Saturday, October 28, 2006
SSBM Tourney #4 Recap
So UWGamers, this term in partnership with Mathsoc, held the 4th (3rd in successive terms) SSBM tournament this past Monday (Oct 23).
Unfortunately, they weren't able to do a team tournament or a Smash 64 tournament. I was hoping that with more people organizing they could possibly do 2 tourneys, the 1 on 1 and a team/64 one.
This term's tournament structure was changed, one to accomodate more people and to speed up the elimination process, and two (probably) to try to make it more difficult for Duy to win =p
The tournament was divided into 2 parts: the preliminaries consisted of 4 rounds of 4 player free-for-all timed battles where the person with the highest score (kills - suicides) would be the winner of the match. From the preliminaries the top 32 players advances with a seeding, and from there on the usual 1 on 1 battles (but on pre-determined stages) ensues, double elimination.
So for my usual main, Fox, the setup was a bit difficult. In terms of 1 on 1 I have full confidence in Fox (or I should say I have the most confidence in him, heh). However, having Fox win a "who can kill the most" FFA setting is a bit iffy. Although he has solid finishers, he doesn't have much range on them. Also, with full tourneyment of 64 people, one would need to win 2 rounds to advance for sure, thus it was hard to even bank on being "lucky". Leading up to the tournament I was going to use Fox and hope for the best in the prelims, and I didn't have high high hopes of advancing.
Duy kind of had a similar dilemma, in that some of the organizers didn't want to see his Link for the 4th tournament straight (since he won 2 and placed 2nd in the 3rd). So he was debating between taking his best character (who could handle both FFA and 1 on 1) in, or switch to a more "fun, FFA-friendly" Captain Falcon. In the end he decided to go with Falcon. On a similar note, as I was heading towards the SLC (where the tourney was held), I started debating whether to switch to Fox's closest counterpart in Falco so that I can advance for sure (since Falco can get kills in FFA much easier than Fox). The downside of that would be that should I advance, I would be playing a character that I don't know how to play with very well, and the only way of advancing into the late rounds of the 1 on 1 would be to get some easy matchups.
At the registration desk I, in Duy's spirit of switching characters, switched to Falco in hopes of doing well in the preliminaries, land a high seed and get a couple easy matches to start the 1 on 1 rounds.
My "strategy" worked, I won all 4 rounds of the FFA and was the only one undefeated (hence I can claim the title "King of FFA", muhahaha), giving me the first seed. Actually, a lot less people showed up than signed up (about 47 people showed up, while 67 people signed up online). With the reduced attendance essentially one FFA win would secure a spot in the final 32, so I theoretically would have done better had I gone in as Fox, as I was pretty sure I can squeeze 1 FFA win out of him. (ah, the wisdom of Monday night quarterback never ceases to amaze)
Thus with everything in FFA falling into place, I was pretty happy. However, I knew that my chances of winning the whole thing would be quite slim, as there are solid players out there besides Duy. So I got into a "Cinderella playoff mode", see how far I can take Falco in the 1 on 1. Also I am trying to see if I can improve on my 0-3 record in elimination matches.
I got my easy match in the 1st round, the guy I played didn't really know what to do, and I won rather easily. The second round match I had a bit of trouble and lost, although upon reflection the player wasn't too hard to beat, just that I didn't have enough experience with Falco to know how to counter the usual tactics used by Luigi players.
Thus anything from the 3rd round on were elimination matches. My 3rd round match was against a Young Link, who also wasn't too great, so I won that battle without much trouble. I didn't feel too great getting my first "elimination win" because of a relatively easy matchup. Then came the 4th round against another Luigi. Perhaps I learned a bit from my 2nd round loss, I was pretty much neck to neck with the guy until the very end. I managed to squeeze out a victory, but I had 120+% on my last life when I won, so it was a pretty intense match. I was very pleased with that match.
Then comes the 5th round, against a doctor mario who's not too bad. However, I severly boned myself in the match with 3 sd's so that ended my run in the 1 on 1 rounds. I was mounting a comeback too, stupid bomb-ombs and Falco jumping so high...
Anyways, from there on I was spectator, and the matches involving the final 6 were great to watch. Duy met up against Justin (DPF) in the 4th place match, which was pretty good considering Falcon might not even be in his top 5 1 on 1 chars. Duy barely beat Justin using Link in the 2nd tournament, so his Falcon lost and he finished 4th. Justin ended up taking the whole thing with his Sheik, good on him.
