Name (aka Handle):
Dopeness / Dope / Jon

How old are you?:
14

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):
Sheik: My main main. Sheik just feels really natural to me. She is one of my mains in melee (Sheik, Doc, Falco) so my ability to use her transferred onto this game. I've loved her kit since Melee, so of course it wasn't too hard for me to pick her up in SSF2. Her great edgeguard tools and combo abilities are moves I've grown to feel comfortable with.

Mario:I absolutely love using Mario. He plays similar to Doc/Mario in SSBM. He has great combo potential, a great SSFFL fireball, and his smash attacks come out faster than most and are great finisher tools. Despite having flaws in his recovery and short range, I still use him often. I've been getting much better with him recently, but he is still just one of my better sides.

Marth:My first main in this game. Like the previous characters, I used him because I had prior experience with him in Melee. He has great range, combos, grab-game, and can kill super early with his tippers. However, I dropped Marth not too long ago because I felt like I wasnt getting any better with him. I was too reliant on fsmashes (scrubby, I know) and I felt that I had more potential with Sheik.
How much experience do you have with official Smash titles? (SSB64, Melee, Brawl. Include in this answer which characters you play/played.):
SSB64: Haven't really played much. Tried to get into it, but just couldn't.
Melee: Been a competitive melee follower for YEARS, but I haven't really went to any tournaments aside from friendlies and small tourneys with friends/at school. Easily my favorite of the official smash games. As said before, I main Sheik, Falco, and Doc.
Brawl: Although I appreciate Brawl for what it is, I don't play it anymore. WAAAY too slow, little hitstun which makes combos almost non-existant, and of course, tripping. Not to mention MK being broken. I main'd Pikachu after watching Esam, one of the few brawlers I actually enjoy watching.
Project M: Project M is absolutely amazing. I love how it combines both melee and brawl into one great game. The characters are balanced, the stage-striking feature is convenient. and it looks amazing. I like this just as much as Melee.
Sm4sh: It has the same problems with brawl, with it being too slow to be any hype competitively. That being said, I appreciate Nintendo's effort on it and all the things they are doing to make it a better game (DLC, sponsoring it at Apex, etc). I only wish they would do the same for melee.
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?
Only small melee and PM tourneys, which included no more than 10-15 people. I usually place first in melee. but sometimes I get beaten in Project M (my friend has a MEAN PM sonic) For SSF2, I've only participated on one tournament. It was Hypest - May 3rd. There was about 22 people I believe. l beat Spaceminer, then lost to SS who sent me to Loser's. In Loser's bracket, I beat Ninwing, Mirwaiss, and DarkErmac before Sekanor knocked me out of the tourney. I ranked 7th.

When did you start playing SSF2?
I started playing SSF2 when it was still 0.8, but of course I never really cared much for it. I just started playing it again a few months ago, and after playing some matches against people online, fell in love with it.
What is your favorite stage in SSF2? Explain.
I'd say Smashville. It was one of the best stages in Brawl, and its also one of the best stages in SSF2. It appeals to players who love flat stages AND players who love platforms, making it one of the most balanced stages and MY favorite stage. Besides Smashville, my favorite stage is PS3. Not only does it look beautiful, its similar to Smashville in a sense that it is comfortable for both flat-lovers and platform-lovers. IMO, it is the best neutral stage in the game, and also the best neutral in Project M. The only reason I rank Smashville above it is because PS3 is a rather laggy stage, which can be really annoying. Offline, PS3 would definitely be my fav stage.
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?
Metaknight by a small margin ( I personally believe Lloyd and ZSS arent very far from him). Has both an amazing air and ground game, great combo ability, amazing recovery (multiple jumps + all of his specials are recovery tools), and disjointed hitboxes. His edgeguard game is ridiculous, especially with his Nair. Although he is nowhere near as broken as brawl MK, I think he is still the best character in SSF2.
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'd have to say Megaman. I used to be a firm believer that Chibi was the worst character, but recently thats changed. Megaman has projectiles which give him some pretty good approach options, but they can be easily read and reflected/ignored. He also has a horrible recovery that can easily be gimped.

