Slhoka
Smash Lord
Edit : The show aired on thursday, may 3rd.
The guys from the show made a link to temporarily watch it for free on their VoD system : http://online.nolife-tv.com/index.php?id=29385.
Here's a very rough transcript :
Note :
Left : Pierre/Slhoka
Middle : Sébastien, the host of the show/
Right : Axel/Aska
Seb : Hello and welcome to Skill!
Seb : Today, my guests are Slhoka and Axel, and we’re going to talk about Super Smash Bros. Melee
Seb : That’s quite an old game, isn’t it Pierre ?
Slhoka : Well yes, it’s been 10 years since it’s release...
Seb : 10 years, woah !
Slhoka : ... and... 10 years of tournaments as well.
Seb : Alright, and after 10 years, it’s still being played competitively ?
Slhoka : More than ever.
Seb : Alright ! We’re going to see that in an instant, we’ve got matches to show you, but first, let’s see the news !
News :
Seb : So... we have a game between Fox and Jigglypuff, right ?
Slhoka : Exactly.
Seb : So that’s 1 vs 1...
Aska : Yeah, 1 vs 1, and in this game, the matchup causes the Fox, the fastest character in the game, to try to kill Jigglypuff at the top of the screen.
Slhoka : And on the other hand, Jigglypuff will try to block Fox, especially with her back air. She’ll try to create some sort of barrier to prevent Fox to approach.
Seb : I see. So, I’ll remind the viewers that in SSBM, you have to eject...
Slhoka : There ! Jigglypuff was trying to space with back airs, but thanks to its speed, Fox managed to get in, in order to hit with his up air, a move killing upwards. And taking the first KO.
Seb : Woah... they’re moving really fast and are doing a lot of actions. Fox is moving a lot whil Jigglypuff is floating around.
Slhoka : Well, Fox is moving in order to make Jigglypuff approach him, to...
Aska : to avoid that, actually : the grab, which allows him to send him upwards and combo him.
Slhoka : And now, Fox was moving left and right to trick jigglypuff into thinking he was approching, Jiggs fell in the trap, launched an attack, and Fox could then grab him and start a combo.
Seb : Oh ok. And we see the percentage going up. The higher it is, the harder it is to come back on the stage.
Aska : The farther you’re sent, in fact.
Slhoka : So that’s pretty interesting, because it allows different combos.
Seb : They’re moving a lot around the stage and.. oh, Fox is trying to prevent Fox to come back with its beams.
Slhoka : And he kills him again at the top of the screen.
Seb : Alright, so they start with 4 stocks, right ?
Aska : Yeah. Rulesets are almost always like that, 4 stocks, 8 mn time limit during tournaments.
Seb : And we see that Jigglypuff is already 2 stocks down while the Fox has all 4.
Slhoka : We should see it at some point, but Jigglypuff has a very good attack to make a comeback. It starts killing at 10%, but it’s double-edged.
Slhoka : There ! He gives a small hit to prevent Fox to recover, and he hits with this attack which leaves him vulnerable for a few seconds, as we can see here with Fox coming back at him after losing a stock.
Seb : Oh la la, that’s really close again, 2 stocks each.
Aska : The game pretty much starts again : in smash, you can’t really know if someone has a real solid lead or not.
Seb : I can see that.
Slhoka : The situation can change very quickly.
Seb : So now they’re pressuring each other near the edge !
Slhoka : They’re trying to rise a bit each other’s percentage.
Aska : And uh... he just killed him upwards, but at the same time, she landed an attack making him fall asleep.
Slhoka : That was some sort of weird mutual hit. And now we can see Jigglypuff try to use her aerial game, which is pretty strong, but she fails. Fox was a bit too far. Jigglypuff usually edgeguards Fox fairly well.
Seb : So, a good part of the game happens offstage ? Since you’re trying to eject the opponent, you have to prevent him from coming back. And I think you can grab the ledge, but only one player at a time, so you can grab it to prevent the opponent from coming back. Is that it ?
Both : Exactly.
Seb : It’s getting tensed, with Fox just moving around the stage.
Slhoka : Jigglypuff is trying to kill him.
Seb : Fox really is moving fast.
Slhoka : She’s gonna try to land a pretty strong hit to kill him.
Seb : He’s shielding, because of course, you can protect yourself in this game.
Seb : Oh, and Fox who misses, and Jigglypuff kills him.
Aska : One of the strenghts of Jigglypuff in this MU is her sorta elliptic jumps, which make it really hard to mindgame her.
Slhoka : And then, it’s the second stock’s scenario all over again : with a good spacing, Jigglypuff grabs the Fox, sends it upward, lands a small hit to mess with his recovery, and kills him wit her powerful attack.
Seb : Alllright. It was’t looking good for her but she did a comeback.
Seb : So, it went super fast. Melee players are used to play at this rhythm ?
Aska : Yeah, always. We could say that the movement possibilities are limited by the players aptitudes, and along the years, the game is getting faster and faster.
Seb : Ok, soooooo... everything relies on your skill, that’s pretty much what you’re telling me ?
Aska : Everything relies on your skill !
Slhoka : There are many techniques allowing to make your character faster, and... people even do techskill contests. It’s just displaying technical mastery of the game, even without and opponent, to show the ability to move and show how close we can get from a theoretical game. But no one reaches it.
Seb : The limits of the game haven’t been reached yet.
Aska : It’s always pushed a bit further.
Slhoka : Physically, no one could make it so far.
Seb : Alright ! Well, let’s continue with the next game, which is...
Slhoka : ... a game between CF and Sheik. It was a game during an american tournament. And we’ll see two very different styles.
Seb : They’re flying around a lot again !
