Official Competitive Character Impressions 2.0

[Kalashnikov]

Let's go Lv. 1!!!
has been a favourite character of mine ever since . He's been putting in crazy amounts of work and it deserves to pay off when the money is on the line.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

Results for Kowloon 12 with Kagaribi (P Tier)

1. Miya
2. acola
3. Sparg0
4. Lv. 1
5. Zackray
5. Doramigi
7. Ryuoh
7. Asimo
9. MASA
9. Sin
9. Shuton
9. Akakikusu
13. alice
13. Nao
13. Taikei
13. Snow
17. Shriome
17. M0tsunabE
17. Gorioka
17. Gackt
17. Furararamen
17. Lea
17. Toriguri
17. Akio
25. Raki
25. ElleGo
25. takera
25. Kuhaku
25. Sumaho
25. Hurt
25. Raru
25. Konokururu

Notable top players outside top 32: Tea (33rd), KEN (33rd), Shirayuki (33rd), Kameme (65th) and TamaPDaifuku (129th).

 

[Rizen]

A while ago I said I thought Spargo was the best player, then he fell off hard, lol. Spargo's coming back but it looks like he's still behind Miya and Acola. I think Miya's passed Acola at this point. I do think Spargo does better when he adds Aegis to the mix. I watched some wifi matches of Spargo vs Sonix and he was doing pretty well with Aegis.

I made this on the Young Link thread but I'll add it here too:

In my experience 's matchups go like this:
+2

+1

Even

-1

-2

If you don't see a character it's because I didn't play them enough to form an opinion. It's also likely YL loses slightly to and but I need more experience.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

A while ago I said I thought Spargo was the best player, then he fell off hard, lol. Spargo's coming back but it looks like he's still behind Miya and Acola. I think Miya's passed Acola at this point. I do think Spargo does better when he adds Aegis to the mix. I watched some wifi matches of Spargo vs Sonix and he was doing pretty well with Aegis.

I think it's just hard for Cloud to be solo-mainable in this game. He's a great character for sure and imo top 20, but Sparg0 going more Cloud and not focusing on Aegis too much leads to him having issues occasionally. I think WTT gave him too much confidence that solo Cloud was the right way. That being said, he didn't actually go Aegis for any player other then Masashi to avoid the Cloud ditto, and he got runbacks on several people he lost to before. I also think he was matchup checked during Golden Week, particularly by and . Glad to see him make the comeback and show himself to potentially getting back onto acola, Miya and possibly Sonix's level.

 

[The_Bookworm]

We all signs of potential greatness of acola's all the way back in Smash Ultimate Summit (which is like over a year at this point? time sure flies), so it is cool to see it finally come into play with acola being able to overcome his bracket demon in Sparg0. You can definitely tell that he really wanted this W at long last.

Kowloon 12 in general is quite the nutty tournament.

 

[Sucumbio]

Congratulations to MKLeo for his win at warehouse war 4 over Zomba who couldn't adapt despite stopping a thrilling Shiny run and only really having an issue with Joker.

 

[Kalashnikov]

Damn, crazy that TamaP bustered out at 129th. That guy is always really fun to watch. I don't remember who said it — might've been a Larry stream? — but he has brief moments where he's the best player on the planet before immediately ping-ponging the opposite direction and doing something incredibly stupid. It's art, in the purest sense of the word. No player epitomizes the humanity of competitive gaming like he does.

Tora made it to Day 2 without dropping a game before swiftly going 0-2 in the main bracket. Really wish she went further — there's something about clean that's so, so satisfying to watch.

But on the flip side, the other player I was rooting for had a crazy run! Lv.1 making 's second major top 8, and bagging such a dominant win on Zackray after forcing him to switch was nothing short of historic. To my knowledge, that's the only time someone's forced him onto after he came out of retirement with ... but I could be wrong.

