Scrub's first thread

[Cummings]

Hi guys, names hydrozoid or B-, and ive been playing melee for like 8 years like every other scrub in the world, but i never really knew about any advanced techniques until around last october. After so long, it was really difficult to eliminate so many bad habits, and on top of that i spent a hell of alot of time fighting lvl 9s, which actually made me worse over time. so now im in remission, and making a genuine effort to play other people as well as improve, blah blah blah.

so i finally got a capture card, and organized a little "tournament" in my dorm to play everyone and see where i stood. after wrecking everyone, this was the grand finals. keep in mind that this match was 1) the first thing i ever recorded(no audio) and 2) a high intensity match to me(and the other guy) as there were around 15 other people watching and yelling ect...meaning this was generally my best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OceWrFNvoS4&feature=youtu.be

so after watching the vid a bunch of times, ive come to recognize a bunch of things i need to work on, including-
-when to use bair or nair( i feel like they accomplish the same thing..)
-double jumping on stage
-LHDL
-SHL instead of dashdancing
-up tilt (obvious @10:00)
-L cancelling with hitbox (i don't always know for sure if the move will hit, so i just kinda guess the LC timing sometimes)
-grab distance
-waveshining

I've read enouph on here regarding tech skill and how to practice it, thats just a matter of time before its "like breathing"(i practice often daily), so what id really like to hear about are tactics and other stuffs.

but obviously i know nothing- so i'd really just love to know what to do and where to go and basically whatever you feel i should know. thanks a bunch!

 

[wezai]

If you practice a lot you can become very good. All right, I'll try to provide feedback:

-Get to know spacing better, sometimes you are caught off-guard too easily. Also, try to be more objective, I know spamming tech skills is good to keep you warmed up, but when you don't do it objectively you get punished. Example: 2:20 Young Link was above the platform throwing an arrow at you, even though you knew he was up there, you used your blaster which was all right since there's no lag to get out of it, but then you did a D-air* at the arrow, and got a free hit because of it. To do L-canceling when you hit the arrow on the ground is the same as when you are doing L-cancel against shield, it has a slight different timing than normally. You could have used shield if the L-cancelling happened. But the overall idea is trying to avoid doing that kind of move, it puts you against all the odds.
-You need to work on your power-shielding and shield-grabbing, I didn't see you trying to do it at all. They work really well against YL.
-At 1:11 you could have punished Young Link more efficiently instead of using his Forward-B.
-When your enemy is rolling or teching, try to chase them more often.
-You need to be more aware of your combo follow ups, at 1:21 you could have grabbed link, used U-tilt or shined after that reverse B-air.
-Trying using shine to lose momentum when you are thrown off-stage, it helps you to do your recoveries easier. Also, be aware of when you don't have your second jump and you are trying to recover, so you will be prepared to tech the ledge's wall or to use Fire Bird as fast as you can. Believe me, it will save you a lot and help you to maintain your stocks for a longer time.

I hope this can help you to become a better smasher! It's good that you can recognize by yourself things you can improve upon after watching your videos. Always remember that with a lot of hard training you can beat anyone.

I'm going to buy a capture card soon and I'll post a few YouTube tutorial videos for Falco, and methods of training. Let's hope everything goes all right.

Anyway, good luck!

P.S: Awesome avatar! Onion Head is dah boss. ;p

 

[Cummings]

thanks wezai, thats all pretty solid advice. however i don't understand two things. the first being your spacing address.... fricken spacing. the only thing i cant learn in a tutorial. i know what you mean when talking about the arrow ordeal (I actually didnt know that arrows produced sheild-like hitlag) but what do you mean by "the overall idea is trying to avoid doing that kind of move" ? do you mean avoid doing an un LCed move? or like a move that sets me in the open? or that i should have naired rather than baired?

also, what do you mean by powersheilding and shield-grabbing? and why exactly are they extra effective against YL?

other than that thanks alot, ill keep this all in mind while practicing!