Aska : A major part of Melee takes place in the air. Most characters have to jump often. But some characters also have ground games, as we’re going to see with Sheik. In this matchup, CF has the best air game, and Sheik has to start her combos on the ground.
Seb : You were talking about mindgames, so there’s an aspect where you have to guess what the opponent is gonna do, right ?
Both : Exactly.
Slhoka : And in this matchup, players can predict the opponents movements and punish them really well.
Slhoka : We just saw Sheik kill Falcon upwards, that’s quite unusual. He really had a high percentage.
Seb : So now, they’re doing a lot of attacks that don’t hit, they’re trying to...
Slhoka : They’re trying to approach.
Slhoka : And there !
Slhoka : He just punished a roll.
Seb : He guessed it ?
Slhoka : Yeah. He saw she was gonna roll. And he exploited that by doing his down air, comboing into his knee, which kinda is an emblematic attack of CF.
Seb : Oh you mean the knee hit ? [translator note : «genou» is the french word for «knee», but French smashers say «knee» for CF’s attack. The host repeats with the French word to make it explicit.]
Aska : The knee is so important for Falcon because all his attacks lead to it.
Seb : And it sends really far on the side.
Slhoka : It’s a really strong attack.
Aska : All of CF’s aerial attacks lead to the knee, and that’s what he needs to do, while the Sheik has to rely on her grab.
Seb : It’s really though to approach when a guy’s doing that.
Aska : That’s really hard, but doable.
Slhoka : So, using her grabs, Sheik’s trying to anticipate CF’s movements, and follow him... and there we have an edgeguard. A pretty classic one. CF’s recovery trajectory is easy to predict. Sheik can read it pretty well and prevent him to come back with her good-ranged aerials, even offstage.
Seb : So, we just saw Sheik grabbing and letting go of the ledge multiple times... she’s trying to provoke him, trink him into making a mistake ?
Slhoka : Yeah, to make him approach the ledge. Oh and here, we’re seeing a good exemple.
Seb : Oh, he took the ledge to prevent him to come back, well done !
Slhoka : I’m a bit suprized to see this player die like that, because it was fairly obvious, but oh well.
Seb : And throws him, and again...
Aska : He chases him every time.
Slhoka : And there we’re gonna see a tech. Normally, Sheik would have hit and KO’d her opponent, but CF used a technique to sorta use the wall of the stage and come back instantly.
Aska : And now we have a Falcon combo.
Seb : Oh, a knee, and another one, and ? Woah... he makes it back.
Slhoka : He grabs the ledge to force Sheik to recover on the stage, and then he can punish her.
Seb : Alright, I see, that’s a pretty good mindgame.
Slhoka : And here, a pretty typical edgeguard by Sheik
Seb : I thought she was gonna suicide, but no, he definitely knew what he was doing.
Aska : In Melee you can go pretty far offstage and come back.
Seb : Ooook... we’ll you really got to know your stuff. And now they’re trying to figure each other out again.
Slhoka : Now it’s all about approach again. Sheik is trying to grab Falcon and make a good use of her ground game. And Falcon, one the opposite, will try to use his aerial game, notably his up air.
Aska : He also tries to grab her, in order to combo her with his aerial game.
Seb : So, when you hit the opponent, you make his percentage rise and increase your chances to KO him, but it doesn’t mean you’ll KO him first.
Slhoka : No definitely not. It can change at any moment. Now, it’s like earlier, Falcon has the upper hand, but he totally misses. And after that, Sheik edgeguards, using a projectile to break Falcon’s 2nd jump.
Seb : Eww, that was nasty !
Slhoka : Yeah, that was a good comeback. She anticipates his recovery, and he punishes and KOs him.
Aska : A characteristic of Melee is that even though a higher percentage makes it easier to send the character offstage, you can KO someone at any percentage. And that’s what makes edgeguarding so important.
Seb : Alright. And we know that Melee is a game gathering many Nintendo characters, but I assume that some characters are advantaged, that there are lists, matchups, counterpicks...
Slhoka : That’s like any fighting game, there is a list...
Aska : A tier list, matchups, even broken characters...
Seb : Who’s THE broken character in Melee ?
Slhoka : It depends who you ask. No character is really better than all the others, that’s another cool thing with this game. Here, in the games we have today, all the characters are near the top of the list, they’re what we see during tournaments. There are something like 6/7 characters able to win a tournament. Among the rest, the others have more difficulties making it to the top, but they can still be viable.
Seb : Alright !
Aska : Everything is still possible in Melee, even in the largest tournaments, we always had characters that are what we call low tiers, and who still made some upsets.
Seb : Now that’s cool.
Slhoka : Actually, the current best French player plays a high tier, not a top tier. That’s a good character, but..
Seb : Who does he play ?
Slhoka : Samus
Seb : Samus, OK. And so she’s good, but not among the top.
Slhoka : Yeah, she’s a good character, but definitely top among the top, clearly not.
Aska : She must be ranked somewhere near 8th/9th place or something like that.
Seb : Ok, and we’ll go on with the next game !
Slhoka : And that’s a Marth vs Falco. At a Swedish tournament.
Seb : That’s Marth from Fire Emblem, right ?
Slhoka : Exactly. And it’s starts fast, really fast.
Aska : That may be the emblematic matchup of Melee.
Seb : Oh, he sent him upwards.
Aska : He sent him upwards to be able to combo him again on the platform.
Seb : Good. And we’ve just seen the Falco roll as a recovery.
Slhoka : And we see again what we’ve seen with the Sheik vs Falcon : Falco rolls, and Marth punishes.
Aska : Here, for instance, to edgeguard, Falco has several recovery options. It means that the edgeguard is never garanteed.
