Please Critique My Falco

[EricTheRed]

Hi all,

If you could please take the time to watch this video and comment on my falco, I'd really appreciate it! I apologize in advance for the video size being awkward and not occupying the full screen.

Just by watching the matches myself, I recognize a lot of mistakes/bad habits that I have, but I would also like an outside opinion.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

[pkblaze]

• Too many random smashes. Especially vs marth on his shield.

• Your lazers were predominantly high, making them lower also makes you shoot faster.
• Your movement could use work. Falco is not a fast character so you can't just get away with mindlessly dashdancing like low level Fox play. You need to deliberately improve your movement. Watch Hell's videos for that kind of stuff.
• I noticed a Couple missed lcancels. Nothing terrible, but you don't wanna miss lcancels.
• Your choices from the ledge did not impress me until the match vs Falcon. Do stuff like dropping, jumping, and bairing as you come back onto the stage, or ledgehop double lazers, or whatever. Especially when you're over 100. You lost atleast 1 stock from using you past 100 ledge getup.

 

[niffyjiffy]

What PK said, plus work on your followups. I noticed after downthrows and shines you just waited on the ground.

 

[BrBaSam]

PK touched on just about everything I have to say. Cannot stress enough how important l-cancelling is to falco's game. Never want to miss it, practice l-cancelling to the point that it's just 2nd nature. Other advice I'd give would be to use falco's tilts more. I noticed you had a tendency to throw out the fsmash pretty often and if that gets shielded its easily punished. an f-tilt is quicker, has better ranger and less lag, so even if it gets shielded you have a better chance to avoid getting grabbed or countered.

 

[EricTheRed]

Thanks for the help everyone.

I definitely noticed the frequent f-smashes as well, and its something I've been working on. The high lasers and edge-options are another thing I've been working on and I think I've already improved.

As for the movement and tech skill stuff, I think that will come with experience and I think the best thing for me right now is to just keep playing and make a conscious effort to work on that stuff and try out new things.

Here is a set of mine from this weekend at a local smashfest which I think showcases a bit of improvement. This is round 2 of winners (I win 2-0 here as Falco vs. Fox). I like my options from the edge in the first game especially and my lasers are better IMO. I also toned it down on the smashes in the first game (but in game 2 I got into that bad habit again and got punished a lot for it). In the second game I got a bit lucky with that side-B meteor smash and I think it rattled my opponent so I got the win even though he outplayed me in game 2 for sure.

Some things I still notice from this set are:
- I need to work on fastfalling consistently (and L-cancelling still)
- followups need to improve a lot
- movement still needs work
- shield pressure needs work but I think it will come as I improve the things mentioned above

Thanks for all your feedback guys!

 

[rpotts]

@ EricTheRed

I happened to catch your match against a Samus at a later point in that video. You fall into the "typical angry Falco" category. That Samus punished you time and time again for things like predictable ledgehop dairs by simply WD back -> fsmash and repeated sideb into the ledge by using missles.

Mix up your game, don't fall into auto pilot. Practice wavelanding onto the stage and BF/Yoshi's platforms from the edge, LHDL and don't forget you can just edgehop onto the stage without always attacking, which is very useful against an opponent who constantly shields your ledgehop dair -> shieldgrab or shine OoS or whatever.

 

[EricTheRed]

Thanks for the feedback! I admit I definitely got rattled vs. that samus. I felt like I was having a really tough time killing him (I tend to really have this problem against floaties, especially Peach).

I'll do my best to apply what you've said and hopefully use it to improve! thanks

 

[Ifrit]

I was looking at falco threads to improve my falco and I find this thread. So I click on the video you posted and sure enough you attended the same smash fest I did! My name is Drew, I saw you at Art's last time xD I am a falco player too, hopefully we meet next smashfest! I would love to play your falco

 

[yohobojz]

If you are having trouble killing floaties you can do laser --> dtilt or jab--> dsmash or just space bairs, in neutral you always want to use safe moves