Any Tips for Staying Optimal Under Pressure?

[JAZZ_]

Hey guys, Jazz here looking for guidance from my fellow Samus mains in particular. Tomorrow I will take a step forward in my smash development, entering a local tourney at the Bar-cade where I first encountered competitive smash.
To fully convey why I'm nervous about this lets walk down memory lane a bit back a few years.

It was either 2013 or 2014, Ray and his little cousin comes across a flyer to a local smash tourney held at the" Shoryuken league" while walking around downtown. He, his cousin and friends had all played smash together for nearly a decade. They figured it would be fun to try and see if they could at least place decently. So they prepped for 2 weeks, often having all night smash fests. They paid the $5 entry fee as well as the $5 fee per game you signed up for. The smash games were Melee, Brawl and 64. To a bunch of kids who had never seen a competitive smash scene it was a little daunting. But they had no idea what they had signed up for. The best players from all over the state were there. Ray's first game (brawl) was a bit confusing, his opponent was a no show, and an employee of the tourney organization volunteered to fill in. However, Ray didn't know pikachu could chaingrab fox to oblivion. To a kid who played on Random for nearly a decade it was a wake up call that sucked every ounce of excitement, momentum and joy out of him. He then watched as his friends lost their matches too, and prayed for his cousin who actually walked away with the only win amongst the bunch in his first couple melee matches. It was a brutal wake up call. They all left that Bar-cade humbled and determined to stick to smashing among friends.

A lot has changed since Ray entered that tourney, He discovered Project M, which excited him about Smash again. In doing so he discovered this very website, and when time came to buy a Wii-U he would use the site to learn all he could about how to play well. He even dedicated himself to a single character, something he had never done in his life ever, and today he continues to progress with the guidance of a fantastic community of Samus players.

You can all guess by now who Ray is, and I can't thank this community enough for all the help I've received. However I'm still nervous about Tomorrow even though this will be quite different than before.
- this will be only local opponents, not nearly as high stakes nor is prize money involved like last time.
- I'm not winging it like I did last time. I have a main, and a few pocket characters to use (no more rando)
- I have a friend who is as equally as skilled as me going too and having him to constantly fight has made me a smart player (whereas before i could beat my friends with no effort at all)

But even still I cant help but worry. What if I start to lose momentum and play Samus like a cancerous FG roll spammer? How do I gain my ground again? What can I do to lessen the butterflies?
So I turn to you all, not just for the general tourney advice, but for the advice as fellow low tier warriors who know about the ups and downs using our favorite bounty hunter. Any tips you guys have to keep my head in the game and keep the optimal game up will be tremendously useful, given less than optimal Samus loses hard.
Thanks you guys,
Sincerely

Ray Morton (Jazz)

 

[DungeonMaster]

My advice is never walk into battle cold, confidence is the first thing any opponent will notice. Always spar immediately before fighting and psyche yourself so you fight your best.
Whatever works for you. When I spar in real life, it's Theoden's speech.
"Ride, now, ride for ruin and the world's ending! DEATH! DEATH!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tg...d=l8yOdAqBFcQ&annotation_id=annotation_788493
Do not worry about tier lists, the meta is constantly changing and it's going to change considerably for Samus very soon.

 

[Hark17ball]

Butterflies are good. It's nerve wracking but it helps me stay focused on remembering the basic flow of the game. Just play like your there for fun! It takes a lot of pressure off you and you aren't as tense! When I get tense my SHAD turn to rolls....and we all know how that goes.

You'll never get over the nerves if you worry to much! Hit it head on! You have to decide that you want it, rather than letting anything slow you down!

My biggest thing is getting used to the TV. Play a little on some TVs, A quick button check etc, etc.

 

[Xygonn]

When you lose your first stock, if your opponent doesn't have a chargeable power, take some time up there on the angel platform. Breath. Check their percent. Think about what combo you want to go for. Will uair -> dair work? Uair-> cs? uair -> upb? just fish for an upb oos? This helps you get back in it when you are behind, or helps you close out a match.

 

[(A)]

Play as many opponents as you can (friendlies) this helps you improving a lot. You are not perfect try dont think in winning or loosing, play for fun and for improving yourself and then you will always win, .

 

[Iddis]

If you lose a stock before taking their first one take a moment on the platform and take a deep breath to calm/collect yourself and refocus, there have been a few times where I would lose my first stock and only be able to rack up roughly 60% on them to coming back and take both of theirs and win it with only taking like 60-80% on my second stock just by doing this. Best of luck to you, show them Samus is no pushover.

 

[JAZZ_]

If you lose a stock before taking their first one take a moment on the platform and take a deep breath to calm/collect yourself and refocus, there have been a few times where I would lose my first stock and only be able to rack up roughly 60% on them to coming back and take both of theirs and win it with only taking like 60-80% on my second stock just by doing this. Best of luck to you, show them Samus is no pushover.

I actually do what you just described in FG all the time.

So update everyone, my friend whom i picked up lost his ID tonight, so we werent able to get in. So i went back to his place and slapped his mewtwo around for hours. Hopefully next week ill get my chance, i guess that gives me time to prep my confidence a bit and get more advice. Thanks to everyone for your awesome tips.

 

[Shuckle_SSB]

Go in always thinking, "This person has the potential to beat me... But I also have the potential to beat them!"

Confidence is key. Reaction is key. Optimal play is key. Don't overuse all of your mix-ups at once. Stay safe and do what works until they catch on, then switch it up and throw them for a loop.

 

[samosa]

Try to stay positive even when you are behind, and when you are really feeling pressured try to use things that you are confident in executing, for example when hanging from the ledge instead of going for someting like a wall jump back air to charge shot just go for a simple fair back on stage or normal getup, depending on what your opponent does of course.

 

[Vyrnx]

I would try not to feel pressured to do a lot of stuff during matches when you feel pressure. For instance, if you feel pressured and nervous, you might be overly active in movement/fishing/etc when it might even be ideal to play super defensively, especially since Samus has that capability. It depends on the MU, but for instance, can you hide in shield, vs trying to be overly active against a Fox player and getting killed, when shielding could have avoided anything 99% of the time? That is a mistake I make a lot, when shield is super effective against many characters. That also means don't feel pressured to go for "big" moves, feel comfortable shielding, jab 1-ing, ftilting, nairing, or other safe keepaway moves, or defensive movement like shad and even bombs. Or guaranteed up b oos. But don't feel the pressure and go for too many grabs, dash attacks, moves that could potentially be punished by the opponent oos with a slight spacing error, etc. It's kind of dumb and obvious, but sometimes deciding you aren't going to get your stock taken (vs focusing on taking the opponent's stock) makes a big difference, especially when you are down and need a comeback.