Smash 4 player Abadango signed to Luminosity Gaming

Pro Smash 4 player Yuta "Abadango" Kawamura has signed to Luminosity Games. This was heard from an esports organization the other night. This news comes in the middle of the Big House 6 tournament that was went on in Michigan. It appears that Super Smash Bros players are getting signed by pro gaming teams left and right.

Is this the hype of Smash 4 finally hitting the masses and people love the game and want to see it bigger as an esport? I think so. It's pretty much the best fighting game I've ever played. I've played all iterations growing up but I think Smash 4 is just far out. I used to go to a lot of Smash 4 tournaments but I haven't been to a tourney in a super long time. I plan on changing that soon. But that's another story...

These pro Smash players are getting signed everywhere now.

"Just over a week ago, the recently formed BOXR, founded by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive commentator Mohan “launders” Govindasamy, signed Super Smash Bros. Melee player Julian “Zhu” Zhuand. Prior to that, James ‘Duck’ Ma was picked up by Denial eSports last August, and Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman joined Echo Fox, NBA player Rick Fox’s esports organization, back in May. Not to be outdone, G2 eSports went on to sign their own Melee pro with Weston “Westballz” Dennis being added to the organization in July." (Kotaku)

Abadango is an Smash veteran who came up in the Brawl era. He started off as a Wario main but then switched to Pac-Man, Metaknight, and Megaman in Smash 4. After patches 1.1.3 and 1.1.5 he found an epic Mewtwo style. Mewtwo's buffs weren't understand before he came along.

He won a big tournament earlier this year at Pound 2016. He's currently the 5th best Smash 4 player according to the ratings.

Luminosity Gaming’s founder, Steve Maida, said:

“We have always had our eye on the FGC community, and have been actively looking at players and possibilities in the scene. After meeting with Abadango, getting to know him and his history within the competitive scene, it was clear that he was someone we wanted on Luminosity. This is just the beginning of our journey into FGC and there is surely more to come. The community is unlike any other in gaming and one we hope to be a welcomed, contributing member of for years to come!” (Kotaku)

This North American esports organization also has Overwatch, League of Legends, and Hearthstone teams. Their CS GO team won the ESL ESEA Pro League Season Three finals-earning $200,000.

Smash 4 is finally getting professionalized. We knew that you could win tournaments and make money by defeating everybody. But to actually make a full time career of it is hard to do. I have many friends who all play Smash and a lot of them try to do something in the gaming industry. Some are great players who are trying to go pro or semi-pro, artists, casters, technicians, TO's (tournament organizers), and then some of them are like me-people who play for the love of the game but wants to keep getting better and experiencing more of the tournament environment.

Everybody wants to do something based around competitive smash. It's one of the most beloved games in SoCal and around the world. I think because of all these signings and esports associations the game will development into a more interesting meta as well as make the game more respectable in the fighting game community.

I'm pretty glad to hear this. I still love playing Smash 4 with my friends. We just played today. I rapid fire picked Cloud and my friend was all like,"Everybody has a pocket cloud..." And I was like,"Heh. Yep."

Funny

30 Year Anniversary of Metroid

Metroid launched back in August 1987. Metroid mixed the platforming of Super Mario Bros. and the exploration of the Legend of Zelda into a science fiction adventure featuring a chick in a suit of power armor. It first launched on Famicon on August 6, 1987 and created a new adventure subgenre. You had to gather items and equipment to unlock new areas. Games like that today are called Metroidvania games, due to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. However, I prefer it when gamers say Metroid-like.

Metroid is famous for its female protagonist, Samus Aran. The instructions referred to her as he though so it took a while for everyone to realize that she was a girl. She's one of the coolest female characters in gaming. I like her so much that I used to main Zero Suit Samus for Smash 4 tournaments. I even have a Zero Suit Samus shirt. For those that don't know Zero Suit is Samus out of her red power armor where she wears this light blue skin-tight spandex.

1991's Metroid II: The Return of Samus for Game Boy upgraded the power suit and introduced the first game with the iconic Varia Suit (red power armor), the default look for Samus when she isn't running around in blue space spandex.

Metroid went through an amazing transition from 2D platformer to 3D first person shooter with Metroid Prime and Echoes on the Gamecube. The latest title Other M, released in 2010 was good but certainly had its issues. Right now the Metroid series is in a sort of stasis.

Later this month Metroid Prime: Federation Force is coming out but its not gonna feature our favorite female character. It features a sports game mode set in the game's universe. Needless to say, fans aren't thrilled about this idea. But there's still time for future Metroid releases. I'm hoping there's going to be something Metroid related on the Nintendo NX when it comes out. That would be sweet.

7/10 Fire and Dice Smash 4 tournament Road to Evo Edition

So I attended yet another Fire and Dice Road to Evo Edition Smash 4 tournament. I had work that day and they called me in early so I didn't stay to watch all the matches. But from what I played and what I saw, it was a good day.

First off, I won my first set on stream. It was against this Yoshi player going by the tag Smooth. His Yoshi skills were on point. You can watch the set here. Set the timer to around the 16 minute mark and that's when my set begins. As you can see it was a great set. His style was pretty interesting but once I got into the groove of the fight I started to play better and get the KO's that were giving me trouble. It's a great feeling winning my first set on stream. Although I only took one set it was the highlight of my tournament career. I felt like a million bucks. Smash has taken me far not only as a player but also my confidence as a person and a gamer.

