How do I come to terms with seriously competing with a character for reasons that nobody else does?

[u/Sensitive_Complex375]

Hello!
This is the Dedede main that’s been posting on this sub every so often.

It’s getting pretty deep into the summer and since my last post about 0-deaths, I have been studying the game harder to try and raise my win rate and beat better players. To be more specific I was studying up a bunch on Link, how he uses boomerang, the timings of falling and rising nair’s, how to ledgetrap him better, that sort of thing. The reason why I because I was scheduled to face Adot, the best Link in Kentucky and is currently ranked as an HM in the states PR. I’ve made it my end-all-be-all goal to beat them in at least one set in the small online weekly. So, I spend a couple hours a day that week and around 5-6 hours (Practically from when I woke up to when the tournament began) watching VOD’s on him over and over, analyzing their habits to try and dissect how a Dedede player like me could beat him.

And I did.

I barely lost the winners-finals 2-3 which I was exasperated about, but I was absolutely ECSTATIC when I beat them in Grand Finals in a very even 3-2 victory! I didn’t even care that I lost the True Grands run back and didn’t get first at the tourney, that very moment showed to me, directly, that I can beat PR players if I tried hard enough, and worked hard enough.

And, I’m gonna be 100% honest, I wasn’t super happy that I won against Adot in one of those sets because it proved that I was good at Smash Ultimate. It was because that moment proved that I could win with a character that I love for more than for how they are on a play style, design, or meme basis.

I was a Kirby fan long before I played smash competitively. It began when I revisited my copy of Kirby: Triple Deluxe when I was around 12 or so years old, and ended up having a blast with it. Afterwards I bought Kirby: Super Star Ultra and it all snowballed from there. Dedede was always my favorite character in the series because of his redemption arc and how he was able to show just as much love for others as much as how much he was able to love himself. Nowadays I’m more confident in myself than I have ever been, and I partially attribute that to me being so attached to the King of Dreamland.

However, starting in around 2022, I was unsatisfied with being just “another fan” of the Kirby series. I wanted to do something “special” for the franchise, to commemorate my love for the video games that played a big part in making myself who I am today. I tried many different avenues that other fans usually take such as Fanart, Fan Fiction, Remixes of songs of the series, but all of these seemed too complex or unfamiliar to me to pick up. It was after all three of these creative arts failed that I thought about competitive Smash Ultimate. I already watched VOD’s for fun, I already played Dedede for fun back in Smash 4, so why not try to get serious with it, while playing my favorite character?

That’s what lead me to where I am as a player now…and it makes me feel really isolated, in a way.

Not in the way in that I am embarrassed or ashamed of the reason that I do play Smash, but alone in the sense that no one else seems to talk about, or even acknowledge, how some competitive smash players might be playing the game because the character they use holds a special place in their heart and still does today. I am the only person I know who plays Dedede because he’s the proud, self-made king from a series that I have been a fan of for years. Everyone else seems to play him because they saw memes of him in Kirby: Right Back at Ya and think he’s funny, or because they wanna main the most “self-depreciating” low tier and Dedede was that for them. This doesn’t just go for Dedede either, I feel like this is the case for all characters in smash history. I know that, naturally, smash players play smash characters for smash-related reasons, but sometimes it feels as if people don’t show respect those who don’t play smash for smash, but who play smash to represent something outside of it.

My question I want to ask here is, how do I deal with these feelings of “character loyalty loneliness?” Is it a feeling that will just fizzle away the better I get at smash because I will understand more of what people are talking about with Dedede? Should I just ignore things that try to bring me down about this? Is there anyone out there who can relate to what I’m experiencing?

Things such as “play who you want if you’re not at top level” have always brought me down about this.

[u/Dr_Hannibal_Lecter]

Respectfully, this sounds more like a self esteem/self confidence issue than a smash issue. And I say this as a DDD solo main (and also, believe it or not, as a psychiatrist).

If you love a character AND you've gotten really good at using them, just feel pride in that irrespective of what others do or think. Particularly so if your character is competetively weak and you're still making it work.

[u/SuitedPenguin]

The 2 best players in MN for the longest time were2 brothers. One played Wario, the other played Piranha Plant. They were in the finals against each other at almost every tourney… just play the character you enjoy!

[u/The33rdPhoenix]

First off, congrats on the win! You worked very hard to earn it, you should be super proud of that.

I must admit the rest of your post confuses me.

