12/13/21-12/19/21
It’s nice to be back. Smash has been such a constant in my life, especially recently, and missing a week of tournaments was rough. Not just because I missed playing smash, but because I missed my friends! So I didn’t have Covid, thankfully, but I was really sick last week. My asthma was so bad that I needed to take steroids for my breathing, which I haven’t had to do in years. Those steroids suck because they make me really hyper. From the smash I did play while sick, I noticed the steroids made me super competitive and focused. Speaking of the smash I did play, I met some folks on Valorant that invited me to their discord server and it turns out, a lot of them played smash regularly. They played smash like I use to with my online friends way before I started to go to tourneys. They played with tourney rules for the most part, but they didn’t know a lot of the technical stuff. It was fun to play with people who didn’t play in tournaments all the time, and it was neat to teach them some higher-level things.
So, my first tournament back was IPA. It was a great first tournament back. I went down with the usual IPA crew, and a bunch of us went out to eat afterward and had a great time. There was also a Smash 4 bracket this week. I entered because I do love Smash 4, but holy shit, that game is so different from Ultimate. I won’t analyze my sets, but I won a single set before getting knocked out of the single-elimination bracket by the number 1 seed, Shoe. I did fine, but shit, Shoe is really damn good. Also, Pit can’t kill. How did I main him? Well, Let’s hop into the Ultimate bracket.
My first match was against Dori. Dori is a Bayonetta from Denver who I’ve played before. Being a Bayo player myself, I love the Bayonetta match-up. Unless your opponent doesn’t know Bayonetta’s options, the Bayonetta player has to outplay their opponent so much harder than you have to outplay them to win, and Bayonetta players are used to that. Dori is one of the best Bayonetta’s in Colorado, but I’ve beaten him in the past, so I went in rather confident. Game 1 started very close. Dori got the lead early, but I stayed calm. I know Bayonetta’s kill options very well, so I avoided most of the tricks. I found the first two kills before Dori found 1, and rode that momentum to the win. Game 2 was not as good. I lost my patience. I was finishing for hits way more, and that’s what Bayonetta wants. Fighting Bayo as Paultena is an endurance test, and my endurance is not my strongest trait in my opinion. I lost the game, losing my last stock right after taking his second. In game 3, I played a lot better. I stayed calm, punished Dori when I could, and very rarely overextended. I took the game in a reverse scenario of the last game. Dori took my last stock and I ended up killing him off the respawn platform from a Bair that lead to an explosive flame off stage. I won 2-1. I’m happy I got the win, but I should have done better in the set. I know this match-up extremely well, and I know I can do better. I need to work on keeping up my patience during a set, and that will come with discipline. I also got hit by a few mixes up that I need to look out for in the future and implement myself more. Run off stage side B, and witch twist right before landing caught me a few times, and they shouldn’t.
Here’s the set. It’s time-stamped. https://youtu.be/Z7WuZABa__s?t=1309
I had to fight Smirk next. Smirk is a top 5 Colorado player probably at the moment, and this was my first time fighting him. He plays Ken and Sepiroth, and I got the Sepiroth. I’ve fought a lot of Seph now, and I don’t hate the match-up, but Smirk is a different breed. I made the start of game 1 decently competitive, but Smirk found his groove later in the game and killed me with some really good reads. Game 2, I opened up very dominant. I took the first stock, but Smirk found all 3 of mine before I could take another one of his. I played decently. Smirk is for sure a tier above me, but if I can take the first stock, I can take a game, and if I can take a game, I can take a set. I need to capitalize on being ahead better. I need to make it really hard to kill me, and use their desire to want to even up the stocks to catch their approaches. I want one of these top 10 wins, and I know I can do it.
My next set was against Slurpee. Slurpee use to live in Greely but moved to Denver. We’ve played once since the pandemic, but they were playing Diddy back then. They’re now using ROB and have been getting very good results. Game 1 was heavily in Slurpee’s favor until it wasn’t. I took Slurpee’s second stock while at kill % on my last stock. I then proceeded to Palu combo ROB for like 70%. I hit a weird hitbox of explosive flame, which sent ROB in towards me. Slurpee missed the tech and I followed up with an auto reticle. It jab locked and Slurpee buffered a roll in. I down smashed, killing Slurpee at like 80 or 90%. I popped off from that. It was a sick sequence. Game 2 was closer in the sense that the percentages were even for the whole game, but it ended in a win for me again, winning the set 2-0. Slurpee’s ROB is damn good and I hate that character. Chag, debatably the best Palutena in the world, says that the match-up is even, and that makes me feel much better about finding it so frustrating. I think I need to work on pairing ROB’s moves more. His Nair specifically. I parried the down tilt a few times, but not consistently.
My next match was against Purp. Purp is a Greninja from out of state, and a damn good one at that. I play a Greninja frequently in Acid, and I don’t win. While Purp wasn’t as good as Acid, he was still very Solid. Purp won game 1, but it was really close. In game 2, I found some sneaky down tilt to back air’s on some 2 frames and won the game. Game 3 was really close until the final stock, where Purp found a really good combo that lead to my death. Purp won 2-1, and I get out at 13th. I need to camp Greninja, and I was doing good at that. If I can parry their dash attacks, I can start to get much harder punishes, so I think my biggest takeaway from IPA is, learn to parry.
