AlphaZealot (Diddy Kong) vs MLG JV (Donkey Kong) from MLG Vegas

[AlphaZealot]

So this last weekend I played JV and we decided to do a tournament set. Recently I've been testing using Luigi's Mansion as a counter pick stage, so you will see me attempt this stage twice (and lose both times). Watch the matches though because the damage output is simply stunning the first time we play LM. I think against lighter opponent (MK/Kirby) then the damage output may offset and you will kill them roughly before you reach your own KO percentage. Against DK though, I was getting him to like 200% as I was reaching my own KO percentage, which simply puts the KO's in his favor.

Regardless, they are some decent matches-mainly showing some of the applications of using your Up-B into a stage.

I'm going to try and get a set with him at every MLG event we attend together, that way we can have a time line on improvement/other things.

Game 1: AlphaZealot (Diddy Kong) vs JV (Donkey Kong) on PS1
Game 2: AlphaZealot (Diddy Kong) vs JV (Donkey Kong) on Luigi's Mansion
Game 3: AlphaZealot (Diddy Kong) vs JV (Donkey Kong) on Luigi's Mansion

Oh, there is also a slip infinite on PS1.

Random match verse his Luigi (he Igi is not very good)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFK1h7sDUo8

 

[Dojo]

Good **** AZ. The Up-Bing into stages is sexy.
It works really well after throwing them into it.

 

[AlphaZealot]

Yea, it is going to require a lot of fine tuning, these are very early applications for using the move. The exception being on PS1, where you see me get him during the tree transformation (most people don't even know it would hit where I hit him).

I've been trying to use throwing/utilt/usmashes to get the opponent at the best trajectory (which is essentially a position where the barrels hit them on the way up and hit them again during the explosion on the stage).

 

[Dojo]

Haha, yeah that one caught me offguard. Usually upthrow->Up-B under the windmill works. I'm gonna work with this as well, and see if I can help find more uses for it.

It seem's like Texas is going to cut off my wings after April, so I need to start putting some more protein into my bananas.

 

[Le_THieN]

It seem's like Texas is going to cut off my wings after April, so I need to start putting some more protein into my bananas.

What's going on in April, buddy?

AZ, I'll comment on your actual matches when I roll back into Texas tonight.

 

[Dojo]

After Whobo in April, I think Xyro's banning him completely from all his tourneys.

 

[Le_THieN]

After Whobo in April, I think Xyro's banning him completely from all his tourneys.

Oh, Allan. He's so crazy! I would fancy that the competitive landscape will look drastically different by the time the one-year mark for Brawl rolls around. We'll see if TGM decides to follow through on that. Until then, I'm still going to work on my brand as a Meta Knight Killer. =) Great job again this past weekend, man. Just watched your sets with Roy_R again and my mind is blown by the spacing competition that ensued in most of those matches.

 

[Dojo]

I really hope so. You seem to be getting it down. Taking out Damien like that. And thank you, I had a blast.

Anyways, back onto this Up-Bing stuff.

 

[~ Gheb ~]

The UpB looks very interesting...it seems to be an effective strategy. Although some TOs ban LM - for good reasons I have to say.
Either way, LM is a good stage for characters, who have good ground control. Snake can do some crazy combos here: Nades + mines + C4 @ very limited space can have devastating effects.
I also think that as ou mentioned in the OP the stage could also become an obstacle against certain characters. Idk at what % Diddy usually is able to KO DK but 200%+ seems to be a bit too high.

 

[AlphaZealot]

Go to electroplankin (and Up-B on a leaf) if you want to ever cry about a stage that was banned.

I would say, on average, 180% is the KO percent for DK. On Luigi's mansion, I think his KO% is probably like 220-240% unless you catch him with bad DI.

 

[pastaboy]

good stuff az, im glad these r up. Never faced a dk so watching this will give me lots advice to do and wut not to do. I think luigis mansion has some great potential in a cp. especially because the bananas dont go thru the pillars. i wonder if u culd banana lock some one on those pillars? hmmm

 

[Le_THieN]

I really hope so. You seem to be getting it down. Taking out Damien like that. And thank you, I had a blast.

Anyways, back onto this Up-Bing stuff.

Well, since I'm wasting time on SWF instead of packing to go home, I need clarification, AZ: do you want an actual critique of your set with JV, or are we just strictly analyzing your rocket-barreling tactics?

I'm actually quite fond of your application so far (I've been deploying variations on the same theme myself every time I'm taken to Luigi's Mansion). The only thing I want to mention is that the damage ratio trade-off considerably lessens in your favor if you're having to fight behind in percentages. I've discovered in the last month of my intermittent LM testing that it's best to preserve the novelty of the tactic for when your opponent is in knockout percentage range, because most people will learn to anticipate it very quickly if you randomly throw out rocket-barreling to cap off a flashy stage-assisted combo.

The other thing I feel like should be mentioned is that you actually could have had these matches wrapped up quite easily. Against Donkey Kong, it's natural that some of the momentum of the match will shift back into his bloc, but it seems like you had a significant amount of difficulty on what kind of salvo you wanted to deploy after half of Luigi's Mansion was toppled. Obviously, it's supremely more difficult to have the same approach with half the mansion gone, but you were slow to readjust your game and approach the rest of the match as if you were on Final Destination. There were a couple of times that you wanted to bait JV back underneath the remaining half of the stage with little success.

You need to be able to make adjustments on the fly whenever unforeseen occurrences like this happen: do you want to try to out-space and out-camp your opponent now that there is more of an open area, or are you content with trying to combo your opponent repeatedly against the stage? Even if you opted for the latter, a quick fix for you to satisfy that need would have been to simply destroy the rest of the stage yourself and run away for a few seconds while you wait for the entire mansion to respawn.

