Official Character Competitive Impressions - Tourneys, Tiers, Theories, Tactics

[Wintropy]

All I did say was that his frame data holds him back from being high tier imo. High cooldown and landing lag make a lot of his moves unsafe and easy to punish. Also, if you want to hear other "flaws" I think holds him back are that Pit doesn't have reliable kill setups, some of his moves don't always connect properly and his air speed is not very good. I think those alone make him mid tier, you know... average...

Thank you for explaining your stance on this, I appreciate it!

Well, I don't think his frame data is really "average", but we've covered that. They're really not unsafe or easy to punish, if you ask me, the only moves I'd say can be punished easily are his smashes (a flaw inherent in most smashes by design) and his airs if you land with them. Thing is, there's seldom a reason to land with his airs, not when he's got multiple jumps to keep him airborne and every one of his airs cancels out of a shorthop. I don't think it's nearly enough to hold him back otherwise.

As for kill setups: f-throw at the edge is a kill move, side-b can kill with a read (Dark Pit's even more so), u-smash is stupidly good at catching landings, sweetspot f-tilt (for Pit) is great out of a pivot, then there's the fact that you can go super deep off-stage and really pressure opponents with weak recoveries (or, hell, even with strong recoveries if you're good - Nairo's set against Dabuz's Villager was nothing short of divine). He doesn't lack setups, per se, he lacks power. Pit's not a very aggressive fighter to begin with, you have to play patiently and wait for the right time to get the kill, but his solid neutral and great off-stage abilities definitely mean he's never really helpless.

Pits are not bad by any means I just don't think they have what other high tier characters do. Where would you place them then?

I'd say they're definitely high-tier characters. They're not obviously strong the way most other high-tiers are, you won't terrorise brackets if you're not good with them, but I think their greatest strength is how dependable they are and how consistently they can perform if you know what you're doing with them. Good neutral, decent advantage, options to reset to neutral, very rarely going to get gimped off-stage, it just adds up to a very respectable gameplan. Again, it comes back to options and the effectiveness of these options in every state of the game, and I definitely think they've got enough of them to get by.

 

[warionumbah2]

and Komo wasn't well practiced with him.

Komo practiced the MU with Lucia actually.

 

[Aaron1997]

This is what Pac-man can do if he gets a Key http://oddshot.tv/shot/dabuz18-2015122618579618

 

[Nu~]

He took only 4% after getting the key...

I can see why they don't want to patch pacman's grab

 

[Kresent]

Well, he has those flaws which make him bad in general. Sure he has an awesome jab and uair and a good mobility but that's not nearly enough to make up for all those flaws. The can has some nice use but it's not always there when you need it to recover. Also, even bad characters can look good in hands of a good player. I do respect your opinion of course but I don't really see how Duck Hunt would be viable.

I don't think he's necessarily viable, he's still going to lose to the top tiers like everyone else. I just don't understand how people can put him in bottom 10 (or near last like ESAM) when it is clear that his neutral game is really good. I think he flaws put him right in the middle of mid tier, but that's a long ways away from bottom 10

 

[FallofBrawl]

The thing is it's not even that hard for Pacman to get the key. He has multiple options to stall him in the air offstage. Side B, Up air, hydrant at ledge or in midair, mid air jumps, charging fruit, trampoline. He's so wonderful to watch

EDIT: I read from a comment on the Niconico stream that Tea played Melee, maybe that's why he's so great technically. Then again it might be just a joke. Ha

 

[Rizen]

@Vyrnx and anyone interested, this is a good example of 's landing and game play in general:
https://youtu.be/QGcKfQufbqs?t=811

 

[Djent]

EDIT: The stream link is correct but Umebura 20 still hasn't started, so I'm pretty sure I was wrong about pools being streamed at all. However, the main tournament will still begin around 11 EST on the SHI-G stream as I previously claimed.

Spoiler: Umebura 20

G3 | Rain, Nyanko, Shu, G3 | Haruki, harvest, Eim, TONY
KEN, YOC, RYO, PhiT, Octo
G3 | el, Gurumia, Yuzu, Ice
G3 DNG | Nietono, Shoot, G3 | Dainosuke
G3 | Earth, Paseriman, Pasutaa
SHIG | Aiba, SHIG | Ninomiya, Rotsuku
Choco, shky
G3 | Umeki, Kie
Pichi, Moropupu
Some, Shiki
G3 SHIG | Shimitake, Lean
Motsunabe, mow
Kamemushi, sinth
Brood, Light
T, JACK
Motsunabe
Yui
taranito
Salena
Hayato.
Songun
Moropupu
Fuwa
Keya
Hacyappy
KENT
Jyala
P-
Nariyasu, G3 eSR | Rom, G3 | Ayuha

This event is nowhere near as stacked as Sumabato last night, but as you can see it still attracted considerable talent, including several players who were eliminated too soon to show up on the Nico stream.