I fell asleep shortly after Zackray vs Lv.1, which apparently was a huge mistake. Acola beat Sparg0 3-1... with his !? According to this tweet. after hand-counting an average across games, "48% of Sparg0's bairs that he tried to hit Acola's shield with were either parried or foresighted." That is an unreal statistic; I gotta watch that match later.

And, of course, congratulations to Miya for winning the tournament. Bagging a win on the Acola who 3-1'd Sparg0 like that is nuts, even if he was the favourite from the start.

 

[Sucumbio]

@/Maister_SSB

My Updated GnW MU Chart as of July 2024 (:

I didn't realize Rosalina was such a tough matchup or is that just the Dabuz factor lol

 

[Frihetsanka]

This is supposedly Miya's. It does indeed seem like Rosalina is a bad MU for G&W. Both Miya and Neo think Corrin is Even, while Maister thinks G&W slightly wins it. Even seems accurate to me, especially considering SHADIC has been winning against both Miya and Maister the last few times they played.

To me, Maister's MU chart seems a bit too optimistic, while Miya's seems a bit too pessimistic.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

SHADIC did a Corrin MU Chart

There was a problem fetching the tweet

He thinks Corrin is a solid top 20 character.

 

[Sucumbio]

SDG/Whist

Supernova 2024 preliminary seeding. Full on one of the largest Smash Ultimate events of all time, tiered higher than GENESIS 6 and big enough that I've had to expand to 3 images (maybe 4 for final seeding), nearly everyone is here.

 

[Hippieslayer]

Aegis looking better than ever as players are beginning to implement foresight more and being able to swap between pyra/mythra better.

Mythra looks really scary when she's foresighting as much as in Acola vs Sparg0. And players should only get better at foresighting as time goes on.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

LumiRank 2024 top 50 has been revealed (as well as the top 100 and top 150)

 

[The_Bookworm]

Supernova 2024 Top 24

Winner's
Marss vs Sparg0
Hurt vs Tweek
Yoshidora vs SHADIC
Snow vs Raru


Loser's
Shuton vs Miya
Sonix vs Light
crepe salee vs Dabuz
acola vs MkLeo
Asimo vs Geist
Zomba vs Peabnut
KEN vs ATATA
Onin vs Kola


This tournament is ultra nutty.

 

[NotLiquid]

What an insane run for Marss so far. Knocking Onin and Miya down to losers back to back is one hell of a reasserting statement. Between his sets against them and Yoshidora's win against Acola it feels like most of these players are getting really good at conditioning Steve's lack of range/aerial presence. His threat range is becoming pretty apparent to a lot of players it feels like, even if block will always become an x-factor for the character.

The Japanese Mario Bros. mains definitely impressing me the most outside of the two aforementioned ones. Raru's consistency with Luigi feels like it makes him a universal threat against the bracket, but Snow's Mario managing to 3-1 the tournament's third seed is just as impressive. Ultimate's Japan era making for some interesting twists and turns.

 

[The_Bookworm]

Supernova 2024 Top 8

Winner's
Sparg0 vs Hurt
SHADIC vs Raru

Loser's
acola vs Sonix
Yoshidora vs Asimo

acola has been put the fear of god quite a few times, as all of his top 24 sets have been game 5. Dabuz was so close game 4 but he blew it all away. And now acola has to defeat one of his biggest bracket demons if he is going to proceed through the tournament.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

Sparg0 is currently in Grand Finals at Supernova while only having dropped 2 games in the entire tournament. This could be one of the most dominant major victories alongside MkLeo at the Ludwig Smash Invitational, especially given that this year's Supernova is the most stacked event in a very long time.

 

[The_Bookworm]

Someone please check up with Sonix. He has to be cursed by the devil to place 2nd at all events, cause how did it happen again?!?
Also someone please tell him to stop using neutral getup against Roy, cause that is a recipe for disaster.

Anyways.....

