Local monthly done. This was the first Pm tournament I've attended.
Pm had 11 players but just one set-up so it took a while. Luckily we got started on it early so no real problems were had. I had the honor if making the ruleset, since the TO (the ex-brawlist with a melee Puff) didn't really a thing about Pm. I went with altered Nebraska 9. 9 stages chars first with the starters of GHZ, SV, BF, YIB (would've been BC alt but the setup didn't have it. The setup also was a netplay iso ran on a modded wii, so after every match we had to play falcon/snake/lucario lol. ) and PS2. Counterpicks were WW, FoD, FD and DL (because according to a quick ask-around I did people would rather have it than DS).
My Pm games started with me facing a fledgling Snake-main that I've played a few times before in Melee. He didn't have a Pm set-up at home yet, so he lacked a lot. The TO-puff had actually given his spot for this guy cause he'd forgotten to register him and the bracket was already underway. Since I was 3rd seed, he'd already won a set. My Roy, which is pretty new and bad and has been my Pm go to for the last week, 2-stocked him both games iirc, but it was pretty terrible. I got shieldgrabbed like 15 times, ugh. Had he known how to sweetspot up-b, c4 reset up-b consistently, move OoS, punish etc. he would've won. But he didn't so yay.
Game 2 is WS and I'm up against a guy I've netplayed with numerous times, going pretty even. This was his first offline tournament afaik. He was the 2nd seed and played Diddy. Game 1 on GHZ my Roy almost makes the sickest 3-stock comeback, but I can't clutch it out. Game 2 I CP Samus and FoD. My play is terrible and he takes the lead on every stock but the last one, where he freezes and I take it. I stay Samus and he CPs PS2. Again he has the lead the whole game, but when the last stock comes around I get some pretty sick tech chases stuff going on. Were both >140% and I land a dtilt and jump to chase him with uair, but I'm met with a combobreaker nair that kills me off the top. Off to the losers bracket with me.
LQFs I play the young S4 player that streamed that side of the tournament. Just before facing me he had discovered Sheik and was really feeling himself. My Roy loses game 1 and I'm salty af. I CP random and it gives me Pit. I guess the chances of me getting one of my ex-"mains" (more like flavor of the week) is pretty high. I shake off the salt and 3-stock him. All I can think after the game is how he loved to run into F-smashes. Lol. Game 3 he CPs DL and bit by bit I get pretty hefty lead with him on last stock and me on a fresh second one. I kinda freeze though, but still end it, with me on 3rd stock high %.
LSF I play a melee player I played a ton of friendlies with. He'd just had a hella close set with a Ganon/Dk player that supposedly plays Pm the most. Game 1 is my Charizard vs his Fox, a melee tertiary after Marth and falcon. I roflstomp him with a 3-stock. I don't even know how. I guess the nair guided me. I think the accuracy of my random F-smashes was like 90% in that one. Game 2 he goes Falcon on DL. First 2 stocks it's even but then I gimp him twice and it's ggs. When we played friendlies later he traded games with me in Zard vs Fox. Lucky me I guess.
LFs I'm up against the netplay Diddy again. He lost 2-0 in WFs, to a Melee Luigi and S4/Brawl Ness player that was the 1st seed. This guy hadn't touched Pm in a few years, but was pretty confident as long as he didn't have to go against "ROB or some other weirdo".
Game 1 I go Zard, once more. I'd played this same MU on netplay with this same guy, mostly losing, but I wanted to give it a shot. I get jv 2-stocked. My get-up attacks were shieldgrabbed a lot. I lose my confidence and will to fight and CP random once more. However, I get Shiek on GHZ. I hadn't touched her in Pm for ages, but had warmed her up in Melee a few hours earlier, so I think this could work. We go even for the first few stocks, but when I'm on my 3rd one I take him to his last stock and land some tech chases on that to get him to high %. He gets me to last stock though, and though I get him offstage a few times I can't finish him. He combos me a bit and gets me offstage, but misses a WD and airdodges to his death. He was getting my D-smashes with Full Jump dairs all the time. Game 3 he CPs DL and I stay Sheik. I lose the first stock but keep it even. Eventually were both on last stock high %, and I get an edgeguard going on. I can't keep him offstage, but manage to keep him from resetting to neutral, and so I finally land a lucky D-smash to finish it. I stomp the ground and feel really good. My hand was shaking less than I thought it would.
I take a bathroom brake to rehydrate, focus and let my body stabilize or something, before facing the Luigi. I wash my face and know I can win.
Game 1 is Zard vs Luigi on SV. I play actually pretty great and finish it with a 2-stock. U-smash is greeeeaaat vs Luigi. Game 2 we go GHZ. He takes the stocks first, but since my u-throw kills him at about 85% I stay in the game. I get one really sweet offstage bair edgeguard. Once I enter last stock I don't really know what goes on. I think I get tossed around for a bit and it ends with a fair and a 2-stock for him. Game 3 I CP YIB. We go mostly even, but when I get him to last stock I have only ~60% on me. All the match I'd noticed how he'd adapted to my falling nairs by doing very early Full Jump fairs, but I don't adapt. One hits me after a glide and I die at ~80%, when my avg. death% was way past 120%. I freeze a bit and get hit by that same thing like 5 times in a row. I get hit far aftera glide and am basically dead, but the Randad pops at probably the very last frame. But he's a Brawl player and knows those peaky things and has a fair with my name on it up there. He takes it home from the winners side. I don't know if I could've shielded that fair, actually. By that point the panic was deep in my bonea. At least I made it so he did drop a game.
So my first Pm tournament ended with a second place finish and 1,7€ of profit after paying out the entries for all the tournaments. In melee I landed 4th (just out of the money), playing incredibly bad, but also achieving something: I only went Marth, despite knowing it would get destroyed. I accepted an outcome. I think this is a pretty good test of patience.
Tho I gotta say it doesn't feel good ending a tournament by getting jv4'd
X_X
Had hella fun tho. I kinda helped TO Melee and Pm and I'll probably do it again.
(also CC and stuff but you already knew all this)
