Thug (me)
vs
- Static Gorilla
- and Bobby O
- and ZSTR
- and Complexcity
http://www.twitch.tv/gameandbros/b/655286598?t=54m
The matches are all one after the other starting at 54 minutes. If they release the individual matches on youtube I'll edit this post, but for now it's just me sitting down at the bottom of losers bracket and fighting my way to game 5 of losers finals.
Things I realized after watching my matches:
-I get nervous and make dumb mistakes. this was my first tournament I actually won a match in, and my second tournament overall. I suicide more than once, and fish for moves that I know won't hit when I'm calm.
-I need to practice my matchups more. So many whiffed projectiles on a moving shiek, whiffed up smashes that would have hit a larger character on mario, megaman, and ness.
-I opt to pull a bomb rather than rushing in with a better option that would yield an earlier kill.
I am looking for any critique you beautiful links can give me! I want to win the next tournament in 2 weeks as link.
You need to whiff fewer grabs. Just hit yourself over the head every time you whiff a grab. You missed 3 in the game against Sheik, and another 4 against Mario on FD. And boy did it cost you! Then when you did grab Sheik at low percents after you shielded one of his Usmashes, you used Uthrow and didn’t get a follow-up. What a waste! You might as well have punished with a simple job combo then: more damage! Grabs aren’t particularly good punishes for Link either, since our grab pay-off is as bad as our grab. The last note for our grab is that it is slow too, so you could see at 1:24:04 that the Mario Dsmashed you before your grab came out – yeah, that happens. Just grab less and more wisely. Link’s grab *and* his grab pay-off suck.
Then you also Usmashed on shield twice: even more severe. You use Usmash too much while your opponent is on stage – basically only use it on airborne opponents.
Whenever you SH nair and don’t hit anything, even when it is shielded, you roll predictably after it. Complexity’s Mario got you for it by Dsmashing it once. Watch out with the rolls, really do.
Another note: when your opponent jumps into you while you’re holding a bomb, just do a quick jump-cancelled back throw away from him. Now you kept trading hits with the aerial by throwing it in front of you without movements.
Close-up the game of you and your opponents too often becomes a trading mess of spotdodges or rolls. Calm down, think, jump more in those situations and use jab wisely. Turn around jab is a simple tool that works well against rolls behind you.
The most punishable thing you do is waste your double jump fast every time you jump off-stage. Nobody did anything with it, but whenever you get Fthrown offstage (see the Ness match for example) you jump immediately. Mix up your recovery, and treat your double jump as holy. I point again towards sasook’s recovery guide I linked just before.
I worked up the courage to post the recent matches I had on Smash Ladder with someone I met who wanted to stream, so I thought I'd post it here for critique. I'm sorry if it's not the best, but I guess it's better than having terrible quality with my phone.
Storm Erion (Link) vs Himanattsuu (Charizard, Palutena, Falco) Online friendlies, May 13th
http://www.twitch.tv/himanattsuu/b/658715228
It's pretty long, I don't expect anyone to watch the whole thing.
I'm really shy, so I was kind of nervous because it was being streamed, even though there weren't a lot of viewers, but I did the best I could.
Hopefully I'm not an FG Link or anything like that...
Lol, you’re not FG Link, don’t worry about that! It’s difficult to comment since you generally did so well, especially against Charizard. Notable is that some character knowledge seems lacking: when the Charizard first Side Bd on your shield you tried a Dsmash punish up close, for example (dash attack works). Or when the Palutena countered at 20:38, you Dsmashd right into it despite the fact that you saw it, because you didn’t know the counter was so slow and lasted so long. Up close you nervously spotdodge and Utilt a lot. Bad habit. Utilt has a rather small hitbox in front, so don’t use it in those situations. You throw out too many careless smashes and grabs too, and then afterwards you spotdodge or roll predictably. Tech more consistently. Mostly, your neutral is just fine for now. It’s under pressure you see some very bad habits appearing: don’t button mash, don’t make it so messy, just stay calm. You’ll likely notice that against a player you have more trouble with, but not for now.
Hey guys,
This is a set from my first ever tournament, and I think it went alright.
Papes
vs. MG_Music
Tournament 12 May 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3E6MLpdkJQ
I play against a ROB, but there are a few things I notice. Most notably, throughout the whole tournament, well, at least the sets I played, I commonly found myself with a lead, especially with one stock left. However, I'm just not able to close out that last stock. This happened in friendlies as well. It's very frustrating. For example, I played a ROB later in friendlies where I had a 130% lead on the last stock but still lost. I just can't seem to close out, and any tips would be very much appreciated.
