1. Smashboard's name and link to profile
Galax1117
http://www.smashboards.com/member.php?u=108843
2. Type(s) of researcher
General
3. Best Researching Skills/Abilities
I have a great memory and the ability to take what I notice(in either playing/watching brawl vids) and writing it down on paper so that anyone can understand what I saw. This is useful for any application involving videos or character specific matchups/movesets.
4. Summary of what applicant will uniquely add to the Smash Lab
By having me you will have the Smash Lab will have the ability to precisely and concisely record any valuable information and be able to manipulate/interpret that information so that the common smasher will be able to understand it.
Gaming is a science. And just like any experiment or research project you must have someone who is capable of recording and analyzing data. I can do that better than most.
If none of that matters to you then I am a rocket scientist (aerospace engineering degree) and at least you can say hey...we have a rocket scientist in our group.
5. Examples of previous work
I am currently working on the matchup thread for pikachu. Although I started off kinda weak, my work has gotten better as time has gone on. My first matchup ever was sonic, then toon link. My latest was gaw. I am currently working on lucario/ZSS/and zelda. These are taking a rather long time but I had some personal problems over the past 3 months and just recently(middle of Dec) got back into the swf again.
Link to my Matchup thread:
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=174335
Ex of one of my matchup threads:
Snake
General Discussion
This is pika's most interesting matchup imo. It is so hotly debated whether pika has the advantage people have just grown sick and said even matchup. This matchup is like david and goliath. Pika has everything any character needs to win, but snake has the same.
Pika's Advantages
1.) Speed
2.) Ability to combo
3.) CG
4.) Can gimp snakes recovery
5.) Not easily gimped
6.) Spammable projectile
7.) Thunder(hits way above pika...willbe talked about later)
Pika's Disadvantages
1.) No ridiculous utilt range/priority
2.) Less priority
3.) Less range on tilts
4.) Kill/percentage ratio(snake needs more to die obviously)
Strategy for Winning
General
This is a most intersting matchup. Hotly debated but never ended. What makes this matchup so interesting is that both characters have the advantages to win this matchup. Snake is the explosive master and pikachu is so finess. This matchup will come down to who knows it the best.
Grenades
The first and most foremost thing that needs to be addressed with snake is his ability to use his grenades. It only takes 1 frame to pull out a grenade. 1 frame. This means that any chaingrab that you may attempt, or anything that you attempt, can be thrawrted if not executed properly. Now when a snake pulls a nade it will take 5 seconds to explode. A nade will explode once its timer is reached, if you use an elemental attack on it, or if you use your thunder/tolt on it. You will hear a tink when he pulls it out too. Listen for it.
The most stupid thing about nades is that it affects the higher slots first and lowest slots last. If snake grabs you and a nade is right below you and explodes, it will damage the person whose controller is plugged into the port nearest port 1. This means you fight for port 4 cuz it is the best port.
Now what to watch out for with grenades and all the info you will ever need to know about them. Be sure that there is quite a bit. Snake, first off, has three options with nades. He can either hold the nade(not letting go of B), release the b button and let go of the nade, shield and drop the nade. If snake holds the nade do not hit him. You will detonate the nade and you will both be sent flying into the air and snake will more than likely uair you to your death. If they hold onto it watch out for them walking slowly towards you then when the nade is about to explode they will shield. So you can shield yourself. My recommendation is simple and effective. Tjolt them. They are forced to shield and drop the nade. If they do release their nade they can just press B and let go, which will send the nade in front of the snake and set it onto the ground. The snake can also pull back on the joystick and the nade will be thrown into the air, land on the ground, and explode approximately 3 seconds later., near snake. Most snakes will roll back when they do this.
Now when snakes drop the nade using their shield. This is the most common form of nade users. Shield>drop>many things. They can hold onto it, throw it down/up/forward/way forward..etc. Snakes also have the choice of leaving on the ground. You will see most, if not all of the nade uses. The 5 second rule still applies. Some things you must learn to avoid are as follow. Nade>shield>grab nade>hit down on cstick. This effectively throws the nade on the ground and bounces it back into the air. The nade will explode right before it hits the ground or at around snakes head depending on how hard the player button mashed. So in other words...stay away when this happens. The snake will tend to roll away when this happens and pull out another nade. More than likely the snake will then go through the same series of events, except this time they will hold the nade and throw it at you right before it explodes so when it gets near you the timer will go off and it will explode on you.
