I wanna be the very best.

[OmegaMuffin]

Although I know that won't happen...

Hey everyone! I'm OmegaMuffin. I'm just now getting into the manly being that is Captain Falcon. I want to try and get better so I can actually start going to tournaments and stuff.

So could you guys please review my videos and give me advice to help me improve?
http://www.youtube.com/user/OmegaMuffin498?feature=mhum
I'm not trying to just get you guys to watch my videos. I legitamately want to get better. I'll upload some more when I get the chance but could you, the Smash community help me out? I think I can be really well in time and practice.

Thank you for helping my Falcon cause. You're all beautiful people.

 

[Faithkeeper]

I watched your match with fox.

I saw some things I really liked, others that needed some improvement.

I'm just going to go through your match.

at :05 he misses an easy tech and uses getup attack, make a note.

at :25 he doesn't tech and you punish, good.

at :28 you do a gutsy edgeguard. it worked, but a spaced uair would be safer and get him back off stage.

at :29 he misses a tech and uses getup attack, make a note.

at :52 he misses a tech and you punish, good.

at 1:16 he misses an easy tech and uses getup attack, make a note.

1:44 good edgehog

at 1:55 he misses an easy tech and uses getup attack, you punish, good.

at 1:57 he misses a tech and uses getup attack, you try to punish, (it was an obvious prediction rather than reaction attempt to punish) but it missed. Also note he was at 26% and dsmash would not have killed him. I would recommend another stomp/knee/grab to combo from rather than the one-time damage of down smash.

2:28 he misses a tech and uses getup attack, make a note.

3:18 he misses a tech and uses getup attack and you punish, good.

3:20 he misses a tech and you punish, good. I'm glad you started adapting.

3:23 another gusty edgeguard. you would be fine waiting for him to land and kneeing him.

There's a lot more we could analyze, but this is a good starting point. Paying attention to how your opponent tech is very important, and you started to get the hang of it. When he missed a tech he did a getup attack 7/9 times (that we saw) that's what I would bet on. Standard punishes for that are knee, stomp, and grab, depending on percent and preference. You did a solid job of punishing him for it, but even more would be better.

Your opponent loved to spam smash attacks, especially when you were at high damage. If you can bait those they are worth a free knee every time.

Now, onto a bad habit of yours that I shared at your stage in development, and still struggle with sometimes: raptor boost. It's super cool. Very easy to combo from. Unfortunately, very unsafe as well. you used it 13 times. you hit him with it for damage twice. that's about 15% hit percentage. Also he hit you because of the raptor boost 7 times. That is over 50% of the time. A better player will punish you more often and much harder. raptor boost can be punished on reaction by most tourney players. only use it when it is almost a sure hit. I use it mostly for tech chasing since it can set up grabs, knees, and other fun things while tacking on 6-7%

I didn't analyze your teching patterns but I recommend you do so and fix any bad habits. Other things to look out for at your level are what your opponent does when you approach and what you do when you get approached. see what works, what doesn't, and what is predictable.

Things like having better tech skill, being faster, and punishing harder go without saying. They come through practice, but I don't think I need to tell you that. Drill those shuffles (be sure you are fast falling in them) until you can do them like 5 mins straight without missing l-cancels. That seems crazy hard (I can't do that yet, but don't tell ) but it will make leaning all of those crazy falcon combos much easier down the line. You haven't picked the easiest character to use, he requires tech and a strong mental game even at the lower levels, but he's always been the most fun and rewarding character for me.

I really only have one real, big-time problem with your falcon right now. And it is a serious problem imo.

"I wanna be the very best.
Although I know that won't happen..."

This is a big mental issue. If you seriously, honestly, want to be the best, don't accept defeat before you've started. This might just be a humility thing, which I can understand, but if being the best is a goal of yours, go after it with both hands, and don't let anything stop you. just remember:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI5hi4c4y9k&feature=player_detailpage#t=39s (At :49 you can stop)

Best of luck!

 

[Youngling]

I noticed a few things..

