Infinitysmash
Smash Champion
This is a long post, so save it for when you've got a few minutes. And no I'm not writing a tl;dr version of it 
As I'm sure you can tell from the title of the thread I'm changing my main character. I go into a few more details further in on this, but if you want an in-depth reason for why then check out my blog on AllIsBrawl: http://allisbrawl.com/blogpost.aspx?id=15716
So I'm sure you guys all know that Whobo was this past weekend. Everyone who is a contender for the #1 spot (See: Dojo) was there and something absurd like 9 out of the top 12 players were Metaknight players. I've never been one to care about that so it's kind of a moot point, but everyone seems to be in SUCH an uproar about it that I figured I'd point it out.
Now I'm not the most well-known player in this game because I don't post outside of the Dallas area Brawl thread in the Southwest Regional Zone very often (feel free to drop in and say hey, we're a really group of people), but odds are if you've been on the Metaknight forum you've at least heard or seen my name. I've been playing as Metaknight since this game started because I love the character. He's honestly my favorite character in the Kirby series and that's why I picked him when the game first came out: because he's awesome. I don't think he's so powerful that he needs to be banned, but I do believe that he is easily the best character in the game because he has the most options out of any character and because of the pro-level base carrying his development. I agree with Mew2King on this one: he's so dominant because of how far the top level has carried and developed him compared to any of the other characters, plus the sheer number of options he has in any given situation.
Now as you can probably tell from the title I am no longer playing with Metaknight as my main character. I'm changing from Metaknight to Kirby and I'm fully confident in my abilities as a player to learn the character and continue placing well-ish. What does this have to do with Whobo? Well, I decided that either Whobo or Apex would be my last tournament with Metaknight as my main character. I picked up Kirby just after Hobo15 (Whobo's little cousin that was about a month before it) while playing some friendlies with Sethlon. I had a blast with the character, the game was no longer about whether or not I could win and was more about how much fun I was having playing the game. The thing is: I can't go to Apex any more because of what happened the weekend of Whobo, so Whobo kind of defaulted to my changing point.
Now I'm sure that anyone who was watching the live feed before Whobo heard: I spent the night before whobo in jail. No, I wasn't thrown in a cell with a man named Bubba, I didn't drop the soap and I didn't get butt-plugged
I was on my way to Dr Mario Guy's place to pick him up on the Thursday before Whobo when I was pulled over for speeding (I like to drive fast ). I was riding with another member of my crew named Shuzaku when this happened and he and I both noticed a second officer pull up. Shortly afterward I was asked to step out of the car and was arrested for outstanding traffic warrants in a couple of cities near where I live that I had forgotten about. So there I was: sitting in a concrete room with nothing to do for the next 18 hours while Shuz worked with my sister and my mother to try and get me out in time to make it to Whobo.
After 18 hours of actually doing nothing in a concrete room with nothing to lay down on I'm finally out after some seriously super hard work from Shuz. Immediately after I got out I got in contact with one of the tournament organizers (Dugfinn) and managed to get registered for the tournament before it started. The problem was that I was 4 hours away from the venue and had 1 hour before pools started. So I start on my way down there, once again going as fast as my car will let me go while weaving in and out of traffic (the most awesome part? 4 other people in front of me doing the same thing the whole way there. I was able to shave an hour off of my trip because of them) and managing to avoid the po-po. I got to the hotel we were staying in, got my stuff inside, took the best shower of my life, then got to the venue just in time to get a few warm up games in before starting in THE LAST POOL OF THE TOURNAMENT (the actual tournament organizer, Xyro, had gotten wind of the situation and had purposefully put me there. Xyro is like the best TO evar).
