JesiahTEG
Smash Master
The Mindset of a True Champion
I broke this up into two parts for easier reading, in case you want to take a break or something. Kinda long.
If you’re serious about improving or making it to the top chances are you’re going to be playing a lot of matches with other people. Therefore most players practice in different ways, each having their own methods for improving. Some people practice the same combos over and over to commit them to an insane level of muscle memory. Some people practice freeflowing combos, just reacting after each hit. Just as we must consciously develop methods and systems for practicing, we must also pay attention to our emotional state.
When you miss a combo or an edgeguard after practicing for so long, you’re gonna get upset with yourself…Especially if your opponent escapes and death combos you. You’re probably going to be thinking, “that would never have happened if I didn’t mess up.” And the more you mess up, the more frustrated you’re going to get. Then you start playing bad in other aspects of your game, and all of a sudden the most crucial part of a Smasher’s journey to the top (Practicing/training) has turned into something annoying that makes you feel bad.
This holds some people I know back greatly, and I’m sure it does to others too. Have you ever played against someone who complained about how bad they were playing? Usually they’re not really that great of a player. Why? Because when they play bad they either quit to do something else, or they dwell on how bad they’re playing. So which one is better for a player striving to be great…Playing frustrated or not playing at all?
Neither of them. You’ll never make it to the top doing either of those. Instead, I challenge you to look at this game from a different perspective. Void yourself of all emotions both in and out of tournament. You don’t get happy when you do a death combo, and you feel no anger when you get death combod. If you lose to a player you feel you shouldn’t, accept that they are better and move on.
I want to explain why this is so hard for most people, but also why it is so rewarding. Most dedicated smashers put a lot of time into this game. As such, we all have pride in our abilities. When we play other people we may not be expecting to win, but at the least we want them to know what we’re capable of. Everybody wants to be a somebody in this game, and that’s a great thing, because being a somebody in this community is something. So, naturally when we don’t play our best or we get ****ed up by another player, we begin to feel bad. If it’s someone we think we’re better than, our egos get in the way and we feel they don’t deserve it.
Here’s the challenge. When practicing, don’t see anyone as targets that you need to murder, or scrubs you need to ****. Don’t see them as noobs or pros, inexperienced or experienced. Instead, see them for the most efficient thing you can see them as: Opportunity for growth and knowledge. How can you possibly get upset when you’re learning and becoming a better player? If you get death combod, it doesn’t matter if they’re a pro or not, it happened. Suppress your emotions and focus on why it happened and what you could have done to prevent it. Then test it the next time that situation arises.
This gets difficult if your opponent has a huge ego, and they think they’re better than you. Maybe they are so every time you kill them they silently shake their head. Or maybe they’re worse than you but they’re winning because you’re messing up, and every time they kill you they make a noise or a motion with their hands. You just want to get back to the stage and death combo them asap, or tell them how bad you’re playing due to your cold hands…
But wait, do you really want to do that? Do you want to sacrifice your maturity as a player, as well as control of your own emotional state just to let someone know you think you’d be beating them if you were playing better? Ok, you tell them that. You think they really care? You think they’re going to believe you anyways? So now you feel less angry, but nothing has truly been accomplished.
So, next time you miss a wavedash for an edgehog and they end throwing you off stage and gimping you ftw, and then they say, “Yeah, don’t mess around near the edge when I’m playing Marth”…Will you be able to say, “Haha, nice man.” And continue to learn? Or will you lose it and waste the precious time you have to improve in between tournaments?
Part 2
The ultimate goal of adopting this emotionally challenging mindset, is to maximize how much you learn and how fast you learn it, in turn maximizing how fast you improve. With so many people out there reaching for the top, you can’t count on them to be getting frustrated and wasting every hour they put into the game, remaining stagnant and stale as a player. Therefore you cannot afford to do that either. Imagine if every time something happened in the game, our minds consciously registered it, a list of options was displayed for how to beat that situation, and then we practiced them and used them accordingly. Yeah, that would be amazing for anyone trying to be the best. However, that’s impossible. Our brains cannot spot every situation we mess up in, and since they happen so fast our minds tend to move on to the next situation as it’s happening, forgetting why we got hit in the first place so now we’re focused on recovering.
That’s another problem, not fully analyzing a situation because the game is so fast. Now imagine that happening to all of us, while we’re getting angry at ourselves and our opponents. How much are we going to learn? How slow is our improvement going to be? It doesn’t make much sense to play like this, does it?
