Understanding Melee at all Levels, Part 2
A long time ago in Spanish class I complained to my teacher that Spanish people speak way too fast, and he replied with something I’ll never forget. He said that, it only sounds fast to us because we DON’T KNOW WHERE THE WORDS END AND BEGIN, so everything sounds like it runs together, creating a false perception that Spanish people speak very fast, when in reality, Spanish people think WE talk really fast.
This concept is the best I can think of to describe Melee. Fighting games can TECHNICALLY be broken down into situations. Situations arise when the characters are positioned a certain way. Sometimes they’re generalized, like neutral, advantage and disadvantage, but since situations are COMPRISED of options, the more options a game has, the more situations it has. In other fighting games you can create flowcharts to help understand situations better and use them to navigate through them. Try doing that with Melee though and you’ll end up writing a bible of flowcharts, due to the near infinite amount of options/situations the game has. The game’s programming, physics, number of characters and stage selections make it ridiculous in terms of depth.
So how can you begin to understand it? Well first off, Melee is more like a language than any other fighting game. Rarely do you see the same thing happen twice, just like you rarely hear a person say the exact same sentence comprised of the exact same words twice, and even if you do it happens so rarely and so far apart from the last time they said the exact same words, in the exact same order, you don’t remember. It can also be very fluid like a language, or very choppy. You can tell who has been speaking a language for their whole life, and who is in the process of learning it. In addition, even if you’ve been speaking English for your whole life, you can always be better at it. You can always pronounce better, you can always learn more words and you can always learn to communicate more effectively, even if you have a Masters in communications. Same thing with Melee. We tend to idolize the top players and say such false statements like “No one will ever be better than this player” or “This player is at the peak of performance/skill” and that’s nothing more than a self limiting belief that will only turn true if you continue to truly believe that. A few years from now there will be multiple people much better than Mango or PP are now, even if they’re included in that group. Ok, getting sidetracked here, I’m moving on :-P
So, thinking of Melee like a language, when you don’t know where the words end and begin in a language, you can’t even understand what someone is saying, you can’t communicate with them. This applies directly to Melee. When you haven’t consciously learned the situations that are happening as you play, you get that feeling of “blindness,” where you’re not in control and you can’t really improve because you can’t see it. The more situations you begin to recognize, the more conscious you become of them, and the more you can practice navigating in them and mastering your options in them. Then you can begin to automate your actions when those situations arise, and the more you do that, the more you develop that trademark beautiful fluidity that Melee is so known for.
Think of what I’m talking about as nothing more than breaking down the abstractness of the game. That’s why if you’re a lower level player watching videos, your mind is going to focus on WHAT the top players are doing. You think you understand it all, but you only understand as much as your mind allows you to see. When higher level players are watching videos, they’re seeing much more than you are, but even then they’re not seeing everything, and again, players of even higher level are seeing even more.
Now of course, your brain needs what’s called “reference experiences” to be able to truly understand those situations. When we are actually in the situation and paying conscious attention to it, and we experience it, then we develop a smidge of what it takes to begin to master it. After that, it’s just a matter of being in the situation over and over, consciously understanding that you’re in it and paying attention to it, and testing out different options. This is why technical execution is so important, it’s the equivalent of clarity or how well you pronounce the words of a language. If you’re learning how to tell someone in Spanish: “Let’s go to the store to get apples and other fruits,” even if you know the words individually, if you can’t pronounce them you can’t get your message across.
Same thing in Smash. Even if you know that when your opponent shields, by dash dancing faster it’s going to create a subconscious effect that causes them to go into panic mode and they will be more likely to dodge or roll instead as opposed to calmly letting go of their shield and working with the space they have, if you’re accidentally jumping while trying to DD fast it’s pointless, and you can’t master that situation effectively.
That’s why I get annoyed with people who, constantly during matches every time they make a tech error, they feel the urge to point it out. This is their ego basically saying to their opponent, “If I didn’t mess up this execution, I would have had you. I’m smarter than you but I messed up, so DON’T GO THINKING YOU’RE BETTER THAN ME.”