 

[FullMoon]

Huh, two Greninja representatives. Well, I'll be rooting for Some and Shiki as always.

 

[Y2Kay]

Just awoke from my Christmas Hangover........

This is just a reminder that pools for Umebura 20 should be starting in about 2 hours on SHI-Gaming's stream.

Spoiler: Umebura 20

G3 | Rain, Nyanko, Shu, G3 | Haruki, harvest, Eim, TONY
KEN, YOC, RYO, PhiT, Octo
G3 | el, Gurumia, Yuzu, Ice
G3 DNG | Nietono, Shoot, G3 | Dainosuke
G3 | Earth, Paseriman, Pasutaa
SHIG | Aiba, SHIG | Ninomiya, Rotsuku
Choco, shky
G3 | Umeki, Kie
Pichi, Moropupu
Some, Shiki
G3 SHIG | Shimitake, Lean
Motsunabe, mow
Kamemushi, sinth
Brood, Light
T, JACK
Motsunabe
Yui
taranito
Salena
Hayato.
Songun
Moropupu
Fuwa
Keya
Hacyappy
KENT
Jyala
P-
Nariyasu, G3 eSR | Rom, G3 | Ayuha

This event is nowhere near as stacked as Sumabato last night, but as you can see it still attracted considerable talent, including several players who were eliminated too soon to show up on the Nico stream.

3 Pit mains AND 2 greninja mains?

now know what I'll be doing tonight

 

[Sinister Slush]

It feels weird finding out recently that Ninomiya was the wife of Aiba this entire time.

 

[Dre89]

On the subject of MU's for Cloud, how would fall?

From my experience, I generally have no issues with Bomb and Boomerang set-ups, as they shut down Blade Beam (Standard) quite well. In terms of off-stage pressure, the only issue I have is landing F-air near the bottom of the stage, as Climhazard has been shown to shut me down as I try to go for the KO. On stage, I've noticed that unless I'm applying aerial pressure with N-air and projectiles, Cloud generally punishes Toon thanks to his reach, and trying to go for grabs at Kill percentage generally gets beaten by Cloud's D-Tilt or either Forward and Down Smash. As of now, I haven't lost to a single Cloud with my toon, but I feel as if I'm still doing something wrong. If anyone could elaborate, that would be greatly appreciated.

You have to approach him as Tink. If you try camp him, he can just run to the other side of the stage and charge limit. Then use the stat boosts to get in on you and kill you at 60%

 

[Teshie U]

Last night's even wasn't that stacked. Wasn't it a qualifier that left out players that had already placed at previous events?

 

[Peppermint1201]

Last night's even wasn't that stacked.

Notable players who were there:

- SH
- Abadango
- Komorikiri
- Rain
- Edge
- Nietono
- Earth
- Saiya
- 9B
- Umeki
- Shimitake

Semi-notable players who were there:

- Sigma
- Paseriman
- Ginko
- Dio
- Sakasaka
- Yusan
- Shuton
- FILIP
- Gomamugitya
- Nyanko
- Kie
- Shogun
- OCEAN

 

[TTTTTsd]

Does anyone have the bracket/overall results from last night's Sumabato? I wanna see the placings so I can analyze them and stuff. That Pac Man usage ratio sounds insane, I must see!

 

[Peppermint1201]

Does anyone have the bracket/overall results from last night's Sumabato? I wanna see the placings so I can analyze them and stuff. That Pac Man usage ratio sounds insane, I must see!

http://challonge.com/SumabatoNNT

 

[TriTails]

This is what Pac-man can do if he gets a Key http://oddshot.tv/shot/dabuz18-2015122618579618

So instead of throwing the key to the hydrant, he threw the hydrant to the key?

I like this player.

Real talk: His use of Z-drop is the most insane I've ever seen yet. Drop, aerial, catch, drop, airdodge, catch, drop, hydrant, catch... I see little openings to be exploited. Hitbox basically surrounds Pac-Man 95% of the time.

 

[David Viran]

So instead of throwing the key to the hydrant, he threw the hydrant to the key?

I like this player.