Supernova 2024 (2281 Entrants)

1st: Sparg0
2nd: Sonix
3rd: SHADIC
4th: Asimo
5th: Raru
5th: Hurt
7th: acola
7th: Yoshidora

Spoiler: Top 24

9th: Tweek
9th: Marss
9th: Snow
9th: Onin

13th: Miya
13th: Dabuz
13th: Zomba
13th: KEN

17th: Kola
17th: ATATA
17th: Peabnut
17th: Geist
17th: Light
17th: MkLeo
17th: crêpe salée
17th: Shuton

Spoiler: Top 64

25th: BeastModePaul
25th: Syrup
25th: Lima
25th: Luugi
25th: Jakal
25th: TamaPDaifuku
25th: Jahzz0
25th: Juanpi

33rd: Tea
33rd: Soar
33rd: omega
33rd: Sisqui
33rd: Chase
33rd: JDV
33rd: IcyMist
33rd: PkChris
33rd: Wildz
33rd: Pharaoh
33rd: Tilde
33rd: Tarik
33rd: Gackt
33rd: Skyjay
33rd: Dany2theny
33rd: Wrath

49th: Izaiah
49th: Riddles
49th: VoltageStriker
49th: Monte
49th: Candle
49th: ApolloKage
49th: MoDzai
49th: Atreus
49th: Teaser
49th: Mugen
49th: Justice
49th: Cody
49th: TM7_ZAP
49th: Apple Reviewer
49th: Sonido
49th: CaptainCRUP!!!

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

Sparg0's looked like a very solid "fundies" Roy. The more he was playing the character the longer the set went on, the better and better he was hitting the jairs and tech chases. Honestly given Kola's poor record against Sonix, Sparg0's Roy looked better at the Sonic matchup then Kola does, despite Kola having the better Roy overall.

Him winning Supernova in such a dominant fashion was very impressive, alongside Sonix's incredible losers run after getting upset by Snow, SHADIC's general consistency and Asimo's run after losing to Tweek, notably beating Zomba, Snow, Yoshidora and Hurt. Asimo is really showing what Ryu can do as of recent, despite Ryu being considered a high tier character.

 

[Hippieslayer]

I thought Sparg0 would do way better vs Hurt this time around because he really played the matchup terrible when they fought before. But I didn't expect this level of dominance. And he still doesn't play the matchup that well. There's a lot of improvements he can make. Curious as to how their next set will go.

Imo Acola should use his Aegis more. It looked so crisp vs Sparg0 when they fought. I'm not sure why he didn't try it in either of the two sets he lost.

Sonix getting second was so obvious after a point. The only question was whether he would get the reset vs Sparg0. Guy needs to try Ketamine therapy or ayahuasca or something to get over his curse lol.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

New Tweek Talks about Supernova 2024

 

[Zinith]

Lemme just put this here and promptly slink back in the shadows

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Spoiler: The chart

 

[Rizen]

Some thoughts about Supernova:

Like I said, Spargo's better when he uses secondaries. Cloud's probably lower top tier but a little Aegis and Roy can make a huge difference in a few troubled MUs like vs Sonic. I disagree a lot with the latest Lumirank. It looks like they just went by recent tournaments held in Japan and seriously underrated players like Spargo and other NA players.
The other player I want to talk about is Sonix. I realize the irony of saying this after Sonix got 2nd but he's the best player in the world right now. Acola really hasn't been doing enough to warrant his placement above Sonix. Miya you could argue has but Acola got 7th and Miya got 13th this tournament. Why? Because Sonix beat them both! Sonix just happens to lose at the worst times but he usually goes back and wins against the players he lost to. He beat Light and Tweek too this tournament. Even Miya gets 7th or 13th occasionally but Sonix has amazing consistency getting second every single time. Shadic's looking like the best USA player and imo he was also underrated in the lumirank.