Now this is where the highlight of my weekend was. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, who knew me came rushing to the front door when Sethlon said my name over the loud speaker. I have never gotten so much moral support from a group in my life. Plus I can also say I've officially been hugged by like every big name pro ever, so I've got something to brag about I got to say hey to everyone, then Xyro asked me if I wanted to play some warm-up games before my pool started. I say yes, then go for THE person I always want to warm up with: Dojo. Mind you, Dojo is a sexy beast. He's easily the most refreshingly talented player in the game whose name doesn't end with 2king. So naturally I 3-1 his *** while I'm just warming up, all over the live-stream while I'm at it xD (<3 you Dojo, full homo)
Then Xyro announces the pools and I get stuck with pool leader duty (grrrrr!) and the only notable player in my pool is Santi, who happens to be Dojo's regular teams partner, practices with Dojo all the time (see: punching bag) and they're like best friends. The kid's got some pretty good Metaknight practice. (Side note: you can watch the sexy beast known as Santi over here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELCRQK-f478 ) I've seriously played Santi like in 4 tournaments in a row now, including when we flew up to Philly for Clash of the Titans (I had to play Santi right after he had knocked Candy out of the tournament. This is seriously one of my most heart-breaking moments ever in a tournament) and the last time we had played Santi **** near knocked me into the loser's bracket at Hobo14. I make Santi play everyone else in our pool first, then make everyone play each other, then I play everyone and the last set is me vs Santi (we wouldn't have even played if it wasn't for 1st seed getting a bye). The top 3 got out of pools, and the end result was me at 10-0, Santi at 8-2, then the third place guy at 5-5. Me and Santi wrecked our pool <3
After pools were over we all got to just **** around for the rest of the night. One of the highlights of the night before bracket play was getting to do a serious set with Dojo as my teams partner against Mew2King and Inui. Now I'm going to go ahead and say this and I know it's going to get a reaction: Inui is actually kind of a cool guy. We played some friendlies after the tournament and they were actually really fun (especially since both of us were just ******* around the whole time). I'm actually proud of how well Dojo and I did on a team and we 2-1'd Mew2King and Inui, including me beating them in a 2 on 1 vs me on the last stock and Dojo gimping Mew2King for the win in game 3. Oh, and mine and Dojo's team name is "If you don't let us win we'll give you AIDS." Though I think next time we team it should be "We've both 2 stock Mew2King in tournament."
So the next day rolls around and we go through the teams bracket. The major highlights were playing against MikeHAZE and Furbs and the way Mike and I met (<3 you Mikey), almost getting wrecked by a couple of Affinity's friends (specifically a Fox player named Zeton, IIRC. I'm bad with names so if I got it wrong then I'm sorry
) and then also nearly getting wrecked by a couple of Texas players named Fliphop and Gnes (these guys are the ****, seriously). When playing against the Fox player I realized that using dash attacks rather than grabs makes a huge difference and I stopped getting hit by running up smashes, which allowed me to live a lot longer and allow my teams partner (UTD Zac, in contention for the best Game and Watch and for one of the best teams players in the nation) to do his thing and get his kills. Against Fliphop and Gnes it was easy to pressure Fliphop (See: Diddy) into a bad situation and we got an early gimp that was important in sealing the deal for the third game. We lost the winner's finals to Mew2King and Inui, which in retrospect I wish I would have been playing more clutch but I'll just keep that in mind for the future. Our next round was against DSF and Tyrant in the loser's finals. I'm playing entirely too eager in the first two matches and they take a commanding 2-0 lead, then I calm down and start reading both Tyrant and DSF (side note: UltimateRazer's Snake is better than DSFs) and Zac and I make a 2-0 comeback. It was at this point that DSF lost his temper and started chewing out Tyrant hardcore. I distinctly remember him saying "I dunno man, I think we're gonna forfeit" and after that looking at my partner, UTD Zac, and saying "I'll $100 money match you right now." After about 5-10 minutes of this we play out game 5 and, in large part due to a neutral air from DSF's Snake that I don't smash DI properly and die from, we lose the match in a very close game 5. 3rd place isn't too bad for one of the hardest tournaments ever, and in retrospect I'm proud of our placing. Best team in the Southwest, baby
After we finish this we start playing out the singles bracket and, if I recall correctly, my first round of actual play was against Affinity. Now, I used to 2 stock this kid left and right when we played, but when I played him at Whobo he had stepped his game up substantially and he took game 1 off of me solidly. I don't remember where I took him for game 2, but I won the 2nd game and he took me to PS1 for game 3. He's got a commanding lead going into our last stock with me at something in the 80s while he's completely fresh. He puts me into the 120s and his smash moves, shuttle loop and neutral air are all completely fresh. The stage changes to the fire form (dead tree on the left) and I place myself on the right side of the tree next to the verticle side of it when he runs in and tries to neutral air. After he does this I chain my own neutral air into a string of hits that puts him at roughly 90% and he lands into the tip end of a charged forward smash on the right side of the stage and DIs it poorly and ends up dying. I want to say that this man showed more improvement than any other player I payed at this tournament and had he DI'd the last hit better I most likely would have lost this match. Super impressive, Affinity, I'm seriously looking forward to playing you again
