So, technically there’s a pretty big gap between this post and the previous entry in the series. After that post, I continuing prepping for Super Smash Con (I did eventually create drills for Ultimate and I did eventually connect on combos in both games), went on vacation, and then came back for Smash Con. I brought my Switch with me on vacation along with a stand and Gamecube controller converter so I was still able to practice while away. I didn’t bring my N64, so I couldn’t practice Super Smash Bros. But I did get in some time to practice with both titles at home before I went to Smash Con.
So, how did it go? Well, not great, but I had fun. On Friday I had my Smash 64 pool. This was a round-robin pool, so I played everyone else in the pool. I went 1-7. Every set I lost, I lost 0-2. But the set I won, I won 0-2. There was also a maybe 1-3 sets, I think I may have been able to take, if I had hit all my inputs, been a bit more patient, etc. But there were also a few sets when I had no chance at all. There was one player playing Fox who just either infinitely combo’d me or attacked me from the stage to offstage each time so I couldn’t recover. I felt like I couldn’t move, but it was very impressive. There was also another player in my pool playing Pikachu who was way better than me, which was cool to see.
But I had a lot of fun. I talked to a few other people in my pool and everyone was very nice. And the opponent who basically perfect gamed me gave me some advice on how to get out of it. Playing so many matches in a short amount of time, I really felt like I learned and improved a lot at Smash 64 that day. I played eight sets in about an hour and a half, so it was a huge amount of Smash at once. If I had gone 0-2 I don’t think it would have been very fun or help me improve much.
Would I go to another Smash 64 tournament? Probably, though I would really need to get a sparring partner first. Practicing against Level 9 CPUs was good and all, but everyone I faced was more advanced than that, even if they occasionally missed an input.
So, also on Friday night one of my friends came over for the weekend. He and his wife went with me when I had my Ultimate Pool on Saturday. The Ultimate pool did not go well.
I had scouted my opponents in my pool a little, so I knew I was going to face a Link main in the first match. I had practiced against Level 9 CPU Links leading up to Smash Con, but must confess I never actually beat one 2 games out of 3. Which probably wasn’t great prep on my part. But anyway, I played my Ness against Link in my first match and lost pretty handily. I did miss a PKthunder recovery as well. But I didn’t feel like I got bodied and my opponent was friendly when I forgot to finish setting up my control scheme.
So I was sent to the Loser’s bracket and it was a while before it got to my second match. In the second match, I played a Bayonetta who played like it was still Smash 4. I was constantly being combo’d up in the air and was basically just trying to stay alive the whole time and avoid being KO’d at the top of the screen. I may have got a combo or two in, but it felt like I got no good hits and I missed my PKThunder recovery three times in just two games. It was a very short and deflating set.
The whole experience of the Ultimate tournament just wasn’t that much fun. The pool started late because the pool before went long. We were all hovering around four set-ups on a very crowded area of the floor. I heard some other players making fun of people who played on Pro controllers instead of GameCube ones. The whole vibe just wasn’t as open and friendly as the Smash 64 pool.
And I didn’t feel like I improved at Smash Ultimate either. Obviously, it stinks to go to 0-2 but what really sucked was to basically wait around for an hour to lose two games in less than three minutes.
In fact, the main thing I learned was Ness isn’t tournament viable. Which I kinda knew all along, I guess I was just hoping I’d run into at least one other newb in my two games. But as soon as I lost the second game, I knew I was going to start looking for a new main in Ultimate. I could practice and get better at always nailing Ness’s recovery and really learn to play to his strengths to cover up his flaws. But it seems much easier to find a top tier I like and put the same amount of time into that character as I’ve put into Ness. I think that’ll make me a better player overall.
I’m glad my friends were there for moral support. That helped take away from the frustration and disappointment. And we had fun exploring Smash Con afterward.
Would I enter another Ultimate tournament? I don’t know. If there was a local that was closer to where I live I might enter when I had a free weekend. And to be honest Smash Con wasn’t that far for me. And I almost never have free weekends.
If one of my friends wanted to enter I would go along with them and compete. We’d both have sparring partners at least. When my sons are old enough I’d enter the competition along with them
I’m still not consistently winning online, right now I’m pretty consistently losing to be honest. I think I’d need to be to the point where I’m usually winning online before I bother with another real tournament.
What was more fun than my Ultimate Pool, was my friend and I had our own Smash Bros. marathon. We played every single Smash Bros. game, mostly on their original console (played Melee on Wii to use the big screen). I was able to beat him pretty consistently in each one. He wasn’t able to get a win when we played during tournament rules.
His ranking was Ultimate 1st and then Melee second. 64 was sort of his third pick, Smash 4 was definitely his last pick and Brawl we didn’t really talk about. He liked the speed of Melee and really disliked the tournament settings for 4.
I’ve been playing Ness for like 20 years and he’s been playing Samus for the same amount of time. We squared with that matchup in each game. He wasn’t able to beat me, so my Ness has improved.
After we went through each game we really binged on Ultimate. We tried to find him a new main after I explained some things about the game to him and he got sick of losing as Samus. He played a lot as Mega Man, Ridley, and Cloud. And he got back to Samus and Dark Samus a few times as well. I played every single character on the roster against him. He started to dislike Mega Man by the end of the weekend but I think he really improved as that character. He really liked Ridley, but his Cloud was definitely the best. He threw all his characters save Mega Man against my Ness and couldn’t win. So, I guess all that practice did pay off.
I think I improved a lot more marathoning the game with my friend than I did in my two quick matches in the tournament. Forcing myself to play every character, gave me a better understanding of each one and of the matchups. Helping him choose characters and trying to get him to go from basic moves to a little more advanced techniques helped as well. And we talked a lot about priority – which moves have priority over other ones.
I think all of that helped me improve a lot. I learned a bit about which moves have priority over which other moves. I learned (I guess I always knew this but didn’t realize outright) that you only get one jump after being knocked offstage. And I got more comfortable playing as and against more characters.
So, Super Smash Con and the weekend made me excited to keep playing and improving at Smash, even if it didn’t make me really want to play in any more tournaments.