You double jump.... A LOT. a smart fox will just bair you in the air and basically there's nothing you can do. also, don't aproach with dairs.

The biggest thing I noticed is that you get a hit like a dair or a nair.... But then you just stand there for a few seconds. The most key thing in smash is following up your moves, and making sure that the movie you follow up with will have another follow up etc until you want to ko.

Double jump less
dair less
raptor boost less
follow up faster

good luck training and stuff, hope I helped

 

[J_Noodles]

When the fox used up-b while on the stage, you could've punished vs just standing there and shielding.

 

[mers]

I think you're at the point where the best thing you can do is just play a ton more. Until you get better, advice will be less helpful. Just watch videos, and play lots, and do things you see in videos until you understand why they're good.

 

[Metal Reeper]

I will watch later and critique <3

 

[Zhenkai]

Watched the video and I won't make this long, since from what I've seen in it is all of what's already been said. There's three notes that I'd like to point out though that I had trouble with myself up until this past summer, thanks to players better than I watching my game play and letting me know their thoughts, and from what I've read up on the Falcon threads as well.

1st. Dash dance. Falcon is great for his speed, it allows him to get around your opponent's moves. As I was, you're very stationary and remaining in your shield often. Start simple at first, start dding in place, get the feel of how Falcon moves then start taking greater distances. With the dding you can bait your opponent into a smash then come in with knee/stomp/grab and proceed to tech chase or combo away. By keeping yourself in one spot, and shielding so often, you're keeping yourself within range to get grabbed, smashed, etc if you happen to miss a roll, spot dodge, or jump oos. As I said though, start it out small, dd in place a bit so that when you're approached you can run out then back in without losing momentum.

2nd. Your approach. As dair is a good setup, the spacing on it isn't that great and leads, as the video shows, to you getting hit fairly often. Mix it up. At 0:39, after the getup attack, you broke away from the dair and went with a knee and nair, yeah they didn't hit, but it wasn't what you were doing before. I noticed later on as well you starting switch to Nair, which is a good change up. Approaching with nair is great, due to the range and the fact if you miss with the first kick the second can come in and throw off your opponent if they're expecting the dair, on top of it nair comes out faster. Won't mention the raptor boost, others posted it, so ya know that. As well if you find your opponent above you and don't want a chance a nair or knee, toss in an uair, can lead to wondrous combos of Falcon ****.

3rd. Recovery. The only reason I'm mentioning this is because, from watching, you also recovered to land on the stage. That is more than enough lagtime to get abused and, in most cases, the loss of the stock. Take some time to try and practice recovering so Falcon grinds into the edge, but doesn't land on stage. Once you have that down, practice next on your sweetspotting. Also don't always recover low, especially against a Fox, because if they see you doing it repeatedly they'll just drop down with a shine and boom, stock's gone. A perfect example is at 1:18 when Fox spot dodges, that could've been a shine. Recover high. Yeah it might lead to a combo, but you have a better chance at making it back if your opponent misreads it and goes to edgeguard off the stage, and by then, you now have the opportunity to edgeguard them for a good amount of %, or in the best situation, a stock lead.

I'm not the best Falcon out there and have room for improvement, but I've come pretty far in my eyes from how I use to play, and from my own knowledge of Falcon and how I use to play almost exactly as you, I offer what I can. Hope it helps. =^-^=

Edit: Ok...I made it semi long. XD

 

[Foy]

I can tell from watching you that you aren't really thinking ahead much. You seem to do one thing, and then go to the next at your convenience. A lot of this is from what I am guessing is a lack of experience, you just aren't familiar with the way the game is played yet.

I have two points of advice:

Study and Practice a lot at this stage of the game. Watch videos, practice fundamentals, movement, etc. Being able to execute what you want to execute at any time is important because even if you make a wrong choice, at least you did it properly and can learn why it was wrong, and the same things with when you are making correct choices.

Secondly. You think very linearly. You only seem to have one path of thought. Once again this is due to an overall lack of experience. When you think, don't just think in one direction, try to think in all directions. As Bruce Lee would say "You must flow like water."

