Won’t lie, this is going to be a hard week to remember. A lot of the tournament stuff happened earlier in the week, and then I watched and wrote about Summit this weekend. So I forgot a lot of specifics.
The first tournament this week was IPA. The Monday Denver tournament. It was interesting. I played against KLeS round 1, a Wii Fit. He’s known for camping. I saw him go to time last week with Acid, but he lost last second by having more percent. I knew he would camp me, and he did. He ledge camped. He won game 1 but it was rather close. I decided to go Steve. If he’s gonna camp, he’s not gonna even try to approach my Steve, so I can build a little wall to block all the projectiles and just mine. It worked perfectly. I 2 stocked him. He then pulls out Min Min. I don’t know what to do against this character, but Steve wouldn’t be my first pick against her. I would go Palu. I lost in what I think was a 2 stock. So immediately to losers. I’ll talk about this one more later.
Next, I fought a Falcon. 2-0 pretty standard.
Next was ol’ Willy Wickerson. I clipped him and won 2-0.
Next was a rough one. I fought an Olimar. I remember winning game 1. I reflected a down smash with a purple killing dumb early. I did lose a game I forget exactly what happened. I think I switched to Steve game 2 just because I figured it would be easier to beat Olimar but I think the guy switched to something else, which isn’t how you chose characters in tournaments by the way. I did win, but yeah, I totally forget the rest of the set.
Jesus, the Mairo was next. Jesus was someone I wanted to play again. After last week, I really focused on what I did wrong against him and thought I could beat him, and oh boy I got close. I lost game 1. Jesus kinda ran over me. I played too sloppy. Game 2 I slowed it down and won pretty strong. I was catching his aggression and got some really good reads. Game 3 was close. It came down to last stock and if I recall, he was around 100, I was at 70 after getting launched. I drift back to the stage and did a Nair to try to cover him upairing me. He didn’t upair me though, he waited for my landing and f-smashed me. It was just enough to kill and I lost. 1-2. I’m glad my improvements going into the set, and during it worked. I do still have things to work on obviously. My disadvantage options need work. I should have reacted to what he did instead of throwing out the nair. That feeds into what I learned in my grind session this week.
I played with Chronos again this week and Robber. I’m learning my reaction time is horrible. I play very flow chart, which is good and bad. I try to optimize my play so I’m doing the most optimal options. Thing is, that can be countered by good players. I know to mix up options like my ledge get up’s but things like landing in disadvantage, scramble situations, and things like that, I don’t. I’m trying now. I’m trying to react to my opponents more. That’ll take time obviously but I’m making a conscious effort.
So the IPA and the grind session were 2 days in a row and the next tournament I went to last week was the mid-weekly BOW the next day. 3 days of smash in a row. Why? Well, there weren’t any tournaments on the weekend and I wanted to cover Summit. I’m trying to get my writing up to snuff so covering Summit as I did with World Tour was in the effort to get more esport writing experience.
So the first set of the mid-weekly, I played SJW, the Inkling. I hate excuses, but I had a horrible headache and I lost 0-2. I beat SJW last time I played them. They’re not bad at all, and I had to counter-pick Steve last time. I tried with Palu game 1 and lost. Went Steve game 2 and it didn’t work this time. I think I could do it with Steve again but more importantly, I need to figure out this Inkling problem I’ve had since I moved to Colorado. Inkling is so hard to hit for me. Their dash makes aerials hard to hit. I need to get better at the ground game. I feel like maybe I should jump around and tomahawk grab or dash attack. Keep them fearing the fair and bair but also using the moves that will most likely hit. I’ve tried to play more grounded, but that alone makes it easy to get grabbed by Inkling. I’m not sure how this will work. I think maybe just an overall increase in my neutral will help versus inkling. I lose too much in neutral versus this character and as Palu, I’m not used to that. I will work on my neutral and hopefully, that will help make this match-up more doable for me.
Round 1 in losers I fought a Terry. It was pretty one-sided. I camped him. 2-0 me.
I then fought Should Retire aka Dez, a Marth. Apparently, we played back pre-pandemic. I do vaguely remember it. He got a stupid early kill with a tipper game 1 but I won the next two games. We played again more recently and I won 2-0. When we played here, I won. 2-0. He’s solid but I’ve always done alright versus Marth.
Nectar was my next opponent. He’s a Young Link. I’ve had a lot of experience versus Young Link thanks to Robber, but I’ve never been great at the match-up. Robber is easily the best Young Link in Colorado now, so Nectur was easier. I lost a game, but I did win 2-1. I’m learning this character is all about that fire arrow. Coming at them from a 45-degree angle is a great way to approach and be safe from that. The only move you’d have to worry about is fair and that move is slow. Obviously, they can shield any approach and up b you out of shield, but just the pressure of coming in at the angle is enough to make the spam stop so you can then land a bit away and then punish whatever defensive option they do.
Next was KLeS again. I had been theorizing after our last set that I should just go all Palu because of double-blind picks. If I go Steve, and he went Min Min, I’d be screwed but I felt my Palu could potentially do it versus his Wii fit. I did do it in game 1. I read his role off ledge with an up smash and popped off. Game 2 didn’t go as well. I missed a reflection on a Sun Salutation and died in the last hit scenario. Game 3, I lost my patience. My headache was still going. While I think it helped versus my other opponents, it didn’t help here. I lost 1-2. I think Palu can do it, I just need to not miss input and keep my patience. KLeS is a weird person to fight. He commits to camping like nobody I’ve ever played. I know I can handle it and next time I will.
This week was a weird one. I went to losers immediately after both tourneys and then fought through 3 opponents to lose just barely to someone I had played before. I think the key thing to remember is it’s all doable. I can win these. I need to focus on improving my neutral, my reaction time, making better decisions in a disadvantage, and keeping my patience. These are all happening and all these losses aren’t forever.
Next week I might skip IPA. I love the tourney, I just need a bit of a break from Smash after Summit and I need to make some money on doordash/apply for writing jobs. Namki’s is this week but it’s an arcadian. I will go to support the players playing, like Giden and hopefully my Palutena sisters, Kate and Strawberry. I’ll also try to go to BOW either on Saturday or Wednesday. Also, I think the first ESF is this Friday. I might go to that. ESF is a huge weekly tournament that pre-pandemic would get like 150 or so players. It should be fun.
Bernard Lamar Rice 