Smash tourney at FAD 2/11/16

      Today's tournament ended up being hype! In the beginning it was very slow because there were very few setups but later on there were a few more added. I didn't really get to play too many friendlies because of the lack of setups but the friendlies I did play I did so-so in. I played this Mario that beat me in tournament last week and I almost beat him (taking him way beyond 100%). It was cool because a friend that I met through my brother showed up and brought two friends and we ended up hanging out, talking, and playing friendlies. My tournament matches were losses but they were to really good players. I'm proud to say that I played much better against them than I have in the past times we played. I lost to Fox players. There are a lot of Foxes in SoCal.You can check how stacked this tournament was here, take a look at the bracket-http://challonge.com/fad_WE6.
     The first guy I played is this guy Mattman (Fox). He's beaten me in the past but back then he two stocked me. This time I played much better but still lost. I just kept making bad trades, you don't want to trade with Fox as Zero Suit. After he beat me he told me all about how I can improve and what I did wrong. He said the biggest thing I need to work on is my neutral, which I think is what I need work on the most. In all honesty I don't think I played bad against him considering last time he two stocked me doing nothing but up-air shenanigans. This time I at least took a stock both games and at least put in some work with a few combos. Its funny because I was super salty when I lost to him and when I lost the first stock game one I was really upset. First time I've ever been upset at a tournament. I felt extra salty after that set. But it went away after I realized that last time we played I did much worse. I'm improving!
     The second opponent was Fox16, another Fox player. I've lost to him twice in tournament so far but I have taken a game off him with my Samus once in the past. Game one I was playing super well and he was missing all his confirms (missing a lot of up-smash). I feel that when Fox starts missing its easy to punish him and start up combos. I took the first stock game one and I was feeling super confident. Then, he did a back-air and it was tied up. You could say that I choked because even though I had a percent lead, (small as it was) he brought the game back and won. Then game two he switched to Wario and again, it was pretty even first stock. Then he took the first stock and I kind of just fell apart. Its one of my biggest problems in tournament that when I'm playing really well and have a lead I just panic and start going for bad options when I should be playing patient and switching it up. Again though, I can't be upset with losing to Fox16 because he's a great player and I actually played really well against him today. I'm proud of how well I played today but I know I can get better. Those two guys I played today were technically better than me but that doesn't mean that I can't pull a rabbit out of my hat and slay them. That's my plan in the future if we face again, and knowing how many times we've played I know we will play again.
     One of the guys my friend brought was this cool black guy that played Mario. In friendlies he went around beating like ten people in a row before losing. But when it came to his tournament matches he didn't play so well. Its weird how good players lose in a tournament setting but annihilate in friendlies. Maybe it was the nerves that got to him. I feel like he did a lot of random smash attacks and didn't really play much of a neutral game but he made it work so well that it didn't matter.
     Anyways, some of the high level sets were great to watch. My favorite was winners finals-K9SBruce versus Larry Laur (Sheik vs Corrin). Larry went all Corrin this tournament and I think in the end it was the reason why he lost. I really wanted to see his Fox when he was losing to K9. However, there ain't no shame in 2nd place at a local. But its not like Larry played bad or anything, he played great! I think in the end it was 2-2 and K9 won in game five. The crazy thing about it though was that K9 reset from losers, what a comeback! It was a great ending to the tournament and they both played well. At some points it looked like Larry was dancing as Corrin with all the combos he was doing. He made Corrin look a lot better than she actually is. I don't think I'll ever see a Corrin play that well for a long time.
     Then there was Aphro versus K9. That was a fun match-up (Bayonetta versus Sheik). I really dig Aphro's style because he's a Zero Suit main like me and I've been playing Bayonetta pretty much exclusively too. After my matches today I felt like I should have gone Bayonetta considering the fact that I've been playing her nonstop for like two weeks now. Too bad I didn't play her when I lost a match. Maybe I could've brought it back with her because she's still new and people aren't used to her combos and style yet. Also, my Bayo's pretty decent. I've been playing great with her on For Glory and against my friends. I even played a match as her against my friend with a level 9 on his team and I almost won! Haha, but seriously next time I need to bring her out and try my luck. Aphro also played an amazing set versus this young kid that's a friend of mine, named Dynamo (Sheik). It was 2-2 and in game three Aphro was like at 130% and Dynamo had one stock and was at like 60%. Dynamo was close to timing Aphro out (it was at like 22 seconds) but Aphro just got in these up-air combos and just brought the game back. He ended it with an up-smash. It was a pretty sick comeback but he got super lucky that the timer didn't run out and that Dynamo didn't camp him out hard enough.
     Also, there was a great battle with this guy named Exeed (something like that), some guy that came from the Brawl days. He played a good Corrin against Larry but he ended up losing. It was sick seeing a Corrin ditto in tournament. That's a first for me because I don't watch a lot of tournaments. I prefer to see high level players play in person but maybe I'll start tuning into more of the competitive scene from other places and see what their players are like. I know SoCal is one of the best regions. Fire and Dice is such a stacked tournament setting, especially for a player like myself who just started committing myself to the game. Zork, Rich Brown, Aphro, K9, Nicko, Jwest, Zenyou, and CharlieDaKing were all there. It was a great tournament and I look forward to going to more. The guys running the place said next month they are going to start doing tournaments on the weekends, which I am hyped for. They also said they're going to start a points winning system for how many wins you get at the tournaments, you will get your entrance fee paid to go to Evo. Not bad, Fire and Dice. Not bad at all.