My first Smash tournament

     What can I say about my first Super Smash Brothers 4 tournament? It was terrific and I'm definitely going to attend more. The tourney was held at this place called Fire & Dice (F&D), a place here in the valley that does gaming nights like Dungeons and Dragons, Magic the Gathering, and rpg board games. When I went inside the place I noticed that they barely had anything for sale so this is more of a hangout and tournament place more so than a real hobby shop. A real hobby shop is like Game Ogre out here in the Valley. The catch is that to enter for these tournaments its usually about $10 per person so they are making money by just having people show up. The more people the better. Apparently if you win these tournaments you also win like a certain percentage of the pot, something like that.
     I left my house super early and showed up when they first opened the place at 11 am. The only other people there was the guy running the place and a kid with long hair. We started playing some friendlies and I schooled him as Fox against his Sheik. It was fun. Later on more people showed up. A young girl showed up and her Sonic was really good. I played her twice and I just couldn't beat her Sonic, and in our second game she barely beat me as Yoshi. Even later CharlieDaKing showed up and schooled us. His Fox is really good and he's made a name for himself as young player but I saw him get whooped later by the guy who won the tournament, in a Marth (someone who goes under the name Nico) vs Fox battle. That guy Nico actually won the tournament but I didn't see finals because I had to head home for work. I was a little worried that this was going to be a kiddies event but later on more people my age showed up, although me and the owner were still the oldest people that showed up that day! My friend that told me about the place and tourneys was there and it was cool connecting with him, chatting, and getting in a bunch of friendlies matches before the actual tournament play. At some point I got some lunch at Subway. I talked to Zenyou there too, he's a super high tier Mario player, but he was there to hang out rather than compete. If he did compete I think he would destroyed everyone there. There wasn't a lot of people that showed up to this tournament because the night before there was a big tournament and a lot of big players were there, even Larry, this really good Fox player that's ranked pretty high in SoCal. I was told that on Thursdays they usually have like 50 people show up, which is an insane amount because I found the place to be small. SoCal has some of the best Smash players in California, I would say maybe even in the United States, check out the SoCal Smash page on Facebook to learn more about who's on the roster for best players in our area. Anyways, let's talk about the tournament.
     My first match I got placed against a pretty high ranking player (I would say) named Pluto. He was a Captain Falcon main and he just annihilated me. In one of the matches we played I ended up killing myself twice, which was unfortunate. The reason was because I chose Lyatt Station as our stage, I didn't know the stage turns around a little bit, which fucked me up twice. I was a little mad losing like that but let's face it, I didn't stand a chance against this guy on any stage. He read every move I made like a book. He ended up getting 7th place, which isn't too high but isn't bad either. He was really good, especially picking Captain Falcon, a character I don't think of as high tier. I consider him middle tier at best. But I may be wrong.
     My second match was against a Lucario player that went by the name Champion of Light. I think it was his first tournament too. I was weirded out that he played Lucario, a character I consider low tier. As a result, I underestimated him and lost the first round. In the second match I came back with a vengeance and completely wrecked him. Part of why he lost was because he kept charging up energy balls and throwing them at me full blast, and I kept using Fox's reflector against him, hitting him with his own attack. It was pretty awesome. I was really happy that I was able to read him (the reads!) when he did that. When it came to the third match I ended up beating him again just playing my regular Fox style that I would play against my friends. I was really happy that I won and it gave me a lot of confidence for my next and sadly final match.
     My third and last match was against a Wario but I don't think he mained Wario, I think he was just playing him against me to go easy on me. Both of the two matches we played were really close and I was a little upset that I lost, especially because it was super close in the second match. One thing I noticed was that he kept using the motorbike against me, which got kind of annoying. I think it rattled me a bit and got me off guard. Another thing about this whole thing was that I had been there since 11 am and it was around 2 30 pm now so I was really tired, especially because I had gone to sleep at 3 am the night before, and woke up at 9 am just to attend this thing. The F&D facebook page said that signups for the tourney was 11 am so I thought I had to be there but apparently this wasn't the case. Anyways, I think being tired had a factor in losing against that guy's Wario because it was a matchup that I could've won.
     So after that I was out of the tournament. After you lose two matches you're out, which is awesome because usually you'd think if you lost only one match you'd be out. I was happy that I won against someone and that gave me some confidence in my skills. Losing just makes me want to play more, attend more tourneys, and get better at the game in general, not just as a Fox player, but playing other characters as well. Before I headed to the bus stop to head home and get ready for work, I saw the semifinals match. It was CharlieDaKing versus Nico in a Fox vs Marth game. Charlie just got annihilated. There were many tippers in that game. It was crazy seeing someone I thought was super good just get taken down with ease by this random guy that I didn't talk to. The level of skill these guys had was just insane. That Marth player went on to win the tourney.
     Overall it was an amazing experience. I just started playing Smash 4 about five months ago and attending this tournament was so much fun. I enjoyed meeting other people and talking to them. Friendlies was great too because I got some advice by players better than me. In terms of actual tournament game play I think I have to play a lot more and get in a lot more practice to compete at these guys' level. I'm interested in also attending tournaments at other places to get better. One guy told me I'm not going to get better at Smash playing online or against my friends. That the only way to get better was competing in tournaments. He's probably right. I plan on attending more. I look forward to more tourneys in the future.  

