Zigsta
Disney Film Director
Link to original post: [drupal=4473]All About BOWSER[/drupal]
I've had a lot of people ask me why play Bowser. He's a bad character. Not sheer trash, but he's not viable to win big tournaments. So why stick with him? Why not play a better character? Do I like losing money? It's something both competitive and non-competitive friends ask me quite often.
On a concrete note, Bowser was my secondary in Melee, and in the last year I played the game, he was my main. I loved watching Gimpyfish's videos and then imitating him as best I could. Nothing was more satisfying than getting a Gimpyfish Combo. NOTHING. When Brawl came around, I went to PT first. I sucked. HARD. I always SD'd once a game, and I was always losing to the very same people I'd beat in Melee. So I started playing Bowser and did much better. When I went to college, I mained Bowser for about 6 months before dropping him for PT again.
My favorite MU with PT was easily the DK MU. I challenged a San Antonio DK (shoutout to my boy Morning Star!) to a MM, but he said he'd only play my Bowser, who I had NEVER used competitively in Brawl. Game one would've been a victory for me...but I Bowser Bombed off the side of the stage and died before DK did. XD I ended up winning the next two games fairly comfortably. Afterwards a lot of people told me I should just play Bowser. So I started secondarying him, bringing out the Big Guy every now and then.
Then last summer, things changed. I played typh a few times and realized how much better he was with PT, and how much better I was with Bowser. Bowser just seemed to click more naturally for me. The only reason I'd achieved anything near success with PT is because I practiced a lot. With Bowser, I just felt more in control. So from then on, I dropped PT completely and started going all Bowser.
I started by watching every single video of top Bowser players on YouTube: Vex (although the videos were old), Limit, MrEh, Phiddlesticks (although he didn't have much, sadly), WarriorKnight (again, old), Gen (old still), Sliq (old as well), Flayl, KingKong, and Ixis. I found myself smitten with Ixis's style. His Bowser was super flashy compared to all the other Bowsers. I loved his jab canceling shenanigans and his mixups; however, I also noted he had a bad habit of Klaw Hopping into silly stuff and getting punished for it.
In short, I stole a lot of my gameplay from watching Ixis.
I became obsessed with the jab. If they DI this way, what moves follow up best? What about this way, or that way? I started turning heads in Texas, and soon I wanted to become known as the best.
But I found I would oftentimes lose matches because I just didn't have good MU experience, or I wouldn't bring home good results because I had to go up against terrible MUs in bracket. I felt ashamed to be a Bowser main. No one told me this, but I felt like I let all the other Bowsers down. They had little to no rep--I just wanted to give everyone something to strive for. But the more I concentrated, the more I felt I sucked.
Then I read a book that began to change the way I looked at Bowser. It's called Coming Back Stronger, written by Saints quarterback Drew Brees. In it, Drew says he had a lot of doubters upon being signed by New Orleans. He was tempted to focus his attention on these naysayers and show them how wrong they were. But instead he focused on the people who love him and care about him. He says it made his mind that much clearer, and he felt free to succeed. From that day, I dropped caring about being the best and started focusing on the people who love me.
Skip forward a few months to the present. I've seen Kung Fu Panda 2 8 times now. I LOVE Po--he's the closest representation of my personality you'll ever find in films. I began learning from both Po and from kung fu on how to improve my Bowser game, as silly as it sounds. Kung fu's number one rule is balance. If you make the first move, you've already lost. One of the biggest critiques I give to other Bowsers is don't jump so much. I'm more on the conservative side as far as this goes, but I hate exposing Bowser's blind side--underneath him. I realized my views on Bowser correlated DIRECTLY with those of Po. You'll rarely see Po make the first move, and when he does, it's in a moment of weakness. No matter who he's up against, Po calmly takes the attack and waits for an opening. Even moreso, Po keeps a positive attitude with him when he fights.
I haven't been playing too much Brawl this summer, but I've been thinking about this new style a lot, and I'm pleased to say it came into fruition at Genesis 2. I had just dropped a set to a ROB player and only had Stealth Raptor left in my pool. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it out or not, but I knew I needed to win this set to have a chance. Game 1 was close, with Stealth Raptor barely winning.
Instead of focusing on the loss, I focused on what's being going GREAT in my life. I had just met with the writers of Megamind, been dating a beautiful girl who likes me for who I am, have loving and supporting parents who encourage me to follow my dream, the best friends I could ever ask for, I get to represent Bowser in the Brawl Back Room, I got to crash in a hotel room with friends from Texas (which I've ALWAYS dreamed about doing). I imagined how Po took down Lord Shen's cannons and focused everything I had into this one match.
I've always been an advocate that the Pikachu-Bowser MU isn't that bad. Pika has a CG on us, so just don't approach him. Let him camp you and rack up damage. I don't care. Don't be dumb and Klaw Hop into upsmash or nair, and don't fair after you're hit upwards or else you'll get Thundered.
