Watching Little Boys: A Lucas Video Thread

[SpiderMad]

Alright, deleted all the links since none of them were to 2.6, and until the collapse tag works like I want it to, you guys get to deal with a big ol' OP 'cause I didn't get all those images for nothing. I'll get a Metaknight one up there soon, too, likely with one of Lucas' new animations hitting him.

Start posting new vids and I'll try to stay on top of this thread as stuff gets posted.

You saved a backup right?.. Collapse is just

[collapse] Stuff [/collapse]

Besides the pictures, you shoulda just put all the 2.5 videos in a collapse

 

[Master WGS]

You saved a backup right?.. Collapse is just

[collapse] Stuff [/collapse]

Besides the pictures, you shoulda just put all the 2.5 videos in a collapse

I didn't save a backup, no. If people really want to see the 2.5 vids, they have a measly two pages of posts to sort through. Had there been a significant amount, I might've considered it, but since every collapsible tag I made in the OP decided to make a second one for each line break, I just did away with them entirely and deleted the links. It might work better now that I've completely redone it, but when I was editing earlier it just kept making two spots. I'll try again once vids start being posted.

 

[MegaGuy]

I assume this is the right place to put something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jizjg6zMRnQ

Was messing around with an old Brawl tech. Seems to still work like a charm.

 

[Burnsy]

Yea, it's pretty cool, huh. You can also airdodge>snake instead of up-b for a few of those stages.

 

[Malart]

I assume this is the right place to put something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jizjg6zMRnQ

Was messing around with an old Brawl tech. Seems to still work like a charm.

You can also use a b-reversed pk freeze to get yourself further underneath the stage before you do your magnet. I put a playlist up a while ago of me doing it on every stage it's possible on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYyfgzMSGqQ&list=PLjXLROPm38cVgdPD6j7Z2Bw88nZ9bzFoP
It's crap quality, I might redo them with my new setup.

 

[Malart]

Hey, since no one seems to be uploading 2.6 Lucas footage asking for advice, figured I'd get the ball rolling.

Malart (Lucas) vs. 20/20 (King Dedede)
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjXLROPm38cUR5FxEXys833-1xDozXWxl
10-vid playlist.

My friend (20/20,) the guy who sounds like he's closer to the microphone, has been playing smash for much longer than I have, and has a lot more experience fighting actual people. By contrast, the only people I ever get to play are him and two other friends. He's always known how to l-cancel, but has trouble with most AT's. Also the school where he played a lot of people and really learned the game had some weird disdain for using the c-stick. That said, he's still very difficult for me to fight. I think it might be that I have trouble against characters with a lot of range, since I have similar problems against my other friend (has fairly solid tech skill), who plays Ike. I'll upload some vids of me fighting him next time he we hang.

This is my first time being able to record footage of me playing. So, let me have it lol. What do I need to do more of in general, and what are your thoughts on this matchup? I feel like even though I have a good handle on my tech skill, I'm having trouble finding where to use it. I practiced a ton on spacing my DD, but that all flies out of my brain when I play lol. also he hates it when people do that so he's gotten good at punishing me for trying it.

 

[T-block]

Recorded a few friendlies today, most of it as Lucas: http://www.twitch.tv/tblock7/b/446748026

Sorry about the terrible quality. Still ironing out a few things with my stream setup.

(Skip to the second half - the first half is mostly bad warmup games lol)

 

[Malart]

K here are some more friendly matches with my only other friend who is into tech skill and who's actively improving their playstyle atm.


Malart (Lucas) vs. Monkfunk (Charizard)
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjXLROPm38cWu4DJqae2gQh2LUFmGtop_ 8-video playlist
Video 5 has a really neat application of doublejump landing as the last kill. I can't seem to use his PKF with the new timing for a falling PKF, so I just use his doublejump to land on platforms when I can pull it off

Malart (Lucas) vs. Monkfunk (Ike)
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjXLROPm38cU73RhgIeq3IBHaYKcDnG3O

 

[SpiderMad]

You guys swear too much

 

[Malart]

yeah we have a pretty bad swearing habit. it's just because I'm in my home. If I'm elsewhere I wouldn't be doing that as much. I'm the guy who's sounds further away from the camera.

other than that, any thoughts/suggestions? really been hoping for a nice critique on where to better myself. my friend is too, but I imagine he'll want to make his own post in the other character specific boards.

