It was the week of Christmas and all through the venue, not a person was approaching. Forward wasn’t on the menu… I did fight Kles this week. The Wii Fit that camps on ledge. Fun times. This was a rough week. I think my biggest takeaway from the week is that my mentality still needs a lot of work. I’m also reconsidering my character lineup. Nothing drastic, but just considering who I’d like to play more frequently in bracket.
IPA kicked off the week. It was a very chill tourney with fewer entrants than normal because of the holidays. It was a really great time, despite my performance. I also got to play some more Smash 4. I swear Smash 4 is different enough to still be played alongside Ultimate. Smash 4 has a much higher barrier to entry and a deeper neutral than Ultimate, but it also has insane, annoying jank. I’d love to still play it regularly, but nobody else seems to want to.
This was my 3rd time playing Dubbz, the Pac-Man. This matchup is horrible for Pac-man and it ended similarly to the last 2 times we played. I won 2-0.
Kles was next, and I felt confident going in. I took the first game last time we played and barely lost game 2. I did let him run away with game 3, but I thought if I just could finish out each game, I could have avoided crumbling. Kles plays Wii Fit and abuses the ledge, so he takes a ton of energy to fight. The first match was close, but Kles found the win. I was tilted after that, and Kles feeds off of that. I then proceeded to get 3 stocked. I respect Kles a lot. A lot of people hate how he plays, but if it’s working for him, I respect that. After the set, Kles and I talked about mentality. He told me that even when behind, he doesn’t play like he is. Unless the clock is getting really low down, you don’t need to worry about time. I think he recognizes that because he does get close to the clock being up more than most people. That allows him to recognize how many opportunities there are in a match to reverse things. It’s something I’m going to keep in mind for the future. Aside from not feeling as pressured to reverse things if there’s still plenty of time left, I need to play for the lead still. I can take more time if I lose the lead, but I should still focus on getting the lead and keeping it. Good shit to Kles, on to losers.
Deadgengar was my next opponent. He played Krool in game 1. I lost to the last Krool I played, so I had something to prove here. I ended up 2 stocking him. He switched to Wolf for game 2 and I believe I 2 stocked the Wolf as well. GGs.
My next opponent was LegacyTag. They’re a Robin player who I’ve seen around before. I lost game 1. I was getting overwhelmed by the projectiles and the Levin sword. Game 2, I decided to keep my distance and let him use up his resources. This worked much better, and I won game 2. I did the same strategy for game 3 and won the set 2-1. Palu can keep Robin on their toes with auto-reticle and threaten to reflect any of the charged thunder spells, making Robin’s best option to box her. I also like large stages in that match-up, it allows you to run from arc fire, making it hard for Robin to pin you down.
My next opponent was Ziah. I’ve never played or seen this person before, so I had no idea what to expect. They went Pyra/Mythra and were really good. This dude had an excellent Mythra that kept me in disadvantage forever. He also barely ever went Pyra. He 2-0ed me. In game 2, he got a really excellent read with a Pyra neutral b on my high recovery and ended the game in a 2 stock. Pyra/Mythra… I need to work on this match-up. Specifically Mythra. I need to capitalize on every hit I get on her. Her only weakness is recovery, so I need to focus on gimping her.
Out at 9th. Not what I wanted, but not horrible. I feel like my losses weren’t as good as my other losses in the last few weeks. I feel like I learned some lessons and hopefully, this amounts to more wins in the future.
Here’s the bracket: https://smash.gg/tournament/improper-popoff-arena-community-night-12-20-2021/event/ultimate-singles/brackets/1048051/1644937/
The mid-weekly was the next tournament I attended that week and it’ll probably be my last tournament of the year. Giden finally came out to a Denver tournament again because he was done with school for the semester. I was feeling good going into the tourney. I was really confident.
My first opponent was MTZ, a Cloud player. I fought MTZ right when I started this blog. I lost back then so this set is a really good judge of how I’ve improved since I started the blog. I won game 1 in a solid fashion, and game 2 was super in my favor. I lived past 200 on my first stock and nearly 3 stocked him. It feels good to end the year beating someone who I lost to at the start of this project.
I had to fight cStickdown (the Wario) again for the second week in a row. I was really annoyed with how our last set went and felt like I could do much better this time. Game 1, I won. I kept up really good pressure with Palutena, and didn’t let him get any crazy early stocks on me. Game 2 was close, but cStickdown adapted really well. He took the game and then had my number all of game 3. I did a good job at avoiding waft the whole set, but he started just outplaying me in neutral. I need to do better at adapting to my opponent’s own adaptations during the set.
My first match in losers was against my fellow Fort Collins player Scorch. Scorch has a good inkling and I hate the Palutena Inkling matchup. Scorch did extremely well against my Palutena game 1. He was winning for the whole game, but I clutched it out at the end. He started to panic and just threw out up smashes. I really didn’t like how that first game went, so I went Steve game 2. It was much easier and I 3 stocked him. That Plautena performance was really upsetting to me, but I’m glad I took the set still.
Hoggg Riderrr was my next opponent. He used Megaman and really took me off guard in game 1. I was extremely overwhelmed and let that tilt me way too much. Game 2 was similar, and I lost the set 0-2. That was my most disappointing loss in a while. I was not happy and I’m still bothered by it. Megaman is a weird character, but I feel like I should have been able to win that. I think Palu should just outrange Megaman. His pellets are super annoying, but auto reticle and explosive flame can pressure him at a good range. I want another go at that match-up.
Out at 13th. Not very happy with how I did, but it is what it is. I qualified for the redemption bracket because I went 2-2, but I only went Steve and Bayo. That brings me to something I’ve been pondering. I want to use Steve and Bayo more. Steve has made many appearances in my bracket runs, but Bayo hasn’t as much. I use Bayonetta probably the most outside of bracket because I find her to be one of the most fun characters in the game and I feel like mine is pretty good. It feels weird to take the focus off of Palutena for a character like Bayonetta and even Steve, but I just have a ton of fun with those two. I think what I might do is still keep Palutena fresh and ready, but start with Bayonetta and Steve in the matchups where I know I enjoy them more. I’ve been practicing Steve a ton recently. I’m learning the NIL combos, but they’re extremely hard to do consistently. I’m having fun grinding them out and I have a ton of time to practice them before tourneys come back.
Here’s the bracket: https://smash.gg/tournament/the-midweekly-26/event/ultimate-singles/brackets/1051004/1648942
Speaking of tourneys coming back…There aren’t going to be any next week. There might not be any the week afterward either. In fact, even if there are, I might not go. Covid is exploding here. I saw nearly 10 different people say they had covid after the mid-weekly last week and one of them was someone I was playing friendlies with. It’s a dangerous time right now and sadly, I don’t think tournaments are a priority when human contact is so dangerous. We’ll see though. As soon as I do go back to a tourney, I’ll write about it. Thanks for reading. Happy holidays and happy new year.
Bernard Lamar Rice 