Good stuff guys. I'm wondering where we go from here. Should we wait for more footage of our edgeguarding theorycraft being put into use in real matches, or is it kind of silly to expect that to get done anytime soon? I would like to move on to a new topic, but I feel like we have little evidence that anything we've discussed here actually works aside from our own educated opinions on the matter. I would feel much more comfortable saying we've done a thorough job with this topic if we had something to show for it besides interesting discussion and good ideas. A larger body of relevant footage to analyze would certainly help us resolve some of the differences in opinion we've encountered so far, like disputes over the best use of prep time or the best way to cover high options from the ledge. In my eyes, the best kind of support you can offer for your theories is footage of them actually working in game.
At the same time, I recognize that we can't expect footage of very specific circumstances to just appear out of nowhere. Spending too much time on one thing will stagnate discussion and hamper us in the long run. A lot of information has come to light regarding how to go about edgeguarding spacies, and although we have reached few concrete conclusions, I think we may now be able to provide satisfying answers to the questions I identified at the beginning of the topic. As a reminder:
1) In general, when is it best to edgeguard a spacie from the ledge and when are you better off staying on stage? Consider variables that will produce a unique or varied "recovery decision tree" like whether or not they have a double jump, whether or not they will need to use their double jump, the varying heights at which they can choose to side-B or up-B when recovering high or on stage, and whether or not they are in a position to recover with a non-standard option as a mix-up, like riding the wall to sweetspot from below, shortening to ledge from above, or airdodging up to grab ledge.
2) Depending on their percent and DI, a spacie may get sent at varying angles and end up in various locations offstage against Young Link. Because of this, a spacie may take a longer or shorter amount of time tumble down into a range where he can attempt to get back on stage or to the ledge by committing to an option. This means you will have a varying amount of prep time to pull bombs, throw boomerangs, take ledge, or charge a smash attack based on how long it takes for a spacie to enter your sphere of influence, including possible shinestalls and the start up of Firefox or Illusion. Given x amount of prep time and y "recovery decision tree" circumstances (see above), what is the optimal configuration of projectiles you should throw (or otherwise prepare, in the case of a bomb or a charged arrow) to cover the most options and lead to the best chance of a successful edgeguard.
3) At what point does the reward of going out after a spacie to edgeguard them proactively (by trying to hit them out of their up-B, side-B, or double jump as opposed to waiting onstage or at the ledge to edgeguard them reactively) outweigh the risk of screwing up and getting counter-edgeguarded yourself or, at the very least, giving up stage control? What moves should you use when attempting a proactive edgeguard that will be non-committal enough minimize your risk in case of failure while still being strong enough to achieve a positive result (either ending the edgeguard with a kill or ending up in a position to reasonably continue the edgeguard assuming good reaction time, solid execution, and perfect decision making) if executed successfully? Consider the variables that contribute to the various different "recovery decision tree" circumstances as mentioned in the above two questions. Also consider whether or not you have a bomb or time to pull one.
So here's where I need your input, guys. Regarding the current topic, is there anything that someone else brought up that you feel still needs to be discussed or elaborated upon? Is there anything we haven't discussed at all yet that you think is important to the topic of edgeguarding spacies? Do you feel like we're ready to move on given what we've done, or should we just keep talking about this for a while and analyze some more footage? If you do think we should move on, what topic should we look into next?
On a completely unrelated but still important note, I think I found the most efficient way to plant bombs on the field. Although this isn't directly related to edgeguarding spacies, if for whatever reason you want to lay as many bombs as possible as quickly as possible, you should make use of a platform and do some full hop bomb pull slide off bomb plants. This allows you to pull and set a bomb in only one jump. If you're starting on a platform, then you can do the same thing out of a short hop. As far as I know using this method to get a bomb on each edge of a platform is the quickest way to get two bombs on the field. Unless someone else knows of a faster way to plant multiple bombs, in which case I'm all ears.
http://gfycat.com/AnxiousGrouchyHatchetfish
As you can see with the second bomb in the gfy above, you can also do this on the outer edge of a platform to lay a bomb on the platform and then take ledge immediately afterwards. Although a stationary preemptive bomb is easier for the spacie to avoid than one thrown reactively from the ledge, maybe a bomb left on the platform could be an alternative solution to YL's problem with covering high options from the ledge. Probably not though. Either way, you should definitely practice this. If you wanted to use this to set up for an edgeguard, it would probably look something like this:
http://gfycat.com/UnfortunateShimmeringBinturong
In the gfy above, after planting the first bomb, I had to walk forward to get to the right spacing to do the second short hop back bomb pull slide off bomb plant. However, that's actually suboptimal. This set-up would be a few frames faster if you wavelanded left to the exact right spacing after the first bomb plant so you could immediately start your short hop back for the second bomb plant instead of having to waste time on the walk. Unfortunately I'm bad at this character so I'm not really technical enough to pull that off. You guys can grind it though! Optimized Young Link sure is technically demanding, sheesh.
Alternatively, instead of planting the second bomb on the ledge, you could waveland back after the first bomb plant and do a
slide-off up-B with the momentum from the waveland as your preemptive side-B coverage. This is more in line with our current edgeguarding flowchart, except instead of having the bomb in hand to potentially cover a high option, the bomb has already been planted on the platform ahead of time. If you have enough time, you could also max distance waveland toward center stage upon landing from the first bomb plant, then dash toward the ledge and do the
short hop bomb pull slide off up-B ledge grab, which is the best of both worlds but also time consuming and technically demanding.