Guess what kid, the fact that you messed up means I AM better than you, so go home, sit your sorry you know what down, and drill it into your mind and your muscle memory until you’re so sick of it you want to puke. Then wake up again tomorrow and do the same thing, until you can play against the best player in the world and not mess up your executions.
That’s why tech skill is limitless. Even if you CAN execute, you most likely won’t to your potential because of the pressure and nerves you feel, and it’s all subconscious. In fact, hearing the very name of the player you’re playing against being called on the loud speaker triggers a physiological change in your body and muscles based on your perception of how good that player is, and when your muscles nervously tense up and they’re not loose, your fingers can’t execute properly, and this creates the phenomenon that most players call “I can’t play good in tournaments wahhhh” but what’s really known as UNDERPERFORMING. Notice why Mango and Armada almost never play bad, because in their minds they are the best and no one can come close, so they almost always play to their full potential. I mean, even they have off days, but that’s much, much rarer than most other players.
This is a very under explored part of Melee, is the emotional/psychological part of the game. There’s physical, which is your execution, there is mental which is what some people call mindgames, and then there’s your emotional state, which to every top athlete is just as equal, if not more than the first two, but because most people who play Melee competitively see it as just a video game, they never delve into this aspect of being able to control your thoughts and emotions, which is silly because it’s a skill (one of the only you develop by playing Melee) that translates to real life. It’s also why Jman and Lucky underperform so much, and you see when they’re playing good that they’re better than most people can imagine.
This brings up an interesting little dynamic. Notice how Jman’s playstyle has developed to be consistent even when he’s playing bad? His laser game and basic combos make it so he doesn’t have to be on all the time to place top 5 at a tournament, while Lucky’s risky aggressiveness sometimes causes him to lose to players that he would beat at his maximum potential.
Now look at Mango who just almost never loses. What’s the difference? Sure there are playstyle differences that make him better than both, but when looking at performance, it’s alllll mental.
Wow I got distracted. Where was I…
So, when trying to improve, I have adopted the philosophy of playing to learn, not to win. If you’re playing to win you become blinded to situations you haven’t yet realized exist, because you’re too focused on outplaying your opponent. Look, maybe some people who always play to win have developed a system of learning at the same time- for me personally, it doesn’t work like that, which is why I recommend not caring so much about winning in friendlies.
Also, ironically enough, when you don’t care about winning, (a concept in Psychology known as FREEDOM OF OUTCOME) the opposite happens when you’re nervous. Your muscles become loose and you can execute to your potential. Floyd Mayweather Jr., the greatest boxer of all time, is known to be super relaxed and loose all throughout his match. He’s conditioned his muscles to actually relax when he’s throwing punches. This is a result of his training methods, his physical combined with his emotional. So when most people are train to increase stamina, that creates a frame of mind and body where the more punches you throw, the more tired you get. Now switch back to Floydy boy. As the match goes on, he becomes more and more relaxed, without losing any of his force or destructiveness.
This doesn’t apply absolutely directly to Melee because we don’t get physically fatigued from playing, but the looseness of our fingers does play a ridiculously important role. That’s why it kinda sucks at tournaments where you have to sit down and play against someone, and you only get one chance to win and then you’re out, when at least for me personally, it takes 5-10 matches against a high level player to really feel comfortable and loose.
So, this post was more scattered than I intended, mainly because I didn’t plan it out and I wrote it all of the top of my head, but I’ve been writing for a while and I think it’s enough information for people to absorb for now anyways. So now I’m going to go eat. One last thing though.
If you don’t agree with what I’m saying that’s cool, feel free to share your opinions, I’m always open to new ideas, but don’t come in and try to trash the ideas. I’ve traveled a decent amount, have spent a ridiculous amount of time analyzing and testing, so unless you actually know what’s up about this kind of material on a very deep level, it’s admittedly going to be hard for me to respect your opinion. Yes, that may sound elitist, but I never asked anyone to like me haha.
OH, ALSO, if anyone from Tristate can house me or pick me up from the Greyhound station closest to the venue for ZENITH, PLEASE let me know via Private Message. Otherwise, I’m getting a hotel by myself so if anyone is interested in that let me know as well, because I’m not missing this tournament.
PEACE people
