Duck Hunted - Kings of Hali Recap

It's been only a week since BEAST 6 demonstrated a 3 stock ruleset in a large setting, and the world is still trying to recover from the most jaw-dropping gameplay yet from Dutch player iStudying, using the relatively-underused character Greninja. However, overseas on the East Coast of Canada was the biggest Smash tournament east of Toronto: The Kings of Hali, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This tournament also showcased the 3 stock settings, as well as an underused character played at a high level.

A play on the beloved "Kings of Cali" tournament series name, KoH was a two-day event that featured both Melee and Smash 4, gathering talent from all over eastern Canada (known as the Maritimes). Some names might seem familiar: SUGOI Raziek, who famously took a game off TSM ZeRo at THB5; and Sqiddwr, a strong Melee/Smash 4 player who played the jankiest Grand Finals ever with Mew2King. Featuring Nova Scotia’s liberal stagelist and their usual 3 stock format (which they’ve used since the 3DS release), the tournament certainly made a point on both what stages and how many stocks should be used in tournament.

The weekend was full of surprises, among them being Raziek, who has swept Nova Scotian tournaments consistently for the past six months, finishing at 7th place. The biggest upset was caused by Croi, the resident Duck Hunt main. Croi stormed through the bracket using primarily DH. After losing 1-3 in Winner’s Finals, he climbed back to reset the bracket and engaged Vapor in this forty-minute nail biter:

Croi's Duck Hunt tries to complete the runback against Vapor's Corrin. While 3 stock doesn't help the time constraint argument, it certainly adds more quality gameplay and high tension to the mix!​

More videos from Kings of Hali can be found here.

Find tournament matches more intriguing with 3 stocks? Do you think there's even more characters with untapped potential? Post those opinions in the comments!

 

NS BOYZ.

I didn't win the one that gets the article, but at least we get an article. :]

 

From someone who feels that Smash 4s biggest weakness is that it can be hard to watch, Beast was super fun to watch, and I ended up watching most of top 8 after hearing the istudying hype.

In retrospect, I see 3 stocks being the primary contributor to that by a very large margin. Things like the comeback in the one esam/Istudying game would of been so much less cool if it was just a stock deficit, the asthetic difference of seeing someone down two stocks is so cool.

I realize there are a couple key matchups that make 3 stocks hard without time being a super relavant factor, but speaking as a spectator, I doubt I'll ever watch videos from an event that only uses 2 stocks.

 

3 stocks 4 life

 

Ayy zhao with the published feature.

 

Holy cow Batman, we made the news!

Maybe if we work hard we can get even bigger tournaments so Zhao has more good stuff to write about!

 

Congrats on the article!

Glad to see some publicity for our underrated character.

 

Well done Croi!

 

yes,a corrin getting destroyed :Kappa:

 

Congrats on the article!

Glad to see some publicity for our underrated character.

Oh, hey.

 

One for the record books.

 

Overall I personally enjoy 3 stock > 2 stock for Smash 4, there has been too many occasions where I see someone get gimped in a 2 stock and they're unable to even attempt to run it back.

 

I always like to see mains for underused characters.

 

Not sure about this Duck Hunt, but that's probably just 'cuz I'm a tech monkey, since this play was pretty simplified and I worship Brood.

Also, take a drink every time a Duck Hunt kill move drops itself. I know I'm bloated!

 

Probably should've said East of Montreal rather than East of Toronto, but it's cool that the Maritimes gets some exposure

 

Props to Croi on winning a tourney with Duck Hunt. Congratulations!

Also, it's nice to see a place using 3 stocks. I prefer 3 stocks but I would have to think why I do. Either way, great set by both players.

 

Starting to play Duck Hunt again because I really like this playstyle.
Much easier than whatever I was trying to do before.

 

Duck Hunt is one of those characters that you know can be pretty good if put in the right hands, but doesn't often get played because of that. Somewhat akin to Peach and Greninja in that way.

 

I still say that 2 stocks are better

 

Duck Hunt is one of those characters that you know can be pretty good if put in the right hands, but doesn't often get played because of that. Somewhat akin to Peach and Greninja in that way.

I'm not trying to be "that guy" but any character can be good when in the right hands. I get what you mean though, that doge has its' work cut out for the DH players.

 

Duck Hunt is one of those characters that you know can be pretty good if put in the right hands, but doesn't often get played because of that. Somewhat akin to Peach and Greninja in that way.

As someone who played/occasionally plays Duck Hunt;
People don't play Duck Hunt because he's just not effective at winning matches, even at maximum potential. Definitely not compared to characters like Greninja and Peach. That's why he's not played that often. Not saying all his tools are crap, some of them are really good, but he's overall not good at winning tournaments.

 

As someone who played/occasionally plays Duck Hunt;
People don't play Duck Hunt because he's just not effective at winning matches, even at maximum potential. Definitely not compared to characters like Greninja and Peach. That's why he's not played that often. Not saying all his tools are crap, some of them are really good, but he's overall not good at winning tournaments.

The unfortunate truth right here, Duck Hunt is a low tier/borderline bottom tier character for a reason. He feels very similar to Bowser Jr in that he's a solid character that's utterly crippled by how much he struggles to net KOs, considering his only "good" KO move is Up Air. Not to say it's his only problem, but that alone pretty much dooms Duck Hunt to being a bottom 15 character.

On the more positive note I am happy to at least see some Duck Hunt players still around, seeing how a lot of them are dropping him lately. And one of them winning against Corrin is very satisfying, so annoying to fight.