Critique the Falcon, Please (updated 4-2-14)

[Drodeka]

I can post more matches if anybody is interested.

I know I need work on overall accuracy, but are there any strategies or techniques I'm just flat out missing? I'd like to know.

And please include any tips/exercises you may recommend for improving on something.

If I suck, don't hold back!

UPDATE: I have gathered better footage for you guys! Here is the new vid:

 

[OidBirdie]

I just watched the beginning, and i saw that you rolled for no reason. This is a common bad habit that is easily punished. Watch lucien's tutorial on spacing to get a better understanding of how to think about spacing. I found it helpful because it helped me be mindful of spacing in a different way.
Working on your spacing is SO much more important than drilling tech skill. Remember that. Unfortunately it's a hell of a lot harder to practice.
Hope this helps and keep practicing!

 

[GeZ]

You just have to think man. Common mistake that most Falcon novice's make, let alone novice's in general, is they play without thinking about what they're doing. Turn off auto pilot, and play with purpose.

 

[Drodeka]

I just watched the beginning, and i saw that you rolled for no reason. This is a common bad habit that is easily punished. Watch lucien's tutorial on spacing to get a better understanding of how to think about spacing. I found it helpful because it helped me be mindful of spacing in a different way.
Working on your spacing is SO much more important than drilling tech skill. Remember that. Unfortunately it's a hell of a lot harder to practice.
Hope this helps and keep practicing!

I have noticed the same problem, honestly, but I'm stuck as to where to go with it. Usually when I do it I am trying to cover distance backwards without changing direction.
I've tried wavedashing backwards, but it isn't far enough with Falcon to replace my hindering rolls.

 

[Drodeka]

You just have to think man. Common mistake that most Falcon novice's make, let alone novice's in general, is they play without thinking about what they're doing. Turn off auto pilot, and play with purpose.

I do throw a lot of N-airs without making sure they'll land.

 

[GeZ]

Man, you do a lot of stuff without thinking about it, and it'll function a little better once you've got a good grasp of what tools you want to be using when, you need to think about why you use your moves, and what moves are better for what situations, as well as what your opponent is thinking.

 

[Drodeka]

I just watched the beginning, and i saw that you rolled for no reason. This is a common bad habit that is easily punished. Watch lucien's tutorial on spacing to get a better understanding of how to think about spacing. I found it helpful because it helped me be mindful of spacing in a different way.
Working on your spacing is SO much more important than drilling tech skill. Remember that. Unfortunately it's a hell of a lot harder to practice.
Hope this helps and keep practicing!

Tutorial was very helpful, thank you for recommending it!

 

[-Fatality-]

Welcome to these forums Drodeka! Putting up footage is good, but this really belongs in the Falcon Video thread for future reference.

 

[Crescent Monkey]

Wavedash back instead of Rolling. I know exactly what you're talking about with the covering distance thing, I used to roll like that all the time, and I got way better once I stopped doing that and replaced it with Wavedash. Also please grab ledge vs Ike when he has to use side B to recover

 

[Drodeka]

Welcome to these forums Drodeka! Putting up footage is good, but this really belongs in the Falcon Video thread for future reference.

I would put it there, but I didn't post the video to entertain, just to get advice from the community on this character, which I think is a Character Discussion.

Wavedash back instead of Rolling. I know exactly what you're talking about with the covering distance thing, I used to roll like that all the time, and I got way better once I stopped doing that and replaced it with Wavedash. Also please grab ledge vs Ike when he has to use side B to recover

I will just work on it more. And about the Ike thing, on Dreamland he can just wall jump out of Side B, which means he can then attack me with B-air or Up-B.

 

[Crescent Monkey]

I know he can wall jump, but if you ledgegrab and roll, he cant sweetspot, and is forced to walljump, which he may or may not mess up, then you end up on the stage in the same position as you were without grabbing the ledge

 

[TheKmanOfSmash]

For future reference, post matches of yourself losing (or at least one where it's pretty close, like last stock, high percent). There's much more material that is worth critiquing in a match where you lose than in one where you win. Because in the matches that you win, even if what you were doing was by definition "bad" if it was working against that opponent, why stop doing it (against that opponent)? Overall, you stop doing it against opponents that are better than you and would punish you for those "bad" habits, but I don't think you'd get a sense of what that means until you play such players. So I'll refrain from doing a critique until you can get such footage.

 

[Drodeka]

For future reference, post matches of yourself losing (or at least one where it's pretty close, like last stock, high percent). There's much more material that is worth critiquing in a match where you lose than in one where you win. Because in the matches that you win, even if what you were doing was by definition "bad" if it was working against that opponent, why stop doing it (against that opponent)? Overall, you stop doing it against opponents that are better than you and would punish you for those "bad" habits, but I don't think you'd get a sense of what that means until you play such players. So I'll refrain from doing a critique until you can get such footage.

