SB tears everyone a new one. Occasionally, I'll get in a good game, but 9 times out of 10 he beats me to a pulp (and I get the feeling he goes easy on me).
Let me make one thing very, very clear: the one and ONLY reason I am good at SSB in any way shape or form is because I had, for 5-7 years, a group of solid players I would often play with
every single day.That's how I got where I am:
by getting my balls handed to me if I didn't constantly improve. Someone figures out a strategy in the group. You lose for a while, then you figure out how to see it coming and counter it, and I did this for around 7 years.
But the funny part is that, since my group has dissolved and moved on in the world, I routinely get beaten by a Canadian friend who still has a group just like this who he plays with regularly (he knows how jealous I am of it).
Now that my group is gone, I count myself lucky for having had one at all because without it, I never would've had all that practice otherwise.
Can you imagine how funny it would be if someone with the handle Smash_Brother sucked at the game?
That was an irony I hoped I could at least avoid. You might remember posts from earlier when I mentioned that I wasn't sure how I'd measure up to others, mainly because I had no idea where I really stood.
You have two situations I believe happen in offline SSB circles:
Situation 1: One friend dominates all other friends. As a result, s/he never improves and does poorly against situation #2 players.
Situation 2: A group of friends are all competitive, all about the same skill level. When four of them sit down to a game, it could go any which way. They keep developing new strategies and then developing counter-strategies based upon each other's playstyle. Still, all players will only grow as far as they're challenged to grow, meaning the players' overall skill levels influence how far they can take their collective game.
I was fortunate enough to have a situation 2, but I couldn't be sure how far I'd actually come.
To give a basic example of strategies and counter strategies, I'll bring up a classic one between me and my friend Darrel, back with SSB64, and Samus vs. Link...
As Link, I'd always use my Dair on him, but this was eventually stopped when he learned to shield and up+B as a counter. Then, one day, I figured out that pressing Z just as Link hit the ground would cause him to bring up his shield immediately, meaning I could shield his up+B and whallop him with a smash attack afterwards.
It sounds trivial (just learning parts of the game, really) but this is the start of progression when it came to improving our overall game.
It's a pretty safe bet that everyone here who plays SSBB has tons and TONS of untapped potential which will be unlocked as they play more online SSBB, but that only comes from facing challenging opponents who force you to get better. It's actually a neat feeling when I'm playing someone online and I notice that they've figured out one of my strategies and are countering it accordingly (primarily when it's someone I know from online).
I personally don't buy into the "LULZ I PWNED JOO!" mentality of most internet games, hence why I'll never taunt at the end of a match (I don't have a mocking taunt, ironically). It's just a chance to learn and get better at the game. Why? Maybe for tournaments some day or just for the hell of it. Or maybe you have a RL friend you want to trounce.
No matter what the reason, I'm happy to be a sparring partner for folks who want to improve their game and I don't look down on people I win against. God knows I'm still learning characters as well and I've learned a thing or two from a number of NWR folks already.
Topic: HULA HOOPS Tournament. The last round has arrived! (Read 41409 times)
