The Official Ike Video Critique Thread

[Nysyarc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4raLAuncCjE
Please critique. Certain I did a great deal wrong.

Lol, you have so many different names it's confusing.

You know, to be honest, the commentator pretty much covered it, lol. It wouldn't do much to critique a match where you nearly 3-stocked your opponent, but just a few things:

Don't go for Dtilt spikes so much, gets very obvious and it's useless when they snap to the ledge anyways. It really should only be used as a follow-up to Jab at the ledge and if you're feeling daring as a mix-up at close range on-stage to poke under someone's shield or punish a dodge and get that strong horizontal hitbox (it's stronger than Ftilt).

Oh and I have no idea what the Counter at 2:05 was about, should have just kept the pressure on when you're juggling him like that. Otherwise good spacing, nice use of Jabs and a good variety of aerials being used. Keep it up!

And show us a video of you legitimately losing next time (close wins are fine as well), much easier to critique.

 

[Zatchiel]

Thanks for the critique. I'd have better matches up, but I lost my SD Card, and my friend doesn't have hacks on his Wii :/ Will def. try to get better games up. Thanks again!

 

[billybeegood]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF_w0nYFWSg&feature=channel_video_title
I'd really like some in depth critique, I feel as if my ike has hit the top 10 ikes in the world, even though this game was wifi there was zero lag and is worth at least critiquing my decision making

 

[san.]

That match looked like lag greatly affected it. Do you have any offline matches, because that one looks almost impossible to really understand your gameplay.

 

[-RedX-]

I'm dying.
Billybee you ****ing troll. lmao

 

[AN(M)ist]

YEA.. dthrow to UpB. That brought back memories.

So your tl;dr is: fsmash and eruption.

 

[smashkng]

Too much Up b, Eruption, Dair and Fsmash to be considered top 10 Ikes in the world Billy. Those options are way too unsafe to be spammed. If you want to be one of them, I'd like to see a lot more Nair and Fair. You only Naired once which was at the start which was a completely pointless one and you didn't Fair a single time.

 

[billybeegood]

Too much Up b, Eruption, Dair and Fsmash to be considered top 10 Ikes in the world Billy. Those options are way too unsafe to be spammed. If you want to be one of them, I'd like to see a lot more Nair and Fair. You only Naired once which was at the start which was a completely pointless one and you didn't Fair a single time.

I'd like to see you 2 stock an elite marth such as mikess, your critique has been dismissed

 

[Zankoku]

Who in the world is mikess?

 

[billybeegood]

Who in the world is mikess?

Only the greatest 12 year old random wifi marth the world has ever seen!

 

[-RedX-]

Why are you guys falling for this.

 

[jamlosingthegame]

*Looks at related videos and sees the " An Ike Tutorial" by the same guy*

Successful troll is successful.

That tutorial was funny when I first saw it.

 

[Nysyarc]

Why are you guys falling for this.

This, lmao.

Alright let's not let this turn into a spamfest though. Billy you've had your fun now. Back to waiting for another actual video to critique.

 

[san.]

We know, RedX. That's why I tried to make a brief post that dismissed it and get it away, but people kept spamming comments about it.

 

[billybeegood]

San, why u try and choke the troll :*(

 

[Zatchiel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A50negLr_U
I need some help with this.

 

[jamlosingthegame]

I was just wondering. Are there any moves that we can escape from with a move of our own? Looking at Zatch's match there I was thinking: "Is bair fast enough to hit Sheik out of that juggle?" I know I can look at some frame data, but I don't understand some of it.

 

[AN(M)ist]

the utilt juggle? bair will most probably miss due to direction. If sheik delays it a little, prolly counter could get you out. I don't think Ike can get out with any other aerial of his.

but wat am I saying, U can always DI and SDI out.

 

[Zatchiel]

On the second match, I tried to SDI down > Powershield Shiek's Ftilt lock. Does this work? I overheard this some time prior to my set, and it only works when Ike gets caught from the start on the ground? Somehow, I managed to make matters worse for myself in doing so. Gah.

 

[Teh Brettster]

SDI to her head and footstool is my best idea.

