Q&A Ask about Pikachu! Hosted by Axe and N64! feat. dkuo!

[iRobinhoood]

So is it $35 just to exist, then either $15 for singles and $10 to watch? Help <3

 

[Spyro]

Back on the topic of FoD, do you guys think that FoD is a viable counterpick against falcon?

 

[AXE 09]

So is it $35 just to exist, then either $15 for singles and $10 to watch? Help <3

If you're only going to spectate and not enter anything, it's $10. If you want to enter any Melee events, it's $35 PLUS whatever you want to enter (so if you're gonna only enter Melee singles, it'll be $50 total. If you're gonna enter both singles + doubles, it'll be $60 total. Etc).

So if you're bringing along any friends that just wanna watch, it should be only $10 for them

 

[iRobinhoood]

For $40 more you bet your *** I'm going to be practicing from sunrise to sunrise.

Also, for those smashers who think they're not good enough, or can't ever be as good as some of the best. For those that think I can't play like M2k, Armada, or Mango, who think they were born to play melee and are just that good. For those smashers who play a handful of sets and say they had enough practice for the day. FOR THOSE SMASHERS WHO THINK TIER'S MEAN ANYTHING, TO THINK THE CHARACTER THEY PLAY NOT THE CHARACTER THEY REPRESENT IS WHAT'S STOPPING THEM, I PRESENT TO YOU THE VIDEOO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk56VxaeqEQ

Go get'm Axe, Armada, anyone.

 

[N64]

FoD would be a viable counterpick to falcon if they didn't ban it every time. That stage owns falcon so hard.

 

[Spyro]

Well I can still use it in a 3 out of 5 set .

*EDIT* @iRobinhoood: wow, I watched the video you linked and I feel so motivated.

 

[iRobinhoood]

Today, I met a Falco which spammed tilts up the ***. When I was off stage, diagonal tilt, when I was on the stage, ftilt, when I was in the air, utilt. What can I do? Am I over thinking this?

 

[Captain Smuckers]

Counter Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X38PCf7kao

Regarding falcos that use tilts, if you mix it up enough his tilts shouldn't work that well. If you're offstage and he tries to tilt edgeguard, either stay out of that range or sweetspot the ledge. Even if he hits you with it, it does like 7 damage and hardly any knockback so you probably won't die from it. As for him f-tilting while you're on stage, make sure you never just run in predictably so he can hit you with a tilt in the first place; try baiting him. Finally for uptilts, unless he absolutely knows that you're gonna fall on to him with a dair or you'll jump into him with a nair, he shouldn't be able to get you frequently with an uptilt out of your approach. It definitely has high priority, higher than anything pika has other than dair, but just make sure it isn't obvious to him that you'll be approaching in the air when he thinks you will so he can't uptilt you so easily.

 

[iRobinhoood]

I'm gonna work on my short hops and hopefully move onto shuffling soon. That should work against tilts pretty good as well as mixing things up.

I counter your inspirational vid with an even more inspirational video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phJN5NyrGO4

 

[DerfMidWest]

tilts are **** bro.
spacies have a pretty legit uptilt. ftilt is aight too.
dtilt is ******** though, but sometimes combos into crap at low percent.

counter the spacies tilts with... YOU SUPERIOR TILTS!!!
Dtilt is boss. Ftilt out prioritizes like everything. uptilt... should be replaced with upsmash :\

 

[Captain Smuckers]

Okay, so how do you guys generally deal with samus? Whats the usual game plan? Mine is essentially to play falco and since I only play pika as a secondary I feel like it isn't necessary for me to be able to win that matchup but I'd still like to, any ideas?

 

[iRobinhoood]

I used to play a Samus that would go to one side of the stage and missile/arm cannon the whole game. When you got too close, dsmash. Beware of the dsmash *flyingdutchman.jpg*

 

[PolishSmash]

WHADUP HALLOWEEEEN! **** I didn't know you had to register for the singles where do you register? I need to register NOW lol Yo Robinhoood you know what we have to do or you telling me Saturday night?

