Why do you play Sheik?She’s the most fun character for me, I love speedy and combo heavy characters so she fits my play style very well!In your most recent tier list, you put Sheik as being tied for #1 in the game. In my interviews with other top players, most opinions seem split between some combination of Diddy Kong, Bayonetta, and Cloud. Why do you think Sheik is tied for #1?



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She’s top 3 material because of her frame data, ledge trapping, damage output and neutral. This combined with her excellent match up chart and results (Sheik mains always getting top 8 at majors) makes her top 3 in my book.During my interview with Dabuz, I asked him if he thought there was a character he thought of as overrated. He had this to say:What do you make of his opinion?There’s no denying that rage can be very hard to deal with for Sheik. It doesn’t benefit her at all, in fact it makes remembering certain percents for combos or kill setups harder.She’s very light and can struggle killing at times so small mistakes can be punished hard when your opponent has rage.However it is possible to play near perfectly with her and not make too many mistakes. Otherwise, Void and I wouldn’t have placed top 8 at so many majors.Dabuz is also underestimating how good her match ups against most mid and high tiers are compared to other top tiers. She also has a winning match ups against Cloud and Bayonetta, two characters that nearly everyone in the cast struggles with.You say Sheik has winning match-ups against Cloud and Bayonetta? Why does she win these match-ups?She combos both Cloud and Bayonetta really well and has a 50/50 with up-throw against both characters. She’s also extremely good at getting Cloud off stage from stray hits.During my interviews with both Ally and Dabuz, they both stated something to the effect that the game feels very “inconsistent” in terms of how often the better player wins. Reasons cited that there are too many characters that have to be practiced for and mechanics such as rage.An “anybody can beat anybody” mentality. What do you make of this?As a Sheik main that has lost his tournament stocks below 70% countless of times, I can definitely see where they’re coming from. As much as I hate the rage mechanic (I am biased though since I main Sheik LOL) it is part of the game.I doubt Sakurai would patch it out at this point. Even though most top players don’t like it, the spectators do since rage makes comebacks happen more often.The game can certainly feel inconsistent at times, but it is possible to be consistent. ZeRo is the living proof of that.If it were up to me though I would either decrease the effects of rage or remove it completely so the game could be more consistent.So with you putting Sheik as high as she can possibly be, you are very clearly not downplaying the character’s abilities. Do you feel as though other top players have the tendency to downplay their characters? Why?I don’t think they all downplay their characters. I agree with Anti/Ally when they say that Mario isn’t top 5.I don’t think they actually think Mario sucks but it's become a meme at this point so people shouldn’t take them too seriously when they say "Mario sucks."As for Dabuz, I also share his opinion on Rosalina being overrated, since she struggles with DLC characters a lot now. Some top players do downplay their characters though and I think it’s because they pay more attention to their characters weaknesses rather than their strengths.Either that or they just want more credit for winning with with a worse character LOL.Wouldn’t it make you look better if you were to downplay Sheik’s abilities? Why do you choose not to go this route?Because I would be lying to myself and my fans. I truly believe she’s top 3 and the results have backed it up so far.What are Sheik’s match ups like? Can you give a few examples of some positive and negative match ups (if applicable)?Positive match ups: Cloud, Bayonetta, Fox, Mega Man, Diddy Kong, and Zero Suit Samus.Even or slightly in Sheik's favor: Villager, Lucario, Sonic, Mewtwo, Lucario, and Ryu.Even or slightly negative: Mario and Rosalina.In a recent article from another site, it was stated that "Mr. R. doesn't travel as much, which means that he slips more internationally than other players."That… doesn’t sound quite right though does it? How often do you travel for tournaments?To give you an example of how much I travel and where I’ve been to, here’s a list of the places I’ve visited in 2016:Mexico (twice), Canada, Sweden, France, Norway, Kuwait, Japan, Australia, California, New Jersey, Memphis, Baltimore, Chicago, Vegas (twice), Michigan, Washington, Florida, New England, New York and a few more states that I can’t remember from the top of my head.



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Also on your most recent tier list, you rated Bowser as being unusually higher than previous tier lists. Why do you think Bowser has risen so much?Bowsers have gotten amazing wins with him worldwide. Most people assumed I only put Bowser that high because of Nairo’s recent wins but that wasn’t the only reason.Kisha, LordMix and Nairo’s Bowser have gotten wins against Ranai, Tweek, Anti, Mr.E, Mew2King, Zinoto, Void, Vinnie, Ryuga and probably more that I’m unaware of. I pay attention to what happens around the world.Kisha from Japan gets good wins over there and Pollo from Mexico gets good results over there too. None of the top level Bowser mains travel to majors though so he has a lack of exposure.At one point you said this on Twitter:Is this something you still believe? Why? What does Brawl Marth have that Smash 4 Marth doesn’t?He has a perfect balance of speed, strength and range. Smash 4 Marth doesn’t move as fluently and smoothly as Brawl Marth did.Speaking of Marth, you recently said that you wanted to try playing him in Smash 4. How has this been going?Any plans on bringing this character out in tournaments in the foreseeable future?Yes! I’ve been playing him a lot on my stream recently and plan on pulling him out for specific match ups in the future so stay tuned.Do you see yourself rising to the top over MKLeo, Mr. E, and Pugwest in terms of best Marth?During my interview with Mr. E, he seemed confident that non-Marth mains wouldn’t be able to catch up to them even though you were the one who originally inspired him to pick up Brawl Marth in the first place.If I put enough time into him I think it’s very do-able. I already kinda have fundamentals with Marth from Brawl so I’m confident I can do it.During the ZeRo runback event, you challenged ZeRo to a Falcon ditto. Why did you opt for the Falcon ditto instead of character mains?I didn’t want my Sheik to get downloaded in case I had to play him the day after. I also beat ZeRo in a friendly first to 5 in Falcon dittos at Winterfox so I thought I could do it again, but boy was I wrong LOL.When you challenged ZeRo to the Falcon ditto, he expressed hesitation and seemed to prefer going Diddy vs. your Sheik. Any theories as to why?Why do you think he had no hesitation to Nairo’s Falcon ditto challenge?I think it’s because ZeRo feels more confident against Nairo in tournament since Zero Suit Samus is terrible against Diddy so he didn’t care about downloading him as much.My last few sets with ZeRo were all close 2-3 at GOML, 3-1 at WTFOX and 2-3 at UGC so he might have been worried about our set the day after perhaps?Do you think that ZeRo was specifically trying to get you to play Sheik during the runback event so he could get the download for the real tournament or because he wasn’t confident in the ditto against you?I think he was confident in the ditto but wanted to download my Sheik.What would you say is your greatest accomplishment in Smash 4?2nd at EVO 2015You are known for giving lessons out to players to help them improve. How do you figure out what the player needs to work on and how successful has your lessons been for players?So what I do is I go over habits, neutral game, ledge trapping, offensive play and match up specific things during the session. Once the session is done I make a google word document containing everything I said during the lesson.Some of my viewers have ended up booking multiple lessons afterwards because of how satisfied they were with these lessons!How much time per day do you dedicate towards playing the game do you spend in order to have your top player status?4 hours minimum and when a big tournament is coming up about 6 hours minimum.You appear to want to go pro at Overwatch (based on your resolutions). Do you think splitting up your time between two games will have an impact on your game-play in Smash 4?I think I’ll have enough time to spend on both 6 hours of practice on each every day should be enough (12 hours of practice a day).