Hey guys! I'm someone who has been playing SSBM for some time now. I was 5 years old when the game came out, and I've had it since then. Currently, I'm a student in psychology (post-graduate, researcher) so my playtime has been limited, but I find some bit of energy to play here and there. And when I do, I enjoy every minute of it (even the frustration that comes with losing)!

I wanted to give some tips (even though I play at the intermediate level) to NEWBIES/PEOPLE WHO THINK THEY SUCK. I'm gonna use what I've learned over the years in Psychology, so that you can find ways to get better at the game and find more challenges.

The topic I'm going to talking about is how your in-game sight (focus) relates with your general level of confidence.

PART 1: Some Introductory Explanations

PART 2: SIGHT AND CONFIDENCE

CONCLUSION

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PART 1.

You're probably reading this like, "what do sight and confidence have to do with each other?" Well, you're about to find out (with some helpful examples in between).

To play SSBM, you master the basics, you play efficiently using tactics that people have mastered, and your "play style" is refined. Typically, the path we think we follow:

bad - > better than bad - > decent - > better than decent -> good ------(...eventually...)------> God-Like

After you've been playing a while, you start to realize that the real trajectory is something like this:

bad - > better- > worse than better- > shit -> better -> good -> okay -> bad .-> (Some weird and unknown period) ->and then finally, if you're good enough, you can become a 'God' of SSBM.

Now, I am NOWHERE NEAR "God" level. But I have found something that brought me *closer* to that level.

If we know that there is some quality that distinguishes "The Gods" from the noobs, and we know it happens during that "weird and unknown period", then we have to ask:

what exactly is that "weird and unknown period?"

To begin, let's use an analogy. This will help us return to the main focus, which is about confidence and sight:

Let's say, for the sake of this example, that you wanted to learn how to play an instrument. Imagine that rather than have a long, intermediary period that helps you into the advanced parts of playing an instrument (in other words, "git gud" at the instrument) you went practiced for thirty minutes a day or so. Sounds good, right?

Imagine, then, after practice, you were thrown into an orchestra with only one other person. You each have two different portions of the musical piece to play, and it would be safe to assume that at least one of you has the basics down. Together, you perform a piece, and however well you perform on your side, the greater the outcome will be in performing your side of piece.

That sounds like a great analogy for smash, right?

Yeah, you're right at the basic level, but ultimately, you're wrong.

How are you right?

1. Practice and constant exposure are important, and will lead you down the path to mastery.
2. The more you practice, the better you'll perform.

How are you wrong? =

Smash differs from learning a musical instrument at three distinct levels, which is why mastery is difficult.

1. Mastery through practice is necessary, BUT
2. You need to be able to "map on" your newly learned behaviors onto what it is you're doing.
3. In an orchestra, you place minimal importance on the other person, but in smash, you are more-so focused on what they are doing (so you can react) than what you are doing (which comes with practice)

This is where confidence is the most important: practice and constant exposure help, but if you aren't confident about your playstyle, you aren't going to show the fruits of what you've learned in actual gameplay.

What does sight have to do with confidence, then?

Well, let's first make a relevant analogy about rap battles that maps directly onto smash:

Imagine you've been thrown into a world where rap battling is that world's greatest sport. In that world, you can only use a unique language that everybody agrees is the best language to battle. The rules are simple: you use the language that everyone else also has to learn, and use rhyme, metaphor, double-entendres, etc. so that you can win the battle. You also have to update to what your enemy is saying, and say the best things to win the battle.

The reason why the rap battle analogy is the *better\* analogy is because like in rap battles, smash:

1. Is dynamic, requiring both freestyle and pre-made lines (through practice)
2. Makes it so you have NO IDEA what the other person will offer in relation to what you have to offer, meaning you have to learn during the fight.

language = controller

rhyme/metaphor/double-entendres = learning how to "use" the controller

updating your style throughout = ????

Okay, so first, I'm sorry for the rambling! We're a the most important part of this guide. What do you have to do to "update" your style? Sure, you have to adapt to what the other person is doing, but what do sight and confidence have to do with that?

Well, when you're constantly updating in a rap battle, you're focusing on your learned skills, and dishing out the best responses you can. You're looking at your enemy, and updating your toolbox with disses that make sense in the battle. While you're doing that, you know what you wouldn't be doing?