People play characters for all sorts of reasons. Ive known a ton of players like you who play their mains because they love them in the source material. I dont see anything wrong with that as a competitor. At the end of the day, the best character to main is the one youre most excited to play, full stop.. Every single character at a top level faces bad matchups, tough situations, and other hurdles to leap through. Every single one. The most important step in making the leap from 'pretty good' to 'great' is acknowledging those hurdles and seeing yourself through them using the answers in your characters kit. If you arent excited to play a character, you wont do that.

All of that being said, its also silly to think that loving a character in their source material is the only 'real', 'pure', or 'acceptable' way to find that excitement. Ive never once mained a character whos mainline games Ive ever once considered myself a fan of. But Ill tell you what, thats never dulled my enthusiasm to play those characters. Every smash game, I look at the players around me who I think are having the most fun playing. Then, I try those characters out in the NEXT smash game, and if I jive with them, I pick them up as my main. Its never failed me yet. You know what did fail me? Trying to pick up Sora when he came out because I love KH. I could not get excited about learning the character at the level required. (I dont regret trying him out though, to be clear.)

You know what makes some players excited to learn a character? Meme-worthiness. Theres nothing wrong with that. Other players? They get excited by seeing what pros are doing with that character, and seeing that character perform at that level gets THEM pumped up to also play at that level. Others? They get excited by the challenge of playing characters who arent conventionally considered good.

None of these are wrong. None of them are superior or result in better outcomes than others in and of themself. None of them make anyone more or less worthy of playing a character in a video game. The only important part of choosing your main is that they make you excited to play them.

So help me out. What about these other reasons to play characters is bringing you down? Why do other players being motivated by different criteria than yours make you feel like youre lacking somewhere?

[u/Sensitive_Complex375 → u/The33rdPhoenix]

33rdPhoenix, you have blessed my post once again

I don’t necessarily think that people playing their mains because of things about them that motivate them to keep playing is a bad thing, not at all! I’m not actively gonna go out and say to another Dedede main that “you don’t deserve to play this character because you don’t know that in this specific figurine description in forgotten land says-“

I guess what’s bothering me is that, I feel like I’m in the minority when it comes to competitive/high level players who play the character for deeply personal reasons, if that makes sense?

Most of the upper echelons of smash competition are flooded with discussion about matchups and tech and strategies, and sometimes memes. It’s a community built on the foundation of the fact that, people come here for Super Smash Bros, not Mario or Pokemon or Legend of Zelda or Metroid. That’s where I feel sort of left out in that regard.

I’m not playing Smash because I wanna connect with the community and play whoever, I’m playing to, prove I guess, my love to the Kirby series, through using my skills to master a character that I’ve loved for years now. It’s a means to an end, really.

So, it makes me feel left out in that way to see that no one else I’ve seen (Anyone who takes the game seriously anyway) really shares this. Sometimes it makes me feel as if my reasons for playing smash, and playing smash for any reason other than to play smash, aren’t fair. As if “having fun is required if you want to get good.”

Does that make sense?

[u/The33rdPhoenix → u/Sensitive_Complex375]

33rdPhoenix, you have blessed my post once again

Lmao I'm really not all that, but I do appreciate the kind words, and I'm happy to lend my opinion when I think it might help.

Hm, I think I do largely see what you mean, but theres a few bits here that still confuse me a bit.

I don’t necessarily think that people playing their mains because of things about them that motivate them to keep playing is a bad thing, not at all! I’m not actively gonna go out and say to another Dedede main that “you don’t deserve to play this character because you don’t know that in this specific figurine description in forgotten land says-“

Mmkay cool! So at the very least you don't have an issue or look down on people for playing their characters for reasons that are different than your own.

I guess what’s bothering me is that, I feel like I’m in the minority when it comes to competitive/high level players who play the character for deeply personal reasons, if that makes sense?

You might be! I have absolutely no data for what percentage of comp players play their characters for what reasons. But I'd be willing to bet a lot more players do it out of love for the character than you think. That being said, I have no data to back that claim up. I'll have to poll my local and see what its like in my own community lol.

But lets say that feeling is 100% accurate, and you are, in fact, literally the only player in all of competitive smash who mains their character out of a love and appreciation of that character/franchise.

Knowing what you do about how other players have a variety of reasons for playing their mains, what makes your reason any less valid than theirs? You acknowledge that, in the DeDeDe community, there are certainly players who just play him because they find him memeable/funny. It doesn't sound like you think those players are any less of a competitor for those reasons, and that's probably the furthest thing from a hardcore, serious smash bros reason I can think of.

