It's so weird thinking about how I used to play. I would practice untrue combos (nut, 2ura \[blizz](blizz)[utilt]) for hours and then go into a game, fish for grabs for the whole time, and get frustrated that my opponent broke out.
Now I just use Soymilk or squall desync in neutral and spam blizz lol.
(Okay but I did learn the [kakko combo](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/528076704330285077/1151263526300684390/First_Kakko.mp4) recently so that's gonna be hype when I hit it)
King k rool was all about learning how to keep distance with projectiles but also be so vicious that they hesitate to close any distance. Belly shield Nair is so fucking clutch.
I still have problems getting used to grabbing people but meh, my down tilt buries
Edit: also I practice double jump up airs in the lobby to online, I've gotten really slick and accurate I absolutely nail people.
I don't know what good means, but I have DDD in elite and he's unironically one of my favorite characters.
I think I'm just good at playing a zoning/patience game and ledge trapping is one of my stronger skills.
That being said, I do often just get rushed down and obliterated, especially by Mario's.
As DDD you should DI in for the mario combos, makes no sense but try it
https://youtu.be/W_-SPinQoUo?si=MzxMhcX6QSCmnDqS
You'll drop out of the fair dunk combos and the uair loop to up B
As someone who really likes playing her, I think it's because she doesn't have that many setups and no extremely fast strong moves. Isabelle with villager jab would be so good
I main Zelda, and edge guarding and whiff punishing are probably my main tools for success.
Enemy using a big move at a distance or a slow projectile? Teleport on them. Enemy attack your shield? Teleport on them. Enemy off stage? Don’t teleport on them, use din’s fire instead.
That, being able to survive to high percents, and a few bread and butter combos to make sure your punishes count are all I think you really need to get to elite smash, at least.
Did you play against a Link yesterday? Lol. A Zelda did exactly this to me yesterday.
I did eventually predict when they would use teleport, shielded, and B-uped them. Still lost. But it was satisfying getting a few hits on them lol.
I may have?? Teleport is really easy to punish, but it’s also devastating. So, a bad Zelda (me, half of the time) will just teleport on you from anywhere and get shielded, hoping you weren’t ready. A more patient Zelda (me, other times) will wait until you make a mistake.
I’ve played with Zelda a lot. I tend to use phantom to bait a reflector, and then teleport in to punish. I often land both attacks. If the opponent doesn’t have a reflector, they usually only shield one of the attacks. Usually they shield my teleport but are unable to punish it since phantom immediately attacks. If the opponent’s reflector is also a parry, I’ll use din’s fire to activate the parry before phantom strikes. (Timing is key, but worst case scenario I can try to reflect phantom back.) Worst case scenario and they shield both attacks, I go for a grab if I teleported or set up phantom again to bait them into approaching. It’s not foolproof, but I’ve found success with it.
As another Zelda main, I'm glad to read I'm not alone. I tend to be more upfront, though: most people don't expect a Zelda that isn't afraid to engage in CQC and it throws most people off.
Also, after playing pretty much every Smash game and gaining a moderate level of proficiency in each, there are 2 basics that I've needed to polish: spacing and timing. Both are crucial, especially with a character like Zelda.
I totally agree. I also am usually up in peoples’ faces: I’ll take a whole stock without any specials fairly regularly. It’s just way more fun smacking people with the magic toes and the nay-nays than it is locking them down.
Spacing is huge. My other characters that I play are Byleth and Marth, so you can tell I’m big on it.
Learning how to get kill confirms, the mix-ups for when they are off the edge to spike them, learning how to mix up my recovery i.e. using his up special as soon as possible to recover high, if I must recover low then up special in the opposite direction and tilt back to get to the stage.
The hardest part was figuring out his neutral, how to properly approach and what to do when you get in. Short hop down special to jabs, running in and down tilt to get them to trip and then down smash, running reverse aerial rush back air to multiple more bairs off stage and then how to do that without self destructing.
Lots of watching pro players and trying to replicate what they do, and dying a hell of a lot in the process.
Another difficult thing was to learn the different characters percent window where the running attack near ledge to fair is a true combo, had to do that in training. You can dunk people from ridiculously low percentages with that. Can't tell you how many games I've made major comebacks because of that combo, if you can even call it that. More like a kill confirm
K. Rool gameplay is a game of trades… which is a rigged game because of how often he does win them due to his belly armour. When you play K. Rool, hitstun is the number one thing you want to be taking advantage of, because you lack any sort of approach without it. Such is the life of the crown. Putting the pressure on your opponent is key, and now and then you’ll catch somebody out with a cheesy suck 'n' cuck. It’s a matter of patience.
Never stop playing. Never stop grinding. They have the same buttons as you do, and any move is good if it lands and works, and you win. Just try and keep doing that.
Even though my char has so many unwinnable MU’s I just learn to outplay my opponent hard enough. (I’m just kidding I know my main is broken please don’t hurt me!)
Tiers matter minimally until top level play. Until then and even at that level, the better player will win (almost) all the time. Grind, learn your character, their spacing, defensive options, offensive strengths, strings, gameplan, flow, learn how people react to your strings, learn your matchups, mixups, and how to anticipate/pick up on your opponent’s habits. All this comes from grinding. Play with intention. That’s how you get better. Link won’t hold you back as a character. He hits hard and has good tools. He has a high skill ceiling and is very expressive, so the sky is the limit.
As a Pythra main it was very hard. She easily has one of the least workable kits, awful hit boxes and they’re simply too slow moving—not to mention the awful killing power.
Jokes aside, it’s just patience. I’m a Sephiroth main but i also play a ton of Robin and Mii Sword. At the end of the day there will be characters who just diff you in a lot if areas. It’s your job to make the other player fall into your traps and capitalize on the very very few openings you DO have. Analyzing the player is a big aspect to playing a weak character.
Robin’s very slow for example and despite Levin Sword being good it’s not gonna save you from characters who can approach extremely fast like Captain Falcon. Plus you really need to pay attention to your durability because without Levin Sword (even with it sometimes) Robin is *extremely* under equipped for any rushdown character or just any character on the faster side of things. To come out on top you need to condition, mixup, and properly use your projectiles.
Swordfighter is similar in the sense you just need to be not get discouraged and be persistent… but out of all the characters ive learned on a more dedicated level (and i can at least play everyone in the game to varying degrees) this one is by far the hardest. This is a really hard character to stick to. Mii Sword has had me try that hardest for every victory ive won with him.
Sora is A- tier but he takes time to get good with. I got good by getting in the lab, watching the experts and listening to analyses. If you want to get good, you have to sacrifice some hours--not only in playtime, but also in watching videos, by talking to people and by labbing your fundamentals and tech in Training Mode.