 

[oukd]

Falco's utilt is damn solid. Shame I don't really use it enough.

If a Falco is "spamming" tilts, I feel like their mindset is focused on sitting and waiting for your approach and hitting A while holding towards your general direction. Dd, wd, waveland, do anything to figure out/mess up his tilt timing while staying out of range. If you want some momentum you can look for an opportunity to run in dsmash surprise but that's kind of risky...try shffling a dair against his tilts, I feel like (theoretically) that would outprioritize Falco's ftilt.

Dropzone uairs are so hard on Yoshi's without killing yourself T_T

 

[iRobinhoood]

I talked to Nick, I can explain it tomorrow. Just have your debit/credit card you're using to pay with. It's gonna be $50 but I don't care I'm competing. $10 to spectate. We register online.

 

[PolishSmash]

I talked to Nick, I can explain it tomorrow. Just have your debit/credit card you're using to pay with. It's gonna be $50 but I don't care I'm competing. $10 to spectate. We register online.

IGHTTT Can't wait man it's gonna be fun

 

[PolishSmash]

I talked to Nick, I can explain it tomorrow. Just have your debit/credit card you're using to pay with. It's gonna be $50 but I don't care I'm competing. $10 to spectate. We register online.

And when did you talk to Nick on Facebook? Does he have his phone yet?

 

[iRobinhoood]

Nick getting phone 2morrow b4 smash. I got stage check at 9:30am I be home like 12. Then might pick up some paint for next controller design lol u wanna come?

 

[PolishSmash]

Nick getting phone 2morrow b4 smash. I got stage check at 9:30am I be home like 12. Then might pick up some paint for next controller design lol u wanna come?

Yo thats perfect cuz I get off work early tomorrow at like 12 or 12:30 is that good?

 

[iRobinhoood]

Sounds good we out, you get to see and feel the Pika controller first lol

 

[PolishSmash]

Sounds good we out, you get to see and feel the Pika controller first lol

Ight cool I'll text you when I get outa work then. And you still have next week though right? How many finals you taking? So far I got a B in both Computer Science and Commercial and Regulatory Aspects of Aviation. So I'm pretty happy about that.

 

[iRobinhoood]

Got 3 finals. Tuesday Thursday and Friday. So I say Wednesday we chill. Yea txt me when u out. Iiiiight yo gotta study for this oral exam 2morrow. Gotta **** this dudes questions on flight planning.

 

[PolishSmash]

Got 3 finals. Tuesday Thursday and Friday. So I say Wednesday we chill. Yea txt me when u out. Iiiiight yo gotta study for this oral exam 2morrow. Gotta **** this dudes questions on flight planning.

Oh ight lol good luck on that and won't you be studying on Wednesday? Eh, watevas lol we out haha

 

[DerfMidWest]

for fighting samus you have to get close enough that they are uncomfortable using missiles but far enough that they can't smack you.

they LOVE to wavedash back into smashes (forward or down), so you have to look out for that.
When I'm luigi I wavedash twice so i go through them and ftilt. then kill them.

but as pika/pichu, I like empty jump in -> spot dodge -> nair.

Imo, samus can't do too much if you're above them, but pika can't do too much if people are bellow him either :\

maybe a better pika can give better advice, this is just how I play the matchup (which I don't play often... and usually as pichu)

 

[McNinja]

As a Samus main, I can agree with pretty much everything you said AesirGod. Especially the "wavedash back smash" thing lol

 

[soju]

I haven't played too many samus's but I've been capable of beating every one i've played except for Hugs and Darrel. It feels akward fighting her and I can't really give much legitimate advice, but whenever I've been able to outspace them they're quite easy to handle. So Idk XD

And about falcos tilts, your ftilt will **** every single one of em ;D and yeah, I've finally been able to master dropzone uairs on yoshis, now im trying to see if dropzone nair works, dair and bair are a nogo and fair works like it would any other stage ;]

 

[N.A.G.A.C.E]

Farmingdale

sorry i was busy yesterday and forgot i even asked where u were from my bad. anyway thats not to far from me. Also how r u getting to apex? i dont plan on signing up for the tourney itself but i plan on going to play friendlies ans chill. but i am wondering how people from LI r getting there.

