I need tips

[Aldwyn McCloud]

So.. I basically started playing Falco 2 years ago and now I really have no idea of how to improve. My game is beginning to become predictable so I need new inspiring tips.

I'm expecially asking the elite Falco players who visit smashboards.

Here are the videos:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Zq2bEjbBsv8

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EeJL60xhvlo

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BSPH0do__h0

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z94OKUCg9dM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=A9rSzs43Lk4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-gOJH419W_o

http://youtube.com/watch?v=705RZQ46Y3E

 

[MrBitter]

You've obviously got an excellent Falco... Very technical, very fast, very impressive.

I watched every one of your videos and every time I thought I noticed you doing something wrong, you'd come back and do it flawlessly several times.

If you're having problems, it's not due to your skills.

I'm not an elite Falco player, so I can' t offer much input beyond that... Very nice Falco, though.

 

[Adi]

You have fairly good technical skills but there's a couple glaring mistakes you have, mainly with your approach. I noticed that you attacked into shields a large amount of times. This is a decent strategy if after they shield your aerial-shine approach you keep going into a pillar or waveshine back. Instead I noticed after the shine you would full-jump, and being in the air that high is a bad place to be no matter what character you are. I thought this was most exemplified in your match vs. dr mario on final destination where after you full jumped you would often d-air right into his shield again, often resulting in a shield grab. Otherwise you had decent mindgames with techrolling and the like, your weakness mainly lies in your predictable approach..

I'd suggest to try playing Marth for a while. A dumb Marth is a dead Marth, and playing him can help you develop the proper mindset necessary to find and exploit the weakness' in your enemies defense. Good falco, keep up the work.

 

[Aldwyn McCloud]

I already play marth for the same purpose you told me, and you're right about the waveshines. Full jumps are sometimes a valid option though, as well as double jumps.
Shields actually give me quite a lot of problems because my opponents always break my pillars (I have no idea if this happens because of the PAL version) anyway I can't manage to grab my opponents most of the time because of Falco's sucky grab range. Except for SHL + grab and a few other schemes I find myself unable to grab very often or even worse get punished after a sidestep from my opponents as they notice my grab attempt.

You made me think the best way to approach on shields which isn't neither pillar nor waveshines. If you ask me it is ANA shffl followed by a shine (quite obvious), then followed by another Short hop ANA, but this time spaced away from the shield (and of course, of the grab range). I haven't got a video showing this but you can make an idea by watching the first Falco ditto between me and Seretur. At 0:39 I use a spaced ANA away from Seretur's shield and I get out of his grab of range. The advantage of using this kind of approach is that ANA + Waveshine deals less damage, instead ANA + shine + another ANA deals more damage reducing more the opponent's shield dimensions and increasing the shield stab rate.

 

[Adi]

Pillaring against a competent opponent requires you to pillar nearly frame perfectly, which is why you probably have trouble doing it at the competitive level. The people I play with usually just try and grab after the first aerial-shine combo, so they're usually hit with the d-air, so I don't really have much experience with extended pillaring. I'll agree that full hopping and double jumping can be viable strategies, however this generally only applies to platform levels. On Final Destination you're left wide open and it's very easy for an opponent to follow up and hit you while you're vulnerable in the air.

Anyhow, that's an interesting strategy you have there, it never really occured to me. However, I'm not too sure of the viability of this strategy, because I'm pretty sure if they grab fast enough it'll get you before you have the time to DI away after the N-air. Interesting though, I'll try it out and see how it works. While we're talking about fighting shields, another good strategy to use is to aerial - shine - JC grab. Hard to pull off but works 99% of the time, + if you mess up the JC grab out of shine you can just turn it into a well spaced N-air shffl.

In any case, falcos best option vs. a shield is not to not attack a shield at all. Although Falco has some of the best options when fighting a shielding opponent the best case sceneario is not to end up in it. Mixing up your approach with SHL and RSHL as well as some empty short hop wavelands can really screw around your opponents mind forcing him to exit the shield, and a defenseless opponent is a sitting duck for some nice shine combos. Anyways that's the end of my rant, sorry if I sounded a bit critical in my first post. I'm actually experiencing the same problem that you are so I know it all too well =P, watching your falco is like watching mine play, except a bit more technical ;D.

--Peace

 

[Aldwyn McCloud]

the strategy you are speaking about works very well against peach and sheik but not really good against Doc and Falco. Doc can reflect projectiles so spamming lasers isn't a reliable strategy while Falco is easier to take down on the defensive, as an offensive Falco is harder to handle (not to mention that I'm playing Falco too). Also approaching on the opponent's shield is very important in order to keep the pressure on the opponent. The more they are stressed the more they are likely to do mistakes which is what every player wants.

 

[d_shep04]

i think you got a really good falco... he's nice... and has potential to become known... have you entered any tournaments... if not, you need to and see what your full potential is... i haven't done any tournaments like munkaid but i have entered local tourneys... like the one @ my college... i placed 3rd with my falco tho... but that wasn't bad considering that i only been playing falco for about 4/5 months when the tourney happend...

 

[Aldwyn McCloud]

I live in Italy and I attend tournaments about every 3/4 months. Here we don't play as much smash as in America. Anyway I'm the current best Italian player even though Seretur (the guy I fight in the Falco dittos) is about as good as I am. I've become famous in Europe after placing 5th at JST5, a very big dutch tournament. Outside Europe I'm pretty much unknown expeacially because the videos I showed you were taken in April and are the only good videos featuring me.

 

[invertigo]

i like your falco, you have a unique style. when an enemy is above, dont try to out-prioritize him by using an uair. its not gonna happen most of the time.

 

[Aldwyn McCloud]

it's all about the timing and the knowledge of what your opponent is going to do. I usually switch between Uairs, Bairs, Short hop bairs, Utilts and shielding in order to stop opponents from above.

 

[invertigo]

i agree with all those except uair

the reason i mentioned it was because i noticed you getting hit when trying it.

 

[Itchi]

Not bad! Very fast and unique Falco.

 

[burningherbs]

I think you're beyond the stage of "help me, I'm having trouble". IMO, you should be spending your time experimenting with different moves, perhaps fair, or maybe some other ways of following up a dair, etc. The true pros invent their own style, and I think you have the potential to be 7331.

 

[Aldwyn McCloud]

the point is that I really have no idea of how to improve. I seem to have come to a point where the only improvement I can look to is technical, which basically means learning not to mess up with timings, L-cancels and such stuff. However I believe I can do better than that, only I can't work out my mistakes. That's why I was expecially asking 1337 players to answer this.

 

[Adi]

Heh I think your technical skill is actually completely fine as it is. If anything it's mindgames although that's also very good, at this point it's what's going to push you over the edge to become part of the upper elite of smash.