If you could make only one change to SSF2 as it currently is, what would it be and why?
Character-wise, Falco. I would be super happy if Falco gets added into the roster because he is one of my melee mains. Other than that, I think better online match-making would be a change I'd make. Imo, online is just way too flawed. People should be able to control the maximum amount of people can join a room, so they don't have to lock the room before someone else joins. (this hasn't been much of a problem for me since most of the time I play private rooms with guys in the IRC, but it should still be fixed) Also, the sudden death bug, being stuck in loading, and etc. are very annoying.
What is your view on items in competitive play?

YouTube Video:

This pretty much explains everything.
Do you have or can you download Skype? You don't need a mic or webcam.
I do have a Skype, and use it pretty often. Username is dopenessvg.
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.
There are many reasons why I want to join the SSF2 Back Room. I very quickly fell in love with SSF2's competitive scene, and I wish to be a bigger part of it. My years of playing Smash have allowed me to develop a really good knowledge of it, and I feel like my opinions can contribute greatly to the Backroom and the competitive scene. I am a very open person as well, and I'd like to hear the opinions of the other informed members of the backroom and their thoughts.

Additional information (Include in this section anything relevant to your application. This could include links to videos of yourself playing.)
There isn't really much for me to add here. As said before, I've been a competitive smash follower for years, which I hope increases my credibility. The following are some replays of me. I'm nowhere near being the best yet, but I'm definitely working hard to get there.

Edit: Forgot to mention I live in the west coast, which means I follow PST.
Edit 2: Added Sheik dittos with Reimu_

1. Sheik v Marth is a very interesting MU. Please analyze this matchup, with full consideration of each character's options in the neutral, off of punishes, offstage, etc. Conclude your analysis with a ratio, making it clear who wins or if it is even.

2. What is Megaman's best legal stage? What is his worst legal stage? Please be detailed and explain your reasoning.



Stagelist to use for question 2:

Battlefield, Final Destination, Nintendo 3DS, Tower of Salvation, Yoshi's Story, Dream Land, Smashville, Pokemon Stadium 3, Castle Siege, Dracula's Castle, Jungle Hijinx, WarioWare, and Sky Sanctuary Zone

1)An interesting matchup indeed, lets look at the characters individually, starting with Marth:

Marths were known to have lots have trouble against Sheiks in SSBM (Sheik being one of two of Marth's soft counters) and it can still be quite troublesome in SSF2. In neutral, Marth will have to rely more on dash-dancing, sliding utilts, dtilt to space and poke, and jump-cancel grabs rather than SHFF aerials. SHFF moves like fair arent as safe as they usually are in this particular MU. Sheik has a strong punish game against Marth. If she catches marth with a sloppy and/or poorly spaced aerial, she can punish with things like grab OoS, nair, fair, utilt... all of which can easily result in getting Marth offstage one way or another where he can get easily edgeguarded. When I mean easily, I mean EASILY. With Marth's not-so-great recovery and Sheik's great edgeguarding tools like bair, nair, and the dreaded fair, Marth can die very, very early. As bad as all that sounds, this MU isn't impossible at all for Marth. Its very much possible actually. Marth can easily take advantage of Sheik's rather light weight, leading to a punish game for Marth that consists of LONG strings of juggling and combos. Also, Sheik doesn't have a lot of safe options falling down (pretty much just dair, which isn't very good) so Marth can get significant results if he keeps Sheik above him via Utilt, U-throw, etc. Marth can also space out Sheik's approaches very solidly with his long-range sword with moves such as properly spaced and timed SHFF aerials, dtilt, and ftilt since Sheik doesn't have long hitboxes in his moves, compared to Marth at least. Also, although your edge-guarding game isn't as ridiculous as your opponents, it is STILL pretty good. Your disjointed hitbox do a good job at keeping Sheik off-stage since her Uspec is subpar. (Note: remember that Sheik can transform into Zelda to recover). To sum it all up, Marth gets punished by Sheik pretty hard, with Sheik's combos easily leading Marth into situations where he can get edgeguarded. But as long as Marth spaces exceptionally well, he can definitely still win the match by keeping Sheik above him, slowly racking in percent by poking with your long-as-hell sword with dtilt, ftilt, etc, and focusing on killing Sheik early with your tippers. Tippers wreck Sheik

Stage choices: Battlefield and Yoshi's are Marth's best counterpicks. As said before, Marth has a significant advantage when below Sheik, and the platforms make it much easier, allowing for long utilt and uair chains, as well as some nice early kills (very easy to get tipper kills with fsmash when your enemy in standing up on a platform and you are below them). Also, long stages make it easier for Sheik to needle-camp, so definitely don't choose the bigger stages.

