This should be an excellent topic to ease into the idea of writing posts here.

My relationship with the game Super Smash Bros. Melee has changed a lot over the years. At first, it served as an escape from life during COVID-19 – a way to kill time and have fun with friends online. Then, I had an outlet for socialisation as I slowly interacted with my local scene in Scotland. Before long, Melee was a source of competitive drive and motivation for improvement — entering tournaments, travelling across the country and sometimes the world, and practising every day to improve.

But for the longest time, Melee and I have been at odds. My motivation declined as I hit many of the benchmarks I set for myself when I started playing. My reasons for playing the game came from somewhere less driven and necessary. I hardly practised, and when I did, I never implemented new ideas or tried to improve. It was easy to resign myself to a shell of the competitor I was a few years ago.

Recently, that all changed. After weeks of coaching a handful of newer players in my local scene, my curiosity and love for the game are blooming more now than ever. I genuinely love Melee in a way I hadn’t acknowledged in a long time.

Now, I will talk about the game to anyone who listens. I have been practising daily, not with a goal or achievement in mind, but simply to become a better player. It has been the most fulfilling and productive Melee experience ever. It had been easy to get wrapped up in the winning and losing, trapped on the runaway train of “I need to work on this because I’m bad at it”, but having the feeling of “I want to work on this because I’m bad at it” has brought back those giddy feelings that I felt when I was fighting for my life to make it out of pools. For the first time in a long time, I am trying to get better at Melee, and it feels so damn good.