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.