This was not my week. It wasn’t horrible in terms of placements and If anything, I wasn’t upset by anyone at all, but I dropped a few games that I really felt like I should have had. I went to IPA and CSU this week, and after my first match at IPA, I knew something was off with me and that persisted throughout the week. Well, as I write this on Sunday, I’m sure it was because I was in the starting phases of getting sick, potentially with covid. I’m fully vaccinated and so far I’m doing alright, but I have been really sick for the last few days. I got a test and should be getting the results within the next day or so. This is a good time to say, wear a mask when you go to tournaments! I’ve been doing it for months since Covid cases were on the rise. Hopefully, it prevented me from spreading it to a ton of people. Get vaxed and mask up people. Welp, onto the disappointment.
IPA starts off the week as it has for the last 3 weeks. My companions on the way down to Denver this week were Scorch, Robin, and Strawberry. It was a really fun time despite the disappointing bracket. We got Canes after the tourney, and is there anything else you can really ask for?
My first match was against Grumiyo, a Falco. Grumiyo is pretty damn good, and it surprised me when I started off game 1 really strong. Until the last stock, I was ahead, but once he took my second stock, all the momentum went in his favor. I lost game 1 very narrowly and then lost game 2 much more convincingly. After the set, I could tell something was up. I wasn’t able to concentrate very hard, and therefore, my lead was easily taken from me. I guess I feel like my resolve was very low. An early trip to the losers bracket.
Peep was my first match in losers. He played Mario. I got the win game 1. It wasn’t easy and I could tell I was still not playing at my best. Game 2, Peep took it. Mario can just do his thing if you allow him to. Palutena is very good at not allowing him to do his thing, but the Palutena needs to be on their game. Game 3, I started to get more into my game. I started trading Nair with Mario’s up b, taking some very early stocks and putting the momentum in my favor for the whole match. Took the final game, and won the set 2-1. Shaky performance, but took the set in the end.
A Greninja named UV was my next opponent. I wasn’t feeling horrible in this set. Greninja is a match-up I know very well thanks to ACID. Game 1, I was camping him hard and pressuring him very well when he was in disadvantage. The whole set stayed the same pace. I won it 2-0 in a solid fashion.
Ken is a scary character, and XzibitA is the second-best Ken in Colorado as well as my next match. I started game 1 really strong. I had a full stock lead for the majority of the match. I got him to his last stock around 100% when he takes my second stock. I try to keep it safe and camp him out, but he finds an opening, combos me to around 45%, ends the combo with a Shouken. I DI’ed it incorrectly and died extremely early. That was a heartbreaker and lead to my completely horrible performance in game 2. I lost the set 0-2.
I got 9th, which is normally impressive for me in Denver, but it was a tiny tourney this week. I also didn’t get any great wins and my losses were peer-level/ just below peer-level depending on how optimistic I am about my skill. Still, not horrendous, and in retrospect, I probably was harboring a virus.
Here’s the bracket:https://smash.gg/tournament/improper-popoff-arena-23-11-29-21/event/ultimate-singles/brackets/1039651/1633369/
CSU was the next day. I had been getting at least one upset a tourney at CSU for the last 4 weeks, and I think those performances have really helped me establish my standing in Fort Collins. This was also the first time in the last 4 weeks that all of the top 4 in Fort Collins were there, so getting 4th again was looking like a hard placement to replicate.
My first match was against a tournament newcomer, Xarafang. He’s actually a friend of Giden, my girlfriend’s brother/my training partner. He was playing Pit and was damn good. For his first tourney, he was no slouch. Game 1 was a solid win from me, but in game 2, he started off by getting a 2 frame sour spot diar on my teleport recovery which stage spiked me. He held the lead for the whole game, until the final stock where I got a really solid string that exposed a lot of his panic options. I took the game and the set. He has a lot of potential, and as a Pit fan myself, I hope he keeps coming around.
My next opponent was Rain. He is a player who’s been pretty consistently coming to CSU. He’s a really nice guy and plays some sick characters. He opened up with Cloud. I think there was an element of panic because I took game 1 in a 3 stock where I just kinda ran over him. I even took the final stock with the wind box of down smash. I like the cloud match-up. He changed to Corrin for game 2. It did better, but I still took the game and the set. Corrin is actually a really hard match-up for Palutena. I think she wins, but Corrin’s really solid aerials are hard for Palu to box with.