Honestly, the next part is a little bit blurry to me. I BEILEVE my next round was against Mew2King on the live stream. Because I feel like bragging I'm going to go ahead and tell this part of the story. I find out about the match about a round beforehand and I tell Dojo that I need practice. Like now. I got to play a handful of games with Dojo and I get completely crushed by him in every single game. He explains a few things I'm doing wrong and I keep them in mind when I play against Mew2King. Now I sit down next to Mew2King and a crowd of people gather around. I'm super nervous because all of my friends at the venue AND all of my friends back home PLUS my girlfriend are all watching. Game 1 we decide to just go random and end up on Yoshi's where, through a strategy of stage control and knowingly allowing him back on the level from the egde, I manage to use my strong ground game to 2 stock Mew2King at about mid percent. The crowd was in an uproar and I had about 4 sets of hands patting me on the back and on the shoulders I felt my phone start vibrating like crazy in my pocket and knew my friends back home were going nuts. I'll remember this moment for the rest of my life The next game he takes me to Delfino and virtually nullifies my strategy from the first game with his under-the-stage approach (which I've thought about and have a solid answer for now). I still make a close game out of it and get him to his last stock. I couterpick him to Final D and get a little bit too eager and rather than forcing control of the middle of the stage I was chasing him and he was punishing me for it, which was my big mistake in game 3 and he goes all Mew2King on me and wins the game on 1 stock low percent. (Another quick aside: I would not have won game 1 and done so well without Dojo practice. Dojo got me prepared for the situation and put me in the right mindset to win this set, but I slipped up in games 2 and 3. I feel like I could have taken this set if I had just remained patient and played better, which I will remember next time I play you Mew2King See you at Genesis?)
My next round I play against an Olimar played that had 2-0'd Affinity in pools before named Error. I get 2 really big gimps on him in game 1 on Smashville and end up taking the game. I ban Battlefield against him and he attempts to counterpick me to Luigi's and I inform him that it's banned, but I'm willing to agree to the stage. He sits and thinks for a few moments and asks about Corneria, which I inform him is also banned and we end up going to Luigi's. Now you see: I'm really good on Luigi's. I turn the map into a complete nightmare for him and end up tilt locking him from 0 to 70 on his last stock because he's never had it happen to him before and doesn't know how to DI it and end up 3 stocking him. Yes, I'm a jerk <3
My next round I have to play against Fliphop. This is Fliphop's first tournament where he's had to compete with good Metaknight players and he had lost to Mew2King before I had played M2K. Flip is an amazing Diddy player; he's patient and he knows how to get inside your head and punish your every moev. I played a few practice games with Le_Thien before I played this set and I had a great warm-up with him, so he gets a super big shout-out for that. I take game 1 against Flip on Smashville by putting him under a lot of pressure; I was playing more aggressively in this match than I normally do and looking back it may not have been the best decision, but it still pulled me through so I won't complain. Game 2 I ban Final D (obv) and we go to Battlefield (this was pretty funny, we said my ban and his couterpick at the same time and he said "yeah, I know"). It comes down to my last stock at something like 110% and him at something like 20% or so. I get a hold of him and take him from his low percent to 130% give-or-take a bit. We're both in the 130s at this point and he's recovering from the lower left of the stage. I decide to take a chance and shuttle loop his recovery while I'm grounded on the stage and try to either use the invincibility frames or star KO myself while he dies on the left blast zone. My shuttle loop hits, I explode from his barrels and go flying to the right, he goes flying to the left from DIing the shuttle loop and dies in the left blast zone literally tenths of a second before I die on the right blast zone. Epic ending is epic, <3 Fliphop.
My next round I have to play against another Metaknight player named Domo. This kid DOES NOT GET THE RECOGNITION HE DESERVES! He's got some videos up on the Metaknight forum, go check them out. I don't remember many of the details from this match, but I remember him out-pressuring me in game 1 and taking the game, then me taking him to Smashville and taking a commanding game 2, then him taking me back to Smashville. Now, we're both on the last stock and I've got the percent lead but we're both above 100%. He's at something like 140% and I'm at 110. We're on the right side of Smashville with me on the outside part near the ledge and I charge a forward smash and hit him with the very tip end of it to send him flying off the left end and take the game... only this time the joke is on me and he catches me with a down smash while I'm charging my forward smash and I die on the right before he makes it to the left side. Mad props go to Domo for knocking me out of the tournament, this is another Wichita, Kansas player who has stepped up their game big time.