Real talk: His use of Z-drop is the most insane I've ever seen yet. Drop, aerial, catch, drop, airdodge, catch, drop, hydrant, catch... I see little openings to be exploited. Hitbox basically surrounds Pac-Man 95% of the time.

The best counter play I see is to AD into him in an attempt to catch the key yourself.

 

[Nobie]

What happens if you hit that Pac-Man with a cape/confusion?

 

[FallofBrawl]

What happens if you hit that Pac-Man with a cape/confusion?

Well if its that specific pacman at that specific time with hydrant + key, bad things will happen to pacman. But Tea has shown proficiency in pacs normals alone so I don't think it'll be that detrimental to him.

 

[Seagull Joe]

is considered to be worst MU and they all considered Top / high tiers while Seagull Joe believes worst MU is Rosalina and gives explanation. I mean Abadango did shut 6wx from getting Top 8 with his Rosalina o.o with a good performance. While the results aren't exactly there (to my knowledge) the theory does indicates it though. That's why she gets strong results and usually places right below really only losing to who both are positive vs Rosa (ZSS more so). She also shut out / has the advantage over many characters while beating other top tiers as well( potentially ) to a point where there she's often known to be their worst MU. Rosa just loses to more characters then Sheik (doesn't even lose to anyone) or ZSS and thus sits at 3rd IMO. Her design is just disgustingly effective vs the majority of the cast .

Edit: What was the design team was thinking on giving a character a puppet wall + a gravity projectile absorber + massive and strong aerials O.O? xD

Edit 2: OMG SHAYA has returned, I truly do enjoy your views of characters and the meta ;such rich knowledge.

I think beats still

 

[Nu~]

The best counter play I see is to AD into him in an attempt to catch the key yourself.

Pretty risky however considering he can bait it and punish with a smash. Our you can mess up and take a key to the face.

You would have to time your AD extraordinarily well to get the fruit consistently.

 

[Djmarcus44]

When people talk about Blade Beam in neutral, I know they got it all wrong.

That move is not good.

Talk more about how cloud is gonna reaction dtilt you if you try to SH aerial zone and uair land trap you for free.

Although blade beam is not a good move in the neutral, it is the only move that Cloud has that can stop Gunner from getting into the range of sh fair. Gunner's fair outranges and stuffs Cloud's other options due to the range (Gunner's fair is a projectile that covers around a quarter of final destination) and transcendent property of fair (It is also safe on perfect shielding). Cloud's Dtilt does not have enough range to punish Gunner's sh fair. Even if Cloud is in range, Gunner can land behind Cloud since Gunner can control his/her aerial momentum when using fair. After that, Gunner can punish Cloud with a frame 10 dash attack since Gunner's fair has 12 frames of landing lag while Cloud's Dtilt has 24 frames of ending lag. Gunner can also Gundash away from dtilt if Cloud is too close.

 

[TriTails]

I rewatched the oddshow quite a bit now.

1. Z-drop into airdodge prevents Pac-Man from taking damage while keeping the key hitbox close to him. Basically attacking airdodge. He can pick it up again immdeiately if he want to (And why he wouldn't want to?).
2. Z-drop into hydrant screws over SH approaches. And in general, aside from being good at killing, great for stopping approaches due to the angle it goes (Think of it like Doc's pills). Prevents people from getting close due to Pac being able to pick the key up almost immediately.

Full hop Z-drop key can be a good baiting tool too. You bait people close to the key and then fastfall aerial. Keeps people away.

Not even sure if I'm watching a circus or Smash. Pac looks hella smooth with those Z-drops. Grabs key when opponent is at 41% and proceed to dance around to result in a kill. How much damage he took during this? 4%.

Albeit, I imagine this drains the Pac quite a bit. But still, Tea (The Pac's name?) made Sheik look tame. Literally can't land even a F-air with those walls of hitboxes. The Sheik managed to land a F-air before the circus started, but afterwards it's massacre.

 

[David Viran]

Pretty risky however considering he can bait it and punish with a smash. Our you can mess up and take a key to the face.

You would have to time your AD extraordinarily well to get the fruit consistently.

Well you don't necessarily have to AD in such a punishable way like into the ground and eat a smash attack. It's probably less viable for people who can't SHAD well.

 

[Nu~]

Well you don't necessarily have to AD in such a punishable way like into the ground and eat a smash attack. It's probably less viable for people who can't SHAD well.

Well only a few select characters have SHADs that end soon enough to avoid lag.

 

[Baby_Sneak]

I'm stealing that and putting into my gyro game as Rob

 

[Rizen]

I wish Link could Z drop without Zairing. One of the few things I miss from Brawl.

