Got my first set recorded of my Pika, help me improve please =]

[The Jets]

Been "maining" pikachu for a few months now. Please take a look and help me out by maybe pointing out some of my bad habits, situational advice, etc.

I'm just gonna say I felt I played poorly, meaning I know I personally am better than what I showed (I hope). Tournament nerves always get the best of me which I need to work on.

Warning: Somewhat slow pace because we don't combo each other very hard.

Thanks :}

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1le1MRQBcw&list=UUI4tmsRZPBwmtOKcw1S36WQ

 

[Spak]

I have some advice, but I'm a Pikachu secondary and not a Pikachu main, so pick and choose what you want from this advice. I may not be 100% correct on everything.

1. I saw you getting caught above Shiek a lot after trying to recover, so sweetspotting the edge would be useful. It takes some practice because Pikachu usually sweetspots best from above or level with the platform (look at 5:08 for a nice sweetspot), but master it and it will serve you well.

2. This is more of a note, but you did well for that matchup. Sheik is favorable 80-20 in that match, but the Shiek didn't seem to know how to chaingrab...

3. I'll stop giving advice now because I haven't yet mastered the art of Pikachu. I hope my two points helped somewhat.

 

[The Jets]

Thanks Spak I appreciate any kind of advice!
Yeah thankfully the sheik wasn't really chain grabbing me because he caught me nairing into him A LOT. I think for that I should mix up when to approach and use pikas quick movement to my advantage, like dash dancing as well as platform movement including wave lands and such.
As far as sweet spotting it's so hard! I can do it in training or whatever but in games I don't trust myself so I leave myself very vulnerable with laggy recovery. The single downward diagonal recovery like you pointed out isn't the hardest but still it's easy to flub.

Thanks pal maybe we'll play some smash bros. one day!

 

[N64]

Looked pretty decent.

As Spak mentioned, you took a loooot of damage over the course of the set from recovering onstage. Near the beginning of the set it worked alright, but you could tell the sheik player caught on and would just wait to punish it almost every time. Get more comfortable sweetspotting the ledge. 6:36 made me very happy to see, do more of that. The fair from the ledge afterwards was pretty unsafe, but that's another minor thing.

The combo game was another weak spot, and I'm glad you noticed too. The main thing I saw that could help is it didn't seem like you felt confident in your rising uairs. Take 9:17 for example (it seemed most apparent in the last match as a whole). You shield her bair and rising uair her during its lag, so there was no worry of it trading with anything or getting shielded or sending her at an awkard angle, it was a good setup. And then there was no followup. Rising uair, 3% damage, and then you landed and took a fair through your shield. Rising uair is your opportunity to get a combo started and put the pressure on sheik. Rising uair leads to damage, it's such a good combo starter, especially in this matchup. Even if you just get uair->nair, it knocks sheik away in addition to the damage and gives you stage control.

Those were the main things that I saw. Your pika looked a little slow, not fluid, but it takes a good while for that to come together. You got a couple good gimps and I really like that you were willing to go for stuff off the ledge occasionally, that is often something I don't see newer pikachus do (which is a shame, because it's one big advantage he has over other chars). Even if you weren't fast/precise enough to connect, I could see that you saw certain opportunities and went for them.

Keep it up. Tweak your recoveries and combo game against mid-floaties a bit and I think you're on the right track.

 

[The Jets]

Thanks N64! I was really hoping a big name like you would give me some advice.
I'll definitely work on getting my pika more fluid like you said. He was just sorta stale, sitting there in the neutral game. I did a lot of waiting which made it easy for him to get me.
Recovery angles would definitely help each of my stocks last longer. I'll have to give that more time when I play 1P mode.
The lack of Uair follow ups were upsetting. Even my friend behind me was saying I didn't follow up in that last match, as it was going on.

I know sheik can be crouch cancelled but CC is something I haven't thought about much in the past, I would just do it without realizing. I should try to CC weak hits like tilts and what not, which can lead to Dtilt Dsmash and Usmash.

Also he got a lot of WD back shield grabs on me. What are some ways to approach sheik?

 

[Comet7]

okay, i main pikachu in PM and pichu in this game, and don't have much experience with pikachu in this game, so take this as you wish.

you seemed really surprised when you triggered the reverse tail spike hitbox with the up air. learn all the hitboxes for that, because up air is amazing, but not if you screw up the hitboxes (ie: getting your opponent back on stage with the wrong spike). also remember to try to land your nair behind your opponent's shield, or else bad things can happen. aside from that, just get familiar with pikachu and his movement. i'll also say this if you somehow don't know it: pikachu's quick attack can only sweetspot from above, so don't try anything from below the ledge.