I end up taking 9th. Again. Repeat performance from Clash of the Titans: 1 place outside of the money. Regardless, I'm proud of how well I placed and proud of how well I did in the face of one of the worst starts to a weekend in my life. I'm part of a group of something like 5 people that have 2 stocked Mew2King in tournament play and I'm very proud of that. As of the end of Whobo I am done playing Metaknight as my main. I'm hoping that some more people can follow my example and show that we don't need Metaknight to win. I know for sure that at least one other high profile player is dropping him, but I can't tell you who nor when. That's for him to decide if he wants to tell you or not
After the tournament I sat down and played some friendlies with Sethlon, Santi, and UTD Zac on Special Brawl with heavy characters and turbo speed on and bob-ombs set to high (Sethlon says Fliphop is the one who came up with it, it was a blast... no bob-omb pun intended). We ended up playing some four-for-all money matches and whoever was the first to 2 wins took the pot (it was $1 each, lol) After doing that for a couple of hours I went to a rave with... well almost all the cool people from Texas. Me, Santi, Bwett, Dojo, Hylian, Lee Martin (that's right, I called you Texas biatch), and a crapload of other people. We all had a blast; Santi went crowd surfing, Dojo had a fine young lady wrap her legs around his face and try to make him die the happiest man ever, and we all got to watch Cyphus do his contortion tricks.
After we were done there we went to the Denny's that was right next to the hotel we were staying in and we all chilled out for a bit, then went back to the hotel and passed out. The next day a few of us stayed back and played some friendlies, same thing with the bob-ombs and stuff. Then we played this game some of the Oklahoma smashers showed us called 'Duelist.' The one they showed me was where you build a stage that's basically an upside down V and everyone plays as Snake. The objective is to do nothing but C4 recover and try to stay alive under this stage while you kill the other guys. Some of the out-of-staters came and played, I'm not sure who all did exactly but I know for sure MikeHAZE did and he had a blast with us. Texas knows how to have some fun.
After that was the trip home. I had asked DPhat to drive my car back for me because of what had happened on the way and he was cool enough to drive for me. And the rest is history
As I'm sure you can tell from the title of the thread I'm changing my main character. I go into a few more details further in on this, but if you want an in-depth reason for why then check out my blog on AllIsBrawl: http://allisbrawl.com/blogpost.aspx?id=15716
So I'm sure you guys all know that Whobo was this past weekend. Everyone who is a contender for the #1 spot (See: Dojo) was there and something absurd like 9 out of the top 12 players were Metaknight players. I've never been one to care about that so it's kind of a moot point, but everyone seems to be in SUCH an uproar about it that I figured I'd point it out.
Now I'm not the most well-known player in this game because I don't post outside of the Dallas area Brawl thread in the Southwest Regional Zone very often (feel free to drop in and say hey, we're a really group of people), but odds are if you've been on the Metaknight forum you've at least heard or seen my name. I've been playing as Metaknight since this game started because I love the character. He's honestly my favorite character in the Kirby series and that's why I picked him when the game first came out: because he's awesome. I don't think he's so powerful that he needs to be banned, but I do believe that he is easily the best character in the game because he has the most options out of any character and because of the pro-level base carrying his development. I agree with Mew2King on this one: he's so dominant because of how far the top level has carried and developed him compared to any of the other characters, plus the sheer number of options he has in any given situation.
Now as you can probably tell from the title I am no longer playing with Metaknight as my main character. I'm changing from Metaknight to Kirby and I'm fully confident in my abilities as a player to learn the character and continue placing well-ish. What does this have to do with Whobo? Well, I decided that either Whobo or Apex would be my last tournament with Metaknight as my main character. I picked up Kirby just after Hobo15 (Whobo's little cousin that was about a month before it) while playing some friendlies with Sethlon. I had a blast with the character, the game was no longer about whether or not I could win and was more about how much fun I was having playing the game. The thing is: I can't go to Apex any more because of what happened the weekend of Whobo, so Whobo kind of defaulted to my changing point.