After I won 2-1 my next set was against Void-one of the best Sheiks in SoCal. Hell, he might be one of the best Sheiks in the world at this point. I played him game one as Bayo and he annihilated me. I couldn't do anything and got two stocked instantly. I switched to Sheik game two because I knew I couldn't win with Bayo and I wanted to test if he would play differently against another Sheik. The interesting thing is that he did play a bit differently when I switched to Sheik. It was almost like he respected me more or something, its hard to explain. However, I did manage to put up more of a fight and put a little percent on him before he two stocked me. Again, even though I lost playing Void was another highlight of my smash career. He's one of the best players our region has produced and the fact that he came to our humble local tournament was awesome.

Lastly, I'd like to talk about a great set I saw before I took off for work. It was Bam, one of the premiere smash 4 casters from SoCal against K9SBruce, one of the PR (power ranked player) Sheiks. K9 went Diddy this whole set and Bam was playing Bayonetta. Bam's Bayo took me by surprise here. I've seen videos of him playing from Mega Smash Mondays or Wednesday Night Fights but seeing him play in person makes me think that casters can be as great as pro players-if they stick with it and keep improving. The crazy thing is that I heard K9 ended up coming back from losers and winning the whole tournament. What a player.

Basically in every game K9 combo'd Bam super hard with tons of strings (combo connections). Once Bam got to high percents he was able to bring it all back with short succinct combos. His rage (smash 4 mechanic: at high percentages you deal extra damage and send enemies flying farther) got to high enough levels where he was able to KO Diddy with simple stuff. The score was 2-1. I couldn't believe that Bayonetta could come back from high percentages against Diddy. Bam played smart and carefully, something I need to learn how to do if I'm going to keep playing Bayonetta in tournament.

All in all it was a great tournament experience. Probably my favorite Fire and Dice tournament so far. Looking forward to going back on Thursday and giving it my all. I've learned how to play in tournament calmly and not worry about winning or losing. It's all about playing the game to me now. And that's just the way I like it.

Coolest games from E3

So E3 just happened recently and it turned out to be a great time with wonderful new games. Lets talk about some of the cool games that we can look forward to in the near future. 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: It feels like the same old Zelda we're used to but its a huge open world design that most modern games feature. There's some sandbox elements like cutting down trees to get through paths. The graphics are cell-shady which reminds me of the Wind Waker, another great Zelda title. Can't wait to see the bosses. Time to start playing that Wii U again!

Telltales Batman: Its character driven and story-driven and its made with a new engine. Its going to feature a lot more Bruce Wayne than we're used to in Batman games. Time to put on my suit and look fancy!

Titanfall 2: The grappling hook looks great. It seems like the grappling hook idea that they had in Team Fortress 2 except way better. There's going to be a story-mode too which the first one lacked. Also, they're going to give everyone the dlc for free so that the community doesn't get divided. I've met a developer who works at Respawn and I told him how awesome the trailer looked. I also mentioned how the free dlc is a great way to keep the community together.

Horizon Zero Dawn: This is a cool action style game with a bit of Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, and Zelda. The game pits you as a primitive warrior type fighting against robotic dinosaurs and such. Domo arigato Mr. Roboto.

God of War 4: The game is still brutal and visceral and the graphics are gorgeous. An interesting new story will be a big part of it.

Battlefield 1: All the old technology used in World War I plays out well in the 64-player multiplayer mode.   

Gears of War 4: Time to get into cover!

Bloodstained:Ritual of the Night: The new Castlevania style game.

Batman Arkam VR: All about puzzles and being a detective.

Games I'm personally excited about the most.

Skyrim Special Edition: I really love Skyrim although I've never gotten that far in the game. However, I'd be down to buy the special edition because the times I've played have been so fun that I feel like I'd need it. I would definitely be down to finally finish the campaign with a special edition that includes better graphics and mod support.

Fallout 4 dlc: I haven't played Fallout 4 but the more dlc comes out, the more I want to play it. I really like Bethesda games because they are super fun single player experiences where normally I'm not a single player guy. However, all of Bethesda's games are worth playing even if you don't enjoy the single player experience as much as multiplayer.

Quake Champions: The trailer has a cool blue-haired vixen and the characters look like futuristic bad-asses. It looks especially cool because I just got into fps games competitively.

Doom dlc: So the news of more Doom dlc sounds great. Makes the game look more appealing even though I haven't bought a new game since Overwatch came out. Might want to pick this up in the future.

This year's E3 was a blast and it was cool watching the press conferences on YouTube. This year so far has already given us great titles. The most interesting game at the moment to me is the new Zelda. It will be good to see another great title on the Wii U because good titles on that console have been severely lacking as of late. The future of gaming looks brighter with each passing day. A bright sunshiny day. 

Fire and Dice sm4sh tournament, The road to Evo edition

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.

