My last games of For Glory before Ultimate comes out

So Ultimate comes out in 2 days. I took Friday off from work so I could spend a big 3 and a half day weekend with my girlfriend welcoming the new game with open arms, so naturally she and I will be playing Smash 4 a lot tomorrow in preparation for it. But tonight... Tonight I wanted to do something I haven’t done in a hot minute. I went on For Glory. I have mostly played Smash 4 locally with friends for the better part of half a year now, briefly going on FG for literally a match or two. I didn’t get the game on Wii U until it was about a year old because I had the 3DS version and that was “good enough for me”. My friends saw what my life was lacking and pulled together to buy Smash 4 for me for my birthday. When I first got the Wii U version, just like with the 3DS version, I wanted to have a really great win record on FG. And when I would lose to the combination of people who play this game better than me and the kid using Walmart WiFi down the road I would get angry. I let losing this fun game cut into my pride. I pride myself on being really good at smash. I know I’m not amazing, my tech skill is so-so. But that feeling of knowing my friends are going to meet me in grand finals in our little basement tournaments filled me with a sense of accomplishment. So when I would struggle on FG it would make me so mad I would have to put the game down before I hurt myself. No, not like... that but like punching my computer chair until my knuckles hurt. So I just fell out of that masochistic cycle by stopping my online smash exploits. But tonight was really my last shot, my swan song to this game’s online. I had a win rate of 53% and I told myself I would get that up to a 55% as my farewell to this game. I played. I won. I lost. Most importantly though, I had fun. I recognized when I made mistakes and adapted, and sometimes I still got bodied. I feel like some games were close, and others were not so much, but I was letting go of my pride and really enjoying this game I love so much. My win rate at the end of the night sits at 54.23% and that’s fine by me. Sure, I got a little tilted by some harsh lag, but I’m only human. I love this game and I love smash so much. And it felt great to have one last good string of online experiences before we move on to the next game.

I play all the smash games, but I feel like Smash 4 was the first game for me where I could really find my stride as a player. It was after Smash 4 came out that I dabbled in Melee and learned more about the neutral and how to actually play this game at the next level. But I went back to Smash 4 because something about it felt right. Maybe in my bones I knew the next game would take this game I love, build upon it and give me... The ultimate experience.

I rambled here a bit, but if you read this whole thing I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a part of this amazing community I love, playing these games we all love. And I’ll see you in Ultimate!