While I had spent most of my videogame time on the Smash games back then, it wasn't until 2012 that I knew the competitive scene. Before that, I knew all of the characters' basic attacks (jab, 3 tilts, dash attack, 5 aerials, 3 smashes, 4 specials, grab and 4 throws) and often went to Training to test them and learn the damage some of them did, but my abilities weren't really consistent: while my memories of playing Smash's versus modes before being competitive are kinda hazy, I do remember I didn't short hop to use aerials or shield and dodge attacks as often, making me literally a "glass cannon" (though I didn't just run to my foe and use dash attack like most other casual players do). Also considering I mostly played free-for-alls on random stages with items on. Back then, the character I used the most in Brawl was Mr. Game & Watch, with whom I often used his strong forward air and smash attacks.
Years later, I once visited this wiki merely to know more information about the games, when I found out all about competitive terms and advanced techniques, as well as the games' fundamentals (e.g. punishing, spacing), tier lists, competitive rules (e.g. no items, legal stages). I wanted to know more about these, so I went through the articles and tested these techniques in my Melee, along with watching tournament matches and tech skill videos on YouTube. My perspective of the games had definitely changed then. This affected my friends (or more generally, people that I knew that played Smash) as well, albeit they sadly didn't appreciate the games as much as me, claiming that I "was being too serious on a game meant for fun" and not really caring about improving their skills. As such, practically nobody I know personally as of now plays at my level, preventing me from consistently showing my skills and actually knowing how good I am in comparison to other competitive players, and I still consider myself a big fish in a small pond up to this day. It's hard taking into account that where are live, there are barely any Smash tournaments with actually good players.