I am the best player in my city, so I will have to record matches from Smash weekly to get footage of me losing. Shadic is there and Daftatt is good too.
Shep and me were back and forth for a bit, but just from watching that spacing video I'm in control of most of the matches we play now.

 

[Phuriate]

I'm in a similar position trying to main Falcon too, spacing is really key with him, despite him being so fast, the more precise you can be the better. Flying across the screen doing Nair's not only give them time to react but ways to punish and it seems like a rather mindless approach. Dash dancing a lot with Falcon can help and since you have much more mobility than Ike i'd recommend just trying to use that to see what openings you can create. In terms of approaching a well spaced nair (so that you're out of grab range by moving back during the nair animation) is great, you can then jab after this to shutdown some responses and go into a gentlemen mixup.

Also landing combos is great but if you're unsure whether you'd connect with the knee off screen then don't go for it, you're trading positioning when Falcon is really quite easy to edge guard.

Hopefully at least some of that helps.

 

[Drodeka]

Disregard this thread, as I am much, much better than this now and I will probably try to post footage again soon. Hopefully of me losing but we'll have to see what goes down at Smash Weekly.

 

[tan(90]

Alot of downtilts and dodges is a problem I see. Also, personally, I set up alot of attacks with raptor boost/grabs/dair. Also stick to attacks in the air, falcon's ground game is terrible.

 

[tan(90]

I am the best player in my city, so I will have to record matches from Smash weekly to get footage of me losing. Shadic is there and Daftatt is good too.
Shep and me were back and forth for a bit, but just from watching that spacing video I'm in control of most of the matches we play now.

I live in California and (from what I've heard) NJ and CA are like the largest Smash places in US. I'm the best in my town, but that doesn't say **** about anything.

 

[GeZ]

I live in CA too and my town is pretty active. I think it's weird though to see players post, not bad gameplay, but not incredible, dominant gameplay (no offense intended) and are the best people in their respective towns. I'm still working my way up in my town but if you guys were here you'd have to work for the "best in town" title a lot more.

 

[Drodeka]

Bump for new vid.

 

[-Fatality-]

Bump for new vid.

Something I've noticed, is that you almost never seem content to move towards your opponent without also throwing out an attack. Smash is first and foremost, a game of movement and positioning, and I'm not currently seeing you really try to take advantage of any positional advantages you get (like controlling center stage). It's also pretty predictable, and being predictable will give you a lot of trouble when fighting high or even some middle level players.

Secondly, your punish game now needs a lot of work. Falcon's ability to convert hits in the neutral game into big punishes is among the highest in the game, but most of the time you get a hit/grab, there isn't a followup.
Instead of trying to U-Air people after you U-Throw them onto a platform, try wavelanding onto it, and tech chasing them for a regrab.
If you think they'll get to tech before you can get a guaranteed grab followup, then good old Dair/Knee is still great.
I want you in particular, to experiment with Falcon in a way where you focus your combo/punish game on what's a guaranteed followup. Nowhere near enough players do this, and it's one of the single most powerful ways you can improve your game.
Think of it like this: Both of you have 4 Stocks, let's say the average stock takes 110% damage before dying. If you can get 40% on average per hit/grab conversion, and they only get 20% on average per hit/grab conversion, then they have to outplay you in the neutral game 22 times to win the game, whereas you only need to outplay them 11 times in the neutral game to win, That's an absolutely massive advantage. Train in a way where you can find guaranteed followups to as many possible situations as you can, make a point to very specifically define all the possible uses for a move you can think of, so that your combo game can adapt to variance, and still be able to deliver massively painful punishes for even the smallest mistakes very consistently.

 

[GeZ]

This is good stuff ^

Tech chasing to regrab with Falcon is really, really strong. Movement is also key, but that's the nature of Smash. It's just something players looking to improve should keep in mind. And while it applies largely to Falcon, it really applies to all characters in the cast, which is to finish your plate. If you connect a hit, convert to a kill. Focus on constructing combos in a way that keeps your opponent pressured and on tilt until you think they're within kill range, and then get that kill. A lot of players get fixated on short, succinct combos, which is alright, but optimally you should aim to touch of death with every character you play. That doesn't mean though that you're stringing together combos that have your opponent never out of hit stun. It's actually fine to let it reset to the neutral, as long as you're setting yourself up to keep on pressuring them, keep on landing hits, and keeping on confirming hits to kills.

 

[Drodeka]

Something I've noticed, is that you almost never seem content to move towards your opponent without also throwing out an attack. Smash is first and foremost, a game of movement and positioning, and I'm not currently seeing you really try to take advantage of any positional advantages you get (like controlling center stage). It's also pretty predictable, and being predictable will give you a lot of trouble when fighting high or even some middle level players.