Seb : OK, and he was trying to come back... the Marth really seems to anticipate really well what’s happening.
Slhoka : But he’s just made a mistake.
Aska : Marth’s gameplay, in this matchup, is mostly based on grabs. So he’s gonna try to grab him as much as he can to follow with a combo. And there we see an edgeguard, as he grabed the ledge, and then tricked him so he could grab it again before him.
Slhoka : And he kills him at 54%, quite a low percentage for a KO. That’s a real blow for Marth.
Slhoka : And we see again...
Seb : What ? This small sword attack ? And it works ?! It works !
Slhoka : Well, he anticipated, and punished the choice of the Swedish player, and... that’s perfect !
Seb : Woah OK
Aska : So here, he’s really trying to grab him and combo him.
Slhoka : While on the other hand, Falco will try to pressure him, notably with his shine, the fastest attack in the game, his lasers... Falco is arguably the character with the best offensive game, the most approaches, but however, Marth can counter pretty much everything. That’s what makes is a emblamatic matchups : we have all the attack possibilities...
Aska : against the character which is supposed to counter anything.
Seb : OK. Right now, we have 3 stocks left for Marth and 2 for Falco, but it’s not over, we’ve seen that before.
Slhoka : And here we have another edgeguard situation. The Falco tries to do an aerial attack to edguard the Marth, he gets tricked, and gets punished. So it’s now 3 stocks vs one, it’s doesn’t look too good.
Seb : We really can’t know [Translator note : that this game is so deep], I definitely didn’t know.
Slhoka : Haha, we ended up understanding. And this time, he understood, he kept grabbing the ledge and didn’t try an aerial edgeguard, but he made an input mistake so he didn’t really punish, even though he still manages to get the kill soon after that.
Seb : We can see Marth using all those throws you mentionned.
Slhoka : Another approach with a laser by Falco. He’ll always try to use a laser before approaching...
Aska : And he‘ll try to set up some combos with is Dair and his shine. In order to send Marth up and down. That’s the base of most of Falco’s combos.
Slhoka : Hop ! He sends him upwards, then downwards...
Seb : Oh my !
Slhoka : And again downwards.
Aska : And he kills him.
Seb : So we’re back to 1 stock each.
Slhoka : Everything is still possible.
Seb : Woah...
Aska : Right here, he should edgeguard, but he misses.
Slhoka : I think he could have tried to edgeguard him, but oh well, he didn’t do it.
Aska : Some Falco here : these up and down movements.
Seb : It’s now getting a bit tensed when they’re close to the edge.
Aska : It’s always tensed, because you can die at any moment, on a technical error, or an edgeguard from the opponent.
Seb : And here, he’s done for, isn’t he ?
Aska : No, he manages to make it back, recovering early. He’s saying «no, I won’t grab the ledge, I’ll go directly on the stage».
Slhoka : And it’s gonna repeat, but no, the Marth sees him coming.
Seb : And he gets closer, but not too much, as he knows he’s vulnerable right ?
Slhoka : And this time, Marth goes for it.
Aska : He caught him during his recovery, to hit him before he makes it on the stage.
Seb : OK... Woah ! And what was that again ? A tournament game ? Some final games ?
Slhoka : It was....
Aska : A tournament game.
Slhoka : A tournament game in Sweden, a German player vs a Swedish one, and the loser would be 4th at the tournament while the other could keep going.
Seb : Uh ok. We’ve been talking about Sweden more than once. Is that a major country in the Smash Bros. scene ?
Slhoka : Uh... yeah !
Aska : Quite important, yeah. It’s always been a strong country.
Slhoka : It’s always been one of the countries dominating Europe, and currently, the best player in the world is Swedish.
Seb : Alright.
Slhoka : And it’s true that they have a quite impressive number of high-level players. It’s most likely the best nation in Europe, along with the Netherlands.
Seb : Good. And France ?
Slhoka : Right next!
Aska : France isn’t far at all.
Seb : OK. And I believe you brought us a game featuring this Swedish player, the best Smash Bros. Melee player in the world. So we’re gonna see that now !
Slhoka : That’s precisely a match during the grand finals of an American tournament where he was facing an American players dominating the scene.
Seb : So that’s Fox vs Peach, and this player is... ?
Slhoka : That’s the Peach! As you can see, the American player uses the tag USA to tease a bit even before the start.
Aska : It’s true that he was playing on his homefield.
Slhoka : With 500 people cheering for him.
Seb : So... Peach, top tier ?
Slhoka : Peach, top tier ! And here already, we see a typical Fox action. Peach makes a mistake, she dash attacks in Fox’s shield. And Fox instantly punished, with a waveshine combo, a combo that will drag her on the whole stage, ending with an upsmash. And... oh ! Right here, big mistake from the US player.
Seb : He dashes offstage ?
Slhoka : Well... suicide !
Seb : You can suicide.
Aska : A technical mistake.
Slhoka : It isn’t common in fighting games I guess, but you can suicide here if you are not technically ready.
Seb : Oh really ?
Aska : Often, with fast characters, you can miss inputs and suicide, due to the amount of movement possibilities, and attacks per second.
Seb : Indeed, we can see that the Fox goes left and right quite often, that he tries to make use of his position.
Aska : It kinda is Fox’s goal : make his opponent’s head spin.
Slhoka : Here, the Fox tried some crazy stuff when edgeguarding Peach. He missed and got punished but yet, he still crazy and tries again when he comes back, succeeding this time.
Seb : Two stocks each, already... It’s really, really fast!
Slhoka : A game takes between 2 and 4 minutes, or up to 6 for slow characters.
