Interview 2
Andrew Helms AKA Hilt
1.ASL?
Twenty, Male, Indiana/Kentucky
2.What color Olimar do you use and why?
Negrolimar. Cuz he's black
3.What Olis (if there are any) inspired you as a player?
If anyone, it would probably be pyronic star. I talked to him awhile back when I found out he plays doubles with Boss, since I team with a Luigi also, so I wanted to get some tips from him. I ended up following his results and he would always send me some of his videos (usually doubles), back when he avoided putting videos online, haha. So if anyone, it would be him.
4. What other kind of games do you like hilt? And why?
My two favorite games are Final Fantasy IX and Tales of Symphonia. I got big into adv pokemon back in the day and played it competively. I've been trying to get into dpp pokemon, but it's kinda like a melee player switching to brawl, kinda bland and annoying lol.
5. Why olimar?
It was kind of a joke at first because he was so weird but then I saw that grab and i was like fuuuuck
6. How did you end up with the name -Hilt-?
I don't remember completely, i think it had something to do with wind waker because that's back when i started going by the name. In all honesty though I don't remember lol.
7. When did you get "good" at this game?
umm that's really hard because "good" is so vague of a term. Back when I met the Cincinnati smash scene (Overswarm, the God Kais, Quivo) I realized that I wasn't that good lol. Playing against them constantly in tournament helped, and it still is, haha. Especially OS, who really pushed me to get better.
8.What advice would you give to others seeking to get "good"?
Money matches are the most important tool to getting better. I mentioned OS above, he and i played over fifty games before we ever played in a friendly ever lol. We pretty much only played in tournament and in money matches. If you have players in your area that are, with out a doubt, better than you, money match them. You'll learn a lot, pick up things from them, notice your mistakes, your bad habits, etc
9. Why do I consider you awesome?
who asked this?
10. If Olimar only had one Pikmin which one would it be?
who asked this question
11. And what is your favorite Pikmin color? Not in Brawl, but in the Pikmin series itself.
Blue Pikmin definitely. Because like... reds were okay and yellows were cool but blues could go in water and were like as strong as reds i think. I used them all though. But in Pikmin 2, Purples were ****in broooken and whites were meh. So yeah, blues.
12. Why do you know like every single matchup?
Because i live in the midwest and we have a main for like every single character lol. We don't have as many top players as some regions but we have a lot of high level players of less common characters.
13. Why you so white for a black person?
Because all the black kids made fun of me ):
14. How'd you meet your girlfriend? How long has it been?
uhmm it was back in october of last year. She was going to her third tournament and she posted in the thread for it and she was soooo perky and you never see that on here haha. So I knew who she was right away at the tournament (she acts in person exactly like she does online lol) and I ended up talking to her through the end of the day. And we played God Kai Monopoly and stuff. But yeah, haha. We started dating a couple of months after that
15. Why don't you consider yourself fully Indiana since that is technically where you live? lol
I live in Indiana but very south in Indiana, right next to louisville. So when I got into smash, I played with the Louisville scene. And when we started traveling, it was usually to other cities of Kentucky (or Ohio, also). It took awhile for me to actually play against Indiana players lol
16. Can you hold a groove if you ain't got no pockets?
HELL NO YOU CAN'T
17. How do you approach the MK matchup? What do you feel you do right in that matchup, and what do you feel you can improve upon? Same questions for the Marth matchup.
I try to keep in the mindset that the opponent always has the lead, so that I don't get careless, because that's a bad habit of mine. I try to be too flashy when it's even or if i have a lead and that's too big of a problem against mk/marth @_@ Also if there's anything I focus on in matches, it's keeping constant pressure while the opponent is trying to get grounded, and punishing landings. It's a bigger deal, and helps out more in the marth matchup, but it actually works well against mk as well, regardless of his aerial options. Olimar's anti-air tools are incredible.
18. Do you think there's a certain combo/style of play/particular trick you have sets you apart from the other Olimars?
I don't know how different it is than most other Olimars, but, as I said in the above question, I focus on punishing landings more than anything. And I try way too hard to be flashy... and it's definitely what holds me down, haha. I'm not a campy Olimar, I like to keep pressure on my opponent as much as possible until their only option is to for them to be recklessly aggressive. So I'm not really aggressive or campy I guess.
19. What is your greatest strength as Olimar? What do you feel you can improve upon?'
Again, last question touched on this so I'm not going to repeat myself lol. But as for what I can improve on, I need to focus on using Olimar's staple attacks, instead of using each match to test new things out and be fancy. I don't focus on Olimar's staple playstyle, which I need to do more. I also have a problem with pushing myself. So yeah, just mindset problems, haha.