13th ain’t horrible. One set away from 9th and a very doable set at that. It really wasn’t a horrible performance, but I want to do better. I know I can. I’ma crack an IPA top 8 eventually.
Here’s the bracket: https://smash.gg/tournament/improper-popoff-arena-25-12-13-21/event/ultimate-singles/brackets/1046035/1642299/
So CSU seems to be RIP, at least during the holiday break. Instead of going to a Fort Collin’s tournament this week, I went to the Denver midweekly. The last time I went to one of these, I got 9th and beat Slatty, a top 15 player in the state. I had some high hopes, going into the midweekly. I was confident and excited.
My first match was against a Falcon main named Geneticus. They used a Wave Bird controller btw. That’s sick. My experience with Giden was very helpful and I won 2-0.
My next match was against C-Stick down. C-stick down is highly rated in Denver. Not quite top 10, but certainly around that level. They play Wario, a character I’m not too familiar with. Game 1, was really rough, and I lost in what was a 2 stock I believe. In game 2, I counter-picked Steve. It was going extremely well. I had them at death %, but they got me off the ledge, had the bike sitting on the ledge, and wafted as I rolled. The bike extended the hitbox and I flew into the blast zone at 40% from the other side of the stage… Wario… It was a really good play, but damn was I angry. Good stuff to C-Stick down.
Freshly in losers, I find myself against Cat5Underscore. They play Terry and we’ve played once before. They got better, but I still won the set convincingly in a 2-0. His disadvantage is a bit rough, and I was hitting a lot of obvious up airs.
I got a chance at redemption in this next set. Grumiyo was my next opponent and after our last set at IPA 2 weeks ago, I really wanted this chance. In our last set, I threw away a huge lead in game 1, and felt like the whole set could have ended differently if I just clutched that out. This week, he won game 1, and had the lead the entire time. I noticed how much I was running into Falco uptilt and started playing around that more in game 2. He started game 2 with a huge lead. While I was at 120 or so on my second stock, I forced him off stage and read his habit to side b high onto the stage. I charged a down smash that traded with his side b. It killed him super early. Giving me the stock advantage instantly, and then I played the lead. While I was at super high percent, Falco doesn’t have a lot of great raw kill moves, so I was able to avoid his kill setups long enough to rack up some serious percent, and that lead to me winning game 2. Game 3 was very much in my favor. I held a very solid lead the entire time and won the game in a 2 stock. I won the set 2-1. Grumiyo is very good, and I’m glad I got the win in the run back.
I got another chance at a Denver top 10 player in this next set. King is a super strong player who I’ve never fought before. He played Mario before the pandemic to my knowledge, but on the most recent power rankings it shows Wolf, and in our set, he went Luigi. Luigi Palutena is a match-up I know pretty well, but King would convince everyone otherwise. He won game 1 in a solid fashion, and I decided that Steve should get a shot. I was getting mixed up for most of game 2. I would have thought Luigi would struggle a ton with blocks, but King was doing extremely well with his approaches around blocks. He was running me over until I got a diamond. I upgraded to the diamond at around 90 on my last stock, and soon found King’s second stock. I quickly did around 120 damage to King and he found himself off stage. Trying to set up for an off-stage anvil, I jump high above the ledge and block to wait and get the correct timing. King does a jump side b and it just so happens to be a misfire. I get hit and die… Luigi. Wairo and Luigi. FUCK. My Steve was doing extremely well, and now I know what he likes to do to get around blocks, but it’s hard to calculate a misfire. I feel like with Plautena, I need to watch my approaches against Luigi. King got a ton of mileage out of shield against my Plautena, and I shouldn’t need to take risks on Luigi’s shield. For Steve, I need to play way more defensively when hiding behind blocks. He’s come over attacking, and if I just shielded, I could have avoided a ton of damage and gotten some combos myself.
I got 9th again. 9th at the ol’ mid-weekly. I’m happy my losses were two very good players, and I’m happy about how I did in both matches. Honestly, aside from Purp, my losses this week were all top 15 or top 10 players, and Purp isn’t from this region, but he’s definitely around my own skill level, so I’m not super unhappy about the loss. I’m happy with this week, but I want to do better. I feel my confidence rising, and I know that’s going to lead to more disappointment when I underperform, but I think my confidence helps me perform in the first place.
Here’s the bracket: https://smash.gg/tournament/the-midweekly-25/event/ultimate-singles/brackets/1048227/1645161
With the holidays coming up this week, I’m not sure how many tournaments will be happening. I know IPA is happening, but I don’t think there is a traditional Ultimate singles bracket. I’m also not sure about the midweekly. Just know, if I play smash, I’ll write about it. I’m glad to be back, and I have high hopes for the future. Hope you enjoyed reading and hope you stick around to read more.
Bernard Lamar Rice 