What you wish you knew before your first tourney

So after going 2-2 and getting bodied by Xian in the second round at my
first tournament I realized that there’s a lot more to deal with at a
tournament than the occasional lag spike I might have to deal with at
home. So I’m trying to come up with a guide of things that beginners
should expect when finally making the jump from online warrior to
tourney player. <a href=“http://bobosyomios.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/beginners-guide-to-your-first-tournament/” target="_blank">Here’s what I have so far.</a> What are things you wish you knew before going to your first tourney?

Know that you’re not going to win your first tourney. No matter how prepared you think you are, you are never prepared. And don’t get discouraged when you lose. Losses are what make us better.

Don’t be afraid to join in with the community and meet new people.<br><br>It can be very daunting, especially at large events, when every single setup is dominated by crowds of 20+ people. Just remember that they’re all there for the same reason you are. Talk to somebody who is spectating, ask the current players if you can fight the winner etc, just get involved in some way. You’ll kick yourself afterwards if you’re too shy.<br>

A lot of matches won’t be pretty (especially with nerves involved) so don’t beat yourself up too much if everything isn’t executed smoothly. Gotta move from one moment to the next instead of being fixated on something that went wrong. Worry about that after the match.<div><br></div><div>Speaking of fixated, try not to get tunnel vision looking for one big opportunity the whole time while missing out on all the other opportunities (even if they’re smaller, damage is damage and you don’t want to get predictable).</div><div><div><br></div><div>You most likely won’t notice how many mistakes people make until later <span style=“font-family: ‘lucida grande’, ‘Lucida Sans Unicode’, tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 22.65625px;”>because you’re too busy making your own</span><span style=“font-family: ‘lucida grande’, ‘Lucida Sans Unicode’, tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 1.7em;”> </span><span style=“font-family: ‘lucida grande’, ‘Lucida Sans Unicode’, tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 1.7em;”>(even the good players make them more often than it looks like initially).</span></div></div><div><span style=“font-family: ‘lucida grande’, ‘Lucida Sans Unicode’, tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 1.7em;”><br></span></div><div><span style=“font-family: ‘lucida grande’, ‘Lucida Sans Unicode’, tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 1.7em;”>Do whatever you can to get experience, get in plenty of matches through casuals and find out who you can play with more often outside of the tournament as well.</span></div><div><span style=“font-family: ‘lucida grande’, ‘Lucida Sans Unicode’, tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 1.7em;”><br></span></div><div>“Why did I get hit?” is a good question with many different answers. Make sure you start figuring out those answers from Day 1, even if you need to ask someone else.<span style=“font-family: ‘lucida grande’, ‘Lucida Sans Unicode’, tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 1.7em;”><br></span></div>

I actually won my first tourney

Ive found it helps to get warm up matches against easy players so you begin the tournament with confidence lol<br>

<P>Best Tournament Advice: Most asian people only like playing with other asian people, and every chance they get they’ll speak something other than English just to exclude you…lol</P>

<blockquote class=“Quote”>
<div class=“QuoteAuthor”><a href="/profile/77113/Bob199">Bob199</a> said:</div>
<div class=“QuoteText”> So I’m trying to come up with a guide of things that beginners
should expect when finally making the jump from online warrior to
tourney player. </div>
</blockquote>

lol, tell them that I was right about the netcode.<br>

lol this is awesome.

we can’t all be god tier though, ugo :frowning:

Ask questions if you lose. Most of the time they will tell you how to get around their gimmicks and give you advice on what you should do against their characters

monitor lag… -_- arrive early and play early to adjust.

That I should’ve brought something to stuff the noise.

I had a pretty bad attitude going into my first tournament. Was mega salty the entire time. Repeated exposure to the environment has mellowed me out considerably though. Then again, this is going back to my Melee days.

Don’t play the player, play the character. Kind of like you would normally play online.
You don’t have to prove anything, play as if no one cares about how scrubby you are because, honestly, unless you have already made a name for yourself, no one is going to remember you until you’re good.

bring water, and snacks. Or get ready to buy some. twice.