Now I'm sure that anyone who was watching the live feed before Whobo heard: I spent the night before whobo in jail. No, I wasn't thrown in a cell with a man named Bubba, I didn't drop the soap and I didn't get butt-plugged
I was on my way to Dr Mario Guy's place to pick him up on the Thursday before Whobo when I was pulled over for speeding (I like to drive fast ). I was riding with another member of my crew named Shuzaku when this happened and he and I both noticed a second officer pull up. Shortly afterward I was asked to step out of the car and was arrested for outstanding traffic warrants in a couple of cities near where I live that I had forgotten about. So there I was: sitting in a concrete room with nothing to do for the next 18 hours while Shuz worked with my sister and my mother to try and get me out in time to make it to Whobo.After 18 hours of actually doing nothing in a concrete room with nothing to lay down on I'm finally out after some seriously super hard work from Shuz. Immediately after I got out I got in contact with one of the tournament organizers (Dugfinn) and managed to get registered for the tournament before it started. The problem was that I was 4 hours away from the venue and had 1 hour before pools started. So I start on my way down there, once again going as fast as my car will let me go while weaving in and out of traffic (the most awesome part? 4 other people in front of me doing the same thing the whole way there. I was able to shave an hour off of my trip because of them) and managing to avoid the po-po. I got to the hotel we were staying in, got my stuff inside, took the best shower of my life, then got to the venue just in time to get a few warm up games in before starting in THE LAST POOL OF THE TOURNAMENT (the actual tournament organizer, Xyro, had gotten wind of the situation and had purposefully put me there. Xyro is like the best TO evar).
Now this is where the highlight of my weekend was. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, who knew me came rushing to the front door when Sethlon said my name over the loud speaker. I have never gotten so much moral support from a group in my life. Plus I can also say I've officially been hugged by like every big name pro ever, so I've got something to brag about
I got to say hey to everyone, then Xyro asked me if I wanted to play some warm-up games before my pool started. I say yes, then go for THE person I always want to warm up with: Dojo. Mind you, Dojo is a sexy beast. He's easily the most refreshingly talented player in the game whose name doesn't end with 2king. So naturally I 3-1 his *** while I'm just warming up, all over the live-stream while I'm at it xD (<3 you Dojo, full homo)Then Xyro announces the pools and I get stuck with pool leader duty (grrrrr!) and the only notable player in my pool is Santi, who happens to be Dojo's regular teams partner, practices with Dojo all the time (see: punching bag) and they're like best friends. The kid's got some pretty good Metaknight practice. (Side note: you can watch the sexy beast known as Santi over here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELCRQK-f478 ) I've seriously played Santi like in 4 tournaments in a row now, including when we flew up to Philly for Clash of the Titans (I had to play Santi right after he had knocked Candy out of the tournament. This is seriously one of my most heart-breaking moments ever in a tournament) and the last time we had played Santi **** near knocked me into the loser's bracket at Hobo14. I make Santi play everyone else in our pool first, then make everyone play each other, then I play everyone and the last set is me vs Santi (we wouldn't have even played if it wasn't for 1st seed getting a bye). The top 3 got out of pools, and the end result was me at 10-0, Santi at 8-2, then the third place guy at 5-5. Me and Santi wrecked our pool <3
After pools were over we all got to just **** around for the rest of the night. One of the highlights of the night before bracket play was getting to do a serious set with Dojo as my teams partner against Mew2King and Inui. Now I'm going to go ahead and say this and I know it's going to get a reaction: Inui is actually kind of a cool guy. We played some friendlies after the tournament and they were actually really fun (especially since both of us were just ******* around the whole time). I'm actually proud of how well Dojo and I did on a team and we 2-1'd Mew2King and Inui, including me beating them in a 2 on 1 vs me on the last stock and Dojo gimping Mew2King for the win in game 3. Oh, and mine and Dojo's team name is "If you don't let us win we'll give you AIDS." Though I think next time we team it should be "We've both 2 stock Mew2King in tournament."