 

[SpiderMad]

practice WD OOS

 

[Malart]

Thanks. I'm kinda starved for analysis of my playstyle, since I've been pretty much just playing this one person for two to three years, and haven't had a reliable method to record myself in that time.

 

[SpiderMad]

Years? In Brawl or Melee?

 

[Malart]

Years? In Brawl or Melee?

Melee originally, started to get into AT's before I'd had enough experience to know the neutral game (something I think I'm still terrible at) and where to use said AT's. Then Brawl came out, and I didn't much care for it. Then I modded my Wii, and got Brawl+, Brawl-, and BBrawl. Liked Brawl+ the most, because it felt the closest to Melee and I really wanted to get to a professional level of skill in that. Then PM came out and I've pretty much not gone back to anything else, except Melee briefly until I got my current setup of PM on Dolphin. I've only played at most 5-6 different people in my time spent smashing.

Something always came up that prevented me from continuing to practice. Ever since I got this new setup I'm using now, that's pretty much the longest span of time I've been able to practice when I wanted to. So like 3 months right now. It's been really on and off since I started.

 

[Lukingordex]

You roll to much sometimes.

 

[Nausicaa]

practice WD OOS

I was just skimming through and saw this.
I will sig this now.
Though ideally it's really just "WDOOS" as a statement itself.
Just doing that in-game will be all the needed practice, and will come with time in sequence with the application of it. Unless of course this is implied by the one saying it and the one reading understands that this is the implication.

 

[Malart]

practice WD OOS

I was just skimming through and saw this.
I will sig this now.
Though ideally it's really just "WDOOS" as a statement itself.
Just doing that in-game will be all the needed practice, and will come with time in sequence with the application of it. Unless of course this is implied by the one saying it and the one reading understands that this is the implication.

So there's really nothing else to work on atm? I feel like I run into attacks a lot and am just too aggressive for my skill level, but I have trouble making myself be patient and waiting for/baiting out my openings. I don't feel as though I'm anywhere near where I want to be, skillwise. I've been working on it in the last few times I've actually been able to play people and it seems to help. Just can't figure out what to do afterwards. Also the wording in that post was pretty ridiculously hard to follow Nausicaa lol

 

[SpiderMad]

Once you've gotten flow into your WD OOS, you'll want to WD more, once you WD more you'll want to roll less, once you roll less you'll be able to see when and where Monkfunk will want to roll, once you know when and where Monk will roll you'll want to be able to punish his rolls and you'll incorporate even more WDs into your DD giving it even more control (DDWD), blah and blah Wavelanding on platforms etc.

Spoiler

But yeah, you're both limited by tech skill just as much as anything else: so practice techniques and movement and the rest will come later (like right now it's even limiting your options, first being Shield where you usually just see grab or roll when there's a lot more options). Are you guys playing on a HDTV btw? Find your scene/a good player and even play Melee if that's the only thing at their tournaments and all that. Otherwise try some Wifi too. Also maybe experiment with the buffer handicap on so you can see what frame perfect DDWD/WD'ing leads to and enjoy movement more. Monkfunk should play Ike more and basically "hit the lab" with all his basics in a non-actual match/training session, have him SHFFL Nair across the stage back, then do that out QD, and then RAR Bair and everything (Ike's QD WJ, JC Grab out of QD, Pivot grabbing). Know every technique for your character you can and then work on Consistency and Speed and just stage manuevering in general (always be moving, DDWD is your friend http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=J0sqGLVvFEI#t=75 ), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26dKVC1hnp8 . Both of you should just watch good people and emulate them, Metroid for Ike/Zard Oracle/Naerok for Lucas. Play some Captain Falcon and all that too.

And then watch all my combo videos including this one which isn't finished yet ;o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO8K8QOr2bg *Like learn to do everything at 1:16 with RAR bairs, QD WJ, Stage movement (DDWDing, Platform waveland)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ub2eoALL4U&feature=c4-overview&list=UUYf-qQybWKZ36R3E07KuQFg

 

[Calabrel]

Hey, since no one seems to be uploading 2.6 Lucas footage asking for advice, figured I'd get the ball rolling.....

Firstly, shout outs to you using my custom build, gave me warm and fuzzies.