Vacation/Pokken Tournament

     

     Hey, how are you all doing? Life is good. Happy Easter and all that Jesus Christ jazz. I'm currently on vacation out on the ocean in this place called Cayucos here in California. Its a family vacation with my step-mother, my two brothers, my step-dad, and my step-mom's brothers and sisters (about 11 people all together). Right now I'm writing this at a hotel. Tomorrow we will be moving into a house that we'll be staying at the until April 1st. Things are looking up! I've got the Wii U hooked up and my bros are watching Netflix on this great hotel WiFi. We just came back from a great dinner at this seafood place called Dorn's. I had a seafood combination plate that came with fries, squid, calamari, and fish. It was terrific! I'm having too much fun for my own good. But you may have been wondering why I'm writing this on my vacation. I just want to keep up with the blog and keep it comin' with content. This time I want to focus on Pokken Tournament.
     So I got Pokken Tournament the day it came out, which was back on March 18th. I played the tutorial for a bit but I didn't really like it or understand the way the game played. After playing it with my friends I just got stomped on and still didn't get it. After some time I played the single player mode by myself and I'm finally starting to get it. The game isn't amazing by any means but its not a bad game either. It's somewhere in the middle if you will. My main problem with Pokken is that the roster is just crappy Pokemon that I've a) never heard of or b) don't give too shits about. The roster could've been so much better if a) they put more gen one pokemon in the game or b) put more interesting fighters in there or c) had a rotating roster that you could download like in mobas. They had endless possibility that they could've done with this game to make the roster better but they failed so hard. But I do believe that the game is very well made and plays great for a pokemon fighter, a first for the pokemon series. Namco done did good with this one folks. If I had to give Pokken a rating I would give it an 8 out of 10, which is being fairly generous considering that the combos can be rather generic.
     Also, people are trying desperately to turn Pokken into a tournament fighting game and I think that's just plain wrong. I don't think this game was intended to be a tournament esports game nor do I think it has that kind of potential as a fighter. The combos, as technical and theatrical as they are, are simple stuff that are basically Tekken cop outs. The SoCal Smash community have created a SoCal Pokken community page and there are tournaments all over SoCal for Pokken and I think that's a bit much for a game that just came out and doesn't have that much going for it yet. I might be wrong in the future and Pokken might turn out to become some kind of major esports game but right now I just don't see it. The game just isn't good enough in my opinion. Earlier I said that the game is an 8 but its a hard 8, like getting a C in a super difficult college course. If you have a Wii U you should buy this game just because its the first pokemon fighting game with combos and bad ass looking pokemon when they win a fight. However, I believe that they will make better iterations of this game in the future and/or patch the game until it becomes good. That's all I'll say about this game for the moment. I think it has untapped hidden potential (Gohan anyone?) for the future.
     Lastly, this past Thursday was a cool Fire and Dice smash tournament. I brought my friends along and they had a blast. They played doubles and singles and one of my friends won a set against this Lucario player. It was pretty cool seeing him annihilate this guy with Yoshi. My matches went okay but I didn't win any sets so things definitely could've gone better. I'll get 'em next time!

Fire and Dice Smash Tournamnet 3/17

     Another smash tourney at Fire and Dice today. I really enjoyed the tournament this week, partly because I wasn't taking everything so seriously and it was a super stacked tournament with a ton of great local players. Observe.
      Top 8 w/character usage
      1. K9sbruce (Sheik)
      2. Nicko (Shulk)
      3. Rich Brown (Mewtwo)
      4. SS (Villager/Ness)
      5. Mr. Concon (Luigi)
      5. KY (Yoshi)
      7. Zenyou (Mario)
      7. Angbad (Olimar)

     It was awesome seeing Mr.Concon (Luigi) in action against Aphro (Bayo). That was a fun set. Aprho is probably my favorite local player but I saw so many great pr (power ranking) players today and the skill level was through the roof.  Another great set that I saw was KY (Yoshi) versus Mr.Concon. It seemed that they were even in that set with Concon taking both games with a forward smash after KY missed an attack. Angbad (Olimar/Zss) is another great player that I saw play. He seems to play a small plethora of characters but I thought it was cool seeing him play Zero Suit Samus when nobody else there other than me and him were playing her. 
      The matches on stream were great as well. I really liked seeing Rich Brown (Mewtwo) versus SS (Villager/Ness). At first SS was getting mewtwo'd but once he switched to Ness his true skill shined through. Nicko (Shulk) put in work tonight getting 2nd place. He played amazingly well against SS with all these great Monado sword strikes. I saw a great Shulk for the first time ever. It was pretty cool seeing him play Shulk over his usual Cloud. K9SBruce (Sheik) just stormed through everybody and took the tournament. I barely remember seeing him play Rich Brown but it was an exciting match full of the usual K9 shiekisms. 
     My tournament matches didn't go so hot. Its not like I played poorly or anything but I didn't play great either. First set was against my friend Saladin (Rosalina) and for some reason I decided to go Samus in game one. I ended up sding first stock and didn't play a very good neutral against his aggressive Rosalina style. Second match I went Zero Suit and lost my first stock pretty fast to offstage shenanigans but once I got into the hang of things I ending up spacing really well against him and thinking on my feet more. Thinking of other tactics, sometimes running up to him and not doing anything just to see his reaction. Stuff like that. 
     The other set in losers bracket was against Shinta (Robin/Pikachu). He had an amazing Robin. I went Zss first this time and just went all out aggression without much thought and lost pretty fast. He switched to Pikachu and I switched to Samus, thinking Pikachu was his easier character to beat. I was wrong. I ended up getting combo'd relentlessly by Pikachu's tail whip and electric attacks. It was a good experience playing someone as good as him in bracket though. I feel like I definitely learned a lot more about my play and how to improve. He ended up getting 13th place at a stacked tournament so that shows how good of player he is.
     Overall, this was a great tournament. I'm glad that Fire and Dice is able to draw out this many people and this many skilled players. For the last couple weeks it had seemed that there was a dip in attendance but now it seems like everybody's going to be there again. Some of my friends that weren't there the last couple weeks showed up so it was good to see them again. FAD is also going to be starting Sunday tournaments starting this Sunday, on March 20th. They host great tournaments and its a happy/friendly environment for both pros and intermediate players as well. I'll definitely be back next Thursday for some more action!

