Is Ike Competitive?

[Vall3y]

I understand hes not top tier stuff, or even high tier, but do you think hes got a chance to be competitive? Im talking like falcon in melee level.
Should I bother with him or just pick up a more promising char?

 

[spades]

I love ike and will always play him.. casually.

As far as competitive play goes, his recoveries are so susceptible to being nulled or gimped. I always find it bothersome when my friend's g&w or ddd just pushes me far enough out to where recovery is impossible.

He has potential, but i'm not putting much stock into it.

 

[Empy]

Depends on how well you feel when playing Ike I suppose. He isn't as easy to play as Melee C. Falcon. And his tier list placing and match-ups are gonna be worse. However, he doesn't have any real horrible match-ups from high tiers, besides Pikachu. The others are gonna be a slight advantage you might overcome.

Otherwise, you could use him as a counterpick. He doesn't make an amazing counterpick, as he doesn't have any extremely easy matches, but he makes a very solid one, which is more important imo.

Also, if you get great with Ike, you can win at tourneys.

 

[Vall3y]

ok I'm dumping Ike as my main LOL
we can still be friends though

 

[Falconv1.0]

I personally only recommend Ike if you can really think out games during tourney matches. Otherwise drop him, which is what I'm doing til my brain starts to ****ing work during tourneys.

 

[ama(m/t)]

brawl is not competitive

 

[takeurlife2]

ike is too fun to be competitive

 

[Sosuke]

Everyone is competative

 

[Ussi]

I believe Ike can be competitive. All his high/top match ups aren't too bad. I only find Pikachu being the truly impossible for Ike due to everything Pikachu can do to Ike and hinder his approach. One sloppy move and boom 60% from 0%. Thunder walls and the what not. Snake and MK are not impossible. I find Snake easier to fight than Mario.

 

[Falconv1.0]

brawl is not competitive

Go away.

Also, I'm with Ussi. he's not extremely *****, but the fact that low tiers like Link counter him is kinda bad.

Although one could argue low tiers are generally used less and thus aren't a significant threat to a tourney Ike.

 

[Ussi]

I went a tourney, the biggest one in Jersey, only 2 people used a character that is classed low besides me using Ike. Yoshi and Ganondarf. Course there was a guy who claimed to main random. Everyone on the other boards looks down upon Ike but the more i use other characters, the more i see Ike is more easier to use in the high/top tier match ups.

Link vs Ike is wow to me... I fought this Link and well, sure i won every time, but i was going to 200% every stock cause all he could hit me with were his projectiles and jabs. Link is an annoying match up and he does have a lot to stop Ike. But Link's major downfall is that Link's kill moves are EASY to avoid. I killed Link by 135% while i'm here at 200%. Link's projectiles are a big boon against you but if you can keep a mentally that your a tank and can endure the hits, you'll be fine.

 

[Lunar6]

ike is too fun to be competitive

Pretty much that. I don't main him, but I use him whenever I decide to take a break.

 

[The Kurt]

Not if you like winning.

 

[hippochinfat!!]

He's really competitve. It's annoying.

For example, I was having a sleep over at his house and he's like "Hey I bet I can brush my teeth faster then you! I bet I can get changed faster then you!"

 

[Radical Dreamer]

Not like Captain Falcon level in Melee. Closer to Ganondorf level in Melee, maybe a bit worse.

 

[ama(m/t)]

idk if any of you have actually played brawl at a high level but its less competitive than smash 64 which is only arguably less competitive than melee

 

[The Halloween Captain]

Ike can only be competitive if his faster moves are employed, like neutral a (ground and air) and up-b. Also, range should be taken advantage of. Ike isn't the ultimate newb killer for nothing.

 

[Empy]

He's really competitve. It's annoying.

For example, I was having a sleep over at his house and he's like "Hey I bet I can brush my teeth faster then you! I bet I can get changed faster then you!"

