Name (aka Handle):
PK_Poverty

How old are you?:
21

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):
Donkey Kong; he is a fundamentally strong character who gets a lot of milage by controlling horizontal space with d-tilt and f-tilt. He is a hard hitting character with very damaging combos and his comeback potential is unrivaled. You can never count DK out with the threat of a suicide grab which can turn the pace of a match in my favor. The vertical height on his up-B has been significantly buffed (compared to other Smash games that feature DK) that he no longer needs to worry about returning on stage. Even though he can be juggled easily due to his big size, his pro's seriously overshadow his cons in my eyes.

How much experience do you have with official Smash titles? (SSB64, Melee, Brawl. Include in this answer which characters you play/played.):
I am a Project M player and P:M was my first Smash game. I have only been playing Smash for 4 months but I come from a very strong competitive fighting game background that I had no issues picking up the game and obtaining a high skill level. I am part of the Orlando (CEO) scene and play with many of the better Orlando players here.

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 am a competitive fighting game player but do not compete in Smash. My main game is Ultra Street Fighter 4 and due to Smash Bros making a revival and becoming featured in many of our tournaments, I have been to many tournaments which also feature Smash. Notable tournaments include: CEO: Prolouge (which I placed 9th in SF4) and CEO: 2014. I was originally offered a small sponsorship for SF4 to play at Evo, but had to decline due to some real life problems I had at the time. Even though I do not compete in Smash, I do enjoy playing casuals (friendlies) when I'm at tournaments. At CEO: 2014, I played a good amount of casuals while I was there and was quite surprised that I won the majority of my matches.

When did you start playing SSF2?
I've been playing for about a week now, only 2 days after 0.9b came out. I just happened to be browsing twitch.tv and discovered somebody playing it, I asked some questions to the guys streaming it and decided to try it out. Ironically enough, the day after I started playing was when an article about SSF2 was posted on eventhubs.com (an FGC news site that I frequent).

What is your favorite stage in SSF2? Explain.
Smashville; it's a flat stage with one moving platform that still gives advantages to both characters that thrive from a flat stage or a stage with platforms. The height of the platform is also high enough that it doesn't interfere with character's combo potential if they thrive off of a flat stage. The moving platform can also be used defensively to help return back to the ledge; or used offensively to lock down an opponent with tech chases after a down-throw until you attempt to throw them off the edge of the screen or push them off with some high knockback attack (SH b-air, f-smash, etc).

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 have not been playing SSF2 long enough to answer this question with an educated enough opinion. The rest of this answer is merely speculation. IF SSF2 Fox is similar to other Smash games, then I would assume him. Even though his ledge recovery is terrible, his on-stage game easily makes up for that. He has tools that other characters, on paper, cannot deal with. His shine is a defining feature of him which can bypass other characters OoS options. After a SH n-air (which is a sex kick), Fox can perform an early or late shine which can blow up the opponent's attempt at shield grabbing. It is even more dangerous knowing that he doesn't even need to cross-up for that. Fox can lock the opponent down with insane shield pressure until their shield burst, or can bait and punish the opponent's every escape option OoS.

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 have no idea, I have not been playing SSF2 long enough to answer this question.

If you could make only one change to SSF2 as it currently is, what would it be and why?
To buff SH aerials OoS as a defensive option. I have not tested this with other characters so there is a possibility this is something lacking in DK's game. But in Melee and P:M, most characters can SH n-air OoS as a reliable defensive option (including DK) after an opponent attempts to SHFF(L) [I put the L-cancel in parenthesis because I know L-canceling is not in SSF2] them. I instinctively tried this in SSF2 and my efforts were met with DK getting the start-up of his SH stuffed.

What is your view on items in competitive play?
Items have no place in competitive play whatsoever.

Do you have or can you download Skype? You don't need a mic or webcam.
Yes I have Skype, including a mic/webcam.

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.
Primarily, I'm very curious to what the competitive side of SSF2 is like and I also want to see how good of a skill level the community is. Secondary, I want to see if the competitive sub-forum offers any additional knowledge/tip-sharing among the players. I was very disappointed in seeing that the current character threads offer little-to-no information by the community. If I happened to be completely new to Smash, I wouldn't be able to progress as a player if I tried looking through there. If there is information regarding character playstyle, etc.. I would prefer for the competitive sub-forum to be opened to viewing (not posting) by everyone since I feel that limiting information to players seriously diminishes the growth of the community and possibly splits the player base (which is a very bad thing in the FGC).