So the next day rolls around and we go through the teams bracket. The major highlights were playing against MikeHAZE and Furbs and the way Mike and I met (<3 you Mikey), almost getting wrecked by a couple of Affinity's friends (specifically a Fox player named Zeton, IIRC. I'm bad with names so if I got it wrong then I'm sorry
) and then also nearly getting wrecked by a couple of Texas players named Fliphop and Gnes (these guys are the ****, seriously). When playing against the Fox player I realized that using dash attacks rather than grabs makes a huge difference and I stopped getting hit by running up smashes, which allowed me to live a lot longer and allow my teams partner (UTD Zac, in contention for the best Game and Watch and for one of the best teams players in the nation) to do his thing and get his kills. Against Fliphop and Gnes it was easy to pressure Fliphop (See: Diddy) into a bad situation and we got an early gimp that was important in sealing the deal for the third game. We lost the winner's finals to Mew2King and Inui, which in retrospect I wish I would have been playing more clutch but I'll just keep that in mind for the future. Our next round was against DSF and Tyrant in the loser's finals. I'm playing entirely too eager in the first two matches and they take a commanding 2-0 lead, then I calm down and start reading both Tyrant and DSF (side note: UltimateRazer's Snake is better than DSFs) and Zac and I make a 2-0 comeback. It was at this point that DSF lost his temper and started chewing out Tyrant hardcore. I distinctly remember him saying "I dunno man, I think we're gonna forfeit" and after that looking at my partner, UTD Zac, and saying "I'll $100 money match you right now." After about 5-10 minutes of this we play out game 5 and, in large part due to a neutral air from DSF's Snake that I don't smash DI properly and die from, we lose the match in a very close game 5. 3rd place isn't too bad for one of the hardest tournaments ever, and in retrospect I'm proud of our placing. Best team in the Southwest, baby After we finish this we start playing out the singles bracket and, if I recall correctly, my first round of actual play was against Affinity. Now, I used to 2 stock this kid left and right when we played, but when I played him at Whobo he had stepped his game up substantially and he took game 1 off of me solidly. I don't remember where I took him for game 2, but I won the 2nd game and he took me to PS1 for game 3. He's got a commanding lead going into our last stock with me at something in the 80s while he's completely fresh. He puts me into the 120s and his smash moves, shuttle loop and neutral air are all completely fresh. The stage changes to the fire form (dead tree on the left) and I place myself on the right side of the tree next to the verticle side of it when he runs in and tries to neutral air. After he does this I chain my own neutral air into a string of hits that puts him at roughly 90% and he lands into the tip end of a charged forward smash on the right side of the stage and DIs it poorly and ends up dying. I want to say that this man showed more improvement than any other player I payed at this tournament and had he DI'd the last hit better I most likely would have lost this match. Super impressive, Affinity, I'm seriously looking forward to playing you again
Honestly, the next part is a little bit blurry to me. I BEILEVE my next round was against Mew2King on the live stream. Because I feel like bragging I'm going to go ahead and tell this part of the story. I find out about the match about a round beforehand and I tell Dojo that I need practice. Like now. I got to play a handful of games with Dojo and I get completely crushed by him in every single game. He explains a few things I'm doing wrong and I keep them in mind when I play against Mew2King. Now I sit down next to Mew2King and a crowd of people gather around. I'm super nervous because all of my friends at the venue AND all of my friends back home PLUS my girlfriend are all watching. Game 1 we decide to just go random and end up on Yoshi's where, through a strategy of stage control and knowingly allowing him back on the level from the egde, I manage to use my strong ground game to 2 stock Mew2King at about mid percent. The crowd was in an uproar and I had about 4 sets of hands patting me on the back and on the shoulders I felt my phone start vibrating like crazy in my pocket and knew my friends back home were going nuts. I'll remember this moment for the rest of my life
The next game he takes me to Delfino and virtually nullifies my strategy from the first game with his under-the-stage approach (which I've thought about and have a solid answer for now). I still make a close game out of it and get him to his last stock. I couterpick him to Final D and get a little bit too eager and rather than forcing control of the middle of the stage I was chasing him and he was punishing me for it, which was my big mistake in game 3 and he goes all Mew2King on me and wins the game on 1 stock low percent. (Another quick aside: I would not have won game 1 and done so well without Dojo practice. Dojo got me prepared for the situation and put me in the right mindset to win this set, but I slipped up in games 2 and 3. I feel like I could have taken this set if I had just remained patient and played better, which I will remember next time I play you Mew2King See you at Genesis?)My next round I play against an Olimar played that had 2-0'd Affinity in pools before named Error. I get 2 really big gimps on him in game 1 on Smashville and end up taking the game. I ban Battlefield against him and he attempts to counterpick me to Luigi's and I inform him that it's banned, but I'm willing to agree to the stage. He sits and thinks for a few moments and asks about Corneria, which I inform him is also banned and we end up going to Luigi's. Now you see: I'm really good on Luigi's. I turn the map into a complete nightmare for him and end up tilt locking him from 0 to 70 on his last stock because he's never had it happen to him before and doesn't know how to DI it and end up 3 stocking him. Yes, I'm a jerk <3
