We have created an irc channel (#tl-smash on Quakenet) for people to find others to play with on Dolphin or just to chat about Smash. Feel free to join!
On June 12 2011 14:29 Parsistamon wrote: This game is the best, and I love it, but I've never been able to really play at a very high level. My friends and I play all the time at college, but I have trouble incorporating advanced techniques into my play (they aren't even aware of them). How do you guys practice? Do you just lose a lot until you can successfully take advantage of the (basic) advanced techniques? I'd love to continue to improve.
Practice with people better than you, get feedback from them. If that's an option it's easily the best way to improve a lot. Also just practice a lot
On June 12 2011 14:29 Parsistamon wrote: This game is the best, and I love it, but I've never been able to really play at a very high level. My friends and I play all the time at college, but I have trouble incorporating advanced techniques into my play (they aren't even aware of them). How do you guys practice? Do you just lose a lot until you can successfully take advantage of the (basic) advanced techniques? I'd love to continue to improve.
Like someone else said, having another even/better player play with you all the time is the best way to improve. Maybe the best way is to introduce them to advanced techniques or find someone else in the area that is decent.
However, if you still want to attend tournaments but can't find good practice partners for the time in between, then practice your technical skill alone might give you an edge in learning. If you have simple l-canceled short hopped aerials down through muscle memory, for example, you won't have to struggle to do it and instead you can think about the follow ups to that like shines/grabs/jabs/WD'ing back/whatever. It's like reading. When you read you don't think about each individual letter because you've done its so many times you can just recognize the word from the shape. Techniques like WD'ing, shffling, shield grab, and others are just the basics that are 'tools' for you to take your game to the next level, and if you don't even have them down enough to be comfortable using it in a match then you need to focus on that first, whether it be raw practice or something different.
Personally I learned technical skill through break the targets (because there used to be an active community who played it and we would compete for world records, etc), however, there were times where I practiced by myself while simulating certain situations in my head, similar to shadow boxing. For example, I thought about a situation: I am on the ledge and my opponent has just smashed and is vulnerable. What's a quick sequence of moves I can execute off the ledge that I can put into muscle memory in case I see an opponent slip up (like smash attack but miss and I'm on the ledge). Then I would practice a quick Falcon knee into L-cancel into chase across the stage or I would practice a ledge hopped aerial into a grab or a ledge hopped aerial into shine into more combos. What about other situations? I'm just shielded an attack and the opponent is behind me, I my opponent is off the stage and is aiming to sweet spot the ledge, or simply my opponent is across the stage, how do I approach him and what little feints can I use while going there?
However, there's a limit as you can only practice stationary things, so it's best to find someone you can improve with/get bashed by. If I recall though, there's a japanese player called brownmario or something who became very good despite only practicing on his own like that and came to tournaments and placed very highly.
Also, against your friends, it's not hard to incorporate advanced techniques. All it means when you say you can't use them is that you're not used to them and haven't practiced them enough. The next time you play your friends just start trying to short hop aerials as your main mode of attack. Then gradually build on that and start wavedashing backwards into a smash when they try to blindly attack you. The trap you should not fall into is just being comfortable doing what you are doing and letting muscle memory (of bad moves) take over all the time. You have to proactively adjust and learn even if they don't show promise at first.
On June 12 2011 14:29 Parsistamon wrote: This game is the best, and I love it, but I've never been able to really play at a very high level. My friends and I play all the time at college, but I have trouble incorporating advanced techniques into my play (they aren't even aware of them). How do you guys practice? Do you just lose a lot until you can successfully take advantage of the (basic) advanced techniques? I'd love to continue to improve.
Using advanced techniques just takes a lot of practice. Like all of the people said here, you'll learn to be a better player a lot faster if you play against people better than you, but in my opinion you have to learn how to 'play' first. It's like playing BW; sure, you'll learn a lot about your play and how to improve by practicing against people better than you, but if you try to do that without even knowing the hotkeys, unit stats, unit interactions, and tech trees, your growth will be super slow.
My way of learning how to use advanced techniques was to simply grind them out in training mode or against Lvl 1 AIs. I created drills for myself, like wavedashing/waveshining across final destination and wavelanding across platform stages. For SHFFLs and SHFFL->Shine (if you play a space animal), I played against a Level 1 Bowser on Time mode w/ 0 time, setting the handicap for me to 1 and him to 9. I found that very helpful in learning how to SHFFL properly, because just being able to SHFFL without a character to practice on doesn't get you accustomed to the hitlag that occurs when you're actually using SHFFL to attack.
