VOD Critique Request

[Animignis]

Hey Guys,

I've been playing melee at a competitiv-ish level for about 2 years, but I probably haven't been to as many tournaments as I should have. I went to my local monthly last weekend and didn't make it out of pools, but I did manage to get some VODs.

I'm going to start going to more tournaments in the summer though and I could use some help analyzing my bird.

Here's what I've already gathered from my opponents:
- After resetting neutral, I like to dash out and right back in a lot. I should mix up my timings more.
- My edge guards are pretty awful.
- I laser a bit too mindlessly sometimes. I should be more deliberate with them.
- I play very defensively and could probably do better if I was more aggressive.

I could use some help with figuring out how to mix up my approach options, dealing with Fox's full-hop, and dealing with Marth in general.

VODs:
(vs Marth) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poj8My27xjQ
(vs Marth) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f18zUJQRcyE&index=22&list=PLnqMkbP_yfBrIwxrUVsYe8W68_xMNMmhm
(vs Fox) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e76vBGQ7K8I&index=21&list=PLnqMkbP_yfBrIwxrUVsYe8W68_xMNMmhm

EDIT: fixed fox link

 

[FE_Hector]

Marth 1:

• Once you escape his initial sequence, you land two or three stray hits and don't take any of them anywhere. It felt like you ddn't expect to get hits, so you took them nowhere.
• 0:22 he's on plat and you only try to pressure him with one uair. Rising d/b/nair could all result in a small hit without putting you into a horrible position. Alternatively, spaced bairs and fairs poke plat well, as do running SH non-FF'd uairs.
• There were a few times you were on plat and he opted for a SH nair. You could've probably punished on reaction or at least taken positioning and lasered.
• 0:51 great recovery. Not great getup option. Work on crispier stuff (ledgedash in that scenario or pethaps a smart aerial.
• 0:54 Again he does something punishable (fsmash) and you barely punish. Just a late laser.
• 1:08 be really careful when your opponent has invincibility. You didn't respect his range coming down and got caught for it.
• 1:09 I would've fsmashed, too. You were opting for it a LOT.
• 1:23 you ALMOST made an opening, but didn't throw out an aerial.
• 1:28-31 you get a few stray hits and just shield. If you get a hit, do your best to take it to town. You're playing scared.
• 1:32-35 I'm happy you gunned a bit, but every laser was pretty high. Mix it up.
• 2:04 I can't tell if that grab was intentional or not, but if it was, I hate the idea. You placed it (or tried to) where he was instead of where he could be. If you were intent on grabbing, you should've moved further forwards. He respected your space a lot, so that meant at that spacing he would've run away.
• 2:15 Literally free dair OoS or WD -> shine.
• 2:35 when running in this situation, you lose NOTHING by lasering on your way down. If you place it well, you may even get an opening or force him to a bad spot.
• 2:48 his WD back fsmash is calling out that thing about attacking where he was instead of where he is.
• 3:29 I understand the idea of not getting up immediately, but you could've safely rolled away and only lost stage.
• 4:02 you already know why you died.
• 5:30 either you messed up your timing or were too close to the edge. Careful.

OVERALL you need to stop playing scared. Once you get a hit, try to combo off of it. You got way too many openings that went nowhere. On top of that, you full jumped a lot and seemed very comfortable burning your DJ. Especially as Falco, thats never a good idea, especially when your opponent is already under pressure. Finally, your laser game was really weak. You had a lot of instances where you could have safely lasered (plenty of which retreating) that you didn't take or took late. When you did connect with a laser, you either kept shooting them without a purpose for a whole 7% or did a SUPER predictable laser -> aerial pattern. Mix in DDs between your lasers and determine the ranges where it is and isn't safe to laser.

Marth 2:
Actually not as much to say here because it was a lot of the same. You got some WEIRD openings off of random rolls in that I hardly understand. My biggest issue here was that sometimes you were super scared and other times you were almost rudely aggressive. Neither of those worked well at all, really. Work on balancing aggression and defense while respecting space.

You didn't actually link you vs the Fox. It was the same as the Marth 1 VOD.