Seriously, when are you finally getting banned? They should make a poll for it, I bet 95% of the people here would want you gone.

idk if any of you have actually played brawl at a high level but its less competitive than smash 64 which is only arguably less competitive than melee

It's not as competitive as Melee yet, however, it's more competitive then 64 already, there are way more tournaments, a far larger community even without the newbies. And there are plenty of ways to develop your play.

Ike can only be competitive if his faster moves are employed, like neutral a (ground and air) and up-b. Also, range should be taken advantage of. Ike isn't the ultimate newb killer for nothing.

Nair (neutral a in the air) or jab (just a when standing)? And how about bair instead of upb?

 

[payasofobia]

What a downer, ike is good but, i dunno, when will we finally discover a new gamebreaking AT that ike , and only ike can do. it's threads (and responses) like these that makes me feel like i made a bad choice in choosing ike as my main.

I won't to change my main, i enjoy using ike. i won't have a secondary, i will dedicate entirelly to ike. but sometimes i doubt i made the right choice

 

[Runty_Grunty]

Well, if I ever go into tourneys, I'll either be using Ike or Zelda. I've just never been good with speedy characters.

I might not know what I'm talking about here in terms of gameplay, but you'd probably want to use Ike defensively, especially against speedsters. Use Ike's SA frames to counter moves when appropriate, and keep your opponents at a distance. Your biggest problems will probably be Falco, King Dedede, and Pikachu, but I'm really just speculating.

 

[FishkeeperTimmay!]

Ike isn't good enough to consistently win at the higher ends of competitive play. Period. The key word I'm using here is; consistently.

Ike CAN win. He has the potential of punishment to reward smart, patient players. The only issue is, everyone in the higher end of tournament play are smart, patient players, that will predict an Ike's every move, and punish YOU. This forces you on the defense, which is never good when you're playing a character that doesn't camp well...

I'd say he's a great character to use in the pools of tournaments where you're fighting newbies, where you can just wipe the floor with him quickly and don't show off your main or skillz. However, when you reach the higher rounds, and face players that can read Ike well... switch it up.

 

[Falconv1.0]

Dont play a predictable Ike, lol.

 

[Rutger]

Ike is as competitive as any other character in the game, the only reason Fish's statement is somewhat true is because not many people will want to pick up a difficult character when an easier character is right in front of them.

Ike may never get some unique AT just to himself, if that is the case it will come down to analyzing every detail of Ike and his opponent as well as the use of mind games, and that is what the matches come down to after tech-skill. A lack of AT will not ruin Ike, he has a solid move pool. (A better one than some in Melee anyways)

As for if you should stay with Ike, up to you, he probably will never be very high in character rankings but he is not unusable, if you fear you can not cover every thing with Ike, pick up another character, there is 35 at your disposal no need to just stick with one.

 

[Doodx]

dude ike is alright for competition and everyone is ok for competition i mean even ken is using him(LOL)

 

[HolyForce]

Truth of the matter is any character can beat any character in this game if played right. Brawl and such games are designed around a balance that holds true to the end.

Think of it this way: If a player was good enough, they could win with Ike by just perfect shielding, spot dodging, air dodging and using the jab combo only.

Hard to do? Would require a LOT of practice.

Face it. Ike's not offensive. Sure he's got beastly low % KO potential, but that doesn't make him offensive.

Work on your defence hardcore, play smart, be patient, you can win.

 

[RazeveX]

Well, if im about to play someone who seems to be worse than me, then i'll play ike.

If i lose, i'll use marth. If i still lose, i'll pwn them with metaknight (or occasionally pikachu).

If i lose bad enough with ike, i'll just jump into metaknight.

Ike is my way of analysing a player; although you'd be surprised how many people just don't know how to handle him. He can really pwn at times.

(of course if it's a tournament, i'll try my best from the start)

 

[Roller]

Right now any char could reasonably competitive untill more of an established metagame falls into place, though that may never happen, especially now that we have a lot more characters.

