Okay, right off the bat, I’m not the person most qualified to write about this kind of stuff, however I AM the type of person to give a fresh perspective on what it means to truly improve in melee, as I’ve seen some crazy improvement in my play in the past three weeks. If you’re looking for real guides on how to play and understand mental aspects of melee from a top player’s point of view I strongly recommend (and encourage!) you check out @NMWhiTTieR‘s guides to melee. For me, this rant/reflection/(guide?) is made in order to really reflect the progress I’ve made as a player and what has worked for me in the past few months of intensive training.
As a result of playing melee on campus at home, or at a tournament pretty much every day for the past three months I’ve learned a few things that make for noticeable and quite frankly rapid improvement. So far, being a mid/low level player has brought me to the following points:
1. Practice with purpose
2. Practice in many different places with many different people in many diverse situations.
3. Make practice consistent
4. Don’t just practice what you already can do simply to do so, practice it in a manner that allows you to apply it in several different circumstances. If you’re using a certain option for incorrectly practice using it correctly.
Sounds simple enough right? Just follow simple steps and you’ll become good at anything… is what I would say if real life were like anime. Being on the come-up(shoutouts to Laudandus) inherently means that you constantly are looking for new ways to break out of your comfort zone be it mentally or technically. Drastic improvement requires consistent and constant recognition that there is in fact, someone better than you at every aspect of the game, and there always will be. If you think that you’re gonna be the best by just watching videos and complaining on Reddit about how dumb the sheik match-up is without playing the game and trying to apply what you’ve learned of course you’re gonna stay stagnant. The same thing applies to people who just play the game and don’t analyze or reflect upon what happened in their sets. It’s a blend of a hundred different tiny aspects compressed into one gigantic metagame that we call melee that makes us practice.
As a result of the problems that arise from being a low level player, it is often the case that people get discouraged because they can’t see any improvement. Almost everyone has been there, and it’s not a spot that we like to be in, but it’s a place that we have to be in. This ‘lack of improvement’ is often justified by the fact that those who claim that they are not getting better say that they still do not do well in bracket. This brings me to the point that getting better does not mean you’re instantly going to do better in bracket. Everyone is trying to get better, which means results may not be completely apparent from going losing in bracket. At the end of the day the bracket just shows that you won or lost. You have to be the one to reflect upon your loss or win to truly improve.
This reflection brings me to my first point, which is that of practicing with purpose. It may sound obvious, but practicing something that isn’t really applicable isn’t going to help you very much. Time and time again, I see the ridiculously technical fox that goes 0-2 because they can’t L-Cancel the drill to follow up. I was once there too. I thought that I could just be a TAS, and win. Really, in retrospect it was quite a stupid idea. I thought I knew everything about melee, but I really just knew how to press a lot of buttons. As a result, for the the first half of the year I played melee, I went 0-2, and kept losing to people who would just punish the stupid tech I would try to do. Again, all of this may sound obvious, but if you can’t actually do it, knowing about it is irrelevant.
Furthermore, practice should not be simply with one person or alone. While you may have a training partner or someone whom you play with a lot, you should learn how to play with other people and learn other styles. I can’t emphasize how important it is to play melee not just with other people, but in other environments. When tournament comes around and you are getting nervous because you’re next up on stream, or in front of a crowd, and you’re not ready for it, odds are you’re probably not going to play the best you possibly can. By playing in different places, you gain the experience that you’ll need in order to perform well anywhere.
The next point I’d like to make will sound kind of counterproductive, which is to make practice consistent. “But Joe, if you’re practicing in different environments, and with different people, how can you make practice consistent?” is what you’re probably thinking right now. And what I’ll tell you is that just because you practice in different places, doesn’t mean that you can’t be consistent about it. When you practice, try to set a schedule. What day(s) of the week do you practice? What time? How do you plan to practice with intent? What situations do you need to practice? are all some examples of what you should be thinking about when you want to plan. By all means, this does not mean you should not practice on your own, as that can potentially be the MOST consistent practice you can get. For me, I’ve been lucky enough to have a setup on my college campus which I go to after class pretty much every day Monday through Thursday. While first unintentional, I started to see myself practicing different things on different days naturally. Perhaps the fact that I could consistently play with different people in the same place every day was a factor, but also that I was in an area outside of my comfort zone. Instead of only playing at tournaments, I got practice in a manner that helped me grow as a player as a result of the opportunities presented to me.
Finally, when practicing alone, you should learn how to use the tools you already know in different ways. Have you mastered your thunderz combos? If so, can you instead mix it up and convert from the drill into a grab? Learn alternatives to the comforting areas in which you are already good at, but also don’t forget to brush up on those from time to time.
Again, shoutouts to NMW for inspiring me to start writing about smash, and all of the written guides he has put out for the community.
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