Smash is a lot of things. Technical, nuanced, skillful. However, it is also overwhelmingly mental. Smash as a competitive game is more a mental battle than most realize and requires efficient mental training in order to succeed at a high level of play. Top players would tell you that Smash is about half what is going on with your hands and half what is going on in your head. The mental half can also be aspects of the game like strategic positioning, thinking out punishes for movement yet to occur, and clever baits.

However, for the sake of this article, the discussion will focus more on the intangible and psychological elements of Smash. For the most part, these tips and strategies are geared more towards players who can struggle with mentality, and not every strategy discussed works best for everyone. A huge part of improving at the top level of Smash is ridding the negative elements of mentality. In some cases, players can go into a match completely defeating themselves before playing their bracket match. Conquering the mental game, even before your match starts is a crucial part of bracket success when playing Smash.

---- Ridding Negative Mentality ----

The “I Need to Win” Mentality

This mentality is tricky. While for some players, putting everything on the line mentally can increase focus and drive, but for most it just exalts ideas of desperation, nervousness, and lust for the win. This mentality type has a significant flaw in that it is more focused on the fear of losing, rather than the focus to win right now. This type of mentality lets the stock count get in your head, getting stuck in an opponent’s combo feel harrowing, and the inevitable sting of a loss so painful. This mentality inadvertently tends to focus more on the future negatives, when you should be more focused on the present positives.

“The Higher Seed Will Win” Mentality

This mentality is hard to avoid, as it can likely be true. However, the mentality is weak because it idolizes those placed above you in seeding to be immovable objects. You can outsmart and outplay people who are than you. Yes, it is harder as players better than you have likely been playing the game longer and are more aware of mix-ups, how to punish those mix-ups, and how to adapt to your style of play. Training yourself to reset your brain before a tourney, treating everyone you encounter in bracket as a beatable opponent, helps clear yourself of past tournament baggage and gives you hope to win the match. This mentality takes a lot of effort, as you have to basically lie to yourself that your tournament history will have no effect on your current bracket match. If mastered, however, it can help loosen up your own negative expectations and give yourself a brand new edge that your opponent has not seen yet from you.

Disbelief in Character Mentality

Confidence is absolutely needed to win in Smash, both in your ability and with your character. Character crisis is very real in Smash, and not fully backing a single character can lead to a lack of confidence in each that you play. After losing a game mid set, players who do not feel confident in that character's ability, either in a specific matchup or all together, will struggle to convince themselves that the blame of their loss was not on the character is itself. More often than not, a match was not lost on the character select screen. You lost because the other player outplayed you. Your opponent’s positioning, neutral, and punish game was probably more practiced and consistent then yours.

Putting the blame upon your character creates a false belief that a character switch will give you a better chance. However, this isn’t to say that it can’t work out when you switch characters. I’m a Samus main in Melee and there have been times where I’ve needed to pull out my Falco in order to beat Sheik in bracket. The character switch is not coming from a place of disbelief in Samus though, but rather a belief in my punish game with Falco against Sheik. There’s actually an enormous mental difference between the two, because albeit hard, I know my Samus can win against Sheik if I give the match enough mental effort. You want to choose a character for a match not based off the disbelief in another, but rather the confidence inside the one you are playing.

---- Improving Good Mentality ----

Focus on the NOW

As a direct counter to the “I need to win” mentality, train your Smash brain to focus on the now only. Instead of focusing on the long-term mindset of the desire to win the entire match, focus on this, “I am going to make this as difficult for my opponent as possible.” This mentality lifts the negative burdens of the “I need to win” mentality because it doesn’t care about stock count or being comboed. This mentality doesn’t even consider the how the match will turn out, only about the immediate present and how you are making it difficult for the opponent. Training your brain to think this way can eliminate a lot of frustration and fear about the totality of the match and keep your head focused on the here and now. Playing for the now rather than later focuses more on safe approaches rather than desperate risks in the neutral. Having a brain focused on the here and now, that’s not concerned with the nervousness of losing, will play stronger and smarter than a player focused on losing the match.

Avoiding Tilt

We all know the players who get mad salty when they lose, and it’s usually to their detriment. Becoming frustrated with a player literally never benefits you, as it creates psychological desperation that manifests itself in your play. One of the most destructive forms of frustration, or “tilt”, comes out of a feeling that you are better than another player and you shouldn’t be losing to them. While you may be better than another player, you should never go into a match with the thought that you’re expected to win. Competing with this mentality halts your critical thinking and brings out one of the worst things you can do in competitive Smash: go into auto-pilot. The amount of times where players auto-pilot against a lower seed game one and lose, only to get tilted and play desperate game two and lose again is truly wild.

Avoid the tilt before your very first match by going into each game with a focused mindset, and if you lose, not blaming that on some uncontrollable aspect of your opponent. Adapt to how they’re playing in a calm and collected manner and pull through in the next game. If you end up losing the set, do not demonize the opponent! This feeds the tilt train like nothing else. Congratulate your opponent, talk about the match and how you can improve (even if they might be worse than you), and be friendly and social to them. This will humble you, lowering you from the pedestal you put yourself on and connect with the person you’re playing with. A clear mind and unburdened spirit is what will help your mentality the most moving into your loser bracket match.

Telling Yourself “That Didn’t Happen”

Sometimes a good mentality requires lying to yourself, which is actually much harder than you would think. It’s hard to convince yourself of something you know is literally untrue. However, it can be one of the greatest tools in maintaining a clear competitive spirit in Smash. This strategy was taught to me by one of the best Melee players of all time, Mang0. Telling yourself “That didn’t happen” can be key to a victory. There is burden with screwing up. SDing in an important game five situation is hugely defeating to one’s mindset and confidence boosting to the opponent. So, in order to combat the burden of the mistake, lie. Lie to yourself and simply tell yourself, “That did not happen.” Don’t tell yourself to believe it didn’t happen, but rather that it literally did not happen. You are in the same exact situation as you were the few seconds before the mistake and carry on playing as if it had never happened. This technique completely resets yourself and reissues confidence after a mental blowback.

Gameplay and Emotional Evaluation

Self-evaluating your gameplay mid set is an extremely important skill to hone, as the ability to adapt to your competition is what sets the better players apart from the rest of the competition. Taking this a step further is evaluating your emotional state in a match and how it is consequently connected to your current playstyle. As discussed earlier, nervousness and pride yield desperation in your play, and the quicker you can identify it, the faster you can kill it. Identification is the first step to ridding either tournament nerves, frustration with the matchup, or distain for the player your facing off against.

Next, is the remedial stage, which most often is best in the form of a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. Yes, I understand this advice is trivial, however increased supply of oxygen fed to the brain through a deep breath literally stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, inducing a state of calmness. And lastly, the adaptive stage. This is where you need to change up what you were doing. Understand that your previous strategies were linked to negative emotions and were being punished, and now it’s time to change. Incorporate mix-ups to your gameplay, focus less on blind engagements and instead punish openings, be more defensive, etc. Put these practices into your play and give yourself the best chance when your head is becoming your own worst enemy.

Like our content? Support us by getting our merchandise in our shop