So much smash!

I haven't had the time to update lately because I've been so busy playing the game. Now though, I think I have a moment to reflect back on the past week or so and give an update on my progress. Although, it is no longer just my progress that I am concerned with, but the entire city of Tucson. Competition breeds. It breeds new and fresh players, it breeds skill, it breeds innovation. The way that Tucson, and even Sierra Vista, has been playing lately, the state is on the brink of evolution.

I've been playing in long burst at a time. 5 hours here, 8 hours there, etc., usually with someone different. Each person I've played has made adjustments to their game, adding new strategies and improving their overall skill. I'm very happy to see everyone improving. I truely think that Tucson can become a great smash location and that we can generate a nice bunch of highly skilled players.

So with that said, I will now recollect on the time I spent smashers and the observations I made. It started on Monday I believe when the round robin was held. We bit off more than we could chew when we tried to throw about 22 players into it with only 4 tv's. We all learned a lesson though, and I think next time most people will be happy to do bracket style tournament when there are that many players. Anyways, I lost a couple rounds, but the only set I lost to was to Jeff. I wasn't too concerned with my performance that day since I had smoked and knew that I would later get many matches in with Jeff.

Fast forward a little bit and I'm in Sierra Vista. I must have lost a good 30 games or so against Jeff and played about 2-3 hours against the rest of the SV players until I was able to beat him again. My Fox/Falco combo is definitily rusty compared to what it used to be but during one match something clicked. I remember Jeff had just finished a combo on me when something in my mind just clicked. It was like a light bulb turned on, there was this new feeling in my brain and I knew that it was the key to winning. I couldn't put into words, not simple ones at least. Good smash players are beyond language. Yet I somehow knew all the right moves from this point on. I think my reflexes had just kicked back in and I was able to play at a fast pace again. It felt very, very good. Smash, what a satisfying experience.

I got a good ~12 hours of smash in that day, however, that's nothing compared to the grandaddy of all gaming days. The next day on my return home would be one to remember for a long time. Tim was coming back in to town (he's in the military), so Jeff, Joey, and I were headed to Tucson to pick him up. On the way to the airport we stopped by Chris's house and got him. Afterwards we headed back to my house to play smash. This was about 6pm. SV later left at about 11. Chris and I continued to play into the night, taking a couple breaks to eat, get energy drinks, and eat again when McDonalds opened... at 7am. Using coupons I was able to get 3 McCafe drinks, the caffeine I would need in order to play another 6 hours. My body was stiff and aching, but I was still able to game. All the motions had become 2nd nature, I barely had to think about it. Eventually, I ran out of fuel and passed out.

More games, more games, more games, more games, and more games. I'm sure I left some out but blah, there's more to it than how much you play. It's about what you do with that time when you play. What are you working on? What tech skill are you perfecting? What new branches are you reading out? I know what I'm doing.

I have modified my goal. I want to be the best spacies player in the world, Fox and Falco are so incredibly similar that it is not hard to play both of them equally well. Right now, it may very well be Zhu. It seems that DSW may have the upper hand in Falco dittos, but their matches at Genesis were so close and Falco dittos can go either way that I find it is simply too hard to say. Either way, Zhu also has one of the best Foxs. Aiming to surpass Zhu is a good goal, not too easy, not too hard. Attainable, but challenging.

I'll just compile some of the in-game stuff I'm working on into a list...

-Dsmash on platforms while they are underneath. Works likes Peach's dmsash, except everyone expects that. I got the idea to add this when I realized that people messing up their fall through dairs was working out in their favor. (See game 2.5 of DSW vs Forward from LTEC2 (Johns))

-WD out of pillar fsmash. Use this in Falco dittos. I'm trying to learn more setups for the fsmash from watching DSW play, this one works pretty well.

-Fox dtilt. Surprisingly good but only for a few matches. Goes undershields, works well after jabs, pops up for upair.

-Shine > JC grab (Falco). Old trick, but I'm taking it seriously this time. I usually brushed this one off, considering that there were better options. However, I remember a time when I used to tell myself that there is a use for everything. No need to hold myself back, right?

-Running shine > sh bair. I've seen lots of Foxs using running shine lately, especially in teams, but they always follow it up with a wd. I think I have found a better option.

-Running drops. The new name for running drop through platforms. I give credit of the name to Eggz. Anyways, it's super good. I'm finding a lot of uses for it.

-Shine stalling recovery. Another move I used to brush off. Again, I need that winning mentality that every tool is useful.

-Forward facing up tilts. Most people hit with the uptilt when the opponent is behind them. You have quicker recovery with you hit with the tip of it.

That's about all I can think of for now. I'll make a more stragegy-oriented up date soon.

Muscle soreness

I spent the night at Rusty's house yesterday. I think we played a good 5 or 6 hours worth of matches, taking a couple of breaks between them to eat junk food. When I played this morning against Spencer the base of my left thumb was sore. Perhaps I need a protien shake.

Playing last night was great practice. Even though Rusty is not the best opponent, he still had the vitality to play against me for as long as he did without losing his cool. I even JV5 stocked him once, and he was such a good sport he took a picture of it on his phone. Anyways, I made a few notes from that gaming session.

My JC grabs are not 100%. I'd say ~85%. Hopefully this number will increase as time moves on. These moves are too important to ever miss.

