As clowsui said, I've played him and Champ (high level falco from Ohio), who I'm currently 2-2 against his Falco (and 0-1 against his ICs @_@). I haven't had the opportunity to play any top level Falcos, though. So my advice.
Phantasm was mentioned earlier. Keep in mind that it's oftentimes easy to shield (or powershield) and punish with a dash grab, as the falco is landing, if the phantasm is predicted.
And yes, ledge games are EXTREMELY important in this matchup. Falco is amazing at punishing us when we get off of the ledge, or while we're backed against it. Though, you can say the same for us, although we don't get nearly as much of an advantage, backing Falco against a ledge, but when he's getting off of it, we do.
Yellow Dair mixups work wonders in this matchup. Seriously. Fair as well, but I've really been using yellow dair a lot in most matcups, trying it out, and this is one where it really makes a difference. I'm not completely sure if it beats out Falco's uair, though I really don't think it would, but a FF'd yellow dair is hard to read and can oftentimes give you an electric shield to stop his juggles.
But normal matchup discussion isn't what I'm good at. My area of expertise is Stage Matchups.
(The rest of my post is going to be entirely about stages. If you don't care too much about this at this moment, I highly suggest you skip the rest of this post, as this is going to be long. But if you're interested in the counterpick stages used for this matchup, by all means read :D)
Ban: Japes. This is probably the only character I will ever outright ban japes against (except for maybe peach, but I'm not sure). Falco's ability on japes gives an obvious reason for its ban. I'm still not COMPLETELY convinced that he gets an auto win against us here, and I'm not completely sure that we would HAVE to ban it, but just to be on the safe side, ban the **** outta japes. If Japes isn't legal at your tournament, I don't know what else you would want to ban. I personally would ban Battlefield, and I'll get to that later.
Stages Falco Will Take you to, Thinking It's a Smart Choice
FD: Probably my second favorite neutral for the matchup. I'll actually recommend going to FD if the falco strikes smashville. Falco does NOT wreck Olimar on this stage like he does to other characters, because his lazers are not nearly as big of a problem against Olimar as they are to other characters. Thus, Falco is forced to approach, and Olimar has more room to do ****. Most of all, Falco is AMAZING at platform traps, and platforms actually make our recovering from the ledge harder on us against falco. Granted, platforms also work well in our juggling and ledge games against him, but not to the same degree. FD is a good stage for Olimar against falco, and an amazing stage for us in general. Don't be afraid to face him here.
Smashville: The best neutral to face falco on for one reason. That platform. At the very start of every one of my stocks, I camp the **** out of that platform. The way I see it, as long as I don't get grabbed, on the main stage, I still have a stock. So, if he wants to shoot me with lasers while I'm up there? That's fine. He wants to nair or bair while I'm up there? Cool. Granted, I'm not LETTING him hit me, I'm still tossing pikmin as well, and shielding the obvious nair when I see it coming, or shield his lasers if I have to. But when I DO reach 30% or whatever, even if I only took him to 15%, I still have that stock. And the fact that the platform moves, his approaches from under us are easier to avoid and shield through, as we're not stuck in the same spot afterwards. And if he decides he wants to hang out with us on the platform too, dropping through this platform, vs dropping through battlefield's is much easier, and we can usualy punish his chase with fair easier than we would on a non-moving platform. It keeps things moving. And above all else, Falco wants us to set still, right next to him. So do whatever you can to not let that happen.
Other Neutrals: Battlefield seems like a good choice for the matchup, and I'll admit, it's not a bad one, but it's really not the neutral you're going to want to go to for this. Most Olimars tend to strike both FD and SV while the Falco strikes the other two leading to BF and... battlefield is actually a pretty good stage for falco, over all. As I said earlier, the platforms benefit him more than they do us in this matchup, and small size of the stage make our ability to run away from him, limited. Other than that, it's not that bad of a stage for us in the matchup, but those are two legitimate reasons why SV would definitley be a better choice. Or FD even, to be honest. As for Lylat and Yoshi's Island, YI is an alright stage for us, the dips don't help Olimar against falco as much as they do other characters, and the small size, again, makes it harder on us, but over all the platform, being the way it is, helps our end of the matchup more than his. Lylat is a battle of who can keep the low ground. Whoever does, has an advantage for the time being. Lylat does **** up falco's recovery to a degree, but is not as bad as Fox, or wolf, or even the mother kids. Not to mention, like battlefield, the platforms are great for him, although they're okay for us as well.
Frigate Orpheon: I'm back and forth about this stage, to be honest. The first section is bad for both characters for the same reason, due to the right side, though the close area because of this is rough on us. If you're good at using the different heights of the right side, as it moves up or (more importantly) down, frigate can be an alright stage to face falco on. I'd definitely rather face him here than battlefield. It's still a bad stage for us against him though :/ The second phase, though, is great for us. Though, like lylat, it's a game of who can keep the low ground, the dip. Falco isn't the best edge guarding us off stage, so the mercy platforms work better at saving us and we can rely on them a bit better. The size of the second phase is of great benefit as well. All in all, it's a bad stage for the matchup, but not one you'd have to worry about so much that you'd need to use your ban on it.
Rainbow Cruise: I don't even need to talk about this lol. It's a really dumb choice for falco to take you here. All of his advantages disappear on this stage, as he's not able to corner you. This stage actually is in Olimar's favor in this matchup, and I don't really think it's that good for falco anyways.
Norfair: Someone fill me in on how this would work, I don't know >.>
Delfino Plaza: Without a doubt, in my opinion, the best stage for the matchup. I really don't want to go into another of my Delfino rants, but I'll try to explain. Differen't altitudes, especially slants give Olimar a huge edge in this matchup. Falco is forced to approach Olimar at awkward angles that are very punishable. Falco's lasers become much less effective, more so when Olimar, again, has the low ground.There are rarely any areas to immediately CG Spike an easy stock off of us, due to the section either being a walkoff, or there being water present. At the very start of the matchup, Olimar is most vulnerable to the chain grab, as we are at a fresh stock and it is the platform section. However, the two platforms above us will make it easy for us to avoid him until it either goes to the Eastern Beach, or the Street section, the two sections it will always go to at the start of the game (although I think it may sometimes go to the Western Beach, I'll have to check it out, although this would be the same situation, though not as helpful for us). The size of most of the areas of Delfino give us plent of room and the main platform ****s up his recovery, obviousy. The pillar section makes running from having to face him close range easier, since we have an easy accessible ledge, and don't have to go towards him when getting off of it, due to another ledge and a pillar behind us, most of the time, unless we're conered against the outermost ledges @_@. Purple pikmin work great against falco, when having to deal with him at close-mid range, and, as I've said alot, Delfino has three sections that give an increase to purples, one of which being the main platform that you spend roughly half of the time on. I've ranted enough about Delfino though @_@. I'll be making a longer post about the stage and why it's it's easily one of our best soon, in another thread. There's just too much in the stage for me to try to explain lol.
Oh yeah, halberd's good for the matchup as well, so is pictochat (for reasons similar to FD and Delfino). Sorry for the long post about stages in the middle of the regular matchup discussion >.>
TL;DR
Counterpicks: Delfino, Halberd, Pictochat, smashville
Maybe Counterpick?: YI, Lylat Cruise, Rainbow Cruise?
Other Stages that Aren't That Bad: FD, Frigate, Pokemon Stadium.
Don't go Here: Battlefield
Ban that ****: Japes