Smash tournament at FAD 3/10

      Today was another local weekly smash tournament at Fire and Dice located in Woodland Hills. Some of my friends from Simi Valley showed up today. It was cool to see DJDemon play S2H. I felt like DJ (Captain Falcon) could've taken S2H (Metaknight) but there was some highly intricate edge guarding that took DJ off guard. It would've been great to see him beat a PR player (SoCal power ranked player, players ranked by how many tournaments they go to and how high they place). I didn't play too well today but I did beat a super good player named HLB (Jiggly Puff) in one close, exciting game. I spaced super well and had a great neutral in that game with Bayonetta. I was very proud of beating him but I didn't win any other games. He plays an aggressive style jumping around a lot with Puff, and when you least expect it he jumps up and hits you. It forces you to play super patient even if that's not your thing. I also met this super cool Cloud player that gave me some great advice after I was feeling salty after losing my matches. K9SBruce also gave me some great advice when I was feeling down. It's not that I was seriously feeling upset about losing but at the moment I was super salty. It's great to know that great players have my back and will take the time to talk to me about my playing, and more importantly my mindset going in and out of the game. Thanks guys!
     My first set was against Dipper, a Fox main. As soon as I knew I was going up against him I knew it was going to be super difficult for me because he's a part of Zork's crew. Zork is probably the best Bowser in SoCal. Anyways, I started out okay but then I started to fall behind. The up-airs were nonstop (so hard to deal with as Bayonetta) and after a while I just couldn't finish his first stock. He plays a campy Fox (defensive, runs away, forces you to approach). When I wouldn't approach him right away he would just blaster fire me and then when I approached he would punish hard. He's definitely a great player. In the past he once played me as Ike and I beat him with my Veria Suit Samus. Possibly a counter-pick character in the future? But I wouldn't pick Samus versus his Fox. That would be reckless. My other option would've been Zero Suit but I'm the type of guy who sticks with his main character by any means necessary. He played a super clean set with very few mistakes and whiffs.
     My second set was against Jiggly Wiggly, who oddly enough used Diddy Kong. I went in with a lot of confidence against him because I have beaten him in the past with my Zero Suit Samus in friendlies, just not consistently. Regardless, I still went in feeling like a million bucks. I started out the set amazingly well, going toe to toe with him. But then again, just like in the first set the opponent got the first KO and I wasn't able to finish out their stock in time before they were able to take me out. It was very frustrating to deal with and I guess you could say that nerves got to me during both sets because I started going in more recklessly and getting punished for it. If I had played more patiently and wasn't fiending for the kill I would've stood a much better chance. Wiggly's grab combo game with Diddy is really good. He noticed that I was going for a lot of defensive options a lot and he started going for a lot of grabs into some cool custom Diddy combos. I definitely learned a lot from that set.
     Lastly, I ended up leaving after my sets. I had agreed earlier in the day to meet up with my friend after my matches so we ended up hanging out for a bit. We played some racquetball in his apartment racquetball court. It was the first real exercise I've gotten in months. Needless to say we were tired after forty-five minutes. After that we played some of the Overwatch beta on PC, taking turns playing. I've become really fond of Overwatch and although the game seems jank (broken mechanics and heroes) I like the idea of an arena shooter made by Blizzard. Although I didn't do well in the tournament I'm gonna keep my head up and keep trying to compete. If I really want to improve it might take me a year or even two before I start taking out some of the best of SoCal.

 “We shall heal our wounds, collect our dead and continue fighting.” – Mao Tse-Tung