20.You think olimar can rise to S tier? And how do you think the olimar boards have evolved and how they'll continue to evolve while your mod?
Olimar would be ****in broken if he had kirby's pikmin. So broken. Also the Olimar boards have come a long way. They're finally starting to pick back up. Hopefully it continues at the rate it's going at now. It's always been going back and forth activity wise, though.
21. Any tips on any cool tether tricks you may be aware of?
I would have to make a video :D
22. And are you picking up what I'm putting down?
wut?
23. What's up with the whole pink boots, blue gloves thing?
the only meme fino started that didn't die immediately
24. When's the next time your coming back to the east coast?
uhh i'm really not sure actually. i was thinking about shooting for apex, but i'm not sure.
25. What sports have you done/do?
I ran track back in school, but other than that I don't really do much outside, sports wise. I won a $2 footrace money match at a tournament a couple weeks ago lol
and day's gonna be losing a race to me in a few weeks
Day: >: You mean winning a race?
26. Do you think the pikmin desynched smashes will ever be easy to reproduce during a match and change Oli's metagame.
I hope so, but i doubt it. It's too frame specific and situational to be reliable in any way. But if I'm wrong, that'd be awesome lol
27. How do you think Olimar's game/tier placement would change if he had 5 jumps like a certain favorite knight of everyone's?
Metaknight has six jumps.
28. Why choose Dedede as a secondary?
He covers a good portion of Olimar's bad matchups (Luigi, Peach, Marth), as well as beating Wario and Mario, two characters I hate. Plus I love to grab X:
29. What is your favorite ledge option?
I hate being stuck at the ledge. But if at all possible, I prefer to have a purple pikmin tossed in front of me as I try to get back on stage.
30. What do you think of Olimar's running attack?
i think it's been unexplored and needs to be used a lot more. I've been trying to use it more in friendlies to figure out what it can be used for. So I'll get back to you on that one.
31. What is your favorite food/drink?
oh god ummmm i'm just gonna be a stereotypical guy and say steak lol. As for drink though, orange soda (h)
32. Favorite and least favorite character to fight?
Like i said earlier, i hate fighting mario and wario... I just don't know what to do against wario lol and mario just pisses me off. My favorites though would probably be lucario or pikachu. Or fox because i can combo him to hell and back X:
33. Who do you think is the worst matchup for Olimar?
Luigi. Definitely.
34. How do you fit Pikmin Throw into your play in matches? Does this change when you fight a disadvantageous matchup? An advantageous matchup? What about when the opponent is being aggressive or campy? Or what about on the size of the stage?
haha. Well i try to not use pikmin toss too much. Unlike most characters, it isn't a solid projectile we can spam reliably. I have to use it more as a pressure tool to trick the opponents into running into grabs or fsmashes. I like to condition my opponent into normal pikmin toss so that when i start tossing purples, it throws them off because they're too use to r/b/y pikmin. Whites I use to create openings where they HAVE to get the pikmin off. If the opponent is being aggressive, I don't use the attack much unless it's with purples, and I try to fend them off with better attacks. If they're being campy, I focus on using pikmin toss to get them out of their comfort zone, using the attack at midrange. I do notice that i don't use it as much in disadvantageous matchups, and I use it a lot more when it's a matchup olimar has the advantage in. Size of the stage doesn't matter much, but positioning of Olimar or the opponent on the stage does and the layout of the stage makes a bigger difference. Stages that your natural flat stage with platforms, pikmin toss can take advantage of an awkward stage layout to force the opponent to approach at an awkward angle that puts them in a terrible spot.
35. Any last words?
Olimar's a difficult character to play at a high level. It gets complicated having so much to keep track of and memorized. With stages, pikmin preference, and the moveset Olimar has of attacks, considering he doesn't have many terrible attacks. We don't yet know what every single attack is specifically good for, or what situations we should use certain moves for. There are still some that we haven't found the full use of. Same with stages. A lot of Olimars have their preferred stages, but we need to know why each is good for what. Knowledge.There's so much to keep track of with Olimar that some of us have given up, and just go auto pilot, doing what works for them, even though in the long run, it holds them back. I think the only way we're going to get even close to the peak of Olimar's metagame is if we find some way to mix the knowledge we all have, as well as explore the pieces of Olimar that we haven't spent as much time working on. There's too much to this character for one person to figure out on their own. And we might not ever know everything about him. But we need to get as close as possible.
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And that's it! Thank you, Andrew!
