Getting Started/Picking a main.

[Getfisted]

Okay so I'm trying to get into brawl at least "semi"-competitively and have a couple questions.

First, do more people play vanilla brawl or are people preferring mods such as Project:M?

Second is more of a request for opinions on which main I should pick.
I've narrowed it down to Toon Link(who I've had the most experience with), Diddy Kong, or Olimar.
Mostly I just want to know who has the best/worst matchups, highest utility, etc.

Thanks in advance

 

[TreK]

P:M is mostly played by Melee people, because it's pretty much Melee 2 with better graphics, music, balance, and stages. It's not as popular in the Brawl community, though.
There are other mods, like Brawl+, Brawl-, BBrawl etc, but they're just not as popular as P:M.
But most players indeed use hacks (no tripping, extended replays, stage background and character texture hacks, custom menu, and custom music to name the most popular ones)

As for your characters, all three are considered viable, even if Toon Link falls a bit behind the other two guys. Diddy and Olimar have pretty much the same amount of success, but their counters aren't the same ones. You should just check the character specific guides and play a bunch of people from the community over wifi or in smashfests/tournies to get an idea.