Anyway. You always came down with an aerial. Fast fall and air dodge more. If you got thrown, you'd toss out a Dair no matter where Sheik was. Fix that habit, as it makes no sense. You probably ate about 400 dmg from needles in that set, and that's hardly an exaggeration. You GAVE UP on your second stock in Delfino. WHY ON EARTH did you give up? Never do that. You also didn't jab much, and could have used jabs to punish several times, but didn't.
And in general, just play safer. Don't throw out an aerial unless you have good reason to think it will hit or will be safe on block. In most other cases, you should air dodge into the ground and play the guessing/reading game. Jab, grab, or dodge as soon as you land. You could have done with some of this + smarter spacing in the match-up.
Also notice every time Sheik dashed towards you after you landed on the ground, she grabbed. Spot dodge + jab = profit.

 

[Nysyarc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A50negLr_U
I need some help with this.

Alright here we go.

Match 1:

0:09 - I tell this to everyone, be sure you make it a habit to get that one quick pummel in as soon as you grab; every 3% counts.

0:12 - It may not have been intentional, but never Nair that high in the air after a double-jump. If you were at a higher percent there and he was aware of the situation, it could have been an easy knock off-stage to gimp. Nair should really only be used very close to the ground.

0:28 - Careful with that Bair while falling, he could have punished you pretty bad for that with an Ftilt string -> whatever. Come down with a reverse Nair instead.

0:44 - It's not entirely an Ike-related tip but try and condition yourself to react faster to rolls, spot-dodges and SDI while Jabbing; anytime you start to Jab someone you need to be fully aware of whether or not the next Jab is going to hit, and if not, you should be able to adjust within that half-second between Jab cancels. Sounds kind of ridiculous at first, but I buffer turn-around Jab cancels all the time if I notice someone SDI'd behind me in one big leap; your reaction speed is certainly there, you just need the conditioning to react properly.

0:58 - Can tell you're getting a bit flustered here, some whiffed aerials and then after this Nair hits you miss a pretty obvious AD read. You outrange Sheik in the air completely and he knows it so make sure to wait out his air-dodges and punish with something that'll get him off-stage... Uair works too at that % if you delay it.

1:37 - That was quite unfortunate, though there was at least one thing you could have safely done to avoid it (by safely I mean you could try it relatively risk-free without knowing how he's going to edge-guard you). The Uair wasn't a bad idea to cover your descent but you should have saved your double-jump and just went straight into an Aether after the Uair. Be sure to always remember that in those situations, only use your double-jump when it is absolutely necessary or else you'll be screwed.

1:50 - One of those times when it just can't hurt to be holding your shield on at least after he starts getting up, lol. Could have been an easy Jab punish, possibly Jab -> Utilt.

1:53 - Never air-dodge back into Sheik at low %s, always be conscious of what you're doing after getting hit or thrown at low %s and gtfo of there with a double jump or if you're high enough, a quick Nair.

2:14 - Gaaah, that moment had "Free charged Fsmash" written all over it, could have been a KO at that % that close to the blast zone too. Opportunities to shift the momentum like that can't be passed up. Either way your next best option if he'd done his upB any lower was an edge-hog, Dtilt is not a good edge-guarding move. Also, make sure you follow up whatever you do there by edge-hogging the chain, they WILL use the chain after failing with upB and if you edge-hog it they'll be really messed up.

Match 2:

3:40 - Whoa Nelly! Never take that risk with reverse Aether on a stage like this (Delfino, Halberd, Norfair, etc...) unless it is the ONLY way you can recover. Your options once you initiate that are limited to landing on the stage, which is bad, falling past the ledge to your death, which is worse, and... well, if you're really lucky or Sakurai is feeling nice at the time, you might just grab the ledge.

3:58 - On a side note, what the hell happens to the music and sound right here? To be honest it actually sounded pretty cool the way it gradually came back up to the right pitch, reminded me of a THX intro or something, lol.

4:32 - I know the grab is what you want there but don't be too greedy, hold your shield on and his only options will be to grab you or run away unless he wants to get Jabbed or grabbed OoS. Predict and spot-dodge it and then grab him. You obviously don't need to worry about his throws KOing so let yourself be grabbed.

4:55 - Again with that reverse Aether, especially where there's no rush here and to SD now would be devastating, just let yourself fall a little further and backwards until you can grab the ledge with a forwards Aether. You pulled it off there but it will honestly surprise you sometimes.