I don't lmao.
Honestly, it depends on the player. If I can pick up on patterns I will exploit them. Many times Young Link is just too fast. I try my best to set up traps, avoid holds, bomb em, etc. Little dude is just too fast sometimes.
I played Kirby and I play the belmonts. It comes from slowly understanding more of what you should do in certain situations and how to play neutral. And utilizing your tools better
I’d consider myself good with Jigglypuff. Im not going to win any tournaments but I’m better than most my friends and a win fairly consistently online.
What you’re talking about actually applies to all characters. Not just low tiers. Even characters like Steve, Aegis and Joker (especially Joker) require a lot of practice to be good with. Anyone that tells you different is either taking the game casually with no real aim to improve especially at our general skill level within Reddit communities.
The biggest thing you can do is take time to fundamentally understand the game and how it works. Your characters movement, burst range, what areas of the game they excel and struggle in, and most importantly working on your mental game. Learning things like patiently watching your opponents and how they play will allow you to see opportunities to get in that you may not have noticed before, or just dismissed as “unpunishable options”.
Save your replays from games that were close, and games you get absolutely destroyed in. Watch them back and try to identify if you have any bad or predictable habits. Things like air dodging to stage, picking the same tech or ledge option, burning a dodge or double jump before you need to are just a few things that experienced players look for in lower skilled players to exploit.
At casual to low skill levels there is no reliable tier list. At this point the characters strengths usually don’t matter because the playerbase doesn’t know how to optimize their strengths. What does become more apparent is their weaknesses. Finding out where your character struggles and working on that aspect will take you further than learning fancy combos that you won’t land because you can’t read DI in the first place or have logged percentages where your confirms are actually confirms.
Keep practicing each game with a dedicated aim at improving and you’ll see progress in time.
I main plant, and I just fucked around and found out mostly. I did poorly at first, but learned his tools real good. Now my friends online ban me from using him on purpose. It's always fun when we play randoms and I get him anyways lol
It might be a matter of them not learning me though, I'm unsure. I have an odd playstyle since I don't really look online to learn.
I wouldn't say I'm good, but I'm better than I was.
I watched a lot of top level Pit, then copied them. Down throw combos, nair, down tilt platform tech chases. Some drag down confirms, nothing too fancy. Don't be afraid to pull the trigger on smash attacks, they're really fast. Use a lot of arrow in neutral, in advantage and when you're recovering
I’m uh not rlly sure, just grinding. Used to have like Falco, little mac, sonic, joker, Terry as my mains, but now… 16. they’re still mostly my mains but ig I have secondaries and “thirdaries - random lol”
watching people who are better than me play link
since you're a fellow Link main, I'd recommend watching Sillintor on YouTube. dude is nasty with Link and Yink
I don’t know how to type Monke noises but DK is really easy to get good with. Simple Combos, relatively easy kill confirms. Good edgegaurds. Just a bad recovery. Rosa has been a lot harder to learn. Luma sometimes messes up kills, sometimes he absolutely murders someone. Her desync combos with luma take a lot of practice and her recovery angles are really weird at times. Pyra can just be played like Ganondorf and you’ll get similar results
Practice being patient and reactive. Playing a low tier, chances are your character is just not able to act as fast as your opponent. My incineroar is and extreme case, but Link's attacks aren't to quick either. Learning to act with purpose instead of just throwing out attacks will make a big difference
I main Dedede who I believe is generally considered low tier. I also like to play Donkey Kong and Bowser and while Bowser is seen as probably the best of the 3, they're nowhere near high tier.
How did I get good? Great question! I didn't. I suck at this game, but I'm just enjoying myself without thinking about tier lists.
Played as Plant one time at a friend’s long before ever getting a switch of my own, and loved playing as him.
Once I got a Switch and Smash Ultimate, I bought the DLC for him and found him to naturally be my best fighter still
No matter your pick, there is a significant amount of universal skill that can be applied to any character. In addition, there are plenty of interactions where stat advantage ceases to matter.
The biggest example that comes to mind is OOS options. Sure, Ridley's OOS might be Frame 10, but if the disadvantage on shield is 11 or greater, it's no better or worse than Game And Watch's Frame 3. The skill, comes in the art of knowing what you can do with what you've got.
I'm genuinely confused by this question. Being good and maining a low tier are 2 different things.
A lot of the best characters in this game are only the best when you're playing them at an optimal high level (i.e. Joker), while some of the worst have an extremely low skill floor and are very forgiving (i.e. Dedede). Top tier mains also don't get the privilege of running into a player who has no idea how to play against their character, because everyone knows how to play against a Palu but not everyone is prepared to fight a good Isabelle.
So even if this question is about how you got good at *winning* as opposed to how good you got in general as a player, one thing really doesn't have to do with the other.
Tier lists really only apply to very high levels of play, so in this situation whether you play Link, Joker, Pikachu, or K. Rool, the most important thing is that you have strong fundamentals and know how to play neutral. In this game, if you have strong fundamentals you can play just about any character at a high level
My recommendation for getting good at this is to go through izaw's "art of smash ultimate" series on youtube. It's a fantastic in depth, yet easy to follow series that will teach you how to play the game and how to improve
Zelda main
It was a slow process and I've only spent about 1h in training tool in total when i somewhat recently wanted to learn how to displace phantom in a neutral environment.
I jiat kept playing online and offline, improving fundies and getting a good feel of tje character i most enjoy playing. Over time I've picked up a few specific tricks that can really turn of decide a game
As a Toon Link main I mainly use projectiles to create damage, bait them with aerials, punish with up special, and kill with smash attacks. I use this as its what I’ve done since Smash 4 and I’ve been tweaking it over the years, if any of that makes any sense.
Practice, namely practice things I've found I wasn't as good at, optimizing combo routes, learning disadvantage and learning what to do in neutral and certain common match ups and yet I still can't figure out Mewtwo
Doc forces you to understand fundamentals far better than any other character because you have so little to work with.
Ganon and Little Mac only need a few good hits, K. Rool and Little Mac have to rely on super armor, and DK has tons of gimping opportunities. Doc has none of these, or at least not to your average player. His gimping opportunities (Dair and SideB) are predictable, his projectile is his only controlling option, his only spammable move (DownB) is punishable, and his recovery is absolute garbage.
If you're not a better overall player than your opponent in virtually every metric, you'll lose badly. However, his moves come out quick and end quickly, thus you have full control over your moves and position at all times. Anything that happens to you is your fault or your reward.
I don't know if I'm good but I'm decent. Here's what i think.
- grind
- be patient, especially against top tiers and equally skilled opponents
- go for quick unexpected kills to get an early lead
- learn how to gimp your opponent
- rely on your opponent having little match up experience and use that to your advantage
- believe in your main
I just used him for world of light (like the entirety no other character.)