FOCUSING ONLY ON YOURSELF IN THE BATTLE. WHY? BECAUSE IF YOU AREN'T FOCUSED ON YOUR OPPONENT, YOU AREN'T FOCUSED ON WHATS HAPPENING AND YOU CANNOT FOCUS ON READING/PREDICTING, COMBOING, ETC.

You're probably thinking, "Isn't focusing on yourself always a good thing chief?" or "Wtf, I know that, I'm playing smash and I want to combo and destroy my opponent, but I keep getting my ass whooped."

Well, here is why sight is important. For example, when we have episodes with social anxiety, our common reaction is to turn inwards. The best example of this is when you have a big crush on somebody. "Was I too awkward?" or "I don't want to say the wrong thing!" or "I totally fucked that up". Even if these markers of low self-esteem aren't "evident" when you're actually playing, you could be doing what socially-anxious people tend to do - turning inwards and focus on how YOU are acting instead of adapting/updating to the conversation in a confident way, which would definitely increase your chances of getting your crush, and more relevantly, winning the game.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PART 2:

How does this look when you play smash? Here's a display of how low confidence looks, with an explanation.

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https://preview.redd.it/u6st193zazt51.png?width=723&format=png&auto=webp&s=0070142417269d33f48e8c202c498dfc49c67b99

The red ring is your assumed "field of view". Everybody's ring is different, whether it's bigger or smaller. The red ring holds the object you're focusing on and the things in your peripheral sight- up until you can't go beyond the ring (because that would require having more eyes!)

Your point of focus is marked by the red/orange diamond, and Falco is "shaded" to help you recognize how peripheral sight works. Figure this out by trying to focus on the nearest object to yourself in real life. If you're focusing on that object, do you notice how hard it is to see the other objects around you?

This is likely a sign of low confidence. Why? Here are possible answers:

1. You're certain about whether or not your moves are registered in-game the way you want them to
2. You haven't left "training mode" - you are looking at your character to see what the moves look like.
3. You are too focused on what your own player is doing, keeping your enemy in your peripheral sight.

What does one with high confidence focus their attention? Well, it could look like this:

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https://preview.redd.it/iistuosedzt51.png?width=770&format=png&auto=webp&s=f5412b0f927bcb1aab76fa7f638f7e8f0c8d78f1

Notice how, in the *correct* picture, your point of focus (Green diamond) is within your assumed field of view (the larger green ring) and it's on Falco.

Your character, Captain Falcon, is shaded in white. Falcon represents how objects in "peripheral-view" may seem, given that they aren't your immediate attention

Why is this an example of high-confidence play? Let's look at the example used earlier, in Part 1 -> talking to your crush:

There's a logical framework that highlights low-confidence and high-confidence conversations.

High confidence:

1. Attention is on the other person
2. You both speak, moving from one point to the next
3. You are concerned with the discussion.
4. Productivity is measured by how pleasant conversation was with your crush.
5. You exchange numbers.

Low confidence:

1. Attention is on yourself and how you're doing at every moment
2. Your crush becomes "peripheral", even though getting their number is the goal
3. You are unable to keep up with conversation, and if you are, it isn't optimal (unless you're winging it, and sometimes you win in smash from winging it)
4. You recant the experience as horrible.
5. You leave without a number.

This all happens very quickly in Smash, so it can be very hard to catch. I've caught myself numerous times straying away from my attention on my opponent and instead focused on my character. This almost always resulted in me not updating my play styles.

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CONCLUSION

With Smash, players displaying behaviors from each type could have mastered particular combos and move-sequences in training mode, but the person moving with higher confidence will be able to translate them better into the match.

The reason why is because someone with high confidence already assumes their character to be there (in periphery). While their attention is focused mostly on their opponent, they can manage moving their character in periphery because they ALREADY KNOW WHERE THEIR CHARACTER IS. In other words, they can use the skills they've learned to predict movement and respond accurately in times of uncertainty, rather than focus on themselves and what their character is doing.

What do you do to have high-confidence?

Remember to watch your opponent, with yourself at the peripheral, so that you can respond to what you see them doing.

PLAY THE GODDAMN GAME WITH THE OTHER PERSON.

Don't turn inwards and look at your own character (only) and remember that your opponent, and subsequently the game, is the center of focus, you are only the peripheral agent.

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TL;DR: Focus on your opponent in the match, keep yourself within your line of vision, and execute with the goal of keeping your opponent in check, rather than focusing solely on your character.

I hope this helped you all!

Best,

xSals :)