start practicing for more.

 

[rhan]

Revival of Melee 3!!!!! don't wait till pound 5 for Puff dittos

From what I'm reading alot of us have almost identical stories.

I saw that video last night. I'm hyped! I just need a ride there. Everything else is easy.

 

[ERayz]

Sorry if my story is too long , but here it is!

(2001-2003)
I used to play Melee alot with one of my friends who was much better than me, we were always playing on FD or Hyrule Temple with items off, but **** we sucked, but we were the best in our hometown lol. He was clearly better than I am, I cannot even remember a game I won against him back in that time. As soon as we unlocked Ganondorf, my friend decided it would be his main, while I was still trying to find myself a main to play with; I was hesistating between Mario and Young Link.

(2004)
But then, came a day when my friend moved like 3 hours of car away from our home town, and we were only 13 back then, so we couldn't meet alot. I stopped playing for like a year, until I found somebody else who liked Melee. So we played a little, with items and ****ty stuff


(2006)
I had no Internet back then, so I couldn't be aware of SmashBoards' existence, I only had access to the Internet when I was visiting my father every two weekends. So, during one of these weekends, I decided to look for high level Melee matches, trying to see if I could find tactics that would make me better than my old friend.

The first pro match I saw was oppposing Isai and Ken, I didn't watch this for more than one minute, because I tought they were cheating, and I was like; how could anybody can go that fast ?

During this same weekend, I realsed that nearly all matches that were online were using these "cheats", so then I began thinking these "cheats" are possibly high level techniques.

So I browsed the Internet all the time during this weekend, to find any guide that would help me out on figuring out those techniques. I finally found the Advanced How to Play Video on Google Videos. I took lots of notes, in order to practice wavedashing, L-cancel, SHFFL, etc.

(2007)
My old friend moved back to our hometown, so I could face him again, with new knowledge. The first thing he asked me when we met again, was to play Melee again, to remind ourselves the old days Even if I practiced a lot since I knew about the techniques, I could only do Wavedashes, and not so fluently.... So my friend still ***** me, even if he hadn't played for 3 years.

I taught him the techniques, while I was still trying to master them. My friend quickly learned them. Then I decided to main Captain Falcon, while he still was playing Ganon, we thought our matches were epic, and that we were unbeatable.

It took about a year before I reached my friend's level.

(2010)
We still were playing, but still we hadn't found anybody else to play with us, so we were slowly getting bored of this game, tha Falcon/Ganon Match-up was very familiar then.

I started school on Janurary 25th, and since I wanted so much to find other players, I asked all of my classmates is they were playing Melee, it seems I was lucky, the second person I talked to was BAM, formerly the best EC Canada player. I was kind of excited to find a new player, and that it was a pro. The first time I played him, I got *****, I could barely take him a stock .

So I continued playing with my friend, but we got introduced to PKMVodka, Kage and Vwins, and now, we play with these guys at least once a week. I made more progress in the last 8 months than I did in the last 4 years, with the help of these great players

 

[Black_jo]

(2007)
My old friend moved back to our hometown, so I could face him again, with new knowledge. The first thing he asked me when we met again, was to play Melee again, to remind ourselves the old days Even if I practiced a lot since I knew about the techniques, I could only do Wavedashes, and not so fluently.... So my friend still ***** me, even if he hadn't played for 3 years.

I taught him the techniques, while I was still trying to master them. My friend quickly learned them. Then I decided to main Captain Falcon, while he still was playing Ganon, we thought our matches were epic, and that we were unbeatable.

It took about a year before I reached my friend's level.

That Ganon is SSJ?

 

[ERayz]

Yeah it's SSJ2

 

[Bounogun]

In 2005 I was introduced to Melee at a friends house we didn't know what technical skill was and we always played on hyrule temple and my friend who owned the game kept beating us with DK Haha!

