Yesterday, March 4th, marks the first anniversary of Pyra/Mythra in Smash. And with that, I’ve felt like reflecting upon everything that’s happened this past year. And oh boy is my head all over the place lol.
This year made me realize: this past decade I’ve been living a lie. DK DOESN’T TEACH FUNDIES AND MY FUNDIES ARE TRASH.
It felt like despite how long I’ve competed, I was starting all over again from scratch. My Aegis was consistently moving in and out of Elite Smash for maybe two months lol.
BUT THAT’S OKAY. WE LEARN, WE MOVE.
But holy WOW. This transition made me realize how defensive all my previous characters were, not just my DK. I started with Brawl Pika, who relied on thunderjolts; s4 Diddy with banana; Ult Daisy with turnips; Min Min, nuff said.
How to mash……
How to aggress… in a game where commitment is trash… with a char with pretty much all aerials being shield grabbable unless you have perfect spacing in a game with 98237428917439 moves that hurtbox shift. This is still a learning process.
Let’s also take away all the actual brain dead things DK had, that I finally have to learn in this game LOL
- Reaction tech chasing (no more grounded down b)
- Killing without grabbing at ledge at 100
- No armor
- No 0 to deaths with just one read
- Having half the range with Mythra
- Having the same range with Pyra, but with double the startup
- Precision using 1/4th of DK’s active frames
- Not dying at 0 because I put myself in the corner (because DK is fat, this never really happened unless I was maybe at 80%+, plus DK reversaling with cargo throw is broken so good players simply wouldn’t engage)
Aside from bnbs, I still feel like playing Mythra is unnatural. If I’m not in a flow state, I feel like a 1-2er. Outside of this flow state, I default to my DK-esque playstyle, which doesn’t work at all. (My autopilot Pyra is fine though, fortunately, great even tbh). Flow state Mythra however is absolutely beautiful and I love how well I can play with her. I actually feel like a god and feel like dropping DK was absolutely the right choice. Unfortunately reaching this flow state has been excruciatingly difficult for me.
The sunk time cost of learning the game in 2020… feels like a waste. Spent the first year of COVID breaking down a ton of matchups, maybe like 20+ chars, as DK. And with how different DK and Aegis are, only ~10% carries over, because DK is fundamentally flawed so he has to get creative in how to handle most situations in this game, which allows him to keep up with the rest of the cast. This was 200+ pages of notes wasted 💀 The video below is just half of my notes that’ve been made public to DK Discord — for one character.
“Mythra sucks on wifi!” was the death of me in 2021. Reacting to DI in near-frame-perfect combos, with such little hitlag and total frames, is near impossible online. Tech chasing on reaction is physically impossible. Wifi means mashing big, fat hitboxes is buffed, but Mythra can’t contest that head on, and of course whiff punishing that is severely reduced. Any hiccup on the connection is death. And with any more than the minimum online delay, I simply can’t move with Mythra at all. I don’t understand how I can get used to such a connection with Mythra, or if it’s even worth it.
I’ve had maybe only like ~15 offline tourneys with Aegis — some people play that often in a single month. Probably only 50ish hours offline. COVID go away please D; I haven’t even competed offline since November since my nearest local has been on a hiatus (rip), and my life situation has made traveling an hour+ to a local on a worknight unfeasible. Life is hard. Alas I do make sure I get some offline play against CPUs to practice such things, with specific goals in mind rather than to just win (e.g. tech chasing). But man does that get tedious haha.
With that, the grind on Quickplay continues. And holy wow the land of Quickplay is ruthless against the Aegis.
- Days with 100% teabag rates (of 2+ hours)
- Record of 8 DCs in a row
- 2+ hours without rematches
- Mutuals one and done me
- One stutter = actual death, esp offstage
- friend request -> “kys” — gotten ~10 so far
Regardless… my goodness I did not realize how much Quickplay I’ve been playing.
…But for some reason, everyone I play regularly has no idea why this is the majority, when they often say I’m the most fun Aegis they’ve played 😭
Individually none of those really matter, but when it takes up literally 95% of your playtime, life gets depressing, honestly. Arenas are goated but majority of the better players I’m friends with have conflicting schedules / avoid wifi unfortunately. And grind servers have been worse for me regarding overall skill levels and connections, especially since now I have no results to get into higher level grind servers rip lol.
With that and other factors… my morale has honestly been at an all time low.
- Majority say they’re the easiest chars in the game and if you don’t think so, you’re worse than an 0-2er
- Majority of serious discussion and vulnerable thoughts get cut off by “you play pythra”
- Doing worse with a top 3 braindead ezpickup character than with a bottom 10 monke
- I’ve killed my DK brand, and pretty much all my relevancy (every XC2 tweet drops a follower haha) — the raw numbers honestly don’t matter but it’s evident in how much my voice matters less (literally “just another pythra main” now)
- “you can’t play Aegis, go back to DK PLEASE”
- “why do you like the game of bad voice acting + degen booba + you play pythra + L + ratio + amogus”
- “why are you struggling in a +2 MU”
- “how do you keep LOSING with PYTHRA”
- I’m SORRY I DIED for trying to dtilt your upB landing as Dark Samus AND I DIDN’T KNOW YOU BOUNCE TWO PIXELS OFF THE GROUND (See: https://twitter.com/kevinkaywho/status/1463093168920883201). It befuddles me in how I oftentimes can’t opt for my best combo starter and I have to consider factors like this into my decision making.
- 0 notable results with them (majority have been very close at least! i.e. g3 last hit)
- Losing as Aegis -> winning as Min Min felt like the worst thing in Smash. I’d rather lose the set than get a win with Min Min. Winning didn’t feel like winning. It felt like failure because I gave up on Aegis and only won because of that. I couldn’t do it with my dream char. (with that + the nerfs, I’m not sure if I still plan on using Min Min as a secondary… but I haven’t played her offline post-patch lol so we’ll see)
- The decade of Smash feels more like a hindrance than anything. Not just for learning the game in the view of DK for a decade, and having to unlearn most of it… but people would say, you’ve played this game for a DECADE and you STILL can’t win with AEGIS 😭
- I can get a SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEGREE but I CAN’T WIN WITH PYTHRA LOOOOOOL. How BAD at gaming can I BE
(and when I say having to unlearn most of the game… I mean it LOL. See: https://twitter.com/kevinkaywho/status/1467943013800415236)
I know with how restricted my training has been compared to majority of SoCal grinding 2-4 locals/week – with chars they’ve played for years, I’ve accepted the fact that I’ll be behind. Does this mean I have to change my goals with this game? I’m still trying to figure that out.
All that said… Pyra is in Smash. This literal life-changing game is in Smash. The game that showed me a true passion for video games outside of Smash, something I’ve never had. The game that converted me into an artist (ty all who support my art btw ;-; It’s been coming such a long way), a streamer. And they’re top 1. AND they’re fun af!!!
I’ve never had that connection with DK, except for personality — and how bad he is made my brand lol. But with Pyra, everything truly feels like I have a purpose now. In my goals, in playing these chars specifically, in winning. Almost like I’m a discount Rex LOL. With DK, it was almost an empty statement of “Be the best I can be.” Now, I wish for this more than anything I’ve ever wanted in Smash. I feel like I can finally be my true self with them being in this game.
With that, none of the low morale matters. All of this is the journey I’ve always wanted ever since finishing Xenoblade 2. And I’m so glad this journey is possible. My Smash journey is my path to Elysium, and as the Twitter bio has said since this time last year…
We’re going to Elysium together. That’s a promise.
Thanks for reading 😊 (and sorry for the cheesy ending)
Kevin Who 