5:08 - In these cases here, do a reverse Usmash so that the large and lingering hitbox on the back end punishes their landing, it also means you can cancel it on that side sooner after the hitbox vanishes.

5:44 - Two mistakes here: don't use your double-jump right away, pretty much ever. You can even avoid things like walk-off aerials by just keeping your distance from the stage a bit and using your double-jump to regain height and distance lower down. And don't give up unless it's actually impossible for Aether to reach the ledge; it's ridiculous how many people don't know how to edge-guard/edge-hog Aether so unless you're definitely out of range (which you weren't here, judging by your distance and potential momentum), always go for it.

6:03 - Make sure you learn the timing of that upB so you can spot-dodge it and punish; could have been an easy Usmash or Fsmash.

6:05 to 6:12 - See my comment on your other quote below.

6:17 - Beautiful, no matter how many times I see and perform Jab -> Utilt... always, beautiful.

6:28 - You know he likes to punish your landings with grabs so make use of the water here and land in it instead, give yourself some space.

6:37 - Uthrow is really bad; the obvious best choice there would have been a Bthrow to try for a water gimp set-up but even Dthrow would have been better than Uthrow.

6:42 - Punish that with some buffered turn-around Jabs; if you're having difficulty with the timing and that was an attempt at them, just practice practice practice. It doesn't take long to get it down.

Overall, it certainly seems to be the MU itself that's the issue for you. I'm not an expert on the MU myself (yet, there is a local guy here who plays Sheik and is quite good, I just haven't played him much), but a few key things are: Don't air dodge when landing, in any situation. Jump and land as far away from Sheik as possible or land with aerials like Nair or VERY well-spaced Fairs.

Don't spot dodge pretty much at all, I didn't notice you doing it too much so that's good. Shield is your best friend here but be aware of when he's taking advantage and getting easy grabs. You can punish Sheik's grab with spot-dodge -> Jabs if you see it coming, and you can punish anything she does on your shield with Jabs OoS.

On the ground, stick pretty much entirely to SH Nairs, auto-canceled Bairs and Jabs. I noticed you doing a lot of falling Uair and those are gonna have to go, as well as falling Bairs that don't AC and Fairs/Dairs into the ground. Sheik is too fast for you to get away with any significant landing lag at all.

If you get her off-stage, keep her there by reading air-dodges, punishing her upB and edge-hogging her chain recovery. It should become obvious after playing a Shiek main for awhile when they use their different recovery options... it's not a very good recovery at all.

And finally, don't let her annoying-as-balls combos get to your head; play smart the whole time, watch your spacing and careful use of moves and the MU isn't really too hard for Ike. Hope that all helped some, and keep it up man, your Ike is still looking good overall!

On the second match, I tried to SDI down > Powershield Shiek's Ftilt lock. Does this work? I overheard this some time prior to my set, and it only works when Ike gets caught from the start on the ground? Somehow, I managed to make matters worse for myself in doing so. Gah.

You can SDI down and shield if you're already very close to the ground or you're Mr. Doom, but otherwise it's much safer to SDI away from her (not up, she can string other attacks if you go up and out). If you shield one Ftilt on the ground though you can easily punish with Jabs, so make sure not to spot-dodge in this MU.

 

[Zatchiel]

Thanks guys, I'll try to have more soon!

 

[theeboredone]

Look forward to it.

Spoiler

Not posting cause it's 4 am.

 

[Zatchiel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY5s2DwpNZM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFdtmXMrAMI
My set against Cam's Pikachu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E-658pa3EY
And Saint's Ice Climbers. I felt like I was playing really safe in my set against Saint, but I made some dumb moves that got me grabbed. Blah. Please critique.

 

[smashkng]

A summary from Zatch's Pikachu matches. I won't critique IC because I don't really know the matchup and against them you play very differently from other matchups.


-You should stop dash attacking so much it really isn't an approach and isn't a safe move in general. I try to avoid that move as much as possible aside from punishing Snake/another Ike's Fsmash or from a Fthrow, grab release or Bthrow because it easily becomes a habit.

- You also Usmashed too much when Pikachu was offstage or in the ledge.