There is no way of going through all the possible ways of nade uses. He can pick them up while dash attacking over them, throw them while he is airiel, etc... You have to learn how to avoid them. Learn how to powershield them. If he is in the air and you hear a tink, he has pulled a nade and do not attack him cuz you will make the nade explode and then both of you will be sent airiel again. Get the timing down for the nades. Play with him and only use his nades to learn the timing. I dont care how you do it. Just do it if you really want to win.
C4
Now that the nades are done, lets talk about his c4. He can do many things with it. Basically if you see him plant it, dont run over it or else he will detonate it and kill you. I've died around 84% before from the c4 going off on levels with low cielings. Basically you have to listen for the sound that snake makes when he plants a c4. I cannot describe it, so you have to go listen to it for yourself. But everytime you hear it look vertically down and thats where it will land. Do not pay attention to snake cuz you want to know where it is. Snake can also detonate it in the air too. If you have sent him upwards in the air he can drop a c4 and detonate it on top of you if you arent paying attention. As a snake user I plant most of my c4's when I am jumping. Snakes will use misdirection and distraction to plant a c4 and therefore get a free 15% damage on you. The c4 can also be planted on you directly. If you get stickied by a c4 just run at snake and make the thing plant on him. C4 will jump from player to player when stickied. If you know you are gonna get detonated on, just shield or spotdodge the explosion and it will miss you.
Another reason you want to pay attention to the c4 is that it can, and will detonate without being detonated by snake, after a certain time being planted. Be aware cuz the occasional random explosion really does suck hardcore.
Tilts
Well well well. What to talk about next? Lets talk about what makes snake so awesome...his tilts. Now I am gonna include snakes jab combo in this section cuz it is just as important as the tilts if snake is going to use his tilts effectively. The first thing I will say is that his tilts will degenerate in power after each use. This is good for us. But bad in the sense that he has 3 different tilits to use lol. Lets talk about the ftilt first. Its a two hit combo and can do over 23% damage fresh. It startup time is next to nothing and lag time is just as snalle. The same goes for his utilt. The dtilt has a slightly higher startup time, but only a few frame difference. The tilts are snakes bread and butter. Without them he isnt snake. Be aware that the ftilt can trip you too so getting out of it can be impossible sometimes.
Now you should know that his utlit has ridiculously long range. So always watch out for it when you are at higher percentages. It has the best speed/kill ratio in the game. Just try to stay behind him or tjolt him when the snake is trying to utilt you for the kill. His dtilt is used more for damage racking. If his tilts are degenerating you will see the dtilt being implemented more. A combo to watch out for and not get baited into is nade>drop>roll back>crouch>dtilt when you roll towards him cuz you do not want to get hit by the nade.
The Jab
Lets talk about the jab next since this is what makes some snakes gods at smash. The jab cancels the tjolt. The jab comboes into tilits. The jab can kill. Basically it is easy to understand that holding down A will send a million jabs a minute from snake and they will cancel your tjolt. But you will get a small knockback so still use the tjolt cuz you can push them off the edge and then you get into edgeguarding. The jab, when it connects can either be used for a 3 hit combo, which will end in a kick and send you flying back, or they can stop the jab and turn it into a combo where they use ftilt or utlit to kill you. So it goes jab(one punch)>ftilt or jab>utlit or jab>first knee of ftilt>then utilt. Or another combo jab>dtilt>utilt. The dtilt sends you up a bit and bam, there is your utilt.
How to Counter the Tilts as Pika
So what to do against these tilts. You know all about them, lets talk about what to do about them. The most annoying thing a pikachu can do to avoid these is just plain aviod them all together and camp the entire match. But if you find a snake who is a good camper too or knows how to get in close you must know what to do. This is where spotdodging comes in. You can spotdodge all of his tilts and just drive snakes crazy. Its not hard too to know when a snake will use his tilts. SEriously, just dodge them and then go into an offensive. Be patient when close cuz if you get impatient and attack with a move that has lag you get punished by a tilt. You can also roll behind the snake when the are using their tilts. Probably the best place to be in this scenario. These are the only way around his tilits though. Remember this is just a guide so the best I can do is inform you of their ability and tell you what is effective. Sadly , in this case, there is only so much you can do.
