Introduction

I've been playing Smash Ultimate since it came out, and thoroughly enjoy the game, having spent 600 hours into it. I was minding my own business today when my friend (u/Gilardix) sent me a post he made, where he gave a fairly good guide for beginners to Smash Bros Ultimate. I agreed with all the points he made until I arrived to the part where he recommended training against CPU's. I'll be telling you why that's a bad idea in this post. I'll start with the good though.

The good

CPU's are the best they have ever been in Smash history in this game, and are extremely smart compared to say, their melee counterparts. We can't forget about how they're gods at mashing either.

At the very beginning of the game, fighting against level 9 CPU's can get you up to speed quickly with the mechanics of the game, and they also help you a lot when choosing your main. Fighting against them also let's you learn some basic strategies and combos, and they punish you accordingly when you make a mistake.

The bad

Although they are good at the beginning of the game, CPU's are still computers. They will always choose among the same set of options in a certain situation. Granted, this number of options has grown since smash 64, but it still isn't great. For example, when off stage, a CPU's priority is always GET BACK ON STAGE, and so they will ignore the player, who manages to edge guard them easily. Another case is when the player is off the stage. The CPU will attempt to edge guard them, but will always do the same thing. One of the biggest mistakes I see them doing is after a Snake down throw, they will not attempt to roll away, or do anything for that matter. This practically gives you a free forward smash. This way of always knowing what the CPU will do in a certain situation is bad for the player, as it will become a habit.

Once a player finally decides to go online after destroying a CPU 3-0, they will lose, and all that confidence built up within them will turn into anger. Why am I losing, I hear them ask. It's quite simple. A player is not a computer, and does not have a programmed way of doing things. That combo you learnt against a CPU most likely won't work against a player if it isn't true, because the player will attempt to tech out of it. A player also knows how to mix up going back on stage, so edge guarding is significantly harder. Basically, you think you know what they will do because the CPU did it a certain way, when the will most certainly not do that. I used to do this too.

CPU's will not make you a better player, other people will.

Video

A short video on the good and bad of CPU's. Whilst I don't agree with every point, it has some good examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBDuEcaL29g

What to do?

It's quite simple: Ask your friends to play Smash with you. Now, a lot of complaints I hear with this is that your friends aren't good enough, or your friends don't have Smash Bros. The resolution is quite simple: Join some communities and that people that are. I've joined some competitive communities, where there are many players better than I am. This allows me to improve rapidly. What to do if you can't go online? Well, there's one of two choices. Either practice some true combos in training mode, or if you really fear becoming worse, play a few games against CPU's to warm yourself up, but don't play too much. Personally, if I fight a CPU nowadays, I don't need to put nearly as much effort into it compared to when I'm fighting a player.

Again, if you are new to the game, CPU's are indeed a good way of familiarizing yourself with the game. However, when you think you're ready, play against players online and try avoiding CPU's as much as possible.