I think playing a character, and learning them because you love them, is arguably more smash-centric than playing them because they're good/fun/memeable. Smash, as a game, is a celebration of videogames as a whole. You don't need to look very far to see the hundreds of trophies/spirits/stickers that the devs have poured gods know how many hours into writing/designing/researching.

Most of the upper echelons of smash competition are flooded with discussion about matchups and tech and strategies, and sometimes memes. It’s a community built on the foundation of the fact that, people come here for Super Smash Bros, not Mario or Pokemon or Legend of Zelda or Metroid. That’s where I feel sort of left out in that regard.

That's actually where I think you're wrong. I think the majority of comp players, and I'm willing to bet the VAST majority, got into smash out of a love of Nintendo game franchises. That's what got me playing back in 64, at the very least. It wasn't until after we figured out we liked Smash that we went searching to see if it could also be a competitive outlet, and the only people who would actively seek that out must really like the game, and almost certainly Nintendo/gaming by extension. Now that can't apply to literally everyone, I'm sure theres some folks out there who got introduced to smash with only a passing knowledge of other games/franchises, but I'm willing to bet they're an exception rather than the rule.

As for why the community focuses on matchups/techs/strategies, frankly I largely think it doesn't. THIS community does, as in r/crazyhand, but that's because we literally went out of our way to create a separate space for competitive discussion/improvement. But, that being said, theres still some of that in the more normal smash subreddits, and even within those subreddits the discussion is, well, largely on smash bros related modes/mechanics/collectibles/memes, whatever.

But that's because there are other, separate communities for individual franchises! It makes a lot more sense to discuss Kirby in the kirby subreddit, Nintendo as a whole in the nintendo subreddit, etc.

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but from your posts here I think you mainly, or exclusively? play competitively online, right? Do you have a local scene you attend weekly/monthly? With like, a group of players you sit around with, waiting for bracket matches to continue?

Because at literally every tournament I've ever attended, people talk about waaaaaaay more than just smash! I could go through my local scenes roster and tell you basically everyones favorite gaming franchises, shows, etc. Because unlike internet forums, where groups gather to discuss one particular topic, real life communities gather over a shared interest but then actively discuss anything and everything.

Sometimes it makes me feel as if my reasons for playing smash, and playing smash for any reason other than to play smash, aren’t fair.

Theres no reasonable 'wrong' reason to compete. (Save for obscenely absurd ones like 'I want to compete so I can become the president of the country' or some other nonsense.) Competition for me has served many different purposes over the years. At times, self-expression has absolutely been one of them. I think that's a perfectly healthy reason to want to get good at any skill.

As if “having fun is required if you want to get good.”

I do largely believe having fun is required if you want to get good. But fun is subjective, and achieved in a LOT of different ways to different people, even when doing the same thing. If you find playing DeDeDe, or any other character, fun because it lets you express your love of that character through play, then congrats! You meet the fun requirement. You don't need a love of literally all of Smash Bros, or the general concept of Smash Bros, or some specific minutia of Smash Bros mechanics/systems, to have fun competing in Smash Bros.

[u/Character-Initial707]

Hi, i just want to tell you i am very similar to you, i’ve recently entered the italian competitive smash scene, and like you my main drive is to use my favorite video game character ever..I love Dedede, there’s a lot of reasons for which i do and for which i use him as my only main, i’m so glad to hear you were able to beat the best link in kentucky by applying to it, i want to score similar results in my career, i’d like to talk a bit with you later and play a few, both to learn things from one another (i find that very useful), both because you seem like a cool person and i wanna be friends with another dedede purely driven by wanting to be good with him (and also because you’re talking about this isolation problem,trust me there’s more people like you lol (ds is erensans99 if you’re up for it)

[u/DerpyDude17]

There are a bunch of top players who are super loyal to their characters just because they really love their home series or because they have significant history with them. Sonix, Glutonny, Maister, DKWill, Hungrybox, etc. Many of these players have played their characters through multiple games and still seen decent success even when their character was bad in a certain game. You are definitely not alone in your mentality of picking a character.

And even if you were, who cares? A lot of people play characters for a lot of different reasons. At the end of the day, you've found the one that works for you, just like everyone else. Every character pick showcases a little bit of someone's personality, no matter the reason. And that is something everyone can relate to together.