 

[|RK|]

I'm stealing that and putting into my gyro game as Rob

I wish my fingers were so fast, lol

I want to practice z-drops for the Pac matchup

 

[Baby_Sneak]

I wish my fingers were so fast, lol

I want to practice z-drops for the Pac matchup

Just practice with a banana

 

[Mazdamaxsti]

A LOT OF TEXT INCOMING!

More kirby stuff:
https://twitter.com/ServingSmash/status/680813892986093568

(Some of these titles may be memey but the post is actually serious, don't disregard the post for my bad sense of humour)
How to do this:
You do this by doing a n-air into an immediate d-tilt, they should slide off where you (depending on the character) either b-air then immediately fastfall, or fastfall then immediately d-air. No, I'm not collecting timing for each character.

A bit of info:
0-61 platform jab lock. The n-air setup works depending on which hit you use (4 hits, 10% 8% 6% 4%). The final hit stops working around 30%. On Link and maybe Ike, at 20% you can do the n-air d-tilt b-air d-tilt d-tilt/f-tilt, and then do a sour u-tilt d-air pummel 5x grab for a 20-80. Combos can be mixed up, had a bunch recorded but the Link one (I did 5 times, started recording, failed for 10 minutes. Had to take a walk after that one) but 0-70s are possible. Im gonna call it the woop woop so i can sound funny (xd) and not having to repeat n-air d-tilt b-air d-tilt d-tilt into __________ every sentence. This isn't an official name, don't call me out on it.

Ayyy percents xd
All on Mario:

• Woop Woop - falling u-air - u-air/f-air = 50%
• Woop Woop - Grab - pummel x3 - d-throw = 52%
• Woop Woop - Falling u-air - pivot u-tilt - u-air (in video) = 61%
• Woop Woop - u-tilt - pivot u-tilt - u-air - u-tilt on platform - u-air = 70% (yeezus)

Well thats a doozy. The last hit on the last one seems like it could be n-air'd out of but it can't (thank god). Those are some of the main combos I found with it. Lets now discuss viability.

M'Viability
When you start this (full hop n-air right into them) it is not very viable. They can shield it, they can d-tilt you on the rise, its easy to avoid. However, it doesn't have to be a n-air for this to connect. F-air also works, for example. You can fake out a n-air by going out of reach in front of them to bait a shield and punish a dropped shield/shield-grab with the d-tilt, jump up and inhale to catch the shield, shark u-air to beat d-tilt, Kirby has every option covered basically.

Also, n-air has 10 frames of landing lag, only fast tilts and grabs can beat it in shield, so its not like you'll die if you miss. It is predictable and avoidable, but it basically gives Kirby the ability to mixup.

Characters it doesn't work on:
Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Rosa, GnW, Tink, Samus, Kirby, Puff, DH (duck hunt finally gets something good amirite), Ness, Villager, Olimar, and Pacman. HOWEVER, in theory (I did this by accident a couple of times, not thoroughly tested) if you run off B-air right after they fall you can just get a free hit that way, no sour spot and 29% combo.

Variation
My good buddy @SapphSabre777 found out after the d-tilt, you can immediately fastfall d-air (which doesn't hup cancel off platforms idk why) and since the landing hitbox is frame 1, you SHOULD have a guaranteed grab on every character, even the ones listed above.

Difficulty:
One more thing: This is ****ing hard to land on the following: Big characters, anyone after 15%. After 15%, you have to start timing the later hits of n-air, and then almost frame-perfectly get off and b-air. On Link, I spent 15 mins retrying to do the 20-80 combo I did but nope. Not even worth learning. Big characters take a long time to fall and they are big, so you have to buffer a b-air and then fastfall a tiny bit after, if not you will sweetspot them EVERY. GODDAMN. TIME.

 

[Baby_Sneak]

A LOT OF TEXT INCOMING!

More kirby stuff:
https://twitter.com/ServingSmash/status/680813892986093568

You do this by doing a n-air into an immediate d-tilt, they should slide off where you (depending on the character) either b-air then immediately fastfall, or fastfall then immediately d-air. No, I'm not collecting timing for each character.