In 2006 I was introduced to competitive smash at a store in Mesa AZ where they had weekly tournies and that's where they taught me all the tech stuff and from there I bought a gamecube and practiced tech skill on my own and played in a couple of those weekly tournies but I couldn't make it every week and I would lose first and second round right away.

in 07 to 08 I had a job that I couldn't escape so I couldn't get a whole lot of playing in but I kept up with the videos on youtube.

in 09 I made it to a tourney here in AZ and now I'm tryin to show up to as many smashfest or get in any and all Melee i can.

I don't mind brawl I'll play it if its there but i prefer Melee.

 

[ranmaru]

1. Started off playing Free For All's during Highschool Lunch Periods. I was the scrub getting owned. I wanted to get better.

During class I would imagine how AWESOME I would be in smash.

Practiced. Found out about wavedashing and other things. Didn't practice those yet so that I could get better at the game first then tech.

Summer came. I thought I was getting good, only just got a little better.

2. Went to Valencia Community College. Thought I would do pretty good... Got owned. :/

Met really cool people there. LadyLegion, Kyon, Uuaa, Hiroshi, At&t, Bluray, ActionB@stard, etc.

Even, one of my friends from my original group from highschool, Jon Paul. I actually got near to his skill level, but he was still better than me.

3. Started going to Tournaments since 07. Still going. Going to Saffron City Tommorow.

I'm still not good yet though. I aim to get better.

 

[Rubyiris]

around 2003~2004 me, and my best friend Saetia-DTG played Melee alot. We didn't know ATs, but we had developed through the years of competing with one another in streetfighter, killer instinct, and tekken, a decent level of fundamentals, and spacing. 2 years of ****ing around with melee tought us more intermediate stuff, like decent spacing, recovery tricks, such as rising pound, dancing blade to recover, bomb recovery, etc, and we developed a standardized ruleset. Stadium, FD, Battlefield, no items, 5 stock. He played Ganon and Peach. I played Peach, Fox, and Pikachu.

2005: Me, and Saetia-DTG are introduced to TemplarPsi, an old AZ fox player from 05~07. Used to play with ZerelidChaos, and EnixMoogle alot, and subsiquently, we're introduced to the world of smashboards. We spend the next few days scrutinizing the official everything thread, but neither of us make a SWF account until early 2006. We start to practice L-Canceling, Wavedashing, and learning how to effectively implement these into actual gameplay. My main switches to Falco, Saetia-DTG permanently switches to Peach. We alter our ruleset to FD, DL64, Stadium, Fountain of Dreams, and YS; 4 stock. We turn off Battlefield because TemplarPsi hates the stage.

During the first month or so, shield-grabbing was the most prominent thing ever whilst we learned the mindgames behind shield grab vs spot dodge, and baiting. We start bringing Melee to our local card shop and get more people to play. I meet my primery training partner who went by the name Mana, who played Marth, and Fox. He would be my doubles partner whenever I didn't team with `EX.

Fast forward to 2007. TemplarPsi quits, and now it's just me, Saetia-DTG, and Mana. Me and Saetia-DTG go to our first tournament ever where we meet Taj, Bwill, V3ctorman, GamerGuitarist7, Light, Dark, and Axe. Saetia-DTG gets dead last, and I place in the higher middle-area due to a vast majority of my wins not counting due to people leaving early. Counting those wins, I'd have placed something like 9th, or 7th place. We don't talk to any of these players until over a year later.

Fast forward to brawl coming out. We play brawl for a month and quit, because that game is garbage.

Fast forward to December 2008. After ******* around with Brawl+, My urge to play Melee is suddenly rekindled. I start to browse SWF looking for an AZ community, and learn that there are weeklies within my area. Me, Saetia-DTG, `EX, and Rusty all go, and meet Forward for the first time, along with Jetfour. We do a RR where I place 5th, Saetia-DTG gets 7th, `Ex and Rusty get *****.

From here, we start to play on a weekly basis. Rusty, `EX, and Saetia-DTG come to my house periodically through out the week to smash, and I start bringing melee back to the card store.

Shortly later we go to a SV tournament where I'm reintroduced with GG7, Axe, and V3ctorman.

