In recent years, there have been several people to threaten the level of the Gods of Melee. With the sole exception of William "Leffen" Hjelte, though, not a single one of them have managed to stay on that level. Each and every one of them has fallen back a step.





There are, however, reasons for why people struggle so much to maintain these levels of play, almost all of them are mental.

@C9Mang0 @G2Westballz Not interested. I'd rather win the Summit than beat Weston's sorry 9 year old ass. — CLG.SFAT (@SFAT) October 25, 2016

One of the first problems and the one that Zachary "SFAT" Cordoni appears to have fallen into the most is getting cocky. Having a hot streak where you beat a few Gods and make an argument for yourself as being on the same level as them is good and all, but you have to do it consistently.





And to do it consistently, you can't get too confident in your wins. Even Adam "Armada" Lindgren works hard, grinds, and studies for each tournament he attends. He's happy whenever he wins and struggles for them all.





Hubris is a slippery slope that one can't fall into if they wish to be somebody who stands a chance of winning anything they attend.

Another one of the problems and probably Justin "Plup" McGrath's biggest one, is putting too much pressure on yourself to perform well. It's important to want to improve and perform well, but pay attention to Plup's facial expressions throughout the first two games of that set.





Whenever he missed a shield drop or made a similar input or spacing flub, he shook his head, gave a pained half-smile, or some similar way of showing his frustration at the situation.

Sucks to work so hard and end up a complete failure maaaan what a sad day — u cant fail at pizza (@TSM_Leffen) May 15, 2017

In addition to Plup suffering from this kind of an issue, Leffen has recently been suffering from a similar problem. His stream title for about a week was "Future Royal Flush Winner," which is a good goal, but simply puts too much stress on the value of the performance itself.





At all levels of play, you should be trying to learn from everything you play. Underperforming is a definite thing, but be realistic to what you're capable of and don't extend too far with your ambitions.

Lasers are so good what have I been doing with my life — Weston Dennis (@G2Westballz) May 22, 2017

The final problem and final so-called "demigod" is focusing on the wrong things, which Weston "Westballz" Dennis had been suffering from for quite a while. It's relatively easy to say "my punish game isn't good enough. If I punished harder, I would have won," but punish isn't always what needs work.





Perhaps you looked for the wrong reads or had too predictable of movement when trying to create an opening. It's most likely a combination, so focusing on just one aspect is a big trap.

ive been focusing on all the wrong things and kinda lost my own ideal playstyle in the process

but ah I finally see clearly again — u cant fail at pizza (@TSM_Leffen) May 23, 2017

Again, this is a problem that even Leffen, whether you think of him as a God or simply the Godslayer, has faced recently.





These kinds of mentality problems exist through all levels of gameplay, but become more and more significant the better you get.





Small issues with punishing and mental composure also play a factor, but these are far more easily spotted than these three out-of-game factors. If they can fix issues like these, then any player that currently threatens the level of the Gods can feasibly attain and keep that uppermost level of play.

Image courtesy of Moxie2D