THE HYPE REPORT

Smash at Xanadu 169: October 7th, 2016

Analysis: WaDi vs. Nature

This week we saw a lot of great match-ups. There were lots of great plays and plenty of hype to go around. However, the domination came ultimately from WaDi, as is expected these days. What wasn't expected was the lineup of counter-Mewtwo's, seemingly ready to break the player down. WaDi stood strong despite the odds and demonstrated not only his character knowledge but his willingness to adapt and surprise at any moment.

In game one, we saw the first of these challengers step up to the plate: Nature has also been showing a strong Mewtwo game as of late. WaDi quickly gained the lead, though, from aerials and grabs that his play-style is known for, while both charged shadow balls. The first stock was taken when Nature jumped up from the ledge and threw out an almost-full neutral-special, which was deflected back by WaDi at point-blank range. Not half a minute later, Nature failed to grab the ledge out of a teleport and fast-fell to his death.

Game two saw Nature put up a much better fight from the start, which put both players at 95% until Nature managed to spike WaDi and take the first stock. The response involved a neutral-air into grab/up-throw kill from WaDi. After some more of his tricks, WaDi finished the match-up with a n-air, footstool, disable, and up-smash.

This matchup's VoD was the shortest in VGBootCamp's S@X 169 playlist. WaDi continued on completely undefeated in this week's tournament, even taking on Dunnobro's version of Mewtwo. WaDi clearly has no problem with clone wars as he proved here that he knows the character best. To put it simply, Nature couldn't keep up.

This week's S@X had a lot of hype and I would encourage its viewing by linking not just the match I talked about, but the whole playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcMdMmtHkPp...

Obviously, I spend a lot of time watching these VoDs in order to keep up with the ever-changing esports environment. If you expect to improve, I recommend doing the same to a degree. VGBootCamp is only one of the ways to keep your Smash game sharp! Cheers to an especially hype week at Xanadu!