Parallels between Super Smash Bros. and Goby Ultimate

One of the many sources of bro-ing out for the Bloggers is a videogame. It's called Super Smash Bros. Perhaps you have heard of it.

Super Smash is not your usual, feeble, mindless videogame, meant to corrupt the mind. No, it's actually been proven to strengthen ones reflexes, and exercise the mind, increase resourcefulness, and develop killer instinct.

I'll give you a few examples of how we use this seemingly recreational event to train for Regionals. Be advised, this is not for the faint, and some experience in "Smashing" is recommended.

1) Match-ups. In the world of elite Smashing, your choice of a character with respect to your opponents' may decide the game before it is played. For example, King Dedede has an infinite chain grab on characters like Ness. If you get locked into it, you're done. What does this mean? You have to counterpick your characters properly, especially when starting on offense. On the ultimate field this translates to O/D lines. You cant put a chump O player out there to play against the best defenders on the other team. You'll get rocked ever time.

2) Mind games. There is a game within the game of Smash to be played, a sort of virtual chess match during a battle that you need to monitor at all times. This is known as the "metagame" among avid gamers. For example, you dont always attack from the same spot on the stage, you change up your timing, approaches, and vary your attack combos. This has profound effects on the Ultimate field, especially for me as a handler. We're always playing mindgames on the field. The simplest of these are obviously fakes, but it's deeper than that. For example, sometimes I like to go deep, sometimes I like to cut instead of handle, sometimes I play D in the cup, sometimes I play short deep. I try and always change up my play style, so they cant "camp" me. Right now I'm working on an even more advanced metagame...hoping to have it ready by Northcoast...more on that later...

3) Strong Fundamentals - You cant overlook fundamentals in Smash. You gotta know how to shield grab, jump with x/y, L-cancel, power shield, etc. Everyone knows how to "smash buttons" (analogy: throw a disc as hard as you can). What makes a good player is strong fundamentals, doing the simple things consistently, and never messing the easy things up. In Smash, Andy reminds me of this all the time when he looks at me with his quirky face and says "Q, that was preettttyyy standard", when he shield grabs me, or edgehogs me. You bet he says that on the field too when he breaks people, or gets me on an in cut.

Former Goby Evan is looking over my shoulder telling me to wrap up the post, I could go on about the parallels between the two games, but you get the point. We treat Smashing as a form of cross-training. Feel free to challenge any of us at anytime, before or after practice, of course.

- Q