I have been doing a lot of thinking lately especially on my strange hiatus. Since I've started working and doing this job I dislike, I've learned certain truths. Now I know there have been countless blogs by players on how to get better in smash. I myself have also done a bunch of these, but I feel this one is a tad more informative.
There are 5 things that will certainly lead to improvement as a player. I'm not saying you will be at Ally/M2k level. But it will certainly help you grow.
Love
Drive
Resource
Time
Background Love- I'm sure you've heard "If you do something you love, you will do it well." Not only for school subjects, but for jobs, relationships and hobbies. When you truly enjoy something you will have a tenancy to put your heart into it. I've noticed the players who improve fastest are ones who "Love" the game. They love competing and playing. I remember asking M2K a looooong time ago what he suggested to get better. This was at COT4 mind you. He said that he was really bad at giving advice, but he just told me to play with my friends. I walked off totally frustrated at his lack of thought with his words. I felt like he just gave me a generic response just for the hell of it. But now 3 years later, I do realize that it's exactly how I got good at the game. I played with my friends and crew members constantly. We all trained really hard, but more importantly we all had love for the game. If you treat the game with love, you will want to get better and be more open to getting better. After every match I played that I lost, or won by a close margin I always asked "Any Tips?". It even became a joke and Wes said he was gonna get me a shirt that said that. So if you're kinda just playing to pass the time, or just for the hell of it. If you are totally bored with the game, it will be very difficult to improve from where you are.
Drive- Motivation and drive to be the best is just as important as all other aspects. You might have all other 4 aspects, but if you're missing drive and motivation, just quit now. People even lose tournament matches because their morale goes out the window after 1 game. This is about having a strong mind and focusing on your weaknesses. Going for what you want. No player was just given high placings. They all have earned it and wanted to be in that position. They wanted it more than you did.
Resource- Sorry to say this, but if you're from some backwater region, if you can't really travel to tournaments, if your group of friends play at a novice level at this point in the game, you can't do much to improve. Without the proper resources and training, you can never exceed a level you haven't even seen or played against. Yeah sure there is Youtube, but watching and playing are two totally different flavors. Go to tournaments, play tough players. that's the point! don't be scared to money match. These players are constantly playing each other and feeding off each others skills. You need to get into that fray and level yourself up. Without proper resources you're done.
Time- You need to invest time into this game, it is simple mechanically. However there are soo many match ups, stages, variables that take months to master. I can garentee you that each player who has won a highly competitive tournament has spent over 3000 hours playing this game. That is a rough estimate based on the amount of hours played on my wii last year, I'll check again soon. Investing time into anything will get you good at it. Sports, working out, an instrument. You can always measure and compare your progress based on the amount of time you've been playing to your tournament placings. Put the time in, it'll be worth it.
Background- Based on your background you will have an edge over many players. Your skills from previous smash games carry over. If you've done any sort of martial art, if you are proficient in logic, chess, or other fighting games, these can all help your play in any competitive game. A lot of brawl is about critical thinking and choosing the best options at the given time. So it is partly reaction time, which you can train. Game specific knowledge, I.E. learning match ups, stages etc. Technical skill, all these things you can train fairly easily. However the way your mind processes information and thinks takes a long time to condition. If you have a strong background in a field that could help in this sort of game, you already have a small edge.
Since I started working, I haven't touched brawl much at all besides the occasional tournament, which I still do decently in (top 8) This is because my background is so strong, it still carries over my residual skill. I've just been thinking a lot more about my mentality, my ideals and philosophies. I also wanted to write a blog.
So leave a comment, let me know which of the 5 is your strongest, if you agree or disagree with me. Also I wrote a book with around 50 pages of this stuff, so for anyone who is interested pm me. $5 a piece over paypal.
Thanks for reading
