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** OLD ** Official Pikachu Critique Thread

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[FBC] ESAM

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Pika?

Masky

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bigman40

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Just another day.
Blow up his mines. You took alot of unnecessary damage in the 2nd game cause of them. Also, be careful in how you use your thunders. You got punished a lot more from using them soo recklessly (you can tell as you go to each match). Other than that, I didn't see any glaring problems.

Well I recently played in a toury and I need help with this one match up against a Marth player.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEH50ud6zFw&feature=channel_page
Advice and suggestions would be appreciated
Stop randomly spotdodging. There were many moments where you just spotdodged and your opponent wasn't even in range, and the shield > roll backwards is something you wanna get out of your system. You can get punished for doing it as much as you were doing. Just less rolling in general man.

After you had killed marth's first stock, move away from him. You sat in that one spot and spotdodged > Dsmash/Ftilt. You wouldn't have lost that life that easily if you didn't just stay right there.

At the end, you could've just landed in the water to stall some time so that you could recover better.

Do a little more mixing up. There were times where I could call out your movements (Tjolt > Fsmash or when you sit there for a few secs > Usmash).
 

Pika_Cam

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Well I recently played in a toury and I need help with this one match up against a Marth player.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEH50ud6zFw&feature=channel_page
Advice and suggestions would be appreciated
I thought you actually handled the matchup very well. There's only a few things I noticed.

1. Use less dsmash.
2. Camp more with tjolts. Remember, Marth has no projectile.
3. Use more uair to juggle Marth when he's above you.
4. I know it was probably an accident, but just be careful of how you quick attack. You left a lot of lag when you landed.

Other than that, you were right to not QAC, because Marth can easily punish it. You were also right to shield grab him a lot, as I've also discovered that it is effective against Marth.
 

Pika_Cam

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bigman40

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Just another day.
I thought you actually handled the matchup very well.
My critiques aren't matchup based. I mainly look for habits that can be seen and punished against higher ranked players. It's better for me to do that anyway since I don't know the matchups for Pika yet (still fresh with him).

Plus, I like to rate hard :)
 

Pika_Cam

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My critiques aren't matchup based. I mainly look for habits that can be seen and punished against higher ranked players. It's better for me to do that anyway since I don't know the matchups for Pika yet (still fresh with him).

Plus, I like to rate hard :)
I usually wouldn't talk so much about the matchup, but it's pika's worst matchup.
 

Pika_Cam

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If I have this correct, we have five pikas still waiting on critiques. I'll get to the other 4 later this afternoon.
 

Pika_Cam

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Bigman, I like your use of dair against that Wario. I'll admit that I hate that matchup. You have to get wario to almost twice the percent he has to get you to before you can kill him. I think you could have tjolted more, but I don't see anything else.
 

KayLo!

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Once again, I'm behind on critiques..... I'll get to this tomorrow, I hope. Or maybe later tonight if I'm feeling extra productive.

Glad to see so many people playing Pikachu, though! :)
 

Pika_Cam

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I will edit and add more of these as I have time.

Crimson Child: You QAC too much. Although you are very good at it, and it is a lot of fun, you are just asking to be punished. Your whole game is just too aggressive actually. If you play more defensively, you wouldn't be taking so many hits. Other than that, you have a really nice Pikachu.
 

Pika_Cam

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Enulfedinconfusioin: It's hard to tell when you post a video of you 3-stocking a guy. Post one where you lose or it's at least close so we can tell better what you do wrong.

JtM: Sorry about this critique being so late... I'll be referring to the match versus ICs. You were smart to camp the Ice Climbers because one grab could be the death of you. Unfortunately, the ICs punished your full hop tjolts a lot by running under them and grabbing you or just hitting you. My suggestion would be to not fall into a predictable pattern with the full hop tjolts. Mix it up more. I saw you using some nairs out of shield, but uair out of shield is a great juggling move that you should also use. You could use some more dtilt for spacing. Also, don't be afraid to jab the ICs if they are about to grab you. It's a quick jab that will make them trip if you get it right. In fact, just play more defensively because lots of offensive aerials could get you shield grabbed. Last thing, use less skull bash for recovery. I saw that you are able to QAC, so that would be a better option.
 

