Tag Archives: Tournament

Improvement in Smash 4 BONUS XIII – At a Tournament

by

**If you’re unfamiliar with Smash, this probably isn’t the post for you unless you’re curious. In order to get a full understanding of this, you should be familiar with Smash’s game mechanics and lingo (EX: Forward Air = Fair), specifically the mechanics for Super Smash Bros. Wii U.

Last time I went to a monthly, I wrote about how to prepare for a tournament. Well, once again, I’ll be attending another monthly. This time, it’s Mashfest 3, the 3rd installment in Unrivaled Tournament’s series that features the best of Chicago and the Chicago-land area. You should come out and say hi to me! Come ask me anything about improvement if you see me just standing around or chatting casually – I don’t bite 🙂

It’s this Saturday, April 23rd. I’ll link up the Facebook event page below this post.

—

So, you’ve made it to the tournament. Whether it be a weekly, monthly, regional, major, what-have-you, your play in bracket is what’s going to count. Here are some helpful tips that will help you stay on your A game throughout the day and make the most of your tournament experience.

PLAY FRIENDLIES!

I really can’t stress this enough. Now, I already have an entire post dedicated to making the most of friendlies. Go and read it, then come back here. And seriously, go walk up to people, say hi, introduce yourself, and ask for friendlies! Most people, unless otherwise busy, will say yes.

Besides everything that I cover in that post, you’re making new friends. I don’t do this nearly enough at locals, but you should attempt to hold a conversation and get to know these people. Some of my closest friends I’ve met through Super Smash Bros. Even making one new friend can significantly enhance your tournament experience.

HYDRATE

While you’re in bracket, don’t go drinking soda/shakes/etc… stick to vitamin waters, Gatorade, and straight-up water. Last time I brought two half gallons of water and used all of it. I’ll be bringing more this weekend for sure.

If you’re feeling drowsy the day of, I’d recommend coffee, but DO NOT put in too much sugar. You’ll start to crash and play sub optimally.

Speaking of sugar…

EAT WELL

At some point, you’re gonna need to eat. If you’re going to eat while still in bracket, don’t eat greasy, sugary foods. Get something small but packs a lot of protein – turkey sandwiches, yogurt, granola bars, etc… those will energize you and minimize your chances of crashing from sugar or playing slower while digesting.

You can also wait until you’re knocked out of bracket, but believe me that can be hard to do. For me, I don’t get hungry during bracket very often because I get so focused and stress gets rid of my hunger. I generally just drink a ton of water and that gets me by. I usually get a big meal after I’m knocked out since I haven’t eaten all day.

WATCH MATCHES

Another great way to scout players is to watch their bracket matches. Grab a friend and watch with them. Talk about it as it’s happening. I do this all. The. Time. If you’re sitting in Winner’s/Loser’s waiting for the winner/loser of a match, it’s a good idea to watch that match and prepare yourself for either opponent. Players styles can change rapidly, even during the day. By watching you can gauge how they’re playing and see what adjustments you need to make before your match with them even starts! This is especially useful for opponents you’ve played before.

SOCIALIZE

Besides making more friends and enhancing your experience, socializing is the gateway to improvement. Talking about this game in a deep and thoughtful manner is a really enriching and fun experience. And sometimes you can learn something really valuable, even if you’re just chatting. You may learn something really insightful while talking. Sometimes the way a person thinks about the game can be a giveaway to their style of play. I’m not saying go strike up a conversation just to try and get information like this, but it can come out sometimes.

HAVE FUN

At the end of the day, we’re all here to play Super Smash Bros. It’s a passion. You play better when you’re enjoying yourself and having a good time. If you’re not having a good time, I would argue that the wins aren’t even worth it.

——

Remember to come say hi to me if you’re attending Mashfest 3 this weekend! 🙂

Just Sayin’.

Link to the event page for Mashfest 3: https://www.facebook.com/events/1566491593667206/

I – Fundamentals
II – A Different Way to Look at Match Ups
III – Attitude
IV – Friendlies
V – Stages
VI – Preparing for a Tournament
VII – Training Regimens
VIII – Character Loyalty

Check out the BONUS series!

IX – The Plateau
X – Practice Methods I
XI – Practice Methods II
XII – Practice Methods III
XIV – Practice Methods BONUS IV
XV – Game Flow

Advertisement

Improvement in Smash 4 VI – Preparing for a Tournament

by

7

**If you’re unfamiliar with Smash, this probably isn’t the post for you unless you’re curious. In order to get a full understanding of this, you should be familiar with Smash’s game mechanics and lingo (EX: Forward Air = Fair), specifically the mechanics for Super Smash Bros. Wii U.

In a stroke of a luck, I actually have a tournament I’ll be attending this weekend! All of you who read this series and find it insightful can now meet me in person (if you haven’t already). Don’t worry, I’ll have a pen ready to sign autographs!

But blissful dreams aside, preparing for a tournament is a crucial part to how you’re going to play the day of. You need to be prepared if you want to maximize your chances of succeeding. With that in mind, let’s jump right in!

Research

The first thing you want to do is research. It doesn’t matter if it’s a local*/monthly/regional/national – you need to do your research. Are Miis allowed? Customs on or off? What about stage list?

*Obviously, if this is a local that you’re a regular at, you should know the rules

Next, research the players. Who’s attending? Any top names? Also try and find prominent local members of that area’s community. Are other players from different areas in the stage going? Who’s in the top 15 of the state/region/area?

What characters do all of those players use? What’s the area/state’s most popular character? Chicago, for example, is heavy on Mario and Sheik.

If you’re traveling, make sure you’ve got stuff planned. The more stress you can reduce before the tournament, the more you can focus on training and health.