My Favorite Characters in Smash 4

     This is a list of my favorite characters in Smash 4. It's kind of a tier list too because the people who I like are top tiers and pretty much the best characters in the game. Let's start this thing off.
      1) Fox. I've been a Fox main since I was a grade school kid playing Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64. Ah, the good old days. Not only that but I also was a Fox main when I got older in high school and was playing Melee, arguably one of the greatest Smash games of all time. I think Smash 4 is better than Melee but only because I like the online capability and the new characters. In terms of technicality and actual skill I think Melee can't be beat by either Smash 4 or Brawl. Anyways, Fox is just the greatest character in the world to me. I love how fast he is and how he is able to get in super fast combos on characters. I love how he has a blaster that can really rake up damage too. The only weakness to Fox is that he's a light character and is very easy to combo. In addition, when he uses his up-B to come back to the stage it is very easy to spike him. To be honest I feel like he has more cons than pros but I choose to main him because I feel like he's the best and I believe in him. Me and Fox are one! Haha, but seriously he's been my main in Smash since I was a kid. He's still my favorite. How can a Fox not be cool?
     2) Zero Suit Samus, I sometimes play Zero Suit because I'm a huge Samus and Super Metroid(currently playing my first play-through of it) fan, but also because she has some good utility tools. First of all, I think Zero Suit Samus is the waifu. A waifu is like a video game character that you think is really cute. I really like her orange outfit with the tank top and shorts skin, that one is my favorite. Not only does she look good but she has a stun gun that is really effective, and an electrical whip that can be used as a long range attack. Also, her grab can be used to grapple onto the stage, just like regular Samus does. Her grab combos are insane, as well as her air combos. You don't ever want to get caught in the air by Zero Suit, she will annihilate you with these up air kicks. She's definitely top tier. I rank her like maybe 2nd best character in the game. She's really hard to deal with against people that are super good with her online on For Glory matches.
     3) Sheik, this is another one of those characters that are super top tier. I think Sheik may in fact be the greatest character in the game because of her combos, utility, and recovery. She has these needles that can used as damage and to knock people back from coming back to the stage. Also, she has this super good kick that can be used over and over again on peeps to rake up damage. In addition, she has some kind of weird grenade thing that's pretty cool but I haven't seen too many people use it effectively. ZeRo(pro Sm4sh player that won Evo this year) has really made good use of Sheik's ability and won with her in a lot of tournaments so she is definitely top tier. I also love how she's from Zelda but is a way better character than Link is. I consider Link low tier. Young Link on the underhand is beast if used correctly.
     4) Diddy Kong, I know Diddy got nerfed in the last patch but I don't care, Diddy is still one of the best characters in the game even though he got nerfed. What can I say about this cute little monkey? He has all kinds of back air attacks that will rake up damage whenever you're in the skies or recovering back to the stage. In addition, he has a bandanna peel that he can throw and that you can slip on. I really like his forward smash attack, the one-two double punch, its awesome. I've seen so many crazy Diddy players online on Twitch.tv but I think ZeRo has really mastered Diddy at tournaments. I love this attack where he jumps on the enemy players' face and slaps them while he's on top of them. He's not considered top tier anymore but he used to be. I still think he's somewhat top tier though.
     5) Yoshi, this cute little dinosaur from Super Mario World is a fan favorite. He does crazy things in the air with his tail. Not only that but he has a great spike attack where he slams his big head down against enemy players, making them fall straight to their death when trying to make it back to the stage. I don't play him but I've seen a lot of great Yoshi players online and he's super sick. My friend is a great Yoshi player.
     6) Rosalina and Luma, I can't say too much about Rosalina but I do know for sure that she's top tier. I've always liked her because of how she can attack with both her own regular attacks and Luma, the little star that she uses. I don't even know what game she's from but I've always liked her for some reason because of the double attacking, it seems cheap, but if mastered, she can be a deadly force.
     7) Luigi, this guy has always been the loser to Mario in my opinion but because of Smash he's become a fan favorite and an even better and more popular character than Mario. The only Luigi game I've ever played is Luigi's Mansion, and boy, that game was great! I really like Luigi's green fireballs, his green outfit in general, and how he's just like Mario except leaner and taller. His attacks are way different too but I can't say too much about them except that he's a boss. I love his up-B that can sometimes kill instantly. This guy is a straight-up killer in Smash.
     8) Pikachu, this little guy is one deadly electric rat. He's a fan favorite and he's so cute. I like how people spam his electric jolt ability. He has a cool kind of double teleport as his recovery and a thunderbolt attack as his down-B. He's been in Smash since the very beginning and he's only gotten better since Melee and Brawl. He's definitely top tier.
     9) Shulk, when I first got Smash 4 on the 3ds Shulk was my main character. What's not to like? He has a troll swim suit skin and a big ass sword that has like 5 unique abilities-jump, speed, shield, increased damage, and one more thing I forget about. He even has a super strong counter, his counter is stronger than Marth, Lucina, Ike, and possibly even Roy's. I would say he has a lot of untapped potential but there really aren't any pro Shulk players in the game as far as I know. Pro Smash player ZeRo think's Shulk is possibly one of the greatest characters in the game.
      This concludes the list. For now.