Yeex was my next opponent. Yeex has 3 really scary characters, and this week he chose to start with the Wolf. Wolf Palutena didn’t go too well for me as normal, and I lost game 1. I was still feeling the weirdness from the day before, so I decided to go back to an old friend. Steve from Minecraft. Well, really Alex… or Serena Williams. I call the Balck Tennis player skin Sarena Williams. Game 2 went very much in my favor. Yeex hates Steve and I played as lame as possible. I took the game. Beginning game 3, Yeex switches to Sephiroth. I was doing a great job keeping up with the Sephiroth and I could tell Yeex was getting very annoyed. The match was heavily in my favor the whole time until the very last interaction. We’re on our last stocks. Sephiroth is at 120% and Serena Williams is at 40. I have gold tools. I F-Smash Seph’s landing, but he counters and it does enough to kill me across the whole stage. 40%… and I died. Obviously not a great play by me, but I can’t help but be a little angry. Lost the set 1-2. On to losers.
My first match in losers is against Stoph. Stoph and I have fought a lot and I love the Lucario match-up. I took game 1 with a 2 stock. He Switched to Banjo game 2. Banjo is a character I’m never comfortable against. Wonder Wing is so dumb and his projectiles are so awkward. Either way, I took the game and the set 2-0.
Whew. This was probably my favorite set of the week. Robocop’s Chrom had a 3-0 set record on me post-Covid until I made it 2-3 with 2 counter pick characters. I played Pit to get the first win and Bayo for the second. I decided recently to play Palutena game one against every person I play, regardless of match-up or history and I did that here even though he’s done extremely well against my Palutena. Game 1 went extremely in my favor. I’ve started doing something I should have been doing for years, and I’m kind of embarrassed to say I just figured this out. I’ve been watching a lot of MKLeo’s Byleth, and Leo gets a ton of mileage off of mixing up, Byleth’s nair on shield by fast-falling it at different times, or not fast falling it at all. I never thought to do that with Palutena until seeing it with Leo. While it’s not as good with Palutena, it’s still really good. It worked extremely well versus Robocop, and he was not able to punish my nairs on shield as well as normal. I take game 1. Game 2, Robo takes first stock, but I find a nice string leading to a forward smash punish on an air dodge read to kill him extremely early, and it was very much in my favor from there. I took game 2 and won the set 2-0. That felt good. I evened up our record 3-3, and I hope I can keep it going up in my favor from here on.
So, I haven’t met a state-ranked player here in the bracket in a while, but in loser’s quarters, I find Robber. Robber’s Young Link is a wall of pressure that is way too much for me. I went Palutena game 1 and lost. I think I got a stock. Game 2, I went Serena Willams (Steve from Minecraft). I was getting kinda destroyed, but I hung on with nearly 200% on my last stock and brought Robber down to his final stock. He actually comboed me while I was at 200%, with boomerang into fair… Does boomerang have set knock-back? That blew my mind. I think Steve can do this matchup, but I want to focus on what to do with Palutena. I focused on just shielding the projectiles like I said I would last time I faced Robber, but I need to capitalize on Yong Link’s disadvantage. The character’s weakness is their recovery and their weight, so I need to work on keeping him off stage and getting those early kills.
Out at 5th, but that’s what I was seeded to get. Not horrible, but I wanted an upset. The Robocop win was important to me, but not an upset in terms of my personal rankings, and by the seeding. For potentially being sick with Covid (even if it was early), it wasn’t a bad tourney.
Here’s the bracket: https://smash.gg/tournament/tuesday-tourney-csu-10/event/ultimate-singles/brackets/1039860/1633655
So, for next week… there won’t be a blog update. I am sick. Even if I don’t end up having Covid, I have a fever and I’m short of breath. I’m a sick boy. I don’t want to spread that to anyone. I will get back to tourneys as soon as I feel able, but I can’t promise it will be the week after next. It’ll happen when it happens. I will use this time to do some other writing, so check out my other stuff maybe? Thanks for reading! Hope I’m back sooner than later.
Bernard Lamar Rice 