I just fought the strongest player in my region (a Falco ) and lost! I would appreciate any advice.

[Shadow Light Master]

I know the video is a bit small, so feel free to ignore this if you want.

I went to my second tournament at a Pokemon Festival today and I was blessed to fight who many consider to be the strongest player in my region. I got bodied, but I was lucky enough to have a friend to record the match. I would appreciate any advice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRFnvXUcU20&feature=youtu.be

 

[Flippy Flippersen]

Best advice I can give you outside of practicing basic ways to move around is to not always be attacking. Literally any moment you weren't being attacked you did some unsafe attacks. There is a lot to be gained in not attacking for a bit and just letting your opponent put himself in a bad spot.

 

[Scroll]

Coming down from the sky with Dair is just bad. Try and aim for the ledge instead.
Approaching Falco with DA at 0-70% can be CC'd easily and he can start a death combo on you.
You dont want to rush at him at all. It's fine to DA once or twice but only with the intension to give him a false impression. After then run up WD back is great.
Practice working around his SH laser by crouching, WD OoS, SH over them, going to platforms needle camping and the godlike Power Shield. Let him come to you while you work around his laser.
Make up ways to get in grabs and down throw tech chase him to build up percent.
Once you can lift him off the ground Fair him and Bair his attempt at making it back to stage.

 

[mdmfromdaridge]

It definitely looks like movement is a big problem right now. You don't want to be pinned down by Falco as that totally opens up his pressure game.

Right now your movement is really reliant on rolls. Rolling is extremely punishable on read and still leaves you open on reaction in some cases. Try to keep those to a minimum.

I would suggest going to the lab on battlefield, and practicing your fundamental movement options. Try to do at least 30 minutes of movement practice a day (minimum) and get used to controlling your space without rolls. A combination of wavedashes, dash dances, Wavelanding on platforms. Perfect Wavelanding until you can glide smoothly from platform to platform in big showoffy loops around battlefield. Come up with different patterns until you know every trick for getting exactly where you want to be.

Then put a cpu on 6 - 9 and try to avoid his attacks without rolling, but also without just flat out running away. Pick an ideal spacing (let's say a little longer than marth f-smash range) and try to maintain that spacing the whole time.

Then go watch pro matches to see how they control their neutral space. Like flippy was saying, try to see how they move around deliberately and aren't just spamming dash dance or something. Plup has an outstanding neutral game and I would recommend watching him closely. He has some excellent matches against spacies. Mango, westballz, porkchop.

Final thing, stage choice. Some of this is probably my preference. For first match I would probably try to strike to battlefield, avoiding final destination, fountain of dreams and Yoshis. FD is just combo hell and he can laser camp you all year. Yoshis is being favored for the bird more now that Falcos are learning how to take advantage of the stage. If you can't get battlefield, I would say dreamland as you have room for needle play and camping platforms to avoid pressure.

Until you can tech chase exceptionally well, I don't feel you have as much to gain from yoshis and fountain of dreams, and may do better with more room to control your space and avoid his pressure.

TLDR: sorry I'm long winded. Learn better movement and pick better stages.

 

[Shadow Light Master]

It definitely looks like movement is a big problem right now. You don't want to be pinned down by Falco as that totally opens up his pressure game.

Right now your movement is really reliant on rolls. Rolling is extremely punishable on read and still leaves you open on reaction in some cases. Try to keep those to a minimum.

I would suggest going to the lab on battlefield, and practicing your fundamental movement options. Try to do at least 30 minutes of movement practice a day (minimum) and get used to controlling your space without rolls. A combination of wavedashes, dash dances, Wavelanding on platforms. Perfect Wavelanding until you can glide smoothly from platform to platform in big showoffy loops around battlefield. Come up with different patterns until you know every trick for getting exactly where you want to be.

Then put a cpu on 6 - 9 and try to avoid his attacks without rolling, but also without just flat out running away. Pick an ideal spacing (let's say a little longer than marth f-smash range) and try to maintain that spacing the whole time.

Then go watch pro matches to see how they control their neutral space. Like flippy was saying, try to see how they move around deliberately and aren't just spamming dash dance or something. Plup has an outstanding neutral game and I would recommend watching him closely. He has some excellent matches against spacies. Mango, westballz, porkchop.

Final thing, stage choice. Some of this is probably my preference. For first match I would probably try to strike to battlefield, avoiding final destination, fountain of dreams and Yoshis. FD is just combo hell and he can laser camp you all year. Yoshis is being favored for the bird more now that Falcos are learning how to take advantage of the stage. If you can't get battlefield, I would say dreamland as you have room for needle play and camping platforms to avoid pressure.

Until you can tech chase exceptionally well, I don't feel you have as much to gain from yoshis and fountain of dreams, and may do better with more room to control your space and avoid his pressure.

TLDR: sorry I'm long winded. Learn better movement and pick better stages.

Don't apologize. I know my movement is awful, and I really appreciate the specific drills and examples to help me perfect it.

 

[Scroll]

imo 10 minutes of movement practice a day is enough once you get the hang of the different components. But you cannot spend too much time figuring out one more, if that makes sense.
Read these two threads I wrote. They don't provide too much info on the technique, but more so on the time I spent and my progression.
And that's just for SH and WD.
SH
WD
Lcancel

 

[Shadow Light Master]

imo 10 minutes of movement practice a day is enough once you get the hang of the different components. But you cannot spend too much time figuring out one more, if that makes sense.
Read these two threads I wrote. They don't provide too much info on the technique, but more so on the time I spent and my progression.
And that's just for SH and WD.
http://smashboards.com/threads/focused-tech-skill-practice-chapter-1-sh.406040/
http://smashboards.com/threads/focused-tech-skill-practice-chapter-2-wd.407117/

Not sure if this is a mistake, but clicking on wavedash redirects to the shorthop link.

 

[Scroll]

Not sure if this is a mistake, but clicking on wavedash redirects to the shorthop link.

fixed! and added Lcancel