At ROM3, I watched Mango vs Hbox friendlies and not only observed their play, but both players' reactions and actions outside of the game. Hbox was playing pretty bad, it was clear from how many rests he was missing and how many tech errors he had. Mango was playing pretty good, being able to control Hbox and do all of his combos with accuracy and precision.
Mango looked extremely at ease, sitting there smiling and laughing every time he died, no matter how "gay" most people would normally feel the death was. Even when he lost the match due to a gimp at 0, he'd just laugh it off.
Hbox, someone whom I have an immense amount of respect for, was obviously upset to be playing that bad with so many people watching, especially when Mango is arguably the only person who stands in his way to being the best, and it was clear Mango was trying. This was a huge chance for Hbox to overcome again, arguably his last barrier in making Melee history...But it wasn't happening that day, and you could see his frustration every time he missed a rest.
But, that's all it was, just small signs of frustration. With people behind you watching and commenting in awe every time you get *****, while being recorded knowing that these videos of you playing bad are going to be going online and getting judged, and the inner frustration of playing bad despite how good you know you can be...Would you be able to continue to play and learn? What's impressive was not only did he play for a long time without ever giving up in any of the matches, he didn't make any excuses to anyone and even on Smashboards, his posts all reflect how each of his losses were fair and the people who beat him deserved to win. (But you know he's just thinking of ways to **** them up next time haha)
Also Hbox, we didn't get to play like I wanted, but your matches with Lucky and Mango were so good it was hard for me to interrupt haha.
At any rate this is a mindset that I am nowhere near mastering yet btw, but I’m familiar enough with it to confidently say, when you do manage to get into this zone for the first time…Where you don’t feel anything, but you’re always learning…Training sessions turn from a chore into a rich activity filled with depth and near endless situations to master. The real challenge is being consistent with it, even when you're late on rent or when your boss yelled at you all day long for an 8 hour shift.
Don't let your emotions, all stirred up from outside influences affect your game. Rather, let the game be an arena separate from everything else. A place to go to grow and learn and see improvement no matter what's happening in your life. That way, you can count on Smash to be something you always look forward to doing, going even far as to say it can become a way to creatively express yourself, and who doesn't feel good tech chasing someone from 0 to death while walking the whole time, just because you can? Haha, that's what this game's about, what you can and can't do...And the more you can, the more fun practicing becomes.
If this got a little cheesy my bad, I just started writing and I didn't stop haha.
I broke this up into two parts for easier reading, in case you want to take a break or something. Kinda long.
If you’re serious about improving or making it to the top chances are you’re going to be playing a lot of matches with other people. Therefore most players practice in different ways, each having their own methods for improving. Some people practice the same combos over and over to commit them to an insane level of muscle memory. Some people practice freeflowing combos, just reacting after each hit. Just as we must consciously develop methods and systems for practicing, we must also pay attention to our emotional state.
When you miss a combo or an edgeguard after practicing for so long, you’re gonna get upset with yourself…Especially if your opponent escapes and death combos you. You’re probably going to be thinking, “that would never have happened if I didn’t mess up.” And the more you mess up, the more frustrated you’re going to get. Then you start playing bad in other aspects of your game, and all of a sudden the most crucial part of a Smasher’s journey to the top (Practicing/training) has turned into something annoying that makes you feel bad.
This holds some people I know back greatly, and I’m sure it does to others too. Have you ever played against someone who complained about how bad they were playing? Usually they’re not really that great of a player. Why? Because when they play bad they either quit to do something else, or they dwell on how bad they’re playing. So which one is better for a player striving to be great…Playing frustrated or not playing at all?
Neither of them. You’ll never make it to the top doing either of those. Instead, I challenge you to look at this game from a different perspective. Void yourself of all emotions both in and out of tournament. You don’t get happy when you do a death combo, and you feel no anger when you get death combod. If you lose to a player you feel you shouldn’t, accept that they are better and move on.
I want to explain why this is so hard for most people, but also why it is so rewarding. Most dedicated smashers put a lot of time into this game. As such, we all have pride in our abilities. When we play other people we may not be expecting to win, but at the least we want them to know what we’re capable of. Everybody wants to be a somebody in this game, and that’s a great thing, because being a somebody in this community is something. So, naturally when we don’t play our best or we get ****ed up by another player, we begin to feel bad. If it’s someone we think we’re better than, our egos get in the way and we feel they don’t deserve it.
Here’s the challenge. When practicing, don’t see anyone as targets that you need to murder, or scrubs you need to ****. Don’t see them as noobs or pros, inexperienced or experienced. Instead, see them for the most efficient thing you can see them as: Opportunity for growth and knowledge. How can you possibly get upset when you’re learning and becoming a better player? If you get death combod, it doesn’t matter if they’re a pro or not, it happened. Suppress your emotions and focus on why it happened and what you could have done to prevent it. Then test it the next time that situation arises.