One thing Supernova showed is, I'll admit it, Japan's probably the strongest country in the world. It says a lot that Japanese players got 5 of the top 8 spots. However this also showed that despite Hurt, Acola and Miya attending, Japan cannot sweep huge North American tournaments. It says a lot that Japan didn't break top 3. Tweek said in his talk that NA should feel confident against Japan and I agree with this. Even in earlier tournaments when Miya came over he lost to Light and Shadic. There's always going to be someone to stand in Japan's way. IMO if you include all of NA, it's a better region than Japan with Sonix and Spargo in the mix.

Speaking of characters, Steve has not been winning a lot of major tournaments lately. It really goes to show how balanced the game is that so many characters have won tournaments. The problem with saying who the top 5 characters are is there's about 10 of them who could fit those spots.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

There was a weekly that went on in Japan called Maesuma HIT #30 and it had a special guest from NA and some top 50 players.

1. Maister
2. Hurt
3. karaage
4. denKOTA
5. Raki
5. 33Peranbox
7. alice
7. Tora

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

Top 24 for Riptide 2024 (P Tier)

Winners
Sonix vs Shuton
BeastModePaul vs SHADIC
Syrup vs Tweek
Sparg0 vs Asimo

Losers
Light vs Peabnut
Miya vs Jahzz0
Snow vs Hurt
MuteAce vs Lui$
Onin vs Lima
Riddles vs Pharaoh
Zomba vs ATATA
Candle vs GuyGuy

So far Sparg0 hasn't dropped a single game, something no other player can currently say.

 

[The_Bookworm]

I was literally about to comment that this thread hasn't been updated in 3 weeks, then post the top 24 of Riptide 2024, but then the post above literally just happened. lol

Then again, not a whole lot has been happening in competitive Smash since Supernova happened, outside of MkLeo currently competing in Japan and winning a super regional there over Akakikusu.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

Top 8 for Riptide 2024 (P Tier)

Winners
Shuton vs BeastModePaul
Syrup vs Sparg0
Losers
Sonix vs SHADIC
Zomba vs Riddles

 

[Rizen]

Will Sonix finally take a major?! We're all holding our breath...

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

Will Sonix finally take a major?! We're all holding our breath...

I'm thinking Sparg0 wins again due to how dominant he's been this tournament. He still hasn't dropped any games and he's played against MuteAce and Asimo. MuteAce has beaten him before and Asimo has had some close-ish sets against him. He genuinely looks unstoppable like how he looked at Supernova and how Leo looked at LSI.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

Shuton double eliminated Sonix with causing Sonix to get 3rd place, ending his Grand Finals streak and 2nd place curse.

Riptide 2024 Results (P Tier)

1. Sparg0
2. Shuton
3. Sonix
4. Riddles
5. Syrup
5. BeastModePaul
7. SHADIC
7. Zomba
9. Light
9. Snow
9. Asimo
9. Tweek
13. Miya
13. Lui$
13. Lima
13. GuyGuy
17. Peabnut
17. Jahzz0
17. Hurt
17. MuteAce
17. Onin
17. Candle
25. Pacha
25. Chase
25. IcyMist
25. Geist
25. Atomic
25. Kola
25. Quidd
25. Cosmos

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

I guess a good thing to discuss would be that Sparg0 is clearly looking like the #1 in the world right now, and it honestly doesn't even seem close. The question is what advancements in Cloud's metagame and adaptations are he making in order to be so much more dominant with Cloud then he was in the first half of 2024?

I know his Aegis and Roy also look good too, but Cloud is his main so I think it's best to focus on that first. My personal belief is one that is shared by oniden on reddit, and that's how Sparg0 is abusing Cloud specific tools like Finishing Touch and Limit Up-B better then before, rather then just doing really well at general standard swordie ledgetrapping and juggling.

 

[Rizen]

I guess a good thing to discuss would be that Sparg0 is clearly looking like the #1 in the world right now, and it honestly doesn't even seem close. The question is what advancements in Cloud's metagame and adaptations are he making in order to be so much more dominant with Cloud then he was in the first half of 2024?