 

[iRobinhoood]

sorry i was busy yesterday and forgot i even asked where u were from my bad. anyway thats not to far from me. Also how r u getting to apex? i dont plan on signing up for the tourney itself but i plan on going to play friendlies ans chill. but i am wondering how people from LI r getting there.

I'll be on break from school so I'll be in Yonkers. Try the LIRR see what routes they take.

 

[Captain Smuckers]

Alright I appreciate the samus feedback, now for a new question.
In your experience, how do people you play with pika respond to it? For example, my friends whom I play on a consistent basis never stop hating on pikachu. They call him a cheap character and think he is way overpowered and don't stop *****ing. In fact, if I play pika they just get upset to the point where I don't play him most of the time which I find ridiculous. Do people you guys play think this way at all?

 

[DerfMidWest]

your friends are scrubs.

remind them the Pika is only mid tier.

 

[Captain Smuckers]

The funny thing is that I'm not that much better than them with pika, we'll generally have really close games and occasionally I'll even lose. But they just don't stop whining because he can gimp has a good recovery and is small. Mainly because he is small.

 

[DerfMidWest]

lmao, they dumb.
just keep playing pika and they'll stop *****ing after awhile

 

[McNinja]

Lol if you beat someone with a character enough they are going to hate on that character no matter who it is. If you beat em bad with kirby, they will complain and say he's broken. The only true broken character is Marth. That is all.

 

[Spyro]

The only true broken character is Marth.

I don't think any of melee's charaters are broken.

@Captain Smuckers: your friends are just being scrubs, keep playing Pikachu.

 

[oukd]

Pika is cheap if you're Axe

But yeah, nobody's really broken, especially not Pikachu...and Marth is far from broken esp once you learn how to play against him. Fox and Falco are arguably cheapos but they're also the easiest characters to combo.

Your friends are just being whiny, hopefully they'll learn not to criticize the game and start figuring out why their playstyle isn't working.

 

[iRobinhoood]

Finally got some good matches in today. I took a lot of mental notes on things I need to work on, mainly mental and technical skill.

I noticed I tend to get nervous prior to certain matches and my hands get shaky. It's not that I'm afraid to lose, to be honest, I think I'm just excited to play or maybe the fact that our setup is currently one television so the whole room is watching but I don't mind that either, probably just excitement that causes the shaky hands.

As for my gameplay, I feel I don't mix it up enough, too predictable and stale, no variety and randomness. When I'm practicing with my bro I mix things up using all my techniques for juggling, chain grabbing, tilts, nairs, uairs, dtilts, etc. But when it comes down to playing others in a group it's like I play almost differently. I find my self trying to nair, uair, and spike everything off stage. Shield, grab, nair, uair seem to be my only attacks when I get excited or such.

I don't seem to have a goal prior to a match for a given opponent/stage. I just go in trying to bat them around a bit, nair them off stage and try to uair spike them until they can't take it no more.

My ground game is poor, I'd say 90% of my game is aerial attacks, although I think some would agree Pikachu is a formidable opponent in the air, I need to focus more on the ground with usmashes. DON"T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON DEM USMASHES.

Once "3,2, 1 GO!" sounds, my brain deletes the "Use Up Smash and Forward Smash File" until the game has completed = /

Other quick notes I need to work on:

- Perfecting Short Hops
- Recovery from the ledge
- Recovery from above stage with opponent below
- Not just wavedashing, but using wavedash in practical game situations


Any and all comments appreciated, I also might look into capturing some gameplay somehow on my setup, I'm sure I'd find a way to make the cables reach somehow. Hopefully doesn't cost anything.