Fast forward to now. I'm currently 10th on the AZ PR, and in a position to move up several places, and only have up to go. Saetia-DTG, Mana, and `EX have quit, and many of the players who we met at that weekly in december have quit too, but the community still stays strong with 20+ entrants at our monthlies.

 

[ryuu seika]

I have always been a competetive and hardcore gamer and have always been the best in my area but have never been to a gaming tournament in my life. I am a casual level gamer, albeit a good one who takes things seriously.

I first played Melee years ago against a couple of family friends who owned me pretty badly. I went through the entire roster trying to find a character I could win as or, failing that, atleast get the hang of movent with (I had real problems aiming my jumps and such). Finally I settled with Kirby until they got fed up of my swallowcides, although they weren't as broken in 50Hz.

A couple of years later I saw SSB64 at a friends house and decided to own him at it. This was a friend who lost to me at everything and was generally worse than people who had never played a game in their life so that didn't exactly help much. It did give me an idea of what SSB64 was like though and frankly it's a lot more fun than Melee, what with Kirby actually being good and the other characters being easy for me to control.

Flash forward to the present day and I finally got SSB64 for myself. I had no opponents to speak of but I played it and played it and soon I was owning top level AI left right and center with my new favourite, Keeby the Yellow. At this point I got bored and set the game aside but not before hearing a lot of good stuff about Brawl. I looked into it and discovered this site through the Lloyd mod project.

So I organized a Wii games competition, seeing as the local high school kept having them but wouldn't let me join due to my age. Among other games, I went on to own everyone at Brawl, even 3 on 1 but none of them were truly good players. I then borrowed the game off the person who provided it for the competition, only to discover that my Wii can't read it.

At which point what else could I do but return it in rage and go buy Melee instead? And thus my path to greatness in Melee began, though there is obviously more to my tale than just the beggining and, as we all know, I am not pro yet.

I saw that there was still a strong competetive Melee scene and decided it was time I got ino competetive gaming. So I went and unlocked all the characters, refusing to use anyone but Keeby, though I consented when it came to unlocking his home stage and doing the event matches. Through doing this I became rather good at beating level 8 AI (I was told it was the most human). I was never good enought though and had serious problems with gannon.
And so I came here and was told I was a know nothing moron for using the specials that used to win me games in the N64 version. And so I argued and I argued, because even I could see that Keeby has real problems Killing without Stone, but in the end I saw sense and decided to try fighting without directional specials (Swallow allowed). This style of play gave me a surprising edge that I had never expected, right up until the point I actually needed to get a kill. And so I phoned up the players who had owned me all those years before, having hardly seen them since, and took on one of them (the other keeps going out drinking and makes himself too ill to play).
The first game was a total joke, with him going "oops" as he ran straight off the edge as it began. He the proceeded to get rid of 3 of my stocks for the one I took off him though so I was beggining to get wary before he did it again. Twice. And lost.
He got the hang of things after that and, while I don't feel I learnt anything specific off him, I improved alot in those few hours.

I now, once again have no real world opponents who can beat me and am currently working on event match 51 (having beaten it once already as MH). I am still not at tournament level though, partially because of my reluctance to learn "Advanced Techniques".

 

[Skler]

I won my first tournament ever and was told "usually people come out of nowhere and suck a lot of butt, but you're pretty good" at my second one.

People don't start out good?

 

[Druggedfox]

We never played with items though. SO we weren't that scrubby.

That's right; West coast, take that! The 2004 days of WC running item tournies were SCRUBBY. East Coast FD only 5 stocks for the win

 

[Archangel]

Yeah, I guess it does, but I don't have guts anymore

make another combo vid imo.

I saw that video last night. I'm hyped! I just need a ride there. Everything else is easy.

oh yeah it's mad hype on the trailer...btw Dr.PP commented on the video I made.... yay!

shout outs to PP

STACK IT UP!

 

[MarioMariox2]

After reading this http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=50864 (I'm well aware this is outdated and somewhat inaccurate past 4) , I saw that I've gone though a bit of these phases through my gaming, and smashing life.

