Smash Bros Ultimate: A Competitive Guide to Help you Improve and Win

By Jonathan Martin

Want to get better at Smash Bros?

From Elite Smasher and former Tournament Organizer Jonathan ‘Qualk’ Martin comes Smash Bros Ultimate: A Competitive Guide to Help you Improve and Win. This book is exactly what you need to take your Smash game to the next level. In it you will find:

•A Step-by-step guide to picking a Main
•How to practice effectively and forge muscle memory
•A comprehensive list of advanced tech and how to master each one
•How to prepare for and do well in tournaments
•How to analyze your own matches to instantly improve
•And much more!

There’s no need to watch a thousand YouTube videos or pay hundreds of dollars for coaching sessions. If you follow the strategies in this book you are guaranteed to discover what you need to do to improve based on your specific strengths and weaknesses!

Whether you want to win more tournaments, unlock Elite Smash, or just stomp your friends mercilessly, this book has everything you need to know all in one place!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jonathan Martin
• Release date: May 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463883433

Jonathan Martin

First of all, who am I? I’ve been playing Smash since 64 and was active in the competitive community when Brawl released. I was a TO (Tournament Organizer) in college and also entered my fair share of tournaments, even winning one. Smash 4 released at about the time I got married and I decided to take a break from the scene. Now, with Ultimate’s release, I’ve found my passion for Smash rekindled and I have been attending tournaments, playing online, voraciously consuming Smash videos on YouTube and writing about all things Smash. I concede that I am not a pro-player, but this is not a guide on how to become a pro-player, this is a guide on how to level-up your Smash skill and accomplish your own personal goals in Smash and in life.

Book preview

Smash Bros Ultimate

A Competitive Guide to Help you Improve and Win

By Jonathan ‘Qualk’ Martin

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 – The Basics

Chapter 2 – Where do you stand?

Chapter 3 – How to Practice

Chapter 4 – Jazz or Classical?

Chapter 5 – Understanding Neutral

Chapter 6 – Tournament Preparation

Chapter 7 – How to Analyze your Matches

Chapter 8 – Tournament Day

Chapter 9 – Zoom Out

Conclusion

Introduction

Well met fellow Smashers! First off, I’d like to thank everyone who purchased my book! In the following pages you’ll learn how to get better at Smash, how to have the right mindset for improving, how to practice effectively, and how to make the most of tournaments. This is not a clickbait; there aren’t 5 Secrets to Becoming a Smash God. Getting better at Smash at a high level requires hard work, determination and won’t happen overnight. However, simply reading this book and putting it into practice will set you on the path to accomplishing your Smash goals faster. It’s my hope that anyone from a total Smash noob, to a seasoned tournament veteran will find useful strategies and tactics that they can incorporate to help progress. Furthermore, even if Smash is not your preferred game, many of these chapters apply to any fighting game or tournament environment you may find yourself in.

First of all, who am I? I’ve been playing Smash since 64 and was active in the competitive community when Brawl released. I was a TO (Tournament Organizer) in college and also entered my fair share of tournaments, even winning one. Smash 4 released at about the time I got married and I decided to take a break from the scene. Now, with Ultimate’s release, I’ve found my passion for Smash rekindled and I have been attending tournaments, playing online, voraciously consuming Smash videos on YouTube and writing about all things Smash. I concede that I am not a pro-player, but this is not a guide on how to become a pro-player, this is a guide on how to level-up your Smash skill and accomplish your own personal goals in Smash and in life.

This leads into the central question that I hope this book will help you answer: What do you want out of Smash? Do you want to dominate your local tournament scene? Do you want to be better than all your friends? Do you want Smash to help you be less socially awkward? Set a broad goal for yourself and write it down. This is not a tournament-specific goal; this is a long-term goal that you will strive towards throughout the time that you play the game.

Chapter 1 – The Basics

This chapter is mostly geared towards newer players, but I would encourage veteran Smashers to give it a read as well, there may be some option or setting that you didn’t know about or some way to optimize your control settings. We’ll go over the different types of controllers, settings, and button mapping in addition to a step-by-step guide on how to choose a main if you haven’t already or if you’re thinking of switching.

Controllers

Smash can be played many different ways: A single joy-con, dual joy-cons, a Switch pro controller, a Gamecube controller, or a Switch Gamecube controller. Single Joy-Con and dual Joy-Con is simply not recommended. The controller itself as well as the buttons are very small which can cause difficulty in executing some of the more nuanced techniques and can cause your hands to cramp up after a long session of playing. Whether you decide to go with a Switch pro controller, a Gamecube controller, or a Switch Gamecube controller is mostly a matter of personal preference but there are a few pros and cons to each which I’ll go over below.

Photo courtesy: bestbuy.com

Switch pro controller – This is an all-around solid controller and seems to be the go-to controller option for people coming from fighting games on other consoles (this controller has the most similarity to the Xbox and PS4 controllers). This controller has the added benefit of an additional shoulder button (ZL) over the Gamecube controller which allows you more flexibility when assigning your controls. A potential disadvantage of this controller is that the control stick border is a smooth circle instead of octagonal. Some people prefer this, but it can make it harder to perform precise skills like angling tilt and smash attacks.

Photo courtesy: Walmart.com

Gamecube controller – This is my personal preference, and also the most common for the scene as a whole. Most people who played previous Smash games did so with this bad boy. The biggest advantage this controller has over the others is the familiarity aspect.

Photo courtesy: target.com

Switch Gamecube controller – On first glance this looks the same as the Gamecube controller but there are a few key differences. One is the addition of the home and screenshot buttons present on the Joy-Cons which doesn’t affect the gameplay but is a good quality of life improvement over the regular Gamecube controller. You’ll also notice the D-pad is slightly larger. And it has an additional shoulder button (ZL) just like the pro controller so this is the best option for people who want the additional button the pro controller has to offer, but don’t want to give up the muscle memory they’ve forged by using the Gamecube controller for years.

Once you decide on your controller it’s important that you stick with it (with the exception of switching from Gamecube to Switch Gamecube or visa-versa) in order to develop the muscle-memory needed to play fluidly. Your brain needs to go seamlessly from I need to spot-dodge, grab, and then down-throw to your hands doing it without any delay. Finding your comfort controller is imperative.

Note: All of the above controllers have a wired or wireless option (even the old Gamecube controllers had the Wavebird wireless variant).