Seb : OOOOK
Aska : Here, he’s still trying to kill him upwards.
Slhoka : That’s like vs Jigglypuff. Floaty characters, you kill upwards.
Seb : Alright. So it’s easier to send him upwards, he has more trouble coming back.
Aska : For some characters, yeah it’s easier.
Slhoka : So right here, we had a good pressure by the Swedish player. And here, even while being comboed, he managed to counter. It kinda is a caracteristic of Peach, she’s able to move fairly quickly after taking a hit.
Seb : Understood.
Aska : And here, good pressure with the shine.
Seb : Oh the cloud is having an impact on the game, helping Peach recover.
Slhoka : She uses her ability to float for a few seconds to be patient, and be in a good position to come back.
Aska : Exactly.
Slhoka : The cloud helps him again.
Aska : Yeah, the edgeguard messes a bit with his edgeguard, but... it’s still possible !
Seb : Oh yeah, Peach was over 100% after all, so it wasn’t easy.
Slhoka : Here, they’re observing each other.
Seb : Last stock for each player. It’s super close.
Slhoka : The Fox pressuring well again, with small hits, making sure his spacing is good.
Aska : And especially with his shine.
Seb : Oh la la...
Slhoka : He sends him upwards, but that’s still too early to kill.
Seb : 50% is definitely too early.
Slhoka : And here, another mistake! A dash attack in the shield, and Fox punishes : combo waveshine and upsmash.
Seb : And he loses vs the Fox.
Slhoka : It was 2-1 in the set.
Seb : Ok, so.... uuuuuuh... woah !
Aska : That’s quite fast, yeah!
Seb : This game is super impressive to watch! I personnally didn’t know it too well... of course I saw its successive iterations. But in the Smash Bros. series, why is Melee the one that is played ?
Slhoka : Melee is still played, but Brawl is played as well. They simply have 2 very different communities.
Aska : Even Smash 64 !
Seb : Oh really ?
Slhoka : Smash 64, thanks to emulators and online play, Smash 64 is making a comeback! But on the whole, Melee has always been there, even after Brawl’s release, because you see, all these techniques that make the characters go faster.... a good part of them has been removed in Brawl, and Melee players don’t necessarily like Brawl. It’s a totally different gameplay, a totally different kind of competition. And few players play both !
Seb : So, to sum up, there are two different communities ?
Slhoka : There are two different communities, yeah. There are some links, though.
Aska : Yeah, some players play both games, some players began with Brawl and now only play Melee, and some others who began with Melee and now play Brawl...
Seb : OK, but now, between us... what’s the most interesting game ? Brawl or Melee ?
Slhoka : Well, we are Melee player, what can we say ?
Aska : For us, it will always be Melee ! But...
Slhoka : We respect Brawl players. They can play it, it just isn’t our thing.
Seb : Understood. Ok, so that’s great. And for those who want more information, those who played Melee and didn’t know people still play it, or maybe want to get involved in tournaments and see what they’re worth. What’s the French Melee scene, do you know it well ?
Slhoka : Well, on the internet we mainly use discussion boards, like the French ones, cubeforum.fr. Then we have the international scene : smashboards.com, a giant forum there with the whole community.
Aska : Including those for Smash 64 and Brawl.
Slhoka : Yeah, right. You can also look for videos, as we also have a Youtube channel, LeFrenchMelee, which gathers every French tournament. And otherwise, we have a few events : for instance in two weeks, we’ll have a tournament near Paris, the HF-Lan, which will gather quite a few top French but also European players
Seb : OK. So check this yourself if you’re interested, and I really think this is interesting. When I’ve seen the videos brought by Axel and Slhoka, my mind was blown by the technicity and the action speed. You must have noticed that there were many slow motion effects in this episode of Skill : there’s a reason, a lot of things are going on in this game. So don’t hesitate : check the HF-Lan, and the discussion boards on the internet to get more information about Super Smash Bros. Melee. Slhoka, Axel, thanks a lot for coming ! As for me, see you in two weeks for the next episode of Skill !
__________________________________________________________________
Hey guys !
Thanks to Hiryuu, a fellow French smasher, me and Aska are likely to get Melee to be featured on a French TV show. The show is called Skill, and airs on Nolife-tv. Yup, awesome name.
Anyway, the show focuses on e-sport, and features 2 players commentating games and explaining the highlights and why they are higlights. They already did SC2 a few times, as well as SFIV, LoL or Pokémon B/W.
However, due to a change the show's day, we're dealing with a very tight schedule, and we need to get the videos ready ASAP.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Find videos with the following criteria :
For instance :
In this video (not eligible, the quality not being awesome) : 10'07 : While Ice is out of the stage, Cyr charges his neutral B, and grabs the ledge to force Ice to come back on the stage. Then he can easily aim the charged shot during the lag of the up B.
In this one : 1'20 : Mango dashdances to get Armada to move forward and attack. He punishes the missed attack with a grab.
It's that kind of thing, but you don't have to write so much. If you just say "2'00 : edgeguard", we'll understand. We'd need quite a few situations like the two above for about 4 games. Don't focus on getting many videos, try to get one with quite a few things to say.
I know many people here are used to review on videos to help people improve, so please, help us ! We need to have it ready in a few hours, so we really need your help.
Thanks a lot !
The guys from the show made a link to temporarily watch it for free on their VoD system : http://online.nolife-tv.com/index.php?id=29385.
Here's a very rough transcript :
Note :
Left : Pierre/Slhoka
Middle : Sébastien, the host of the show/
Right : Axel/Aska
Seb : Hello and welcome to Skill!
Seb : Today, my guests are Slhoka and Axel, and we’re going to talk about Super Smash Bros. Melee
Seb : That’s quite an old game, isn’t it Pierre ?