[FBC] ESAM

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1. Don't mess with Bowser's F-smash...ever lol. Nice last death from that

T-jolts up close aren't really the way to go, especially against a character like bowser who can just P-shield them and punish you for it with a 13% or so fair...not a good idea. You should either be camping with them or spacing better. Your thundering was a little risky...you would use it when he was really close, but not close enough to get hit, and you would get punished. Either double jump back and use the thunder for edgeguards (so the thunder is on the ledge basically) or be more aggressive with nairs. T-jolts work wonders against bowser when they are recovering low...but make sure they aren't close enough to hit you with a fair or with their Up-b.

Pretty good pikachu...you have a few things to fix which i noted above...but other than that, nice. :colorful:

This is recently (started playing like myself last stock)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sajUIzgeG_s
You basically showed what not to do against marth, and then what DEFINITELY to do against marth. At first when you would get hits, you would go back and camp...which is a definite no-no against marth. Once you get inside of him, you must keep attacking and use that momentum. Make him be the one to change the momentum..don't run back like a camper. Once you are inside, you have the total advantage. Yes he has up-b OOS and other options, but make him use them! If you are ****** him when you are close to him he will start to play more scared and probably make more mistakes. If you were playing like that the whole match (and didn't SD twice) you definitely would've won. Yes T-jolts help you, but only TO GET CLOSE TO HIM. Once one of them hits, that is your opportunity to switch the momentum to your favor instead of having it even.

Well I recently played in a toury and I need help with this one match up against a Marth player.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEH50ud6zFw&feature=channel_page
Advice and suggestions would be appreciated
Nice...for the most part. Here are a few things i noticed:

At the beginning you were trying to force yourself in against the marth when he had the momentum. You CAN'T do that...it's marths favorite food against pikachu. When the momentum is on marth's side, retreat and do T-jolts to even out the momentum, and see an opportunity for you to get in without having to completely force yourself in. That is why the marth MU is so hard...because he can just keep the momentum in his favor or at least even just be SH double fairs since they cancel your T-jolt. Pikachu shouldn't really have an opportunity to get in if the marth times his fairs right. Other than that against the marth, nice job.
 

KayLo!

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Blah. I was gonna do critiques tonight, but my sister's comp is acting up. Hopefully in a few hours I can do some, but if not, I'll do them tomorrow morning, I promise!

I haven't forgotten about you guys.
 

TLMSheikant

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Oh dont worry I noticed my pikachu sux already. Thats why I need help. Im ready to get treated like the pika noob I am. Hes going to be my second but I only recently started using him and Im still noob status with him :/. I notice when I use pika I spam smash attacks like a noob :/. Oh and I got more vids of my pika, theyll be uploaded later this week.
 

KuroKitt10

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new vids of me gettin wrecked


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HQWwcbC1F0&feature=channel_page

i get three stocked game 1 thats all you need to see, other two matches arent for pkachu =/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg2zu6fRr3E&feature=channel

i know the majority of what i did wrong here just felt like postin it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoBDSSna2XI&feature=channel_page

wario MU meh
Yoshi, on the first video, from what I could tell, it looked to me like you got a little too hungry for that stock after he killed you the first time. You and Lucario were pretty even matched during the first stock, and then after he got you out, you started playing really aggressively and over shot attacks, or mistimed some things. If you'll noticed, almost all of those last two stocks, he didn't really move or do much. He sort of just played defense and nicked you when you left yourself open.

At least, that's how things looked to me. I think that maybe you could have done better had you kept your cool, and played like you did during the first stock. Don't try too hard to get a kill, or you'll end up leaving yourself open =) Brawl's all about waiting for or baiting them into opportunities, and then capitalizing on those.

That's my two pents.
Meow!
 

KayLo!

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Bump. Critique my horrible pikachu please?
I'm getting to everyone right now, and it usually takes a few days for people to critique anyway. You just posted this last night..... please don't needlessly bump the topic.

Also, it's stickied, so bumping it really doesn't do much, lol.
 

KayLo!

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Finally finished. I'll get right to it. (Btw, I did everybody I missed, even the super old ones. Just to be fair.)

People who were not critiqued:
Kirin - I really can't critique vids vs. a CPU.
Crimson Child - Wifi friendlies are in the same boat. There's no way to tell how much lag there was, and people play way differently on wifi.

People included in this post:
bigman40
Trypt
ESAM
Frio
Pika_Cam
JtM
Kroova
tha_carter
engulfedinconfusion
Stealth Raptor
TLMSheikant
King Yoshi

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

bigman40:

Overall Comments: I love watching your Pika. :) It's not perfect, but it's definitely good so far, and your general control over him is excellent. I watched all three of the vids you posted, so I'll try to note where I saw improvements by the last match.