Now, onto Sheik:

Let's start out by talking about what Sheik can and should do in neutral. In neutral, expect Sheik to be using SHFF nairs, sliding utilt, lots of dash-dancing, short-hop needle charges (great way to charge up your needles just a tiny bit without losing mobility btw), needle storm camping and/or approaching. Marth will be playing much safer against you than most characters, so actually getting the chance to get in a combo won't be a walk in the park. Mindlessly just going "YOLO" and recklessly bombarding Marth with attacks will just lead to you getting spaced and punished. Mix-up your numerous approach options (SHFF nair, mid-air needle storms, sliding utilt, dtilt) because if you get too predictable, Marth will start to catch on to your patterns, which could lead into Marth comboing/juggling you. We DON'T want Marth comboing/juggling you. You want to be comboing Marth, not vice-versa. Take advantage of Sheik's great punish game against Marth. Anything -> Fair is your bread-and-butter. Any opportunity where you can get a fair in, I recommend taking it. Fair's horizontal knockback is ridiculous, and it can easily be combo'd into. Getting Marth with a fair kills Marth at early percents, and if it doesn't kill, it'll often put Marth in a situation where he can get edgeguarded off-stage, which Sheik just so happens to be really good at. Bair is her best edgeguarding/gimping tool, along with nair, fair ( ), and needle storm. Marth losing all his stocks below 90-100% with Sheik is not uncommon against Sheik. THAT BEING SAID, the vice-versa is the same. If Marth gets a tipper smash in, there is a very high chance Sheik is going to lose a stock as a result. All the more reason why Sheik should be mixing up her options so she doesn't get read and get a tipper fsmash to the face.

Stage options: I believe that ToS is a great stage for Sheik in this MU. Reason being is that lack of platforms in center stage prevent Marth from getting long utilt and uair chains. Also, the big size of the stage and the platforms on the side makes it easier for Sheik to needle camp. The platforms on the side make it significantly easier to edgeguard/gimp Marth.

Final Verdict:I believe this MU is 60:40 Sheik. Sheik's punish game vs. Marth is just too good, and its very easy for Sheik to get early kills due to her great edgeguarding tools and her super slap (fair). Marth can still win this MU as long as he plays smart, but overall the Marth will have to put in more effort than the Sheik does to take stocks off.

Edit: Totally forgot to mention anything about Sheik's grab-game. In SSF2, Sheik's grab is actually longer than Marth's (Sheik has the 6th longest, if memory serves me right). Expect a lot of dthrow and fthrow mix-ups. Both are great combo-starters. Also, Bthrow can put Marth in a really bad offstage situation if Marth either misses the tech or is unable to tech it.

2) I believe that Megaman's best legal stage is PS3. Its medium size and platforms allow Megaman to get in good safe positions to throw out his great number of projectile attacks. Its also a good stage to get some good Fair combos in. The somewhat small horizontal blast-zone is also helpful for Megaman, since he has a lot of good horizontal kill moves (Dsmash, bair, Fsmash, Crash Bomb). Also, the two small platforms can set up some great kills off the roof as well (Megaman has a pretty good KO move in his up air when the projectiles arent split up).

For his WORST legal stage, I'm going to have to say its Wario Ware's. Reason being that its a rather small stage, which makes it harder for Megaman to get in a safe position to use his great array of projectiles. Also, the platforms can be a great nuisance when using moves like rock throw and rolling cutter. More often than not will he get punished for using a projectile on WW because the small stage just makes it easier to punish. Its also a bit harder to switch weapons during battle because the field is so small and you can easily get smacked when trying to switch. With that being said, one pro for Megaman on this stage is that the horizontal blast zone in WW is also pretty small (at least, thats what it seems like to me. correct me if i'm wrong) so Megaman's strong horizontal KO moves will kill at even earlier percents, making things like Dsmash tech reads and Bthrow -> crash bomb even more effective. Upair also kills fairly nicely on WW. However, I still think the fact that the platforms and small size greatly hindering Megaman's projectile game outweigh the pros Megaman gets in this stage, which is why I think its a bad stage for him.