Even though my technical knowledge of Smash isn't as high as SF4 (my main game), I do know a lot about the game which includes technical aspects used in competitive play. I really want to share knowledge and tech with the other competitive SSF2 players. I primarily will be contributing match up knowledge and tech for DK. My roommate also plays a really good Black Mage and from what I've been seeing on the forum, the general consensus on here is that he is a bad character. We don't agree with that at all and we would like to share our growing knowledge with the community.

Additional information (Include in this section anything relevant to your application. This could include links to videos of yourself playing.)
I live with roommates and my entire house is filled with competitive level smash players (as well as other fighting games). Not being able to play SSF2 online at the moment isn't a big issue, but I really want the opportunity to play the SSF2 community as soon as possible. We play with the mayflash gamecube adapter and have our computer hooked up to an Asus VH236H (aka the Evo monitor). I uploaded a replay of a match between my roommate and I from yesterday.

I'm the DK player, sorry for the poverty screen capture. I just downloaded some random screen capture software to do this.
http://youtu.be/e47Ms1vEMVY

You are playing a tournament set as Donkey Kong against a player who is using Black Mage.

Assuming the stage list from the previous version and a stage striking system similar to the one used in Project M tournaments, please tell us

1. Which stages you would strike, and why.

2. Assuming you win the first game, which stages you would ban and why.

3. Assuming you lose the second game, which stages you think your opponent would ban and which one you would pick from the remaining stages.

1) I would strike: FD/3DS, Smashville, Pokemon Stadium 3, Tower of Salvation, Jungle Hijinx. Why: DK would benefit greatly in the Black Mage match up by playing on a stage with platforms. Controlling the pace of the match is the deciding factor in who wins between DK and Black Mage. By playing on stages with platforms, DK can extend juggles and start combos every time Black Mage lands/techs on a platform thus racking up a high % from DK's damaging attacks and allowing DK to kill Black Mage much earlier than he could on a flat stage.

If DK has to play Black Mage on a flat stage; Black Mage will easily be able to juggle DK for an extended amount of time due to his large size and falling speed. Black Mage will most likely be in control of the majority of the match in which he will rack up a high amount of % against DK and then convincingly edge guard DK. Black Mage has a harder time killing even at a higher % but his superb edge guarding is definitely an advantage over DK. Black Mage can edge guard with his down-B while on stage, and with his Dair in an attempt to meteor while DK is attempting to come back on stage. If Black Mage sweet spot's his Dair, DK is forced to immediately return to the stage otherwise the grim reaper effect will meteor spike DK down to his death.

2) I would ban: FD/3DS and Central Highway. Why: FD/3DS are both flat stages in which Black Mage has the advantage for the match due to it being a flat stage. The reason for this advantage is written in the paragraph above. Central Highway shouldn't even be tournament legal in my opinion, but regardless, this stage would also be in Black Mage's advantage due to the extremely large size of the stage and the ability to Dair DK in the gaps between the stages. The large size of the stage means that Black Mage would not die from a kill attempt even if DK managed to rack up a high % on Black Mage before hand. Black Mage's Up-B recovery is hard to defend against in the traditional gimping sense so DK will be edge guarding on the stage with a D-tilt more often. This means the threat of a come-back would be strong if Black Mage manages to get back on stage and start juggling DK. One or two juggles would be more than enough to rack up high enough damage on DK and then successfully edge guard him to death. The gaps in between the stages would also be a great opportunity for Black Mage to meteor smash DK with his Dair. The Dair occur just as equally from a combo or edge guard which can swing the control of this match heavily in Black Mage's favor.

3) I would imagine the Black Mage player would ban: WarioWare and Castle Siege. I would then pick Yoshi's Story from the remaining stages. Why: Warioware and Castle Siege are both stages that have many platforms, thus leading to the disadvantages I mentioned earlier. Castle Siege in addition to having many platforms, is a stage that is not flat. This actually is a disadvantage to Black Mage because he loses the effectiveness of charging up his smash attacks while near this portion of the stage. This won't allow him the ability to use his fully charged down smash, which means DK won't have to worry about becoming locked down by the incoming ice which would normally open up DK to getting down thrown and poisoned by Black Mage. Even if Black Mage attempts to throw DK, his throw may whiff if they are near the angled portion of the stage which grants DK a punish combo and the easy mind of not worrying about being poisoned in that situation.

From the remaining stages, Yoshi's Story offers the most advantage to DK due to the fact that it is a stage with platforms and is a relatively small map which would allow DK to kill Black Mage earlier than he normally would.

Thank you for your interest in the Smash Flash Back Room.

Unfortunately, we're going to have to deny your application this time around. Please feel free to apply again once the next version is released.