I CP Battlefield. I drop down to the right side of the stage and wait. Powershield. Powershield. Powershield. Jab. Jab. I don't know how long this went on for, but eventually, Stealth Raptor approached me. I jabbed him away. Repeat. Repeat. Jab > Klaw. Go back to the right side of the stage. Jab > ftilt.
The whole match went on like this, with me calmly knocking Pikachu away and then walking back to my side of the stage until my damage was too high for the CG to force me offstage.
At the end of the match, I had all three stocks remaining. It was the first time I'd ever three stocked someone in tournament with Bowser. And I've never been so focused on a Brawl match in my life. I did it for everyone who believes in me, whether it's in Smash, film, or life.
I'm focusing on love a good bit here, as hokey as it sounds. But it's all true! I often dream of protecting my friends from danger. I can't think of someone better to protect the people he cares about than Bowser. Dude's built like a fortress--pun intended!
When I play as Bowser, I find myself doing things naturally, things I don't think about--I just do. Random stuff like dash > Klaw or dair > fsmash. Bowser feels like an extension of myself in just less than a year of maining him.
I'm not perfect, and I don't claim to be. There's still MUs I'm bad at. But I'm improving at them.
I often view myself as an oddball in terms of the Smash scene. I don't practice often because I don't have a Wii, and with my injury to my forearms still healing, I have to give myself rest and as such don't play for as long as I used to. I find that my game always improves as I improve other aspects of my life, and the confidence gained from these improvements only strengthens my Bowser in return. Whenever people tell me they think I'm the best Bowser or I do something completely unexpected or hold my own against a top player and/or a bad matchup, I just get this surge of happiness. It's like watching a great animated film to me. I feel completely alive and awake and proud to be where I am today.
Maybe deep down Bowser and I connect because I share his drive to succeed. He gets beat by Mario time and time again, yet he doesn't give up. People often tell me my dreams and impossible, but I won't ever quit. Just like I'll never quit Bowser. Some people would say I'm a fool to play such a bad character in a competitive game, but I don't care what they have to say. I tried to NOT play Bowser for the majority of my Brawl career, and yet he just keep coming back to me. Just as wands pick their wizard in Harry Potter, I feel like Bowser chose me. I was made to play Bowser.
I've only got one more semester left at UT before I move out to Hollywood to work, so this may end up being my last six months as a competitive Smasher. I don't know what the future holds, but I'm excited to play friends both old and new with Bowser and continue to represent hands-down my favorite character in the entire game.
I've had a lot of people ask me why play Bowser. He's a bad character. Not sheer trash, but he's not viable to win big tournaments. So why stick with him? Why not play a better character? Do I like losing money? It's something both competitive and non-competitive friends ask me quite often.
On a concrete note, Bowser was my secondary in Melee, and in the last year I played the game, he was my main. I loved watching Gimpyfish's videos and then imitating him as best I could. Nothing was more satisfying than getting a Gimpyfish Combo. NOTHING. When Brawl came around, I went to PT first. I sucked. HARD. I always SD'd once a game, and I was always losing to the very same people I'd beat in Melee. So I started playing Bowser and did much better. When I went to college, I mained Bowser for about 6 months before dropping him for PT again.
My favorite MU with PT was easily the DK MU. I challenged a San Antonio DK (shoutout to my boy Morning Star!) to a MM, but he said he'd only play my Bowser, who I had NEVER used competitively in Brawl. Game one would've been a victory for me...but I Bowser Bombed off the side of the stage and died before DK did. XD I ended up winning the next two games fairly comfortably. Afterwards a lot of people told me I should just play Bowser. So I started secondarying him, bringing out the Big Guy every now and then.
Then last summer, things changed. I played typh a few times and realized how much better he was with PT, and how much better I was with Bowser. Bowser just seemed to click more naturally for me. The only reason I'd achieved anything near success with PT is because I practiced a lot. With Bowser, I just felt more in control. So from then on, I dropped PT completely and started going all Bowser.
I started by watching every single video of top Bowser players on YouTube: Vex (although the videos were old), Limit, MrEh, Phiddlesticks (although he didn't have much, sadly), WarriorKnight (again, old), Gen (old still), Sliq (old as well), Flayl, KingKong, and Ixis. I found myself smitten with Ixis's style. His Bowser was super flashy compared to all the other Bowsers. I loved his jab canceling shenanigans and his mixups; however, I also noted he had a bad habit of Klaw Hopping into silly stuff and getting punished for it.
In short, I stole a lot of my gameplay from watching Ixis.
I became obsessed with the jab. If they DI this way, what moves follow up best? What about this way, or that way? I started turning heads in Texas, and soon I wanted to become known as the best.
But I found I would oftentimes lose matches because I just didn't have good MU experience, or I wouldn't bring home good results because I had to go up against terrible MUs in bracket. I felt ashamed to be a Bowser main. No one told me this, but I felt like I let all the other Bowsers down. They had little to no rep--I just wanted to give everyone something to strive for. But the more I concentrated, the more I felt I sucked.