Video 1
0:12 - Good tech skill, be careful though, that's not safe on shield, and a well-timed shield-grab will get you.
0:57 - He's below and close to the stage, you know he has to up-b at some point, get a dsmash ready due to its disjoint.
1:25 - Good read, this is one of the best times to throw out a random usmash, people fishing from attacks from above a platform, this works on Charizard a lot too.
1:40-1:55 - brilliant usage of nair to combo, I liked it.
2:10 - Learned this one from you. Nice reverse bair spike.

Video 2
0:17 - You had enough space here to do a djc pkf towards him, which would have landing canceled and you could have followed up during the hitstun of the pkf.
1:38 - You were definitely high enough, good DI, to use down-b to recover, you probably still would have got faired by DDD, but be aware that's an option.

Video 3
0:13 - Nice combo, I like the use of utilt and dair.
1:02 - Ouch that DI, you should could have recovered if you down-b recovered, then double-jumped, then up-b/tethered.
1:26 - Beautiful reverse bair spike.
1:39 - Here should have been a djc pkf instead. The only times I usually do standing pkf, on purpose, is if they're off stage or if they're out of the air-pkf range.
1:55 - Have no fear, that will work everytime with Lucas now (unlike 2.5), PMBR fixed that to be comparable to Toon Link and Link, on that he can't be poked from above the plane of the stage while reeling in.
2:02 - LOL, troll moving platform.
2:11 - Go under DDD by letting yourself fall a bit, then using down-b to cover horizontal distance, then double-jump and air-dodge tether to recovery veritcally, would have saved you.
3:00 - This was not the time to OU charge. Worked out for you anyway

Video 4
0:54 - Was that a wave-bounce pkf or a djc pkf? Hard to tell on your recording setup
1:09 - Completely agree with you about the fear of that move, Lucas can badly be hurt by it. Try to air-dodge on reaction to him letting it go, it's technically slow enough to react to it, but the window is small. Of course, yeah, you couldn't have been hit by it in this clip.
2:18 - That was a very risky up-b. A better thing to do, and it will require practice, is before your double-jump, down-b in the direction towards the stage to change which direction you're facing, then simply double-jump to the ledge.

Video 6
0:30 - dtilt is a great option, but once you pop a person up and they miss their tech, fast fallers will just go flat on the ground, use a jab-reset and punish with u-smash or d-smash.

Video 7
0:58 - Be sure to wavedash backwards after that down-b to continue that combo. That's something you should practice to the point of excruciation. It'll definitely be worth your while.

Video 9
1:01 - Hot combo.

 

[Malart]

Holy crap guys, loving all this. Thanks for all this feedback, and I'm gonna work on all this stuff like now. Looking through everything now.

 

[Malart]

Hey, would you guys say that Warioware is one of the better stages for practicing movement and stage maneuvering? The yellow tiles in the center are separated by clear lines, and you can use the red and blue blocks or the rivets for the piping as well to set goals for where to DD and/or WD between to get more fine-tuned control. I read in Dr. PeePee's post on practicing alone in melee that PS was the place that some really good people used to develop their dash dance. The retexture of the old SSE Jungle in Calabrel's pack seems good for that too. Norfair, with its symmetrically decorated platforms, and Smashville, with it's decorative lights on the front, as well. I like Warioware the best though, if only because of the dubstep song Calabrel has in there in his pack.

 

[monkfunk]

oh cool, i actually got feedback too. i should have some more videos of my ike and charizard up before too long. i think my biggest problem is i play too many characters. i consider my mains ike and charizard with possible mains being bowser, donkey kong, wario, gannon, link, diddy, ivysaur

 

[Nausicaa]

Also the wording in that post was pretty ridiculously hard to follow Nausicaa lol

The story of my life on public forums.
"We know that good techniques are a must, but most of us don't have good techniques for learning them."

Here's a run-down of what that meant, and I suggest reading the Chapter 'Technique' in the book 'The Music Lesson' by Victor Wooten. I'll try to include some excerpts from it, but it's something of value that a lot of Smashers have benefited from in teachings.

When you're talking, you're not thinking about a talking technique, you're just talking.
When you're learning how to play, you need a technique for it. Naturally, you'll put a lot of attention into learning that technique just enough to be able to play as you want, then you'll drop your attention from it, you'll let it go. You'll just talk/play/whatever without thinking about the technique again.