-You can't beat any projectiles with Ike's aerials unlike other characters besides MK, thunder jolts are no exception.

- I noticed that you messed up quite often your spacing, not all the time but still a little bit too often so work a little bit on it it's really important for Ike to abuse his very long disjoints, especially against Pikachu. Like at 1:54 you wouldn't have got shield grabbed if you spaced a little bit better.

- 4:51 Uair to the ground can't really hit a small character like Pikachu when he's on the ground so I wouldn't rely on that.


Overall nice Ike you jab cancel very well and you seem to know how to use the character very well.

 

[Mozz]

Here's a recent match from winners bracket of Hope 3 against Seagull Man's wolf. Please only critique games 1 and 2, game 3 I watched myself and have no idea what I was thinking. It was just dreadful, not just in results, but in process as well. I will start by saying this

I need to pummel more, and use b throw into dash attack combo as opposed to d and f throw.
I need to be more careful with my fairs and probably should substitute a lot of them for nairs
I need to throw f smashes only when I have a hard read, not when I have a guess.
I need to jab cancel better
I need to space MUCHHHHHHHH better

please critique away at games 1 and 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QVGDQ9Adx8&feature=channel_video_title

 

[Joaco]

Please, I need help with this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OHUj1Prx1c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzbW7B3pwHU

 

[Mozz]

Please, I need help with this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OHUj1Prx1c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzbW7B3pwHU

I might not be a great Ike player, but I'll give some of my impressions

1. Momentum cancelling is something you'll want to learn soon. Here is a post from the "other" community about it. Also, Mr. Doom, a fellow Ike player, has some great videos on DI and smash DI, the second link goes to the first of those.

http://allisbrawl.com/blogpost.aspx?id=4377
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMhy29SGkDU

2. You might want to learn to jab cancel, which is gone over in this video, pay special attention to the part where he goes over jab cancelling after the first jab, because at a high level that is even more useful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EluF2eGkKyI

I'm not going to go very in depth, there's people better than me at that, but I figured I'd at least start off the discussion.

 

[SantaToPro]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMXZVHNhy-Y
What's Wrong?

 

[Zatchiel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMXZVHNhy-Y
What's Wrong?

I got this one. Will edit in.

Twenty seconds in, and you look like you're using too much Dash Attack.

0:20 - Pummels are good to make use of, each % addition contributes severely. Also, Fthrow > Dash Attack doesn't work until about 30%. I don't think it's guaranteed on Falcon, as opposed to Bthrow (someone could correct this).

You seem to delay your jabs a lot, going for grab attempts way too often.

0:43 - I don't know if you were trying to use Quickdraw there, but it didn't really seem like an appropriate time. It managed to hit, though, so nobody's complaining, I suppose.

0:57 - Rogue Fsmash....?

1:35 - Well timed Bair KO. The sexiness of that move never gets old to me.

1:50 - You got Uaired out of your second jump, and sent at a bad angle. For reasons like this, it's important that you seldom use your second jump unless you need it, even onstage. Also, I don't see why you used your second jump at that time. You used your first jump, then you immediately used your midair jump. Might be something with your setup scheme, but idk.

2:30 - Another rogue Fsmash... It almost hit, if you were planning to bait the spotdodge, but nonetheless, I feel reverse Usmash would have done better in that situation, and left you far less punishable (turnaround Jab would have stopped quite a lot of Falcon's options).

2:37 - Quickdraw y. You could have easily made it back onstage by DI alone, you wouldn't even need your second jump. He didn't punish it for what it was worth, but still, that was very bad timing to use Quickdraw. When the time and place are appropriate, you'll know. That was not the time or the place.

4:45 - Stobbit. Quickdraw is a no no when use like that. I could see if your opponent was a bit farther away, but please just DI back to the stage and regain your ground normally. Quickdraw is easily intercepted when used incorrectly.

