The Will to Smash

[AGentleStar]

Hello all. Super Famicon, a convention based in North Carolina, is starting tomorrow. I am entering the Super Smash Bros. Melee and Project M singles tournaments. And while I am excited to go, I feel I need to get something off of my chest. I’ve been playing competitive Smash bros for two years now. I’ve played Smash for as long as I can remember, starting from Melee. I’ve enjoyed putting my skills to the test. I try to play more technical in more games than just Smash Bros. Platformers, Shooters, and Racing Games are the ones I practice the most, even if it’s just speedrunning a game that I like.


However, as I’ve gotten more into Brawl Minus, it has gotten more tedious to play the game. I frustrates me every day when I feel that I am not improving at all. It is aggravating to practice constantly and then have nothing to show for it in tournaments or netplay friendlies. Part of it feels like it’s the dev team constantly leaving bullshit in the game for the sake of silliness and ignoring user feedback because of some sort of stubbornness. Part of it is due to how certain netplay connections, i.e. East coast player vs West coast player, make the C-stick unresponsive and the input buffer throws off my game. And it’s not much better on the Wii's wi-fi, ugh. But in the end, I don’t put the blame on that. I put it on myself for not being able to adapt.


Look. I created “AGentleStar” because I wanted to make animations on the internet. I was inspired by animators like Harry Partridge and Don Hertzfeldt. I’ve wanted to do this for 5 years. I only created the channel 2 years ago and have uploaded one video. I don’t want to make my channel Smash content related, cuz God know how many of those are on the internet, but I have become so addicted to the game that I struggle to get myself to animate. Usually it was school that kept me from doing it or the fear of not having the right equipment. I realize now that it was for the best that I didn’t start until I was an adult. After Super Famicon, I’m probably gonna quit competitive Smash. I don’t know for how long.


I really wanted to make this thread to ask this question: What motivates you to play competitively? Why did you start? I know that there is a lot of arguing that goes on whenever people talk about their preferred smash game. Regardless, I want to talk about the series as a whole. What motivates you to play ANY smash game? While I’ll happily continue to promote the mod, I think I have lost the ability to enjoy playing this series casually. Maybe this thread might help reinvigorate players who want to have a reason to keep playing competitively. I just really hope this doesn’t start an argument. Play how you like and be considerate of others when playing. Doesn’t matter to me if it’s casual or competitive. But currently, in my case, I don’t find enjoyment in either playstyle.

 

[Ludacario]

I'm sorry to hear that AGS. Hopefully one day you can come back to smash and enjoy it in all its glory. Good luck with your animating and such man.

As for me and my smash "career" (or whatever you want to call it). I've been a Nintendo fanboy since day one. Got my N64, and played that thing 24/7. I got SSB64 as a gift from some family member for some event, it was so long ago i forget. It became one of my favorite games really quick. Me and mimsy were really into it. Anyways thats how I was introduced to smash.

Continued to play all the games up until brawl. Found PM, basically treated it like a new installment in the series. After a month or two, i searched other brawl mods, low and behold i found this game called Brawl Minus. Loved it. Every char had its own unique traits, i wanted to learn everyone. it was around the release of MAX 1.0 (3.0) when me and mimsy started to play it a lot.

So there's minus. As for why i play it competitively... i dunno, really. I just play for the love of the game, for fun. Entering tourneys just gives me this rush of energy, and it makes me play my best. I guess that's why. I play my best when there's something on the line. A reason to try my best. It's enjoyable to have all this time and effort into the game pay off. Minus is my favorite game, and its the only one i really play seriously. I realize about 0.01% of the players here also feel that way, but that's ok, you do you.

TLDR: I like smash. I like Minus. Competitive smash is fun. I play for the hype. - Luda

 

[AGentleStar]

Epilogue (Post Super Famicon)

I would like to preface this by saying I typed this up before looking at any replies to the thread. Any references to anything related to comments posted before or after this one are purely coincidental.

This is my own contribution to the subject of what motivates someone to continue playing Smash Bros. competitively. I’m sorry if this seems long. I had a lot to say and I did my best to make it as interesting to read as possible. If you would like to only see the TL;DR of the story, skip to the paragraph that says Conclusion. Thanks!



This last weekend, I went to Super Famicon in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was held at the Elm Street Center in Downtown Greensboro. On Saturday, 10 AM, there was a long line heading in and I wasn’t getting and good first impressions from the people there. A lot of them acted like either overconfident jackass high schoolers or uncomfortably antisocial middle schoolers. There were two floors. I explored the top one first which was relegated to video game vendors, merchandise and so on. I’m gonna be honest: The selection was kinda bland. Maybe it was because I wasn’t looking for anything specific this time around. I’m also not the kind of person who is easily amused from buying key chains or whatever. I managed to get myself GBA cartridges of Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission and some Kirby and Clefairy Stickers made by some local artists. Once I got my fill, I went downstairs to the main floor.

This was, in my opinion, the main selling point of SF. To the right of the grand staircase was dozens upon dozens of CRT setups with many different games. Mostly Smash. There were some nice retro game vendors to the left of the stairs, but most of the action was going on in The Sea of Smash™. My Melee pools didn’t start until noon, so I played some friendlies. And while this was my first major smash tournament, I was pretty aware of the “etiquette” of friendlies. There were never any real issues. In fact, I was surprised at the lack of salt going around. Most everyone showed really good sportsmanship. I practice some Project M first and I met a guy with the tag J R. Really cool dude. He was really approachable and we spent several minutes shootin’ the shit about Project M tech.