Where are you going to eat? See the food options available at the venue.

Training

Here’s where you take your research and apply it to your training. When it comes to a monthly/regional/national, you need to change your regiment. Play a little more and narrow down your training. If you’re from State Y and you’re coming to a Chicago monthly, you’re going to want to practice a little more against Sheik and Mario. Obviously, don’t neglect any characters, but your focus should be more on the popular characters and top players in the region and those characters. Is someone Out of State coming that’s a top player? Prepare for them too.

When you’re watching videos, study the top players to get a feel for how they play.

For stages, make sure you practice all the stages legal for that tournament. Give special attention to stages that aren’t legal in your local scene.

Remember when I said play for 30 minutes a day? Bump that up to 45 minutes to an hour. Try and attend as many locals as you can. If you want to win, you need to put in the time and effort, and you wanna ramp up before a tournament to maximize how well you’re playing.

A Few Other Things

SLEEP – You may want to play into the night before a tournament, but believe me you want to be alert, and coffee ain’t gonna do it for you. Get proper rest. If you’re staying up hella late you’re cutting your chances of winning.

SHOWER – And let me be clear, this doesn’t just benefit everyone. Cleaning yourself gives you a better chance of warding off being sick. You play worse when you’re sick.

EAT WELL – Don’t get a goddamn McGriddle before you play. You want sustainable energy that’ll help keep you alert and not exhausted. So, seriously, try and eat better the day of. Get chicken instead of a burger. Get a salad instead of fries. Eat a meal bar or a protein bar.

WATER – Drink it. Love it. Be it. Don’t drink poison *coughsodaenergydrinksanythingnotwatercough* Stay hydrated.

At the Tournament

Play friendlies!!! I can’t stress this enough. Play as many friendlies with as many different people as possible, preferably with either your main or a very comfortable secondary. The goal here is to attain as much knowledge as possible about your prospective opponents. Even if it means throwing down a little cash, get in those games with top players and talk to them. Most top players are actually pretty nice, and should be more than happy to offer you some tips.

Also, friendlies are a very good way to learn without going through the stress of a tournament match, which helps you conserve energy. You’ll want to make sure you don’t burn out over the course of the day, so make sure you do whatever it takes to stay in tip top form all day.

Most Importantly

When you’re at a tournament, have fun. Your mood is crucial to how well you’re going to be playing that day, so make sure you’re not focused solely on winning and stressing yourself out. Enjoy yourself! Plenty of times you’ll read articles from top players where they play insanely well because they were just enjoying themselves and somehow ended up winning the biggest tournament of their life.

——

Seriously, come say hi to me if you’ll be at Mashfest this Saturday, September 5th, if you haven’t already met me in person. I’ll be there, available for questions, chatting, friendlies, etc… you’ll know it’s me because I’m super loud and I’ll be wearing a gray Fedora with a Paper Mario pin on it.

Also, one more blog post before I wrap up the improvement series!

Just Sayin’

The tournament I’m going to is called Mashfest. Check out the FB page for it! Go to it! Y’know…to get my autograph 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/events/724406491038862/

I – Fundamentals
II – A Different Way to Look at Match Ups
III – Attitude
IV – Friendlies
V – Stages
VII – Training Regimens
VIII – Character Loyalty

Check out the BONUS series!

IX – The Plateau
X – Practice Methods I
XI – Practice Methods II
XII – Practice Methods III
XIII – At a Tournament
XIV – Practice Methods BONUS IV
XV – Game Flow

Madison Pokémon Regional Recap

by

Wow, what a weekend!

The weekend began Saturday, when I was picked up by friends Adib and Kamaal and promptly headed for Madison. We had been invited to a small cookout/get together by someone I had met a month ago, Zach, and we stopped there to have some ridiculously good food and awesome conversation with the guys I met. It was a ton of fun, and we even got some multi battles (where Adib’s Honchcrow KO’d 4 of the opposing team’s mons) in alongside Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee, which were a lot of fun as well.

Mark my words, Kamaal, I’m going to take revenge for that 0-death you had on me!!

The next day was the tournament, which was at one of the nicest venues I’ve ever been to. I wish Smash tournaments were this organized, because besides one little hiccup where someone didn’t get a bye first round, the entire tournament ran incredibly smooth. Swiss rounds (which are simply one round sets) finished very quickly, and it just seemed really organized. Kudos to TCPI for running such a smooth event. I got home before 8 PM, which was awesome considering the tournament had started only 10 hours prior.

I did better than I expected, reaching my goal of going positive in Swiss rounds. I went 4-3, losing to some good players and losing only one match to hax, whereas a lot of my friends had hax play a big role in their wins and losses. I had very little hax in my matches. I guess the RNG gods decided to not mess with me.

I am definitely going to try and practice, however, as I had no time to practice before going in. I’ll definitely be practicing for Nationals with a new idea I came up with on the drive back.

Also, because I absolutely have to, I have to relate to you all a few key moments of my first match. You see, I went up against a guy with a Pachirisu (a very, very weak Pokémon), and a Smeargle. I led Scrafty/Volcarona, and set up a Quiver Dance on Volcarona, which led to it being Toxic’d by Pachirisu. Pachirisu then used Attract on my Scrafty, resulting in it being immobilized by love twice (the most hax I had in a game, by the way), and when he sent out the Smeargle, he used Sketch (which copies a move) onto Scrafty, copying Fake Out (which only works the first turn your mon is out on the field) and used it, resulting in it failing. By the end of the game, my Volcarona had 4 HP left because the only damage that was done to it was through Toxic’s increasing poison.

All in all, the tournament was incredibly fun. I can’t wait to go to Nationals!

Also, shouts out to Espeon for not being dead weight in any match I brought her to.

Just Sayin’