Smash Analysis #1: The Emotional Roller Coaster in Match Review

Note: There is a video version of this on my Youtube Channel, which has been shortened and given examples. Here it is:

For better or for worse, because of the advent of Twitch and Youtube, we have next to unlimited matches of ourselves playing tournaments. And this can be good for those of us who want to improve. Match review seems like a skill that top players advocate and it is definitely catching on. However, many people aren’t as good at reviewing matches as they good be, partly due to the emotional weight we tie to our matches. We deal with constant bouts of euphoria and dysphoria when competing, and limiting those rollercoasters can be important to consistency.

When it comes to reliving the past, watching a past victory is a way to relieve pleasant memories. Feeling good about yourself, in moderate amounts and not narcissistically, is a good self-care habit. We see the things we do well, we relive the feeling of performing well, and ultimately it is an enjoyable experience. As long as we are satisfied with the play, then watching a past victory is almost unilaterally enjoyed. Especially if there is a higher emotional weight to the match, like a comeback or an upset. However, if we focus too much on the feeling, then we can lose sight of the interactions that made the match play out the way it did. Rather than analyzing with a detached perspective, we relive how amazing it felt to make that decision.

Very few people willingly relive memories that have a negative emotional weight, such as a past loss that you feel strongly about. A match where you were upset, an important match versus a rival, an important set at a large tournament; all these scenarios that would have had a large euphoric payoff with a win are now dreadfully dysphoric. However, reviewing these sets could be compared to working out. It can be painful and easy to resist, but it has a large payoff in the long run, and you will feel good after having done it. It’s easy to feel sad when we make mistakes or flub tech skill, but it’s a lot harder to think about the implications of our errors and learn from them. We make many more mistakes in matches we lose, and therefore those matches become more valuable for analysis.

Rather than feeling every such way about a match, when you are reviewing it, focus on the interactions and the decision-making that occurs. Let’s say you see yourself hitting a mixup. If you feel particularly good about hitting that mixup, think about why it happened. The same thing applies to getting hit by a mixup. Beating yourself up for losses or a mistake is an extremely common tendency in the competitive Smash community. And that is unnecessary, especially when you don’t gain anything from it. If you feel bad about it, just acknowledge that it happens, and consider what you can do to fix it. If your recovery keeps getting read, work on your recovery mixups. If your out-of-shield-game is lacking, practice your out-of-shield game. The good thing about Smash is the skill progressions are very linear. If you notice you’re lacking in something gameplay related, you can immediately start putting in the steps to make yourself less bad at it.

Humans are emotional beings and it is completely normal to feel a myriad of emotions during set review. However, save the emotional rollercoasters for the gameplay itself. Don’t review matches for the emotional payoff. Review them for gameplay. And then watch yourself improve.