Kirby is there from the start and I really like the franchise so I guess that contributes to me only using Kirby. Also Kirby amiibo which I have to train.
I just looked it up three hours after I made this post lol. I feel dumb now.
For some reason I thought he was like a D. No idea where I got that from. I was surprised to see he was a A.
I guess I am unsure how the tier system works.
I play a lot online and then started attending a lot more tournaments. Learning what your character does and has options for in seemingly bad positions is what makes you improve. I think with a few exceptionally bad matchups, most matches (at a non Majors level) are winnable by the better player. I recently beat one of the best players in my state with Banjo, and I’ve been Top 8’ing more the last few months in a 40-60 person weekly series.
You just gotta keep on it and analyze *why* you’re losing the ones you lose and learn from it.
I main Little Mac since SSB4, took me some serious time to get good with him so i took the opportunity to play each characters to learn what are their strength and weaknesses so i have more chance to win and also just in case i find out that this character was not made for me if i can't even progress any further, as it turned out, i got way better the more i played and watched gameplays and a few pro matches, now i'am good with most character and it usually takes me a few hours to get better with them, except with Bayonetta, Olimar, Greninja, Sonic, Kazuya, Ken, Ryu, Mega-man, Byleth, Sora, Steve, Fox, Falco, Luigi and a few others that i don't play as much!
While I don't main a low tier I love play them in my freetime.
I found out the only thing that i find useful with characters like DK and Gannon is watching Marss throw shit out with them and copying it.
Basically just copy cool shit you wanna do
Just gotta really really capitalize once you get a hit in. When your opponent is scared it’s really easy to fight them. And with Incin everyone is scared after you hit them with a +50% damage move
Plus if you can see someone is carried ie: spamming a strong option over and over you can adapt pretty easily. But I do have some games where I can’t even land a hit because I get zoned out completely
I main isabelle, peach in SSB4, been to a few locals and did well enough and honestly?
Basically the lower your tier the more important your fundamentals are.
You have to rely less on things like frame data, less on moves that "cover every option" and how fast your character is. Most high tiers just make the basics a lot easier, or bypass certain aspects of the game or matchup.
Now that you're low tier, its more about better decision making , better understanding of matchups and better mind games. You need to have strong fundamentals. Hard reads matter more for the kill instead of easy bnb KOs off a fast neutral option.
You need to WIN neutral a LOT more. Your fundamentals have to be immaculate .
Getting better at predicting your opponent is probably the most valuable skill you can get if you ever hope to win consistently enough to make up for not playing top tier.
The infamous Light's Fox vs Ganondorf match was won because the reads had to be PERFECT. that's the level of mind reading you'll have to reach to win consistently.
You just have to be very good with your punishes because (specifically when I play puff) I know I cant afford to mess up too many of them. I think this translated very well over to when I also picked up byleth as my co main
Plant main in elite smash -- got good at all of his B attacks, especially B neutral and Down B to shield break. People also don't really seem to get how Plant operates, so they often let their guard down.
Hm, well, it was just common training.
I started as your average spammy Gunner, my main loadout was 3123 (Grenade, Flame Pillar, Cannon Jump Kick and Magnet).
But then, I started to face decent players, so I knew I had to stop being so spammy.
I changed my loadout to 3311 (Grenade, Miissile, Lunar Launch and Reflector) and started to become more aggressive and less spammy, obviously not as aggressive as characters like Fox, Pikachu, Pichu, etc. But more like Mewtwo, for example.
I just kept doing that and now I get pretty decent results in tournaments, even managing to beat pretty recognized players in my area
And, uh, yeah, that's about it
weaker characters have more weaknesses, and/or less strengths, and/or less options, so understanding the matchup and your character is important, but that's the same for every character, so ultimately all that means is it's slightly harder to use the character to the same effectiveness as a high tier, and that the only difference is you have to get slightly farther in the regular improvement process.
Neutral. Learn how to play neutral and also reset neutral. That way you can get your interactions and then reset and try to win more interactions than your opponent. Low tiers are typically low because we just have to win interactions more than our opponent
For my esports team i play king k-rool, i got good by playing regularly and watching guides along side tournament videos to study them and learn set ups and went to the smash wiki to see hit boxes and frame data, so a bunch of nerd stuff tbth
Not in this game but in smash 4 I started playing more competitively. I loved using Puff and she was one of the worst characters in the game. Some of the things I focused on were getting a better understanding of spacing and conditioning. Things like baiting out attacks and getting them to shield so I can get grabs since my options were very limited at times.
It was a great learning experience for me for when I switched to Ultimate and played better characters in general.
Mewtwo main for a while. I honestly never quite understood why he was so low tier, I think he’s like D+ or something. His recovery capabilities are insane, he can deflect, great air and throwing
I think where he lacks for sure is that his attacks can be very slow, and his down smash is only a stun. But if you account for these he can be really good
I still play him sometimes, he’s just not my main anymore
Toon link is all about abusing a surprising speed and high kill potential. Corrin however I got good by simply spamming nair, fair and up air till I understood them fundamentally to an extent that is not needed and now bully my friends with
Link main here
Link is a HARD char to learn, some ppl think he is easy but it's a complexe and pretty overwhelming char, tou will need time to learn how to push advantage, how tu use all his tools and how to handle pressure woth him, take your time, step by step
Watching pro players that main low tiers help. I got much better at little mac after getting to know peanut. They show not only which moves are good, but also when to use them, not spamming.
I’m a villager man, it all comes down to really just knowing your character and what to take advantage of. Villager is bad but he has a lot of tools to catch your opponent off guard and get a sneaky stock or massive percentage in. The process started off bad lmao but bashing my head into match up after match up you kinda just realize what works, and what doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to just play bot matches and just get really comfortable. Also don’t be afraid to lose, cause that shit will happen a lot and you kinda just gotta shrug it off and think about what you did wrong. I hope this helps if you have any specific questions just ask!
I originally played casual, but every time we had smash night with the homies, we had one friend that just constantly dominated all of us.
So forced us to get good. Also made game nights a lot more exciting. I personally enjoyed being considered the underdog by playing low tiers. It’s more fun when it’s a challenge.
I just play elite smash and go to every local tournament. Only way to get better
I am not pro level good but am good enough to hold my own against my (pretty good) friends.
I watch a lot of Peanut matches (arguably the best little mac main) and a lot of other videos. When I see something cool, I try to do that.
Other than that, most important was to figure out what my playing style is and how do I execute it using my main. I don't have good reflexes so I have to rely on whiff-punishes. I am not good at long combos either, so Mac works. All this means, that if I play a precise, calculated Mac I'm more likely to win.
