I had a great week of smash. I got 3rd and 2nd at both of the weeklies I attended. I was seeded to get those placements, but considering I haven’t made my seed recently, this is a good thing. I got wins on multiple players I’ve struggled with in the past, starting with Robocop, a Chrom who beat me the week before. It was best-of-five and I went down 1-2 but was able to pull out a victory in the end, landing myself in losers finals against Yeex. If you’ve read the blog before, Yeex is a familiar name. I put up a hell of a fight and almost reverse 3-0ed him, but he adapted very well in game 5 and beat me solidly. I fought Acid (a Greninja main who’s been performing amazingly in State) twice on Thursday, once in winner’s finals and once in grand finals. In winner’s, he went Pokemon Trainer the first game and Doctor Mario the second. I beat them both, forcing him to take the set seriously and bring out his actual main, Greninja. I lost all 3 matches after that but had the lead for a good part of game 5, but Acid pulled through and won. In Grands, I didn’t see the Geninja, but I did see his Kazuya, probably his second-best character. I didn’t do well. I also felt like a lot of my focus and drive were gone around that time, so my loss was inevitable. I hope I can make it to him more often to get more shots at a win.
This week I went into every Smash session or event focusing on my mentality. This became a point of interest for me because of an exchange I had at the Namki house Rooftop Invitational. After losing to Robber, I went up to him to discuss our set and he mentioned how little ambition I seemed to have when trying to beat people ranked above me. This is true and I’ve noticed how I’ve always been content with losing to people who I’m ranked below and feel are way better than me. I wondered where that feeling came from and I think I found out.
I think it comes from my overall mentality towards competition. I know people will be better than me and I don’t try to inflate my ego by thinking I can beat someone that is clearly ranked above me. This has helped me not rage much, and that is a positive thing, but that has also resulted in me not trying hard to beat these players. Now I have been trying to beat them, but only in theory crafting ways to beat them. This is important, but I was lacking the desire for the win itself.
I’m a logic lord, debate bro, online atheist type. I’m Ben Shapiro except I know facts do care about our feelings. A Liberal Ben Shapiro… This isn’t about politics… but if you like political discourse, check out my other stuff… Anyways. I like to be rational, and mentality isn’t about rationality. You should always believe you can win in a match. You should always want to win, and you should always believe in yourself and your skills.
Another habit I was falling into was celebrating just getting my seed at tourneys. While this is a good thing, I think it reinforced to me that I didn’t need to try harder. I was doing as good as I was supposed to, and that was fine for me. If I want to improve though, that isn’t fine. I should want to win the whole thing and beat all the players in attendance. I should want to be the very best like no one ever was… I always kinda hated the Pokemon theme song. Maybe because I thought it set too high of expectations. I should have listened!
This is straying a little bit outside of smash, but I do truly believe there is truth to thinking about something and manifesting it, and I think that has to do with what I’ve been learning about mentality. You should want to win because if your opponent wants to win and are good enough to beat you, they have an advantage. It makes me think though. How many sets could I have won if I wanted to win? It kinda pisses me off. Who knows though. One week of success with this mindset I’m working on is not indicative of its success in the long term, and I could very well find myself at the same place I’ve always been with at smash. I don’t want that to be the case though. I want to do better. I feel like I’ve been playing much better than I ever have before and I don’t think it a coincidence.
Here are two videos on the topic of mentality in Smash. There are many more, but these are two from creators who are well established in the Smash community. I’ll comment on certain bits from the videos, give my own thoughts on the advice given and even say when I don’t agree.
Banana Boy’s video on mentality.
“Every time I got hit, it damaged my vision of what’s supposed to happen, and every time I got a hit, it made me more prideful” Banana Boy also explains how worrying about what you can’t control hinders your ability on focusing on what you can control. If you get put in a long combo string, don’t focus on how unfun it is to be in disadvantage, focus on how you can get out and how you can avoid getting into that string again.
He says “Don’t let winning be the only acceptable option” and I think that could seem to directly contradict what I’ve learned and stated above. I needed to find my will to win, but that doesn’t mean losing is still not acceptable. I think lashing out, discrediting the player you’ve just played, or being physical like throwing your controller or punching a wall is unhealthy and not a good way of handling a loss. Even before my mindset changed, I started to takes walks after my losses and I have gotten a bit physical once I’m far away from anyone else and that’s mainly manifested in me kicking a bush or throwing my water bottle into a pile of snow. So manly, I know, but if you are needing to let out frustration, don’t let it negatively impact anyone else.
I think a great way to handle a loss is to accept it once the set is over, but don’t accept that it always has to be that way. You just lost, meaning you just got information on what not to do next time you fight that person or someone similar. You should use the energy, whether it’s saltiness or straight anger to fuel yourself. Internalize the knowledge you gained and use your desire to not lose again to motivate you to apply that knowledge.