Overall, you go for grabs much too often. Just, too much. You only finished the Jab combo once in the entire game, and your jab cancels seemed sufficient enough to tack on damage. Your use of Quickdraw in the situations you use it have got to stop, especially when your opponent is directly in front of you, and when you can make it back with the use of DI alone.
Conserve your midair jumps. You're practically booted offstage if you're kicked at a bad angle without this.
Use much more Nair, and be more cautious with your Fair use. Pummels are incredible as every single damage point counts. Be more weary with your use of Dash Attack, and do it sparingly. You threw it out way too often, and he seemed to catch on later in the game. Your main KO options are Usmash, Bair, and Utilt. Fair is situational, but it's there. You don't want any of these stale, so use them wisely. You should use a lot more Nair and Jabs. Your Bair use seemed fine, but don't overdo it; it's a very good KO option, and shouldn't be staled. Falcon is really easy to Jab cancel since he's quite heavy, and he's not too hard to KO. Jab > Utilt would have suited fine in many situations where you threw out Jab > Grab, or sometimes even Jab > nothing. Finishing the jab combo with Jab3 to knock your opponent away works wonders. Going for the grab each time is very risky, and punishable if your opponent catches on.
You seem to have a keen overview on what you're supposed to be doing, but your seem to use the wrong moves at the wrong times. Practice works fundamentally well, and we have threads to help here on our boards.

 

[Napos]

Tekkie vs. Napos

What should I be doing?

 

[theeboredone]

Against Lucario, I don't think it's very smart to start the match with a quick dash. If anything, don't do it against opponents with good grabs or projectiles. In any case, some habits I see is you roll quite a bit, and that's not Ike's strength. If you're going against Lucario, you definitely don't want to get into a rolling contest with him, because he will always win. Also, for the most part, you did a decent job when knocked off stage in coming back, but there are a few things...

1. Don't use D-air when coming back onto stage in hoping to hit your opponent.

2. Don't air dodge back into your opponent.

3. When you lost your first stock, you could have kept living if you had DI'ed up on that sphere ball. Keep that in mind.

When you have a lot of damage (80 and above) you tend to get more defensive by using your shield and standing there. That can lead to you getting punished often. Just play your game unless they change their own style up. Also, I know this is a friendly, but if this match is gonna be critiqued, I hope that random Eruption move was on accident lol.

Again, you died because of poor DI. DI upwards on that smash attack and you're golden.

You unleashed a few more d-airs and he did a get up attack three straight times off the ledge, and all three times you didn't do a responding f-air or shield to jab. Basic reading 101. If anything, when an opponent is hanging on the edge, retreating F-air should be a top notch move because it covers a lot of ground and prevents the opponent from rolling on stage or doing a get up attack.

Overall, decent match nevertheless. Some nice moments you had.

 

[Dat Archer]

I'm not the best Ike, but I noticed a few things.

You missed out on a handful of walking off Bairs, moments where you got hurt because you didn't reverse jab.

Something you need to do versus a cario is get perfectly on the edge, since they can aura sphere your aether will ease. Use more quick draw, or try to get exactly on the ledge with aether.

Also noticed you rolled a handful of times when you could had just back hopped or moved out the way, even attack. You used Dair too much, its not good to use in attacking characters on the ground cuz of its landing lag.

You did use platforms in recoverin decently, and you did get some nice reads. But you made a few too many mistakes to take that one.

Not a bad match, just need some work.

 

[Mozz]

Hello, I figured I'd post this match up, me and sleek media teamed up in doubles against Seagull and Tiger in first round of winners bracket. This was game two of the set, we dropped the first one on Battlefield, but a problem was that we both forgot to use our tags for some inexplicable reason, so anyways, after we remembered to switch our tags on, we decided the first match was close enough, and battlefield is our best course, so we decided to just rematch same stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O97uKmYBAdE

Seagull and Tiger went on to win the tournament, switching to double meta at one point late in the tournament. We went on to lose in the third round of losers, (with a bye, so we only won one set)

I used quick dash a lot I noticed to recover, and using it resulted in both my deaths, but it's really scary going down low against a team with a meta to recover I must say. Strangely, despite us winning a set, I'd say this is probably the best game I played, I know it's over a month old, but I still feel that's it worth critiquing.

 

[Nysyarc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O97uKmYBAdE

Alright, my first doubles critique in awhile.

0:04 - Alright, right off the bat, don't roll. Get rid of that habit immediately. Also, on BF in doubles against a team with MK, your duty as Ike is to control the center of the stage and not get gimped. So stay in the center and control the platforms.

