Name (aka Handle):
Arrow012

How old are you?:
16

Which characters do you play in SSF2? Why do you play these characters? (Note: do not list characters that are not currently in the game):
I play Link and pretty much only Link. I originally chose to play Link when I was first introduced to competitive smash by a friend after the documentary came out. I was watching a show based off of the green arrow comics and really liked it at that time. So I chose link as a homage and from then, have played Link in every smash game.

How much experience do you have with official Smash titles? (SSB64, Melee, Brawl. Include in this answer which characters you play/played.):
I have played every smash game since the documentary came out, however the only ones that stuck with me are Project M and Smash 4. I have been playing Project M since 2013 and Smash 4 since slightly after the initial release.

Have you ever attended any Smash tournaments? If so, give some details about the tournament (number of participants, which games, etc). How well did you place?
I entered a couple Project M smashfests in San Jose when the game was starting to get popular, most were small (12-30 entrants). I usually got anywhere from 7th to 13th at the tournaments depending on the size. I entered some Smash 4 at the smashfests but I usually didn't take it that seriously at the time. In SSF2 I entered 2 tournaments, losing to SoldierSunday and Jammy for 13th(http://challonge.com/SSS3ForReal) and in the other tournament I got 4th and upset the 1st seed (http://challonge.com/sssf2_3 ).

When did you start playing SSF2?
I started playing SSF2 in September 2015 when it was announced for anthers ladder. I thought it was pretty cool so later on I decided to actually rank in it and make a forums account.

What is your favorite stage in SSF2? Explain.
My favorite stage in SSF2 9b is Dreamland. Dreamland is very good for Link in my opinion, it allows him to orient his playstyle into more pressure based with platform drop aerials and platform baiting. It's also a very large stage which allows Link to not get overwhelmed easily and makes it easier to bait. It also seems like a very neutral stage in general that benefits good gameplay from the majority of the cast. It's also a stage that doesn't feel extensively boring to play on, so that's a plus

Who, in your opinion, should be placed first on the SSF2 tier list? Under competitive settings why would this character perform on a higher level than all others?
I think the current tier list #1 character is a toss up, however if I had to pick one character to be #1 it would probably have to be Zelda. I think that Zelda's ability to capitalize on mistakes better than any other character once a good level of understanding of her has been achieved is insanely good. Her main weakness in her character concept is supposed to be her speed, but I believe due to her ability to bait extremely well and her general safe neutral game, the speed isn't too much of a negative factor for her when played right. Her aerials and her tilts often have high hitstun and almost always flow together perfectly to end in an early downsmash/lightning kick kill or in a combo that puts you in a vastly unfavored recovery situation. She also beats one of the other contenders for #1 in the game(Meta Knight) and is also one of the only characters with a good or even matchup vs Meta Knight. By herself, she has virtually no bad matchups, and if the player encounters a matchup that specifically troubles her to the point of being arguable for a losing matchup(Marth / Lloyd), she can switch to Sheik. She also is one of the few characters that really manhandles fastfallers and can combo and kill floaties extremely well. Zelda also can exploit platforms well due to her air game and can also bait and combo well on flat stages. She is a character with flaws(as any best character in any game with semblance of balance works), however her flaws are greatly attested by her strengths.

Who, in your opinion, should be placed last on the SSF2 tier list? Under competitive settings why would this character perform on a lower level than all others?
I believe Sora should be placed last on the SSF2 tier list. I think Sora's pathetic grab range mixed with the odd priority negating a lot of Sora's sword capabilities in an actual game makes Sora a poor contender for playing a good offensive neutral. To add on to this, most of Sora's approaches, while often not too high risk, do not have very much reward compared to how easy Sora can get punished back for a mistake due to lack of combo escape options and decent combo weight. Sora's lack of hitstun on some aerials and reliance on multihits makes Sora liable to getting exploited by combo escape tools like super armor, fast frame data and smash DI. Overall, the plethora of Sora's negative traits really make him pale in comparison to most of the cast and makes him an exploitable character to the point where if the opponent knows what they're doing, they should not lose the majority of the time.

