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This is speculation now, but going off of what I saw with your opponents your best bet will be lulling them into a false sense of superiority than a traditional baiting. Condition them to make unsafe decisions by taking away some of their favored approaches. (It is what they were technically doing to you when they interrupted your air game.) They'll think they are out-manuevering you but what is really happening is you are changing their pattern to fit what you need for the kill.
Like many Diddys, He liked to go for grabs. This means you'll need to make sure you have enough space to give yourself breathing room to adapt to him. This means watch out for where you land when needing to recover from above him, as you had a tendency to land in grab/smash range and give him freebies. It is a bad habit I have as well, and you'll need to focus on making him think you'll land close and then move out of range. Save a jump if possible, or use QD to zip away at the last minute to give yourself some space. Make landing close the exception, not the rule since Diddy will beat you out at that range. You did this less often after the first match, but it was still something he would capitalize on when you did.
During your second match, you gave him a lot of free recoveries from the deep. Some patience and a good eruption would have ended things. Luigi's Up-B is nasty when it connects, but almost every character's Up-b is safe for an Eruption when they go for a deep recovery.
Casval
mentioned, my only other recommendation is to slow down a little and take your time. You seemed anxious or nervous with all the bouncing around, which does require some commitment even with our auto-cancel moves mixed in. Walk more, block longer and watch. Your opponent had some decent patterns that were punishable, especially offstage, but you were too often out of range to use the opportunity due to your focus on keeping your distance. I can understand wanting the breathing room, especially since Luigi is one of your current troubled MUs but there are other ways to be defensive than giving up stage control. Quite a few of Arakui's aerials that he preferred were punishable against shields due to their ending lag (especially against jabs and f-tilt) with the only real issue being his grab combo potential (Which I can see was his second choice compared to staying aerial quite a bit from your videos).
Anyone? He's coming over tomorrow to practice and I want to give him all the advice I can.
He seems to favor hard reads (charging f-smashes with ample room to dodge, for example) which can lead to big problems against good opponents. He also rolls quite a bit when walking or running will do. I'm not sure if it's the nerves getting to him, but ideally he needs to relax and take his time. He has more options from a standing or walking position than while committed to an action. Save the smashes for when they are more of a sure kill, and mix some tilts since they have good power and speed. In most of the matches I watched, tilts were almost ever used and would have been a far more ideal way to punish or set up some combos than all the f-smashes being thrown.
Thanks very much for the tips, I'll be sure to spread this information on. The only stuff he knows about Ike is stuff I've told him, and I don't play Ike, haha. He was nervous, that set against Bowser was the first time he's won in tournament. He's definitely getting more comfortable, I've been encouraging him to play friendlies more often.
In the first video near the end, when you are at the Shine Gate it would have been better to go for the Eruption when Diddy was under the stage as most attacks can't penetrate through the ledge.
Thanks. Yeah, Skyloft slopes killed me. I also tried to pivot and throw him off-stage near the end to go for one final gimp/spike.
Rango the Mercenary
Strange, as I usually have better results keeping people away with jabs than with tilts when they are expecting my attack and going for the shield grab. I find jab 2 fast enough against most speedy characters to prevent a grab, as they can usually dodge me for a grab otherwise. I try to treat the banana like Link with his bomb, with the difference being slipping if I miss instead of getting popped up. (Maybe this is wrong, but they both use the thing as a combo starter or showstopper)
In the second match, you let Luigi recovery too often. He had to do a lot of deep recoveries, where Eruption is lethal but it was attempted only once. From the side or low recoveries you'd be right to respect his Up-B but when it's as deep as it was at the end of that second match he isn't going to be able to hit you with it. A well placed Eruption would have ended his stock, and with how much time you'd have it probably would have been a full charged one (harder to get the snap because of how large the explosion is).
If you are talking about the one time you went for Eruption during the second match, yes your timing was good. The probelm was that Eruption didn't have enough time to charge. The explosion wasn't big enough to prevent the snap, and your sword tip was in the ground instead of off stage so you weren't able to use the tip for the extra reach. There wasn't enough time to get the charge up enough, and I know I wouldn't have gotten any closer since I wouldn't be sure if he'd go for the early Up-B. It happens, and it all comes down to the read. Can't fault you there, as I don't think anyone would have done differently. There were other opportunities where an Eruption would have helped though, like at the 5:50 mark when he fished for an early eruption but then had to go deep for the recovery for example.
Looks like I'm not the only one who envisioned Ike singing "I'll make a man out of you".
What is your first impressions? The player in question looked decent, but either due to personal skill or unfamiliarity with the character didn't provide anything that looked shocking to fight against. Do you feel there should be anything that we fellow Ike's need to be aware of at first glance?
Forward throw and back throw can both set up tech chases depending on the opponent's DI. If they miss the tech you can dash attack punish or read their get-up (like he did at the end with f-smash). If they don't miss the tech you'll have to read it to get your punish.
When preventing an opponent from recovering from the deep, you'll want to go for Eruption instead of f-smash or d-smash as the explosion has some penetration that will help prevent the snap (You did this more in the later matches, which helped you out). Don't be afraid to get close to the edge when using it, as the tip of your sword is also a hurtbox. For Marth, if their recovery isn't deep but you expect a Dolphin Slash I find Counter works great here since they normally don't get the snap unless they go deep which puts them right in range of Ragnell.
If you fsmash or usmash someone with the extreme tip of ragnell, you'll see that it does very less damage and knock back. I remember for usmash, the uncharged tip did only 10% and fully charged one did only 14%, and the opponent barely went anywhere.
Watching your ROB fights, there were a few times where you were just jumping in place using n-air and f-air repeatedly. If you opponent isn't approaching you by the second one, you'll want to mix that up since after a while he'd just stand there outside your range and work on timing his shots right.Some games from my last tournament (70 entrants or so), any advice, things I need to include or anything else whats wrong with my playstyle? I think I already noticed some things I could do better, but it´s always good to hear other opinions.
thx for answers
vs R.O.B
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mVchBqh2SU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlyiPGbvtxE
vs Fox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra3UBOC6XyM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2nClFqYdUU
vs Toon Link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUP4VuzV1Us
Yoh
With Fox, there were quite a few times where you'd get him with a Jab or grab but not do any follow-up with him. I'm not sure if you weren't expecting a connection on those moves or if the tournament was an online one, but when you go for a read like that you should be ready with both a plan and a backup. (In this case, the plan was to go through a combo after Jab1 or d-tilt if it hit and the backup would be to return to neutral if not.) Thinking like this will help condition your mind to look for the openings instead of having the surprise of "I've got him, now what?" that can sometimes happen when trying to buildup %. I've conditioned myself to glance at the % of my opponent, go for 0-3 headbutts and then a throw depending on the % if I get the grab. You do want to prevent predictability, but you also want enough of Ike's moves in muscle memory so that when opportunities arise you are more thinking one step ahead after that first hit lands instead of all the possibilities at that moment. (If that makes any sense.) )
Yoh
, I can relate. In my case, I have the courage but lack the precision. The good news is practice will help both of those issues. If you get the opportunity to do some friendlies against a Fox, try to pick a secondary goal for the match. Example being "I'll interrupt one of Fox's attempts to rising f-air from the ledge!" or "I'll try to mix up a u-tilt in my punish the next time he tries to dash in!" and see if you can hit this goal. It will help get your mind focused to look for such openings and help expedite the experience needed to abuse your opponent's habits. It has helped me out immensely, especially against Ganondorf (not a fast character, but one I seem to struggle with since he can out-tank me), Captain Falcon and Fox.
