Progress… is starting to look a bit linear. Kinda… I had a good week. I had a loss that I’m not super happy about but that’s alright. Also, this is the last week before the end… The final character comes out at the start of next week. Sora will be joining Smash on the day this goes up and thus will conclude the fantastic roster for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. What a ride. I love this game so much. It’s been a huge part of my life for years. Brawl was the first game I bought with my own money and I’ve been going to tournaments for nearly 7 years now. Let’s get into this week’s performance.
CSU kicked off the week. Abstract(Robin) came over to grind with me and Giden before the tourney and I was feeling pretty confident going in.
I had a bye and my first opponent in round 2 was Hoji, the Daisy player. Hoji and I have only fought once before and it was game 3. This time it was game 3, last stock, last hit. Hoji wreaked me in the first game. Hoji was just hitting me forever and I was failing to counter any of their aggression. In game 2, I started using my own aggression and won pretty solid. Game 3, Hoji takes the lead like game 1 and holds the lead for most of the match. When it got to our last stocks, Hoji started to play scared and hold shield a lot. That lead to me getting a lot of grabs leading to an eventual kill. I need to get the lead on Daisy/Peach early and then play the lead. They are way too hard of a character to fight on equal footing. 2-1 win, a rocky start to the tourney, but we made it through.
Next, for the like 3rd week in a row, I had to fight Robin. Before the tourney when we were playing friendlies, Robin decided to go Sephiroth against me. She was kinda bopping me with Seph before in friendlies, so I was worried. While it was close, I did find the win against the Seph in game 1. It was really close, but Palutena dash attack… that is all. Robin then counter-picked Cloud and I played really well. I think it was a two-stock and I got a nice spike to finish off the game. Robin was playing great to start off the match but I could tell she got upset at the end of the first match and going into the second match was playing on tilt. 2-0 though and we move on to the winner’s semis.
Robber was next. Ol’ Robber’s Young Link is so hard for me to fight. Robber won 2-0. I was surprised how well I did though and I think I see a lot of where I failed. I panic a lot versus Robber and I think that has to do with the fact that I can be hit from so far away by a really hard to react to projectile. I also wasn’t ledge trapping Robber… I think because of the fear… I shouldn’t be afraid. I think I’ll do better next time. I hope I do better next time…
So in losers, I have to fight SJW, the Inkling from Boulder. I fought SJW in Denver twice. The first time I counter-picked Steve after losing with Palutena and won. The next time, none of that worked and I lost 2-0. This time, I committed to Palutena. SJW plays really defensive and tricky. They played very whiff punish heavy and I kept falling for it. They also used splatter shot well which mixed me up. The biggest thing that got me was the “Boo-Yah” kills, Inkling’s upthrow up air which has a large window on Palutena and I was dying to it a lot. SJW won 2-0. In the second game, I was doing better but still lost pretty hard. I need to get better at dancing with their Inkling. Overextending to catch them as they try to whiff punish and then taking the hit as far as possible.
Out at 5th, your normal Yoyo placing. I wonder if I’ll ever do better than 5th…
Here is the bracket: https://smash.gg/tournament/tuesday-tourney-csu-4/event/ultimate-singles/brackets/1013633/1597018/
So this was a weird tourney. If you are a Smash player, you would know Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl came out recently, and Smashers are really liking it. So I entered the Nick bracket before Ultimate. I’m not gonna break it down like Ultimate, but I do like the game and potentially will compete more. I went 1-2 for anyone curious and I played all Korra. Why I mention it though is, after my round 1 which I lost, I go to remove my controller from the 3rd party adapter on the switch we played on. The moment I started to pull, I knew it was over for my controller. It got consumed. Lost to the third-party adapter. I had a rule about never use those because I’ve seen that happen before but it had been so long since I’ve seen it. I then had to run home and get a brand new controller that I bought ages ago but didn’t have a need for. Well, it was that controller’s time. Luckily, the guy who owned the adapter, Adam/DSJ knows people into controllers and he offered to get me a new cord for it. So it will be back. Btw, that controller got 9th at Genesis… Not kidding. I have a friend who gave it to me. He was damn good. It was the first Ultimate Genesis. If you know where I’m from and look at who got 9th at that Genesis you could figure out who that is. Fun little game if anyone cares.