Secondly, since smash 4 is my first smash game that I am focusing on competitively, I do need to work on my spacing, especially with my boomerang. It definitely seems like I was trying to throw the boomerang when the opponent was in too close of proximity. Any advice on how close is too close for the boomerang? Furthermore, with z-air, beyond being predictable of course, how frequently should that be used? Or is it just based on play-style?
There are still a few rolling issues I need to fix, but some of those rolls were just first tournament nerves and accidental.
Overall, I am very open to any and all criticisms. I am only looking to improve so really lay it on thick please!
1. You need to watch your punish game. You kept missing grabs (1:19, 3:24, 3:29, 12:17) because your grab is slow, has difficulty grabbing people in the air, and because you overestimated its range. You miss a grab 5:20 for no reason, since all the ROB does when being juggled is jump away (wasted opportunity). See the same at 12:02, when you try to catch an airdodge with an Usmash, which he never does. Just jump after him with an Uair. (Which you did try at 12:05 but which won’t work well with Uthrow because of how high the opponent will get: better anticipate his landing then.) Note too that on the slanted edge of Halberd and Lylat (like at 11:25) our grab’ll never work well. When you did grab him at 5:31 you Fthrowd him while he was at 14%, which is a waste too. Uthrow and Dthrow offer some juggling opportunities while Bthrow is still better for sheer spacing opportunities (i.e. don’t ever fthrow). You could see even at 7:49 that Fthrow is basically worthless.
Also you kept trying to punish things you couldn’t, and getting punished back for it (0:34, 1:08, especially the fsmash on shield at 3:42 and the dsmash on shield at 4:28). For damage a jab combo is basically the same as a Dsmash, why the haste?
2. You need to read into him a bit better. He generally didn’t tech after your jabs like at 5:37, but you kept your normal game running and just threw a boomerang after immediately, instead of taking advantage of the very readable roll towards you. If you had charged a Dsmash you could have had a lot of damage. Again at 6:54 you have an easy to read roll yet you Fsmash him in front of you – in what conditions could that Fsmash have hit? If he dropped his shield? He never does it in such a situation except to spotdodge or roll. If you had Dsmashed there you would have covered far more options and gotten the back roll. He also kept Dairing when in the air: you should have just jumped up towards him to bait it, then double jumped for an Uair. (You get him for it at 10:43) Watch the third game here and see how the Luigi adapted to his R.O.B.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb1dAF23c7o
You should jab more in close range against people who spotdodge and roll a lot in that slightly nervous manner. Throwing a jab out there or turn around jab when he rolls behind you is all that is necessary.
3. You're too greedy with the boomerang. It's really sluggish and laggy. If you're going off against a heavier camper (Megaman, ROB, that sort of thing) use it wisely. Gyro stops it, sadly. The standard boomerang > arrow thing is also very questionable, especially when the boomerang is shielded. You can throw the boomerang up close just fine, but that’s when the opponent rolls in to you or when you throw it out of a dash away and pivot to hit him when he dashes towards you. You kept throwing it right on his shield, which will never be useful. I think you used Zair just fine this game.
4. You might want to improve your tech game. It was not important here you but you missed far too much and could suffer for it a lot some other time.
You cite another R.O.B. as to failing to get a kill in which is all too typical – it is simply difficult against R.O.B. Just keep laying on the damage, an opportunity will open up eventually. I had the exact same thing recently against an R.O.B. in tournament until finally he rolled into my Utilt after patient pressuring. You had difficulty with this R.O.B. too simply because the MU is difficult and because you weren’t patient enough in places. I recommend watching the Scizor match against Perfect_Edge (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1ADRD_G8s4 ) because that is how the MU is ideally played, sadly. In game 1 everything is neutral, and Scizor is clearly the superior player. In game 2 you can see what being too aggressive against a R.O.B. who takes advantage in the MU yields. In game 3 Scizor is forced to time him out…
At a recent tourney Cat finally happened to play some tourney matches on my Wii U so there's some footage of him now. The game against Bowser shows why not to waste your double jump when recovering.
Catana
vs
23 May 2015 Tournament
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DUefZ5IC_I
Catana
vs Skippo
23 May 2015 Tournament
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtAqL-vN2-k
Another one is to come, & one where I get wrecked as requested.