My next round I have to play against Fliphop. This is Fliphop's first tournament where he's had to compete with good Metaknight players and he had lost to Mew2King before I had played M2K. Flip is an amazing Diddy player; he's patient and he knows how to get inside your head and punish your every moev. I played a few practice games with Le_Thien before I played this set and I had a great warm-up with him, so he gets a super big shout-out for that. I take game 1 against Flip on Smashville by putting him under a lot of pressure; I was playing more aggressively in this match than I normally do and looking back it may not have been the best decision, but it still pulled me through so I won't complain. Game 2 I ban Final D (obv) and we go to Battlefield (this was pretty funny, we said my ban and his couterpick at the same time and he said "yeah, I know"). It comes down to my last stock at something like 110% and him at something like 20% or so. I get a hold of him and take him from his low percent to 130% give-or-take a bit. We're both in the 130s at this point and he's recovering from the lower left of the stage. I decide to take a chance and shuttle loop his recovery while I'm grounded on the stage and try to either use the invincibility frames or star KO myself while he dies on the left blast zone. My shuttle loop hits, I explode from his barrels and go flying to the right, he goes flying to the left from DIing the shuttle loop and dies in the left blast zone literally tenths of a second before I die on the right blast zone. Epic ending is epic, <3 Fliphop.
My next round I have to play against another Metaknight player named Domo. This kid DOES NOT GET THE RECOGNITION HE DESERVES! He's got some videos up on the Metaknight forum, go check them out. I don't remember many of the details from this match, but I remember him out-pressuring me in game 1 and taking the game, then me taking him to Smashville and taking a commanding game 2, then him taking me back to Smashville. Now, we're both on the last stock and I've got the percent lead but we're both above 100%. He's at something like 140% and I'm at 110. We're on the right side of Smashville with me on the outside part near the ledge and I charge a forward smash and hit him with the very tip end of it to send him flying off the left end and take the game... only this time the joke is on me and he catches me with a down smash while I'm charging my forward smash and I die on the right before he makes it to the left side. Mad props go to Domo for knocking me out of the tournament, this is another Wichita, Kansas player who has stepped up their game big time.
I end up taking 9th. Again. Repeat performance from Clash of the Titans: 1 place outside of the money. Regardless, I'm proud of how well I placed and proud of how well I did in the face of one of the worst starts to a weekend in my life. I'm part of a group of something like 5 people that have 2 stocked Mew2King in tournament play and I'm very proud of that. As of the end of Whobo I am done playing Metaknight as my main. I'm hoping that some more people can follow my example and show that we don't need Metaknight to win. I know for sure that at least one other high profile player is dropping him, but I can't tell you who nor when. That's for him to decide if he wants to tell you or not
After the tournament I sat down and played some friendlies with Sethlon, Santi, and UTD Zac on Special Brawl with heavy characters and turbo speed on and bob-ombs set to high (Sethlon says Fliphop is the one who came up with it, it was a blast... no bob-omb pun intended). We ended up playing some four-for-all money matches and whoever was the first to 2 wins took the pot (it was $1 each, lol) After doing that for a couple of hours I went to a rave with... well almost all the cool people from Texas. Me, Santi, Bwett, Dojo, Hylian, Lee Martin (that's right, I called you Texas biatch
), and a crapload of other people. We all had a blast; Santi went crowd surfing, Dojo had a fine young lady wrap her legs around his face and try to make him die the happiest man ever, and we all got to watch Cyphus do his contortion tricks.After we were done there we went to the Denny's that was right next to the hotel we were staying in and we all chilled out for a bit, then went back to the hotel and passed out. The next day a few of us stayed back and played some friendlies, same thing with the bob-ombs and stuff. Then we played this game some of the Oklahoma smashers showed us called 'Duelist.' The one they showed me was where you build a stage that's basically an upside down V and everyone plays as Snake. The objective is to do nothing but C4 recover and try to stay alive under this stage while you kill the other guys. Some of the out-of-staters came and played, I'm not sure who all did exactly but I know for sure MikeHAZE did and he had a blast with us. Texas knows how to have some fun.
After that was the trip home. I had asked DPhat to drive my car back for me because of what had happened on the way and he was cool enough to drive for me. And the rest is history