Update 3.0

      Things have been good lately. You might even say great. I've been getting fewer hours at work these last two weeks but I've been using that free time wisely, getting in some great guitar practice. I'm back on the guitar grind working on jazz standards and improvising. It's been fun. Today I was working on Wes Montgomery's Four on Six. I can solo through the changes pretty well on that tune. I've also been watching a ton of anime, sleeping a lot, and just relaxing in general, sometimes even hanging out with my buddies. Life has been so good! This past Saturday I went to a fighting game event at CSUN (local college) where we played Smash 4, Blazblue, and Street Fighter V all night. It was a great night and some of the guys that go to the tournaments at Fire and Dice were there. I got to show off my skills with Bayonetta and I was able to dominate some people that were there on a big screen classroom projector. I would say that I've definitely gotten better as a player, especially my spacing and my neutral in particular but there are still people who are just more experienced than me. Meaning they've just played the game longer than I have and they know the ins and outs of more characters than I do. There were some guys there who were super good with like every character, it was cool to see. I'm more of a two main characters type of guy. If my Bayonetta doesn't stand a chance than most likely my Zero Suit Samus will probably lose and I'm more the type of guy to stick to my guns and just play the same character I tried to fight you with first. It was a great event! I just randomly hit up the guy organizing the event on Facebook and asked him for a ride, and lo and behold I got a ride! It all worked out because he doesn't live too far away from me. He's become a friend of mine that I look forward to hanging out with more in the future.
     I'm looking forward to the the end of this month in particular because on the 18th Pokken Tournament comes out and also I'm going on vacation with my family out on the ocean. I'm going to bring my Wii U so I can practice smash when I'm not relaxing out on the beach. I've been getting in some good use of my Ipod at work on my breaks listening to a lot of Coltrane. The jazz fire is still within me. I haven't forgotten about music and jazz in particular. In addition, when I went into work yesterday I saw the cover of the new Guitar World magazine and it has Dave Mustaine on the cover. He's really come a long way since Megadeth broke up twice, and now he has a new killer album with a Brazillian guitar virtuoso named Kiko Louriea. A lot of good things are coming up and a lot of good things have been happening recently. I would like to get more hours at work but sometimes its good to just take some time off and chillax. I'm planning on going to the next tournament at Fire and Dice tomorrow so we'll have to see how I do there. My record at smash tournaments is such a bad numbers game (0-2, I've only beaten two people in tournament) but when I think about how I've evolved as a player you can see that I've improved at the game so much that its incredible. At the same time though I need to have those good tournament results otherwise its just all talk. See ya on the next post where I'll tell you all about the tournament. This time I'm going to stay until the end and see who wins. It'll be great to watch the grand finals set. I want to say thank you for reading the blog whoever you are. The blog has reached 7,000 views which is just insane for a no-name music/gaming joe that's just started up their blog. I want to become bigger and reach a wider audience but this is definitely a good start. I'll definitely find ways to keep the blog entertaining and interesting. One of the things I want to get back into is the jazz album review series I used to do back in 2015. That was pretty exciting for me as a jazz fan and I believe I could go far as a music critic. The gaming stuff has taken over most of my writing at the moment but I will write about other stuff as well in the future. Thanks for reading!

Smash tournament at FAD 3/3

     Today was a great time at Fire and Dice's weekly smash tournament. There wasn't too many people at first but later more people came. I can say that I played great compared to last week although I still have a lot of work to do to prepare for the next tournament. I did amazingly well in friendlies, defeating people endlessly multiple times in a row, even with some of my off characters. But when it came to my actual tournament matches I ended up sding (suicide deaths) twice in two different matches. Sd's are unacceptable in competitive smash and I really need to work on that for the future. Part of it is that I'm still not completely sure about everything Bayonetta can do with her recovery. I still have to work that out in the lab, aka training mode. Let's talk about my sets.
     My first set was on stream (a first for me) against Pluto, my first ever opponent that I played at my first tournament. Back then he was a Captain Falcon main but these days he's rocking Meta Knight, a pretty solid switch. I started off the set with a bang, playing pretty well against him even though he's a much better and more technical player. He won game one but I like to think it was pretty close. I got the first stock with a clutch witch time but once he started getting his up-air strings everything just started going his way. Game two was more good spacing from him and me trying to get in and out with some attacks. Again, once his up-air strings started working out the game just went in his favor. To put salt in the wound I ended up killing myself on my last stock. Not that it was close that game anyways but it was a bad way to go on stream. He ended up sding himself too so its all good. I'll try to find the video of me on stream because that first game wasn't bad at all for me. I was going toe to toe with him! Lol, it was awesome. I've definitely come a long way from my first tournament days. You can watch the set here http://www.twitch.tv/fadgames/v/52214336, set the time to around 6 minutes and that's when the match starts. It looks like I have complete control of the situation but then he just comes back with the up-airs. I feel like a couple more clutch witch times would've helped a lot because he's a very aggressive heavy type of player. But it was a good set and he's a good player. I hope I can face him again on stream sometime.
      My second set was against Captain Andrew, this Sonic main. He was pretty good but I felt like I lost because I don't know the match up. Plus I never get the chance to play good Sonic players. He pretty much just ran around at the speed of sound and grabbed me a lot. Once I was in the air he kept doing a lot of up-airs and there wasn't too much I could do to get out of it. He never approached or fought me straight up he just kept running around, which I guess is what Sonic is suppose to do. It was a little disappointing losing 2-0 super quick to a Sonic main but I should've known the match up more. I shouldn't have just been playing on autopilot during that set because you really have to change your play style and go for the punishes when fighting Sonic otherwise he'll just run circles around you. He ended up losing in a close set later against my friend FuzzBallJones, who was playing Roy.
     All in all it was a good time. I ended up going home early because a lot of my friends weren't there. Its just not the same without them ya know? I'm a little ashamed of going out like that on stream with the commentators even saying "Pluto won" before the game was over and crap like that but its just a game and I can improve. Even though it looked like Pluto was all over me I would still say that I was holding my own. I've been improving every tournament I go to. My neutral game has improved a lot over the last couple weeks. I'm still figuring out a lot about the game. For example, I'm not sure if I want to keep using Bayonetta. I might go back to using Zero Suit sometime soon. There were a couple great players that I haven't seen there before. There was this kid who played Villager that took out Rich Brown convincingly. I didn't really watch too much of the matches on stream today though because I was more into playing friendlies this week. Gotta keep playing and keep improving!