Here are my experiences with this system of levels (SSBM). I hope you guys share yours too.

Level 0: First time I played smash was when I was like what...? Maybe 6 or 7 (SSB64)? And it was at a party. All I really remember is that it was colorful (I believe I was at Yoshi's Island 64?) and somewhat appealing to me. I wasn't the Nintendo fan I am today so, I used Pikachu, obviously not knowing the video games has a tourney scene and as such, tier lists. I always thought it was Mario Party (lol).

Level 1A/1B: This stage prolly also happened when I was playing at that party.

2A: I finally got a Gamecube (2005/6?) and My 2nd game was SSBM. After playing Super Mario Sunshine, I became a nintendo fan and started maining Mario. Unlike many gamers of my age (11/12?), I read the manual and watched the How to play video and did see that Smashes had higher KB than other moves; ergo, the fsmash spam began.

2B: (Shortly after 2A) Watching Level 9 computers own me, I noted some of their tactics, unfortunately, not immediately getting into the habit of aerial attacking. Though of course, my tactics I had worked on my friends and younger kids. Run up to them -> Roll Behind them -> A, A, A combo -> Forward Smash - > Repeat, et cetera.

2A-3A: Sometime in this time period, I had seen "ssbm hardcore match on YouTube" and "Wak's AHTP". I think, after repeated views of the video (not in the same viewing period), saw that aerials were pretty awesome and slowly but surely, began to use them. Oh, and I thought that Fox and Falco had the best moves ever (but Bombsoldier won so I began to main Falco)

3A: This was not that long ago. Maybe about a year (more or less) after 2B. Another tactic I got from LVL 9s, was the grab. Seeing how effective it looked, I used it almost always. With my only ATs(Fastfalling and unintended shorthops), my attack pattern became more like:

Mario: Run -> Roll behind them -> A, A, A -> Dash grab -> Fthrow -> Run -> Fullhop Fair
Falco: Run -> Dash grab -> F/Bthrow -> Some Smash attack (Mostly Fsmash I think)

I think I also used some dash dancing and short hops, but too many full hops still remained in my game.

3A-3B: Saw "Wombo Combo". But wouldn't go OMFG THAT WAS **** like people in 4/5+ would.

3B: (2008) Okay so I'm more into Smash at this period but I never . I main Falco and the only pro smash match I've seen at this time was the SSBM Hardcore match (I thought it was the only one that was good cause it had 200k views LOL). I didn't think I was unbeatable, but I though I was pretty good, dash dancing and shorthopping around. I started learning how to wavedash. No Falco techs yet, except Dthrow to shine that I got from the CPU. I use many more aerials (mainly Dairs cause I thought it was an unbeatable spike and Fairs cause of muscle memory from Mario) but it's not quite my main mean for KOing/attacking in general. Still F and D smashing for KB but I'm now using some Usmashes. I beat everyone I came across, unless I SDed once or twice but no johns. That was until one day....

-EarlyToMid 08-My mom and I were doing laundry at a laundromat. A comic book store next door had console setups for $5 an hour. Someone was playing Melee and asked if I can join in. So it was an FFA on FD (I think some items were on? This I forgot). One was using Ness, Another was Luigi, The 3rd guy I forgot, and I was using Falco ("OMG DAIR IS SO AWESOME" ~End exaggerated thinking~). During the match, I went for the luigi player, he didn't seem to know any ATs and had the lowest lives. Though somehow in the match, I ended up offstage quite a bit trying to kill luigi and his last life and as I was recovering, the ness player consistently gimped me offstage with his Dair with what I thought at the time was godly precision. Focusing on the Luigi and my Dair which I thought was broken (though of course I know there was a way to beat it), my goal to at least not be last failed. My mom picked me up and all I could think of was the Ness player and how good he seemed (A slice of humble pie, you can say it was).

So I picked up my controller and started reviewing stuff (Wak's vid).

