Smash National Championships - Singles and Doubles Wrap-Up!
By AlphaZealot | Published: November 20, 2006 11:44am EST
Smash Singles – PC Chris Wins National Championship!Before the National Championships began, Azen and Ken were the easy favorites to win, but by the end of the second round both sat squarely in the Losers Bracket. Welcome to Las Vegas, where the high stakes are rivaled only by the level of competition. Just like that, the long-time Smash legends lost to two of the breakout players of 2006. PC Chris stunned the world with his upset over Ken in the New York season opener to take first, but after being unable to repeat the feat many doubted his ability to perform against the best of the best. In Vegas he came full circle and managed to fend off a late stage offense by new rival KoreanDJ, taking the MLG 2006 National Title in the process. PC Chris’s ride through the bracket started against the very player who eliminated him in the New York Finals. During an interview between events, Azen commented that PC Chris should have remained with Falco and that he felt that was PC Chris’ best character. This advice was heeded, and he didn’t just beat Azen in the rematch, but dominated him. His next face off was against Isai, who has repeatedly fallen to PC Chris all season long. Proving this tournament would be no exception, Isai was sent to the Losers Bracket with a 3-0 loss.
KoreanDJ’s ride on the opposite side of the bracket featured not one, but two unique rematches. The first against Mew2King was the culmination and settling of a year-long rivalry. KoreanDJ enacted the full revenge he spoke of for Mew2King’s early season victories with a 3-0 win. This loss shouldn’t be the final judgment for Mew2King though, who has proven he can grow and adapt with the changing Smash landscape. For most of the season, Mew2King had one solid tournament character—Fox—but over the last two events and in the All Star competition Mew2King showed that he can also compete using a few others, most notably Marth. His play in the All Star competition, including his performance during Round 6, turned out to be the momentum changer in the battle. This won’t be the last of Mew2King; by 2007 it is quite conceivable that he could be a contender for the Top 3. The second round for KoreanDJ featured a rematch against Ken. Earlier in the season KoreanDJ won 3-1 using a mix of Fox and Sheik, a loss that sent Ken to a then-lowest performance of his MLG career. For this rematch though he would choose to use only Sheik against Ken’s Marth. The payoff didn’t happen immediately, as Ken took the first match in a close fight on Fountain of Dreams. Slowly but surely though, KoreanDJ began to pick up on Ken’s style while Ken was unable to find a solution for KoreanDJ’s often hesitant, changing pace with Sheik. KoreanDJ’s Sheik differs from his Fox in a few unique ways. The most important one that Ken couldn’t seem to solve was KoreanDJ’s tendency to use a small, quarter-to-half second pause anytime Ken was on the ropes. KoreanDJ used this small pause to read Ken’s reaction and choose the right course of action whenever he had him on the ropes. As a result, it was not Ken reacting and abusing KoreanDJ’s attack, but rather KoreanDJ doing it to Ken. All of this simply set up a match between KoreanDJ and PC Chris. Each of these players has taken this season to assert themselves and their face-off would determine who had learned the most. PC Chris didn’t overwhelm KoreanDJ, as he had each of his opponents beforehand, but he did win every match of the Winners Final. KoreanDJ’s Fox style for most of the tournament was aggressive, usually sitting right on top of the opponent and dash dancing between entries. The way he managed to incorporate dash dancing as a throw-off tactic worked against most opponents--and he met some success with PC Chris--but Falco’s lasers hindered KoreanDJ’s ability to use this fake-out. The difference maker in this first match up was PC Chris’s ability to land large damage combos over KoreanDJ’s hit and run tactics. In the Losers Bracket Ken managed to defeat Azen 3-1. In New York, Ken had established a solid stock lead over Azen in what most thought would have been the final game, but Azen managed to turn things around and win the game, and eventually the match. Ken was determined not to let this happen twice, and instead of allowing Azen to dictate a comeback, Ken made a comeback of his own. Azen took the first match on Yoshi Story and was leading the second match by almost an entire stock when Ken managed to string together one of his patented combos, spiking Azen and mostly evening the score. Azen would not go quietly though, and he managed to live to over 200% on his final stock before Ken finally landed a killing blow. Azen wouldn’t hold a lead again as Ken swept the remainder of the series, crushing his hopes of placing in the money at the National Championships.
Ken once again met with KoreanDJ but still could not find a solution to his Fox. Ken tried switching to Fox himself, after losing once again with Marth, and for the last match he switched to Captain Falcon. He couldn’t find success with any of these characters and actually dug himself into a deeper whole using Falcon, losing by two stocks. It could simply be that KoreanDJ is the perfect Ken-counter, or it could be that perhaps Ken has fallen out of his prime. No one before has had as much success against Ken, but with this series added to Orlando, KoreanDJ holds an 8-3 advantage. Is it too soon to count Ken out? Hopefully it is. He says that this may be his last tournament, but without Ken Smash may not ever be the same. Every Finals match he has participated in (East versus West) has been memorable and exciting. If this is the end though, Ken has had an amazing career as the most successful, respected and innovative player to ever play the game. KoreanDJ met back up with PC Chris for the final match to determine who would walk away with $10,000. Each stuck with their main characters in the opening brawl and PC Chris once again came out on top. What seemed to be the driving force behind KoreanDJ sticking with the same character was just how close each game seemed to be. One of his best qualities is his ability to learn and adapt his style on the fly. This seemed to occur on their fifth game on Battlefield, where KoreanDJ managed to land several shine spikes during the match to give him the upper hand and a cushion in case PC Chris landed one of his long damage-inducing combos. After this game, KoreanDJ seemed to have found the solution to PC Chris’ Falco, winning the next two games on each of PC Chris’ counter-picks. He seemed to stick with his previous strategy but learned how to avoid PC Chris’ lead-in attacks, which usually lead to the huge combos. Without the lead-in attacks and large combos, PC Chris was forced to play a similar hit-and-run style that KoreanDJ used, which, in the end, KoreanDJ proved more adept at. PC Chris wised up fast though and switched to Fox. Faced with a new character and an entirely different style, KoreanDJ was forced to return to step one and relearn how to counter PC Chris. Despite his fast learning, KoreanDJ could not pick up the slack against PC Chris’s Fox and lost the remaining two games, including the final one by two stock. PC Chris has stunned the Smash world once again, taking the 2006 National Championship title and a cool $10,000 prize check for his outstanding performance. (Check out the Doubles wrap-up on page 2!) |
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