Why You're NOT Improving at Smash 

“A lot of people want to be the best but not a lot of people want to become the best” is the dopest fucking quote ever

the takeaway I got from this video is "everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, nobody wants to lift no heavy ass weights"

There's a lot of joy and self-growth that comes from improving at anything, even if you don't get close to becoming #1 at it

I'm an aggressive skater and I recently got sponsored by a pretty big company for the first time. And its definitly true, people only see the results and not the effort u have to put into it first. Everyone tells me hey u got really good of course u got sponsored! But they dont see the grind of skating like 4 times a week for about 5 years, constantly getting hurt and pushing ur body to its limits. Its all worth it for me though, I just love it and I always did. From the outside it all looks so easy and smooth but u will always remember how often u fell down just trying to get a trick. Knowing that makes it even better cause u always know where u started from. (Not gaming related, I know, but this applies to almost everything)

I love hearing you talking about improvement, I feel is one of the best things you're qualified to say

everybody gangsta until armada turns into a motivation channel

Zain is the perfect example. Dude grinded so fucking hard to get to where he is now. The epitome of hard work to become the best

i feel like a hard part about improving is the fear of facing your weaknesses, knowing that i’m not good at something used to discourage me and i didnt think i could ever be someone who would improve at something, i’ve been able to overcome this by forcing myself out of my own comfort zone so i can practice something small and see improvements

Hey Armada, hope you read this but if not then no worries. I think I just need to write it. When I got into melee I said I wanted to be the best but just didn't put the work in, so I decided to stop pretending I was taking it seriously and switch to writing video game music. Now my long term goal is simply to write a lot of music, but I'm producing very slowly, and learning a decent amount but rarely applying what I learn. I think what holds me back (in both music and melee) is some fear of failure which I don't fully understand. I've considered that it's just laziness, but then the question becomes "Why am I lazy when I don't want to be lazy?" or "What makes one lazy?" Maybe I'm using these analytical questions to escape the raw feeling of shame I might otherwise feel for being lazy. I don't know! The mind is so complicated. I can also see that I might just be telling myself it's complicated so I have an excuse not to do anything, so there are constantly new layers of laziness that I don't know about hahaha Have you ever been a person that kept trying to escape the pressure and responsibility you put on yourself, or have you always had the attitude of rising to the challenge? Thanks

Amazing gameplay Armada, your Mario is in another level! Go ahead!

Really well explained and you are more than enough qualified for this kind of topic to speak about.

I love this video and your choice of words here. Very well said

im not sure if this is a thing that gets dedicated time on the twitch channel but i would definitely watch a just chatting segment of your stream. not sure the average viewer count either but like the thought and commitment to answering Chat's questions as well (based off sub goal) as a less than overwhelming chat flow would be interactive and thought provoking. just an all around good time :P man's so focused instead of reseting you might as well just chill for a second and give it your full attention. great video btw really enjoyed it. :D

This really put some of my shortcomings as a melee player into perspective. Guess that I really didn't try as hard as I could have to achieve my goals, and maybe that's okay as long as I can settle for enjoying the time I do choose to put in to the game.

“The better you get the harder it is take each new step” that’s a really damn good quote I’m saving it. Really good reflection Armada

This was really helpful as an aspiring player. Thanks a lot Armada

...shit. You really got me thinking now after this video. Thanks, Armada.

Something that's helped me tremendously in fighting games is learning to recognize my own mistakes when I do it. For example: Incineroar's spinning neutral b might get you a lot of cheese and low/mid level players might struggle to punish it online, but eventually you'll reach a point where every opponent will punish it every time. The more you say to yourself "my opponent should have punished that" the less cheese you'll go for.

Fantastic content!

Great discussion

Thanks

Hey Armada, what is it about 70 star that keeps you playing, why not 16 or 120?

Are you going to use this mindset to compete in Project +?

I guess this doesn't apply as much to video games, but I find another insidious factor in this kind of thing is when other people like parents have that kind of extravagant hope for you and it's them who aren't being honest about what they want, and you have no control over it.

