Dragons, Waifus, and a Cloudy Future

So, the title kind of leads you to where this is going to be going, but this is basically a general address to my followers on where I'm headed in the future as a competitive player.



I realize and appreciate that most (probably 85% plus) of you who I don't know personally probably follow me because of my Robin play. I appreciate the support everyone has given me as I've done my best to push the character farther and farther in competitive play.



However, I will be playing significantly less Robin in the future at Smash 4 Nationals. (At least, in bracket, anyway.)



This all started largely as a result of being really disappointed with my Genesis 3 placement. I made it to R2 pools but lost first round, so it was like, T-100somethingth. I lost to Xaltis' Rosalina and Cong's Diddy Kong. After my solid performance at BH5 (33rd, losing to ZeRo and Manny), this was a big disappoint on a personal level.



At GOML, I did really well. I placed 25th, losing to Nairo and Darkwolf's Shulk. The GOML bracket was very kind to me. I got to play a lot of matchups where I am not at a significant disadvantage for picking Robin. (Ryu, Lucas, Shulk) That meant I got that 25th placing playing almost solely Robin. But still, there were matches where I felt that hopelessness. Nairo's ZSS pretty thoroughly demolished my Robin, and in crews against Ontario A, Chris Fisch's Diddy destroyed me pretty badly as well.



Those losses (mostly ZSS, Diddy Kong) made me realize that Robin simply struggles too much with some of the top tiers to solo main the character and expect to place well at nationals.



After Genesis 3 I started working on my Cloud to cover those matchups. I am happy with how my Cloud performed against Nairo in bracket. I also realize in hindsight that I probably SHOULD have played Cloud against Darkwolf, but I stayed Robin out of pride and because the match-up was winnable and I felt I could do it.



At locals, save for certain specific matchups, I have pretty much only been playing Cloud.



Some of you might be asking, where does Corrin stand in all this?



The simple answer would be that she's really hard to master, and the effort I could spend developing my Corrin would simply be better spent playing Cloud. I really enjoy the character, and if Cloud didn't exist, I'd probably be dual maining Robin/Corrin.



However, at the end of the day, I have decided that my priority as a player is to push my skill as far as I can go. I'm not satisfied with simply being the best Robin player if it means I never/rarely crack top 16 at a national. I want to place top 8. I want to take a set from one of the TOP level players. I don't want to be an 'almost', or a footnote of 'hey this Robin did pretty good one time'. I want to win.



At CEO, I intend to play almost entirely Cloud. Those of you who are/were hoping to see my Robin, I fear I will probably disappoint you. I don't play her in Doubles at all anymore, and unless I get some very specific matchups, I probably will not use her in bracket at CEO.



I hope my followers will understand that this is not an easy decision for me to make. I built my name using my Robin, and I feel some degree of guilt in putting her on the shelf. I feel like I'm letting people who believe in me down, in some sense.



But I hope those same people who believe in me will still support me as a player. I haven't changed who I am, and I want to make my mark on Smash 4 nationals. To do that, I will choose the best tool available to me.



Thanks for reading. See you at CEO!

Reply · Report Post