I remember talking to M2K about him vs Azen after their like 7th meeting in random EC tournaments and something that really struck me was M2K saying "Azen always makes the optimal choice for any situation. I always beat him because I just think about what I would do, and then counter that."
This, very much. This is why I was able to beat Azen in multiple sets in Marth vs Zelda alone. Smash is very much about what you can and can't do. Even if you only have one option, so long as your opponent doesn't have any, you will come out ahead. Because of this, it's perfectly fine (and in many cases recommended) to simply stick to one character until the point of mastery and to play that character in a fairly linear manner. It's more obvious with low tiers just on the merit that they have fewer options, but it works with high tiers too, where you can simply pick better options to work with.
I know from experience that a player can never play at 100%. People are imperfect. Bad days happen. Smash is extremely demanding on your mental ability to stay focused, call reads, follow narrow DIs, and to never fall for anything. It's amazing how many players give up a lead simply by overextending and giving their opponent an opportunity to make a comeback. The brilliant thing about smash is that you can choose to simply stay ahead once you get a lead. However, smash is also extremely technical, so much so that even the best technical players can never truly autopilot and expect to perform well. Tournaments wear you down, playing 14+ hours at a time. It's extremely important to stay in your mental game and not to become mentally exhausted, even if you're playing well on a technical level.
I spent a lot of my time with melee in 2005, bumping into Jason often and teaching him Fox little by little both in person and on AIM. I routinely encouraged him to stay away from his technical game. As technical as Jason is famous for, or as "robotic" his style is on a superficial level, it's really quite the opposite in that he learned to never fatigue himself with unnecessary tech and never to give up a lead. More importantly, I tried to teach Jason to adopt a linear style that gives leeway for bad days and allows the player to cover weaknesses.
At some point, the technical aspect of your game isn't going to work anymore. Your tech isn't perfect, no matter how bad you want it to be. What then? You drop out of the tournament? You change character? The cornerstone of your gameplay should ALWAYS be thinking, seeking, adapting, watching for patterns, keeping yourself calm, holding a lead, applying pressure when you're at an advantageous position, and maintaining good position yourself without overextending or putting yourself at unnecessary risk. As Azen puts it, "Don't jump into the ****." As Isai puts it, "Don't get hit." As I put it, "Don't do anything stupid." Your technical game should be something that enhances your gameplay and makes your decisions more effective after your best judgment has been made such that your strategy becomes more and more likely to yield victory. As soon as your technical ability becomes the focus of your gameplay, your performance will be sloppy and your ability to learn will be dampened, despite not looking sloppy at all!
I really feel that the new age style of Fox called, "Hey look at my nair" is a big reason behind that character's poor tournament performance, but that probably deserves to be debated elsewhere.
