Yesterday I made a commitment to use Ike during the entire Brawl Fest, he just feels like the character that fits my ideal playstyle the most. He's fun, a swordsman, lacks a projectile, but he's just so awesome. I didn't do too bad, but I also had few chances to really see if I've improved with the short amount participants. I lack a few experience on a few MUs, but it's something (with the help of others) to decide to learn with him.
So I took a look at previous matches matches from my past, just how far have I gone?
Enter the Fray: Aurorazoni!I started my Brawl adventures in January of 2009. I noticed it becoming a small fad in the site I used to go to (Shrine Maiden's a Touhou community) so I eventually picked it up. Simply put a few played there, so I used what experienced I had from Melee and eventually learned enough of the basics to really begin myself by later that month.
Why Aurorazoni?
Well originally my name was Aurora and I used it until I went to my next forum (Rogue Mages). When I started talking about pasta, and made the joke that aurorazoni could be magical pasta in Nebraska. They liked it, so I began to use my All is Brawl name as Aurorazoni.
Anywho a month later I decided to join another All is Brawl online tournament, I've always had a blast with playing others so I rarely missed these. Of course, I got last again, but I had my first matches on youtube for the first time ever.
Celestial (Ike) vs RelaxedExcorcist (Pit)
It was a bit of a turn of events, I wasn't really good and I really didn't mind it. I had fun and just enjoyed my character so much. I joined smashboards and began to talk with other Ikes. I then met my Ike idol, Rykoshet! He inspired me to do so much with what I had, especially when he made a blog about his experiences on All is Brawl. It put me in so much awe that even if I were frustrated with Ike, I'd still endure it and try to reach the same amount of greatness he had. I also met the now notable Nysyarc for the first time. :] I'm glad he went on to being a great Ike.
Not wasting a moment, I took those two videos to the Ike critique forum! Being one of the first to be critiqued as well~ Of course they weren't too happy with it being a Wi-Fi match being critiqued, they did it anyway. It was a turning point in my early brawl stage because of how well they pointed out my bads. I don't even recall having any goods either lol. Using what they told me, I began to improve little by little, and with me becoming a small part of the smashboards community my success was starting to grow.
June: The Great Smashboards tournamentUser Kola began to help me improve a lot around this time. Introducing me to other sites such as Neoseeker and BrawlRankings. I also had a chance to learn with him while he still mained Pit. xD Oh such a frustrating character to play against! That shield is so dumb! I also made great friends with Kawaii Bunny, Devil Trigger and Chaco. I loved being able to play Touhou with Kawaii Bunny<3, Chaco was just so amazing to talk to, and Devil Trigger and I were like newbie Ikes together just starting to sprout our wings~
Anyway, I decided to join one of smashboards largest tournaments at that time, with around 128 participants. I think it was single elimination, because I really couldn't see how I could have placed so high otherwise. Around this time I also began to hate the comments with "You're the best Ike I've played" because many people made me seem like such a joke. Easily 3 stocking me and such. It frustrated me to no end. ;-;. This tournament is what really prevented me from leaving, the success I had in this one just really pushed me to stay. To my surprise I got 5th out of 128. It made me feel so overjoyed, and I knew that if I could keep improving I could consistently make these results in the near future. Alas if I were to do so, I'd have to stop limiting myself to so few people to play against.
September: Pursuing the competitive atmosphere and the change from Aurorazoni to Celestial
I began to look for more competitive areas, Wi-Fi clans were a fad around this time so I began to frequently visit WifiAlliance, the hub for those with clans and without clans to just fight it out. After looking around I finally found on that sparked my interest. The Chosen Few. I thought my name was silly so I decided before joining I must find a better username than magical pasta. Being out of ideas, I took my vocabulary book from the time and rushed through it. I saw the word and definition of Celestial. and pretty much fell in love with it~ So with a new name I began to start a new at TCF. Oh and this is where I began to meet and frequently practice with Kjay, another great friend I had online.
After a good month of practicing with people at a higher level than myself I began to improve at a faster rate than before. Being thought of as a scary Ike at the time was such a moving experience to me and I loved it. Alas, soon after October I had to make plans to move in with my mother because of complications with my Dad.
Here is a video of my aggression being at it's peak before my absence.
