At some point of our smash careers, I think it is safe to say we encounter disappointments whether it be a string of consecutive tournaments in which we don’t make it out of pools or losing to that particular opponent over and over. It can get frustrating, speaking from experience, to put in countless hours of practice to place the same at tournaments or, perhaps, place lower than usual. Sometimes it can make very little sense. For many, the voices of self-doubt and condemnation can easily come in at the first step of adversity. In fact, some of you may be dealing with the stresses of moving up the cruel Melee ladder. So how do we deal with this?

1. Remembering to have fun!

Aside from a few exceptions, most people play Melee as a hobby. As a hobby, the game should provide us entertainment and help us have fun and unwind from the toils of real-world responsibilities. When I get frustrated from playing the game, I find ways to make it fun. Sometimes, I’ll play FFA with items on with friends or watch some enjoyable videos on youtube. Also what has helped me is to enjoy being in the community. After a tough loss, I’ll enjoy my time destressing by chatting and hanging out with the other players from the community by eating or just playing some friendlies.

2. Take a Step Back!

Once in a while, the best way for me to improve my mindset is to take a step back for a few days and simply not think about Melee. Strangely enough, some of the times I’ve improved the most is when I stopped playing for a small period of time, which allowed me to approach Melee from a fresh-state-of-mind.

3. Keep the Long Road in Perspective.

There was a stretch of tournaments in which I performed poorly back in 2009. This was one of my few breaking points in which I was angry with myself and really thought about giving up. One of my friends pointed out to me how much I actually improved when comparing myself to how I was the year before. It’s easy to forget our own personal growth when the growth seems so slow and gradual. I can safely say that if you put in the work and effort to improve that you will see results, maybe not immediately, but over a stretch of time, it’ll be noticeable.

4. Realize that most other people deal with this

You’re not alone! Countless top players have had to deal with this at many points of their career. The fact of the matter is that Melee is a very cruel, unforgiving game. Some days we can play amazing and other days not so much. The difference between winning and losing can come down to a missed edgeguard, L-Cancel, or a misread. If you look at everyone’s historical tournament results, you’ll see the sheer difficulty in being consistent.

5. Be Self-Reflective without self-hate

In our path to improvement, results can be our own kryptonite. When I was younger, I had the hardest time to critically analyze myself without being condemning. What do I mean by this? By my observation of other people, I see this type of language very often.

“Wow I missed an edgeguard, I fail as a person”
“Why am I so bad at life, I can’t land a L-Cancel”
“Ugh, I can never get better, I’m always going to suck”

With each of these examples, the person has attacked his or her own personal character in making these statements. Overall, I find this to not be healthy (I also speak from personal experience), mainly because we are killing our own confidence and positivity in doing so. Instead, if you’re going to be contemplative, look at the flaws in your game in a way of potentials for improvement as opposed to personal flaws that you have to carry for the rest of your life.

“Oh I missed an edgeguard. Hmmm, I wonder how I can cover that next time”
“Shoot I missed an L-cancel. I’m going to practice the timings on CPU’s so that it doesn’t happen again”
“I didn’t perform as well as I liked, but I know that I’ve been working hard. I’ll ask my friends for advice on how to keep improving”

Even changing your wording, can help a lot in keeping up with the mental endurance of playing competitively.

Anyway I hope this helps!

MIOM | Tafokints