With this in mind, try asking the question "What would I play like if I had the technique down?" and then do it. You might skip a few steps in the learning cycle, otherwise you don't even give yourself the chance to and you'll start from the beginning at everything you do.

Though take note of this, this is 'kind-of' what I remember from a quote from the book.
"Know this, you can't half-heartedly believe that you can do it and expect to be able to do it. You have to know that you can do it. If you are to practice anything, practice knowing that with every level of your being that you are able to do whatever you put your full mind to. Practice knowing, not believing, and do it because you know you can."

Hope that helps, as that's essentially what my post was implying.

Don't practice WDOOS. Just do it in every match you play as if it was a comfortable fluent option to you (because technically it is), and it will come to you naturally.

tl;dr
You have the capability to press the buttons in the right order, etc, already (always have), so it's not like you can't do it already.
If you practice, you're setting yourself back, because you already can do the thing you're practicing.
Read this post a couple times, it's a foreign concept and a lot of what's missing in people's daily practices, and the reason there are people who compete with the best in the world without even playing the game more than once a month.
Read it, understand it, and do it, and you won't ever have to practice anything.

In the meantime, WDOOS is good, and it will help with everything you described there on a tangible in-game level. From not jumping into **** and punishing people for jumping into what could easily be your own ****. lol

 

[Malart]

The story of my life on public forums.
"We know that good techniques are a must, but most of us don't have good techniques for learning them."

Here's a run-down of what that meant, and I suggest reading the Chapter 'Technique' in the book 'The Music Lesson' by Victor Wooten. I'll try to include some excerpts from it, but it's something of value that a lot of Smashers have benefited from in teachings.

When you're talking, you're not thinking about a talking technique, you're just talking.
When you're learning how to play, you need a technique for it. Naturally, you'll put a lot of attention into learning that technique just enough to be able to play as you want, then you'll drop your attention from it, you'll let it go. You'll just talk/play/whatever without thinking about the technique again.

With this in mind, try asking the question "What would I play like if I had the technique down?" and then do it. You might skip a few steps in the learning cycle, otherwise you don't even give yourself the chance to and you'll start from the beginning at everything you do.

Though take note of this, this is 'kind-of' what I remember from a quote from the book.
"Know this, you can't half-heartedly believe that you can do it and expect to be able to do it. You have to know that you can do it. If you are to practice anything, practice knowing that with every level of your being that you are able to do whatever you put your full mind to. Practice knowing, not believing, and do it because you know you can."

Hope that helps, as that's essentially what my post was implying.

Don't practice WDOOS. Just do it in every match you play as if it was a comfortable fluent option to you (because technically it is), and it will come to you naturally.

tl;dr
You have the capability to press the buttons in the right order, etc, already (always have), so it's not like you can't do it already.
If you practice, you're setting yourself back, because you already can do the thing you're practicing.
Read this post a couple times, it's a foreign concept and a lot of what's missing in people's daily practices, and the reason there are people who compete with the best in the world without even playing the game more than once a month.
Read it, understand it, and do it, and you won't ever have to practice anything.

In the meantime, WDOOS is good, and it will help with everything you described there on a tangible in-game level. From not jumping into **** and punishing people for jumping into what could easily be your own ****. lol

That's some Smash Philosophy right there. I feel like I usually have that mindset while practicing, I just gotta keep that during matches, because a lot of what I practice flies right out of my head. I'm probably too focused on winning to work on doing it in matches. But yeah, thank you everyone.

 

[NeonApophis]

I played a bunch of friendlies this weekend. I think my games against Calabrel are especially interesting.

Neon (Lucas) vs Calabrel (Lucas) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRwE1MbIN_M
Neon (Lucas) vs Calabrel (Ness) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSLV7XUdH88
Neon (Lucas, Wolf) vs ForteFreak (DeDeDe, Diddy, Ike) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCZ47IGPAl8
Neon (Lucas) vs K9 (Marth) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29wc515_GY0
Neon (Lucas) vs Oksas (Falcon) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjgeuUbgQLQ
Neon (Lucas) vs Oksas (Wolf) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7YKKCBK0mI
Neon (Lucas) vs Silly Kyle (Peach) Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHMTvhMD19k
Neon (Lucas) vs Silly Kyle (Peach) Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06xGOpn8Fp0

 

[Nausicaa]

There's so much 'jerkiness' in almost every Lucas's play. A lot of moments of freezing-without-intention between all his quick actions.