The Mortar Slide
The next thing that is up for discussion is snakes mortar slide. Some snakes know how to use this and others don't. Some use extensively, others do not. Whatever the case is let me point out that what I am going to cover about the mortar slide is independent on the amount of times the MS is used.
The mortar slide is your basic hyphen smash for snake. But, since is can shoot out a mortar and depending on how your opponent uses the MS, it can slide across the stage due to snakes momentum. The snake can choose to charge up the MS and send the mortar way into the air. It allows him to get from one side to the other in no time. It gives him an offinsive option if you are in the air and he wants to hit you.
So what to watch out for and what to do in response. If a snake is about 1.5 snakes away(if you crouch with snake, 1 crouched snake =1 snake) then the MS is more than likely going to be used is you are in any way above him or coming to the stage. But, this isnt the only time he will use it. You see when the snake uses the MS he is using it for 1 of 4 reasons. (1.) To escape. (2.) He wants to hit you with the martar in the air. (3.) He wants to get closer and keep pressure on you. (4.) He is setting up a trap. The first three are self explanitory. As pikachu, you want to watch out for the MS as an offensive attack when you are SH tjolting. If the snake times it right then he can powershield and hit you with a well timed MS. But this is very hard to do as snake. The msot troublesome thing you have to watch for the the 4th option. This is how it happens. The snake will mortar slide next to you, wait about half a second, then begin to use his tilts or jab combo. Why is this so frustrating and effective you ask? Well its because if you grab snake or attack him the mortar will come down and hit you. If you do not attack then you can shield. If you shield you will be grabbed and still get hit with the mortar. If you have just performed an attack and have lag, the snake will MS next to you, ftilt you once, you will trip 2/3rds of the time, wait to hit you with the second part of the ftilt, and hit you you with it as the mortar hits you.
Now snakes can also charge the MS and shoot the mortar way into the air. The thing with this is that you need to have your timing down and know where it is. If you don't then you will get hit by it. The morar does not degenerate. It is always painful. There are different scenarios when he will use it. But the most often time is when you are recovering. He will MS to the edge>charge>shoot it up and wait to see what to do next. If you are close he will begin a series of edgeguarding techs. If you arrent close, he will charge up another MS. As pika, we don't worry about his as much cuz our recovery is amazing. We have to worry about getting off the ledge too early and gettnig hit by a falling mortar. Just ledgehog till it comes back down.
Now, countering the MS. There are 2 things you can to. Space the MS properly, or tjolt the s**t out of him. The MS can only go so far and when he gets up after it he expects you to be close or affected in some way by the mortar. Move back or qac away. If you fall back and get out of his ftilt range then the MS was just rendered ineffective. yay. You can also tjolt him. But, when tjolting, do not get into a rythm. DO NOT!!!!!! Snake players have the best timing than any other character, usually. Freak him out sometimes by QAC>sh tjolt>qac away>sh tjolt>sh tjolt>FH dj(double jump) tjolt>qac away>tjolt>qac 2 horizontal<tjolt...etc. Can you get the idea? Mix it up.
Now the idea came up of skullbashing(SB) snake while he is mortar sliding. Terrible idea. Do not do it. You SB has horrible startup lag. Its too hard to time. Even if you do pull it off, the mortar will hit you. There is no reason to SB here. Ever. Trust me.
Basic Strategies
Ok. Now lets talk about pikachu and what to do as pikachu to win this fight. You can start by tjolting. Some snakes cannot play against a tjolting spammer. If you find yourself in a fight with one then you have pretty much won the fight since you can tjolt him to a high percentage and destroy him with strategy you will read below.
If you find yourself in a fight with a snake who knows about jab canceling the tjolt and powershields excellently, well now you have to change up strategy a bit. The best thing pikas have against snake if grabbing. The more you grab snake the better chance you will have of winning. If you grab him before...we will say 55%...then fthrow him across the board and CG him. Use and abuse your CG. Free damage. If he is above then dthrow him into some utilts or usmashes or w/e. Combo his a*s. The more you can grab, the more you can get comboes in on him.