If you could make only one change to SSF2 as it currently is, what would it be and why?
If I could make one change to SSF2 it would be to change the tether recovery system to be more like Project M/Brawl, that way tethers could be used as option selects and could mixup. This would also make Zero Suit Samus a lot more manageable for a lot of characters who she beats.

What is your view on items in competitive play?
Random item spawn should be banned in every competitive circumstance possible. They add nothing to the game, along with that having any random factors in competitive play just dilutes the actual amount of skill needed to win the match. They also make the game seem more of a joke than it is actually.

Do you have or can you download Skype? You don't need a mic or webcam.
I have skype

Why do you want to join the Smash Flash Back Room? What will you contribute? Why are you an exceptional applicant? Be as detailed as possible.
I want to join the Smash Flash Back Room because after being informed by someone of it, I feel like there's a lot I could do to help out. Link is not a common character to see discussed, and especially it seems that among the applicants, I am one of the only people that can offer insight on Link as a character for the ins and outs of his strengths and weaknesses. I also feel like open discussion with people who have different approaches and thoughts about the game expressed in thought out ways can only be good for both people involved. I also feel like I have am good at conducting an argument of opinions that don't have to be conventional, which is good for debates. I feel like I have been playing long enough and have a good improvement rate which lets me have good knowledge/experience of the metagame and can somewhat show in my punish game.

Additional information (Include in this section anything relevant to your application. This could include links to videos of yourself playing.)
Tournaments linked above, I don't have any videos but there are replays attached to the tournament sets.

Use the following stagelist as usual:




1. Analyze the Link-Marth MU in detail, including neutral game, punish game, offstage game for both sides, etc. Conclude with a matchup ratio, like 80-20 if Link wins handily or 40-60 if Marth has a significant edge.

2. What are Link's 3 worst and 3 best stages? Why?

3. If the tier list had 5 tiers (S, A, B, C, D), which one would Link be in? Why?

Don't feel like you have to make a whole tier list, just describe Link's place in the metagame. Is he a top-tier threat with few if any bad matchups? Is he overall very strong but marred by a few bad MU's (if so, which ones and why, briefly)? Does he more or less have an even MU spread? Does he only have a few good MU's? Is he bottom-tier with few if any good MU's? What character attributes does Link deal well with or deal poorly with (for example, you might say Link does well against fast-fallers: even if it isn't true for every fast-faller, overall perhaps Link is strong against those characters). Why does Link deal well with or poorly with characters that have the attributes you just discussed? Don't write a million words, but be specific enough that I know what you're talking about (not "Link struggles against some top-tiers" or "Link crushes all the characters that can't handle his projectiles", instead "Link has a hard time against MK and Marth because they have a sword and Link is bad against swordsmen" or "slow characters like Kirby have a difficult time dealing with Link").

I believe the Link-Marth matchup is slightly favored for Marth. If I had to assign a number value to the matchup itself, I would say it is 55-45 in Marth's favor.

In the neutral game, Link's main tools against Marth in neutral are his nair, boomerang, fair, up tilt(especially out of shield), down tilt and his grab. Link is able to approach pretty decently depending on the spacing with nair and also disrupt Marth's dash dance(arguably one of Marth's best tools) with boomerang. Most of the time Marth can only combat a well timed boomerang with jump, shield and powershield, and assuming that they aren't completely familiar with the powershield timing against boomerang, Marth's are left to shield or jump. You can usually read the jump or jump out of shield in this matchup and punish it by preemptively full hopping and throwing out fair(or timing uptilt to hit their jump) which is a great combo move at low-mid % against characters with the combo weight of Marth. They can also roll which is usually limited to rolling in since rolling the direction boomerang is going will only get you caught by it. You can cover roll in with most of Links hitboxes and, depending on the spacing you can just start grabbing after they roll out of it if they show that they have a roll habit against boomerang. Marth's uptilt, downtilt and fair(out of all his other tools, which could also be argued to be nearly or just as good) imo, are his best tools against Link. Link can sometimes be caught off guard with well spaced fair, but if they fade back too much then you can punish them with shieldgrab, and Link can often times uptilt out of shield to punish the (very small) landing lag of short hop double fair, the aforementioned uptilt out of shield in general is amazing versus Marth as Link because Marth tends to over commit against shield thinking that being out of aerials/grab out of shield is safe enough. Empty hopping and run uptilt/running downtilt are also very key mixups in this matchup, because if the Marth is able to powershield boomerang really well and is patient vs most of Links approaches, you will need to condition them to approach or condition them to putting themselves in a position where being patient is easily punishable for you(i.e. conditioning their spacing so that they fall into grab range at center stage vs Link).

