B.I.O. (Brawl In Oakland) August 8th, 2008, San Francisco. Entered Singles and Crews, both as just Lucario. In Singles, I got matched up against Ajax. That....didn't go well.
Fsmash ***** me up so hard, then it was GG. The only kills I got were Cyphergrabs.
However, crew battles were absolutely awesome. Our first crew battle, Hella Crew Style (us) vs FLC. We discuss options and decide to send me in first, since I'm a Lucario main exclusively, and so I'm the least flexible of our team. They figure they'll send me in to my death as cannon fodder to get a good feel for the other team.
Little do they know the power of Aura.
First match-up, Lucario vs Snake on Smashville. After getting ***** by Ajax earlier, I have a better idea of how to fight competant Snakes. I stay back, spam BAS, keep up my spacing, and create walls of pain with hitboxes. Over and over again he would shield a Dair or Ftilt only to be hit by the second blast of Aura. I don't think he really knew how to fight Lucario. Regardless, ftilts and utilts make short work of me, bringing me down to my last stock. Fortunately, the King of Comebacks doesn't disappoint me, and after pulling off a SH-fair-fair-jump-fair-fair-fair-dair kill, I rip out a few Fsmashes and tilts to rack his damage up, then a Dsmash finishes him when he accidentally Fsmashes the wrong way.
Second match, KuroHito (Lucario) vs me (Lucario) on Final Destination. This guy with the Lucario plushie I've been hanging out with all tournament, so to sit down and play him for real felt like the Duel of Destiny.
Basically I play REEEAALLY carefully, lots of tilts, SH Fair-Dairs or SH Fair-Nairs, The great part is, since I know Luc so well, I know what moves the other guy would pull out for a certain situation, too. Interestingly, he didn't seem to know about the SEXINESS of Bair's hitbox, or else he didn't use it. He also didn't throw or tilt a lot. He liked air games, but didn't use much Uair or Bair. He kept trying AA-Fpalm on me, over and over again, but I always dodged away from the Fpalm, and I could tell it was frustrating him. Regardless, it was REALLY close. On the final life, I was up past 200%, and every time I got hit, my team would groan, thinking that's game--but NO! DI saves the day, again and again. I'm quickly seeing why Azen loves this dude. Run up to him, spotdodge him and fake out an Ftilt, he falls for it! Fsmash, he tries to spotdodge, but the tail end of the hitbox hits him and he's HISTORY.
By this time, everyone is definitely surprised and impressed that their cannon fodder guy had already taken out nearly half of the enemy team and I'm getting cheers and slaps on the back. Third match comes up, a G&W. Now this time I did roughly the same stuff, played it cool and cautious and safe (thank god for the lack of time limit on crewbattles), walls of hitboxes, etc. I DT'd a few turtles, then backed off, as I didn't want to chance being left open if he started predicting my DTs. Surprisingly, he didn't eat up my BAS with his bucket. Maybe he forgot about it. I managed to take a stock off him, but the Dsmash ***** me for the win.
Regardless, in my first ever crew battle, I took off SEVEN STOCKS with my lonely THREE. THAT is the Power of Aura, baby! I even got a congratulations from a friend of mine, Hella, in DBR. That, more than anything else this weekend, raised my confidence. I walked into this tournament with nervousness and uncertainty, and left Singles with a lighter wallet and shattered dreams. I walked into Crews with a fatalistic attitude, not even sure I wanted to stay around for our battle...and walked out with the praise of tournament-level Smashers and a new level of Smashing self-esteem. I had always dominated my friendly matches at home or college, but never ever thought I was tournament material. I went to Super Champ Combo last year, looked around at the crazy Melee people and thought that I could never, ever enter a tournament, that I simply wasn't good enough, that I could never match up. But now, with at 1 Singles win under my belt and a 7-stock Crews streak, I've discovered, to my eternal shock, that I'm actually COMPETANT at this game on a wider level than just my own friends.
I'm hooked. Tournaments are a blast, you meet new friends, and best of all, EVERYONE there is nice and friendly and casual and chill. Nobody laughs at you for sucking. The trash talking is all jokes and silliness (in the Nevada vs DBR crew battle, Germ was ****ing HILARIOUS. "CBK! Califo'nya Peetzuh Kitchin, son! DD's HUNGREH! e's gotta BIG! GOWLDIN! ****! For da ****! I don't even know what I'm sayin' anymore...").
In conclusion, I have taken my first steps into the larger world of competitive Smash, and it's the most fun I've ever had at a video game.
I love you guys.
POWER OF AURA, BABY!