Being Aggressive
Now, when being aggressive against snake. The thing is that you want to keep you attacks airiel. Our tilts are at best useless against snake except when he has landing lag from one of his airiels or we have just spotdodged his entire ftilt. The nair/dair/uair are awesome. The fair is usually our best approach. Almost no lag and great combo strater. But, snakes do not run and love to shield into tilts. Now as a pika user you ARENT GOING TO APPROACH A SNAKE WITH A FAIR CUZ HE WILL SHIELD YOU AND HIT YOU WITH HIS TILTS!!!!! You will use the fair as a shield poker(if you will) and for spacing. This means jump<fair<land out of snakes range. You can also use it when he is in the air.
Some great things to do is land behind snake and uair him into some comboes too. Watch vids. I cannot explain how to approach fully.
Edgeguarding
As for edgeguarding. Pika has a lot better time edgeguarding against snake than other characters. This is one of our advantages that we can take advantage of. Since thunder starts so far above our heads it makes it harder for snake to get back onto the stage with his recovery. A well placed nair/dair can knock a snake off his cypher. If you grab a snake when he is recovering with his cypher you have just ended his life. Grab him and do not press anything. He will auto jump off and will not be able to do anything and fall to his death. Also, if you headbut his cypher he will fall to his death too. When he is hangin off the ledge keep pressure of him by tjolting and he will be forced to either ledge stall or get back onto the stage via cypher or jumping up. If he ledge stalls you can always grab the ledge before him and make him use his cypher. From there you can ledge jump>thunder and hit him. Most snakes will use their airdodge right before they land on the stage though toi dodge any thunder or attack. The video posted shows this quite well and how to counter it.
If the snake decides to use his cypher once you've grabbed the ledge drop down to him and knock him off again with a nair. Keep pressure on him when he's off the edge. Don't forget that the bair is also very effective to use off the edge. If the snake decides to hit the jump button though from the edge well you have a different scenario. He will come up and off the edge and more than likely use his nair. If he doesn't use his nair he will pull a nade out. Another wards, wait till he lands then start attacking him. You have time to attack. Be patient.
When snakes try to edgeguard they will use their mortars and nades. The will drop a nade near the edge>roll back>w/e. As pika, we have one of the best ledge stalling abilities in the game. Plus, we have the qac. There is no reason why we should get wrecked off the edge. Ledge stall. Wait till the mortars hit and the nades explode and use your qac to get away. If the snake is near the edge then use your uair to gets some hits in.
Killing
Now for the last part!!!!!! Killing and being killed. Snakes best kill moves are his utilt, nair, bair, fsmash, and his c4. More than likerly you will die from his utilt. It has the best speed to kill ratio in the game and kills pika at around 84% fresh and around 105% degenerated. The nair is easy to see but sometimes hard to avoid. The bair has little startup time and like the rest of his airiels, it auto-cancels. His fsmash has horrible startup time and a lot of lag. But it kills at like 60% uncharged. I myself have a setup when edgeguarding that allows me to use fsmashes with snakes and get some easy kills. So it is possible to get hit by it. The c4... well as long as you are paying attention you shouldn't get hit by it. If you get sticked try and resticky it to snake or shield it.
As for killing snake. Thunder and fsmash are your best options. Time your thunders off the edge and do not use your fsmash until you want to kill him. Utilt is your backup if your moves are degerating. Same goes for usmash. Don't be afraid to use your usmash though in the match. This will not be your best killing option so use it whenever you want to.
Last but not least...be smart. Be defensive. Be patient. Do this and you will win.
Helpful Video's
Esam vs. Siebrik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GyTN8EnICA
Overall Matchup
Pika: Snake
53:47
6. What is/are your favorite aspect(s) of Brawl? And why?
I love that it gives new players a fresh start. Everyone deserves a chance at winning and brawl can give you that.
I also love the fact that you can have more than one main and be proficient in more than 1 character.
Haha. Really though, I like how the physics feel, even if it makes the game have less depth. Overall, the characters just feel great to play as. It feels smooth.
