Indeed, the game I have been playing and trying to learn for the past year and a half is a fundamentally different one than the one I have goals for. I knew this already – everybody’s been saying it since the game came out in 2018 – but today I really started to comprehend what that meant.
Today I went to my first fully competitive in-person tournament since, what, February 2020? It was a good time for sure. It was a smaller tournament (21 entrants) and it only ran for about 3 hours, but it was extremely refreshing to return to what I consider to be the only social event I can be my “true self” in. I got there early with my Switch setup (it’s the standard for weekly tournaments across the country to waive venue fee if you bring a full tournament setup early since it helps the tournament run faster). I think I was the first one there but it wasn’t long before others showed up.
After connecting my Switch to a monitor, I hopped on a different setup with someone else and start playing friendlies. The environment was extremely natural and laid back, as if the local tournaments at this time weren’t just starting to come about at the tail end of the pandemic. It just felt really good to be there, you know? I’m reminded why I fell in love with this game and competing. Making conversation with the folks there was easy and it’s clear they all share the passion that I do for this game.
I went into the bracket knowing full well there was a decent chance I wasn’t going to win a single set. My only goal was to not go 0-2. All I would have to do was win a single set in either winner’s or loser’s bracket to go home satisfied.
Tournament started a bit late, but I can’t complain, more time for friendlies. My first match wasn’t looking great. Once the second game started, though, I felt like my opponent was getting a little impatient, which you absolutely cannot do against Young Link. I narrowly managed to win the first set. They got impatient in the game, but they were sportsmanlike about losing, of course.
My second match was against a character I had no experience with playing against offline whatsoever. Min Min came out mid-quarantine and, in essence, is designed around playing a different kind of game than the vast majority of the cast. No Johns, though – it’s absolutely on me and my lack of skill and experience that I lost my Winner’s round 2. I need practice.
Third match, now in Loser’s side, was really bad. It just kinda… happened. I got beat bad.
I achieved my goal. I didn’t go 0-2, I went 1-2, but I won’t lie; I’m mildly disappointed with the result. I think that’s just the life and mindset of a competitor. What is far more disappointing is the increasingly-apparent reality that a significant amount of the time and effort I put into learning this game over the past year is for naught. There is so much to be un-learned or re-learned, and so many gameplay habits that are simply not effective in an in-person tournament. This is all because playing the game online makes it a fundamentally different game; one that is at least seven-sixtieths of a second delayed, and one that values predictions over reactions. “[Smash Online] is a sham.”
It’s rough. I’m not quite sure how to get a daily practice routine going that doesn’t involve some degree of playing online. I want to avoid online, but that’s just not viable. I can’t go to tournaments every single day. I think It’d be a good idea to make friends and go to smashfests.
6 years ago today I went to my first tournament. It was a Smash 4 weekly in my city. I went 0-2. Once Ultimate came out I was able to attend tournaments every week instead of just sparsely. I had a(n admittedly self-made) reputation for going 0-2. Today I resume my “journey”, if you will. I will start winning more than losing.