  • Your biggest problem seems to be that you have trouble getting off the ledge without dying or taking a lot of damage in the process. Especially in your earlier vids, you nearly always came off the ledge with fair, which your opponent predicted and punished. It's also how you lost your first stock in the Wario vid.

    Just remember that Pika has a ton of options when coming off the ledge (depending on where your opponent is), so mix it up and keep yourself unpredictable. If it looks like you don't have any way to get off, don't be afraid to ledgestall until they move -- which they will 90% of the time.

  • You still need a little work with autocanceling your dairs. You did much better with it by the end of the Wario vid, but there were still numerous times when you got the ground lag.

  • Like I said before, your control over Pika is great. In your earlier vids, it was already good, but you'd still do weird things like accidental reverse tjolts or random dash attacks..... you've improved on that a lot.

  • Good use of tilts.

  • When you grab at higher percentages, don't forget to pummel.

  • Especially in earlier vids, you used way too much Skull Bash for recovery.
Match-Specific:

vs. Luigi 1
- Like Wario later, he ***** your attempts to get off the ledge. Mix it up more.
- Use QA more for recovery. It's less predictable and laggy, especially when you're faced with Luigi's bair edgeguarding.
- You spammed usmash a lot in this match, and you staled it with the back of Pika's tail when Weegee wasn't even in kill range yet.
- A lot of uthrow. It's Pika's least useful throw.
- Your fair/tjolt spacing wasn't so good, especially off the ledge.
- Your momentum canceling was good, but your DI for the most part was just decent.
- Middle of your last stock..... :urg: @that Weegee combo.
- You go for usmash too much.... it's really only good as a surprise killer or tech chase finisher since it's so easy to see coming.

vs. Lucario 1
- You seemed thrown off by Lucario's disjointed range over Pika. Better baiting would have allowed you to get inside him.
- SD on the first stock.... nooo!!! :(
- Still too much usmash.
- Personally, I save fsmash for killing vs. Lucario (because leaving him at high percentages can be dangerous if you've staled your kill moves), but that may be a personal preference.
- Ledge stuff again. You either misspace fairs or fair his shield. :(
- Not autocanceling your dairs was a problem in this match, but you fixed that later.
- Remember to pummel!

vs. Lucario 2
- Good tilt usage in general, but you could use dtilt a little more.
- You reverse tjolt a lot by accident.

vs. Wario 1
- Control over Pika got much, much better.
- Had trouble with autocanceling dairs in the beginning but did much better by late match.
- Lol @mini dtilt lock at the beginning.
- Good revenge kill off your first death.
- @2:43: Prime example of bad fairing off the ledge... also see: your first death.
- Even though it wasn't caused by fairing, your second death continued the trend of bad off-the-ledge KOs. In particular, don't forget that Pika can QA stall and QAC through people back onto the stage.

Trypt:

Overall Comments: You Pika needs a lot of work. It was pretty clear that you don't know any of his combos or much about how competitive Brawl works in general, so I'd advise you to read the Generating A Win guide (http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=225527) and perhaps find a mentor who's already a part of the tournament scene. With a little work, I'm sure you'll see a lot of improvement.

  • Nearly every time you jump, you double jump even when your opponent is nowhere near you. This wastes your jumps and leaves you with fewer options when you're coming back down to the ground.

  • Pikachu has a bunch of combos that make it easier for him to get guaranteed damage on his opponents. Learn and practice them.

  • Don't jump > airdodge so much. You got really predictable with it.

  • Skull Bashing on stage is generally a bad idea, especially fully charging it. It's so easy to see coming..... most opponent will just shield and punish you for it.

  • Dash attack is a bad move. For the most part, don't use it.

  • Rolling made up a good chunk of your movement, and you also spotdodge too much. Though these are good evasive moves, using them too often will make you predictable, and they both have cooldown lag that can be abused by your opponent.

  • You missed a lot of attacks and would sometimes attack when your opponent was nowhere near you.
ESAM:

Overall Comments: Good Pika as always, but considering what I've seen from you before, I think you could have done a lot better versus Lambchops and abused some areas of his game a lot better. Some of this was already mentioned in the PBR, but I'll go over it again anyway.