 

[wezai]

thanks wezai, thats all pretty solid advice. however i don't understand two things. the first being your spacing address.... fricken spacing. the only thing i cant learn in a tutorial. i know what you mean when talking about the arrow ordeal (I actually didnt know that arrows produced sheild-like hitlag) but what do you mean by "the overall idea is trying to avoid doing that kind of move" ? do you mean avoid doing an un LCed move? or like a move that sets me in the open? or that i should have naired rather than baired?

What I meant by avoiding to do that kind of move is like, doing an attack that will put your guard off. For example, you knew he was above the platform, so doing a D-air in the arrow isn't going to do anything but to put you in a bad position. xD

Spacing is positioning yourself in a such a way that no matter what your enemy will do, you will be able to somewhat dodge or wavedash out of it and counter with something. Spacing is also making a good use of your attack ranges without being in an uncomfortable position. Like, SHL'ing your enemy at the right range which he won't be able to Shield-grab you, but you can still do an attack and hit him like F-tilt or normal attack.

also, what do you mean by powersheilding and shield-grabbing? and why exactly are they extra effective against YL?

other than that thanks alot, ill keep this all in mind while practicing!

Power-shielding is when you use your shield at the exact moment of the attack, thus, reflecting anything your opponent threw at you (it's when you use your shield and you see that "white flash" popping out. It's very effective, has no lag and you can immediately do something after power-shielding. It's effective against YL because his sword swings take awhile do complete the animation, so power-shielding renders him helpless.

Shield-grabbing is using your shield to defend an attack, then while still holding your shield button (R or L), you press A. That will cause your character to perform a grab out of shield. This is sweet considering it has many uses.

Hope that helps.

 

[Twinkles]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFShSzgYsDA#t=1m44s

For spacing, watch for about 2-3 seconds
replay the video multiple times if you have to

notice when the falco dairs into the fox's shield, he pulls back a little, and when the fox tries to grab him, falco is already out of range and fox eats the fsmash

i think this is the best example of spacing anyone could show you

 

[wezai]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFShSzgYsDA#t=1m44s

For spacing, watch for about 2-3 seconds
replay the video multiple times if you have to

notice when the falco dairs into the fox's shield, he pulls back a little, and when the fox tries to grab him, falco is already out of range and fox eats the fsmash

i think this is the best example of spacing anyone could show you

Yes! After that D-air most players will try to shield-grab Falco. But Falco went to such a position that Fox couldn't do anything but eat his smash attack after a failed attempt of shield-grabbing.

 

[Problem2]

in essense, what I think Wezai is trying to say about the whole d-airing the arrow is don't throw out moves because you can. Make your moves count for something, give them purpose.

 

[Cummings]

oh ok thanks problem. that really clarifies it actually.
when i play very often a single line or quote from somewhere on smashboards will echo in my head as a kind of reminder or whatever you wanna call it, so that really helps actually because i think it'll "echo" well. haha idunno if that makes sense but i guess it works for me.(or at least im hoping so)

 

[Falcario]

Looks like you're on your way to becoming a good player. You have decent mobility with lasers, you LC most aerials, and have some ground mobility (mixing dashes with wavedashes). I would suggest getting down the L-canceled dair to shine when you approach, it can be tough to handle for your opponent and can put on some good shield pressure. Also, just keeping keeping an eye on how close Nick gets to you, making sure he is just out of reach (I know some people already mentioned spacing above, but, it's important).

Be careful how good you get! It won't take long for you to surpass your competition even more than you already have just by practicing what you learn from these threads. Then you'll crave better competitors which you won't have access to. Your opponent, Nick, didn't use L-canceling which made his Dairs very punishable. (no offense Nick...)

Until then, wreck or demoralize everyone you play.

 

[Jasou]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agP0vAoN8MA&feature=bf_next&list=PL173B3F8442A5C4EF
I think no one in this thread addressed LHDL yet. Here's a very specific short guide on doing it while having both lazers hit the opponent.