 

[Takeshi245]

He can be, but due to his bad match-ups with other characters because of his limits, he won't make it to high-tier. Perfect balance will never exist in fighting games because there will be characters that will be better than others. A player's skill is irrelevent to what abilities a character has. Saying that every character is equal is an ignorant statement.

 

[rehab]

Face it. Ike's not offensive. Sure he's got beastly low % KO potential, but that doesn't make him offensive.

Work on your defence hardcore, play smart, be patient, you can win.

Exactly. Letting people run into tilts and airs works much better for me than going metaknight. Just tiptoeing towards people almost seems to pressure them.

 

[Rutger]

Yes the game is not perfectly balanced, some have massive advantages while others look very poor. Luckily, Ike looks to be considered average everywhere even with his bad match ups. There could be a worse character to choose but I do not believe that any character is god over another in this game, you just have to try harder with some of them.

 

[MaeR]

Now.. when you say competitive.. do you mean mechanically abusable? When referring to the 3 SSB games, that is.. not characters.

I know a lot of the things that made people excel at the other games were the sheer amount of "nifty" tricks you could do with the game mechanics..

Feel free to yell at me, but I like Ike so far

 

[Radical Dreamer]

When we say competitive we mean a realistic and viable choice for a tournament. In which case, the answer is more or less no.

Yes the game is not perfectly balanced, some have massive advantages while others look very poor. Luckily, Ike looks to be considered average everywhere even with his bad match ups. There could be a worse character to choose but I do not believe that any character is god over another in this game, you just have to try harder with some of them.

Snake says hi, I'm better than Fox, Sheik and Marth combined.

 

[Cardd]

fah. Ike is competetive if you get your spacing/sheildig perfectly. Seriosly other charecters need to hit him with like 30 moves before he's up to KOable %.
Ike hits you 4 times and your proly already dead.

though he takes some skill to play, he can win if your good enough.

and tiers are for queers.
just IMO anyway.

 

[BEES]

When we say competitive we mean a realistic and viable choice for a tournament. In which case, the answer is more or less no.

Snake says hi, I'm better than Fox, Sheik and Marth combined.

Fox had no counters. Snake has counters. Who's better than whom again?

 

[Nigerian Star Storm]

Fox had no counters. Snake has counters. Who's better than whom again?

Marth to an extent was a decent Fox counter, albeit not a Hard one.


Also, Fox nor anyone in Melee dominated the Tourney scene like Snake has so far.

 

[Monjula]

Fox had no counters. Snake has counters. Who's better than whom again?

Ike.

Not any of these characters. That's what this discussion is about.

I don't see Ike as a full competitive character. He has advantages, yes, but I don't see him as a main in any tourneys.

But at the same time, there are characters I'd use him against if I were faced with certain ones in tourneys, so...

I think he's just a situational character, but I main 6 charas, so. >.>;

 

[Ussi]

Pika is a big Fox counter with his chain grab on Fox to 70% just standing there. Which is not banned in tourney play too.



I'm starting to see Ike basically having a really hard time against small and speedy characters. They just combo him too good. So yea, i see ike usable in tourney place but only against the slower set of the cast. Diddy, Pikachu, MK, and other fast attacking characters just dominant him when two people of the same skill level play. So going Ike only i don't think you'll get too far. Anyone can gimp him easily too.

 

[gsninja]

Ike is my one and only main. I made him mine ever since he was first announced on the Dojo.

Anyways, I don't see him able to fight consistently at the top levels of play, but Ike can still fight at those levels nonetheless. Still, at the highest degrees of competition, Ike has one of the most difficult learning curves, partly because of his disadvantages against characters such as Pikachu and Marth.

 

[Radical Dreamer]

Fox had no counters. Snake has counters. Who's better than whom again?

Sorry but Snake totally blows Fox away. Snake vs. low tier is much more unfair than Fox in Melee vs. low tier.

 

[MojoMan]

I main ike and always will. The problem is that there are just so many anti-ike characters, like pit, diddy, falco, lucas, and anyone with a half decent projectile. Of course, i can beat my friend's (gradiddy with ike, if you know how to use him