I’m doing something a bit different this week. 3 weeks in and already changing shit up. Just kidding, this isn’t huge. I’m just writing this closer to the 2 events I want to write about because they’re fresh in my mind and I think it will help me recall them better. I’m also really motivated which is good. I also used the term “events” instead of tournaments. I was lucky enough to get a grind session this week. I usually will get a few friendlies in with this person before Denver tourneys but this was just multiple hours of friendlies in a row.
IPA. The Denver weekly I first went to last week. I really love this tourney. Gonna remember to eat beforehand next time because I got food there and… let’s just say I miss Buffalo. My first match was against Jesus. Jesus was PR back in the day and he’s a damn good Mario. I’ve only ever beat 2 people ever on the Denver PR and I have a huge problem with them. Robber, a player from my region, told me I could take him and I think I could have. Game 1 came down to last hit last stock. I made one crucial mistake. I committed to an UpSmash in a last-hit scenario and got Mario F smashed. A similar thing happened in game 2. I made 2 mistakes. Committing in a last hit scenario.
I played 1truenoob again after that. Not much to say. Same result as last time.
Next was vs a Snake/Falco. He went Sanke game 1. I was messing him up. We ended up in a final stock scenario and I missed my drop-off ledge, jump, teleport to mid-stage. I didn’t jump and died at like 11. That hurt. I think he knew he was outmatched and even though he won game 1, he switched to Falco. I won game 2 pretty solid. I think it was a 2 stock. Game 3 broke my soul. I was going insane. I was up 2 stocks to 1 when he spikes me at like 30. Alright, he’s at kill % and I have a fresh stock. He starts getting a lot of momentum but I DIDN’T PANIC which was good. I get comboed to like 70 something and get sent off stage. I try to recover low but I somehow lost my jump. I was so ahead and lost because of a lost jump. That sucked. I lost that whole set because of minor mistakes. I was so angry but I kept it in. I very hastily got up but did a fist bump and all that. I didn’t want to talk to anyone though so I immediately left the venue. I don’t ever want to take out my anger on others.
I took a walk after that. I love Denver. It’s such a cool city. Lotta gentrification but it’s beautiful. I walked down these beautiful alleys covered in art I assume made within the last year because the subject matter had a lot to do with the unrest last summer. I listened to a few songs but then stopped. I then put all my attention to what just happened and why I lost. I can point out 4 specific mistakes and aside from that, I was probably playing some of the best smash I have ever played. Seriously though. I was playing really well but still went 1-2 because of simple mistakes and I think that is alright. Improvement isn’t always going to be visible with results I think. These 4 mistakes are going to fuel me to not make them happen in the future and then I’ll win those sets.
The mistakes specifically were, committing too hard in a last stock scenario. The Jesus set was just that. If I didn’t commit, I could have won. Game 1 versus the Snake was a tech mess up. That’s hard to fix because human error is always going to be a thing but I will work on getting it more. Thing is, I think that’s literally the first time I’ve ever missed that, but still doesn’t mean I shouldn’t work on it. Game 3 vs this guy’s Falco, I made 2 mistakes. I went off stage allowing him to get a stupid early kill on my second stock at like 30. Stay on stage and play lame. Can’t die at 30 to Falco if I camp midstage. The last mistake was not noticing my jump was gone. I need to pay more attention to that. Another mistake I’ve never had happen before, but if it keeps me from losing a set, it’s something I have to learn to look for.
The tourney wasn’t a total disappointment. I got to commentate a large portion of the top 8. My boy Chronos took the event and Robber got 4th I believe. So at least the rest of my car did fine. I commentated the last few sets with Ludi. Ludi is someone I’ve followed pre-moving here. I immediately checked him out because he was a smash player named “Ludi”, short for Ludicolo. Ludicolo is my favorite Pokemon. I literally have on on my desk. When the Detective Pikachu trailer came out with Ludicolo in it, I legit freaked out. So finding another smash player Ludicolo fan was insane and then for me to somehow move to the same region as this guy, what the hell. Loved doing commentary. I’m not great, but I think I’ll try to keep it up and learn. After the tourney, we went to Goodtimes and it was a nice cap to a rough tourney for me.
So, next was the practice session. This was yesterday at the time of writing this. I went to Chronos’s house. He’s probably the best player in Colorado at the moment and he’s won every big tourney he’s been to in the last month. He’s from Fort Collins and we’ve played a ton. Back when I first showed up, I beat the number 2 on the PR at the time but I lost to Chronos and my demon at the time, Robin. Chronos has risen meteorically since and it’s been awesome to watch. I’ve never taken a set off him so this was good practice.
Chronos went so many different characters and I only won a single best of 5. It was vs Sheik. He’s always on. The determination is insane. I feel like I couldn’t keep up that intensity for that long but I tried. So I learned a lot. I learned to push my advantage hard. I learned to mix up my defensive options. Specifically, I can land and grab if I know they’re going to shield one of my defensive aerials. I developed a spot dodge habit in that session but hopefully, it doesn’t stick. I think my neutral improved too.
So Namki’s tomorrow. Chronos won’t be there but I’m pretty sure Robber, Acid, and Milo will all be there. All 3 of them are players I usually lose to but I’ve beaten them all in the past. I want to beat at least one of them and get top 3 and hopefully the practice this week helps.
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Well, it helped a bit. I’m writing this around my normal time now. Namki’s was alright. I got 5th but didn’t beat any of my targets. My first set was vs Pip (a Fort Collins Captian Falcon) I believe. I remember this one well because I won game 1 pretty solid but then lost game 2 by 2 stocks. I wasn’t expecting this honestly. Giden, my training partner, beat Pip so I felt pretty solid about this match-up but Falcon things. I won game 3 but form an SD on Pip’s side. I was winning slightly at the end. I was at 0 and he was at 45%.
The next set I remember was versus Acid. A CLASSIC! I went Palu and did alright. I lost but I think it was last stock. I counter-picked Pit. I won a super close game 2. I read his ledge jump with Up Smash. Game 3 was more of the same. I need to do this with Palu. I know I can.
The next big set I want to focus on was against Miloquin, the best Peach in Colorado. I lost as per usual. I SD’ed my first stock game 1 but brought it back to even with an up-air catch. From there Milo did Peach things. Milo took game 1 with nearly no% at his last stock. Game 2 I started strong. I got the early percent lead and then Milo evened it up. I did get the first stock but I was at a super high percent after that. Milo quickly ended my stock making us even, then proceeded to do 100% or so to me. Milo broke my shield after all that and easily killed me while at 39% on his second stock. Milo then does another crazy peach combo and eventually, I started to just spam Bair. Milo had a huge lead and didn’t need to approach so he didn’t. Eventually, I made a bad nair approach and got baired. Milo won 2 stocks and won the set 2-0.
So what have I learned? I think Palu is the play vs Acid. Pit caught him off guard but once he played a game, he figured it out. Versus Milo, it’s hard to say. Peach is dangerous. She’s similar to a Shoto. A touch of death character. She’s slow though but makes up for that with turnips and float. I wonder how good playing a keep-away camping strategy would be? I have a lot to figure out.
Next week I’ma do IPA again and probably BOW. I’m excited. I feel like I’m learning stuff and implementing it but still losing because of other things I haven’t learned yet. Eventually, if I keep this up, all bases should be covered right?… RIGHT!?
Bernard Lamar Rice 