Everyone has slumps every now and then, if you haven't had one you might, soon. Yesterday was a pretty bad Smash day for me, a 4 game losing streak and some of the most humiliating defeats for me.(Probably roaming Youtube by now, hopefully they'll forget it was me!) I was wondering why I couldn't win, each loss, one after another, kept annoying me. I let it get to my head and I played poorly, too agressively and recklessly, giving way to many openings. I kept playing in the same "I better not lose" mood, which eventually led to more losses.
Let me just list some ways I died:
-Chaingrabbed by last stock 146% Falco when just I just respawned leading to a spike (Where I stupidly mashed Z to airdodge to death)
-Running into my own Landmine (Priceless!)
-Off the ledge Bair for stage spike, but Fastfalled so I couldn't recover.
-Running into fully charged smashes, Anti-Ike style!
-Missing bomb jumps, if not, missing techs,
then plummeting to my doom
-Grabbing and not throwing, leading to multiple smashes in the face
-Recovering into the little corners of FD...
Sometimes, it just isn't your lucky day, but it's just a game! You know what you can do? Calm down, maybe take a little break here and there, don't make the same mistake I did and let your ladder rank suffer
:I I took notice of the ways I died, this gave me the ability to correct them. I worked a bit on my mindgames here and there, a bit on the matchups, a bit on the recovery, and there you go!
Point is, you just need to sit back and look at the big picture once in a while. Yes you lost, does that mean you need to skip the replay and angrily smash your controller against your hand? Watching your own replays of loses can show you your errors and mistakes. Sometimes you might even say to yourself "How come I keep trying to grab him?" maybe, "I shield alot!" or "I approach too much." Seeing things from your opponent's point of view can show you how you played, maybe helping you change things around. Do I do _____ too much? Maybe I need to _____ more... I always _____, does that make me predictable? These little things you notice can change your gameplay alot. In fact, last week I never used Snake's grenades in a match, not once. Now I can manipulate my opponent into hitting them, tacking on so much pressure and percent it's barely funny.
Sure, learning from other player's vids help, but they have their own style and you have yours. You can't just copy one player's playstyle and expect it to work. Back in Melee I used to run around going all BombSoldier, yes it worked for a while but when I faced people who were not comfortable to the single playstyle I used, I was dead. Foxes, Falcons, Falcos, all those combo-able guys were easy to me, eventually I fought the other characters, Ganons, Marth, Jiggypuff, etc. I only focused on the flashy and interesting combos that BS had on his highlight reels. When it came down to it, I couldn't characters who I couldn't combo, relying on my shine too much was fatal just because I saw BS did it. This can easily be said for Brawl also.
Remember, keep a positive attitude, don't forget it's just a game! Have fun, mess around, play friendlies sometimes just to keep stress off of the ranked matches. Stay calm, analyze the situation, work your way to victory! If you lose you can try again, not like your character dies or anything, so have fun. Best of luck!
~Aishi
:I