New Super Smash Brothers dlc

     So three new characters were introduced in the Super Smash Brothers dlc on June 14 at 8 am. They are Roy (from Fire Emblem), Lucas (from EarthBound or some game called Mother2), and Ryu from Streetfighter. Those are the characters from left to the right in the picture. All great characters with unique play styles that add much needed depth to this already great title. I play Super Smash on the new 3DS XL and it sure is fun playing with my friends on it. My friends just have the regular 3DS and we played a ton of matches today with the new characters. In fact, as soon as I got to my friends house I bought and downloaded these three new characters online through his wifi (pronounced weefee) connection. Roy and Lucas were $3.99 but for some reason Ryu was $5.99. Me and my friend were talking about how its such a rip off that Nintendo makes you buy these characters. Back in my day kids we had a Gamecube and played Super Smash Brothers Melee, and you could unlock every single character in the game by playing the game and completing objectives, and there was no online play or downloadable content. They have Mewtwo as another dlc character, but I already bought him a long time ago. Funny though, I never really liked his play-style and never played him because he seems to be more of a defensive character, and I'm more of a fast action offensive type Super Smash player. My main initially started as Shulk, because I bought Xenoblade with my 3ds xl, but today I really found out that my main is going to be Fox. My friend today said that 'you're crazy with Fox', and that I was super cheap haha. We played a ton of games today, testing out these new characters on each other. I would have to say that out of these three new characters I find Ryu to be the best. For one thing, he's from Streetfighter, which is just super cool. Since when does Nintendo and Streetfighter lie in the same bed together? Also, Ryu has his haduken ability as his special B-move. And his side-B is a nice spinning tornado kick. In addition, his regular punches and kicks have a lot of strength and gravitas. He really is the Tireless Wanderer. Lastly, I have to add that he has this special punch that can stun people when its fully charged and hits them dead on. Its kind of like Zero Suit Samus' stun gun, but way more powerful stun, and can KO people when they're at high percentage. I like Roy too because he's from Fire Emblem and my brothers were both super into Fire Emblem, but I just don't like how Roy's sword has such a short length, he's the opposite of Marth, but he's more powerful in his attacks, especially his flaming sword move. I just find Roy's sword length to be so short that its hard to hit people without getting super close. He's still a great character though, I just have to play him more. Lucas seems to be pretty cool as well. He looks like Ness but his moves work a little bit differently. I'll have to play him more to really understand how he works, because when I played him today I kind of didn't know what I was doing. Anyways, these three characters add a lot more depth to the game, especially in online play. I was playing 2v2 battles and I came across a team that both played Ryu, and they were just impossible to beat. I fought against a lot of Roy's in online play as well. So everyone already has the characters. Open your wallets and download these characters if you're a Smash player. You won't regret it. I'll definitely be playing more because of these new characters. For a while, I hadn't really been playing. But when I hang out with my friends we always end up playing our 3d's and playing 3 players versus each other. 3 player versus matches are pretty insane, and they are highly skill-based, especially because we don't play with items, all skill. To find out more information about these characters check these links out.
http://www.ssbwiki.com/Roy
http://www.ssbwiki.com/Lucas
http://www.ssbwiki.com/Ryu