  • You need to work on your tjolt spacing. A lot of times you'd move into him out of a full hopped tjolt, and he'd punish you out of his shield. Or you'll whiff the jolt by sending it too far over his head, and he'd **** you from below or behind while you were stuck in cooldown lag.

  • Lambchops's recovery wasn't that great the entire set.... you missed so, so many opportunities to edgeguard him, or you'd whiff thunders when he was in a perfect position for a thunder KO. In some matches, you did pick it up in this area (I noted the ones I noticed in the Match-Specific section); when you did, you did it well. Do it more often.

  • Be more conscious of where Snake plants C4s, throws grenades, and dsmashes. It's inevitable that you'll get hit by some, especially since their hitboxes are so huge, but you got blown up an awful lot. Pika is small and quick, so you should be able to avoid most of his explosives as long as you remember where they are and don't get trapped.

  • He tech chased ***** you at times. It happens, but even I predicted how you were going to roll/get up 80% of the time (I counted), and I'm sure Snake players are much better with that kind of foresight. Just mix it up a bit more.

  • Speaking of rolling, you rolled around and through him a lot in general. That's a bad thing to do versus any character, but it's an especially bad idea against Snake.

  • A few times when you got hit by ftilt, you would rush right back in and get hit by another ftilt or a jab combo. A better idea would be to pretend like you're coming in but wait for him to move, then punish...... because if you get ftilted, there's really not much of a chance that you'll be able to run back in and do anything. His ftilt isn't that laggy.

  • I know this goes for the last match.... not sure about the others, but: don't forget to pummel when you grab.

  • When you go aggro vs. Snake, you tend to go all-out aggressive rather than baiting. Remember that Pika doesn't have to commit to his approaches and moves as much as Snake has to.
Match-Specific:

vs. Snake 1
- QAC > usmash in the beginning..... ? :confused:
- Nice CGs
- You were uber campy this match, but he sort of let you get away with it.

vs. Snake 2
- So much jab... why?
- Good DI/momentum canceling for the most part.
- ~2:20: dthrow ****. :(
- This match is the one you did the worst in, imo, in terms of getting blown up.

vs. Snake 3
- You went too hard for the grab in the beginning and whiffed three of them pretty much in a row.
- @3 pillars part: Don't mess with Snake on small platforms like that.... if you get dthrown, your options are way too limited with so little space, and his close-quarters combat skills > Pika's.
- Beginning of your second stock: why the roll spam?
- @1:50: .........No comment. That was kinda stage BS.
- Lol @ending.

vs. Snake 4
- After his SD in the beginning: you faired his shield twice in a row. Be careful.
- Lol @fthrow trap on the wall of the ship.
- Nice camping near the end. XD

vs. Snake 5
- This match was your worst in terms of spacing tjolts.
- Nice comeback with the sweetspotted thunder.
- @3:45: jab > ftilt was cute, hehe.
- You did such a good job edgeguarding him on his third stock..... do this more often!!!
- What the?! @the ending, lol.

Frio:

Overall Comments: Overall, you've got a decent Pika and didn't do so badly considering it's his worst matchup.

  • Camp more vs. Marth, but make sure your camping has a purpose, because he's fast and one of the few characters who can rush Pika down somewhat. Use tjolts to create an opening to start putting pressure on him.

  • Don't roll and spotdodge as much against him. It's a bad habit against anyone, but Marth loves spotdodges.... he can punish them really well. Same goes for rolls.

  • Sometimes (like @:50), you would just pause after landing an attack. Never just stand in one spot.... if you do that, you're just an immobile target. Always keep moving and spacing yourself, and try to always followup when you can.

  • @1:39 on the roof, you backed yourself into a corner and didn't get out of it when you could have.

  • When you grab at higher percentages, remember to pummel.

  • At the end of Marth's second stock on the roof, you could have followed your usmash with a walk > thunder. Didn't matter, though, I guess..... he SD'd anyway, lol.

  • Work on your QA control.

  • You usmash too much. It's somewhat easy to see coming, and it's not safe on block. It's best saved as a surprise killer or tech chase finisher, as I said to Bigman.

  • You rush Marth a lot. Instead of going straight aggressive versus him, adopt a playstyle that's more bait and punish. If you're really set on being aggressive, at least look for proper openings rather than just blindly rushing in. Marth beats Pika from a matchup standpoint, so to win, you need to outplay your opponent and take advantage of every opportunity he gives you.
Pika_Cam:

Overall Comments: Well, I can't say much since you won all the matches, but your Pika looks pretty good.

