Fire and Dice smash tournament 2/18

     Today was a sick smash tournament at Fire and Dice. It was a relatively small crowd this week and there were plenty of setups so I was able to get in a ton of friendlies before singles started. I met this guy named Daybreak (Falco main) from Michigan and he was pretty good. But I was able to beat him a couple times with my Zero Suit Samus. It was pretty good because he's one of those players that places top ten at locals in Michigan. Overall I played really well today although I still went 0 and 2. I can't be too upset because I played well in friendlies and I almost won my second set against my friend Fuzzballjones, a player who is way better than me. What an upset that would've been.
     My first set was against the best player from Simi Valley, DJDemon (Captain Falcon main). This guy just absolutely destroyed me. I haven't felt so helpless in a long time (lol). It was like the first tournament I ever went to and I went up against this guy Sean Pluto (another Falcon main) and he destroyed me in like twenty seconds. This guy beat me even faster than that. I'm exaggerating but he is a really good player. I can see him placing high at Fire and Dice if he keeps coming. His style is just so fast and aggressive that its hard for me to choose options to go for, and then suddenly out of nowhere I'm taking the knee to the face and losing a stock after a few combos. I don't even really know if there was anything I could've done against him that would've helped me. It was one of those sets. I went Zero Suit twice and lost pretty fast. I played him in friendlies before the tournament so I knew what to expect. I had confidence in myself because I've gotten so much better after only just a week of practice but this guy was on another level. This was really the first tournament I played in where I had a lot of confidence in my playing. It helped a lot during the second set.
     The second set was against my friend FuzzballJones. I thought he was going to go Roy so I didn't play Zero Suit because I don't like that match-up. So I went Bayo and he went Corrin. Corrin is his secondary. First game I beat him pretty convincingly. He was just getting hit by all my attacks and I just took the game. Second game he beat me with his Corrin but it was super close. Game three he decided to play Roy. He kept getting hit by pretty much all my attacks and it ended up being a close game with both of us over 100%. It was close but he ended up hitting me with some weird attack that took my jump. However, I do think I could've recovered back to the stage if I used Bayonetta's recovery a little differently. I was suppose to side-B then up-B then side-B again, I think. I'm not really sure but I still feel like I could've made it back to the stage if I had used the recovery in the most effective fashion. I don't know if I would've won but it would've been a big upset to beat Fuzzball because he's a super good player. I had it really close. I'll get him next time! He said that he thought he respected me way too much but honestly I think I've just gotten better at the game. I learned that Bayonetta is one of my strongest characters and that she's perhaps even better than my Zero Suit Samus. I'm not sure if that's true but for now I'm going to play a lot more Bayonetta at tournaments and see how I do.
     Lastly, it was fun watching the high level players duke it out. Grand finals was Zenyou versus K9 (Mario vs Sheik). At first Zenyou looked super good and was annihilating. But eventually K9 came back with a bracket reset and took the tournament. I felt like K9 was winning with the same kill move over and over again but somehow Zenyou kept air dodging and getting killed. I was secretly rooting for Zenyou but I really dig K9's Sheik style as well. Also, K9 versus Ahprho (Sheik vs Bayonetta) was a cool set. I would say that Ahprho is my favorite player that goes to Fire and Dice because he plays the same characters I do and he places high every week. I think that could be me someday if I git gud. I think today he got third. His Bayonetta took out Zork's Bowser and Zork is pretty much the best Bowser around. It was a nice little chill tournament today. I kind of prefer when there's less people because I can focus on the matches and play my best. I played really well today and I'm going to start playing more Bayonetta. I'm looking forward to next week for more tournament action!