It's gonna be sexy as the movements smooth out as players develop and Lucas precision shoots up. Good stuff is a-comin!

Edit: In the first match will Silly Kyle, you used F-tilt a total of ONCE.
This is seemingly common for Lucas's to not-use-much, but I have no idea how you guys do it. I abuse the crap out of that move as if it was the center of my game...
Z-air (Snake) would be really helpful against Peach as well. Seems to be a struggling match-up for Lucas players (aggressively-passive fast/hard hit-boxes at close ranges... especially ones that like Floating haha), and Z-air can do wonders in both the Neutral for defense>offense transitioning, and combo strings themselves.

Just figured that was worth mentioning after watching the match.
The jittery play is consistent among all players it seems.

 

[Lukingordex]

Burnsy already critiqued those but I would like to know the opinion of other people:

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...s vs dede &jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13812798748858

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...vs Lukihnas &jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13812799287059

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...Lukihnas &jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_138127993559210

 

[Nausicaa]

I would say basically this stuff. It's kind of universal, but this applies to you pretty directly.

Try not to rely on Side-B in the neutral game very much.

The quotes that follow it as well. ^

Otherwise, don't commit to things so much, weird things. U-Smash when your opponent has a fresh stock, PKF when they're in basically SH F-air range, stuff like that. It's pretty obvious, but you'll get crushed for it down the road if you keep facing better opponents/your opponents keep getting better. Meaning, give attention to the things you're doing that aren't working out excessively favorably, and work on making things favorable. AKA, get that punishment game precise and flexible, get that neutral game solid like a fortress.

 

[Malart]

(not that I'm known at all, but here goes) You use too many grounded Side-b's. You should be using DJC'd side-b's. It comes out quicker, leaves you less open, since you have very little landing lag when you land (no lag at all if it comes out right as you land. basically the closer it comes out to when you land the less lag you'll get. if you do it perfectly it'll go the exact same distance as a grounded one) To do it pretty easily with the new DJC PK-Freeze timing window, just jump once with Y, hit Y again, then just drag/slide your finger down to the B button and hit it all in the same motion. Also, like Nausicaa was saying, F-air is your best friend in the neutral game. Especially when you can DJC it effectively, since it has stupidly low landing lag when l-cancelled. It seems most people use the jump button for that, but I just use tap jump, as in- hit Y, rotate the control stick up to initiate the double jump, and at almost the same time, input a F-air on the C-stick, then quickly fastfall and l-cancel. Also, if you're locked down in your shield, have your OU charged, and they are in range, jumping out of shield and using PK Burst seems to be a good way to create space. you can also use it mid combo while airborne (at lower percents, so you may be able to follow up depending on DI, and where the attack hits them. or to edge guard high priority recoveries, like with Ness, since PK Burst (after the initial start-up frame) has two frames of intangibility right at the beginning when the hitbox comes out. I'd say also practice your dash dancing and stage movement, since I noticed you getting stuck in dash turnaround a lot and having to jump out of it. Be conservative with your upsmashes, since they are extremely punishable. Keep your OU until you need PK Burst to escape a combo or you are relatively sure it's going to hit. At lower percents you should be u-tilting a lot more after d-throw, since at lower percents and even mid percents (on fastfallers) consecutive u-tilts are pretty much free after a poorly DI'd downthrow. Lastly and most importantly, practice jumping out of your down-b magnet after it releases. It's probably my favorite combo starter in the game atm, and you have SO many options out of it (wavedash back/forward and defend/attack, full/shorthop aerial, DJC'd aerial, another magnet, PK Freeze, or if it hits their shield, you can start shield pressuring them with DJC fair, crossup N-air to reverse magnet or DJC u-air, since it hits behind you really quickly. SUPER lastly and SUPER more importantly, I didn't really see you wavedashing out of shield much. Nausicaa and Spidermad gave me that same advice a few months back. It really helps a lot, since you have more options out of shield. Sorry for the terribly formatted post lol.