0-61 platform jab lock. The n-air setup works depending on which hit you use (4 hits, 10% 8% 6% 4%). The final hit stops working around 30%. On Link and maybe Ike, at 20% you can do the n-air d-tilt b-air d-tilt d-tilt/f-tilt, and then do a sour u-tilt d-air pummel 5x grab for a 20-80. Combos can be mixed up, had a bunch recorded but the Link one (I did 5 times, started recording, failed for 10 minutes. Had to take a walk after that one) but 0-70s are possible. Im gonna call it the woop woop so i can sound funny (xd) and not having to repeat n-air d-tilt b-air d-tilt d-tilt into __________ every sentence. This isn't an official name, don't call me out on it.

All on Mario:

• Woop Woop - falling u-air - u-air/f-air = 50%
• Woop Woop - Grab - pummel x3 - d-throw = 52%
• Woop Woop - Falling u-air - pivot u-tilt - u-air (in video) = 61%
• Woop Woop - u-tilt - pivot u-tilt - u-air - u-tilt on platform - u-air = 70% (yeezus)

Well thats a doozy. The last hit on the last one seems like it could be n-air'd out of but it can't (thank god). Those are some of the main combos I found with it. Lets now discuss viability.

When you start this (full hop n-air right into them) it is not very viable. They can shield it, they can d-tilt you on the rise, its easy to avoid. However, it doesn't have to be a n-air for this to connect. F-air also works, for example. You can fake out a n-air by going out of reach in front of them to bait a shield and punish a shield drop with the d-tilt, jump up and inhale to catch the shield, shark u-air to beat d-tilt, Kirby has every option covered basically.

Also, n-air has 10 frames of landing lag, only fast tilts and grabs can beat it in shield, so its not like you'll die if you miss. It is predictable and avoidable, but it basically gives Kirby the ability to mixup.

Characters it doesn't work on:
Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Rosa, GnW, Tink, Samus, Kirby, Puff, DH (duck hunt finally gets something good amirite), Ness, Villager, Olimar, and Pacman. HOWEVER, in theory (I did this by accident a couple of times, not thoroughly tested) if you run off B-air right after they fall you can just get a free hit that way, no sour spot and 29% combo.

My good buddy @SapphSabre777 found out after the d-tilt, you can immediately fastfall d-air (which doesn't hup cancel off platforms idk why) and since the landing hitbox is frame 1, you SHOULD have a guaranteed grab on every character, even the ones listed above.

One more thing: This is ****ing hard to land on the following: Big characters, anyone after 15%. After 15%, you have to start timing the later hits of n-air, and then almost frame-perfectly get off and b-air. On Link, I spent 15 mins retrying to do the 20-80 combo I did but nope. Not even worth learning. Big characters take a long time to fall and they are big, so you have to buffer a b-air and then fastfall a tiny bit after, if not you will sweetspot them EVERY. GODDAMN. TIME.

A LOT OF TEXT INCOMING!

More kirby stuff:
https://twitter.com/ServingSmash/status/680813892986093568

You do this by doing a n-air into an immediate d-tilt, they should slide off where you (depending on the character) either b-air then immediately fastfall, or fastfall then immediately d-air. No, I'm not collecting timing for each character.

0-61 platform jab lock. The n-air setup works depending on which hit you use (4 hits, 10% 8% 6% 4%). The final hit stops working around 30%. On Link and maybe Ike, at 20% you can do the n-air d-tilt b-air d-tilt d-tilt/f-tilt, and then do a sour u-tilt d-air pummel 5x grab for a 20-80. Combos can be mixed up, had a bunch recorded but the Link one (I did 5 times, started recording, failed for 10 minutes. Had to take a walk after that one) but 0-70s are possible. Im gonna call it the woop woop so i can sound funny (xd) and not having to repeat n-air d-tilt b-air d-tilt d-tilt into __________ every sentence. This isn't an official name, don't call me out on it.

All on Mario:

• Woop Woop - falling u-air - u-air/f-air = 50%
• Woop Woop - Grab - pummel x3 - d-throw = 52%
• Woop Woop - Falling u-air - pivot u-tilt - u-air (in video) = 61%
• Woop Woop - u-tilt - pivot u-tilt - u-air - u-tilt on platform - u-air = 70% (yeezus)

Well thats a doozy. The last hit on the last one seems like it could be n-air'd out of but it can't (thank god). Those are some of the main combos I found with it. Lets now discuss viability.

When you start this (full hop n-air right into them) it is not very viable. They can shield it, they can d-tilt you on the rise, its easy to avoid. However, it doesn't have to be a n-air for this to connect. F-air also works, for example. You can fake out a n-air by going out of reach in front of them to bait a shield and punish a shield drop with the d-tilt, jump up and inhale to catch the shield, shark u-air to beat d-tilt, Kirby has every option covered basically.

