Episode 2-5: Character Crisis

Lay down in the chair with Peon in this episode as AV becomes his psychiatrist. AV talks Peon through his character crisis. Through this journey, they provide the framework for choosing a main and what should motivate this incredibly critical decision

Peon:
"Great question." "So, mine came to me right away. First time I heard this question I instantly knew. It was the crew battle that our previous guest hall-of-famer, BTM hall-of-famer, MaxKetchum put on. It was the Collegiate Crew Battle, which happened all around the country. College teams formed and had a Crew Battle tournament in various locations. It was a really, really cool event." "My team did an awesome job. We were super under seated but it’s kind of a Cinderella story. We got past the first round. We qualified and it was a super dramatic." "It was definitely the highlight of my career and was really fun to play Smash as a team. You know, Smash can be so isolating. It’s a lot about personal progress, but playing with the team put a whole different spin on it, which will forever be something I remember."

AV:
"Yeah, I love the team environment that comes with that. I absolutely love Crew Battles and think it’s an awesome experience to remember." "Mine, however, will be more of a cheesy one. It is my final tournament in the Central Coast, which was awesome for multiple reasons. Peon and I finally got to play Doubles, and boy did we clean up house."

Peon:
"Whew, we did. We won that bracket. We did not drop a game. Our double Falcon was like something out of a science fiction movie."

AV:
"Right, and our double Cloud was as you’d expect.[laughing] Then in Singles I won by beating two people, I think, that I pretty much never beat, and one person who’d been my Bracket Demon for a while. I got to play a great set against peon in Grand Finals."

Peon:
"Yeah, two sets and reset the bracket on me."

AV:
"Right, yeah, I reset the bracket, took the tournament, and we hugged it out."

Peon:
"We hugged it out. You kind of rocked me but I was like:" "“No, this is AV’s last tournament. He deserves to rock me….I guess”"

AV:
"Right, right, you totally gave it to me man. Thanks. Thanks for that one man."

==== '''Discord member NinjaNesquick: What do you weight playing online vs. locally, particularly if you want to train for a local? What is the best way to practice? Its hard to practice if you don’t have many opportunities to play competitive match ups offline.'''====

AV:
"This is a good question a lot of people ask, and it’s something we should definitely get into. Playing online, you do just have a disadvantage in the sense that you’re inputs will not come out at the same time that you expect them to. For practicing things, like specific tech and stuff that you want to grind out with your character, requires very specific frame inputs. You should not practice because they will be very different timing on local." "A really good example of this would be Incineroar’s Side B. If you practice the timing on Wifi, you will absolutely miss it on local, and I have seen people do this. They will play Incineroar a bunch on either Wifi or local. They will be missing it in the opposite environment." "So, make sure that you’re understanding while you’re playing in each environment. When you play online, understand what different character’s options are, what play style counters what type of player, and learn to read habits." "So, kind of split it up. Obviously this is really reductive, but split it up into training your mind online and train your tech skills locally. You are going to be training your mind locally as well, but it’s something that you want to really focus on online. That’s kind of the perfect canvas for those artistic tools."

==== '''Discord member BSquared64: How am I supposed to know which stages are best for my main (Chrom) in a tournament? Is it more of a preference thing? Or do certain characters do better on certain types of stages? And how do I find out what those stages are for my character?'''====

Peon:
"I think that is a great question. It’s perfectly logical, you know. I don’t hear that question asked as often as you would think. People always say:" "“Oh, this stage is good for this character”""but people don’t really explain why all that often." "What it mainly comes down to are the blast zones, which is the actual box around the stage that kills you if you pass it and the actual stage layout itself. If you’re a character that tends to kill of the side very often, like Chrom does with forward tilt or any of his smash attacks other than up smash or his back air, all that kind of stuff kills on the side." "So stages with narrow blast zones will help exaggerate that strength of his. Additionally Chrom’s fantastic at trapping people’s landings on platforms, for instance. Stages with lots of platforms where you can short hop up air people and shark platforms, is really good for Chrom. At least, that’s my take." "Of course, it also comes down to preference. It also comes down to who you’re playing against, which is equally important to consider when it comes to stage choice." "So, let’s say Little Mac, who loves Final Destination. It is his favorite stage because he doesn’t have to ever leave the ground. He doesn’t ever have to fight people on platforms where he’s terrible in the air. It’s half your character and half the other character you’re fighting." "So, try to evaluate that on both ends."

AV:
"yeah, that’s a really good answer."

AV:
"Really unique question! Super cool."

Peon:
"I love that question. Actually the people on our Discord, a lot of people up voted for this one. We’re definitely going to take this one. AV, what do you think?"

AV:
"So, I think my take on it is that no matter what, you’re going to have to give up stage control against your opponent and your opponent is going to want to make some kind of crazy move that they wouldn’t with in a normal scenario. They’re probably going to throw out a dash attack, probably going to throw out a grab. If they’re really smart, what they’ll do is they will try to bait a punish option from you." "What a lot of people like to do is roll away when someone has that invincibility, or run into the corner. The most important thing to do is to not panic. Panic options are sniffed out really easily by good players when they have that invincibility." "Just make sure you stay grounded and in a defensive stance. Not necessarily immediately throw yourself in the most disadvantageous position." "If you’ve seen your opponent throw out a bunch of crazy options, I’d expect him to go for something crazy when they have the opportunity to do it. It’s sort of situational, but understand that you don’t have to give up as much as you think."

Peon:
"I think another thing to do is just jump below the ledge, just hang out near the ledge, or just jump over your opponent." "You’re going to give up stage control and that’s just what happens when your opponent invulnerable and you’re not. I think just cut your losses, give up little bit of stage control and dash away." "Like AV said, do not do a panic option. Don’t roll. Certainly don’t try to throw an attack or something. Just run away and give them some stage, and hope it all blows over."

AV:
"A final thing would be if you can perfectly time when they’re going to drop their invincibility. That’s actually really good because people are often really bad at judging how long they have invincibility. So, doing a perfectly timed attack when you know that’s going to drop is really good."

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