So there's probably one last tournament in the Winter '07 term. I really hope that they can run a SSBM team or Smash 64 tournament. The predicament I have now is, if they are to keep the "FFA --> 1 on 1" structure, should I try with Fox, or do I practice my Falco for 1 on 1, or find a character that's good in both? =p
Unfortunately, they weren't able to do a team tournament or a Smash 64 tournament. I was hoping that with more people organizing they could possibly do 2 tourneys, the 1 on 1 and a team/64 one.
This term's tournament structure was changed, one to accomodate more people and to speed up the elimination process, and two (probably) to try to make it more difficult for Duy to win =p
The tournament was divided into 2 parts: the preliminaries consisted of 4 rounds of 4 player free-for-all timed battles where the person with the highest score (kills - suicides) would be the winner of the match. From the preliminaries the top 32 players advances with a seeding, and from there on the usual 1 on 1 battles (but on pre-determined stages) ensues, double elimination.
So for my usual main, Fox, the setup was a bit difficult. In terms of 1 on 1 I have full confidence in Fox (or I should say I have the most confidence in him, heh). However, having Fox win a "who can kill the most" FFA setting is a bit iffy. Although he has solid finishers, he doesn't have much range on them. Also, with full tourneyment of 64 people, one would need to win 2 rounds to advance for sure, thus it was hard to even bank on being "lucky". Leading up to the tournament I was going to use Fox and hope for the best in the prelims, and I didn't have high high hopes of advancing.
Duy kind of had a similar dilemma, in that some of the organizers didn't want to see his Link for the 4th tournament straight (since he won 2 and placed 2nd in the 3rd). So he was debating between taking his best character (who could handle both FFA and 1 on 1) in, or switch to a more "fun, FFA-friendly" Captain Falcon. In the end he decided to go with Falcon. On a similar note, as I was heading towards the SLC (where the tourney was held), I started debating whether to switch to Fox's closest counterpart in Falco so that I can advance for sure (since Falco can get kills in FFA much easier than Fox). The downside of that would be that should I advance, I would be playing a character that I don't know how to play with very well, and the only way of advancing into the late rounds of the 1 on 1 would be to get some easy matchups.
At the registration desk I, in Duy's spirit of switching characters, switched to Falco in hopes of doing well in the preliminaries, land a high seed and get a couple easy matches to start the 1 on 1 rounds.
My "strategy" worked, I won all 4 rounds of the FFA and was the only one undefeated (hence I can claim the title "King of FFA", muhahaha), giving me the first seed. Actually, a lot less people showed up than signed up (about 47 people showed up, while 67 people signed up online). With the reduced attendance essentially one FFA win would secure a spot in the final 32, so I theoretically would have done better had I gone in as Fox, as I was pretty sure I can squeeze 1 FFA win out of him. (ah, the wisdom of Monday night quarterback never ceases to amaze)
Thus with everything in FFA falling into place, I was pretty happy. However, I knew that my chances of winning the whole thing would be quite slim, as there are solid players out there besides Duy. So I got into a "Cinderella playoff mode", see how far I can take Falco in the 1 on 1. Also I am trying to see if I can improve on my 0-3 record in elimination matches.
I got my easy match in the 1st round, the guy I played didn't really know what to do, and I won rather easily. The second round match I had a bit of trouble and lost, although upon reflection the player wasn't too hard to beat, just that I didn't have enough experience with Falco to know how to counter the usual tactics used by Luigi players.
Thus anything from the 3rd round on were elimination matches. My 3rd round match was against a Young Link, who also wasn't too great, so I won that battle without much trouble. I didn't feel too great getting my first "elimination win" because of a relatively easy matchup. Then came the 4th round against another Luigi. Perhaps I learned a bit from my 2nd round loss, I was pretty much neck to neck with the guy until the very end. I managed to squeeze out a victory, but I had 120+% on my last life when I won, so it was a pretty intense match. I was very pleased with that match.
Then comes the 5th round, against a doctor mario who's not too bad. However, I severly boned myself in the match with 3 sd's so that ended my run in the 1 on 1 rounds. I was mounting a comeback too, stupid bomb-ombs and Falco jumping so high...
Anyways, from there on I was spectator, and the matches involving the final 6 were great to watch. Duy met up against Justin (DPF) in the 4th place match, which was pretty good considering Falcon might not even be in his top 5 1 on 1 chars. Duy barely beat Justin using Link in the 2nd tournament, so his Falcon lost and he finished 4th. Justin ended up taking the whole thing with his Sheik, good on him.
So there's probably one last tournament in the Winter '07 term. I really hope that they can run a SSBM team or Smash 64 tournament. The predicament I have now is, if they are to keep the "FFA --> 1 on 1" structure, should I try with Fox, or do I practice my Falco for 1 on 1, or find a character that's good in both? =p