  • One thing you wanna watch out for is how you handle bananas when you pick them up. Sometimes you would throw them to the other side of the stage, where Diddy could just go over and pick them up.
  • When you get a banana, either use it against him or chuck it off-stage so he has to pull if he want to get it back.

  • Always keep the pressure on Diddy once you get close to him past the bananas. Don't let him back off, or he'll just pull bananas, which are really the only things that make this matchup difficult for Pika.

  • If there's a banana on the field, he'll probably go for it at some point. Punish his attempts to get any bananas, whether he pulls them or picks them up from the stage. Obviously you won't be able to do this successfully all the time, but practicing it versus Diddys you can beat (like this one) will make it easier when you fight better monkeys.

  • Your DI is decent, but work on using uair for momentum canceling instead of fair.

  • You do dthrow > usmash a lot. Try other combos..... dthrow > utilt > uair leads to more options and can combo into fair, which ultimately creates longer strings and more damage.

  • When you pick up bananas from a run, you nearly always dash attack to get it. You can stop and cancel your stopping animation with a pick-up, which leaves you without dash attack's horrible cooldown lag.
Match-Specific:

vs. Diddy 1
- Bad tjolt spacing in the beginning of the match.
- Diddy was kind of spazzing and doing a bunch of stuff when you were nowhere near him, lol....
- @2:40ish: were you trying to mindgame him by not moving....? You could have grabbed him out of his shield.

vs. Diddy 2
- Good job at the very beginning.... then you got banana *****. :(
- @1:07: Lol, spotdodge > spotdodge > jump > z drop > ftilt. Too goodz.
- Nice comeback.

vs. Diddy 3
- Poor Diddy.

JtM:

Overall Comments: There's a lot of work to be done with your Pika, but I think you'll see a lot of improvement if you just do a little reading. Like I did for Tryst, I'm going to recommend that you look over the Generating A Win guide (http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=225527) and get a feel for what Pika can really do. You're missing a lot of key elements from your game.

More than that, though, I'm disappointed that in one of your matches, you simply gave up. Even if you're getting 3-stocked, you should never purposely SD just because you're frustrated that you're losing. There's always experience to be gotten and lessons to be learned.... even if you're getting *****.

  • Don't use grounded tjolts for the most part. They leave you stuck in one spot on the ground in lag. That Marth could have easily rushed you down and punished you for doing so many in a row.

  • You pause a lot while you play, which makes you an easy, immobile target. Always keep moving, and if you don't see an opening, hang back and camp until your opponent puts themselves in a bad position. Or do a fake approach and then punish their reaction.

    Also, speed up your playing in general. You're a little slow.

  • Learn Pika's combos. You went for a lot of smashes and nair, which have a lot of knockback and usually reset things to neutral. When you combo someone, you shift the match's momentum in your favor and can rack up more damage that way.

  • You charged fsmash pretty often. In general, don't charge anything.... it takes too long and makes the move easy to see coming. You'll just get punished for it.

  • Don't use dash attack so much. It's a horrible move.

  • Use less fsmash, usmash, and nair during the match. It stales them, and they usually need to be pretty fresh to kill at a reasonable percentage.

  • You attack sometimes when the opponent is nowhere near you.
Match-Specific:

vs. Marth 1
- Lol @both of you SDing one after the other.
- Camp more vs. Marth to create openings rather than blindly rushing at him.
- If he hits your shield, shieldgrab him (if he's close enough) instead of always going for an fsmash. Fsmash is too slow.
- Don't hang out at tipper range. Either get close and keep the pressure on him or back off out of his range completely.

vs. ICs 1
- Don't recover into fully charged fsmashes.... =X
- You were spotdodging too much. Most of the time, they'll start to read your spotdodges and grab you as you come out of them.
- When you get them separated, focus on gimping/killing Nana so you'll only have to deal with Popo. You tried to usmash or thunder, both of which you whiffed and are pretty bad options anyway for getting rid of her.
- Skull Bash fails vs. desynced ice blocks. QA around them.
- If you Skull Bash onto the stage, you'll get grabbed.
- They whiffed a lot of grabs, which you could have done a better job punishing.
- Overall, this match wasn't as bad as it could have been.... these ICs couldn't really CG, they were just going for the spike.

