First Tournament Experience; Need Some Help

[Ridel]

So I went to my first tournament two weeks ago (though I have been to three Melee tournaments prior) since then I've been thinking about things I did wrong and where I need to improve. These bullet points are my main problems.

• "Turtleing" in my shield- For most game I played I would sit in my shield whenever someone either approached me or a projectile came my way. This resulted in me getting grabbed and taking severe amounts of damage just because Dedede is so easy to combo. When I went against Twisty's Wolf, he could literally shoot out a laser, run up and grab me with no risk since I didn't know what to do about it. What would be the most optimal thing to do to counter approaches and projectiles? This leads into my next issue.
• Combo DI- As you know Dedede is super vulnerable to combos due to his large size and fast-falling properties. When I got comboed I got hit hard, no zero to deaths but I would go form 0%-80% from one combo. I have no idea how to DI combos properly since I have no one to play with at all. What would be the best way to go about
• Edge-guarding- Surprisingly my edge-guarding game was absolutely horrible which was arguably the thing that was screwing me over the entire night. I cannot remember any effective edge-guarding or gimps so my opponents were living to insane percents like 160%. Besides me getting an F-Smash spike on POOB I was either not going out to edge-guard or not flubbing it completely and taking some damage. Considering one of Dedede's best tools is edge-guarding this is something to be worked out pronto. What is the most effective way to edge-guard and read opponents recovery?

Other then that I think I did pretty good for my first time but these problems were popping up more often then not. The best thing though was I got to fight Apollo Ali and Ripple so I was able to make some adjustments just through observations, though I regret not asking them for advice in person.

 

[Apollo Ali]

Hey bud! Your skill level was very good for not having gone to a tournament before. I'd argue a lot of this stuff would be figured out just by going to tournaments more. It's easy to theorycraft, of course, but you learn by playing against top level players and asking for help. Perhaps its hard for you to travel, but consider joining the SG facebook group and asking people to come over or to go to Smashfests, even if you cant go to tourneys.

Very quickly:
1. Turtling - aiming your shield is very important because you might be able to get a grab out of a shield-di'd forward on a laser. If you feel you are stuck in shield a lot, consider spacing back airs and retreating, because this will clank projectiles and approaches, while keeping you safe and mobile. Out of EXTREMELY safe shield pressure, you can also buffer a roll by hitting the c-stick.
2. Combo DI - you just have to train yourself to always DI. this mostly is character specific and comes with time at tournaments. make sure you are smash di-ing an additional input with your c-stick in order to mix things up (and don't DI the same way every time).
3. Edge-guarding only seems easy if you are not playing top level players. Every body is going to have perfected their mixups on return to stage at tournaments, so this really just requires exposure to that high-level recovery stuff. Like I used to get insane edgeguards on my crew, but then I went to tournaments and was barely able to do anything. I'm sure you've seen a lot of top-level Dedede videos edgeguarding, but getting the good edgeguard requires understanding the recovery, which you can't really do with CPUs.

Long story short - come out more! Nice to meet ya in person.

 

[Ridel]

Thanks Apollo! I really wish I could come out more but I lack a consistent means of transportation. Time is my main issue since I would need my parents to bring me there, but of course they already have plans made at the exact time a tournament pops up. Plus they don't really enjoy having to drive me an hour for them to sit around and do nothing. I hope to be able to go to another SG in June, and I'll probably be able to go to more during the summer. For now though, it's back to the lab.

One more thing though. Rolling is something I don't really know how to use, and I've pretty much taught myself to never roll (even in Smash 4). When would be the most optimal time to roll?

 

[Apollo Ali]

Thanks Apollo! I really wish I could come out more but I lack a consistent means of transportation. Time is my main issue since I would need my parents to bring me there, but of course they already have plans made at the exact time a tournament pops up. Plus they don't really enjoy having to drive me an hour for them to sit around and do nothing. I hope to be able to go to another SG in June, and I'll probably be able to go to more during the summer. For now though, it's back to the lab.

One more thing though. Rolling is something I don't really know how to use, and I've pretty much taught myself to never roll (even in Smash 4). When would be the most optimal time to roll?

Basically when there's shield pressure that's difficult to escape, you can buffer a roll by using the C-stick. Mostly useful against spacies, although I use it occasionally against Sheik. Against most characters, wave-dashing out of shield is probably better. Avoiding rolling in neutral is good though, don't get me wrong. There's just times where if you're stuck in shield and you can't shield grab and wave-dash would put you in a bad situation, buffering the roll helps. However, Shield-DI-ing should help you get more grabs.