Slhoka : Well yes, it’s been 10 years since it’s release...
Seb : 10 years, woah !
Slhoka : ... and... 10 years of tournaments as well.
Seb : Alright, and after 10 years, it’s still being played competitively ?
Slhoka : More than ever.
Seb : Alright ! We’re going to see that in an instant, we’ve got matches to show you, but first, let’s see the news !
News :
Seb : So... we have a game between Fox and Jigglypuff, right ?
Slhoka : Exactly.
Seb : So that’s 1 vs 1...
Aska : Yeah, 1 vs 1, and in this game, the matchup causes the Fox, the fastest character in the game, to try to kill Jigglypuff at the top of the screen.
Slhoka : And on the other hand, Jigglypuff will try to block Fox, especially with her back air. She’ll try to create some sort of barrier to prevent Fox to approach.
Seb : I see. So, I’ll remind the viewers that in SSBM, you have to eject...
Slhoka : There ! Jigglypuff was trying to space with back airs, but thanks to its speed, Fox managed to get in, in order to hit with his up air, a move killing upwards. And taking the first KO.
Seb : Woah... they’re moving really fast and are doing a lot of actions. Fox is moving a lot whil Jigglypuff is floating around.
Slhoka : Well, Fox is moving in order to make Jigglypuff approach him, to...
Aska : to avoid that, actually : the grab, which allows him to send him upwards and combo him.
Slhoka : And now, Fox was moving left and right to trick jigglypuff into thinking he was approching, Jiggs fell in the trap, launched an attack, and Fox could then grab him and start a combo.
Seb : Oh ok. And we see the percentage going up. The higher it is, the harder it is to come back on the stage.
Aska : The farther you’re sent, in fact.
Slhoka : So that’s pretty interesting, because it allows different combos.
Seb : They’re moving a lot around the stage and.. oh, Fox is trying to prevent Fox to come back with its beams.
Slhoka : And he kills him again at the top of the screen.
Seb : Alright, so they start with 4 stocks, right ?
Aska : Yeah. Rulesets are almost always like that, 4 stocks, 8 mn time limit during tournaments.
Seb : And we see that Jigglypuff is already 2 stocks down while the Fox has all 4.
Slhoka : We should see it at some point, but Jigglypuff has a very good attack to make a comeback. It starts killing at 10%, but it’s double-edged.
Slhoka : There ! He gives a small hit to prevent Fox to recover, and he hits with this attack which leaves him vulnerable for a few seconds, as we can see here with Fox coming back at him after losing a stock.
Seb : Oh la la, that’s really close again, 2 stocks each.
Aska : The game pretty much starts again : in smash, you can’t really know if someone has a real solid lead or not.
Seb : I can see that.
Slhoka : The situation can change very quickly.
Seb : So now they’re pressuring each other near the edge !
Slhoka : They’re trying to rise a bit each other’s percentage.
Aska : And uh... he just killed him upwards, but at the same time, she landed an attack making him fall asleep.
Slhoka : That was some sort of weird mutual hit. And now we can see Jigglypuff try to use her aerial game, which is pretty strong, but she fails. Fox was a bit too far. Jigglypuff usually edgeguards Fox fairly well.
Seb : So, a good part of the game happens offstage ? Since you’re trying to eject the opponent, you have to prevent him from coming back. And I think you can grab the ledge, but only one player at a time, so you can grab it to prevent the opponent from coming back. Is that it ?
Both : Exactly.
Seb : It’s getting tensed, with Fox just moving around the stage.
Slhoka : Jigglypuff is trying to kill him.
Seb : Fox really is moving fast.
Slhoka : She’s gonna try to land a pretty strong hit to kill him.
Seb : He’s shielding, because of course, you can protect yourself in this game.
Seb : Oh, and Fox who misses, and Jigglypuff kills him.
Aska : One of the strenghts of Jigglypuff in this MU is her sorta elliptic jumps, which make it really hard to mindgame her.
Slhoka : And then, it’s the second stock’s scenario all over again : with a good spacing, Jigglypuff grabs the Fox, sends it upward, lands a small hit to mess with his recovery, and kills him wit her powerful attack.
Seb : Alllright. It was’t looking good for her but she did a comeback.
Seb : So, it went super fast. Melee players are used to play at this rhythm ?
Aska : Yeah, always. We could say that the movement possibilities are limited by the players aptitudes, and along the years, the game is getting faster and faster.
Seb : Ok, soooooo... everything relies on your skill, that’s pretty much what you’re telling me ?
Aska : Everything relies on your skill !
Slhoka : There are many techniques allowing to make your character faster, and... people even do techskill contests. It’s just displaying technical mastery of the game, even without and opponent, to show the ability to move and show how close we can get from a theoretical game. But no one reaches it.
Seb : The limits of the game haven’t been reached yet.
Aska : It’s always pushed a bit further.
Slhoka : Physically, no one could make it so far.
Seb : Alright ! Well, let’s continue with the next game, which is...
Slhoka : ... a game between CF and Sheik. It was a game during an american tournament. And we’ll see two very different styles.
Seb : They’re flying around a lot again !
Aska : A major part of Melee takes place in the air. Most characters have to jump often. But some characters also have ground games, as we’re going to see with Sheik. In this matchup, CF has the best air game, and Sheik has to start her combos on the ground.
Seb : You were talking about mindgames, so there’s an aspect where you have to guess what the opponent is gonna do, right ?
Both : Exactly.
Slhoka : And in this matchup, players can predict the opponents movements and punish them really well.
Slhoka : We just saw Sheik kill Falcon upwards, that’s quite unusual. He really had a high percentage.