 

[Animignis]

Woah, thanks for the feedback!! Looking it over right now. This is super helpful

 

[LeadRod]

Keep in mind this is not going to be near the quality of the analysis by FE_Hector, but I saw some stuff that I thought might be useful. I'm going to try to avoid things already mentioned above:

VS Orange
0:08 - On platforms, you can sometimes get away with crouch cancelling after a tech in place (or any tech but tech in place is harder to react to) at low % so you don't get juggled
0:12 - Regular get up to shine is a good "get off me" tool there
0:20 - While trying to pressure him under the platform you lose centre stage
0:52 - When you are back in neutral, you laser then nair in but Marth is already in the air before you do that. I think here is a good example of how you need to be more conscious of your approaches because there was no way that nair was gonna hit and you kinda die for it. Laser can be good for pressuring a descending opponent but better anti-airs than running in with a nair could be up-tilt or bair.
1:10 - A Marth nairing in place is a common anti approach option that will outrange a lot of approaches. Run in shield is useful there.
1:19 - The next little bit you only try to descend through the top platform and you take some % for it. You can always bait out them to pressure you for top and before they get up there, sneak to one of the lower platforms.
1:49 - Again CC then book it/punish
2:30 - You look like your just kinda swinging there and it almost gets you trapt above Marth (never a good spot). If you were able to be more conscious then you probably would have been able to get more off the dair hit by recognizing it.
2:50 - That gettup attack was hella reaching, shoulda been closer
3:35 - That DI on the throw was really good. Orange was getting way to comfortable with Uthrow to Utilt so that kinda DI helps a lot.
3:43 - He called out your approach pretty hard with the WD back.
4:01 - The importance of ledge stalling
4:09 - That rando fsmash was questionable. If your gonna do a smash at all in that situation, dsmash covers more options with less cool down.
4:55 - The whole match he was way too comfortable attacking from the ledge and that was an option you need to cover more either by dashing away or just shielding.
5:13 - WHY ARE YOU WALKING! RUN! Although I think you were going for turnaround waveshine to get the edge which in my experience is really good so thats good.
5:30 - oooooooo that sucks. The life of a spacie.
5:46 - You dont always have to retreat that hard. Sometimes a surprise WD back to shine/Utilt will catch people off guard as well as waveland on then off a platform to bair/dair.

Might be able to do a Fox analysis later but for now here ya go!

 

[FE_Hector]

Keep in mind this is not going to be near the quality of the analysis by FE_Hector

Yo, my work here is done lol.

Fox:

• 0:05 You definitely could have realized he was going to plat and just fallen there, but the followup wasn't too bad overall. My bigger issue was that you jumped straight out of shine instead of WDing after hitting with shine to provide yourself guaranteed followups.
• 0:09 Same thing I touche on before with not using an option out of knockdown quickly. However, the bait almost worked and you could've gotten him with a getup attack.
• 0:11 You almost had that followup, but you did a weird WL shine instead of the shine WL that would've let you continue your combo.
• 0:13 I don't agree with the risky DJ or the sideB placement. Fade back with the DJ and sweetspot sideB. (Even though it worked, I wouldn't rely on it at all.)
• 0:16 Again you get a shine and just jump out. If they're on the right side of you, WD to the right after the shine and vice versa. It makes it possible to followup on/ react to all DI.
• 0:17 Careful with that dash attack.
• 0:20 His shine punished that rhythm I said you did with lasering into aerials.
• 0:21 He'd already shown his willingness to shield stop. If nothing else, roll behind him to make followups harder.
• 0:24 A lot of people read tech in place in those situations. Mix it up.
• 0:25 Useless laser on plat got you punished.
• 0:28 A difficult position for sure, but a lot of people are happy to read angles like that. The important thing is not letting it happen repeatedly.
• 0:37 Another poorly spaced grab.
• 0:43 Did you try shine turnaround DJ and completely mess up? No reason to not just keep it simple and DJ firebird.
• 0:51 Focus on where your opponent is. Laser shine or laser grab were both great options there, but instead you went for an almost ridiculous laser dash in aerial that shows your pattern SUPER hard.
• 0:56 Common theme of aerials where they were + bad spacing.
• 1:16 You had no reason to run away. Until they prove their proficiency with it, assume they can't ledgedash.
• 1:26 Regular getup (or getup attack) read is same as tech in place: people LOVE it.
• 1:33 Careful with execution. You definitely had a free bair if not for the flub.
• 1:38 LOL you just read tech in place yourself.
• 2:42 That was a style attempt fo sho.
• 3:04 Either followup or run. Don't second guess yourself like right there.
• 3:26 Respect the range of aerial from ledge. Lots of spacies love it.
• 3:37 Not a horrible laser conceptually, but you essentially did a standing turnaround laser instead of retreating laser. Work on muscle memory there. You probably had to flick the stick later.
• 3:41 I think every Firebird this set has been straight to ledge. Mix it up.

Rest of the set was mostly the same mistakes. Some more general stuff, though. You were pretty good at coosing when to run, but you did a really poor job at capitalizing on their greed. WD back shine, retreating lasers, and the amazing AC bair are all tools I saw you use basically never. Make sure you know when to play aggressively vs defensively and work on putting yourself into situations where you can punish/ combo on reaction instead of reads. Other than that, I saw a lot of high lasers (some over Fox's head) and predictable aerials once again. Work on spacing, mixing up options, and polishing up tech. And please when you have an advantage STOP BEING SO SCARED. Good luck, though.