Late night gaming

      As you can tell by the times that I write all my posts I am one hell of a late night person. I usually stay up until at least 3 am everyday that I work late nights. On my days off I stay up till 2 am, and other times I don't go to bed until 4 or a 5 am. I keep late hours and that's just the way I like it. If I ever get a more organized job or a another part time job to earn more cash I would have to change my schedule drastically and go to bed much earlier. Anyways, this post is about the games I play late at night. There are some nights where I just write and watch videos and don't play any games at all. Sometimes I'm just too tired and I watch anime (thank god for crunchyroll). But when I force myself to game I never regret it. It's always a blast.
     I used to play a lot of games on my 3ds XL in the past before I fell asleep. I played a lot of Smash 3ds, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, and Xenoblade Chronicles (I'm really feeling it!). I might go back to playing Mh4U and Xenoblade at some point after I finish Fire Emblem Fates. I even used to play Mario Kart 8 on my Wii U gamepad before bed sometimes. It's a super fun game and I like playing against people in Japan and Europe.
     Lately I've been playing a lot  of Heroes of the Storm at like 2 in the morning. Its such a fun game and I don't always get the time to play it during the day before work. Game queues are usually super fast even at 2 in the morning and it gives me the chance to earn that in game gold (from completing quests) so I can get more heroes. In addition, I've been playing a lot of Fire Emblem Fates Conquest. I'm on Ch.10 right now and the story is just getting interesting. I would say the whole story as of right now is very convoluted and that perhaps Awakening had a better story-line. However, I never played Awakening but my brother does own it so I can play it whenever. Sometimes when I'm done playing a few Heroes games I'll play some Starcraft II for a bit. Lastly, my other go-to late night gaming session game is Diablo III Reaper of Souls. This game has the perfect evil atmosphere for late night sessions.I definitely want to get back into playing Monster Hunter at some point. It's like the perfect handheld multiplayer rpg and I really want Monster Hunter X to come out in America at some point (its only out in Japan). What games do you play late at night? Have you ever played horror games at night with the lights turned off? That seems like a great idea for a twitch stream. Stay classy readers. And stay gaming.

Fire and Dice Smash tournament 2/25

     Today was just one of those days where nothing worked out for me. Unfortunately that was what went down in my tournament matches as well. Before the tournament I was hanging out with my friends in the morning and we decided to go to some no name Mexican restaurant that wasn't very good. They messed up my order and then made me pay extra for the mix-up because my meal was more than whatever they gave me. Then later on when I got to Fire and Dice I went to this pizza place called Fretteli's and they messed up my order as well. I ordered a large pizza with bacon and pepperoni and instead they gave me a small pizza with bacon and pepperoni. In the end I guess it was ok because they decided to give me the small pizza for free and then make me my large pizza as well. I ended up sharing a lot of the extra pizza with my friends and some fellow smashers. This isn't really bad stuff but it really got to me because I was super hungry when I ate at both of those places. To put more salt in the wound, earlier in the morning my friend and I played smash and he's not better than me or anything and I just got bodied super hard, a lot of the time barely losing matches. In the last match he zero to death-ed me with Gannondorf and I just walked off the stage and left the room. I've never been that salty before to do that but there's a first time for everything. Today was just not a good day. But I digress.
      In my first set I played against Jinx, this really good Rosalina player that I saw playing doubles with Aphro. I just got bodied. He played a super campy defensive Rosalina, focusing on punishes. I don't think I played bad against him but I did sd (suicide death) in one of the games. I would say overall my neutral and spacing has gotten much better but there are sometimes when you can't do much against a more skilled player. I was playing Bayonetta in both games. It was a fast 2-0 for him.
     My second set was against Abyss, a random character player. He doesn't really have a main. He's a cool guy and we've talked before but never got to play until today. He played Lucina game one and kept breaking my shield with her side-B sword charge. I kept falling for it and getting shield broken and forward smashed. This happened three times in a row! Needless to say that game was over fast. Game two I switched to Zero Suit Samus and he went Game and Watch. This game was much closer but again, what can I do when my opponent is much more skilled than I am? I'd have to play a perfect game without any mistakes and pull a rabbit out of my hat, which didn't happen unfortunately. In the end it was another quick loss. I lost two sets in the blink of an eye. It was the worst I've ever played smash in tournament ever. I was pretty salty but I still said good game and stuff to the guys.
     My reaction to playing my worst day of smash 4? Just sitting down and taking it all in by playing some friendlies and talking to friends. This didn't help at all because I was in such a bad mood and funk that I just kept losing every game to dumb stuff. I kept doing dumb stuff and getting hit by dumb stuff. Everything was just terribad and I couldn't focus on the game at all. I'm thinking about listening to music when I play at tournaments just so I can calm down and focus. Today just wasn't fun. But there are going to be days like this and I need to accept the fact that people are just better than me at the game and that it might take be months, if not years to surpass them. I consider smash a big part of my life and I want to become good enough to get top ten at Fire and Dice but the more I go, the more I realize that it's becoming insurmountable.
     I watched a few games but I was kind of detached from everything. I saw my friend lose to a Sonic because he sd'd and lost his momentum. My friend Saladin played really well today although he sd'd in a crucial game three. One of my Simi Valley friends beat JeDi using Toon Link. I didn't really watch any of the high level players today but I saw Aphro pull off this sick Bayonetta combo where he took his opponent super high into the top of the stage and killed them. I've gotta learn how to do that if I'm going to seriously play Bayonetta. As far as all the salt goes today, after writing about it and venting I'm honestly not that upset. When I got home I played some matches on For Glory and did pretty well, until I lost a game because I was timed out by a Greninja that just kept running. In the end its just a game and there will always be players striving to be the best. Everybody has bad days. I just have to put in more hard work and effort, and just keep playing the game. Hopefully, I'll be able to take these guys out sooner rather than later. Thanks for reading, peace out. 

