THE HYPE REPORT

Smash at Xanadu 168: September 30th, 2016

Analysis: WaDi vs. Black Yoshi

Last week's tournament had a lot of hype matchups and it was honestly very hard to pick this one over those. If I had more time, I would gladly take the time to talk about Squerk, a new top player on the scene, and you can see him here:

Instead, I'd like to shift focus onto a major player in the Smash 4 scene. WaDi is said to be relatively new, and yet, he has won several Grand Finals recently. His style is notably adaptable and unpredictable, and he has given rise to a large influx of Mewtwo players. If the stars align for me, I would love to make a highlight reel about this guy. Perhaps that's for another time because I'm here to talk about S@X 168.

In the first game, we saw WaDi swap off his main for what seemed like a trial of R.O.B. against Black Yoshi's Bayonetta. Commentators were quick to point out the unbalanced matchup occurring before them as WaDi fell to an air combo off the top of the screen at only 20 seconds in with 63%. R.O.B. has a slower air dodge than most characters, clocking in at frame 3, and being much heavier than Mewtwo, the audience simply had to laugh at WaDi's choice when he lost the game 30 seconds later.

Game two saw the return of the 150th pokemon, and with it, a massive comeback. Almost immediately, the character change was felt as Black Yoshi's combos failed to kill, though some damage did accumulate. WaDi played a strong Shadow-Ball edge-guard game, part of which earned him stock one from off-stage, taking Black Yoshi by surprise. Black Yoshi answered with strong stage control, as Bayo naturally does, and then a back-air to kill. WaDi continued his use of the Shadow-Ball in defense, racking Black Yoshi up above 100% before ending the game with an up-throw.

The final match was played on Battlefield, giving both players some platform advantages, though more so for WaDi. Black Yoshi founded a successful, though stale, witch-time that ended prematurely and squandered his up-smash. Scary as it was, WaDi is typically immune to such mental damage. He soon found himself at a mere 60% to Black Yoshi's +100%, at which point they traded specials, killing Black Yoshi. From here, WaDi played even better, escaping combos and edge-guards with Mewtwo's air dodge and side special. He then racked Black Yoshi up to 88% and finished with a disable into charged up-smash.

You can watch the matchup here:

Again, whatever caused WaDi to switch off his Mewtwo in this matchup is quite astounding. I personally have never seen him play R.O.B., but even so, he should have seen the K.O.'s coming. Luckily, he played hard and well enough to bring the matchup back in his favor and continue down the line to Grand Finals. Black Yoshi, on the other hand, missed a lot of opportunities to actually hit WaDi before the next combo came in. Instead, he spent too much time recovering, and hence, took more damage from Shadow-Balls.