4: (Winter '08? to Early-Mid '09). "Okay so grabbing and smashing is actually bad when you spam it." was what I got from a break from Smash. Reviewing Wak's video after my hiatus, I found many of the ATs easier to pick up. I mastered shorthopping, and after a bit later, Wavedashing. L cancelling seemed very hard ATM (I got it down mid' 09 but not 100% consistent) and Pivoting was impossible (until late '09). I wasn't good at any tech except ground techs from falling/spacie dthrow. Now I was looking for players to smash with, ones with equal or so skill. My repotoire for attacking was now: Dashdance or W/D back and forth with Mario or Luigi -> Run towards -> Roll behind them -> A,A,A or Grab -> mainly F or Dthrow -> Shine on D.T or...

Dashdance some more -> Dash towards -> WD back -> SHFF AxA/xAir

I now use some character specific ATs like the SHL and the Cape. (More info, see my vids on youtube from 6-7 months ago.)

5A: (Mid '09-Present). I SHL to SHFFL approach almost every thing. I use smashes more carefully. I regularly watch Smash Vids and Hosted a school tournament (My 1st and only tourney so far and I won! But that tourney made me hate Marths; 2nd place was like 4-5A and was about my skill range, got me to losers bracket, and got 2 games outta the 5 with my 3 wins pretty close. AAAANYWAY...) and now have reactions to combos almost like tourney-goers would (OMG PACK IT UP AND TAKE IT TO SCHOOL w/ YOU SON).

Now (5?): I've gotten better at reading and overall skill ever since I competed in my 1st two official tourneys (Champ Food Combo/Ownapalooza and East San Jose Tourney). This I can't explain too much except that it's '5A' x2! XD

In short, you can see my jump to this level from 4 by seeing my vids from a month ago and 2 weeks ago..

Youtube username: luigiluigix2

Well, that's all for now, I dunno if I'll update with more experiences and I don't think many of you will want to see it but here's a recollection of my improvement in smash biggrin.gif

Oh, and maybe if you can, critique please! (Vids are old BTW)

 

[Metal Reeper]

Found smashboards in 06, lived in MD back then in the middle of nowhere, Moved to PA 2 years ago, started actually posting on smashboards, i teach my little brother, he *****. me and him play for 2 years and go to our first smash tourney APEX. I finally meet everyone and finally get my butt owned, and now I wanna get reallllly good

 

[rhan]

That's right; West coast, take that! The 2004 days of WC running item tournies were SCRUBBY. East Coast FD only 5 stocks for the win

Haha we actually played 3 stocks. And we played on Hyrule a lot...

I did say not THAT scrubby.

 

[M@1funk$hun]

JesiahTEG is gonna come in here and be like
"Psh. I travelled America to play smash. Where you at"

 

[Rubyiris]

That's right; West coast, take that! The 2004 days of WC running item tournies were SCRUBBY. East Coast FD only 5 stocks for the win

Items would be totally legit if they had set spawn locations based on a timer like fps games.

 

[Rubyiris]

JesiahTEG is gonna come in here and be like
"Psh. I travelled America to play smash. Where you at"

must be nice. i haven't even been oos since 2005, and it wasn't for smash.

 

[Wretched]

Where's Jesiah from? If he's from canada, meh.
japan or europe- YEEEEEEEAAAAAH

 

[M@1funk$hun]

he's from new york lol
check out his blog I think it's called Forward 2.0 a Smash Journey
in the blog area of the boards. very informative posts

 

[EPsilon933]

make another combo vid imo.

I tried it once during the Smashboards combo video contest and it failed miserably. It Takes Guts to be AMAZING was a sheer accident. To be honest, I quit Melee. I'm the most talentless player I know. I can't handle Melee anymore. My spirit's shattered so bad.

 

[ranmaru]

SMASH JOURNY:

K so me and no cash wanted to be pokemon masters so we went to SAFFRON CITY (in Jersey City) and we took like China town bus to F train to Minivan to walk to venue viola! So we played and we busted our ***** but we got our BADGE!

Just kidding we failed in our mission we need to make a re-match ;-;