So what makes Armada's movement so good?

[Moocowalex]

Armada himself has said that one of the reasons that separates himself from other peach players is that he moves faster and better peaches, and that he does more damage when he finds an opening. I'm sure most people agree with this, but I was just wondering if there are any specific things to Armada's movement that would be beneficial to try to imitate (not exactly IMITATE, but you get the idea. It's good to be original and creative but why not pick up some things from the best peach in the world? ). Of course you can't know exactly what he's thinking all the time during matches but we still get to see how he moves, but watching him play and then trying to emulate it are two completely different things.

How he moves likely changes based on who and what character he is playing against but I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it. Of course I can see him dash dancing with wavedashes mixed in, and how he recovers from the ledge, or recovering while stuck in the parasol, but if anyone had any insight on how to just move "better" or more safely it would be appreciated ^_^

This question might be impossible to answer just because of how subjective the question is. (what is "better"?)

And no one here probably recognizes me at all, but I've played all smash games for years. I started playing brawl sort of competitively for a few years (and spent countless hours doing target test in brawl >.>) and now I've switched to melee, which I've played since middle school, but only recently started playing with becoming competitive in mind. Used to post on the Brawl Peach forums here but I'll probably start posting here now.

 

[Dr. Cannon]

One thing Armada does besides dash dance and wavedash effectively is use the double-jump cancel effectively. For example, he uses it to cover M2K's tech options after he nairs to punish an upsmash at around 3:48 in the first match of Super Sweet finals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAgWVVhXmGw

He also does the same thing to cover options after a missed tech at like 2:35. Also, the commentary in this video is really hilarious imo. The DJC stops Armada's momentum quickly, so that he has the option to turn around and dash attack quickly if M2K rolls behind him. In case you didn't know the DJC is pressing X/Y > X/Y in quick succession while on the ground. You have to do it pretty fast. I find it easier if I use the hard part of my thumb (opposite the knuckle) so that you can release the first X/Y faster. You could also try X >Y or Y>X.

 

[Nocki]

One thing Armada does besides dash dance and wavedash effectively is use the double-jump cancel effectively. For example, he uses it to cover M2K's tech options after he nairs to punish an upsmash at around 3:48 in the first match of Super Sweet finals.

He also does the same thing to cover options after a missed tech at like 2:35.

Those are both wavedashes o.o; Unless I'm blind. Also, DJC on the ground still makes the 2nd jump sound, and wavedash just makes the 1st jump sound. Rewatch it and listen to what sound she makes. I've noticed that he does wavedash dash attacks to cover space since its faster than just dashing the first gap of space, but yea, afaik those aren't DJ cancels.

Some minor things that help improve overall movement, are knowing how to short and long wavedash consistently (mind you peach's shorter wavedash is really friggen short), actually L cancelling when you double jump cancel into an aerial, working on maneuvering on and off of platforms quickly (eg. wavedashing off of platforms into float, onto the ground, edge cancels, etc...). I've noticed that the higher level of play you get with this game, the more the little things matter.

 

[Moocowalex]

Yeah, I didn't notice any DJC stuff in the two spots you pointed out, except for maybe one nair in the middle somewhere, but I get what you mean. I've been trying to watch lots of Armada videos and just absorb everything but it's hard to take in and actually comprehend everything, personally. I do know he uses wavedashes (forward to cover ground, or backward while trying to bait an attack) in combination with dash attacks and other things.

I'm no complete newbie, I can wavedash and all that jazz but still mess up occasionally... although, I had been playing on an HD TV for a long time and only just picked up a CRT yesterday, and amazingly my wavedashing and l-cancelling problems seem to be have pretty much mostly gone away, somehow. I guess it just seems more natural when there's less lag. Today I spent a good amount of time just trying to move around quickly, onto and off platforms, from the edge, etc. It seemed to help a bit.

My problem is just using it effectively in a match. I dash dance and wavedash in between stocks just to practice a bit but after that I tend to freeze up a bit and not use them as much. I probably just need to be more mindful about everything. I've just started going to weekly meetups that they have in my city but other than that I wasn't playing much more than 1 person and he played jigglypuff, so it's a lot different than most matchups by far. I think just sitting down and playing someone better than me over and over would definitely help because it will basically tell me exactly what is effective and what isn't, lol. There's a tournament tomorrow and I'll see how many people I can play

 

[Dr. Cannon]

Awkward...

 

[DoH]

At 3:48 is just an instant nair OOS. The other is just a WD.

Armada has exceptional movement. He is so freaking fast. He can shield drop consistently. He has incredible responses to shield pressure. He uses the wavedash and other spacing of moves (like dtilt) to accelerate her movement and positioning to put him in places for hard punishes.

 

[Moocowalex]

At 3:48 is just an instant nair OOS. The other is just a WD.

Armada has exceptional movement. He is so freaking fast. He can shield drop consistently. He has incredible responses to shield pressure. He uses the wavedash and other spacing of moves (like dtilt) to accelerate her movement and positioning to put him in places for hard punishes.

Yeah... He moves so insanely fast for a peach. I'm trying to work on getting fast but it's a slow process haha. Yup, he's been shield dropping a lot lately, I'm interested in how pro players do it so quickly. During a match they are pressing buttons and moving the control sticks so quickly, but shielding dropping seems like it would need a slow movement, but perhaps you can just flick the control stick a certain distance and it would shield drop, instead of sidestepping or just tilting your shield.

I guess it's fairly obvious WHY Armada's movement is so good, it's pretty obvious just from seeing how fast he is. The intricacy lies in what he decides to do and when. I can use wavedashing and the like for spacing but it's not nearly as effective as when he seems to do. I guess it's just the years and years of practice and his expertise.

I like to consider myself fairly decent but it's always so baffling how players like Armada are so amazing.

 

[g_f]

shield dropping is really easy if you fully tilt your shield in an horizontal direction and just rotate the control stick down a notch. if you notice armada's shield is always fully oriented towards left/right right before peach shield drops.

 

[Moocowalex]

Hm, interesting. I figured there was something like that but just hadn't experimented to find it.

So then the "difficult" part of shield dropping is just tilting your shield in a horizontal direction without rolling? Rather worrying about getting in between tilting your shield and sidestepping, to shield drop successfully.

Unless you move the analog stick while you are performing another action, so that the shield tilt is already done when you finish that action, without any worry.

I was actually attempting to do the Marth Light Shield edgeguard and was failing miserably because I wouldn't grab the ledge fast enough, but I think my problem was solved whenever I realized you could hold z and right (or left) while rolling and you would come out already holding a tilted light shield..... lol. Never seemed to come across that information somehow.

 

[g_f]

yes the easiest method to fully angle your shield without rolling would be either doing so while performing another action, or by inputting a dash by fully tilting your stick and cancelling it into shield asap into shield drop.