Hey AL, so GA is riding Megabus to go to the Geeks and Gamers tournament this weekend. We already bought the tickets. I hope some of you guys will make it out too... there doesn't seem to be much talk/any hype at all but that's k!
I'm mainly posting because it's in Montgomery and we'll be dropped off at a Red Roof Inn 7 minutes from the venue but we'll arrive at 9:30 AM and the doors don't open until noon... so is anyone willing to give us temporary housing or just something to do until the venue opens? A ride to the venue would be nice too, we'll pay gas. Also, the bus leaves that night at 3:25 AM (yikes!) and it'd be nice to once again... have something to do/get a ride back to the hotel at that time (once again, we'll pay gas) so PM me or reply here if you're interested. It'd really be appreciated instead of us standing around in a hotel parking lot or something nearby for 3 hours both times.
@Janitor - This might be a late response but holding your shield too much isn't THAT much of a problem. You explicitly pointed out the cases where it IS a problem (ICs, D3, etc) but the solution is simple and I'm not making a joke, just don't shield as much in THOSE cases.
Shielding is an amazing option because, like you said, it beats everything but grabs. But you also have other options like... spot dodge, jump OoS (retreating aerials are usually pretty amazing here), SHADing, etc. Don't forget you can just grab them or buffer turn around grab (only adds 1 frame to the grab timing and standing grabs almost always beat dash grabs if timed well but they can skid cancel or shield cancel grab almost as fast if they space/time it well too). If you utilize these options well then when they're putting pressure on you or approaching, it becomes a big mix-up game where most of the time it's in your favor.
There isn't really a rule of thumb you can apply here since the big key is adapting and learning what your opponent is doing to you and in return, beat it. If the person is using a lot of attacks as approaches and putting pressure on you, just shield and punish or SH retreating aerial to zone them. If they're trying to be tricky and land behind you and grab, just turn around and grab them first (they have all the landing lag plus time in the air) or hit them even. If you think they're going to grab, spot dodge. Also, don't be afraid to double spot dodge if you see them waiting to punish your spot dodge (or buffer some other really fast move out of spot dodge)... if you buffer the 2nd spot dodge sometimes people will miss the punish window and then YOU get to punish instead. Pivot grabs are a good spacing tool to use too but are situational. They work well if you think they're trying to get behind you or they use an attack that isn't disjointed. Also, don't forget that if your opponent is doing well spaced aerials and trying to bait/zone you... there's always the option of running forward and shielding to mess up their spacing and then proceeding to punish. There's also of course a lot of character specific options OoS and what not.
Having the habit of holding shield though is particularly useful when you're in kill percents. When you get high enough to kill, people usually try to force you into a bad situation or trick you into getting hit by their kill option. Unless the kill option is a grab, holding shield usually beats this. By holding shield at higher percents, most of the time you will only get grabbed and since you fly so far away, you're able to get back without dying (this is of course character dependent... if your char sucks at getting back and gets juggled then maybe this isn't the best option but most characters are better in the air to a degree than the ground... except characters like Snake, Rob, Diddy, etc).
There's a lot more knowledge and experience that goes into these situations such as if the character you're fighting only kills with aerials and can throw you into the air to try to land them, shielding might not be the best option and retreating pivot grabs or something is... etc. If you're interested in specific character MUs I can go into even more depth. Sorry if this wasn't the info you were asking for or if you knew it all already, just thought I'd throw in some information addressing your questions (hopefully at least).
TL;DR - Just don't read it or PM me for a bullet list of options or something I dunno. But the main point of this post is GA's ride situation for the tourney this weekend, thanks.