 

[OmegaMuffin]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'll try to apply it all to my game as much as I can

@ Faithkeeper
Thanks a lot for such an in-depth analyses. I didn't expect that from anyone O.O
Anyway, yeah, me and teching have been having relational problems as of late >_> but I plan on talking it out with her and getting closer to her. As for the gutsy edgeguards, I'm not to confident with CF's wavedash>edgeguard and UAir isn't always on my mind (bad for a Falcon main, I know >_>) so I try my other options to see what break through my opponent's recovery and such. And I just like comboing out of Raptor Boost...
And it's kinda of intimidating when I see people like SilentSpectre ****** face. But I you can only get better with practice.

@Youngling
Double jumping usually puts me in a better position, but you're right, it's a bad habit. If I get off the stage that minus a stock. I have to stop that habit.

@Noodles
I didn't want to risk being hit but what's a hit exchange and a lost stock for him over another chance to possibly lose?

@mers
Would you believe that I've watched so many videos? XD
I watched them to figure out what the best options are considering moves. I don't remember who it was (idt it was SS...) but I saw CF's side-b being used a lot and being comboed out of, so I figured it was a decent suprise move option. The amount I use it doesn't really make it a suprise anymore... >_>

@Zhenkai
I usually dash dance a lot but for whatever reason I didn't really think doing it as an option. I was trying to make sure my shffling was all in order
DAir.... There's no excuse for that. I just like stomping on heads >_> But the same I said to Faith. UAir ain't on mah mind.
Recovery... Oh Falcon and your recovery... I've been watching Project M vids and I keep expecting for Falcon to grab the ledge when he flips around his ankles. It's either that or I recover to high and land on the stage. I try not to recover high because my other friend mains Falco, but this ain't my other friend...

@Foy
How would you reccommend I try thinking ahead? Should I try to watch my opponents style before running in?

tl;dr Thanks guys. I'll try to apply these aspects to my game and improve the best I can

 

[Zhenkai]

@Zhenkai
I usually dash dance a lot but for whatever reason I didn't really think doing it as an option. I was trying to make sure my shffling was all in order
DAir.... There's no excuse for that. I just like stomping on heads >_> But the same I said to Faith. UAir ain't on mah mind.
Recovery... Oh Falcon and your recovery... I've been watching Project M vids and I keep expecting for Falcon to grab the ledge when he flips around his ankles. It's either that or I recover to high and land on the stage. I try not to recover high because my other friend mains Falco, but this ain't my other friend...

I can understand the dding and shffling, I was there myself. I use to try and time just certain things perfect, but after that, I was open to be comboed, so that'll come in time.
As for this...I totally agree, but my thing instead of stompin'...is Falcon Punch. I use to do it as an edgeguard majority of the time before I started playing seriously, and even still do it from time to time. And what I can offer for the Uair issue, is I know some people use the joystick+A, others use c-stickup (myself), but try messing with both and find which works best for ya. And if you don't think of Uair, go for a knee, cuz one of 3 things will happen. You'll hit 'em and come back to more edgeguard or stock loss, soft knee to more edgeguard/stock loss, or miss and deal with gettin' back.
I've played my fair share of Falco's so I understand entirely. My cousin, I use to play constantly, was nothing but Falco, and playing other's besides him from my region when I visited last summer, try to left/right shuffle, as I know it as. Recover high, but after you recover high and into the stage, hold back and drift yourself out of Falco's Dair range and onto the edge, blah blah all that jazz. ^.^

 

[J_Noodles]

Although I didn't quite understand your question, I'll still help. You wouldn' quite be exchanging hits in that case where the fox is completely vulnerable. At 2:22 in OmegaMuffin vs Granite, you just ran up and shielded and the fox was wide open, charging his up-b. You could've basically hit him with anything at that point, because most of falcon's attacks (tilts, smashes) cut through that animation.

Now if you didn't want to risk getting hit, you could see which way he goes with his up-b, then punish. All of these you could do instead of just running up and shielding, and letting him hit your shield.