Kroova:

Overall Comments: Just noting that I didn't watch all of your vids..... just three of them. There were too many, and they were pretty old by the time I did this, so I thought three would be enough.

  • You need better control over Pika. You missed a lot of combo followups, randomly reverse tjolted, whiffed several attacks by facing the wrong way..... work on having full control over your character so that he does exactly what you want him to do.

  • So much rolling and spotdodging.... @.@ Sometimes it looked like you guys were having rolling wars. Better players will punish you for that.

  • You use your tilts well.

  • Your spacing isn't horrible, but it could use a little work. Sometimes you try to make attacks reach farther than they actually can.

  • Autocancel your dairs by inputting them as soon as you short hop. This will allow you to do them without the horrible lag hitting the ground gives you.

  • You thunder and tjolt a little much vs. Lucas. Better Lucas players will predict and absorb better than he did, so you're really giving away free health.

  • When you whiff a grab, you tend to grab again 2 or 3 times in a row.

  • Work on your DI, and use fastfall uair for momentum canceling, not fair.
Match-Specific:

vs. Lucas 1
- No notes.

vs. Lucas 2
- Nice edgeguarding on his first stock.

vs. Lucas 3
- Your first stock, you got pwned because you kept moving into him after you got a hit, even when there wasn't enough hitstun for you to followup. This put you in a perfect position to get counter-hit.
- You played too aggressively this match, imo. A defensive player would have had a field day with you.
- Remember not to Skull Bash onto the stage.
- Related to my first note in this match, if the momentum is not in your favor and you're getting owned at close-range, back off for a while to think and reset things back to neutral.

tha_carter:

Overall Comments: Eheh, I had to mute your vids.... the sound was so desynced. >< That's unrelated, though. Your Pika's not bad. More than that, I feel like you could have won both of those matches if you hadn't SD'd, especially the second one.

  • Nice textures, especially the Plusle one. So cute!

  • Don't roll/spotdodge too much against Marth. They love when you do that because they can punish both so well.

  • Shieldgrab Marth more often. Learn when during Dancing Blades you can safely grab him, and it'll make the matchup a lot easier.

  • Use fsmash to space against Marth, especially when he's landing from the air. It's the only move we have (outside of thunder) that outranges him, and it's disjointed..... plus he's pretty light, so you won't really need it for killing.

  • Don't SD!

  • You spotdodge > dsmash a lot. It can work, but after a while it gets predictable, and Pika generally has better options for racking up damage.

  • Use less usmash. Save it for killing, and when you do use it, make sure it's somewhat of a surprise since it's not too fast and unsafe on block.

  • Less Skull Bash recovery. It has a predictable trajectory and a lot of cooldown lag.

  • Use tjolts to bait Marth.... don't just rush in blindly against him. He outranges our approaches and has a sword (which = disjointed attacks).

  • Getting Marth above you is the best idea. Once you do, try to use more uair than nair (which is what you opted for most of the time in your vids). Uair has more vertical range, and nair needs to be fresh in order to kill.

  • You went for fthrow > usmash a few times when Marth had too much damage for it to work.

  • Edgeguarding skills need some work.

  • You lose the Power of Camp sometimes during your matches. :( Always remember that we have a projectile and he doesn't!
Match-Specific:

vs. Marth 1
- On-stage Skull Bash is a no-no.
- You ended up above Marth a lot. That's one of the worst places to be.
- Fully charged smashes won't work 90% of the time.
- Lost your camping power near the end of the match.

vs. Marth 2
- Uhh, you tjolted in the wrong direction a lot, lol.
- Lost your camp, found it again, then lost it again mid-match.
- Last stock, you did a good job punishing his landings with fsmash.
- You also started combo'ing better.
- You easily could have won this without the 2 SD's.

engulfedinconfusion:

Overall Comments: I don't know if it was my computer or just the vids, but they were hard to see on my computer..... it was really bright, and the colors were all messed up, so if I missed anything, sorry. :(

  • Work on your tjolt spacing and not accidentally reverse tjolting. Tjolt has some massive cooldown lag, so making sure you don't put yourself in a bad position while camping is very important.

  • When you get into close range, you tend to roll a lot.

