Project M-etagame Pound 5

This article is part of Project M-etagame. Find out more here. 

On Februrary 19th there's a large Smash touranment called Pound 5. 

Here are the tournament results. While the variety of characters that placed in the top 10-15 places is refreshing considering Melee and Brawl's metagames, it's no surprise that the top tier and most familiar characters top the chart (Fox, Sheik, Marth, Captain Falcon). RyokoYaksa's Zelda is the most successful significantly buffed character. 

See all the touranment matches on JCaesar's youtube channel here. 

Unlike with my metagame assesment of Melee and Brawl, each stage in Project M's developement will be much more detailed. The following is a record of my observations. If you have an addition, correction, or video link submission send it my way. Info on the main page linked to at the top of this article. 

A

2/19/2011

1. The playstyles reflect Melee.E and Melee.F metagame levels characterized by a lot of double blind, aggressive offensive dash attacks/ jump ins and the occasional long combo.
2. Some dash dancing.
3. lots of recovery SDs
   • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUHuRgL0288
   • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdJC6KMi79o
4. lack of sweet spotting when recovering
5. missing wave lands from underneath platforms
6. poor DI makes attacks seem very powerful (easier kills)
7. open/vulnerable after a KO
8. crouch canceling is a bit rare
   • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocTGMG72qDU&feature=player_detailpage#t=188s
9. a few attempts at reading/reacting to rolls with smashes. otherwise a grab-air based tech chase game.
   • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0oByrfmFcU&feature=player_detailpage#t=128s
   • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NugG7Ob_j0&feature=player_detailpage#t=157s
   • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMZC1CkPHpg&feature=player_detailpage#t=63s
10. Not a lot of off guarding (edge guarding off the stage). Most players will wait on the stage and stand a bit back from the ledge.
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE1emGtyLwI&feature=player_detailpage#t=68s
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pne7JJBzf8&feature=player_detailpage#t=20s
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twfx7AlA_KY&feature=player_detailpage#t=216s
11. no wavedashing up from the ledge
12. few pivot grabs attempts
    • JCaesar tried http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egbLDoVZe48
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftfxOolelws&feature=player_detailpage#t=117s
13. no footstools
14. rare B reversing
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftfxOolelws&feature=player_detailpage#t=166s
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twfx7AlA_KY&feature=player_detailpage#t=25s

And to close, I'll present a chart of all the techniques used at this stage in the metagame of Project M organized by character. Here it is. 

I also have competitor survey data that will come in handy later. 

 

Until the next touranment for Project M...