I just want to be able do what I want at a high level or just well enough to enjoy what I like.

Hi Armada, I discovered you and your work thanks to a French video made by a guy named Bronol, that retrace the history of Melee's gods, and his vid about you was amazing. What you accomplished was incredible, and I think what you did during this period was so brillant. Have you seen this video? If yes, what did you think about it ?

as a wise man once said: "First try idiot" 2:37

Being Celeste Speedrunner is very hard because it is so similar running everytime, Like if u make 1 mistake u need to start over again and make 0 mistakes. I think that Mario 64 is one of the hardest Speedrunned game bcs it is so long run u need to make... Am i right?

Armada would get a life threatening disease and be like "I should've had a better mindset"

Why does Super Mario 64 look better on your CRT than HD? O_o

I think you should want to improve. You should only want it because you love the game. You should want to play because you love the game and enjoy playing. I think becoming really good at it should just be a side note.

You should always try built never expect anything at all.

I don't play Melee, only Ultimate, and I'm not even wanting to get good, I'm just enjoying the game. But I clicked on this video because there are other things, art and Japanese specifically, that I do want to be good at. I'll admit, when it comes to art/illustration stuff, I just want to 'be' good most of the time, but I still know I have to put the work in regardless. There are times where I'm feeling very motivated and determined, and want to 'become' good, so I feel excited to practice and study, and it feels ridiculously rewarding when I do something that impresses myself. And with Japanese, I feel I am closer to 'want to become good' than 'be good'. I'm not a god at art, or Japanese, but I have learned a fair bit on how to get good at stuff, and it really is all down to your mental. Almost everything in life can be learned. They are skills. Talent might exist, but it only really acts as a exp multiplier, or a higher starting base level (if that makes sense). At the end of the day, talented people still had to put in hours to get good. My art has definitely been tougher for me because I feel I am naturally not good at picking things up, and I keep comparing myself to others both in quality and speed/progress and time spent learning. That comment at 00:36 is super true, because often my frustrations, after they wear down, or my big anxiety and stress spikes of feeling I'm 'falling behind' other artists' learning speeds can propel me into a lot of motivation. And another thing I think I'm quite blessed to have mentally is the ability to just not quit, because I know I'd feel more disappointed in myself, and for much longer, if I quit these hobbies than if I kept on as I am. Sure I suck (imo), but someday I'll get to a level hopefully I am happy with. I definitely agree with a lot of people not realising the effort and time that goes into things in life. Many people who give up, or drop out of schools/programmes to improve at something, generally have that mental. And thats completely fine if you realise "maybe I don't actually want to be good at X as I thought I did", but if that thought of "man I wish I was good at X" is always on your mind, maybe you do really want that, and you should build up a tougher mental and strong discpline and just give it your all and never look back.

Kinda funny, I feel like its so easy to know that "becoming the best" or just improvement in general requires effort and to be the best A LOT OF EFFORT. It's exactly why I struggle to feel improvement or any motivation whatsoever anyway because I know that if I don't put a lot of effort into it or already I'm not *that* motivated anyway - why even try improving at something or "attempt" to get good at it by actively trying. I just feel bad at everything because all I do is just absorb guides or videos and hit an average level tier or slightly above and fail to improve anything further, happens everytime so it's a huge mental block. Wish just having fun and saying "I wanna be the best at X" would be easy :) Playing video games really sucks if you're struggling to have fun or improve because you can't fully go either way. Being depressed is propably part of it.

Shitty regions? What did he meant?

You stopped going to tourney so what does that make you?

My god i'm in the first 1000 views!! OMG!!

it's all about natural skill

I don't think Armada has the right mindset to ever beat Hungrybox's Jigglypuff with Peach, unlike Llod

But really you want to do this with competitive games, like fighting games, and not with, like, party games. 🤣🤣🤣

But armada you don’t play melee anymore you stopped improving

melee got tough and you quit tho