Secondly, your punish game now needs a lot of work. Falcon's ability to convert hits in the neutral game into big punishes is among the highest in the game, but most of the time you get a hit/grab, there isn't a followup.
Instead of trying to U-Air people after you U-Throw them onto a platform, try wavelanding onto it, and tech chasing them for a regrab.
If you think they'll get to tech before you can get a guaranteed grab followup, then good old Dair/Knee is still great.
I want you in particular, to experiment with Falcon in a way where you focus your combo/punish game on what's a guaranteed followup. Nowhere near enough players do this, and it's one of the single most powerful ways you can improve your game.
Think of it like this: Both of you have 4 Stocks, let's say the average stock takes 110% damage before dying. If you can get 40% on average per hit/grab conversion, and they only get 20% on average per hit/grab conversion, then they have to outplay you in the neutral game 22 times to win the game, whereas you only need to outplay them 11 times in the neutral game to win, That's an absolutely massive advantage. Train in a way where you can find guaranteed followups to as many possible situations as you can, make a point to very specifically define all the possible uses for a move you can think of, so that your combo game can adapt to variance, and still be able to deliver massively painful punishes for even the smallest mistakes very consistently.

Good advice! I have been spending a lot of time working on my dash-dancing (actually USING it) and evasive skills, especially for grabs (Shep uses them a lot) and it seems my offensive ability has slacked. When I am fighting a lower level player, my combo/punish game is much stronger, but I'll admit it definitely needs work.

It is just so hard to find a good opening against Sheik for me, and Shep never lets off and gives me room to breathe.

Here is a video of me defeating Shep, and while I know I played better overall in this vid than the other, I see a lot of mistakes still. I think the thing that made me win in this one, was Shep didn't have center stage often enough, and he gave me too much room to dash dance and examine him (when I dash dance, he always messes up, usually trying to grab me, but I know he'll break that soon and I'll have to improve as well).

 

[-Key-]

Something I've noticed, is that you almost never seem content to move towards your opponent without also throwing out an attack. Smash is first and foremost, a game of movement and positioning, and I'm not currently seeing you really try to take advantage of any positional advantages you get (like controlling center stage). It's also pretty predictable, and being predictable will give you a lot of trouble when fighting high or even some middle level players.

I really, REALLY struggle with this, too. It's surprising how much discipline it takes to play Falcon responsibly for an entire match, but the reward for doing so is significant.

Secondly, your punish game now needs a lot of work. Falcon's ability to convert hits in the neutral game into big punishes is among the highest in the game, but most of the time you get a hit/grab, there isn't a followup.
Instead of trying to U-Air people after you U-Throw them onto a platform, try wavelanding onto it, and tech chasing them for a regrab.
If you think they'll get to tech before you can get a guaranteed grab followup, then good old Dair/Knee is still great.
I want you in particular, to experiment with Falcon in a way where you focus your combo/punish game on what's a guaranteed followup. Nowhere near enough players do this, and it's one of the single most powerful ways you can improve your game.
Think of it like this: Both of you have 4 Stocks, let's say the average stock takes 110% damage before dying. If you can get 40% on average per hit/grab conversion, and they only get 20% on average per hit/grab conversion, then they have to outplay you in the neutral game 22 times to win the game, whereas you only need to outplay them 11 times in the neutral game to win, That's an absolutely massive advantage. Train in a way where you can find guaranteed followups to as many possible situations as you can, make a point to very specifically define all the possible uses for a move you can think of, so that your combo game can adapt to variance, and still be able to deliver massively painful punishes for even the smallest mistakes very consistently.

This is great advice. Do any of you guys study percentages to help guide your follow-ups or do you just rely on experience/reaction? I recently started working on what is essentially an opponent-specific percentage guide for Falcon, and while that sort of a thing certainly has its limitations, I do find myself making better choices during matches as a result of my studies. The main benefit I've gotten from it at this point is a much better understanding of what things WILL NEVER EVER EVER WORK. Up until I started working on this guide, my successful follow-ups were often just due to dumb luck. I basically would predetermine my follow-up and just hope it worked, and that really is a poor way to go about things. Now, even with only having scratched the surface of this knowledge frontier, I find myself thinking "oh, don't even try that, it'll never work at this percentage" and I then make a better choice as a result. It may not be the optimal choice, but it's at least a step in the right direction by being a less bad one, and I've definitely noticed myself having more success as a result.

Like you said, opportunities are way too valuable in this game for us to be squandering them due to ignorance, and I definitely think that a relatively easy first step to implementing correct choices is to eliminate the ones that are clearly wrong.

 

[Drodeka]

I actually do watch percentage quite closely, but I don't get to specifics, I would say I base my follow-ups on about a rounded 5% or 10% basis. Such as if somebody is at the low end of 30% or the high end, almost 40%.

 

[-Fatality-]

I haven't studied percentages yet, I just rely on my reflexes, instincts, and general knowledge when I combo people.

 

[Drodeka]

I haven't studied percentages yet, I just rely on my reflexes, instincts, and general knowledge when I combo people.

Due to crouch cancelling and DI, watching percentage is always beneficial. It "unlocks" your stronger attacks as you play and gives you good opportunities to make use of them.