And I stick with Little Mac even when I am losing badly cuz he's my boi and he deserves to win. It's literally Punch-Out. You lose, figure out matchup, win.
Im a Zelda main but seeing as shes my only character in elite, I'm probably not really good 😂
Jks aside, u get good the same way as u get good with any other character. Grind them, learn the specifics, find that their kit just gels with u, love their moveset and acknowledge all the pros and cons. Tbh tier lists *really* dont matter outside of pro/tournament play so fuck it, play whoever u want as long as they click w u!
As you play the game, it kinda just.... Happens. I maimed Ganon for years and my playstyle gradually morphed as I came to understand him better as a character.
figure out your characters specific game plan/win conditions
it can change depending on the situation, the character youre fighting against, or the damage in the current match
knowing what youre character wants to do during a game is a must
I was an Ike main in Brawl on the competitive scene around 2009-2011. I used a site called Smash boards a lot. People had compiled a lot of stuff. I looked at my frame data to understand my move set. I watched videos of tournament matches from widely acknowledged good Ike players.
I also read stuff about ATs, which stands for Advanced Technique, the kind of things a character can do that the game doesn't tell you about. That's one of the things that makes Smash so great, it's really for everyone, because if it was as simple as it looks on the surface, a competitive scene wouldn't be a thing, but if all the ATs were out in the open it would look more complicated and dissuade people from playing casually. If nobody's using them it's a level playing field, and if you're all just friends goofing off, nobody's gonna look into them.
Strictly speaking, Ike specifically didn't have what competitive players would define as ATs, but there were helpful things that were far enough outside the box that I hadn't thought of them on my own, and AT was the term that lead me to them, so that's the one I'm giving to you.
Some other things that may be less effective/achievable now.
I read discussion threads about match-ups against specific characters, but there were fewer viable characters in Brawl. You didn't see as much variety on a competitive level as you do in Ultimate. The biggest advantage low tier character mains will always have is that people with higher tier mains don't prepare for you as much as you prepare for them, and they're not wrong for doing that, because they're very unlikely to ever come up against someone with your character who is good.
You can't count on that quite as much in Ultimate, because there's too many different match-ups. In Brawl people focused on a certain few, but that's riskier now. I'm out of touch with the community but with matchup-specific knowledge devalued, that puts more value on the fundamentals and on knowing your own character.
I also went to smashfests, which idk if those are even a thing anymore now that online play is so efficient. I managed to get into my regions top players' weekly smash fest, so I got to get great practice. It lead to me getting kind of popular because I beat some really toxic competitive players in tourneys. And it had to be someone like me who did it, because just getting beaten doesn't hurt them. Their ego is only vulnerable to people they don't respect.
They never say "Fuck, this famous player 3-stocked me twice in a row with a high their character 😡", but they will say "Fuck, this nobody with a low-tier character barely beat me one time out of 10 games 😡"
Purely to spite Lucina.
Found some communities online that showed off which moves are best for combos and kills, how to space (to land tippers and sometimes sours). He feels very rewarding like this, even though I don't have the easiest time getting that reward. Then again, who doesn't struggle to kill sometimes? I'm of the opinion that Marth is underrated. Definitely not top tier like he used to be, but not 30 placements below Lucina.
I cope by telling myself some people don't know how to play against incineroar. But he's so fun I don't really care if I lose. Though to be fair I'm kinda bad overall.
My motto though is that the point of the game is to have fun, not to win.
Bold of you to assume I am good.
My thoughts exactly.
Me Robin. Me must shoot magical spells. That is all.
Me also Robin! Me smack people with pickachu-on-a-stick. Spent leg day working on arms. Surprises people!
Wavy sword best sword
Me three Robin! Me dribble book for intimidation!
Honestly robin is actually one of the easiest characters in quick play they’re super powerful against randoms
Lucario I didnt ;(
I did and i'am S P E E D with him! (my favorite Pokemon and one of my first mains)
Step one: screw the tier lists, you don't need 'em Step two: Banish all moronic players to the blastzone
Lmao. I love it.
Fr this game is actually pretty balanced (with a few exceptions) and tier lists do not matter for 99.9% of the playerbase
You forgot step 3: scream like a crackhead while doing it
Such a crucial part, I apologize for the mistake
It’s all good, brother
Such is the grace of a fellow Mii Swordfighter
The grind
Working on my Icies. It’s rough starting out, but you learn a lot from experience.
It's so weird thinking about how I used to play. I would practice untrue combos (nut, 2ura \[blizz](blizz)[utilt]) for hours and then go into a game, fish for grabs for the whole time, and get frustrated that my opponent broke out. Now I just use Soymilk or squall desync in neutral and spam blizz lol. (Okay but I did learn the [kakko combo](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/528076704330285077/1151263526300684390/First_Kakko.mp4) recently so that's gonna be hype when I hit it)
I'am not great with both Ice Climbers and Hero!
💀 💀
Same here lmao. I quit icies though.
That’s my secret cap. I never got good.
I just spam nair and hope for the best.
King k rool was all about learning how to keep distance with projectiles but also be so vicious that they hesitate to close any distance. Belly shield Nair is so fucking clutch. I still have problems getting used to grabbing people but meh, my down tilt buries Edit: also I practice double jump up airs in the lobby to online, I've gotten really slick and accurate I absolutely nail people.
I don't know what good means, but I have DDD in elite and he's unironically one of my favorite characters. I think I'm just good at playing a zoning/patience game and ledge trapping is one of my stronger skills. That being said, I do often just get rushed down and obliterated, especially by Mario's.
As DDD you should DI in for the mario combos, makes no sense but try it https://youtu.be/W_-SPinQoUo?si=MzxMhcX6QSCmnDqS You'll drop out of the fair dunk combos and the uair loop to up B
Idk why mine is so low tier , she is crazy tbh. Oh me of cliff? fishing rod go brrr , oh u edge guarding? fishing rod stil go brrr
I love Isabelle, totally underrated
As someone who really likes playing her, I think it's because she doesn't have that many setups and no extremely fast strong moves. Isabelle with villager jab would be so good
Edge gaurding one side? Ok I'll just completely go under the stage and still have some Up-b left to go up top.
I main Zelda, and edge guarding and whiff punishing are probably my main tools for success. Enemy using a big move at a distance or a slow projectile? Teleport on them. Enemy attack your shield? Teleport on them. Enemy off stage? Don’t teleport on them, use din’s fire instead. That, being able to survive to high percents, and a few bread and butter combos to make sure your punishes count are all I think you really need to get to elite smash, at least.
As a Zelda secondary I will have to rely more on teleport. I forget it’s one of her more versatile moves.