Punish game imo, is where Link can really shine versus Marth, however it is apparent that Marth can shine just as bright in this category. Link's punish game is a lot of the times, about option coverage. Link's nair often times just leads to nair again at 0%-20%ish, when nair starts being able to lead into uptilt safely, his punish game gets even better. Link's punish game stemming from uptilt is one of his best traits in most of his matchups, out of uptilt you can get double fair or if they DI certain ways, you can get an edgeguard situation. You can also catch Marth's jump a lot of the times with dair, which brings us back to option coverage. Link can condition Marth into jumping by over extending in combos and hard calling out the no jump, then when the time is right, Link baits Marth into jumping and then dairs(i.e. https://gfycat.com/IndolentAffectionate ... anshepherd vs SoldierSunday at SSS3). A lot of the times its very important to remember as Link, pulling back on some of your punishes can lead to more than just extending and trying to go for the most lavish outcome. Link can force Marth into bad spots(frame traps) where one option clearly seems to be the only solution out, but it's covered by a kill move/kill combo if the "solution" is read. It's also key to note that Marth's landings have to be very well placed in this matchup or else he'll fall pray to getting turnaround grabbed or downtilted or uptilt out of shield'd on landing. However this isn't to say that Link is the only one with a good punish game in this matchup. Marth's punish game on Link is amazing considering Link's weight and fall speed. Link also has in general really mediocre combo escape options that leave him susceptible to getting his landing options easily covered and getting juggled. Link also has some high risk/high reward moves that can get the lag/risk punished by Marth which can even lead to death sometimes with the aforementioned factors(weight, fallspeed, combo escape options). The most important factor in both characters punish game is conditioning: if Marth conditions Link to either DI in or DI out(doesn't matter which way, just as long as the Marth player is aware of the Link's probable DI) he can kill really early or combo to ridiculous lengths, also Link can condition Marth to certain jumping habits and combo escape habits to make them die early(especially to dair). Also, just as a bonus: Link's projectiles mid combo are decent mixups vs Marth(would be great considering his combo weight, but his combo escape options make it somewhat risky to throw out a projectile that isn't boomerang)- leading to results like this gfycat: https://gfycat.com/EquatorialOffensiveDiplodocus .

Offstage game is pretty interesting. I don't think either characters have bad recovery(despite the myths and sayings about Link's recovery, it's actually pretty good/underrated). Link is susceptible to his zair fail on him, but aside from that he's not as easy to edgeguard as some of the worse Link's make him seem to be. Link can get edgeguarded if he goes high really easily, knowing this most people would try to go low. Imo going slightly high is the best way(along with mixups) to recover with Link vs Marth, It makes them slightly wary not to grab ledge which destroys the perfect sweetspot but it's not possible to uptilt or fair out of shield to edgeguard because you end up going too low for either of those to connect in time. However, each mixup has it's flaws for Link and as long as Marth is aware of the flowchart of Link's recovery, he can end up getting solid edgeguards if the Link isn't extremely careful. A similar thing can also be said for Marth's offstage game as well though. Marth going high is very weak to most of Link's edgeguarding tools(projectiles, out of shield tools, downtilt, dair), however going low can be very annoying for Link to cover. Link can often times cover the low option by preemptively grabbing ledge or stage spiking. Both somewhat unreliable methods(the latter moreso than the former), however in general they do tend to work vs Marth. Also depending on their mixup/timing, Link can rising dair off of the ledge in order to cover the up B coming up. Also among other edgeguard tools, throwing bomb down and general projectile play can be quite the pain for Marth to deal with.