 

[OmegaMuffin]

Although I didn't quite understand your question, I'll still help. You wouldn' quite be exchanging hits in that case where the fox is completely vulnerable. At 2:22 in OmegaMuffin vs Granite, you just ran up and shielded and the fox was wide open, charging his up-b. You could've basically hit him with anything at that point, because most of falcon's attacks (tilts, smashes) cut through that animation.

Now if you didn't want to risk getting hit, you could see which way he goes with his up-b, then punish. All of these you could do instead of just running up and shielding, and letting him hit your shield.

Hm. I'll try to keep that in mind

And I was asking what kind of things should I think about? Like what move I should do next if it connects/misses?

@Zhenkai
Yeah, I've been trying to use the c-stick but it just doesn't feel right, but at the same time with the directional stick I sometimes end up double jumping before another UAir. I guess I just gotta get used to the c-stick lol

 

[DuckPimp]

ive always done aerials with cstick, and im glad i did. my friend used to use a, switched to cstick, had it feel weird, but now its all he uses (besides nairs obviously)

it just gives you much more control over your aerials, especially uair

its something you should do now rather than later

 

[J_Noodles]

If you miss (Most likely you won't), you will or will not get hit depending on the lag of the move you just used. If you get hit by the firefox, you will be sent upwards, so DI accordingly. I'm pretty sure the fox won't be able to punish you too bad if he connects the firefox at such percent.

If you are having problems with u-airs with control stick, push the stick slightly upwards. While running, shift your control stick position from forwards to up lightly (this should be pretty fast if you want them to come out early). A good way to practice is to go to training mode, because it forces you to use the control stick. Set your opponent as marth, and set to 60%. When the marth is near the edge, practice d-throw, then run and do shorthop u-air to knee. If you do it right, you should be able to connect easily.

 

[J_Noodles]

I personally use c stick for knees, dairs, and control stick for u-airs, nairs and b-airs.

 

[Zhenkai]

For Uair it's all that I use the cstick for, the other aerials I'll use the joystick, especially Bair and Dair, although sometimes, depending on whatever combo/approach/whatever I'm doing and plan a knee, especially if I go with a full jump Uair into double jump knee, I'll use the cstick for the knee if I need to double jump either straight up or just slightly back if I have momentum from a running jump Uair. It's a situational thing, but I -struggle- (can't stress it enough) doing shffle Uairs with the joystick+A. I just can't do 'em unless I focus solely on it and could screw up my combo, thusly cstick. But hey, that's just me, just find out which groove works best for ya and go with the flow.

 

[J_Noodles]

I agree, you can use the control stick u-airs to hit someone when they're in front of you, but c-stick the rest of them.

 

[CloneHat]

Raptor boost is not an approach. You seem to be able to SHFFL pretty well, so try that instead.

 

[OmegaMuffin]

Me and my friend recorded some matches. Hopefully I can get them uploaded later today. I tried to keep you guys' advice in mind. Our first 3 matches were a helluva lot better but we didn't record em >_> oh well...

 

[Zhenkai]

Ehehe, it happens that way man. The matches I mostly have up on youtube are almost a year old and before I got better, while the more latest ones (granted1-5months), are when I'm goofin' off cuz I'm either playin' my friend who's drunk or gets pissy if I actually try and combo the hell outta him. Yet when we don't record I'm doin' far better than what my matches show. I wish you could push a mental record button and go from there. XD

 

[ryankam10]

Are you jump-cancelling your grabs? Maybe not the most pertinent or urgent thing you need to start doing, but still a fairly BIG thing you need to start doing if you're not, it makes your grabs ALOT faster. Also you need to be more mobile, one of the reasons captain falcon is good is because he's fast (his knee doesn't make him good, his speed does), you need to be constantly moving and ready to move so you can punish lag at every opportunity

 

[OmegaMuffin]

Actually, yeah. I jump cancel grabbed several times successfully (maybe not in that specific match...). Thank you though

So I got one Falcon match up. The rest willl be coming either tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Mokumo]

the main way to get better is to play more and more people. if you want to be the best you have to play against the best players

expand your game and beat people

 

[OmegaMuffin]

the main way to get better is to play more and more people. if you want to be the best you have to play against the best players

expand your game and beat people

Thats the problem though... there's like no one else around here who is better at smash.