This gets difficult if your opponent has a huge ego, and they think they’re better than you. Maybe they are so every time you kill them they silently shake their head. Or maybe they’re worse than you but they’re winning because you’re messing up, and every time they kill you they make a noise or a motion with their hands. You just want to get back to the stage and death combo them asap, or tell them how bad you’re playing due to your cold hands…
But wait, do you really want to do that? Do you want to sacrifice your maturity as a player, as well as control of your own emotional state just to let someone know you think you’d be beating them if you were playing better? Ok, you tell them that. You think they really care? You think they’re going to believe you anyways? So now you feel less angry, but nothing has truly been accomplished.
So, next time you miss a wavedash for an edgehog and they end throwing you off stage and gimping you ftw, and then they say, “Yeah, don’t mess around near the edge when I’m playing Marth”…Will you be able to say, “Haha, nice man.” And continue to learn? Or will you lose it and waste the precious time you have to improve in between tournaments?
Part 2
The ultimate goal of adopting this emotionally challenging mindset, is to maximize how much you learn and how fast you learn it, in turn maximizing how fast you improve. With so many people out there reaching for the top, you can’t count on them to be getting frustrated and wasting every hour they put into the game, remaining stagnant and stale as a player. Therefore you cannot afford to do that either. Imagine if every time something happened in the game, our minds consciously registered it, a list of options was displayed for how to beat that situation, and then we practiced them and used them accordingly. Yeah, that would be amazing for anyone trying to be the best. However, that’s impossible. Our brains cannot spot every situation we mess up in, and since they happen so fast our minds tend to move on to the next situation as it’s happening, forgetting why we got hit in the first place so now we’re focused on recovering.
That’s another problem, not fully analyzing a situation because the game is so fast. Now imagine that happening to all of us, while we’re getting angry at ourselves and our opponents. How much are we going to learn? How slow is our improvement going to be? It doesn’t make much sense to play like this, does it?
At ROM3, I watched Mango vs Hbox friendlies and not only observed their play, but both players' reactions and actions outside of the game. Hbox was playing pretty bad, it was clear from how many rests he was missing and how many tech errors he had. Mango was playing pretty good, being able to control Hbox and do all of his combos with accuracy and precision.
Mango looked extremely at ease, sitting there smiling and laughing every time he died, no matter how "gay" most people would normally feel the death was. Even when he lost the match due to a gimp at 0, he'd just laugh it off.
Hbox, someone whom I have an immense amount of respect for, was obviously upset to be playing that bad with so many people watching, especially when Mango is arguably the only person who stands in his way to being the best, and it was clear Mango was trying. This was a huge chance for Hbox to overcome again, arguably his last barrier in making Melee history...But it wasn't happening that day, and you could see his frustration every time he missed a rest.
But, that's all it was, just small signs of frustration. With people behind you watching and commenting in awe every time you get *****, while being recorded knowing that these videos of you playing bad are going to be going online and getting judged, and the inner frustration of playing bad despite how good you know you can be...Would you be able to continue to play and learn? What's impressive was not only did he play for a long time without ever giving up in any of the matches, he didn't make any excuses to anyone and even on Smashboards, his posts all reflect how each of his losses were fair and the people who beat him deserved to win. (But you know he's just thinking of ways to **** them up next time haha)
Also Hbox, we didn't get to play like I wanted, but your matches with Lucky and Mango were so good it was hard for me to interrupt haha.
At any rate this is a mindset that I am nowhere near mastering yet btw, but I’m familiar enough with it to confidently say, when you do manage to get into this zone for the first time…Where you don’t feel anything, but you’re always learning…Training sessions turn from a chore into a rich activity filled with depth and near endless situations to master. The real challenge is being consistent with it, even when you're late on rent or when your boss yelled at you all day long for an 8 hour shift.
Don't let your emotions, all stirred up from outside influences affect your game. Rather, let the game be an arena separate from everything else. A place to go to grow and learn and see improvement no matter what's happening in your life. That way, you can count on Smash to be something you always look forward to doing, going even far as to say it can become a way to creatively express yourself, and who doesn't feel good tech chasing someone from 0 to death while walking the whole time, just because you can? Haha, that's what this game's about, what you can and can't do...And the more you can, the more fun practicing becomes.
If this got a little cheesy my bad, I just started writing and I didn't stop haha.
