Hax's Discussion of the Falco Meta: Shooting Blanks

[ETMIV]

In a conversation with The Moon at Shots Fired II, Hax opined that Falco's response to consistent powershielding should be firing blanks. I get the idea behind this tactic, but I have a follow-up question from their discussion: are there distances from which it's impossible to react to a Falco blank shot? In other words, are there distances at which you'd just have to guess whether he shoots an actual laser or a blank?

If powershielding does get way better in the future, I feel like this question has some big implications for Falco as a character:

If you can always react to a blank, then I would suppose theoretically Falco's lasers could be completely negated, except in situations where his opponent can't shield. You'd see the gun came out late, know Falco can't actually shoot, and not shield.

But assuming there are distances from which it's impossible to deal with blanks on pure reaction, those scenarios would create a 50/50 every time Falco draws his gun. The opponent would need to guess whether Falco's going to shoot or not and, consequently, whether or not to shield. This means that Falco's lasers will always be very relevant, no matter how good powershielding gets.

So, does anyone (including The Moon or Hax) know how hard/possible it is to consistently react to blanks from Falco?

 

[`Rival]

naw i don't think it's possible to react to blank lasers, regardless of distance. because the whole time falco is in the air, they're gonna be expecting you to laser. when you land, you'll be in only 4 frames of landing lag - in this time frame their brain has to recognize 'hey, he didn't shoot, let me hit him!' and then actually do so.

i mean, you can expect them to powershield a laser whenever it actually comes out depending on their level of reflexes, but if the opponent is fairly close and manages to hit you while you are attempting a blank laser, then that means they had some countermeasure to beat any laser mixup in the first place, or they had a read on your jump XD.

idk if it will work on everyone, but i have definitely tripped people up by using empty lasers; they'll be standing still, undaring to move forward/waiting to powershield because they are so used to a certain tempo of lasers being fired (either premeditated or i conditioned them) and then when i switch it up they'll struggle because sometimes the laser doesn't even come, and when it does it might be at different timing than before. while they are stuck there guessing, falco can fly at them/re-position - and that brief moment is all i need sometimes.

while powershields are amazing to have in a skillset, IMO opponents should be playing around all of falco's laser mixups when they can. from the opponents perspective, why deal with figuring out when to shield/when not to when they can play around lasers altogether? the only reason i can legitimately think of is if the falco has a predictable pattern leading up to or after his lasers.

tl:dr:

- blank lasers are probably (almost 100%certain) not react-able
- if youre close enough you can throw off their reactions by mixing in blank lasers. if they are hitting you while you do this, they are reading you.
- if they are reliant on powershielding and their reactions are thrown off enough, they might try to play around falco's laser mixups altogether.

 

[Scruffy_Scoundrel]

I made a post about laser feints in a thread not too long ago, I'm glad the discussion has grown . To answer your question most people, at least in my experience, who powershield falco's lasers consistently do so by reacting to the sound that falco's laser makes. There is an audible click, this sounds remains when Falco opts for a feint, this means that all those who react via sound will be unable to tell the difference between a feint and a real laser.

If you want to see if someone reacts to the click sound take them to battlefield, the dark background makes it harder to see the blaster itself (especially if you play green Falco, as his coat is almost black on some screens). Fire a couple of lasers, not with the intent of conversion or positioning, just to see when they shield. If they get the ps throw a feint, if their shield comes up they are almost assuredly doing it by sound. If they've gotten used to doing it by sound their reflex is going to be to shield when they hear the click, knowing this we can use their own muscle memory against them, get a couple grabs on them it's important. They'll begin to doubt themselves and crack, sometimes too afraid to do anything proactively they'll start moving back and forth to wait for the grab so they can punish it, from here I normally just shoot a regular laser to put them on tilt. At this point what many people see to be as the be all end all laser counter, ps, has become disabled and laser pressure has become reintergrated into neutral.

 

[Sieghart]

Assuming you aren't to close to react you could always just powershield the laser back. I've never met someone who managed to powershield a laser I powershielded back on reaction. If you ZPS it's easy to press A during the laser to prepare it. With this ability and blanks I find it hard to believe that Falco's lasers will ever be a nonissue.

 

[Frenzy231199]

Assuming you aren't to close to react you could always just powershield the laser back. I've never met someone who managed to powershield a laser I powershielded back on reaction. If you ZPS it's easy to press A during the laser to prepare it. With this ability and blanks I find it hard to believe that Falco's lasers will ever be a nonissue.

This is actually Zhu's main option toward dealing with lasers, This weekend at Pound in the set vs Duck he did it multiple times.

 

[FE_Hector]

Overall, I think that shooting blanks is extremely good as a mixup because of what it forces the opponent to do. As mentioned earlier, most people react to the sound of the laser instead of the sight of it, especially at closer ranges. The nice thing about forcing a reaction (shielding), is that it's kind of a... a Catch 22 situation. If they stay in shield, they can very quickly get grabbed or forced into shield pressure, and if they THINK that they powershielded whatever laser you shot, they put up their shield and immediately put it down, putting themselves in a fair amount of lag and also leaving them open to a punish. Like I said at the start, this is going to be purely a mixup, but definitely a strong one, especially if you've already established your skill with mixing up the heights of the lasers.