So today I finally made a return back to tournaments after a hiatus. That was because of work. I usually never get Thursdays off but today I was finally able to make it. It was a great experience and I even played well. I've gotten so much better at the game even though I haven't been to any tournaments for a while and I don't get to train with anybody really good. My only training was an all night session I had on For Glory (the online mode), which is sort of frowned upon in the tournament community because they all think its bad because it trains you into playing with lag. There's my friends I hang out with on the regular but lately we haven't been playing smash. Instead, we've been going out to the beach, working out, playing YuGiOh!, and working our asses off to make money.
I got to the venue pretty early before doubles (2v2 matches) and there was already a good amount of people there. I started playing friendlies with this random guy with long hair and it turned out to be awesome. I got bodied sometimes but other times I completely wrecked him. Very even. He had a strong Ryu, that's for sure. Way more people showed up and eventually we found out there was like sixty people that signed up for singles. Needless to say, there wasn't any friendlies going on until late in the evening when a lot of people left. This tournament wasn't completely stacked but there was the usual PR (power ranked) Socal players like K9SBruce (Sheik), S2H (Metaknight), Aphro (Bayonetta), Zenyou (Mario), Rich Brown (Mewtwo), Zork (Bowser), and Nicko (Shulk).
I got called to play my first set right away once singles started. I played some young guy that went Kirby. He had good spacing but I overpowered him with Bayonetta. He switched to Robin and it was super close. I thought I was going to lose but he sd'd (suicide death). However, it was so close that he might've lost anyways. Plus, I was ready for whatever he had in store if he had won. It was a pretty clean set for me and I bodied his Kirby. It was great! I felt like I had more matchup knowledge than he did against Robin because one of my best friends has a super good Robin.
After some waiting I went to sit down against my next opponent. K9SBruce. One of the best Sheiks in Socal. However, he went Diddy against me. But he didn't hold back whatsoever. He was getting me in so many linked chain combos it was ridiculous. I lost fast as Bayonetta. Game two I switched to Fox and gave it a go. At first I was getting in a lot of good hits and some short chains. I even taunted! On accident of course lol. I lost but I went down fighting. I had him well over 100% which to me is an accomplishment saying since I'm out of practice and I was going against one of the best players in the area. The best part of playing K9 is that he gave me some great advice. What a guy! Later on I watched him play more of his tournament matches but he didn't do so hot today. Part of it I feel is that the nerfs hit Shiek hard but another part of it is that some players have to be "really feeling it" to play well and I think he's one of those players.
After more waiting around I played my last set against a Samus player. Game one he outplayed me but I still played well. Game two I played better but I sd'd after getting an early kill on him. He started to wreck me hard but then I figured out his style and adapted. We were both well over 100% but he got off a clutch charge shot that finished me off. I was a little upset because if I didn't sd I know I would've taken it to game three. But as the smashers say,"we take those".
Also, I almost got the Bayonetta zero-death combo on him where you take them over the top of the stage and kill them. Close but no cigar. This guy was like the first guy I played. He was a young guy that was good but probably not more experienced than me when it comes to tournaments. If only I didn't sd. Oh well. I can't see it as a bad thing because I almost brought it back after killing myself. It shows that I've improved despite not having good training partners. Kind of nice.
After that I got some Subway, came back to the venue, and watched some of the high level players duke it out on the big screen. My favorite set was grandfinals which was Zenyou (Mario) vs Nicko (Shulk). It was a great set. At first Nicko was bodying Zenyou with all these great Monado sword hits. Nicko's spacing was amazing and he was doing all these short hop fairs and nairs. It was so cool to see someone play Shulk at such a high level. However, Zenyou adapted. He started pulling off these amazing Mario chainlink combos that usually ended with Mario's up-B coin jump attack, even getting the final KO with it. Although Nicko lost the set he went down fighting, rightfully earning that second place finish.
I also enjoyed K9 versus Aphro. I'm a big fan of Aphro mostly because he plays Bayonetta and he's one of the better Bayo's in Socal. He has an interesting style that doesn't rely on the zero-death combo stuff or divekick. Instead, he relies more on spacing and a lot of backairs for his KO's.
Rich Brown (Mewtwo) had some great games versus Nicko (Shulk). They had a pretty good set where I thought Rich was going to take it but then Nicko switched from Marth to Shulk and it was like a whole different ball game. That was a pretty fun to see.
After a bit I got to play a few more friendlies. Won some, lost some. It was a great time overall and it was great seeing all my sm4sh friends that I haven't seen in like two months because I've been at work on Thursdays. I might consider trying to get Thursdays off on a permanent basis to get back in the tournament scene like I was earlier this year. Something to figure out for the future. I look forward to doing better at the next one I attend. Here are the top players placements.
1st - ATRAKT | Zenyou [Mario]
2nd - FAD | Nicko [Shulk/Marth]
3rd - eM | Aphro [Bayonetta/Rosalina]
4th - NIPS | K9sbruce [Sheik/Diddy]
5th - PG FAD | Zan [Toon Link]
5th - 2S | SM [Corrin/Ike]
7th - A2 | Dynamo [Sheik]
7th - NxT JP | SoCalGohan [Mario]
That's all for now. Watch this space.
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