u/smrtangel3702

TL;DR:

I spam Ganon vs CPU9 way more than anyone else, but these are the characters I play vs people the most otherwise:

Link

Zelda

Falco

Incineroar

Jigglypuff

And some others I'm less confident on:

Aegis

Captain Falcon

Dr. Mario

How should I approach a local if I want to just play as much as possible but suck at practice tool attention span and detest online?

Storytime:

So I'm heading to my 2nd local (ultimate) after a hiatus of many years (playing on and off alone for intense periods before taking a break again). My area is pretty sparse for smash community afaik, I have no idea what the competition will be like.

I have played since og N64 avidly vs casual peers and lvl9 CPU. I've watched plenty of art of smash guides and the like. I've passively noticed my skill increase over the years especially after making some friends who were far more skilled, before I moved where I am now and didn't have anyone to play with not online. I hate the delay online so I only play with my brother rarely via internet when we have time.

Basically I guess I just have nerves because I have no actual expectations or ego I'm worried about but I would prefer to play as much as possible on someone I'm comfortable with. So my question is: leading up to the event this weekend, any advice on how to actually train given my history and disdain for online practice? Practice tool has always bored the hell out of me, I struggle pretty badly with my focus compared to when I was younger and a better student. I usually limit test or try out new things vs the CPU rather than try to hit the stationary target with combo centric characters, I try to just play a strong neutral and edge guard game, observe and call out the opponent. Obviously vs CPU9 this has become almost trivial even if playing vs their decent reaction time, they have exploitable habits and weaknesses that make for good silly fun on Ganondorf but I'm aware of the character's reputation.

Considered pivoting to Incineroar for a similar playstyle but slightly more viable for different reasons (my handle is CatDadapon most places but my reddit account is ancient). My other mains that I spam less than Ganon are Link, Zelda, Falco, Jigglypuff. Used to play Aegis some. Recently got hooked on Captain Falcon and Dr. Mario.

Should I pick one of my conventionally better tiered characters to practice this week or just go into the tourney rocking my thousand hour ai stomping Ganon? Like I don't have perfect bomb tech on Link nor kill confirms with bair; Zelda my combos have been cleaner; Falco my turnaround bair is inconsistent and my drag downs are laughable; Jiggly I worry about just getting destroyed for being too light and being too aggressive with rest combos. I'm not that confident on Aegis despite their strength. Falcon I consider myself woefully not technical enough for such a combo centric character. Dr Mario I just picked up and his recovery is the worst I've ever worked with.

But Ganon I just get. Even while getting comboed or ledge guarded, there's a comfort and calm in knowing one read is all it takes, and stalwart walling and careful approaches. And the dair is unmatched in satisfaction. Idk.

If you read all this I really appreciate it.

I'm plat but occasionally I have tried this and really enjoyed the flexibility vs highly mobile champs.

Phase rush was unusable on ww before. Q can basically proc stormraider's surge by itself almost depending on target and game state.

Warwick being as one dimensional as he is (run at someone or R from afar, otherwise you depend on your lanes to set you up), this keystone seems to at least allow for some repositioning after an engage, either to stick to someone or to run back to help and wait for next q/e. It could be just cope on my part but not being shoehorned into stridebreaker is nice.

As I've tried climbing through plat I've noticed people are far smarter to not let you stack lethal tempo or get value from it. Which is great when you can hit people and stat check but plenty of games have 5 champs who will kite you too much.

If you've experimented with this let me know, especially if you're higher ranked.

Hail of blades is still potentially suboptimal if you are not playing different than normal (holding q until the best moment and leading with an auto before q on a fleeing target).

After the update, Q still consumes your hail of blades charges if you auto to begin the proc. If you lead with q, you get 3 autos at the increased attack speed. This was the case before, but it was worse because all the rune offered was said AS. My point is that leading with q is showing your hand and puts you in a bad spot tactically, so this rune cannot be played with optimally if you want 3 autos with increased AS.

Your q will at least inflict the true damage on hit. So it's not completely worthless now. But Warwick potentially could have had a neat keystone for assistance with bursting opponents to half. Instead riot does a pass over bugs with auto resets/on-hit abilities and once again forgets our boy even as they buff his own hit damage P.

All of the above also applies to R, in either case of leading with the ult or autoing once or twice first.

Let me know your results and experiences with trying HoB after hearing this PSA. I don't think it ever beats out lethal tempo for an all in damage play style nor even press the attack for upfront burst. A shame, as the domination tree has some interesting options in the secondary runes.