Also, n-air has 10 frames of landing lag, only fast tilts and grabs can beat it in shield, so its not like you'll die if you miss. It is predictable and avoidable, but it basically gives Kirby the ability to mixup.

Characters it doesn't work on:
Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Rosa, GnW, Tink, Samus, Kirby, Puff, DH (duck hunt finally gets something good amirite), Ness, Villager, Olimar, and Pacman. HOWEVER, in theory (I did this by accident a couple of times, not thoroughly tested) if you run off B-air right after they fall you can just get a free hit that way, no sour spot and 29% combo.

My good buddy @SapphSabre777 found out after the d-tilt, you can immediately fastfall d-air (which doesn't hup cancel off platforms idk why) and since the landing hitbox is frame 1, you SHOULD have a guaranteed grab on every character, even the ones listed above.

One more thing: This is ****ing hard to land on the following: Big characters, anyone after 15%. After 15%, you have to start timing the later hits of n-air, and then almost frame-perfectly get off and b-air. On Link, I spent 15 mins retrying to do the 20-80 combo I did but nope. Not even worth learning. Big characters take a long time to fall and they are big, so you have to buffer a b-air and then fastfall a tiny bit after, if not you will sweetspot them EVERY. GODDAMN. TIME.

i love stuff like this. Kirby may not rise out of further labbing, but man, watching somebody play a character that they actually have done research, playing time and countless hours of investment is poetry in motion. Hopefully mike Kirby picks up on this stuff and starts to make something happen.

 

[Peppermint1201]

The Umebura 20 bracket has now been translated thanks to good old Juddy96: http://challonge.com/Umebura20T

It's worth noting that Kakera, a top Brawl player that has been mostly absent from Smash 4, has entered.

 

[|RK|]

Just practice with a banana

Oh, I'll probably just practice with the key

 

[**Gilgamesh**]

Did Some lose to Lean or . If sheik then I feel sorry for Some; always losing to my ninja ;-; what a rough MU. Also apparently Nyanko is going all out too.

On the topic of Pac-Man Z-drop shannigans;
wouldn't characters like kinda ignore the Z-drop game by simply throwing out their own projectiles or in Rosa case gravity pull? Seems MU dependent to me.

 

[Nu~]

Did Some lose to Lean or . If sheik then I feel sorry for Some; always losing to my ninja ;-; what a rough MU. Also apparently Nyanko is going all out too.

On the topic of Pac-Man Z-drop shannigans;
wouldn't characters like kinda ignore the Z-drop game by simply throwing out their own projectiles or in Rosa case gravity pull? Seems MU dependent to me.

Well considering that fruit are indestructible when Z dropped...no. It wouldn't matter. Pikmin would die, arrows would be absorbed, rockets and bombs would explode on the fruit, and slingshots would falter. In theory, z dropped fruits are walls that pacman can continuously push towards you.

Lasers can still go through so that may be helpful. GP helps but confusion or any other reflector only matters if the pacman main carelessly z drops his fruit into your reflector instead of just attacking you, then going back to his z dropping.


Edit: Clanking would work though...

 

[Locke 06]

You can just attack the key and hit Pacman. The key is just like any projectile, able to be clanked. Sheik can still SH FAir him, she just needs to be sure to attack the key too (and incoming hydrants). Of course this is not a foolproof counterplay, but general clanking mechanics keep item play like this in check.

While the z-drop stuff is incredibly impressive and viable, it reminds me a lot of Brawl ZSS armor play with the constant up toss of armor pieces.

Edit: In response to the Kirby NAir>dtilt platform slide>stuff, a lot of characters have platform slide>stuff combos that do major damage/end stocks. Getting someone to slide off a platform is never easy (as someone who actively looked for BAir1 and pellet chances to do just that as Mega). It's nice to have a big damage combo, but the viability of such a combo is not high. Also, Kirby has very high reward when he gets in in terms of damage output, so a 0-70 off something like that is not unheard of (see Peach). Curious to see if his mobility buff affects his results.

 

[Sinister Slush]

Pretty saddening Aiba went 0-2 while other two Yoshi's got 1 or 2 wins only.

 

[Aaron1997]

A Lucario named MOTSUNABE just won Umebura... I've seen it all

 

[webbedspace]

Trivia: Both of the Grand Finals participants (KEN (Sonic) and Motsunabe (Ryu, Lucario)) eliminated Rain (Sheik, Cloud), and both went to third game and won with the clutchiest clutches since the invention of manual transmission. Despite getting third, the tournament felt like it was Rain's to lose.