My Melee pools (B1) started about 30 minutes late. It was time to begin and let me tell you that I got such a kick from people’s reaction to me being a Kirby main. Many people did a double-take. One guy I faced wasn’t sure if I was an actual Kirby main or calling him out. A few people heckled me during a match. One of the people in my pools actually practiced against Kirby, so the match had more of an intensity to it. I use music to help me focus on the game anyway, so backseat gaming wasn’t an issue. It was nice to play against people who played this way. It feels so surreal to see people perform play competitively in real life. As for my performance…

Spoiler: My Melee Performance

……….I picked Kirby…..wtf did you expect? I got 2-0 twice. Once in Winners and again in Losers. I’m not surprised, but I’d be lying if I said the loss was “no big deal.”

In between my Melee pools and P:M pools, I played some doubles matches. Oddly enough, I found I tended to perform better in doubles. I’m not gonna waste my time boosting my ego, but it was odd for me to be the teammate that survived the longest. I even got to play a $1 money match. P:M pools took considerably longer. Mostly due to my opponent being in the middle of his Pokken pools.

Spoiler: My P:M Performance

I think I did better? Normally, I would play Marth, Ganondorf or Mario, but I was really rusty despite having not played for only a week. I instead played Kirby the entire time. I was sent to losers, managed to win one game, but still lost the set overall.

Soooo, yeah… Tournaments are making me reeeeaaaaallly love competitive smash\s. Tbh, I did find the whole thing invigorating. But that didn’t change the fact that my morale was low. After I was done having my ass beat multiple times, I had to head home (it was late, anyway). I didn't go to the Salty Suite because I was too tired.

Day 2:

I went back to return the two Metroid games. They were bootlegs. I was ripped off. They never specified that these were bootlegs. The owners even tried to convince me otherwise. Because they did not accept returns, they thought they wouldn’t bother giving out receipts. The guy said I could put the $50 towards another game. After I picked up a NON-bootleg version of Super Mario All-Stars, I kindly gave one of the owners the suggestion to invest in a Receipt machine and left. I’m not gonna bother giving the name of the retailer because
1.) I don’t want to potentially jeopardize their business because of a slight misstep (though, they could have labeled the shit better) and

2.) I don’t remember the name of the place and I don’t want to name the wrong place by accident. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I played more friendlies and I…think I did better, but I still lost so blah. At one point, I was playing some Project M at an empty station. One guy joined in saying he couldn’t stay long because he had some bracket matches to play soon. I was playing Ice Climbers, not really paying attention, and he was Ivysaur, his main. I actually trying to get my earbuds on with my hoodie on, but he started the match anyway. Flustered, The match ended from me SDing. He said “Ohhhh MY God. What are you doing?!” (Like as if I’m messing him up. Like I’m making him look bad.)

…Ok…

I picked Kirby. He picked Yoshi. I proceed to beat the shit out of him* in that match. He switched back to Ivysaur, then I beat him in that match. The whole time, he kept johning about my hitboxes launch him in a direction he wasn’t expecting. First time I won a set and it wasn’t even official. Heh. Just my luck. I left after the third match because I wasn’t having fun playing him anymore and he left to play in tournament…I think. I won’t name names. Protecting his identity, and all that. Who cares anyway?

Spoiler: *disambiguation

Now, when I say “beat the shit out of him,” I mean kept stringing attacks for probably longer than I should have. Any anger I might have had I didn’t show on my face and instead put towards winning. I didn’t actually hit him. lol

Top 48 of Melee was really fun. I wasn’t really into backseat gaming and cheering, but I eventually warmed up to it. A few of us in the front row started placing bets on who would win. The closer we got to Grand Finals, the more technical and fast the gameplay began. I couldn’t stay for all of it. I had to leave about 2 sets in to get some food. Luckily, it was being streamed by RecursionGG on Twitch. You should check it out there if you wanna see the entire thing. I was also in the crowd for the majority of it, so yay. I didn’t know half of these guys, but that didn’t stop me from cheering on certain players who showed a great amount of potential. I was also cool to see n0ne, Colbol, and Druggedfox play.

Conclusion

Going to this tournament has done a lot for me. However, straight and to the point, this doesn’t exactly reinvigorate my enjoyment of competitive Smash bros. Despite this, I think that everyone who is interested in competitive smash should go to a modest tournament like this one at least once. The feeling that one gets from playing against so many people who share the same interest in the game as you do, watching top players prove their worth in aggressive competition, and talking with people about your common interests is almost overwhelming. I’d be lying if I said coming to this convention was a waste of time. I may have to return for a weekly or a possible Super Famicon 2.

Smash Bros. is a series that has pushed my limits when it comes to enjoying a game. I have played this series for several years, I have played it competitively for two years, and I’ve enjoyed it up to a point. Even after getting bodied multiple times, losing several tournaments, and drinking several shame beverages, I still come back to this game. Like a battered wife to a complicated husband or an addict to a dopamine drug, I play this game long after I stopped enjoying it. However, what made me enjoy the game the most was when I was with someone who was knowledgeable about the game, saving a doubles partner who was being ganged up on, playing someone who took me seriously… basically, I enjoyed the game when I played with other people. Real people. While I am unsure what the future of my Smash career holds, I will not forget my first tournament experience at Super Famicon for the memories that it has left me.

Spoiler: Me at the con