EDIT*

I registered for Apex before December 18th at 12am and they charged my card $40 for the venue fee oppose to the original $35 = / Any possibility for a re-imbursement? That's kinda ridiculous that I made the deadline and they still charged me extra. I have the receipt to prove when me and my buddy paid as well for proof. If anyone knows any of the smash peoples, let me know what you think their take would be on this. I registered under the name "Robin" for melee singles.

 

[oukd]

The extra $5 is from Google checkout fee I think.

Anyways, I read your post and have to say that getting videos of yourself playing is the best way for constructive criticism, but I'll give you tips based on what you wrote.

Nervousness: I know exactly what you mean, although I never had this until my first pools match at Pound 5 (it hit big time and my tech evaporated). It'll keep coming up too, especially if you have few tourney experiences. Thankfully, the solution is pretty simple - you have to learn how to keep a level head to pressure by exposing yourself to more pressure. Putting yourself into a tourney setting and learning to control that pressure is usually the best way - it even helps some people. Justin Wong wrote a solid piece about pressure <here>.

As for expanding your playstyle, train yourself to watch out for more things in the match. It's also very helpful to ask people about what you need to improve on. Next time you enter a friendly, tell yourself a specific goal based on what aspect of your gameplay you want to improve/change and focus on that goal for the whole match. Move on to the next goal once you feel confident in your first goal - focusing on too many things at once will make it hard to teach yourself situational awareness.

eg. According to a friend, I recently developed a bad spotdodge habit, so next time I play I'll force myself to play a few sets with 0 spotdodges specifically with him (since he's the one that noticed) to learn about what scenarios trigger me into spotdodging and hopefully learn alternatives to those scenarios/spotdodging. Obviously I don't want to actually play with 0 spotdodges, but friendlies offer the best times to experiment and learn how to apply certain things without risk involved.

Adding Mixups: I definitely have this problem too, although it's going away a little more nowadays. The time to begin mixups during a match is when you start to feel like you're being predictable - no reason to if your repetitive approach is working. Learn to be sensitive to if your movement or escapes are being punished or if your approaches are being shut down. ALWAYS keep the percentages in mind! At low percents it's so easy for people to CC pika's nair and punish, and it's good to know if your opponent is at a point where CC'ing nairs won't help anymore. Rising uair/grab/dtilt runaway is good against CC.

Tilt use: Dtilt is usually used as an approach mixup/spacing tool/combo ender (only rarely, if your opponent ends up outside of your range), patient ftilts are good for countering an aggressive priority spammer/guarding sweetspotters. Only occasionally will utilt come into use. Otherwise, tilt use shouldn't be too big of a thing in your play, but it's good to know your options.

Smash use: Watch out for usmash opportunities out of vertical juggles, and against high percents look for a way to shark in/combo into a usmash KO. IMO, fsmash is similar to dsmash in that it should only really be used as an occasional surprise mixup, but then again I don't use fmash very often myself so that could just be my bias weighing in.

Recovering from ledge: Learn to waveland from edge. One of the most useful tools in the game, and pika's waveland from edge is a godsend of an option for recovery.

Wavedashing: Useful wavedashing is mainly in fine-tuning your spacing. One of the most elementary (but equally effective) wavedash mindgame use is run in->wd back->punish. It seems cheesy but as long as you space it well it really works wonders even against top players. WD OOS is great for pika too and leads into a lot of punishes.