I know his Aegis and Roy also look good too, but Cloud is his main so I think it's best to focus on that first. My personal belief is one that is shared by oniden on reddit, and that's how Sparg0 is abusing Cloud specific tools like Finishing Touch and Limit Up-B better then before, rather then just doing really well at general standard swordie ledgetrapping and juggling.

Like I said before, I really think Spargo is better with Aegis (and Roy) in the mix. I think Cloud's a top tier but not top 5. He has some really good things like great mobility and frame data considering how big his sword is. Plus limit on top of all that. Without limit though he probably has a bottom 5 recovery. It's like Chrom's. Cloud players have been very good about rationing limit so they frequently can get it when launched offstage so his recovery's not horrible. Cloud does seem to struggle with a handful of MUs like Sonic and Snake. I think he's better with a secondary but I would also say that about every character including Steve. There are so many viable characters that it's always good to be able to counterpick, even if it's just to mix up your playstyle. On this topic, I think Light would do a lot better if he wasn't a solo Fox main. Fox loses to several lower ranked characters like the Shotos and Ice Climbers.

As far as top 5 players go, Spargo's looking like #1, Sonix #2 then Shadic and Miya are a tossup for 3 and 4. 5 could be several players including Hurt, Acola and Tweek. IMO this season Acola's been overrated and riding a lot on his previous placements. All this could change very quickly of course.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

Like I said before, I really think Spargo is better with Aegis (and Roy) in the mix. I think Cloud's a top tier but not top 5. He has some really good things like great mobility and frame data considering how big his sword is. Plus limit on top of all that. Without limit though he probably has a bottom 5 recovery. It's like Chrom's. Cloud players have been very good about rationing limit so they frequently can get it when launched offstage so his recovery's not horrible. Cloud does seem to struggle with a handful of MUs like Sonic and Snake. I think he's better with a secondary but I would also say that about every character including Steve. There are so many viable characters that it's always good to be able to counterpick, even if it's just to mix up your playstyle. On this topic, I think Light would do a lot better if he wasn't a solo Fox main. Fox loses to several lower ranked characters like the Shotos and Ice Climbers.

As far as top 5 players go, Spargo's looking like #1, Sonix #2 then Shadic and Miya are a tossup for 3 and 4. 5 could be several players including Hurt, Acola and Tweek. IMO this season Acola's been overrated and riding a lot on his previous placements. All this could change very quickly of course.

Acola's results are pretty comparable to SHADIC's right now tbh. Acola's got 2nd and 7th at the two big events he's gone to while SHADIC got 3rd and 7th, and acola has wins on Sparg0, Miya, Doramigi, Zackray, MkLeo, Marss and Dabuz, while SHADIC has wins on Light, Raru, Onin, Yoshidora, Peabnut and Crepe Salee.

 

[Cheryl~]

Sparg0, Sonix, and Acola are looking like the favorites to be fighting for the top 3 spots this season imo. Acola's current results aren't crazy when compared to Sparg0 and Sonix, but he has a few big events coming up that he will be attending, such as this weekend's Umebura which is another P tier event. He is also attending this month's Sumabato which has become a S tier and is confirmed to be attending Delfino Maza in Mexico which is looking to be another A/S-tier, notably having Sparg0 present. I think if Acola can take at least two of these events he will start having a much better case for himself being #1 again. This will be even more interesting when Delfino Maza rolls around because of the possibility of Acola strengthening his head-to-head into Sparg0 this season.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

Results for Umebura SP 11 (P Tier)

1. Miya
2. acola
3. Snow
4. Zackray
5. MkLeo
5. Hurt
7. Akakikusu
7. Doramigi
9. Shuton
9. Akio
9. Raki
9. Raru
13. Taikei
13. Tea
13. MASA
13. Carmelo
17. Kaninabe
17. Shirayuki
17. KEN
17. chicken
17. alice
17. ElleGo
17. Kome
17. TamaPDaifuku
25. Kaarage
25. Asimo
25. Gackt
25. Lunia
25. tameigo
25. M0tsunabE
25. Gachipi
25. Maister

