Competition Competence

I had talked about it a great deal before, but I never mentioned what happened with my Super Smash Brothers Melee tournament through The V Games (www.thevgames.com). Going into the tournament I knew that I didn't have much of a chance of victory, after all to some of these guys these games are there lives. When I first arrived at the tournament and began practicing it became clear where I stood in all of this.

during the practice the guys I was playing against seemed to have very intimate knowledge of the game. Is was as if the majority of them knew every cheat and glitch in the system.

My first match I lost, the fact of the matter was I was out played. This guy was just better, I had no problem with that. He played as Fox McCloud and whomped me yay verily. The main advantage he had was that he knew how to fall through platforms without landing on them (glitch in the game).

My second match was against a little kid, I won, but it felt kind of hollow. This little guy was in the tournament because his older brother was, he didn't stand a chance.

My third match was a loss in the most upsetting of means. The reason was that I shouldn't have lost. I was playing against another kid, slightly older than the last, and for the most part we were evenly matched. This didn't bother me in the least, after all, I wanted a good match and it was. Unfortunately I didn't get to play at my best. While I was playing his older brothers came over and began shouting while I was playing. As events like this go, you expect to hear yelling and cheering. But these guys were doing it to distract me. Every match they were yelling in my ear and trying to taunt me. "I can't believe you let him hit you," "man you're not very good at this," or "this guy sucks." with them yelling and at times actually bumping me I couldn't focus and I made too many mistakes. I wouldn't have had a problem with losing to this kid, but not like this.

At the end of the tournament was stewing, it wasn't that I lost, it was that I was cheated out of my game.

But the other thing that kept ringing through my mind about the tournament was how I played. I shouldn't have been outed so quickly, but I knew why. The entire time I was practicing for the tournament I didn't have any human competition. None of my friends play video games, and no one wanted to learn. I played against the machine, but all that did was teach me how to play against a machine. I haven't really played since because I know practice won't amount to anything. I want to compete again, but I need real people to play against.

After years of searching I'm starting to give up on the idea of finding a sparing partner. It's a simple case of cause and effect, I can't compete if I can't practice, and I can't practice if there's no one to play, and there's no one to play.

It's never easy to watch the things you're good at slip through your fingers, but it's even harder when you never had a chance. I know I have the potential, it's the means to achieve it that I lack.




Exile

Original_exile@hotmail.com