  • Watch your spacing. Pika doesn't have a lot of range, so it's easy to accidentally overextend your attacks if you're not careful, at which point you're at the mercy of your opponent and will probably get punished.
Match-Specific:

vs. Luigi 1
- He let you get away with a lot. Not much else to say.

vs. Bowser 1
- Camp Bowser more. He's fat and easily combo'd, but he still outranges us and is a lot more powerful..... we die a lot earlier than he does. Camping will give you openings to safely get in his face.
- You got ***** off the ledge. If he's guarding it that hard, ledge attack, roll past him, or QA stall until he makes a move that you can punish.
- Don't get comfy just because you have the lead.... you got a little sloppy with your spacing, and against a hardhitter like Bowser, a few hits puts you into kill percentages.
- Lol @ending. Fsmash changes Bowser's hurtbox.... and.... yeah. :urg:

Stealth Raptor:

Overall Comments: Your Pika is trash. If you'd been wearing goggles, you might have won.

Jkjk. Anther pretty much just outpredicted and outplayed you, but it was a good match. Also, nice song choice (for the actual match; the one for the character/stage selection was... wtf).

  • You whiffed some thunders in the beginning. Be careful about thundering under platforms.

  • You were punished a lot for missing smashes..... especially dsmashes and usmashes. Especially especially dsmashes.

  • First half of the match, you tried to edgeguard with fsmash a couple of times and it just.... wasn't working. You stopped doing it later, though, which is good.

  • Lol @random Anther SD.

  • Beginning of his third stock, why were you utilting when he was way above you? :confused:

  • Also beginning of his third stock: when you grabbed him, uthrow was a poor choice. Combo'ing him would have been better.

  • Overall, he played more defensively than you did and punished your mistakes more effectively than you did his. You were a little too aggressive, imo, and would have done better if you hadn't been the approacher most of the time.
TLMSheikant:

Overall Comments: I'd be interested in seeing a vid of you versus a different character. It seemed like after you CG'd DDD, you had no idea what to do after that, so I feel like I didn't really get a feel for how your Pika actually plays. I'll do my best, though.

  • You CG DDD well, so that's a plus.

  • After the CGs, however, you got extremely campy..... but your camp wasn't really useful, and after a while, he started powershielding your tjolts. Which very clearly threw you off. Camping should generally be used to create openings for yourself, not to just sit back, relax, and hit the b button.

  • You spotdodged near DDD a lot, and nearly ever time, you got dsmashed or grabbed for it. Predictable spotdodging against any character will get punished.

  • You whiff a lot of laggy attacks (non-canceled dairs, dsmash) near DDD, which is asking to get grabbed.

  • Take advantage of Pika's speed over DDD. You played very slowly the entire time when you should have been running circles around him.

  • Don't SD! :urg:

  • Don't straight-up approach DDD, because he'll just shieldgrab you. Bait him into whiffing a move or a grab, because most of his moves are pretty laggy. His running grab's cooldown is especially bad if he misses.

  • Work on DI and momentum canceling.
King Yoshi:

Overall Comments: Stop playing MK. :mad:

  • You still tend to get desperate for kills.... this was really obvious in the Lucario match. Desperation leads to predictability most of the time, especially since people go into super defensive mode once they know they're in danger of getting KO'd. Add to the fact that Lucario doesn't mind having damage and that Wario's madd fat, and it's understandable that you wanted to hurry up and kill them.

    But.

    If you're behind, just keep your cool and remember that people have made some crazy comebacks even against pros, so the match is never really lost until it's done. Keep playing calmly and intelligently no matter what.

  • Don't feel the need to rush in all the time. Pika ain't no Meta Knight.... don't be afraid to slow down and camp while you think of your next move.

  • Look over some of Pika's KO setups. None of them are guaranteed, but they can help make landing his somewhat predictable kill moves a little easier. I don't remember seeing much thunder from you, either.... working on your edgeguarding game might help.

  • Your DI isn't bad, but it could be better.
Match-Specific:

vs. Lucario 1
- I really can't tell you what happened here, lol.
- There were a few times you could have naired him OOS, but once you whiffed it, you got a little predictable with it for a while.

vs. Wario 1
- He successfully baited you a lot from the air. Remember that like Pika, Wario isn't committed to his approaches. Good news is that you got better at not falling for it as the match went on.
- Bad QA on your first death.
- You tried to dsmash a lot while he was aerial camping. It won't work.... he'll just land outside of your range and punish your cooldown.
- You roll/spotdodge a lot sometimes. Good examples of this are the beginning of the match and the beginning of Wario's second stock.
- Rolling got you killed..... ><
 

S.K.I.D

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jun 13, 2009
Messages
39
Hey guys. Iv'e been working on my :pikachu: game recently. Here is a couple of games i recored. This is me VS my brother as ROB. This is a tough match up but i managed to win 2-1(the game I lost was game 1 and the video tape didn't record this one for some reason.). I think my pikachu could use some help, so tell me what should be adjusted to fix this.

