{"id":3905,"date":"2021-12-03T11:36:50","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T10:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/03\/how-my-lockdown-obsession-with-super-smash-bros-led-me-to-a-vital-epiphany\/"},"modified":"2021-12-03T11:36:50","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T10:36:50","slug":"how-my-lockdown-obsession-with-super-smash-bros-led-me-to-a-vital-epiphany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/03\/how-my-lockdown-obsession-with-super-smash-bros-led-me-to-a-vital-epiphany\/","title":{"rendered":"How my lockdown obsession with Super Smash Bros led me to a vital epiphany"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I didn\u2019t expect to be making my competitive gaming debut at 30 \u2013 but over lockdown, my flatmates and I became hooked on Nintendo\u2019s beloved brawler<\/p>\n<p>Thirty is definitely not the best age to kick off an esports career. In that world I am aged, with lower-back pain and reflexes about as sharp as a wooden spoon. But nonetheless, earlier this year, I found myself standing in a dimly lit east-London bar, huddled among the city\u2019s greatest players of Super Smash Bros, Nintendo\u2019s beloved fighting game. As the throng of competitors reminisced over previous tournaments and shared high-level techniques, I stared apprehensively at my name on the tournament ladder, hoping that nobody would find out that I only started playing Smash last year.<\/p>\n<p>At the risk of sounding like the narrator of a 90s teen film, let\u2019s rewind. My Smash obsession began during the joyous era of lockdown one. As Covid-19 exploded devastatingly and invisibly, the humble Bow flat I shared slowly morphed from fun-loving party pad into cramped, claustrophobic prison. We did our best to keep things light with bike rides, poorly measured portions of weed brownies and increasingly ridiculous themed nights \u2013 but Super Smash Bros Ultimate was what really<em> <\/em>got me through the mind-numbing ordeal that was 2020.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/games\/2021\/dec\/03\/how-my-lockdown-obsession-with-super-smash-bros-led-me-to-an-esports-epiphany\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/90b1fdb08e43edfd2652a98e21ea89342cd902f6\/43_0_1165_699\/master\/1165.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=ebea4add22c46615271b5ad4de5814c9\" title=\"How my lockdown obsession with Super Smash Bros led me to a vital epiphany\" \/>I didn\u2019t expect to be making my competitive gaming debut at 30 \u2013 but over lockdown, my flatmates and I became hooked on Nintendo\u2019s beloved brawler<br \/>\nThirty is definitely not the best age to kick off an esports career. In that world I am aged, with lower-back pain and reflexes about as sharp as a wooden spoon. But nonetheless, earlier this year, I found myself standing in a dimly lit east-London bar, huddled among the city\u2019s greatest players of Super Smash Bros, Nintendo\u2019s beloved fighting game. As the throng of competitors reminisced over previous tournaments and shared high-level techniques, I stared apprehensively at my name on the tournament ladder, hoping that nobody would find out that I only started playing Smash last year.<br \/>\nAt the risk of sounding like the narrator of a 90s teen film, let\u2019s rewind. My Smash obsession began during the joyous era of lockdown one. As Covid-19 exploded devastatingly and invisibly, the humble Bow flat I shared slowly morphed from fun-loving party pad into cramped, claustrophobic prison. We did our best to keep things light with bike rides, poorly measured portions of weed brownies and increasingly ridiculous themed nights \u2013 but Super Smash Bros Ultimate was what really got me through the mind-numbing ordeal that was 2020. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I didn\u2019t expect to be making my competitive gaming debut at 30 \u2013 but over lockdown, my flatmates and I became hooked on Nintendo\u2019s beloved brawler Thirty is definitely not the best age to kick off an esports career. In that world I am aged, with lower-back pain and reflexes about as sharp as a &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/03\/how-my-lockdown-obsession-with-super-smash-bros-led-me-to-a-vital-epiphany\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How my lockdown obsession with Super Smash Bros led me to a vital epiphany<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}