Returning Home-------------------------------------------
So a little over a year later I came back home to Alabama. To my surprise things at home have gotten much better. It was thanks to my Dad seeing someone new that helped him feel at ease. Ironically this brought me back to Kola as well. Small world huh? Basically from there I got back into brawl, but not with Ike. I joined TheHallowBrawlers in December to try and learn from there. Sadly it was just too inactive for me to really get too far and to enjoy myself in the game. I met Yui there, and she then introduced me to both Brawl Domain and BrawlFriendCodes. Seeing as BrawlFriendCodes had clans I made my first registration there and began to use my new character "Fox" to find my passion in Brawl once again. I also met great people like Pip-Squeak (My biggest Riva) L/Akino (The amazing rapist of a leader) Zane and Uzi (Both people I love to see because of how they make me laugh) and Akira (Another big idol of mine).
Starting off, I was a bit of a hit~ I talked to and learned from two people to help me with my characters. Fox(Fox~@BD) and Arturia. Though the sessions were scarce and at times short, the things I did gather from them helped a lot more than I would have thought. Around this time I frequently had to be without the wii because Kola needed for last seasons BDTL. I began to envy the idea of him being in such an amazing event, so asked if there was anything I could do to become a part of it. Sadly I was told it was impossible until next season, but until then he recommended I got used to the community by joining the Power Ranking tournaments. If his router wasn't absolutely retarded, we could have both been able to play together, but instead he wanted me to play since he wanted me to become a part of the community. My oh my the beatings you guys gave me when I first began~
Shortly after that I just began to frequent both BD and BFC. I just loved them both so much for their community, and with being able to meet even more people that I enjoyed being with (Drastic, Spirit, Bob, and Razor) I had a feeling that I'd probably never quit again. With me having plenty of time to explore the game with both offline and online practice I began to enjoy this game more than ever. But enough with the story. :3 lets see some videos where Arturia makes me look free.
John was such a lovely mod. :< I still miss how inactive the guy has become.
What was I missing? MB kindly pointed out that I wasn't patient enough and it made me think and ask myself what I could do to improve it. (Well the answer is pretty obvious, be patient "duh"). But how would I force myself to play in such a situation?
I started slowing my game down a bit, and realizing the differences between my Ike and Fox. I used them for different situations not based on MUs but playstyles. People that naturally were uneasy with aggressiveness, I used Fox against, people who had trouble with defensiveness I used Ike. With this I kind of forcefully made my Ike more patient seeing as it worked in some cases.
Now the issue is that I forgot how to be aggressive (lol noooooo). So I began to ask Kola how to do so. Since he has played offline and seems to have both playstyles for just one character. I guess missing the point he simply asked that I not use Ike for him not being viable in the competitive scene after making me play his Metaknight. "If you're wanting to learn to be aggressive, you're doing it wrong with this current metagame. Your defensive game is going to be the best game you'll have. But you need a character that actually has great defensive options."
After this I began to mess with a plethora of characters. Yes I had fun being able to learn more than one character and it felt great to be able to counterpick. But it made me so frustrated to lose after counterpicking. As if it didn't matter who I used I couldn't get passed my opponent. So I asked again for friendlies against his MK so I could take them to Akira and she could review them to get her thoughts on what to do.
They can all be seen here~ Featuring my ZSS/Kirby/Ike/Fox
http://brawlfriendcodes.com/recent-offline-friendlies-celestial-ver-t-25979.htmlWhat really made me decide to use Ike more? Pip-Squeak. I constantly found myself being awe with his progress with Peach when we first met in January. Seeing the things he could and how happy he is with just using the character he loves made me want to put a little more faith into my main Ike. Thus I'm taking Brawl into a new view. No longer am I playing to a super competitive level all the time by countering people with Metaknight or my other roster of characters.. I'll just start to spend a bit more time enjoying Brawl with the character I love and enjoy even if it's for just a week. (No I will not stop using other characters completely, I'll just use Ike more)
Thus this summer, I will make notes in this blog about what accomplishments I've made with Ike. Uninteresting to most, I'm quite aware. But I guess this could be that other motivational milestone to helping me become better.
So to conclude things I'd like to say I Love you guys and sorry for this wall of text~
For TL:DR :3 Just watch the videos and differences. I'll upload more in another Blog during the summer to see if I have improved by the end of it.
