That actually supports my argument: if awestin can go about even with one of the best players in the world without doing any of the advanced stuff, then imagine what he could do with a bit more tech skill.
Kink link: idk why you think that using tournament results to determine whats good is less accurate than some randoms on the internet theorycrafting? I'd think the people winning tournaments know why they're winning them
After playing Mew2King in Meta Knight dittos in Brawl for eight hours straight, I was able to take games off of him and end most of our games with a 1 stock on either side. I am not as good as Mew2King, nor as good at the MK ditto matchup as he was. I was simply able to adapt.
Similarly, my ROB was able to outplay many Snake and Marth mains despite my Meta Knight having both a stronger matchup and a stronger history of usage. This was not due to my ROB doing anything "special" (indeed, I did not implement anything past 2008 techs for ROB and used incredibly outdated edge-guarding and approach techniques), but rather my ROB's playstyle clashing with that of my opponent coupled with their own inexperience with the matchup compared to the more common MK matchup.
A similar explanation could be used for Sethlon. Many of Sethlon's "impressive" wins are used to express that player's skill with a unique character; from what I have seen, those with exposure to that unique character have done better over time. I believe Metroid's story of playing many matches against Sethlon went along these lines.
In addition, Awe's Ness has consistent exposure to the character and seems to have a different strategy than most. He seems to use unusual recovery tactics, sometimes simply air dodging in an attempt to take a hit and get a better position, and is rarely sitting on the ground when Sonic is approaching. Generally when Sonic approaches, he moves
away and has a hitbox out to trade or out-prioritize Sethlon. In addition, he rarely "shares space" with Sethlon unless Sethlon is unable to control his character completely (such as when Sethlon is airborne, tumbling, rolling, or on fire via PK fire).
While these all sound like valid strategies in an attempt to slow Sonic down it is also the fact that these playstyle factors fall in line with Ness' natural character traits. He is designed to do such things to survive in
all matchups. Standard Sonic play may be hindered by this playstyle.
In addition, while I agree with "tournament results are better indicators than theorycrafting", I disagree strongly with people winning tournaments know why they're winning with them. That in fact is merely an extension of "randoms on the internet theorycrafting".
As a proof, I can provide Ankoku's character ranking list for Brawl. Many people assumed that Dedede was a "broken character", and some presumed Meta Knight's strength was solely due to him countering Dedede. Time ultimately proved this incorrect, despite the majority of top players believing so. Additionally, I myself was the only ROB who was willing to call ROB a "bad" character for some time; one particular ROB (a green one!) from the west coast received much popularity by being an "aggressive" ROB, especially in the Snake matchup, which was in stark contrast to my campy style. He believed his style was superior and that ROB was actually a top character, 5th at worst. He ultimately proved to be a short lived phenomenon as people learned to counter his style. Despite being a tournament victor and having strong winnings, his theory proved less viable than tournament results over a period of time.
Additionally, "those who win tournaments know why they're winning them" is a logical fallacy when presented with a reality in which two tournament winners can disagree on similar ideas. Since our history in all Smash games is completely saturated with this, I cannot imagine this being correct. A tournament victor's perception in 2013 is unlikely to be much better than a "random's" perception in 2014, to put it simply.
Rulesets don't affect tournaments as much as you'd think. In the bowser's revenge series we've gone through a different stage list at basically every iteration (out of 6) and our results have remained very similar. Good players will still win regardless of what stages are on.
I would also disagree with this. Throughout Brawl's history we saw character diversity change slowly depending on different stage lists. The more conservative the stage list, the more conservative the character list. This has been true for both Melee and Brawl and has been incredibly predictable.
In fact, Falco in Brawl was predicted to have a rise in regards to certain rule changes that occurred. Falco then rose up higher. When the stage striking system popularity changed from 5 stages to 7 and 9 in most areas, Falco dropped significantly over time. That was simply due to the originaly stages not being narrowed down to stages Falco was good at, let alone counterpicks!
It takes time for tournaments to change results. Skill is more important as there is a dynamic gap in player skill while character/stage advantages are a static gap. They merely appear dynamic due to being associated with player skill. Given enough time, players will adapt to their environment. If you did not believe this, you would be completely okay with Items on and every stage on Random because results would not change very much; in fact we have held such side tournaments in the midwest and results were incredibly similar to the main event. Despite this, continued practice under such circumstances would result in a drastically different game. As an analogy, consider a group of people playing tag and then switching to hide and go seek. Originally those good at tag would be good at hide and go seek due to the overlap in skills, specifically running speed, coordination, and eyesight. As time went on, those who excelled at the new skill, hiding, would be able to succeed. It is unlikely one would find a savant that would immediately adapt to the new circumstances, especially if they were temporary. It takes time, even for small changes, for the results to manifest completely.
