Finally getting around to posting my, uh, attempts at playing Sheik and failing pretty badly against Spacies and just general. At my weekly I usually end up 3-4 stocking newer players and then the same happening to me when I hit someone who is better than me. Part of it is I don't know the "proper" way to handle a spacie who is a better player than me in terms of mechanics. The two VODS are a week apart from each other.
hhttps://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSFqctzKDYc
https://www.twitch.tv/vermontmelee/v/57477108?t=01h14m53s
I watched both videos through all the way. It looks like you need to practice fundamentals. It looks like you don't have a good grip over your character yet, meaning your movement is sloppy/inefficient, you don't have real punishes, and you don't recover or edge guard well. You identified the problem yourself: You can't beat a spacie player that is better than you in terms of mechanics really. At the level you are playing at, good mechanics is exactly what will win games, so leveling up your mechanics is going to go a long way.
I'll critique your Sheik specific play below but you should definitely read this guide:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SSBM/comments/2jc3gb/nmws_guide_to_getting_good_at_melee/
The most important point is that tech skill is the foundation for good play. You missed L-cancels a lot, rolled a lot, did running turnaround instead of dash/wave dash back, didn't sweet spot up-b, don't JC grab, etc. These are really basic things that will improve your play immensely.
To illuminate this more, I'll give you some specific timestamps from the first game (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSFqctzKDYc)
0:35 - you daired with no purpose, did not l-cancel it. your opponent was above you.
0:46 - got battlefielded, which should pretty much never happen to sheik since her up-b allows you to drift.
0:55 - no sweetspot on your up-b
1:05 - no sweetspot again on your up-b and you get knocked off
Now you're down two stocks, both because of tech flubs.
1:15 the start of a sequence where you roll about 4-5 times. If you stopped rolling after every attack it would have been really easy to grab fox!
1:30 failed waveland onto stage causes you to take a hard punish.
1:44 up-b onto stage again when your opponent didn't challenge the edge at all. luckily you didn't get punished but you were at kill percent.
1:53 up-b onto stage again when your opponent didn't challenge. no punish again.
2:04 good grab but it looks like you didn't really know what to do after you threw
2:33 you start to look like you're doing something but you don't really have a plan.
3:02 you die because you missed your chance to up-b earlier.
So first game analysis: you got 3 stocked, and you lost arguably every single one of your stocks to tech errors. your opponent didn't outplay you by a huge margin - you kind of played yourself. To be fair, it doesn't seem like you know exactly when you can do what and when you can't on stage. You definitely need more experience playing the game in general for that.
I also skimmed through your vs. Mario game and the same things apply.
My recommendation:
Please don't take this the wrong way but you really need to play CPUs with focused tech skill practice. And I really mean that. Practice things like wavedashing across the stage and grabbing a CPU. Practice dash dancing and then grabbing a CPU.
Practice L-cancelling. Practice sweet spotting your up-b. Practice comboing Fox, Marth, Mario, and getting a sense of what moves lead into another.
Another possible recommendation:
Try learning one sheik "trick" every couple weeks or so. Start with this video for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GobMNLBSMR4 and try just executing it on a CPU or something and incorporate it into your play.
A list of some Sheik "tricks"
- Boost Grab
- Nair out of shield (Nair OOS)
- AC Fair
- Reverse Needle
- Shino Stall
- Platform waveland aerial
- Instant upair
Just by attempting to do these you'll get better at tech skill, and by watching / learning about them you'll transitively learn the game because people will talk about when they'll apply in a game. This may be a good kickoff point in learning how to play better.
Probably the best recommendation:
Watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGLubkPnETU
Ask yourself what's going on, what KirbyKaze is even doing. Ask yourself what things he's doing that you should be doing. Watch the first stock over and over again 0:10. What did KK do? Can you do that? If not, how would you learn how to do that?
I could even break it down for you slightly.
1.
KK dash attacks his opponent at low percent and fox is knocked down.
What does he do after this? -> He waits.
What happens? -> Fox rolls
How does he respond? -> He goes to grab Fox again after rolling.
What could I learn from this? At low percent, maybe the best thing to do after dash attacking Fox at low percent is to wait and react.
Will this work? -> Try it, see it done by other good players, verify it works well.
2.
KK just down threw Fox at after pummeling once 34%
What does he do after this? -> He waits.
What happens? -> Fox does a tech roll
How does he respond? -> He tech-chases Fox
What could I learn from this? -> (Successful) Tech chasing means waiting first and then reacting to Fox's tech options. Pummeling is a good way to build up percent at ~30%.
Will this work? -> Tech chasing is done by Sheiks at every level to build up percent. It worked because KK reacted in time but it might not work if I don't.
Skipping forward to the third tech chase
3. KK just tech chased with dash attack instead of grab at 52%
What does he do after this? -> up-tilt, up-tilt, dash attack ,fair, charge needles ,in that order.
What happens? -> At first, fox gets popped up by the up-tilt. After the second up-tilt, Fox gets sent to KK's right. KK then ddash attacks to his right to catch him. Fox pops straight up and KK fairs him and secures a kill off of the side at 102%
How does he respond? -> He combos the Fox off of the dash attack tech chase
What could I learn from this? -> Tech chasing with dash attack is a good way to start a combo. Up-tilt after dash attack works. If the first up-tilt doesn't send them anywhere, a second one works. If they get sent away, I can follow up with dash attack which will pop them up and fair them.
Will this work? -> It just did, but there are situations where it might not. For example, there is DI to take into account. Maybe I could look at more videos of Sheik tech chasing Fox with dash attack to see what else could work.
This is a silly over-exaggerated way of looking at videos, especially since a lot of the knowledge already exists. There are also other questions you could ask, but keep in mind that implementing anything you want to execute requires you to have the skill to do it, so mastering that first is crucial.