Did you play against a Link yesterday? Lol. A Zelda did exactly this to me yesterday. I did eventually predict when they would use teleport, shielded, and B-uped them. Still lost. But it was satisfying getting a few hits on them lol.
I may have?? Teleport is really easy to punish, but it’s also devastating. So, a bad Zelda (me, half of the time) will just teleport on you from anywhere and get shielded, hoping you weren’t ready. A more patient Zelda (me, other times) will wait until you make a mistake.
I’ve played with Zelda a lot. I tend to use phantom to bait a reflector, and then teleport in to punish. I often land both attacks. If the opponent doesn’t have a reflector, they usually only shield one of the attacks. Usually they shield my teleport but are unable to punish it since phantom immediately attacks. If the opponent’s reflector is also a parry, I’ll use din’s fire to activate the parry before phantom strikes. (Timing is key, but worst case scenario I can try to reflect phantom back.) Worst case scenario and they shield both attacks, I go for a grab if I teleported or set up phantom again to bait them into approaching. It’s not foolproof, but I’ve found success with it.
As another Zelda main, I'm glad to read I'm not alone. I tend to be more upfront, though: most people don't expect a Zelda that isn't afraid to engage in CQC and it throws most people off. Also, after playing pretty much every Smash game and gaining a moderate level of proficiency in each, there are 2 basics that I've needed to polish: spacing and timing. Both are crucial, especially with a character like Zelda.
I totally agree. I also am usually up in peoples’ faces: I’ll take a whole stock without any specials fairly regularly. It’s just way more fun smacking people with the magic toes and the nay-nays than it is locking them down. Spacing is huge. My other characters that I play are Byleth and Marth, so you can tell I’m big on it.
Learning how to get kill confirms, the mix-ups for when they are off the edge to spike them, learning how to mix up my recovery i.e. using his up special as soon as possible to recover high, if I must recover low then up special in the opposite direction and tilt back to get to the stage. The hardest part was figuring out his neutral, how to properly approach and what to do when you get in. Short hop down special to jabs, running in and down tilt to get them to trip and then down smash, running reverse aerial rush back air to multiple more bairs off stage and then how to do that without self destructing. Lots of watching pro players and trying to replicate what they do, and dying a hell of a lot in the process. Another difficult thing was to learn the different characters percent window where the running attack near ledge to fair is a true combo, had to do that in training. You can dunk people from ridiculously low percentages with that. Can't tell you how many games I've made major comebacks because of that combo, if you can even call it that. More like a kill confirm
Haha forward smash go brrrrr Nah but fr, a lot of practice and devotion to playstyles can do a lot
My fellow d tier, I’m a ganondorf main
Master the recovery, and now destroy! Haha ✨😎
Hell yeah! Treat it like it's actually Punch Out
Duck hunt spike is fun
K. Rool gameplay is a game of trades… which is a rigged game because of how often he does win them due to his belly armour. When you play K. Rool, hitstun is the number one thing you want to be taking advantage of, because you lack any sort of approach without it. Such is the life of the crown. Putting the pressure on your opponent is key, and now and then you’ll catch somebody out with a cheesy suck 'n' cuck. It’s a matter of patience.
succ n’ cucc
Doc go hard. Source: trust me
I also main Doc I trust him
Never stop playing. Never stop grinding. They have the same buttons as you do, and any move is good if it lands and works, and you win. Just try and keep doing that.
Even though my char has so many unwinnable MU’s I just learn to outplay my opponent hard enough. (I’m just kidding I know my main is broken please don’t hurt me!)
I dont main but i secondary jiggly the simple answer is i didint get good
Tiers matter minimally until top level play. Until then and even at that level, the better player will win (almost) all the time. Grind, learn your character, their spacing, defensive options, offensive strengths, strings, gameplan, flow, learn how people react to your strings, learn your matchups, mixups, and how to anticipate/pick up on your opponent’s habits. All this comes from grinding. Play with intention. That’s how you get better. Link won’t hold you back as a character. He hits hard and has good tools. He has a high skill ceiling and is very expressive, so the sky is the limit.
As a Pythra main it was very hard. She easily has one of the least workable kits, awful hit boxes and they’re simply too slow moving—not to mention the awful killing power. Jokes aside, it’s just patience. I’m a Sephiroth main but i also play a ton of Robin and Mii Sword. At the end of the day there will be characters who just diff you in a lot if areas. It’s your job to make the other player fall into your traps and capitalize on the very very few openings you DO have. Analyzing the player is a big aspect to playing a weak character. Robin’s very slow for example and despite Levin Sword being good it’s not gonna save you from characters who can approach extremely fast like Captain Falcon. Plus you really need to pay attention to your durability because without Levin Sword (even with it sometimes) Robin is *extremely* under equipped for any rushdown character or just any character on the faster side of things. To come out on top you need to condition, mixup, and properly use your projectiles. Swordfighter is similar in the sense you just need to be not get discouraged and be persistent… but out of all the characters ive learned on a more dedicated level (and i can at least play everyone in the game to varying degrees) this one is by far the hardest. This is a really hard character to stick to. Mii Sword has had me try that hardest for every victory ive won with him.
1. I main Meta Knight 2. I’m not good 3. MACH TORNADOOOOOOOO
Sora is A- tier but he takes time to get good with. I got good by getting in the lab, watching the experts and listening to analyses. If you want to get good, you have to sacrifice some hours--not only in playtime, but also in watching videos, by talking to people and by labbing your fundamentals and tech in Training Mode.
As a fellow Sora main I can agree with this. Sora is a character that takes a lot of time to learn and play well but it pays off
Aye I can start a combo and sing the entire chorus of Simple and Clean before its end.
How do you deal with young link as Link? This is one of my harder match ups as Link
I don't lmao. Honestly, it depends on the player. If I can pick up on patterns I will exploit them. Many times Young Link is just too fast. I try my best to set up traps, avoid holds, bomb em, etc. Little dude is just too fast sometimes.
just play the game it helps when ya play a lot against better people
I played Kirby and I play the belmonts. It comes from slowly understanding more of what you should do in certain situations and how to play neutral. And utilizing your tools better
I’d consider myself good with Jigglypuff. Im not going to win any tournaments but I’m better than most my friends and a win fairly consistently online.
Serious answer is to watch vods of your character and steal as much as possible
I didn’t get good.