He goes into meditation at the end of the video and while I’ve never meditated for the purposes of smash, I could see where this could help. Focusing is another broader topic I’d like to cover soon (maybe even next week) and I think meditation helps you clear your mind, making it easier to focus on the game.
Banana Boy is an amazing smash YouTuber who makes some great videos on how to improve. If you haven’t, check out more on his channel. I’m sure you’ll learn something.
Izaw’s video on mentality.
Izaw’s video is focused at higher-level players, so not me and probably not the people reading this, but I think the advice is good to know, and if some things don’t apply to us now, we can start to apply them if we do end up getting better.
As a cringe philosopher, I love the quote he leads with. “It’s better to know how to learn than to know.” This is just true in all aspects of life I find and it’s 100% true in Smash. It’s OK to not know things. Knowing things does not win you a set although it can help. Execution and adaptation are just as important, and they’re skills that are much easier to learn for the benefit of winning a match or a set. Knowledge of the game takes hours of watching content, playing, and studying VODs. I personally know a lot about Ultimate, but one of the best players in my state (I’m not going to name them) didn’t know how to DI properly in Ultimate. If I told you who this player was, it’d be shocking, but they simply didn’t know how LSI/DI worked in Ultimate, and they’re so much better than me. DI to me is a basic knowledge check for most players. I know way more advanced things than DI as well, but it doesn’t mean I can beat someone who doesn’t know these things. The player in question has way better execution and adaptation than me, so he’ll usually win. I feel like there’s a certain relationship between adaptation and knowledge. I feel like they’re separate categories, but also similar and I now want to explore that more in the future. Stay tuned for that, but in the meantime, I believe adaptation is putting into practice your ability to learn.
Izaw speaks about confidence in yourself which is very important and a key part of a good mentality. He says if you don’t think your character can win a tourney, pick another one, and I do agree with the sentiment, but not the solution, especially for my level of play. There is one player in my whole state that can even think about beating top players, so aside from him, anyone with the right skills can beat everyone in my state with 80% of the cast. Even at the top level, a character can be thought of as bad for years, but it only takes one person to change people’s opinion of them. You could be that person. If you like a character and you feel like that character fits you well, stick with them, and don’t complain about them. Cosmos, one of the best players in the world lost to a Little mac last weekend, a character considered to be one of the worst in the game, and he plays a character considered to be the best in the game. Don’t blame your character, and if you truly can’t see how to win with them in certain scenarios, pick up another one.
Something I disagree with that Isaw says is that you shouldn’t look for the easiest way to get through a fight. I can see why he says that. If you’re not pushing yourself beyond your opponent’s level, if they’re worse than you, you will stagnate and not be prepared for players better than them. I see a problem with this mindset even at my level. Tournaments take energy, and the more you use at the start, the more tired you get towards the end. Your earlier matches should be easier than your later ones, so if you have an easy way to beat someone, do it. Now how do you avoid approaching every set thinking there’s an easy option? You adapt. You create a constant mindset of “How can I win here”, at least, that’s what’s working for me now. I literally just spammed Palutena nair on some guy’s shield one match last week and then fought Acid in a close 2-3 set because I was able to recognize, that wouldn’t work on Acid. Take the easy road sometimes. Over-thinking can also lead to you making more mistakes. Again, I see where Izaw is coming from, and maybe that works better at higher levels, but I’m going to stick with what’s working for me now and revisit the idea later if applicable
“Don’t try playing to impress people. You’ll only gain the fear of disappointment or screwing up.” I know people who embody what this quote is warning against. I believe you should find your drive in wanting to genuinely improve, and when you’re focused on what others think, that doesn’t help you. I do see where that’s a good motivation tool, but you’re going to take your losses extremely hard, and it’s less clear how to improve if you’re doing it for a reason not directly related to improvement for improvement’s sake. You will gain admiration from people if you’re good, but that shouldn’t be your reason to compete or your drive to get better.
I like his bit on nervousness. He wants us to embrace our nervousness, and I’m going to try to do that more. I feel like my focus has been overpowering my nervousness recently, but I now have a good plan on how to handle it better if it does start to affect me more.
When it comes to a desire for the win, Izaw says to not focus on wanting to win, but have faith that you will win. I agree that focusing on the win itself can lead you to you doing risky options, and focusing on how to win is more important. I still look at it as wanting to win, but I can see how the difference between looking for the win and looking at how to win is not clear in my explanation earlier.
I don’t have much to say about the rest of the video. Izaw is great. Check him out. He does character guides in his “Art of” series and they’re always extremely helpful.
Welp this was a lot. I hope you can apply some of the ideas or concepts I’ve presented. Improvement is forever and mentality is too. You’re never going to have to stop working on it, but hopefully, it will get easier and more natural as time goes on. Thanks for reading.
Bernard Lamar Rice 
Damn so much word
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