Smash tournament at FAD 2/4/16

     So I went to yet another tournament at Fire and Dice. Fad has become a home away from home and its been a blast going every week. I actually played really well overall today although in my tournament matches I didn't play at my best.
     My first match was against this Mario player, really young kid. I thought I had it in the bag because I'd never seen him before there and I usually crush newcomers. Instead of picking Zero Suit Samus (my main), I went for Bayonetta and played a great game. I beat him game one and I was feeling super confident. Then in game 2 he went for the usual Mario shenanigans (uptilt, grab, upsmash). He took game 2 and then it was all to be decided in game 3. At that point I should've realized that I wasn't going to win with Bayonetta but I chose to stay her. I don't really remember the game too much except for that it was a really close game. I lost to the usual Mario stuff. I wouldn't say he was better than me but he still won.
     My second match was against this guy that was friends with a friend of mine. He played a mean Mewtwo. I brought out Zero Suit Samus and he took me out no problem game 1. It was not even close. Game 2 I switched to Fox and I started annihilating him. I took the first stock pretty quick but then somehow he started to adapt. He started blocking pretty much all my attacks and instead of switching it up or grabbing him I kept attacking him over and over again. He eventually took my first stock and continued doing the same thing. In the end he ended up winning. I should have really switched it up because I had that game in the bag. One of the things I need to learn is to change up my game plans mid match and not get tilted whenever someone counters it. I felt like I had the advantage too. Although this guy was a way better player than me I still feel I had the advantage because Fox just annihilated Mewtwo (imo). He played great overall tonight and I think he ending up getting 7th place or something. That tells you that he's in a different league than I am, yet I played so well against him that first stock! Oh well, next time I'll do better.
     Before singles started I played a bunch of friendlies against some random guys I'd never met. They looked like newcomers to the tournament and I asked them if this was their first time here. They said they were regulars. When we ended up playing I ending up slaying them pretty badly. It was a lot of fun! One of them played Yoshi. His Yoshi needed a lot of work but it seemed like he had the basic fundamentals down. I already know how to play against good Yoshi's because one of my best friends mains Yoshi. Every general Smash bros player plays Yoshi, he's super popular, like Mario. The other guy played Mewtwo. He beat me once. I'm beginning to see the inner power within Mewtwo because of all the good Mewtwo's I played tonight. I saw Rich Brown in action (a super good smash player from Brawl), the guy who beat me, and this random guy I met that I was playing friendlies with. They all played super good Mewtwo's. I never really took Mewtwo seriously until tonight because I saw how great he actually is. Anyways, in the friendlies against those guys I played amazingly with Corrin and Bayonetta. Later, I played some friendlies with some super good players that were friends of mine. Although I sometimes won because of suicide deaths (sd's) I did beat them in fair fights where they didn't sd, just not very often. To me that's a good day. I've definitely improved at Smash. I'm pretty proud of myself and plan on working harder to keep improving.
     Also, this was the first time at a tournament that I really enjoyed watching the top level players play. It was exhilarating watching K9SBruce (Sheik) play against Nicko (Cloud). They were going at it and it looked super even but K9 eventually took the set, but not before losing two games. Super close set. I'm not sure but I think K9 took the tournament.
     Then there was Dynamo versus Brandon (forgot his gamer tag). This was a super close Sheik versus Captain Falcon set. They both won two games and had to settle it in game 5. I'm not really sure what made Dynamo take that last game because earlier in the set he was having trouble. I'm glad he won though because he deserves it. And its great that Brandon is competing because the last time I talked to him he said he doesn't enter the tournament probably because he's unsure of his skill. I've played some games with him before and I never got close to beating him. He's a monster who will probably place higher at the tournament in the future.
     The best set though hands down was Rich Brown versus Nicko. They played and it was awesome. Nicko's cloud is super aggressive and heavy on aggro and Rich's Mewtwo kind of had to attack and counter attack a lot to stop Cloud's momentum. Nicko ended up beating Rich pretty convincingly. I think Rich got sent to losers but he won all those games and made it back to play against Nicko again later.
     This time Rich Brown knew what to do. This is probably what separates a top level player from a great player. He adapted so quick and knew exactly how to handle Cloud this time around. But it was still super even. They both won two games and it was all settled on game five. Rich switched to Olimar and he was doing work. I think Nicko lost because of one fatal mistake that cost him his stock. They were both over 100% and Nicko had limit charged up to full. I guess he felt like this was his last chance so when he hit Olimar off stage he jumped off stage and used his limit cross slash, missing Rich because he was above instead of where Nicko thought he was going to be. So Rich just spiked him and won the game. Nicko was really upset, understandably so. I've come to realize that when top level players lose they get super mad, sometimes even making a scene. The thing is that Nicko played great. He just messed up with that limit attack. It was super cool to see a high level Olimar player in action. It was like he throwing pikmin 99% of the time lol. It was kind of insane to see Olimar go toe to toe with Cloud and do so well. I guess Olimar is a much better character than I previously thought. Also, Rich Brown is just a great player. He's definitely one of the best players at Fire and Dice.
     All in all this was probably the best tournament I've been to in terms of how much I enjoyed everything. I played a lot, watched a lot, and learned a lot. I'm going to keep going and keep getting better at the game.