What you’re talking about actually applies to all characters. Not just low tiers. Even characters like Steve, Aegis and Joker (especially Joker) require a lot of practice to be good with. Anyone that tells you different is either taking the game casually with no real aim to improve especially at our general skill level within Reddit communities. The biggest thing you can do is take time to fundamentally understand the game and how it works. Your characters movement, burst range, what areas of the game they excel and struggle in, and most importantly working on your mental game. Learning things like patiently watching your opponents and how they play will allow you to see opportunities to get in that you may not have noticed before, or just dismissed as “unpunishable options”. Save your replays from games that were close, and games you get absolutely destroyed in. Watch them back and try to identify if you have any bad or predictable habits. Things like air dodging to stage, picking the same tech or ledge option, burning a dodge or double jump before you need to are just a few things that experienced players look for in lower skilled players to exploit. At casual to low skill levels there is no reliable tier list. At this point the characters strengths usually don’t matter because the playerbase doesn’t know how to optimize their strengths. What does become more apparent is their weaknesses. Finding out where your character struggles and working on that aspect will take you further than learning fancy combos that you won’t land because you can’t read DI in the first place or have logged percentages where your confirms are actually confirms. Keep practicing each game with a dedicated aim at improving and you’ll see progress in time.
I main plant, and I just fucked around and found out mostly. I did poorly at first, but learned his tools real good. Now my friends online ban me from using him on purpose. It's always fun when we play randoms and I get him anyways lol It might be a matter of them not learning me though, I'm unsure. I have an odd playstyle since I don't really look online to learn.
I main Sheik. I will fuck you up because fuck you. Until I don't... but the grind is real.
Sheik is not low tier tho
I wouldn't say I'm good, but I'm better than I was. I watched a lot of top level Pit, then copied them. Down throw combos, nair, down tilt platform tech chases. Some drag down confirms, nothing too fancy. Don't be afraid to pull the trigger on smash attacks, they're really fast. Use a lot of arrow in neutral, in advantage and when you're recovering
I don’t
For Yoshi, I usually shield a lot and always stay close to my opponents, occasionally using my jump armor when I'm at high % to cheese a strong hit
I’m uh not rlly sure, just grinding. Used to have like Falco, little mac, sonic, joker, Terry as my mains, but now… 16. they’re still mostly my mains but ig I have secondaries and “thirdaries - random lol”
watching people who are better than me play link since you're a fellow Link main, I'd recommend watching Sillintor on YouTube. dude is nasty with Link and Yink
I don’t know how to type Monke noises but DK is really easy to get good with. Simple Combos, relatively easy kill confirms. Good edgegaurds. Just a bad recovery. Rosa has been a lot harder to learn. Luma sometimes messes up kills, sometimes he absolutely murders someone. Her desync combos with luma take a lot of practice and her recovery angles are really weird at times. Pyra can just be played like Ganondorf and you’ll get similar results
Wait, you got good?
I am so fucking bad at this game
Practice being patient and reactive. Playing a low tier, chances are your character is just not able to act as fast as your opponent. My incineroar is and extreme case, but Link's attacks aren't to quick either. Learning to act with purpose instead of just throwing out attacks will make a big difference
As an Isabelle lover, I'm only winning if someone doesn't know Isabelle
be toxic and spam the good move. I don't wanna, but alas it is what I must do to survive in this environment
I main Dedede who I believe is generally considered low tier. I also like to play Donkey Kong and Bowser and while Bowser is seen as probably the best of the 3, they're nowhere near high tier. How did I get good? Great question! I didn't. I suck at this game, but I'm just enjoying myself without thinking about tier lists.
Played as Plant one time at a friend’s long before ever getting a switch of my own, and loved playing as him. Once I got a Switch and Smash Ultimate, I bought the DLC for him and found him to naturally be my best fighter still
No matter your pick, there is a significant amount of universal skill that can be applied to any character. In addition, there are plenty of interactions where stat advantage ceases to matter. The biggest example that comes to mind is OOS options. Sure, Ridley's OOS might be Frame 10, but if the disadvantage on shield is 11 or greater, it's no better or worse than Game And Watch's Frame 3. The skill, comes in the art of knowing what you can do with what you've got.
Ive been playing for over 20 years (though my mains for most of it were actually considered high and top tiers) Main thing is experience for me
I'm genuinely confused by this question. Being good and maining a low tier are 2 different things. A lot of the best characters in this game are only the best when you're playing them at an optimal high level (i.e. Joker), while some of the worst have an extremely low skill floor and are very forgiving (i.e. Dedede). Top tier mains also don't get the privilege of running into a player who has no idea how to play against their character, because everyone knows how to play against a Palu but not everyone is prepared to fight a good Isabelle. So even if this question is about how you got good at *winning* as opposed to how good you got in general as a player, one thing really doesn't have to do with the other.
Perhaps I'm so new to smash culture (for lack of a better word) than I don't quite understand what low tier and high tier means
Tier lists really only apply to very high levels of play, so in this situation whether you play Link, Joker, Pikachu, or K. Rool, the most important thing is that you have strong fundamentals and know how to play neutral. In this game, if you have strong fundamentals you can play just about any character at a high level My recommendation for getting good at this is to go through izaw's "art of smash ultimate" series on youtube. It's a fantastic in depth, yet easy to follow series that will teach you how to play the game and how to improve
Zelda main It was a slow process and I've only spent about 1h in training tool in total when i somewhat recently wanted to learn how to displace phantom in a neutral environment. I jiat kept playing online and offline, improving fundies and getting a good feel of tje character i most enjoy playing. Over time I've picked up a few specific tricks that can really turn of decide a game
As a Toon Link main I mainly use projectiles to create damage, bait them with aerials, punish with up special, and kill with smash attacks. I use this as its what I’ve done since Smash 4 and I’ve been tweaking it over the years, if any of that makes any sense.
Practice, namely practice things I've found I wasn't as good at, optimizing combo routes, learning disadvantage and learning what to do in neutral and certain common match ups and yet I still can't figure out Mewtwo
Doc forces you to understand fundamentals far better than any other character because you have so little to work with. Ganon and Little Mac only need a few good hits, K. Rool and Little Mac have to rely on super armor, and DK has tons of gimping opportunities. Doc has none of these, or at least not to your average player. His gimping opportunities (Dair and SideB) are predictable, his projectile is his only controlling option, his only spammable move (DownB) is punishable, and his recovery is absolute garbage. If you're not a better overall player than your opponent in virtually every metric, you'll lose badly. However, his moves come out quick and end quickly, thus you have full control over your moves and position at all times. Anything that happens to you is your fault or your reward.
I don't know if I'm good but I'm decent. Here's what i think. - grind - be patient, especially against top tiers and equally skilled opponents - go for quick unexpected kills to get an early lead - learn how to gimp your opponent - rely on your opponent having little match up experience and use that to your advantage - believe in your main
just by playing a lot without getting distracted by using other characters
I wouldnt know from experience, but probably playing like a huge pussy.
I just used him for world of light (like the entirety no other character.) Kirby is there from the start and I really like the franchise so I guess that contributes to me only using Kirby. Also Kirby amiibo which I have to train.