Thunders combo at about 40-50%. This is actually a pretty good number for having recently got back into fox. The waveshine > jab reset is one of his hardest combos to pull off consistently, and even landing it half of the time means an extra 40% on half of waveshines. I even landed the combo when he was behind me on several occasions, which is great. Landing the combo when they are behind you might be impossible if they di the shine away, but it's within human capabilities to land it all the time if they miss the di. I would be very dangerous if I could do this.

I've been finding openings for the running platform drop. I'm very happy about this, as I don't think there are any Fox players who are using the technique. Nair and bair are the best attacks use. Dair might be good as well, but the technique is still new in development.

My dash dance is coming along very well. At Pound 3 it was my pride and joy, I felt that there was not a single person there who could read my dash dance. I would like to once again be at that level. I used to practice at night before I went to sleep, and first thing in the morning, just whenever I had a half hour to kill. I'd use the markings on the floor of Kanto (pokemon stadium lol) to mark my dashes. I wrote down rythms to practice, 1 1-2-3 1 1-2-3. My dash dance has always been a key to countering the opponents approach by giving the illusion of attack. However, I noticed recently that the illusion I make is not very effective when I control ~2/3 of the stage. I either end up tracing so far back that I am back to controling half of the stage, or I simply rush in and attack. I don't have many ideas as to why this is, but being aware of it is the 1st step to changing it.

I want to make a correction on the last post. The combo finisher I wrote about of nair > fj bair does not work, at all. I have staying up late johns though, so it's ok. Instead what I like after the up tilt is shuffle nair > grab.

I did some testing and found out that you cannot CC once you are in the stun of a shine. So that means if you are peach and you get shined, you won't be able to mash out a dsmash. Well, you could... but don't. This is not about technicalities.

The last thing I want to touch on is something I have briefly discussed in the last post. The result of shuffle nair > shine. It's dangerous! If you follow it up with a wd against Peach you run the risk of running into dsmash! Falcon can jab after that. I don't think there is a safe solution after the wd, so I think the best option would be to follow the nair up with different attacks besides the shine. Peach would be up tilt, Falcon would be up smash. I'll just have to train myself to see the hit stun more clearly. I use the shine, and I assume most do, because it's safe on block. I'm going for efficiency though, and to me, efficient is deadly, efficient deals maximum damage.

The combo goes like this.

Fox vs Marth. 0%. Left side of FD. Fox is on the left side.

dair > shine > wd towards > shuffle nair > up tilt > ?

The combo does about 35%. I'm trying to find out the best way to finish this. This is also assuming that Marth cannot CC the nair. I am not positive if you can CC when you are already stunned, but I am fairly certain that you can. Regardless, I do not see that CC would be common for a Marth after being shined. Marth should expect a grab > up throw and therefor di left or right. In this case the nair would pop Marth off of the ground. If his di was away then you may have to turn before you up tilt, to extend the range. If his di was towards you, he may end up behind you after nair and your up tilt is in position to hit him.

Unfortunately, although a dair will combo after the up tilt, it is impossible to combo afterwards. Characters seem to gain instant recovery the moment they land on their feet. Hence the reason that nair > shine > wd any attack can always be avoided. If the nair pops them up, the shine knocks them to the ground and they regain control. The dair acts the same way the shine does, it brings them to the ground and they regain control. Even if you went for a grab after the dair, the dair is too risky in the first place since the di is too hard to track. Still though, it looks sweet.

I experimented by ending with shuffle nair > fj bair. This brings the combo to do ~52%, iirc, and seems to hit marth safely away (relatively). This is solid, it's legit, it's a real baby-maker, yet I just can't shake the feeling there is a better option. I'm thinking that there is potential mix up in the final fj bair. What if you can mix up which direction you hit them with the bair? Say they di towards you as you run in for bair, then you'd want to hit them with Fox's crotch to keep them close, and possibly set up for another hit. If they di away as you approach for the bair then you could time it later, so that it hits when you reach the other side and they once again di towards you.

Of course, none of this may be useful at all. What if shine > wd > grab > up throw is simply a better option? In Melee, consistency = win, not flash or tech skill. The player who capitalizes the hardest and most consistently will win. To be consistent you need to have all options covered, and one of the easiest ways to do that is through grabs. The up throw may prove to be more consistent than the shuffle nair. So it becomes a choice. Do I grab and get that guarenteed damage? Or do I take a risk on their di for a possibly larger reward?

Only one way to find out.

Introduction

This is a test. I'm making this blog to help track the progress that I make with Fox for Super Smash Bros. Melee. For some reason my interest has been piqued and I am now intent on being the best Fox player in the world. It may or may not happen; I am the type of person where ideas outweigh the action.

The idea behind this is that it will help motivate me and keep me focused on my goal. It will also provide information that may help other smashers around the world. Aside from that, it is simply entertainment. I enjoy writing so long as the topic is fun. Smash is fun to play and an outlet for creativity, I hope it is also fun to write about it and inspires creativtiy.

The title of the blog is loosely based off a quote from a discussion Hugo and I once had. We were discussing some deeper aspects of the game, and I was thoroughly enjoying the conversation. It then struck me that I usually cannot enjoy these conversations with just everyone. It takes someone of a certain skill and certain awareness to talk about it as we had.

So I asked him "Why? Why are we good at smash and why do we understand this stuff?"

He replied "That's just the way it is. Bill Gates is good at making money, we're good at smash."