Questions (and me at a tournament)

[Doroco]

So recently i went to a local smash 4 tournament by accident. My brother was hosting a guilty gear xrd tournament and i came along and found out smash4 was there. I hadn't played in a while but entered since i think the game is alright, borrowed a controller too (first tourney for smash4) . I essentially played defensively and punishing aggression and sometimes going aggressive for a bit, dthrow u-air salt etc. I ended up coming in 4th, I beat 5 people and lost to 2 i think (double elim)

The first set I lost was too a ness player that was clearly better than me, my bro said he was one of the best in the area. The other guy I lost to was a megaman who essentially camped and I had to be aggressive and lost, this one was closer. between each game I tried to look at it critically and see what to change but it didnt work out. Also switching between games is hard.

So, my questions are
1. How do you use bananas more effectively. (i essentially pull one out if i can, pick it up and throw it immediately since i want to be able to grab them)
2. How do you apply pressure when they are being very defensive and have projectiles (ie megaman) and commonly rolling, spot dodging etc. when i approach (resulting in me often getting hit or gaining nothing)
3. What are some things to cover multiple options (mostly spot dodge, people who know how to spotdodge get me a lot)
4. What are good stages to pick/ban (I was mostly just trying to go to bf)
5. Do you have any tips to beating people better than me
6. What are the limits on what you can do after monkey flip to recover, they feel random and confusing

 

[T0MMY]

So recently i went to a local smash 4 tournament by accident.

So, my questions are
1. How do you use bananas more effectively. (i essentially pull one out if i can, pick it up and throw it immediately since i want to be able to grab them)
2. How do you apply pressure when they are being very defensive and have projectiles (ie megaman) and commonly rolling, spot dodging etc. when i approach (resulting in me often getting hit or gaining nothing)
3. What are some things to cover multiple options (mostly spot dodge, people who know how to spotdodge get me a lot)
4. What are good stages to pick/ban (I was mostly just trying to go to bf)
5. Do you have any tips to beating people better than me
6. What are the limits on what you can do after monkey flip to recover, they feel random and confusing

Never heard of someone going to a Smash tournament on accident before, that's kind of interesting.
But I'm going to give your questions my best shot, and I am assuming you are playing Diddy Kong.

1. Try jumping to give you some mobility then soft-throwing the banana (there is a "Smash" throw which tosses the banana away from you further), jump up and air-catch it. You can use the air-dodge to catch the banana and toss it immediately to catch your opponent by surprise if the opportunity arises. If it's on the ground try dashing at it and immediately jumping + aerial attack (F-air is a common and useful one for this, but other aerials work), that way you can pressure your opponent with he attack to space away from them when going for the nanner and may score a hit at the same time so you can follow up with a Banana-toss, trip 'em and string some more attacks in.
2. Grab their junk (like the Metal Blade). Get above them. Drop their junk on them. Drop your junk on them. Learn to read rolls (don't attack where they are, position yourself where you think they will be, trust me you should get good at this after a while). Also learn to Perfect Shield and learn to time attacks out of that in case they hit you with something that can be punished when you approach. Some of your attacks may be very good on your opponent, quick Aerial Attacks, maybe a Dashing Grab, Dash Attack, you'll learn what works on which characters when you play enough and pay attention to what's going on.
3. There's a lot of good ways to cover options, usually dropping your Banana rather than Tossing it works wonders, if they side-step the banana will be at their feet when the invincibility frames run out and they'll slip giving you an opportunity to B-air them as you cross them up, but a N-air or other attack may be better setup. After you score a hit look to get your grab or follow up with more attacks.
4. Don't ban Battlefield, Diddy has so many fun shenanigans on that stage, learn them. Stage bans are for the weak anyway, learn to be good on all Stages. Wreck your opponent when they think they'll get an advantage on you taking you to their favorite Stage. Only ban stages that shouldnt' be in a competition, you know the ones that have environmental damage and are there to satisfy the scrubs' hopes that they might win through luck. That ain't you, you're the competitive champion, ban those Stages and declare they aren't fit for real competition.
5. Not sure what the question is actually. Tips on how to play against better people or tips for the better people how to beat you. I mean, both seem a bit odd to answer. Like how to play against better people: Get better. For the people better than you: Keep doing what you do and also get better. I mean there is the idea you could counterpick them to some ridiculously casual Stage and hope that a random Stage Hazard nets you a win, but that's not going to get you better that's just going to game the odds and get salty when it doesn't work and just reinforce the use of bad stages when it does work. Lose-lose situation for a competitive champ.
6. Limits on the Monkey Flip: IF you kick you will not be able to Up+Special recover, so don't do it unless you have your jump and can recover without and it'd help knock opponent/projectile away. Just Forward+Special and get back to the Stage, nothing too limiting or random about it. Abuse it to it's full potential, you can do multiple F+spec because if you get hit after doing one you get to use it again, so for this reason make it a first option recovery tool. In contrast if you use your jump and get hit you lose that jump.

 

[kk1127]

don't feel like you need to throw your banana right away. if you can save your banana to get a successful trip, it leads into a grab then standard diddy combos. if you're holding a banana and you see a grab opportunity you can still do a monkey flip to get through their shield.

for projectile spammers, try to pull out a banana at a safe distance then dash a small distance then shield. repeat until you're close enough to trip them
for defensive players your best bet is monkey flip if they're shielding and banana to cover their roll. if you can read their roll it could lead into a f-smash or grab
heres a good tactic to go from banana throw straight to f-smash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3_vOtY5kCc

jtails made a diddy tutorial video which addresses many of your questions on the technical side
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx37fofVDns
hes one of the best diddys and if you ask him question on youtube he'll probably answer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQXGoh_wSrc (for glory)

mechanics are the same between 3ds and wii u so don't worry about any differences

he streams a few times a week also
http://www.twitch.tv/jtails

for stages, i'd say to go for stages with multiple platforms like battlefield and town and city
the platforms will allow diddy to go for u-airs and open up a wider range of options
stages that diddy can walljump like duck hunt can also be beneficial

the only way to get beat opponents better than you is to PRACTICE
you can also always look at pro games all over youtube, theres a lot of tournament videos out there considering the abundance of diddy mains. look at their strategies, like how they approach, when they use their banana, etc.
against better opponents maybe try to be more patient (maybe?) but still try to stick to the same strategy you would use against anyone else