Seb : So now, they’re doing a lot of attacks that don’t hit, they’re trying to...
Slhoka : They’re trying to approach.
Slhoka : And there !
Slhoka : He just punished a roll.
Seb : He guessed it ?
Slhoka : Yeah. He saw she was gonna roll. And he exploited that by doing his down air, comboing into his knee, which kinda is an emblematic attack of CF.
Seb : Oh you mean the knee hit ? [translator note : «genou» is the french word for «knee», but French smashers say «knee» for CF’s attack. The host repeats with the French word to make it explicit.]
Aska : The knee is so important for Falcon because all his attacks lead to it.
Seb : And it sends really far on the side.
Slhoka : It’s a really strong attack.
Aska : All of CF’s aerial attacks lead to the knee, and that’s what he needs to do, while the Sheik has to rely on her grab.
Seb : It’s really though to approach when a guy’s doing that.
Aska : That’s really hard, but doable.
Slhoka : So, using her grabs, Sheik’s trying to anticipate CF’s movements, and follow him... and there we have an edgeguard. A pretty classic one. CF’s recovery trajectory is easy to predict. Sheik can read it pretty well and prevent him to come back with her good-ranged aerials, even offstage.
Seb : So, we just saw Sheik grabbing and letting go of the ledge multiple times... she’s trying to provoke him, trink him into making a mistake ?
Slhoka : Yeah, to make him approach the ledge. Oh and here, we’re seeing a good exemple.
Seb : Oh, he took the ledge to prevent him to come back, well done !
Slhoka : I’m a bit suprized to see this player die like that, because it was fairly obvious, but oh well.
Seb : And throws him, and again...
Aska : He chases him every time.
Slhoka : And there we’re gonna see a tech. Normally, Sheik would have hit and KO’d her opponent, but CF used a technique to sorta use the wall of the stage and come back instantly.
Aska : And now we have a Falcon combo.
Seb : Oh, a knee, and another one, and ? Woah... he makes it back.
Slhoka : He grabs the ledge to force Sheik to recover on the stage, and then he can punish her.
Seb : Alright, I see, that’s a pretty good mindgame.
Slhoka : And here, a pretty typical edgeguard by Sheik
Seb : I thought she was gonna suicide, but no, he definitely knew what he was doing.
Aska : In Melee you can go pretty far offstage and come back.
Seb : Ooook... we’ll you really got to know your stuff. And now they’re trying to figure each other out again.
Slhoka : Now it’s all about approach again. Sheik is trying to grab Falcon and make a good use of her ground game. And Falcon, one the opposite, will try to use his aerial game, notably his up air.
Aska : He also tries to grab her, in order to combo her with his aerial game.
Seb : So, when you hit the opponent, you make his percentage rise and increase your chances to KO him, but it doesn’t mean you’ll KO him first.
Slhoka : No definitely not. It can change at any moment. Now, it’s like earlier, Falcon has the upper hand, but he totally misses. And after that, Sheik edgeguards, using a projectile to break Falcon’s 2nd jump.
Seb : Eww, that was nasty !
Slhoka : Yeah, that was a good comeback. She anticipates his recovery, and he punishes and KOs him.
Aska : A characteristic of Melee is that even though a higher percentage makes it easier to send the character offstage, you can KO someone at any percentage. And that’s what makes edgeguarding so important.
Seb : Alright. And we know that Melee is a game gathering many Nintendo characters, but I assume that some characters are advantaged, that there are lists, matchups, counterpicks...
Slhoka : That’s like any fighting game, there is a list...
Aska : A tier list, matchups, even broken characters...
Seb : Who’s THE broken character in Melee ?
Slhoka : It depends who you ask. No character is really better than all the others, that’s another cool thing with this game. Here, in the games we have today, all the characters are near the top of the list, they’re what we see during tournaments. There are something like 6/7 characters able to win a tournament. Among the rest, the others have more difficulties making it to the top, but they can still be viable.
Seb : Alright !
Aska : Everything is still possible in Melee, even in the largest tournaments, we always had characters that are what we call low tiers, and who still made some upsets.
Seb : Now that’s cool.
Slhoka : Actually, the current best French player plays a high tier, not a top tier. That’s a good character, but..
Seb : Who does he play ?
Slhoka : Samus
Seb : Samus, OK. And so she’s good, but not among the top.
Slhoka : Yeah, she’s a good character, but definitely top among the top, clearly not.
Aska : She must be ranked somewhere near 8th/9th place or something like that.
Seb : Ok, and we’ll go on with the next game !
Slhoka : And that’s a Marth vs Falco. At a Swedish tournament.
Seb : That’s Marth from Fire Emblem, right ?
Slhoka : Exactly. And it’s starts fast, really fast.
Aska : That may be the emblematic matchup of Melee.
Seb : Oh, he sent him upwards.
Aska : He sent him upwards to be able to combo him again on the platform.
Seb : Good. And we’ve just seen the Falco roll as a recovery.
Slhoka : And we see again what we’ve seen with the Sheik vs Falcon : Falco rolls, and Marth punishes.
Aska : Here, for instance, to edgeguard, Falco has several recovery options. It means that the edgeguard is never garanteed.
Seb : OK, and he was trying to come back... the Marth really seems to anticipate really well what’s happening.
Slhoka : But he’s just made a mistake.
Aska : Marth’s gameplay, in this matchup, is mostly based on grabs. So he’s gonna try to grab him as much as he can to follow with a combo. And there we see an edgeguard, as he grabed the ledge, and then tricked him so he could grab it again before him.
Slhoka : And he kills him at 54%, quite a low percentage for a KO. That’s a real blow for Marth.
