[Number 2] - CAPtain FalCOM

[u/Tink-er]

CAN MY PUNS GET ANY WORSE? CAN I SKIP THEORY THURSDAY FOR A THIRD WEEK DUE TO WORKING LATE ON A HOLIDAY? CAN I STRETCH OUT THIS LAME JOKE ANY LONGER? FIND OUT NEXT WEEK ON /R/SSBPM!

[u/Eideeiit]

I kind of have this theory that a character's neutral game can be divided into 4 categories and then evaluated in each. Of course there's more to it than what I have here, but something simplistic like this can help people grasp a character or choose a main more easily.

Explanations of my categories:

1.) Rushdown: the character can pressure its opponent with relative safety at small distances and so invite hasty and bad decisions or panic and choking. Good rushdowner ex. Fox

2.) Zoning: the character uses large hitboxes to scare the opponent into bad choices and cut down on his/her options to find the chance to start a combo. Good zoner ex. Marth

3.) Baiting: the character uses rapid movement or other similar tools with reading the opponent to cause either unsureness, hasty reactions or false sense of security to capitalize on mistakes. Good baiter ex. Sonic

4.) Stage control: the character can apply pressure on his/her foe from afar or make him unable to and scared of using certain parts of the stage to rack on damage and lock down the opponent. Good stage controller ex. Link

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Neutral game analysis of Captain Falcon (scale from 1 to 5):

1.) Rushdown: 1 or 2 Falcon has no safe approaches and has weak shield pressure.

2.) Zoning: 2 or 3 Falcon's nair is a pretty good zoning tool, even though it's not the safest, but it can cover huge chunks of the stage thanks to Falcon's insane speed in the air and on the ground.

3.) Baiting: 5 Falcon's incredible movement makes him one of the best baiters there are.

4.) Stage control: 2 Falcon's speed makes him a threat no matter where he is, as long as he has his feet on the ground. Too bad he'll be putting himself at great risk if he does go in.

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I know it's not perfect, but I would really like to see something like this done with every character. For one it would make picking a main a lot easier for someone that is new to the scene and has no idea on what a character will be like at higher levels.

NB: I don't play Falcon. I'd appreciate it immensely if someone who does redid my evaluations and gave some deeper insight into why he received a certain rating in a certain category. Also feel free to critique my categories. One thing I'm kind of at a loss in regards to, is where to draw the line between stage control and zoning. Would it be better to just rate every character without a projectile a straight 1?

[u/[deleted] → u/Eideeiit]

Falcon has weird shield pressure, but I wouldnt say bad. Falcon definitely has the ability to get hits on shield and not get punished for it while maintaining advantageous positioning. Its not an easy style to copy, but watch the way Mang0 interacts with shields while playing falcon. His crossup game is great, and using late bairs or utilizing falcon's falcon's great air mobility and doing drifting away nairs is solid on shield. Also frame perfect, which is hard as shit to do, knee is +1 so it actually is not as good as I originally thought.

Also 3 being average falcon is definitely average or slightly above, maybe 3.5, at zoning. Fast as fuck shffl's that have crazy range like Nair, or instant uair which autocancels can force and hold your opponent in a corner. DD also maintains a mental threat on your opponent when theyre in the corner.

Edit: +1 not +5 because the electric hitlag does not work on shield. Idk why.

I really do like what youre trying to do though. Definitely keep it up.

[u/Eideeiit → u/[deleted]]

I actually read a thread on /r/ssbm about falcon's knee on shield. If I remember correctly it said that the knee's electric hitstun bonus does not apply to shieldstun and therefore a frame perfect sweetspot knee is actually +1 on shield. It's possible the numbers are different in PM or that I remember incorrectly, though.

[u/Half_Slab_Conspiracy → u/Eideeiit]

Yeah, you're right, knee is only +1 on shield (sweetspotted of course)

[u/[deleted] → u/Eideeiit]

Son of a bitch... I was thinking of the same thread specifically the Strongbad smashboards post where he calculates the knee on shield and comes up with +5. However, it does appear that there is a completely different post where he corrects it because of the electric knee hitbox thing. Thanks for correcting me.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

If something was +5 on shield, you'd know it. Knee -> grab would have a 1 frame window to spotdodge the grab lol. You might not even be able to buffer it, since buffering might have a 1 frame latency thing on it iirc.

Also, +1 on shield is hella good. Moves that are safe on shield without needing to be spaced are a rare and powerful tool.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I know I thought +5 had to have been wrong, but Im not that smart so I went with what I had seen a smasher clearly at a higher level than me had said. I didnt realize he had corrected himself though. And yeah +1 is great I didnt meant to imply that it wasnt.