Fire and Dice Smash Tournament 1/28/16

      Yet another tournament at Fire and Dice. Didn't play well in my tournament matches but overall in friendlies and in my general Smash play I have made improvements in leaps and bounds. One of the most important things that I learned today about Smash is how to tech. I can't believe I didn't start doing it until recently, it makes a big difference. I still have a lot of things that I gotta work on in my play and I'm hoping to improve by just playing the game more. Today I brought my good friend to the tournament and although he got knocked out 0 and 2 like myself, he did play a really great game as Roy against this Captain Falcon. Let me tell you about how my matches went.
     My first match I went up against this Jiggly Puff main that goes by Hbox, obviously in honor of Melee Jiggly Puff Hungry Box.. I played him last tournament as well and he beat me pretty easily. This time I was able to space with him and play the neutral game a lot better but I still lost both matches pretty easily. I did feel like I've improved because last time he took me out even more easily. I could see this kid going far with Jiggs as he improves and plays more. He has the best Jiggly Puff I've ever played and I haven't played too many good Jiggs so I kind of don't know how to play against her. She's one of those characters not a lot of people play often. I feel like he has that advantage going for him. It also doesn't hurt that he's a great player. I think the best I did was take a stock off him in one game, but that's about it.
     My last match was against this Fox player that was pretty good. Game 1 he two stocked me pretty convincingly. Game 2 I spaced better and played the neutral game and took the first stock. Then he came back with a vengeance on his second stock and KO'd me with a bunch of up-air Fox tactics. I feel like I know all of Fox's tricks because I used to play him but this guy's up-air combos were insane. Every time I was in the air I was in a lot of trouble and he usually hit me at least once. I've got to learn how to play against that because there are a lot of Fox players at this weekly.
      My friends' match that I really enjoyed was when he was playing as Roy vs this Captain Falcon. My buddy pretty much owned this guy until he switched to Dark Pit Game 2. My friend switched to Link and got taken out. Game 3 my friend switched to Shulk and ultimately ended up getting combo'd super hard, losing the set. It was a sick set and it was good to see that my friend, using the tag Death, won a game in a set at his first tournament. I didn't see his other set but he told me that he was up against a really good Shulk and lost.
      I've got a lot of bad habits I gotta get rid of to get better at Smash 4. Continuing to go to Fire and Dice every week has made me a better player. The Fox player I played against told me that I roll too much and that Zss is such a fast character that I don't even need to roll that much. So the first thing I gotta work on is stop rolling so much. In addition, I gotta learn how to punish more effectively with Zss. He also said that Zss has the strongest punish game so I should be using that to my advantage. Also, I need to learn how to space and play the neutral game more effectively. And lastly, I should be more patient. Sometimes I just blindly attack and the enemy player is just waiting for me to whiff so they can punish. So yeah, I'll work on not rolling so much, punishing more effectively, spacing, and being more patient when I play. When I'm playing, I don't always consciously think of all this stuff. Instead, I just sort of just play and try to keep those things in mind. I think the best thing I can do to get better is to keep playing a lot (for me that would be For Glory, with friends online, and with friends in real life) and not succumbing to what I refer to as autopilot mode. Autopilot is when you just play without thinking about anything and just doing random stuff, hoping to win. This might work on For Glory sometimes but in a tournament setting you have to really think about all your options and choose the best one to use effectively. I'll keep playing and I'll keep going to the tournaments. I'm having a lot of fun! And the people in the Smash community are great. They have been really open and I've made a lot of new friends. At the same time, I've become a much better Smash player. Today I played really well against my friends and then at the tournament I played really well against my friend and another friend I've met through tournaments. Practice makes perfect. I feel like all the bad habits I have have to be beaten out of me eventually until I just play differently. Eventually I'll become a heavy hitter, I just know it.