Slhoka : And we see again...
Seb : What ? This small sword attack ? And it works ?! It works !
Slhoka : Well, he anticipated, and punished the choice of the Swedish player, and... that’s perfect !
Seb : Woah OK
Aska : So here, he’s really trying to grab him and combo him.
Slhoka : While on the other hand, Falco will try to pressure him, notably with his shine, the fastest attack in the game, his lasers... Falco is arguably the character with the best offensive game, the most approaches, but however, Marth can counter pretty much everything. That’s what makes is a emblamatic matchups : we have all the attack possibilities...
Aska : against the character which is supposed to counter anything.
Seb : OK. Right now, we have 3 stocks left for Marth and 2 for Falco, but it’s not over, we’ve seen that before.
Slhoka : And here we have another edgeguard situation. The Falco tries to do an aerial attack to edguard the Marth, he gets tricked, and gets punished. So it’s now 3 stocks vs one, it’s doesn’t look too good.
Seb : We really can’t know [Translator note : that this game is so deep], I definitely didn’t know.
Slhoka : Haha, we ended up understanding. And this time, he understood, he kept grabbing the ledge and didn’t try an aerial edgeguard, but he made an input mistake so he didn’t really punish, even though he still manages to get the kill soon after that.
Seb : We can see Marth using all those throws you mentionned.
Slhoka : Another approach with a laser by Falco. He’ll always try to use a laser before approaching...
Aska : And he‘ll try to set up some combos with is Dair and his shine. In order to send Marth up and down. That’s the base of most of Falco’s combos.
Slhoka : Hop ! He sends him upwards, then downwards...
Seb : Oh my !
Slhoka : And again downwards.
Aska : And he kills him.
Seb : So we’re back to 1 stock each.
Slhoka : Everything is still possible.
Seb : Woah...
Aska : Right here, he should edgeguard, but he misses.
Slhoka : I think he could have tried to edgeguard him, but oh well, he didn’t do it.
Aska : Some Falco here : these up and down movements.
Seb : It’s now getting a bit tensed when they’re close to the edge.
Aska : It’s always tensed, because you can die at any moment, on a technical error, or an edgeguard from the opponent.
Seb : And here, he’s done for, isn’t he ?
Aska : No, he manages to make it back, recovering early. He’s saying «no, I won’t grab the ledge, I’ll go directly on the stage».
Slhoka : And it’s gonna repeat, but no, the Marth sees him coming.
Seb : And he gets closer, but not too much, as he knows he’s vulnerable right ?
Slhoka : And this time, Marth goes for it.
Aska : He caught him during his recovery, to hit him before he makes it on the stage.
Seb : OK... Woah ! And what was that again ? A tournament game ? Some final games ?
Slhoka : It was....
Aska : A tournament game.
Slhoka : A tournament game in Sweden, a German player vs a Swedish one, and the loser would be 4th at the tournament while the other could keep going.
Seb : Uh ok. We’ve been talking about Sweden more than once. Is that a major country in the Smash Bros. scene ?
Slhoka : Uh... yeah !
Aska : Quite important, yeah. It’s always been a strong country.
Slhoka : It’s always been one of the countries dominating Europe, and currently, the best player in the world is Swedish.
Seb : Alright.
Slhoka : And it’s true that they have a quite impressive number of high-level players. It’s most likely the best nation in Europe, along with the Netherlands.
Seb : Good. And France ?
Slhoka : Right next!
Aska : France isn’t far at all.
Seb : OK. And I believe you brought us a game featuring this Swedish player, the best Smash Bros. Melee player in the world. So we’re gonna see that now !
Slhoka : That’s precisely a match during the grand finals of an American tournament where he was facing an American players dominating the scene.
Seb : So that’s Fox vs Peach, and this player is... ?
Slhoka : That’s the Peach! As you can see, the American player uses the tag USA to tease a bit even before the start.
Aska : It’s true that he was playing on his homefield.
Slhoka : With 500 people cheering for him.
Seb : So... Peach, top tier ?
Slhoka : Peach, top tier ! And here already, we see a typical Fox action. Peach makes a mistake, she dash attacks in Fox’s shield. And Fox instantly punished, with a waveshine combo, a combo that will drag her on the whole stage, ending with an upsmash. And... oh ! Right here, big mistake from the US player.
Seb : He dashes offstage ?
Slhoka : Well... suicide !
Seb : You can suicide.
Aska : A technical mistake.
Slhoka : It isn’t common in fighting games I guess, but you can suicide here if you are not technically ready.
Seb : Oh really ?
Aska : Often, with fast characters, you can miss inputs and suicide, due to the amount of movement possibilities, and attacks per second.
Seb : Indeed, we can see that the Fox goes left and right quite often, that he tries to make use of his position.
Aska : It kinda is Fox’s goal : make his opponent’s head spin.
Slhoka : Here, the Fox tried some crazy stuff when edgeguarding Peach. He missed and got punished but yet, he still crazy and tries again when he comes back, succeeding this time.
Seb : Two stocks each, already... It’s really, really fast!
Slhoka : A game takes between 2 and 4 minutes, or up to 6 for slow characters.
Seb : OOOOK
Aska : Here, he’s still trying to kill him upwards.
Slhoka : That’s like vs Jigglypuff. Floaty characters, you kill upwards.
Seb : Alright. So it’s easier to send him upwards, he has more trouble coming back.
Aska : For some characters, yeah it’s easier.
Slhoka : So right here, we had a good pressure by the Swedish player. And here, even while being comboed, he managed to counter. It kinda is a caracteristic of Peach, she’s able to move fairly quickly after taking a hit.
Seb : Understood.