 

[The_Bookworm]

Results for Umebura SP 11 (P Tier)

1. Miya
2. acola
3. Snow
4. Zackray
5. MkLeo
5. Hurt
7. Akakikusu
7. Doramigi
9. Shuton
9. Akio
9. Raki
9. Raru
13. Taikei
13. Tea
13. MASA
13. Carmelo
17. Kaninabe
17. Shirayuki
17. KEN
17. chicken
17. alice
17. ElleGo
17. Kome
17. TamaPDaifuku
25. Kaarage
25. Asimo
25. Gackt
25. Lunia
25. tameigo
25. M0tsunabE
25. Gachipi
25. Maister

This tournament featured another close game 5 set between MkLeo and acola, with the former using Byleth this time, and the latter winning via reverse 3-0.
Zackray used a lot more ROB than usual during the later part of the bracket, using him to beat Raki, Akakikusu, and Hurt.

Also, Miya really needed this tournament win considering his less-than-stellar showings in his overseas P tier tournament runs where he fell outside of top 8 each time (to my memory). His season so far is a less extreme version of Sparg0's previous season, where his tournaments in-country is excellent but out-of-country is not super great (for a #1 in the world contender standards).

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

This tournament featured another close game 5 set between MkLeo and acola, with the former using Byleth this time, and the latter winning via reverse 3-0.
Zackray used a lot more ROB than usual during the later part of the bracket, using him to beat Raki, Akakikusu, and Hurt.

Also, Miya really needed this tournament win considering his less-than-stellar showings in his overseas P tier tournament runs where he fell outside of top 8 each time (to my memory). His season so far is a less extreme version of Sparg0's previous season, where his tournaments in-country is excellent but out-of-country is not super great (for a #1 in the world contender standards).

Honestly so far Miya's season has been pretty solid. Like he got 13th at two NA P tiers but his losses are Marss, Sonix, Syrup and Light, none of which are that bad. I'll be surprised if Light doesn't make top 10, Sonix is likely to be top 3 and Marss and Syrup will very likely be higher ranked then they were last season. Reminds me of Miya's last season where he did suffer from consistency issues but won a decent amount of P-tiers, giving him #2 on the rankings over Sonix.

 

[Hydreigonfan01]

Results for Ultimate Fighting Arena 2024 (A Tier)

1. crêpe salée
2. Sisqui
3. Glutonny
4. Luugi
5. Supahsemmie
5. NaetorU
7. Raarchyor
7. Oryon
9. MKBigBoss
9. Raflow
9. AndresFn
9. Neo
13. Tarik
13. chadscro
13. Susu
13. Space
17. +HOPE+
17. Mr. R
17. MoDzai
17. Rehann
17. SuperStriker
17. SOLO
17. Leon
17. drybie

Crepe Salee is the third Steve to win a major ever and the first one to win a major this season.

 

[Rizen]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: it is HARD to be consistent in Ultimate. I've noticed the curse of not doing well in other countries happens to a lot of people. I wish Sonix would go to Japan, see how well he holds up.

I think Light, more than anyone, really needs a secondary. He's a top player who can beat anyone but also lose to anyone too. He keeps losing weird MUs like Ashimo's Ryu and big D's ICs. IMO Fox slightly loses both these MUs but they'd be very easy to counterpick. Fox by nature is an inconsistent character. He has amazing offense but can get wrecked hard in disadvantage and is the fifth lightest character. He's a character of highs and lows although still probably lower top tier.

 

[The_Bookworm]

1. crêpe salée

That is one of the wonkiest character lineups I have ever seen. I need to know what his Olimar did, cause I am interested.