So brand new controller and my first set starts. I have to play Nesu, a Lucas player. Nesu once beat me to make me the angriest that I’ve ever been at smash. It was a tiny tourney where I was seeded second and in typical Yoyo fashion, I just had to underperform. I lost to him for 3rd. Since then, I haven’t lost to him, but that has always is in the back of my mind. There was no worry here though. I won 2-0 and it wasn’t even close honestly. I’ll take it.
Next was Namki. Namki started Isabell. I won with I think only losing 1 stock, and then he switched to Villager. I got a goofy reflection on a bowling ball and some other goofy things to beat the Villager and won 2-0.
Next was winners Semis and it was my first time against someone I’ve seen at many tourneys but haven’t played yet, Ryo. He plays Diddy and to those who don’t know, Diddy is one of Palutena’s worst matchups. I was worried about going into fighting him and had a plan. I would start Palutena and then bring out a counter pick if I lose a game. I won game 1 narrowly with Palutena. Game 2 I wasn’t as lucky and lost. In game 3, I picked Steve and it was a wash. He obviously never played Steve before and I won with a 3 stock I believe or maybe a 2 stock low percent. For the first time in ages, I made it to Winner’s finals. I was really happy guaranteed 3rd place at least. I was seeded 2nd, but I hadn’t hit my seed in ages so I was happy to make it past 5th.
I met Acid in winner’s finals. It was bad. I always fight Acid… and he had fun with that. He starts Greninja, wins. He Palutena Ditto’s me. I barely win. It was embarrassing that he almost won honestly but I got the win. He goes Greninja again and wins. He then pick Pikachu, and I beat it. Pika is hard for me but Acid doesn’t play Pika, so I did it. He then goes Greninja for game 5 and I did take the first stock but then Acid took all 3 of my stocks within 60% of his second stock… It was rough. Good stuff to Acid. I hate excuses, and if you’ve read these I hope you understand I try to accurately recap what happens so I can improve, and making excuses will not help me improve. I can’t help but blame my controller for how I played against Acid. The brand new controller has a different feeling stick box. It registers jump easier than my main controller so when I would try to do the input for an instant dash attack, I’d do a rising short hop fair, and this happened multiple times against Ryo and Acid. Obviously, it’s not the controller’s fault, I just don’t know the controller well. I’ll talk about the controller more after I wrap up the tourney, but yeah, I was upset about the controller. Lost 2-3 and I go to wait in loser’s finals.
So eventually, Ryo meets me again in the loser’s finals. I decided to try Palutena again and it was rough. He 2 stocked me. So back to Steve we go and I won game 2. He then picks Mewtwo… and didn’t do great. I win. I’m now up 2-1. He goes back to Diddy. He clutches out game 4 barley and we go on to game 5. I was winning for the majority of game 5, but eventually, he catches me with limited resources. I get run over, and in a last hit, last stock situation, he hits me with banana, up smashes me, and I die. I lost 2-3. Can’t get me seed EVER! This was heartbreaking. I do think Steve is much better for Diddy than Palu. I don’t know if Diddy wins, but it’s a better time than Palutena. I do think I can beat Ryo with Palutena if I’m playing really well and if I have my normal controller. That’s all speculation and probably not true, but we’ll see next time. I do think Steve is really important for me to have ready though. That character is insane and I need to practice them more.
Here’s the bracket: https://smash.gg/tournament/foco-weekly-wednesday-200-ft-nasb/event/ultimate-singles/brackets/1013667/1597088
I got 3rd! I got some money. First time since I started the series. I’m happy about it, but I still have a lot to improve on. Ryo is now on the list of people I need to beat.
So, controllers. Controllers are so important. So while this new controller makes doing reverse aerial rush back airs to the right easier, the jump sensitivity is really rough. I jump with tap jump for context, so that’s really important. I’m worried that I won’t have my normal controller back until Wednesday. So Tuesday, I for sure won’t have it. I’m worried if I get used to the current one, I’ll be bad with the original, but also if I use the current one forever now, I could have a period of time where I am getting used to it. Ugh. Either way, next week will be weird. I’m doing 2 Fort Collins tourneys again. Same as this last week. Thanks for reading.
Bernard Lamar Rice 