Aska : And here, good pressure with the shine.
Seb : Oh the cloud is having an impact on the game, helping Peach recover.
Slhoka : She uses her ability to float for a few seconds to be patient, and be in a good position to come back.
Aska : Exactly.
Slhoka : The cloud helps him again.
Aska : Yeah, the edgeguard messes a bit with his edgeguard, but... it’s still possible !
Seb : Oh yeah, Peach was over 100% after all, so it wasn’t easy.
Slhoka : Here, they’re observing each other.
Seb : Last stock for each player. It’s super close.
Slhoka : The Fox pressuring well again, with small hits, making sure his spacing is good.
Aska : And especially with his shine.
Seb : Oh la la...
Slhoka : He sends him upwards, but that’s still too early to kill.
Seb : 50% is definitely too early.
Slhoka : And here, another mistake! A dash attack in the shield, and Fox punishes : combo waveshine and upsmash.
Seb : And he loses vs the Fox.
Slhoka : It was 2-1 in the set.
Seb : Ok, so.... uuuuuuh... woah !
Aska : That’s quite fast, yeah!
Seb : This game is super impressive to watch! I personnally didn’t know it too well... of course I saw its successive iterations. But in the Smash Bros. series, why is Melee the one that is played ?
Slhoka : Melee is still played, but Brawl is played as well. They simply have 2 very different communities.
Aska : Even Smash 64 !
Seb : Oh really ?
Slhoka : Smash 64, thanks to emulators and online play, Smash 64 is making a comeback! But on the whole, Melee has always been there, even after Brawl’s release, because you see, all these techniques that make the characters go faster.... a good part of them has been removed in Brawl, and Melee players don’t necessarily like Brawl. It’s a totally different gameplay, a totally different kind of competition. And few players play both !
Seb : So, to sum up, there are two different communities ?
Slhoka : There are two different communities, yeah. There are some links, though.
Aska : Yeah, some players play both games, some players began with Brawl and now only play Melee, and some others who began with Melee and now play Brawl...
Seb : OK, but now, between us... what’s the most interesting game ? Brawl or Melee ?
Slhoka : Well, we are Melee player, what can we say ?
Aska : For us, it will always be Melee ! But...
Slhoka : We respect Brawl players. They can play it, it just isn’t our thing.
Seb : Understood. Ok, so that’s great. And for those who want more information, those who played Melee and didn’t know people still play it, or maybe want to get involved in tournaments and see what they’re worth. What’s the French Melee scene, do you know it well ?
Slhoka : Well, on the internet we mainly use discussion boards, like the French ones, cubeforum.fr. Then we have the international scene : smashboards.com, a giant forum there with the whole community.
Aska : Including those for Smash 64 and Brawl.
Slhoka : Yeah, right. You can also look for videos, as we also have a Youtube channel, LeFrenchMelee, which gathers every French tournament. And otherwise, we have a few events : for instance in two weeks, we’ll have a tournament near Paris, the HF-Lan, which will gather quite a few top French but also European players
Seb : OK. So check this yourself if you’re interested, and I really think this is interesting. When I’ve seen the videos brought by Axel and Slhoka, my mind was blown by the technicity and the action speed. You must have noticed that there were many slow motion effects in this episode of Skill : there’s a reason, a lot of things are going on in this game. So don’t hesitate : check the HF-Lan, and the discussion boards on the internet to get more information about Super Smash Bros. Melee. Slhoka, Axel, thanks a lot for coming ! As for me, see you in two weeks for the next episode of Skill !
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Hey guys !
Thanks to Hiryuu, a fellow French smasher, me and Aska are likely to get Melee to be featured on a French TV show. The show is called Skill, and airs on Nolife-tv. Yup, awesome name.
Anyway, the show focuses on e-sport, and features 2 players commentating games and explaining the highlights and why they are higlights. They already did SC2 a few times, as well as SFIV, LoL or Pokémon B/W.
However, due to a change the show's day, we're dealing with a very tight schedule, and we need to get the videos ready ASAP.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Find videos with the following criteria :
- Recorded by AJP_anton at Genesis 2 or a recent european tournament. We need extremely good quality, and AJP is one of the only people doing this. We also need authorization from the TO, I got it for Beast 2 and G2. Also, if you can contact Plank and or Alex Strife to ask them if they authorize them to air the videos recorded at their tournaments, that's a plus. For Apex 2012, if there's a way to get the videos without the crappy FPS we see on youtube, we'd take it.
- For this time, we'll stick to classic matchups : we'll air about 4 games (not sets). Basically, we'd prefer characters like Fox/Falco/Peach/Jiggs/Sheik/Marth/Falcon, and maybe Samus/Ganon/ICs. No YL vs Jiggs, please.
- We need to know why the video is interesting ! List simple things that we could explain to an audience that isn't familiar to smash. We have the possibility to use replays and we'll slow down the video to highlight interesting stuff, that's why we need to get the videos ASAP : the editing needs to be done.
For instance :
In this video (not eligible, the quality not being awesome) : 10'07 : While Ice is out of the stage, Cyr charges his neutral B, and grabs the ledge to force Ice to come back on the stage. Then he can easily aim the charged shot during the lag of the up B.
In this one : 1'20 : Mango dashdances to get Armada to move forward and attack. He punishes the missed attack with a grab.
It's that kind of thing, but you don't have to write so much. If you just say "2'00 : edgeguard", we'll understand. We'd need quite a few situations like the two above for about 4 games. Don't focus on getting many videos, try to get one with quite a few things to say.
I know many people here are used to review on videos to help people improve, so please, help us ! We need to have it ready in a few hours, so we really need your help.
Thanks a lot !