Fire Emblem Fates

      This was one hellova week for gamers. We got Street Fighter V, Fire Emblem Fates, and lots of games like the Division going online in beta for all users. I've certainly been enjoying Street Fighter V. Its become one of my favorite games and I actually get the combos and play-style of the game, a first for me in playing Street Fighter or any fighting games other than smash. It's so fun when you finally figure a game out. It's like taking an electronic apart, and messing around with all the parts, and crews and bolts, then you put it back together again.
      Now onto Fire Emblem. FE Fates just came out and there's two different versions; Conquest and Birthright. Conquest is about going with your adopted family and Birthright is about fighting with your real family. Both family's royals all have blood of dragons but you (Corrin, who's also in smash 4) can actually turn into a dragon and fuck shit up. Both families are at war. The real family are cool samurai type warriors and people who have tribes. The adopted family is more of a rich, evil, and war mongering than the other side. I gotta say that upon playing the game for like two hours that its an amazing game. I bought Conquest with a digital download for Birthright half off. So I only spend like $60 for both games, not too shabby. It was interesting because I couldn't just use the digital download code on the eShop. Instead I had to get past Chapter 6 and then go to this area where you can download dlc. I had to put the code in there. Very odd. That means that in order to play Birthright I would have to create a new file and then get past Chapter 6 again and then choose the option to go with my real family. Then the system will recognize that I have Birthright data installed and let me choose that option. Before that option would've been grayed out for me. A little weird that Nintendo's doing it like that but hey it makes you have to play the beginning of the game before you make a decision to play the other side.
      Games like this just aren't made that much anymore. By that I mean great rpg's on handheld devices. This is the first Fire Emblem game that I've ever played so I was new to the whole combat experience. However, I did remember that Fire Emblem on Super Nintendo had this same fighting style mechanic with a square grid and turn-based combat. Basically Nintendo never changed Fire Emblem and its always been a beloved series. I've always liked Fire Emblem as a kid because of Marth and Roy in Melee. Plus I swear that my brother and I had a Fire Emblem game on the Gamecube at one point. This game is like XCOM if it was more like Game of Thrones. The game-play is super tight and the fighting animations look polished on the 3DS. This is probably one of the best looking games on the 3DS. There are a lot of cut scenes in between chapters and you can really see the beauty of the game in those animations. I'm definitely happy with this game and I know I'll be playing it a lot. This might actually get me back into playing my 3DS. Ever since I got my Wii U I've just been playing on that and my PC. It would be cool to get back into playing the 3DS and finishing Xenoblade Chronicles and learning how to play better in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.If you have a 3DS do yourself a favor and buy this game!

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!

Pocket characters

      I played my friend in Smash today as I regularly do (on WiFi) and instead of picking my mains (Zero Suit Samus and Bayonetta) I was playing all my pocket characters. A pocket character is a character that you don't main and perhaps don't play a lot but you occasionally like playing that character. My pocket characters are Fox, Mario, Shulk, Kirby, Metaknight, Diddy Kong, Veria Suit Samus, and Sheik. Those are all super good characters if you know how to use them but they aren't exactly top tiers (except Sheik). However, I think Fox, Diddy, and Mario are really close to top tier characters. Its a blast playing characters that you don't normally play. Lately I've been so focused on just improving with Zero Suit and Bayonetta that they're the only characters I've been playing. I've been very successful with them on For Glory and against my friends I play well. I need to improve my neutral. That's like the main thing I need to focus on but its pretty hard when I'm playing against people that aren't way better than me. I feel like I could improve so much more if I was able to train with some really good players. Other characters that I would like to pocket include Zelda, Luigi, Rosalina, Peach, Bowser, Bowser JR, Ike, Marth, Lucina, and Donkey Kong(so many!). It would be great to start learning those characters. I think I'm going to start doing just that. Its fun learning new characters and figuring out all their combos. Who are all your pocket characters?

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.

Focus on Smash

     Until further notice, the only game I'll be playing seriously (competitively) is Smash. I'm already decent but I have a lot of work to do. I have to put in my 10,000 hours as they say and chip away at it until I've become great. By great I mean that I want to be able to place top ten (at least) at the local I go to. In addition, I want to start going to more local tournaments and trying my luck there. I think if I just keep playing everyday I will improve and just annihilate people in tournament eventually. My practice routine includes a weekly tournament, online with friends, and for glory. I also practice against cpu's and in training mode too. I'm going to focus on playing Zero Suit Samus of course, but also playing Bayonetta. I'm not sure yet if I want to pick her up as a secondary or if I'm just having fun playing as her all the time recently. It's a tough decision but the point can be made that Zero Suit and Bayonetta are very similar in their move-set and play-style, therefore it makes sense for me to play both of them. Don't get me wrong. I won't be completely quitting other games. I'll still play some PC games (on my laptop after work) like Heroes of the Storm and Diablo III but I definitely won't be as much of a PC gamer as I have been. I'm giving all that up for now. It seems like PC gaming takes too much time and console gaming just seems so much more 'natural', if that makes sense. I guess I've turned into a console guy and a Nintendo fanboy! It's been many a winding and twisting roads to have gone from being a PC gamer into a console gamer again. I believe in the end it will be worth it and better for me because I'm better at Smash than I am at PC games and the smash scene is so much more chill than the PC gaming community. I came to Smash 4 super late in the scene, I just got my Wii U in September 2015 and I didn't start going to tournaments until fairly recently. I'm tired of watching great players play on streams and YouTube. I need to be the one playing on there. Who knows maybe I can become good enough to play with a crew or team, or at least get noticed on a stream sometime when I finally become good enough to go toe to toe with great players. Time to 'git gud'!