Until these were completely internalized in practice, I knew that I wouldn't be able to pull them off in a normal game (I get nervous pretty easy), so I kept drilling and drilling and drilling until doing the advanced techniques was pretty much second nature. Of course, I still mess up from time to time, but I can say without a doubt that my technical skill improved a LOT just by practicing against the AI, allowing me to focus less on what my hands are doing and more upon what's happening in the game -- my opponent's movements, how I should approach, etc.
Main: Ice Climbers (seriously), Mario Active: Since Release Location: North Bay, ON
I've played in a few local "tournaments" and slaughtered all comers. Never been in a serious tournament but if there ever WERE any near here I'd be all over them.
Ha! fuck yea melee! I've been dying to see a thread like this. It's funny, maybe it's cuz I'm NE and nobody plays NE, but I only recognize one name on that list. HOLLA BOXMAN. lol. I know some other big name smashers that I play on SC, but none are here, haters.
Main: Falco Active: 2008-now, although I didnt compete last year. I'll be stepping it up this year cause I'm relocating to ATL, any Atlanta smashers hit me up! Location: Vermont... but ATL in a few weeks!
hmmm. I'm not that good anymore, used to play a mean puff / falco, now i stick to falco. Can do all the fancy tech shit, but who can't... uhm, hung out with most of the competitive scene in NE, but like i said, i dropped off the radar last year, and I hope that now that I have a car and a new location, I can get back into it!
Perhaps my favorite game of all time. I was alright at it on some standards anyways, but I was young and didn't know anything about the advanced tech or anything. Moreso in Brawl but...
I played mostly Samus and also Falco or Pikachu. I didn't play competitively since I was so young, and didn't even know such a scene existed. I wish they made a Smash Bros. with a proper competitive online, but I guess the creators don't want it to go that way.
I love SSBM, but I'm not competitive about it. On the other hand, my brother plays Home run Contest competitively. Currently, he holds the world record for yoshi, link and mewtwo. I'm really trying to get him into SC2, but he's proving to be very resistant. His name is tipomastr. If you know him, tell him he should try SC2.
damn I had no idea this thread existed! I've gone to both E3 and Pound 4 and had a blast. I've been playing the game seriously since late 2006, early 2007ish. I hail from Southern Virginia (SOVA!) and thankfully we have a pretty active smash scene still- meet maybe 1-2 times a month to play.
Anyone near ODU, CNU or VA beach PM me! We could always use more smashers. Our player pool varies greatly in skill so don't feel bashful to smash with us!
On July 15 2011 09:36 Supamang wrote: Im more of a Brawl fan, but Melee was tight too. I play Falco, Sheik, and Marth in both
Is it just me or do people seem to hate Brawl compared to Melee on the same basis that people hate SC2 compared to BW?
its not just you and yeah its the same the newer games brawl n sc2 have a lower skill ceiling then their predecessors, well its worse for brawl then sc2 though
On July 15 2011 09:36 Supamang wrote: Im more of a Brawl fan, but Melee was tight too. I play Falco, Sheik, and Marth in both
Is it just me or do people seem to hate Brawl compared to Melee on the same basis that people hate SC2 compared to BW?
It's similar but not even close to the same level. Brawl was made to be a casual game specifically while sc2 tried very hard to incorporate esports/competitive play.
As you can see, sc2 is still played extensively while brawl never got even close despite a good predecessor.
Dice Main: Fox/Falco Active: Played SuperSmash Bros 64 since release and love it. Played hard with lots of friends all of the time. Got into Melee soon after release and did the same with that game. Learned techs and practiced them pretty hard. Was interested in competing but was too busy trying to get a good team together for Halo 2. I only play now whenever I have a friend to play with. Today my skill is slightly deteriorated compared to back then.
In other news, l am highly confident in my Halo 2 skills. ^.^
Location: Orlando, FL
Btw, can you play SSBM online through via Wii? o.O
Brawl was a conscious attempt to remove everything competitive about the game and turn it into a Mario Party fighter. It's infinitely worse than what SC2 did.
EPT
