Went to a tournament today that only 13 people entered and got 4th place. The second person I fought in winners (who ended up winning the tournament) used Peach. We were on our last stocks, he was at about 130%, and I was around 30%. While using side special, either he slipped out of it or bounced off of it or something, and I suicided because Meta Knight couldn't grab the damn ledge. Really ****ing hate that aspect to his side special. Couldn't believed that happened at that moment. Including friendlies and tournament matches, I think that was my only suicide with Meta Knight the whole tournament. Second match he used Captain Falcon (probably because he was doing best with Captain Falcon against me in friendlies) and the match didn't end well. I think I was so pissed off at the last match that it just hurt my confidence or something. I just flat out wasn't playing my best that match and didn't really care because I knew it was unlikely I was going to beat his Captain Falcon two games in a row.
Next match in losers was little kid I 2-0'd, the match afterwards was another Captain Falcon player I 2-0'd, and the next player was a Sonic player I 2-0'd. The person I fought afterwards was someone who was pissed when he found out I was going to fight him because I usually beat him in friendlies but he ended up taking the first game off of me using Mario. So I switched to Diddy Kong and ended up beating him in the next two games, with the last game being a very close match (his Lylat Cruise counter-pick was a smart choice).
The next person I fought used Sonic and I beat him, so he switched to Little Mac and chose FD. The match was super close and surprisingly, I lost despite always beating him with Meta Knight in friendlies that tournament. I found it hilarious I beat his Sonic which is one of Meta Knight's worst matchups, yet lost the second match to one of Meta Knight's best matchups. I almost never fight that character and he was the second decent Little Mac player I've ever fought, so I don't know the matchup well where as I fight Sonic players all the time. For the third game, I should've stuck with Meta Knight but switched to Diddy Kong and got 2-0'd in that match.
It's so frustrating Diddy Kong is so ground based for kills now. I feel like I practically need to relearn Diddy Kong in how to fight much of the roster because a lot of my past strategies flat out don't work anymore and he was the only character that got nerfed to this extent with the last balance patch. All the other characters that got nerfed anywhere close to this extent was nerfed before the Wii U game even came out, so it's obnoxious I have to deal with this so long after the game's initial release. I feel like the developers purposely nerfed him to this extent because he was the most hated character in the game, which made the game look bad. Yet all Shiek got that was a hard nerf was her back air, while all of Diddy's best moves got massively nerfed except down tilt. I hate this balance patch sooooooooo much. It's so unfair to Diddy mains that Shiek had her frame data left alone, yet Diddy's forward smash's frame data got worse. But Shiek is the likeable top tier character and Diddy Kong wasn't, so it was a smart choice in terms of making the game look more appealing to a lot of players.
It's worth mentioning I completely forgot who was the first person I fought, so it's possible one of the people I think I fought in losers was actually in the winners bracket. I have a lousy memory. -_- Regardless, I'm happy with how I did and feel confident that I would've gotten third place if I didn't switch to Diddy in that final match. Some people act like I should just stick with Meta Knight, but honestly, I feel like I wouldn't have gotten third if I stuck with just Meta Knight and Diddy Kong is still my favorite character in the game.
Sometimes I wonder if it's worth continuing to play this game competitively because I don't love it anymore. I'm a very defensive player, yet I feel this game is becoming too defensive because approaching is so risky in this game now thanks to both balance patches. This game can never go back to three stocks because the viewers would become bored out of their minds, which sucks because I've grown to hate two stocks. Some people have the mentality that people should always treat every stock as if it's their last, but it just leads people to play way more conservatively and be scared to take any risks. It's obnoxious. Just thank god this game doesn't have Brawl's air dodging mechanics where you could hardly combo at all, or else a lot of matches in game would just result in time out. I miss pre-patch Smash 3DS which felt more like a middle ground between Brawl and Melee, but had leaning toward Brawl. Now it feels like it has a strong leaning toward Brawl and I do not like that at all.
Edit-
After today, I would also appreciate hearing more information on the Mario matchup.
Edit-
I take back one of my claims that down tilt was Diddy Kong's only best move left alone because for whatever reason, I forgot about bananas. lol Thank god they left that alone. It was already massively nerfed compared to Brawl.