 

[Nausicaa]

(not that I'm known at all, but here goes) You use too many grounded Side-b's. You should be using DJC'd side-b's. It comes out quicker, leaves you less open, since you have very little landing lag when you land (no lag at all if it comes out right as you land. basically the closer it comes out to when you land the less lag you'll get. if you do it perfectly it'll go the exact same distance as a grounded one) To do it pretty easily with the new DJC PK-Freeze timing window, just jump once with Y, hit Y again, then just drag/slide your finger down to the B button and hit it all in the same motion. Also, like Nausicaa was saying, F-air is your best friend in the neutral game. Especially when you can DJC it effectively, since it has stupidly low landing lag when l-cancelled. It seems most people use the jump button for that, but I just use tap jump, as in- hit Y, rotate the control stick up to initiate the double jump, and at almost the same time, input a F-air on the C-stick, then quickly fastfall and l-cancel. Also, if you're locked down in your shield, have your OU charged, and they are in range, jumping out of shield and using PK Burst seems to be a good way to create space. you can also use it mid combo while airborne (at lower percents, so you may be able to follow up depending on DI, and where the attack hits them. or to edge guard high priority recoveries, like with Ness, since PK Burst (after the initial start-up frame) has two frames of intangibility right at the beginning when the hitbox comes out. I'd say also practice your dash dancing and stage movement, since I noticed you getting stuck in dash turnaround a lot and having to jump out of it. Be conservative with your upsmashes, since they are extremely punishable. Keep your OU until you need PK Burst to escape a combo or you are relatively sure it's going to hit. At lower percents you should be u-tilting a lot more after d-throw, since at lower percents and even mid percents (on fastfallers) consecutive u-tilts are pretty much free after a poorly DI'd downthrow. Lastly and most importantly, practice jumping out of your down-b magnet after it releases. It's probably my favorite combo starter in the game atm, and you have SO many options out of it (wavedash back/forward and defend/attack, full/shorthop aerial, DJC'd aerial, another magnet, PK Freeze, or if it hits their shield, you can start shield pressuring them with DJC fair, crossup N-air to reverse magnet or DJC u-air, since it hits behind you really quickly. SUPER lastly and SUPER more importantly, I didn't really see you wavedashing out of shield much. Nausicaa and Spidermad gave me that same advice a few months back. It really helps a lot, since you have more options out of shield. Sorry for the terribly formatted post lol.

First, by this. "PKF when they're in basically SH F-air range"
I meant how people get him by OPPONENTS' F-airs because they're PKFing for no reason.
My bad for not making more sense in that, I do that a lot.

I also don't advocate using much F-air in neutral outside that misinterpreted quote, lol. Especially not as a best-friend. It's an extension/part of the GREATER BnB, but by no means would I suggest using it liberally. He has too many options (F-tilt, Grab, and Down-B into 'any' aerial are essentially the 'core' of it, but people like PKF and F-air like it's all they have) to have something this simply and practically 50% as rewarding as a lot of similar options. It's great and all, but don't limit yourself, which you totally are (as most Lucas players have been in all versions of PM).

If you're locked in your shield/under pressure, WDOOS away, or any of your quick aerials, OUC is definitely an option, but Lucas has LOADS of options. This shouldn't be an issue, especially since it's basically a core maneuver in the BnB of Smash itself... (as everyone has pointed out to everyone else by now, Malart knows what's up)

Work on your punishment game. (You can touch-of-death anything with applied proper punishing, this is something everyone should work on with every character, Lucas is just one of the special ones)
Work on not getting punished. (You can be aggressive and stay safe the whole time, don't do anything that will get you hit, you don't need to at all, ever, as this will be a stock when others punish you)

Terrible format indeed. Particularly when describing somewhat specific actions and situation-based combo-like things in the game, that format was particularly bad indeed, indeed.

 

[Malart]

Yeah I'm terrible at figuring out where to put paragraph breaks, plus I was in a hurry, and I figured you or someone else would pick through it and suss it out. I usually just flood people with walls of text XD.