I mention these things because I've been playing around with this stage as an active counter-pick myself, and these are the issues that I've had to deal with so far. That's all I got for now; I really need to start packing and get the **** outta here!

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

 

[AlphaZealot]

Comments very much appreciated, and noted too.

 

[Le_THieN]

Comments very much appreciated, and noted too.

It's really funny that you made this topic, because this is what I told Hylian about five minutes after Roy_R crushed me in Loser's Finals this past weekend:

"I should have taken him to Luigi's Mansion."

 

[M15t3R E]

GJ.
You're probably an underrated Diddy

 

[Cranberry Rogue]

I never even realized that the rocket barrels did 30% on Luigi's Mansion, assuming that you hit the opponent with the initial animation and the explosion. That's insane, and is definitely a nice trade off for the measley 5% that Diddy himself receives. =P

I didn't watch all of the third video so I don't know if you attempted this again, but what exactly were you going for at 0:58 in the second video? Do we get a drasticly different effect by barreling into the pillar, or does it just slow you down a bit?

 

[ADHD]

Idk if you were just experimenting, or what, but I want to point out two mistakes. You used all three of your KO moves in one stock before DK was at KO percent, save your fsmash for KO's and dsmash or ftilt everytime instead. This way your fsmash is very difficult to DI because it's almost unpredictable and you get rid of enemies when they should be killed. Second is you went crazy glide tossing, I know you feel unstoppable but put it in your opponents eyes, they're going to look for a vunerable opening and punish you for it and when you're on a power trip you won't see your vunerability. If you're going to go crazy with glide tossing at least make it so your opponent cant punish you. Especially dk, who is made to punish people. Nice up b stuff im going to use that sometimes. Vs me on wifi AZ, no?

 

[Player-1]

Nice use of the up-b on PS1. I thought you could have dash attacked Utilt combo a lot more, or just juggle them on LM for a while. LM is a great stage for DK and I would never CP a DK there. The DK you faced used only 1 of the 2 huge advantages on LM. The one he used was that he spaced excellently with bairs and ftilts. What he didn't do was combo the ceilings, cargo up throw on the ceilings to a dsmash *****, Utilt a few times to a dsmash *****, double bair to a dsmash *****, dsmash ***** in general with DK on LM.

 

[Advent Lee]

I already used Luigi's Mansion like that and is actually one of my main counter picks. However the way you used the barrels on Pokemon Stadium was really good. I wouldn't have thought of exploding them like that. Good Stuff AZ.

I know that MLG took over SWF but I didn't know that they started hosting Brawl MLG events. When did this start happening?

:monkey:

 

[~^.NoiR.^~]

So this last weekend I played JV and we decided to do a tournament set. Recently I've been testing using Luigi's Mansion as a counter pick stage, so you will see me attempt this stage twice (and lose both times). Watch the matches though because the damage output is simply stunning the first time we play LM. I think against lighter opponent (MK/Kirby) then the damage output may offset and you will kill them roughly before you reach your own KO percentage. Against DK though, I was getting him to like 200% as I was reaching my own KO percentage, which simply puts the KO's in his favor.

Regardless, they are some decent matches-mainly showing some of the applications of using your Up-B into a stage.

I'm going to try and get a set with him at every MLG event we attend together, that way we can have a time line on improvement/other things.

Game 1: AlphaZealot (Diddy Kong) vs JV (Donkey Kong) on PS1
Game 2: AlphaZealot (Diddy Kong) vs JV (Donkey Kong) on Luigi's Mansion
Game 3: AlphaZealot (Diddy Kong) vs JV (Donkey Kong) on Luigi's Mansion

Oh, there is also a slip infinite on PS1.

So so risky man. Play safer. Use bananas like they are Falco's lazers on melee. Oh and stop rolling man. I knew you were going to roll behind the DK and do a smash attack and he knew you were. Do that like once or twice a game and you will get the smash attack landed, but if you do it a lot, they will learn to read you and punish you as you can see.

I learned some stuff from you though and Luigi's mansion does sound like a good CP. Thanks :]

 

[TechnoMonster]

As DK figures you out, you have a lot of difficulty adjusting and hang out in your shield too much, and try to work with one banana in tight spaces too much.

Dunno about Mansion as a counterpick for Diddy.

 

[Justblaze647]

Good games...

Diddy Kong pretty much defines "up-bing offensively..."

 

[Fluke]

Nice matches. I like how you air dodge to instantly roll behind them (especially from numerous fsmashes). However DK figured out after a while.


I like the offensive rockets, and constantly abusing the low ceiling.

 

[Luigi player]

While the upB is nice to use I think you overdid it. Since Diddy get's 5 % you shouldn't do it THAT much, especially if DK kills you at 80 %...

Nice matches though and I liked the upB usage on PS1. ^^

 

[AlphaZealot]

I know that MLG took over SWF but I didn't know that they started hosting Brawl MLG events. When did this start happening?

JV and I both work at MLG events, we were there for other things but decided to do a Vegas Smash match. Essentially, the MLG Vegas part is just a marker because I'm going to try and get a match with him every MLG event so I can look at progress being made.

 

[Advent Lee]

JV and I both work at MLG events, we were there for other things but decided to do a Vegas Smash match. Essentially, the MLG Vegas part is just a marker because I'm going to try and get a match with him every MLG event so I can look at progress being made.

Ok kool. Would you happen to have any info on when MLG will actually host a Brawl event? That's one of the things that I'm actually anticipating.

:monkey:

 

[Pegachris]

Diddy Kong pretty much defines "up-bing offensively..."

except for MK