Approach mixups: Other than shffl nair, you can sh waveland back (bait), shield>wd oos (bait), sh grab (tomahawk), dtilt (spacing/poke), dair (priority), uair (surprisingly it has a lot of frontal range), fair (multihit, can punish quick shield dropping/keep opponents in shield), taunt (kidding. don't do this), etc. nair itself can be mixed-up - delay the nair for a stronger hit, adjust fastfall time/aerial movement to control your range/movement, etc. (applicable to all aerials)

Others: As you stated yourself, having good tech is vital so get those sh's down. Along with the moves you wrote yourself, you should definitely try to add dair to your gameplay if you haven't already been using it.

 

[indigestible_wad]

Finally got some good matches in today. I took a lot of mental notes on things I need to work on, mainly mental and technical skill.

I noticed I tend to get nervous prior to certain matches and my hands get shaky. It's not that I'm afraid to lose, to be honest, I think I'm just excited to play or maybe the fact that our setup is currently one television so the whole room is watching but I don't mind that either, probably just excitement that causes the shaky hands.

As for my gameplay, I feel I don't mix it up enough, too predictable and stale, no variety and randomness. When I'm practicing with my bro I mix things up using all my techniques for juggling, chain grabbing, tilts, nairs, uairs, dtilts, etc. But when it comes down to playing others in a group it's like I play almost differently. I find my self trying to nair, uair, and spike everything off stage. Shield, grab, nair, uair seem to be my only attacks when I get excited or such.

You need to play different people more often. You're too used to being in your comfort zone, so when you play someone you're not used to, you don't understand what to do. Get out of your comfort zone.

I don't seem to have a goal prior to a match for a given opponent/stage. I just go in trying to bat them around a bit, nair them off stage and try to uair spike them until they can't take it no more.

This is fine for someone at your skill level. As you work out more nuances of the game, you'll understand how stages affect you and more situationally how they affect your opponent.

My ground game is poor, I'd say 90% of my game is aerial attacks, although I think some would agree Pikachu is a formidable opponent in the air, I need to focus more on the ground with usmashes. DON"T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON DEM USMASHES.

Once "3,2, 1 GO!" sounds, my brain deletes the "Use Up Smash and Forward Smash File" until the game has completed = /

I think the only way to alleviate this is to just start thowing out those attacks. Again get out of your comfort zone. If you have to play life on the edge, as long as it gets you out of your comfort zone, it'll be worth it in the long run. Don't even worry about losing. Just every couple matches, try one that overuses one move like upsmash. Be wary of bad habits though.

Other quick notes I need to work on:

- Perfecting Short Hops
- Recovery from the ledge
- Recovery from above stage with opponent below
- Not just wavedashing, but using wavedash in practical game situations

Try practicing wavedash to uair. I remember practicing that when I was starting out, and at the very least, it's a relatively safe way to get from out of their spacing bubble to above them in the air. I use it when I've hit them from the air to the ground usually.

Any and all comments appreciated, I also might look into capturing some gameplay somehow on my setup, I'm sure I'd find a way to make the cables reach somehow. Hopefully doesn't cost anything.

EDIT*

I registered for Apex before December 18th at 12am and they charged my card $40 for the venue fee oppose to the original $35 = / Any possibility for a re-imbursement? That's kinda ridiculous that I made the deadline and they still charged me extra. I have the receipt to prove when me and my buddy paid as well for proof. If anyone knows any of the smash peoples, let me know what you think their take would be on this. I registered under the name "Robin" for melee singles.

I general you seem to be on the right track. You know what you need to do to get better, you just have to start implementing those things. Just keep learning.

 

[iRobinhoood]

I might have a solution to recording gameplay, I'll see what I can get done. The extra $5 was actually the new fee post a certain date, but they posted it too earlier. I registered like 3 hours prior to the deadline and noticed the prices had changed = /

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[N.A.G.A.C.E]

yo iRobinhood, if u go to apex we should meet, since u r on LI for school i would like to meet u, since call me crazy but i would rather meet someone from the internet in a public place like apex b4 meeting them in a more private place to play smash. so yea we should meet and if we decided nether of us r creepers maybe we will meet up for some smash in the future