Why do you play Pikachu?Well at this point he’s kinda synonymous with my gaming identity, but he also lets me express myself more than any other character. I LOVE playing Pikachu and I don’t have as much fun with any other character.That’s the reason I’ve had so much trouble picking up a real secondary and using them in tournament.What do Pikachu’s match ups look like?I think Pikachu loses 3 Match-ups (Mario, Ness, Corrin), goes even with about 5-7 characters, and beats everybody else.What are Samus’s match ups like?Bad. She loses to a lot of relevant characters which is why I really don’t want to use her in tournament. I’ll just use Mewtwo instead.What are the things that most holds Samus back as a character? What would you personally want to see improved?Susceptibility to juggling, no real answer to shield (her grab is bad and doesn’t even get that much reward off of it), and her inability to get off the ledge, which is tied in to her inability to land.If Samus and Pikachu had the same amount of potential and were tied on the tier list (but strengths in different areas) which character would you play? Why?Samus, Samus, Samus, Samus, Samus. She is my favorite video game character bar none and so I would love to be able to play her.So the tier list you most recently released looked like this:



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As we all know, tier lists are constantly evolving. Anything you’d like to change on this tier list looking back?Switch Marth and Corrin, everything else is probably right. ESPECIALLY Pac-Man.It’s funny how you say "especially Pac-Man" as I recently had an interview with Sinji, a notable Pac-Man player. Sinji, to my surprise, mentioned that he thought Pac-Man was top 25.How much have you seen of Pac-Man to be so sure?Pac-Man ain’t sh--. People are just bad against him ROFL.Obviously I could be wrong, but I typically think a lot of people are bad vs. obscure characters.Our commenters apparently really liked your naming convention for the the tiers (borked, also borked, waffles > pancakes, nemu, etc). How did you come up with this… “naming convention”? How come bottom 11, bottom 7, and bottom 3 didn’t get as interesting of a name?I literally just didn’t care to continue doing math to be honest because I kept moving people around.You have a history of rating Pikachu typically higher than most other players would in their own tier lists. Why is this?Being that you are the best Pikachu player in the world, do you think Pikachu’s potential is fully unlocked? Do you think Pikachu’s potential is accurately showcased in tournament results?I see all the things Pikachu is able to do that I can’t do consistently, but there are soooo many things that are absolutely amazing with the character.I am by far the best Pikachu and I’m so far from using him to his potential for things that I know exist, and there are more than I don’t even know of or haven’t even come close to start trying. Pikachu is amazing, just you wait.What do you think about the subject of downplaying one’s own character? Do you think there are any top players that do this?I don’t really care when people do it, and a LOT of people do it. I feel like if you don’t believe your character is good enough to win a major [then] you shouldn’t play your character, unless you don’t care about winning one.I hope others believe in their character, regardless of what they’ll say in public or on social media.A few top players have cited Smash Bros. 4 as being a bit inconsistent. Reasons for this have included there being "too many viable characters" but mostly the rage mechanic.What do you make of this?I agree, I’m one of those people. It’s also the fact that the game is new and so the meta is developing so the information isn’t all out there.You’re one of the few players that is known for actively using the “BIDOU” control scheme. How has this worked out for you so far?How has the learning experience been so far? Can you see this control scheme being more common later?It’s worked really well. I don’t really use the C-stick often in a normal control scheme besides for walking down-tilts and instant dash attacks, but I don’t really do either of those as Pikachu so it’s fine.The movement is better, the confirms with Up-throw are better, and it’s led me to having more consistency (Which, as we noted earlier, is difficult).Not too long ago, you were given a Smash Box to use for Smash 4. It seems like the Smash Box is mostly intended to be used with Melee in mind.How well does it work for Smash 4? How has the learning experience been so far?Can you see this control method being more common later?It doesn't really work particularly well with Smash 4, in my opinion. The thing about the Smash Box that I’ll say generally is "It makes easy stuff harder, and harder stuff easier."However, in Smash 4 there may be precise things, but they aren’t particularly hard to execute. Also, it makes perfect pivoting nearly impossible due to the sequence of actions you have to perform, so it has a lot of negatives in my book.It’s still an alternative for people with arthritis/extreme hand pain, though, which is always a plus and SHOULD be the main selling point of the box.How difficult has it been to go from a way of playing Smash Bros. for years (default GameCube controller scheme) to playing BIDOU and the Smash Box? Is it worth the "potential"?I kinda covered this in my other questions, but I didn’t have to relearn how to play the game at a fundamental level. Smash Box will not be a serious endeavor since it isn’t worth it for Smash 4, and BIDOU was a minor change.I don’t really have BIDOU activated that often in the first place (Which isn’t a good thing, mind you) so it is mostly the same.What do you think about the new stage list rulings for tournaments?LOL. my full opinions are here, way more in-depth than a few lines in an interview.How difficult is it to juggle actively playing Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. 4 at the same time? It’s very rare for a player to be good at both games at the same time.Well I stopped playing both about four months ago. Melee stopped being interesting/fun to me, and so I haven’t been playing it outside of rare occasions.Back when I was juggling both, it didn’t really feel like anything. The games were different, the muscle memory was there, and I didn’t confuse the engines at all.To me it is more confusing when people CAN’T do it, assuming they were already good at both games.Why do you think Melee has stopped being interesting to you? The 15 year old age?I play a character that isn’t meta-relevant in my opinion. Most of the time when I won it was because I was a better player, and many of the times I lost it was because I was a worse character.While beating players like Westballz and Zhu was satisfying, I felt like I didn’t really deserve it because they didn’t play the match-up correctly. I feel like Melee players are stubborn and play the way they WANT to play as opposed to the correct way.You can’t hit Samus’s shield and get away with it, so why are they doing that? Just shoot lasers and abuse Samus’s horrid approach options... it’s not that hard, I promise.What is your greatest accomplishment in Super Smash Bros. 4?Probably my UGC run since I beat 3 top 15 players after I’d been doing sub-par recently. I’m pretty happy with that and that performance is what I wish was my regular LOL.You are known for giving paid lessons for Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U. How do you figure out what a player needs to work on? How successful has this been for players that you know of?Any success stories worth sharing?Mostly someone has a problem in one of the phases (advantage, disadvantage, neutral) so that’s pretty much what I’ll go over a lot. That, matchup inexperience, lack of combos/when to just trap landings as opposed to forcing a hit, those are all big deals that people generally need to work on, pros included.Any shout-outs you’d like to make? Where can our readers find more of you? Twitter , and Snapchat: Samericus.Shout-outs to Panda Global as always since the organization is really dope and I love them all. Shout-outs to the fans, the love I get, and to YOU, Trigger. Thank you :D