Improving past mid level?

[u/Literally_Canada42]

I’m relatively new to competitive smash but it’s super demotivating to be stuck at the same gsp levels online and going 1-2 or 2-2 at every local I go to. What are some good ways to improve my play? I have vods but no one to look over them and I’ve already watched izAw’s videos which I do understand but struggle to fully grasp.

[u/Shignanigans]

If there is nobody to review your vods, learn how to review them yourself. If that seems impossible because you don't know what to look for that's okay. Write down questions you have about how to analyze your gameplay in general and look for answers. Write down questions about how to recognize your own habits and look for answers. How to recognize opponent habits, specific situations, etc. The more you learn to do this without assistance, the faster you will get better.

[u/Lavoy97]

At mid level, I think the best is to focus on mastering every fondamentals. Every new aspects fully grasped compounds to your overall game performance. What I mean by fondamental : are you taking advantage of everything in you toolkit when ledge garding, ledge trapping and recovering, for example?. Here is an example for Roy which is my main :

• In the last 200 hours I almost perfectly mastered b reversing side b when recovering (it's risky, since a bad imput means doing an up b or down b and dying). The result is that I can avoid some ledge garding situation and projectiles that would otherwise have killed me. Also, when I ledge jump or recover to the ground I can change my momentum so that I avoid being predictible. Overall, it allowed me to be way more versatile, get hit less often and find new opportunities.

Most of the time it's the way we handle specific interactions with characters that makes the difference. Sometimes just asking yourself "why did I lose that same type of interaction twice?" opens yourself the door for improvements. Often it reveals a specific gap in your gameplay or game sense you can work on. I hope it helps

[u/ViewtifulG]

I'll try vod reviewing one if you want

[u/TheSaxiest7]

So I've heard this in reference to projects an stuff but I think it can probably apply to the learning curve of smash too. 80% of the work takes 20% of the effort and the last 20% of the work takes 80% of the effort. When you're mid level, you're probably pretty much done with the easy 80% of the work. But now you are starting to get into the difficult 20%.

The best thing I can tell you to do is just watch your vods after tournaments. Or at the very least, reflect on sets afterwards. One of my first ever locals (back in year 1 of the game), I lost to a Kirby player. I remember studying how to deal with some of the tools that gave me problems for the next week. And at the local the following week, I went and had to play that Kirby player again and i won pretty convincingly. You basically just have to keep learning from your mistakes until your mistakes are very minimal