Music I've been listening to lately

     

     Been listening to a lot of cool stuff lately. I've been getting more and more into free-jazz. So I've been listening a lot to people like Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Peter Brotzman, Ken Vandermark, Albert Ayler, and this chick from Chicago named Matana Roberts. Those are all pretty heavy duty free-jazz artists. But I would say mainly Peter Brotzmann is the free-jazz guy I've been listening to the most. He really has a lot of personality to his playing. When he plays a note on the saxophone, you can really tell its him playing. Also, some of his playing nods to Coltrane when he's really feeling it. A great free-jazz composer I've been listening to is Wadada Leo Smith, a great trumpet player who plays in free contexts.
      Other things that have attracted my attention is video-game music. My favorite video game theme is the Brinstar theme from Super Metroid, an old super nintendo game. Also, I'm really into the music of the nintendo jrpg Xenoblade Chronicles. There's a lot of guitar in the music of that game, guitars with a lot of distortion, very progressive tracks with synthesizers, bass, and drums. The guitar riffs are very intricate and precise, very heavy-metal but more of a Japanese style of heavy metal rather than the death metal stuff of America. Also, I'm really into the music from the Legend of Zelda, Super Smash Brothers, and Final Fantasy 7. I got into the game music because it reminded me of playing these old games as a kid, and also you can't always just listen to jazz.
     Lastly, I've been listening to metal and death-metal stuff as well. In terms of death metal, I just picked up the new Faceless album, Autotheism. It's a pretty good effort from a band that keeps reforming with new members. There's a jazz vibe to the album, and there's clean vocals to add to the screaming. In addition I've been listening to Tosin Abasi's (guitarist of the instrumental metal band Animals as Leaders) sideproject T.R.A.M, a jazzy sort of rock band that has a guy that plays saxophone and flute. It's a great band and of all the music I've been listening to lately I would recommend T.R.A.M the most. Their first and only album is pretty darn good. Also, last week I picked up the new St.Vincent album and this CD by this band called Angra, a Brazilian metal band. So yeah, free-jazz, video-game music, and death-metal.

Nintendo 3DS XL, Xenoblade, and Super Smash Brothers

    

      I threw down some serious cash on a brand new 3DS XL. I'd been wanting to play the new Super Smash Brothers for 3DS for sometime. I kept asking my brother if I could just use his 3DS and play Super Smash Brothers on it but he kept saying no! I got my own 3DS XL last week. In addition to the hand-held system I picked up the Nintendo jrpg Xenoblade Chronicles. So, right after I bought it I couldn't wait to try it out so instead of going home I went to Starbucks and configured it and put in Xenoblade. Super Smash Brothers I ordered through the mail so it didn't come until late that night. Anyways, the 3D options in Xenoblade looked terrific. It looks like Wii-U graphics (at best) and at worst PS2 graphics. I'm actually really happy with the system and what it offers. So far I haven't played too much of Xenoblade but I have been playing the heck out of Super Smash Brothers. I must have unlocked all the characters in one day, it was super quick. But the best part of it all is that Super Smash is an online game. I can fight people across the world in four player free for all, two on two teams, and 1 on 1 matches with two stock (lives). I only play For Glory, where all your wins and losses count and get added up and recorded. I have found that the best players always have Japanese names.

     My favorite character is Shulk, the main character from Xenoblade. He has this sword, called the Monado, that has these special abilities that you can use with. You just tap a button and the sword can change colors, giving you different abilities. In addition, Shulk has a powerful counter where he blocks an attack and hits the enemy twice afterwards with the Monado. Other characters I like are Fox from Starfox, Donkey Kong, Marth from Fire Emblem, Lucina from Fire Emblem, and Captain Falcon. The game has plenty of characters so you really can't get bored. Also, this is the kind of fighting game that is very easy to get good at. The combos are easy to learn unlike games like the new Mortal Kombat X. So far, I'm loving it. I hope soon I will be able to 1v1 my mates. Xenoblade is a great game too, just haven't found the time to invest in a jrgp, been working too many nights. The story in Xenoblade seems stellar. These robot type alien gods fought and now the world is completely fucked. Overall the system is solid and my brother has a ton of games I can play on it too.  

     Lastly, you have to put into account that the 3DS XL is completely brand new and just came out a short time ago. It's pretty much the exact same thing as the 3DS except bigger for bigger hands like mines. It just makes pushing the buttons easy and it doesn't hurt to have a slightly bigger screen to look at as well. Also, this just in: Local man really feeling it.