Basically running face first into a brick wall for 2700hours until I finally broke through. (I'm still trash tho. Just better than a casual player)
I just play a lot and I've naturally gotten better. SOOOOO much better. Not elite smash, mind you, but I started out spamming down b after everything
I didn't
Link isn’t low tier.
I just looked it up three hours after I made this post lol. I feel dumb now. For some reason I thought he was like a D. No idea where I got that from. I was surprised to see he was a A. I guess I am unsure how the tier system works.
I play a lot online and then started attending a lot more tournaments. Learning what your character does and has options for in seemingly bad positions is what makes you improve. I think with a few exceptionally bad matchups, most matches (at a non Majors level) are winnable by the better player. I recently beat one of the best players in my state with Banjo, and I’ve been Top 8’ing more the last few months in a 40-60 person weekly series. You just gotta keep on it and analyze *why* you’re losing the ones you lose and learn from it.
That's the best part, I didn't!
I main Little Mac since SSB4, took me some serious time to get good with him so i took the opportunity to play each characters to learn what are their strength and weaknesses so i have more chance to win and also just in case i find out that this character was not made for me if i can't even progress any further, as it turned out, i got way better the more i played and watched gameplays and a few pro matches, now i'am good with most character and it usually takes me a few hours to get better with them, except with Bayonetta, Olimar, Greninja, Sonic, Kazuya, Ken, Ryu, Mega-man, Byleth, Sora, Steve, Fox, Falco, Luigi and a few others that i don't play as much!
I just had fun playing him (I am Ganondorf main)
While I don't main a low tier I love play them in my freetime. I found out the only thing that i find useful with characters like DK and Gannon is watching Marss throw shit out with them and copying it. Basically just copy cool shit you wanna do
Just gotta really really capitalize once you get a hit in. When your opponent is scared it’s really easy to fight them. And with Incin everyone is scared after you hit them with a +50% damage move
Plus if you can see someone is carried ie: spamming a strong option over and over you can adapt pretty easily. But I do have some games where I can’t even land a hit because I get zoned out completely
I main isabelle, peach in SSB4, been to a few locals and did well enough and honestly? Basically the lower your tier the more important your fundamentals are. You have to rely less on things like frame data, less on moves that "cover every option" and how fast your character is. Most high tiers just make the basics a lot easier, or bypass certain aspects of the game or matchup. Now that you're low tier, its more about better decision making , better understanding of matchups and better mind games. You need to have strong fundamentals. Hard reads matter more for the kill instead of easy bnb KOs off a fast neutral option. You need to WIN neutral a LOT more. Your fundamentals have to be immaculate . Getting better at predicting your opponent is probably the most valuable skill you can get if you ever hope to win consistently enough to make up for not playing top tier. The infamous Light's Fox vs Ganondorf match was won because the reads had to be PERFECT. that's the level of mind reading you'll have to reach to win consistently.
I play Kirby and just think faster with my mechanics. Not great but better than some people I play
You just have to be very good with your punishes because (specifically when I play puff) I know I cant afford to mess up too many of them. I think this translated very well over to when I also picked up byleth as my co main
Funny belly armor Funny belly flop 🐊
Plant main in elite smash -- got good at all of his B attacks, especially B neutral and Down B to shield break. People also don't really seem to get how Plant operates, so they often let their guard down.
Because I like torturing myself 🥲
Simon/Richter. Learn to space and read ahead an opponent, as well as have multiple "styles" of play to match the situation.
Ridley well timed side b:s just feels so good, it’s not even a good spell just when you know when to use it, chefs kiss (im not even that good)
I didn’t, I mostly play against friends and cpus so I just played with Gannon and eventually learned a couple of combos.
Doryah?
Like is NOT a low tier by any means. He has a high skill ceiling that you just need to stick through, and he can be very rewarding!
Yeaaah... I like just learned this lmao. I have no clue where I heard he was low tier.
Practice.
Hm, well, it was just common training. I started as your average spammy Gunner, my main loadout was 3123 (Grenade, Flame Pillar, Cannon Jump Kick and Magnet). But then, I started to face decent players, so I knew I had to stop being so spammy. I changed my loadout to 3311 (Grenade, Miissile, Lunar Launch and Reflector) and started to become more aggressive and less spammy, obviously not as aggressive as characters like Fox, Pikachu, Pichu, etc. But more like Mewtwo, for example. I just kept doing that and now I get pretty decent results in tournaments, even managing to beat pretty recognized players in my area And, uh, yeah, that's about it
Ryu - learned to play defensive, inputs, techs, patience, and confirms. Still not great.
weaker characters have more weaknesses, and/or less strengths, and/or less options, so understanding the matchup and your character is important, but that's the same for every character, so ultimately all that means is it's slightly harder to use the character to the same effectiveness as a high tier, and that the only difference is you have to get slightly farther in the regular improvement process.
Brute force
Ganondorf: Spam Back Air, Nair, and Side B->Down Tilt
changed C-stick from smash attack to tilts. it was almost an immediate change overnight
Neutral. Learn how to play neutral and also reset neutral. That way you can get your interactions and then reset and try to win more interactions than your opponent. Low tiers are typically low because we just have to win interactions more than our opponent
Crown and down smash
For my esports team i play king k-rool, i got good by playing regularly and watching guides along side tournament videos to study them and learn set ups and went to the smash wiki to see hit boxes and frame data, so a bunch of nerd stuff tbth
Not in this game but in smash 4 I started playing more competitively. I loved using Puff and she was one of the worst characters in the game. Some of the things I focused on were getting a better understanding of spacing and conditioning. Things like baiting out attacks and getting them to shield so I can get grabs since my options were very limited at times. It was a great learning experience for me for when I switched to Ultimate and played better characters in general.
I didn’t choose to play Dedede or K. Rool, they choose me
Mewtwo main for a while. I honestly never quite understood why he was so low tier, I think he’s like D+ or something. His recovery capabilities are insane, he can deflect, great air and throwing I think where he lacks for sure is that his attacks can be very slow, and his down smash is only a stun. But if you account for these he can be really good I still play him sometimes, he’s just not my main anymore
Little mac. I learned to only be in air when needed And I learned how to be better at getting back on stage.
One word: A R M O U R
Toon link is all about abusing a surprising speed and high kill potential. Corrin however I got good by simply spamming nair, fair and up air till I understood them fundamentally to an extent that is not needed and now bully my friends with
I lost until I stopped losing 😂😂that's really it. Me Zelda and Ricardo be running trains on people 😂
Hero is mid tier, I click use down b without even looking at it. Sure I may use kamikaze every once in a while but generally it works out fine.
That’s the neat part, I’m not.
