Point out a contradiction or nonsensical claim. I don't see how I could be to blame for, for example, the whole "good players on wifi" thing >_> That was all you buddy
Deserving to win is an entirely subjective thing. Some would say that regardless of the conditions; if someone wins they deserved it. Others would say that if I beat M2K while he was blind-folded, I didn't deserve to win. I don't feel like Salem deserved to win because I had an, apparently preconceived, notion that at top level play
you can't beat MK with ZSS. I might not be able to convince you to agree with me, but that doesn't make me objectively wrong or a bad player. As I mentioned, I'm not the only person who feels this way.
I remember watching Apex while it was streamed with a fellow Smasher, and we spent the whole grand finals criticizing M2K for not playing properly to the point where we were calling his mistakes before he made them (and before he was punished for them).
In neutral position MK should walk toward ZSS; SH air dodge and power-shield (depending on what the situation calls for) to avoid the ONLY somewhat threatening options ZSS has in that situation (side-b and uncharged neutral-b). You can react to everything else with an ftilt, grab or dash attack unless the ZSS sacrifices stage control. This is rudimentary **** that M2K wasn't taking advantage of, and was instead throwing out superfluous moves and Nado'ing uselessly. Then, when you get ZSS out of neutral, smart tornadoes, late uairs, grabs and guaranteed shuttle loops will keep him out of neutral and juggle him to hell and back - M2K instead does his crazy M2K ****, which works a lot of the time, but lost him guaranteed damage a lot of other times. It's no secret that Salem recovered way more often than he should have at APEX, that argument doesn't need to be brought up again because it's obvious that he could've died several times very easily but didn't. Furthermore, M2K felt this pressure to run in and attempt to regain stage control against Salem even though one of the reasons MK is so strong is that he rarely has to do that against anyone - this is the reason he was hit by so many fairs and side-bs. He should've just gone below the stage and snapped the ledge every time (it isn't a scary position vs. ZSS, dsmash is literally the only option she has and YOU ARE META KNIGHT ON THE LEDGE). Then there were all the instances of him getting punished for the same **** multiple times; like air dodging up from the ledge into ZSS jab. That should happen once, and then never again, and **** like that was happening all the time.
I don't mean to imply that I would've done any better (I would've been destroyed, duh), or that the match-up is unwinnable for ZSS; but there are simple facts about the MU that everyone decided to ignore once the Salem hype train pulled into the station. Don't even get me started on how stupid the "Throw suit pieces off the stage as soon as possible or you'll die because ZSS is an untouchable goddess with them" attitude is. They don't increase her option pool dramatically, they just give her a
different option pool with harder punishes but less mobility/range - and his use of them is often so disgustingly telegraphed that I wonder why people didn't instant throw them off the stage or back at her when they were given the opportunity (and trust me, there were a lot of opportunities).
I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
. I meant to at one point but then realized it was the sequel (or was it just based on?) a video game. Meant to get the game first then see the anime. But I was to broke and forgot about its existence.