Ok, so last week I went to one tournament where I competed… This week was the same. I swear, I wasn’t planning on only attending one, but life circumstances. I ended up going to the first Fort Collins weekly back. It is run by the people who use to run our premiere weekly at the College. We called it the College’s name, CSU. Now I guess we’ll call it Game’s Ahoy because it takes place at Games Ahoy and CSU will apparently have a tourney Tuesdays eventually.
Going into the tourney I was scheming. I was calculating that if the Denver midweekly is happening, Robber, Chronos, and Acid would all not be attending. Well, the midweekly was canceled. Chronos ended up being sick, but that put Robber and Acid there. One other person I wasn’t expecting was Solax, the best player in Wyoming. I’ve never lost to him before so when I saw he was there, I wasn’t too worried and I was seeded 3rd, above him and only under Robber and Acid.
My first set was against Croze, formally, Pyong. We use to have a joke, you gotta beat PYONG to get on PR (power rankings). Croze was strong and still is. He went Wolf against me. He took game 1 in a great comeback. I buckled down and took games 2 and 3 rather close but I won the set. I was feeling shaky, so after that set, I went and got a snack and some caffeine. Idk if Croze is just leveling up or I was just not playing ideal, but I didn’t want to risk anything. It was time to sugar up.
I waited forever for my next set, giving me time to snack and drink my bubbly sugary shit water. My next opponent was Speedy. Probably the best Joker in Northern Colorado. I hadn’t lost to Speedy since the first time we ever played but like many scenarios now, we’re a year and a half past the last time we played. I won game 1 pretty solid. Game 2 was way cooler with its ending. I was leading the whole time, he’s on his last stock at around 100, and I’m around 50. I explosive flame him while he tries to recover. I pump my fist thinking I won, but I see he rebels guarded. I gave him Arsen in a last stock scenario. But, with Arsen on deck, Joker’s recovery becomes more exploitable. So when he goes to UpB back to the stage, I Up Smash, getting the 2 frame on the Arsen recovery and win the set 2-0. It’s so funny. If I missed that 2 frame, Arsen could have easily killed me, but I also only got the kill because of Arsen. The duality of Joker. Obviously, Arsen Joker is better than normal Joker, but if he was normal Joker, he could have avoided that Up Smash 2 frame. What an awesome end to the set.
GSV was next. We’ve played at Namki’s since I’ve come back to Offline. GSV’s Ken is scary. Sometimes GSV just pop’s off and kills you stupid early. I remember game 1. I was down to 1 stock and he had 3. I almost brought it all the way back, but he clutched it out. I then went Steve. This match-up is just way easier. While Ken is probably the best Fighting Game Character versus Steve, it’s still easily Steve’s favor. I can build a wall, camp, and then just minecart and diamond to victory. I could have probably stayed Palu and won, it just was so much easier with Steve. I took the next 2 games winning the set 2-1. Ken’s Tatsu breaks blocks pretty well, but if you make a 2 thick wall, you can easily still get some mining off and then hit the Tatsu lag. Steve thangs.
Next was my first time playing Robber since coming back. Robber is out here now being top 10 in Colorado. A real big come-up. I wasn’t expecting to win. Robber plays Young Link and that character is a trigger for me. The insane zoning and boxing that character can do. Why can he do all that? Either way, Robber is a premiere Young Link and uses him expertly. I got run over in game 1. I just kinda got snowballed and didn’t do much. In game 2, I did much better. I think I might have taken first stock off some good pressure. I just tried keeping up my advantage. Robber brought it all back though. I lost 2-0. Things to work on, advantage state. I feel like pushing my advantage state against Young Link is super important. The character is a glass cannon. The disadvantage is pretty bad for Yink. He can throw out good moves, but I can beat all of those with my options as well as just shield/wait. It comes with me just improving in general.