 

[Dron]

I'm guessing this thread isn't being actively monitored anymore, but here's some stuff anyways

http://www.twitch.tv/alabamasmashleague/c/3114489
http://www.twitch.tv/alabamasmashleague/c/3114593

I'm mainly looking for some advice on the second link, I feel like my understanding of the neutral game still needs some work, especially against projectiles (i.e. game 3)

I've also looked into my recovery since then because I learned that ledgehop -> airdodge -> snake or ledgehop -> fair pretty much almost never works against somebody that expects it

 

[Nausicaa]

Ugh, yeah, you might want to stop that. haha
It looks like you're really doing it blindly or out of desperation, and just died over and over for it.
WL on the stage... You can do it 2 ways, either the standard way (which is a little slow for Lucas but still faster than EVERYTHING else you can do), or with simply the ledge-jump directly.

Your Neutral against TL was solid enough to not need mention, (better than against MK really) it was your attempts at punishing linearly that caused you to take so much unnecessary damage, and not really build an advantage.

Throughout all the matches, your punish-game was seriously lacking and non-optimal, almost entirely focused on F-air repeats after a Grab, and that's about it. You'd be better off just going F-air > F-smash and resetting pressure with better positioning, or at the very least finishing with a Magnet (to change the direction your facing) > DJ B-air at the end of the chains. Either of those adding/changing the chaining F-airs and over-extending will benefit you greatly, but there's a LOT of punishment-related stuff you could apply. The only reason it was so detrimental against TL was that any let-go of the chain mid-combo lead to a TL N-air to the face, which lead to combos for him.

Lucas can touch-of-death anyone off anything, and F-air alone won't accomplish this, which also seems like you were just doing it out of desperation to continue the strings.

Your mental adaptions, both in offensive and defensive positions, as well as in general neutral-game, were consistent and solid, but there are those few situations where your awareness of your own play seems to shut down (On the ledge + Momentum F-airs)
Watch for that, and work on that, and you'll be filling the few holes that you're falling in. wp otherwise.


Edit: Wtf is with these font-size things? Smashboards are weird.

 

[Dron]

I see what you're saying about fair, what I was mainly aiming for with those chains was getting him offstage as opposed for going for resets/kills mainly because it was easier and I didn't want to screw up any opportunities (I usually mix in more magnets and other stuff)

and yeah, as for recovery, I've been practicing both the Melee ledgehop and the ledgejump, as well as reverse magnet -> jump -> bair onto the stage or drop -> jump -> retreating pk freeze -> retether ledge for people that are breathing down my neck next to the ledge, I think that'll help a lot

 

[Nausicaa]

Pro tip: You don't need to be facing your opponent in order to bair them. I don't think I've seen anyone else using reverse bairs, and they're very useful for getting lower percentage kills.
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSLV7XUdH88&t=1m38s

Figured I'd post this since it's a video example of exactly what I just said about your F-air combo thing.

It's not hard either. It's the same concept as the reverse hit-boxes on Falco/Falcon B-airs in combo/finishing or whatever, which are pretty easy and common too. (Fast characters with good aerials are good)

 

[Dron]

I've liked the concept of reverse bairs and have tried them in the past and I think they whiffed pretty often, maybe it's just a matter of confirming that it will connect before committing

I definitely feel you though

 

[NeonApophis]

I've liked the concept of reverse bairs and have tried them in the past and I think they whiffed pretty often, maybe it's just a matter of confirming that it will connect before committing

I definitely feel you though

Idk, I feel like bair hits way more than I expect it to, even when it looks like I'm out of range. You just have to go for it a lot in friendlies so that you get used to the spacing and can trust that it will connect when you use it.

 

[Nausicaa]

Fortunately, after getting it solidly part of my Bread-and-Butter play in 2.1, this new B-Air might as well be automatic and cover the whole screen...

Like anything, just do it a couple times as if you've been doing it your whole life. It's just buttons that anyone can press, press them. :D

 

[Eltrion]

Here's a treat for you all:
Some Hammertime:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2sdv1NOzMg&list=PLLBfn_Mp9t5iR8bn7EDVRrbX2N2WyECjL&index=4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGPQfHncurU&list=PLLBfn_Mp9t5iR8bn7EDVRrbX2N2WyECjL&index=3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZlajJ_gryE&list=PLLBfn_Mp9t5iR8bn7EDVRrbX2N2WyECjL&index=6

 

[NeonApophis]

Here's one last 2.6b video. Me (Lucas) vs. Silly Kyle (Peach) from winner's finals of the last AZ tourney. I think this is probably the best I've ever played in a tournament.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bBcOFhOqU8