 

[CanISmash]

you need to learn to dash dance and apply it.. it can create a lot of openings for grabs and tons of stuff.

every instance where you raptor boosted you more or less could've dash danced to space and follow your opponents actions

 

[OmegaMuffin]

I think I punished a little harder in my newer Falcon vids. I reminded myself to stay out of my shield when a Firebird/Fox is being used lol.

 

[J_Noodles]

Thats a good start. Staying out of your shield while the opponent is vulnerable. I will watch your newer vids soon

 

[J_Noodles]

Against Falco, try to punish hard when he does standing lasers.

 

[Metal Reeper]

This is the video i am critiquing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vglQ9IAk4Kc

Alright, when you hit a raptor boost (SideB) and your opponent doesen't DI. GET THAT USMASH. If they don't DI again you can Usmash 2-3 times which will lead into a knee.
You depend WAY to heavily on shieldgrabs.
You need to keep moving you keep walking and standing still, always be moving.
Remember to fastfall EVERYTHING.
You need to nair approach a lot more against Falco, against anyone really (Besides Marth/Sheik)
You keep edgeguarding with Dair. Space Bair for edgeguarding.
You should Dthrow besides Uthrow. Uthrow at higher %, Dthrow at lower %.
This Falco misses EVERY tech after your throw. That's a free Dair>combo. But you keep trying to Uair his missed tech, Dair the missed tech instead.

Critique for this video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNP3wD3lrcA

@0:10 you get a Bair. The Falco gets hit to the right, and you just randomly Nair, not hitting anything, if he rolled to you, you still wouldn't have hit him. You need to get used to always being on top of your opponent whenever you hit them, that's what Falcons strives on, without that Falcon is more impossible to play, lol.
You need to get better at basic comboing, stringing anything together, your opponent isn't even DIing.
@0:15 you get a raptor boost and try to Uair. You Uair way to late and completely miss. That was a free Usmash.
You REALLY need to practice JC grabs. Very important for any character.
Your Falcon needs a lot of work. Study the hell out of SS videos <3 I hope I helped. Post more videos soon <3

 

[J_Noodles]

I will critique this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofUQFyymDXk&feature=related

i would like to point out some things:
1. You are whiffing a ton of shield grabs. It almost seems as if you held up your shield just to get one. Don't rely on them too much, as better players can find ways around shield grabbing.
2. You always try to tech punish with raptor boost. If the falco is at low percent, follow his tech and grab him again, instead of raptor boost. You also tend to use raptor boost too much in general
3. I think you need to practice l-canceling, as you always shield afterwards. I'm not sure whether you're doing it on purpose or not, but its not a great habit.

 

[ryankam10]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofUQFyymDXk&feature=related

You're raptor boosting too much and in the wrong circumstances
raptor boost is a great tool but usually should NOT be used to approach, a good player will just dodge, shield => punish you very badly. You should only use raptor boost in such cases when you KNOW it will hit (hitstun from a low-percentage stomp maybe?) or when you can position it to cover at least 2 options out of a tech. As well, you need to be ready to react after upthrowing/dthrowing falco. You should either go for the tech chase => regrab or at least you can try predicting where he'll be and stomp/knee him out of his tech, don't just stand there.

A slow falcon isn't very good, his speed is what makes him! You should always be on the move.

 

[OmegaMuffin]

Alright, thanks everyone for the most recent criticism! I played my friend a little more today and even though I only played Falcon in about 3 matches, I tried to apply what you guys told me. I still need to work on everything of course but I think I improved slightly. I'll have the matches up hopefully sometime this week. :D Thanks again everyone for criticism, I feel myself becoming more manly.