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.

My favorite Smash 4 players

     When its super late at night and I'm really tired I watch a lot of Smash videos from tournaments that may have happened like a week, two weeks, or even a few days ago. Its a blast and I've learned a lot from watching high level players duke it out. I've seen some of these great players in action at the local weekly tournament that I go to. Here's a list of some of my favorite players. Some of them are from right here in SoCal.
     It goes without saying that ZeRo is arguably the best Smash 4 player probably of all time. In 2015 alone I heard he won something like 52 national tournaments in a row, which is an insane record for a pro gamer! He's put in so much time and work into this game that working another job just isn't an option for him when he can make money playing Smash. ZeRo is definitely one of my favorite players. Also, he used to be a regular at Fire and Dice, the place I go to tournaments at every week. It would've been great to see him in action at a small local like that. I feel like ZeRo's come from a very humble upbringing from Chile and now he's made it as a pro gamer in America. Its kind of like the Korean Starcraft pros moving to America and becoming household names as players here. It's a beautiful thing. The thing I like about ZeRo is that he used to be a Diddy Kong main and he was so good with Diddy back then before they nerfed him. Now he's a Sheik only kind of guy but that's ok. I do get tired of the fact that pretty much all the top players in SoCal play Sheik (that's kind of boring) but hey, Sheik is the number one character in the game so playing her definitely has its advantages.
     Although ZeRo is a hype player with mad skill my favorite player is Nairo. I don't know too much about Nairo but he mains Zero Suit Samus and absolutely annihilates with her. His combos and overall style is so fun to watch. He's not a SoCal player but he's beaten ZeRo before. In 2015 he beat ZeRo at MLG, probably one of the first times ZeRo lost a national tournament. Nairo is the best Zero Suit Samus player (imo) but there are others who represent ZSS really well in big tournaments.
     Mars is one of those players. I don't know much about Mars but I saw a mirror match (Zss vs Zss) against Nairo and it was one of the best sets I've ever seen in Smash 4. They were going off!
     I also have to mention Dabuz, a super good Rosalina and Luma main that really took it to ZeRo at Genesis 3. That set was so hype. Dabuz even two stocked ZeRo in Game 1! Again, this was one of the better sets from 2015.
     Now time for the locals. Zenyou is one of the first super good Smash players I met at my first tournament. His Mario is absolutely amazing. Uptilts for days and combos that will make you automatically eat 70% in one string. When I went to my first tournament he talked to me and gave me great advice about my playing and just overall what its like being at a tournament and stuff. He's a great guy and gives back to the Smash community.
     Next, Larry Laur. Larry is a great Fox, he's a space animal legend. He places really high at big tournaments as well as locals. I used to main Fox so I really dig when high level players main him. Because Fox is a fast faller I feel like he gets combo'd super easy and his recovery can be punished pretty easily if you don't mix it up a lot.
     In addition, my favorite local Smash player from SoCal is definitely Jwest, or Jweast. He's a Samus main that is absolutely amazing. People always talk trash about Samus about how she's a garbage character but when Jwest plays her he absolutely crushes people. I saw a set where he actually took a game off ZeRo, it was super hype! I've seen him play at the local I go to and hope to see him in action again. I feel like he can go super far with Samus. I don't even think Esam's Samus is as good as Jwest's quite frankly, although I could be wrong. I just love Samus but I'm always too afraid to play her in a tournament match. Maybe one day I'll just go all Samus instead of Zss and see how I do. I feel like I've learned a lot about how to play Samus from watching Jwest.
     Also, I see great things from this guy Dynamo, a Sheik main. He's super young and he's already good at Smash, doing really well at the local. He's one of the first people I met at my first tournament and he always gives me great advice. Whenever I lose a match he can explain to me what I did wrong and how I can improve next time. Then there's this other kid CharlieDaKing, a Fox main. He'll go really far in Smash 4 as well, he's already a super good player. I've played both of these kids and it was like I just couldn't do anything against them, they were that good. Sugoi.
     I have to mention Saladin because he's been a great friend that I've made through Smash tournaments. He plays a mean Rosalina too! Then there's GaryB (Fox main), another friend. Also, there's FuzzballJones, a Roy main that is really good. I feel like he could one day go super far with Roy at a tournament if he puts in the time and effort.
     I feel like SoCal's Smash 4 players all have a hidden history and persona that nobody really knows about because our region just isn't as popular as like Tri-State and stuff, despite the fact that we probably have the strongest region in America. I hope I shared at least a little bit of cool information about them. Most of these people are just regular people who just happen to be really good at video games. It's been great getting to know some of them and watching them in action.

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.