Link's 3 best stages in my opinion would have to be Dreamland, Tower of Salvation, and Battlefield. The common theme out of those 3 you can probably find would be the platforms. Link's neutral game is explosive on platforms and his punish game gets even better as well considering the mixups. Link's down air tends to kill extremely early with platform setups, not only this but certain combos can also flow better with the platform(s) in play. Link is also a great benefit from stages that are big enough to give space in the neutral to breathe, but not big enough to get out camped. Dreamland and Tower of Salvation are amazing examples of this, Link can control the pace of the game really well on Tower of Salvation with control of center stage, projectiles, and well timed approaches. Dreamland fits the same description, although with platforms making approaching a bit different, and also adding an additional element to baiting.

Link's 3 worst stages in my opinion would have to be WarioWare, Sky Sanctuary Zone and Nintendo 3DS. WarioWare doesn't give Link the space he needs to compete well in neutral but also doesn't give Link the reliability of getting to control the pace of the match like he has on Battlefield(for example). Warioware also exposes Link's medium combo weight for being more frail than it actually is, making him die at extremely early percents. Sky Sanctuary Zone is one of the only stages with platforms that actively disrupts Link's neutral due to the issue with dash dancing on the ledge and the awkward platform heights leading to awkward approach scenarios and angles. Overall just a disruptive stage, and not in a sense where Link can benefit too much from the chaos. Nintendo 3DS is Link's 2nd worst stage in my opinion (behind Warioware but worse than Sky Sanctuary Zone), it limits his recovery, it limits the space he has to control neutral with his projectiles and close quarter threat(which becomes magnified as a weakness on this stage) and it also takes away the platform control that gives him mobility and approach angles forcing him to rely on his own relatively slow running speed in order to get the job done a lot of the time. Overall just 3 stages to always keep in mind for bans if you're playing Link under a stagelist like that.




Assuming the tiers fall under the pattern of S being top, A being high, B being mid and so on, I would place Link under the mid range or high range of the B tier and depending on metagame advancements, potentially on the lower end of A. Link in general is a great character with many tools, in any other smash game with the tools he has in this game, he'd clearly be deserving of mid A tier or somewhere around that spot. However due to the competition and matchups in this game, Link tends to struggle against some of the A tiers and nearly all of the S tiers with the potential exceptions of Fox and MK(as in they're more likely to be 6-4 rather than 7-3 like other S tiers would be for Link). Link has really good tools and is limited by his following bad/slightly bad matchups(he might have other bad matchups but mainly these): Meta Knight, Lloyd, Zero Suit Samus, Pikachu(to an extent this matchup is bad, but I believe it to be way closer to even than other people in the community often do), Zelda, and Sheik. Link mostly has problems vs characters that can disrupt his center stage control and can get around his obtrusive projectile came without much worry. Also exploiting his vulnerable states can be a big problem for Link for example; explosive combo games that stem from many moves are a huge problem for him considering his conditional frailty and lack of combo escape options or characters with certain hitboxes and hurtboxes that can abuse Link well. Link does really well vs most floaties due to his neutral game being able to cover their reliance on aerial mobility and commonly slower paced movement. Link also does well against characters than can be exploited by his combo and edgeguard game as his neutral game itself is bound to have holes that will be exploited by the opponent, but his punish games often times salvages him in matchups. Overall Link is a character that has room for improvement in his metagame, but in the foreseeable future is a average mid-low high character.

Thank you for the application: welcome to the BR!

Thank you. I hope I can get one of those snazzy tags soon too.