I waited forever, but my next match was against Pibb a Pikachu. I was a little worried because Pibb was hot off beating Robin and Glitch, 2 players that aren’t bad at all. Pikachu is also a horrible match-up for Palutena. The set was heavily in my favor in the end. While Pibb, has great Pikachu combos, his neutral is not great. I did get hit and took a ton of percent at times, but I would hit him way more than he’d hit me. I remember game 1, first stocks, I was charging an UpSmash on the ledge because Pika is unusually easy to hit with UpSmash on ledge. He stalls off stage as long as he could and without me even letting go of Upsmash myself, the charge time runs out, it activates and it just so happens to hit him as he grabs the ledge. It hits his 2 frame perfectly. I think that’s the first time that’s ever happened to me where I hit a fully charged Smash attack outside of a shield break scenario. I took the set 2-0. Pibb will be a huge problem for me once he gets neutral down. His Pika combos are clean, just needs to get those hits more.
Next was Solax. The best player in the state of Wyoming. I didn’t know this until now, but Solax did win his round 1, but then he had to play Robber. He then got kicked to round 1 loser. He fought his way up to Loser’s semis, our match. I was feeling good going into this set, and I really shouldn’t have. Solax mains Pokemon Trainer. I have a lot of experience with Pokemon Trainer, but I haven’t fought a great one in a while. Chop, Foco’s best PT moved away recently, and the PT’s I’ve fought most since then are PTP, a good Trainer from Fort Collins and Willy Wickerson, someone I beat weekly it seems. I wasn’t ready for Solax’s despite all this experience. He won the set 2-0. He countered my aggression so well. He would mix between shielding and attacking my approaches which was so simple but worked so well… I just kinda lost the guessing game most times. I noticed after the set that he was just responding to my aggression. I made my patterns too obvious so he knew when to shield or attack an incoming grab. I gotta mix it up.
So out at 4th when I was seeded to get top 3. Sadness. It’s cool though. I had fun. It was fun to have another Fort Collins tourney.
Outside of that event, I didn’t do any more tourneys but I did play some smash. Mostly online and also with Giden at our house. I also kinda had a mental development in Smash. I’ve been considering secondaries and characters to complement Palutena. Steve is my go-to usually. He’s great against low and mid-level players who play campers and some other matchups I don’t like. I also was loving Pyra/Mythra. They’re the new hotness and I love playing them. In a similar archetype, I’ve been trying Chrom more. I’ve brought him out in the past and love him. I also think he’s ridiculously good. Bayonetta is always kicking around. I know she’s bad but I’ve been getting way better as her. Now, Pit. Pit was my main until Ultimate. I think he might be my 3rd best character. I’ve been playing him a lot for a few days and kinda love playing him again. He compliments Palu pretty well. He has a much better ground game as well as out of shield than Palu.
I’ve been trying to commit to one secondary but maybe the play is to just play them all when I feel like they could help me. A wide range of characters never hurt anybody. Actually, it might. When you take away focus from a single character and divide it into many, you can lose a bit of skill in the original. I don’t know if that will hold true for me and how I approach the game. Palutena is such a solid character to start with, so many matchups are doable and the ones that are hard for me, shouldn’t be or none of the other characters I’ve been fooling with do much better. Either way, I might be using more Pit, Pyra/Mythra, Chrom, Steve, Bayonetta, and whatever other characters I decide to try…
This might work out because Palutena is super simple. It’s not hard to keep up with her game plan. I also find it hilarious that I play both Steve and Bayonetta at a decent level. I’m not great or anything but I might be the only person who plays both Steve and Bayonetta at a semi-competent level. I know one guy from Buffalo who played Bayo in Smash 4 and now mains Steve, but IDK if he ever used Bayo in Ultimate. The point is, they’re two really weird and really specific characters. They play so differently from the rest of the cast let alone different from each other.
Next week we have Namki’s and Game’s Ahoy. I’m writing this on Monday and thought maybe I would do IPA, but right now I’m hours away from the threshold of deciding to go. I don’t think it’s happening. Might skip another week of Denver tourneys. I mean to get back to it, but with Foco having a weekly again, it’s easier to justify not going.
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Bernard Lamar Rice 