0:12 - That should have been a KO, it was a nice read but you've got to hold out and charge that Fsmash until the right moment. It tends to be easier to pull off early KOs like that in doubles, here is an example. Watch that match for another 10 seconds to see what not to do in regards to my first point about getting gimped/stage control.

0:31 - When you hit with Jab 2 at maximum range like that, either immediately use Jab 3 without delay or stop and retreat/reset to Jab 1.

0:41 - Not sure what that Utilt was about, but you should have waited for Wolf's invincibility to end and then used Jab.

0:46 - MK is in perfect range for a ledgehop Fair here, and he's asking for it by charging a smash.

0:52 - Although that was a nice Bair, you should have been focusing on racking damage on Wolf while MK was off-stage. Get a grab on Wolf or let Mario get one, and then get some throw combos in. Edge-guarding MK just isn't worth it... if the MK actually knows how to recover of course.

1:00 - That whole bit after they KO'd Mario needed less rolling and more Jabbing. Jab is an infinitely better defensive maneuver than roll.

1:05 - Reverse your Aether when your partner is near the ledge so you don't hit them. It doesn't just do damage, it puts them in hitstun that allows your opponents to get free hits.

1:12 - You should really use ledgehop AD more often to get back up from the ledge. Practice it in training mode: while on the ledge, push back on the control stick so you drop without fast-falling, then rotate the control stick up and around so you double-jump onto the stage, and air-dodge while doing so. You can also use a jump button to do the double jump.

1:29 - Once again, this was the time to immediately set your sights on MK once you threw Wolf off-stage. If you had done that, you would have seen him land on that platform and you could have had a free Usmash or even an Fsmash if you read his get-up well. At the very least it was an easy Bair.

1:40 - Do not use QD to recover unless there is nobody near the ledge and it is urgent that you get back on-stage quickly. It's just too risky. Although here he edge-hogged way too early and you could have stage-spiked him if you'd waited, or if you'd released the QD sooner you could have gone over him and landed on-stage.

1:47 - After losing a stock, you have to make absolute sure you have your head 100% in the game. Do NOT pull crap like that Usmash and Fsmash. The Usmash wouldn't have KO'd anyways and the Fsmash was just asking to get punished. That is how comebacks begin; you guys were in the lead, but losing that stock compromised your mentality. It also didn't help that your partner got ***** on his second stock.

2:00 - Do not edge-guard with Fsmash, it won't work. In fact you shouldn't be near the edge at all as Ike in doubles. Your attacks can KO just fine without edge-guarding so don't risk getting gimped early.

2:15 - You have got to turn-around Jab that whiffed Dsmash by MK. Your only thought when your opponents are at low % should be "JAB".

3:03 - 3:08 - This is what I'm talking about, while MK is planking you should be getting a grab on Wolf and tossing him at Mario for a free Fsmash/Usmash instead of throwing out useless tilts. Mario ended up having to take your stock, but it could easily have been you guys with 3 stocks against 1 on MK.

3:30 - Gah, so many things could have gone better here. Don't QD when you're that high, it's not even close to being worth the risk. Practice aiming QD for those platforms so that you auto-cancel landing, for times when you have to. When you notice your partner get a KO like that and everyone was at 1 stock, stay alive. Be ready to DI and momentum cancel properly and think of nothing but staying alive. You could have easily survived that Fair if you had done a Dair and fast-fell instead of air-dodging.

Some general things I noticed as well: You need to use your shield more often and stop relying on rolls/spot dodges so much. Especially rolls. You also need to go for more grabs in doubles. Ike's Fthrow and Bthrow are two of the very best set-ups in the entire game for doubles combos, make use of them.

You also need to move more, but without rolling. Replace rolling with shield-canceled dashes. Practice walking from a standstill if you're worried about tripping, but you need to move to get into position to Jab people, rolling can't get you everywhere and it's going to get punished.

I'm not going to sugar-coat it, you guys didn't play all that well as a team and you definitely should/could have won that match, by a lot. I'd say if you'd kept up your performance you had going at the start of the match you could have 4-stocked them. You cannot let the flow of a match affect your performance, stay consistent and keep your head in it.

Not too bad on your part individually but definitely a lot of room to improve. Lose the random smash attacks, use Utilt less on it's own, Jab more, stop rolling, go for more grabs, Jab more, use Nair a lot more instead of other aerials, always recover with Aether unless it is absolutely necessary to recover with QD... and did I mention Jab?