Then I read a book that began to change the way I looked at Bowser. It's called Coming Back Stronger, written by Saints quarterback Drew Brees. In it, Drew says he had a lot of doubters upon being signed by New Orleans. He was tempted to focus his attention on these naysayers and show them how wrong they were. But instead he focused on the people who love him and care about him. He says it made his mind that much clearer, and he felt free to succeed. From that day, I dropped caring about being the best and started focusing on the people who love me.
Skip forward a few months to the present. I've seen Kung Fu Panda 2 8 times now. I LOVE Po--he's the closest representation of my personality you'll ever find in films. I began learning from both Po and from kung fu on how to improve my Bowser game, as silly as it sounds. Kung fu's number one rule is balance. If you make the first move, you've already lost. One of the biggest critiques I give to other Bowsers is don't jump so much. I'm more on the conservative side as far as this goes, but I hate exposing Bowser's blind side--underneath him. I realized my views on Bowser correlated DIRECTLY with those of Po. You'll rarely see Po make the first move, and when he does, it's in a moment of weakness. No matter who he's up against, Po calmly takes the attack and waits for an opening. Even moreso, Po keeps a positive attitude with him when he fights.
I haven't been playing too much Brawl this summer, but I've been thinking about this new style a lot, and I'm pleased to say it came into fruition at Genesis 2. I had just dropped a set to a ROB player and only had Stealth Raptor left in my pool. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it out or not, but I knew I needed to win this set to have a chance. Game 1 was close, with Stealth Raptor barely winning.
Instead of focusing on the loss, I focused on what's being going GREAT in my life. I had just met with the writers of Megamind, been dating a beautiful girl who likes me for who I am, have loving and supporting parents who encourage me to follow my dream, the best friends I could ever ask for, I get to represent Bowser in the Brawl Back Room, I got to crash in a hotel room with friends from Texas (which I've ALWAYS dreamed about doing). I imagined how Po took down Lord Shen's cannons and focused everything I had into this one match.
I've always been an advocate that the Pikachu-Bowser MU isn't that bad. Pika has a CG on us, so just don't approach him. Let him camp you and rack up damage. I don't care. Don't be dumb and Klaw Hop into upsmash or nair, and don't fair after you're hit upwards or else you'll get Thundered.
I CP Battlefield. I drop down to the right side of the stage and wait. Powershield. Powershield. Powershield. Jab. Jab. I don't know how long this went on for, but eventually, Stealth Raptor approached me. I jabbed him away. Repeat. Repeat. Jab > Klaw. Go back to the right side of the stage. Jab > ftilt.
The whole match went on like this, with me calmly knocking Pikachu away and then walking back to my side of the stage until my damage was too high for the CG to force me offstage.
At the end of the match, I had all three stocks remaining. It was the first time I'd ever three stocked someone in tournament with Bowser. And I've never been so focused on a Brawl match in my life. I did it for everyone who believes in me, whether it's in Smash, film, or life.
I'm focusing on love a good bit here, as hokey as it sounds. But it's all true! I often dream of protecting my friends from danger. I can't think of someone better to protect the people he cares about than Bowser. Dude's built like a fortress--pun intended!
When I play as Bowser, I find myself doing things naturally, things I don't think about--I just do. Random stuff like dash > Klaw or dair > fsmash. Bowser feels like an extension of myself in just less than a year of maining him.
I'm not perfect, and I don't claim to be. There's still MUs I'm bad at. But I'm improving at them.
I often view myself as an oddball in terms of the Smash scene. I don't practice often because I don't have a Wii, and with my injury to my forearms still healing, I have to give myself rest and as such don't play for as long as I used to. I find that my game always improves as I improve other aspects of my life, and the confidence gained from these improvements only strengthens my Bowser in return. Whenever people tell me they think I'm the best Bowser or I do something completely unexpected or hold my own against a top player and/or a bad matchup, I just get this surge of happiness. It's like watching a great animated film to me. I feel completely alive and awake and proud to be where I am today.
Maybe deep down Bowser and I connect because I share his drive to succeed. He gets beat by Mario time and time again, yet he doesn't give up. People often tell me my dreams and impossible, but I won't ever quit. Just like I'll never quit Bowser. Some people would say I'm a fool to play such a bad character in a competitive game, but I don't care what they have to say. I tried to NOT play Bowser for the majority of my Brawl career, and yet he just keep coming back to me. Just as wands pick their wizard in Harry Potter, I feel like Bowser chose me. I was made to play Bowser.
I've only got one more semester left at UT before I move out to Hollywood to work, so this may end up being my last six months as a competitive Smasher. I don't know what the future holds, but I'm excited to play friends both old and new with Bowser and continue to represent hands-down my favorite character in the entire game.
Through hardships they can be tiring but when you take on a challenge and feel like you're giving your all there's just about no greater feeling. 