Game1(Did not work)
Game2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MpYRt8F9g4
Game3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRWWtsxbSFk

I hope the links work
 

bigman40

Smash Master
Joined
Oct 11, 2007
Messages
3,859
Location
Just another day.
**** my pikachu sux so bad. I need help. Feel free to point out every single mistake. And i already know my pika sux. Ive only started using him and enjoy him but cant seem to get him right....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVPrlh3zeG0&feature=channel_page

Me (pika) vs RATED (DDD)
Before I get into rating your vid. I wanna say that I recommend getting a better capture card (quality issues) and have an opponent closer to your skills. Him spamming Dsmash like that makes me question why you had soo much trouble against him.

1st Stock:
  • Please cut down on the Tjolt spamming. It's not that good and if the D3 was playing the MU right, he would've just PSed them all.
  • The random spotdodging when he got close to you. Stop it. You were getting punished for doing it.
  • Learn the timing of the second QAC. SDing from something that simple is bad.

2nd Stock:
  • Good comeback kill after the SD.
  • Celebrate, without getting punished lol.
  • You can't get CGed by D3. If he's trying to pressure you, you can just either land on the ground then roll, or jump away.
  • The 50% damage combos that you were doing. That's not a real cmobo since D3 can get out of the Fthrow after the 3rd one. Make sure that you go look in the CG thread so that he won't be able to escape it (this also notifies that he doesn't know anything about the Pika MU).
  • You got in his face a tad more. I'll note that, but you don't understand how good Pika's OoS options are. I saw OoS Dairs at spots that you failed to punish, and to note, OoS Uair isn't that great due to the lack of range from up front it has (unless you're behind them). Use it sparingly when you know it'll link into another move.
  • Rolling. Stop it. You got killed for rolling into him. Stop it.

3rd Stock:
  • You began to use smashes much more now. Keep your composure and stay with your strategy. Save the smashes for the moments when you know it'll hit. If you're getting punished for using them, then use them less.
  • Not much else to say. You got outplayed after RATED decided to actually play.

Overall:
  • You need to cut down on the spamming. It was easy to tell that you had many other weak points within your game, and they can be easily exploited as soon as we get through the spam.
  • Get your offense, close-up game better. I suggest reading the "Generating A Win" guide. Learn his OoS options, learn to pressure, learn when to challenge and when to back off.
  • Create a offstage game.
  • Learn the CGs after you learn the basics of Pika. The CGs are great and all, but if you don't have a good core gameplay to hold you up, then you'll lose against good players. Trust me, Core Gameplay >>> Advance Techs + CGs.


Hey guys. Iv'e been working on my game recently. Here is a couple of games i recored. This is me VS my brother as ROB. This is a tough match up but i managed to win 2-1(the game I lost was game 1 and the video tape didn't record this one for some reason.). I think my pikachu could use some help, so tell me what should be adjusted to fix this.

Game1(Did not work)
Game2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MpYRt8F9g4
Game3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRWWtsxbSFk

I hope the links work
I'll get into yours a little later. I'm hungry ._.
 

TLMSheikant

Smash Master
Joined
Oct 6, 2008
Messages
3,168
Location
Puerto Rico
Wait when did I do wrong DI? There werent exactly many opportunities to momentum cancel kaylo...there was one tho when i got dsmash'd at high percent i couldve side b after the upair instead of jumping but oh well, I thought i was gonna survive it anyway...Also, I was pretty sure U had to DI to the side if hit by DDD's dsmash I always thought it had vertical knockback...But yeah my pikachu game is lacking. Normally, what I dont do with TL i do with pika for some stupid reason >_>. I never roll with TL...i roll with pika. I never use smashes with TL (or any char for that matter except for killing) and I do with pika. Oh and RATED, uses dsmash to punish spotdodges. Thats another problem I noticed of mine with pika...I spotdodge a lot and very obviously when i use pika...
 
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