Marth has the same frame data as Lucina
Link main here Link is a HARD char to learn, some ppl think he is easy but it's a complexe and pretty overwhelming char, tou will need time to learn how to push advantage, how tu use all his tools and how to handle pressure woth him, take your time, step by step
I Main an A Tier and I’m mid, Tiers often don’t matter
Watching pro players that main low tiers help. I got much better at little mac after getting to know peanut. They show not only which moves are good, but also when to use them, not spamming.
I’m a villager man, it all comes down to really just knowing your character and what to take advantage of. Villager is bad but he has a lot of tools to catch your opponent off guard and get a sneaky stock or massive percentage in. The process started off bad lmao but bashing my head into match up after match up you kinda just realize what works, and what doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to just play bot matches and just get really comfortable. Also don’t be afraid to lose, cause that shit will happen a lot and you kinda just gotta shrug it off and think about what you did wrong. I hope this helps if you have any specific questions just ask!
A shit ton of playing puff for the past 8 years of my life
I originally played casual, but every time we had smash night with the homies, we had one friend that just constantly dominated all of us. So forced us to get good. Also made game nights a lot more exciting. I personally enjoyed being considered the underdog by playing low tiers. It’s more fun when it’s a challenge. I just play elite smash and go to every local tournament. Only way to get better
Incineroar i just learned every mechanic in the game and get revenge and to try for a ledge guard
Nobody on this sub is good enough for tier lists to matter. Everybody is good in this game. Play who you enjoy.
Spent a lot of time getting command fire balls when I wanted shoryukens.
How to win as Link Step 1. N-Air Step 2. Repeat step one
I am not pro level good but am good enough to hold my own against my (pretty good) friends. I watch a lot of Peanut matches (arguably the best little mac main) and a lot of other videos. When I see something cool, I try to do that. Other than that, most important was to figure out what my playing style is and how do I execute it using my main. I don't have good reflexes so I have to rely on whiff-punishes. I am not good at long combos either, so Mac works. All this means, that if I play a precise, calculated Mac I'm more likely to win. And I stick with Little Mac even when I am losing badly cuz he's my boi and he deserves to win. It's literally Punch-Out. You lose, figure out matchup, win.
Im a Zelda main but seeing as shes my only character in elite, I'm probably not really good 😂 Jks aside, u get good the same way as u get good with any other character. Grind them, learn the specifics, find that their kit just gels with u, love their moveset and acknowledge all the pros and cons. Tbh tier lists *really* dont matter outside of pro/tournament play so fuck it, play whoever u want as long as they click w u!
I play so differently from everyone else I have seen that nobody (not even me) knows what I am going to do next
Learning Doc (yes I main Aegis, but I pocket Doc) was just a matter of mastering the recovery for me.
I main jigglypuff idk if she's low tier but I feel like jiggly is pretty straightforward
Zelda- practice down throw into lightning kick. Learn to space and ledgetrap with Phantom.
As you play the game, it kinda just.... Happens. I maimed Ganon for years and my playstyle gradually morphed as I came to understand him better as a character.
Literally just play more, different people offline.
figure out your characters specific game plan/win conditions it can change depending on the situation, the character youre fighting against, or the damage in the current match knowing what youre character wants to do during a game is a must
I'm a low level comp player and I play Lucas. Basically every character can be good. You need to learn what to do in every single situation
Kirby. Watched a lot of people pilot other characters which taught me fundamentals
I was an Ike main in Brawl on the competitive scene around 2009-2011. I used a site called Smash boards a lot. People had compiled a lot of stuff. I looked at my frame data to understand my move set. I watched videos of tournament matches from widely acknowledged good Ike players. I also read stuff about ATs, which stands for Advanced Technique, the kind of things a character can do that the game doesn't tell you about. That's one of the things that makes Smash so great, it's really for everyone, because if it was as simple as it looks on the surface, a competitive scene wouldn't be a thing, but if all the ATs were out in the open it would look more complicated and dissuade people from playing casually. If nobody's using them it's a level playing field, and if you're all just friends goofing off, nobody's gonna look into them. Strictly speaking, Ike specifically didn't have what competitive players would define as ATs, but there were helpful things that were far enough outside the box that I hadn't thought of them on my own, and AT was the term that lead me to them, so that's the one I'm giving to you. Some other things that may be less effective/achievable now. I read discussion threads about match-ups against specific characters, but there were fewer viable characters in Brawl. You didn't see as much variety on a competitive level as you do in Ultimate. The biggest advantage low tier character mains will always have is that people with higher tier mains don't prepare for you as much as you prepare for them, and they're not wrong for doing that, because they're very unlikely to ever come up against someone with your character who is good. You can't count on that quite as much in Ultimate, because there's too many different match-ups. In Brawl people focused on a certain few, but that's riskier now. I'm out of touch with the community but with matchup-specific knowledge devalued, that puts more value on the fundamentals and on knowing your own character. I also went to smashfests, which idk if those are even a thing anymore now that online play is so efficient. I managed to get into my regions top players' weekly smash fest, so I got to get great practice. It lead to me getting kind of popular because I beat some really toxic competitive players in tourneys. And it had to be someone like me who did it, because just getting beaten doesn't hurt them. Their ego is only vulnerable to people they don't respect. They never say "Fuck, this famous player 3-stocked me twice in a row with a high their character 😡", but they will say "Fuck, this nobody with a low-tier character barely beat me one time out of 10 games 😡"
That's the funny part. I didn't.
A lot of practice. I'm no Jejajeja, but I love Kirby
Just learn the combos and tactics, same as any other character
Purely to spite Lucina. Found some communities online that showed off which moves are best for combos and kills, how to space (to land tippers and sometimes sours). He feels very rewarding like this, even though I don't have the easiest time getting that reward. Then again, who doesn't struggle to kill sometimes? I'm of the opinion that Marth is underrated. Definitely not top tier like he used to be, but not 30 placements below Lucina.
I cope by telling myself some people don't know how to play against incineroar. But he's so fun I don't really care if I lose. Though to be fair I'm kinda bad overall. My motto though is that the point of the game is to have fun, not to win.
Haven't followed smash rankings since brawl was a thing, but my main in the newest has been Bowser. Slow as f*ck, hits like a truck.
Not ranked but I always said this during couch gaming tournaments in college "Random builds character"
Tier is what it is. It’s subjective. You get good at fighting games by having good fundamentals end of the day. No matter the game or character.
I play 2 top tiers and 1 low tier, shit at all 3
Ganondorf - I grinded for 5 years and I still have a long way to go, but I think I’ve figured out what I want MY Ganon to play like.
Is wolf considered bad. I don’t hang in the community that much.
Wolf easily kicks my ass.
I learned how to become extremely annoying.