 

[Kirk]

Welp, I actually have some tournament vids this time around:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BSm6RI9vLs vs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46BGF6e96_k vs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlCraNzs8eI vs.

It's looking more likely that I'm returning more or less going to tournaments again, so I wanted to stop by!

I can already see a lot of mistakes I've made, but I haven't posted here in awhile and wanted to get second opinions and compare. So if anyone would be so kind as to take a crack at it...be my guest!

 

[Teh Brettster]

Kirk, mainly what I see is double jumping too early and a few times trying to go for a Fair while recovering when just recovering may have been a better idea. Though I do understand your motives.

Other than that, remember not to go into autopilot of jab-grab all the time. Remember jab-Utilt, you missed a kill on Wario in the set against Hunger. You never really missed much on this, but keep in mind grab release to angled up Ftilt on Wario.

It's hard to stop getting juggled once you're juggled, and I'm a victim to this too, but don't air dodge every time.

Other people may comment on "OMG DAIR INTO GROUND" but I actually like the way you use it for two reasons. 1) Nair doesn't get a hitbox below you as quickly. 2) Shield push.
Pretty much, most of the times you got punished for it, you would have also been punished for a Nair.
I don't know why everyone just chalks up Dair on the awful-move-list and leaves it there.

Also, against Quik, your recovery first stock with QD after his fart was kind of ingenious. I've done the same thing many times before, but never from that high, lol. (I also don't know why we think QD recovery is always bad. I use it more than Aether against MK in many situations.)

 

[Nysyarc]

I don't know why everyone just chalks up Dair on the awful-move-list and leaves it there.

It's pretty much just me actually, or at least I'm the only one who advocates as little usage of Dair onstage as humanly possible. Not landing near your opponent or perfectly spacing a Nair/Fair on the side of their shield while landing are still way safer options against most characters than Dair on the top of their shield.

Dair just has so much landing lag. So much. At low enough percents most characters can punish you even if you hit them. And if they spot-dodge it or you just mess up and miss, that's a huge window for them to get off just about any attack they want. Ganon probably has time to Fsmash you.

 

[Mozz]

Thanks Nysyarc, for some reason, I have a completely different mentality in doubles as opposed to singles. Also, against just about every character besides meta, I like to use aether to recover, but I've played my brother's meta so much that I've come to fear going beneath the stage with Ike because I seem to pay for it a ton. Yes, that meta, (mysterytigerteen) didn't gimp me at all, but I feared it none the less. The fact about the jabs is correct, I LOVE it in singles, but I seem to abandon it too much in doubles.

Also, I thought that air dodge fastfall, (which I didn't do the second part of, but should have) was the best way to survive being hit to the side, isn't it? Air dodge finishes quicker than any Ike aerial, so it's the proper move, or am I wrong?

 

[Nysyarc]

No problem. You've got the right idea with having a different mentality for doubles, but it can't go so far as to change the moves you use. You just have to zone differently and play safer.

Also, I thought that air dodge fastfall, (which I didn't do the second part of, but should have) was the best way to survive being hit to the side, isn't it? Air dodge finishes quicker than any Ike aerial, so it's the proper move, or am I wrong?

When you air-dodge you are not able to input a fast-fall until after the air-dodge animation ends, but when you use an aerial attack, you can fast-fall as soon as the attack's animation begins, not after it ends. So it is better to use an aerial attack and input a fast-fall (just using Dair is easiest) for upwards momentum canceling.

When you're sent sideways you want to use an air-dodge because it ends sooner than an aerial attack so you can double jump sooner, stopping your momentum. It's the double jump that stops momentum though, not the air-dodge; the air-dodge just allows the double jump to come out sooner.

Obviously DI is more important than momentum canceling though, so be sure to try and anticipate when your opponent will hit you and if you know what their options are for attacks and what direction those attacks will hit you, it will give you a better chance of DI'ing correctly. Wolf's only option given the window of opportunity he had was to use Fair as he did, which sends you almost straight up, so you should have DI'd to the left.

Knowing stuff like that on-the-fly just comes with tons of experience though, it'll take time.