how I accidentally won a Mario Strikers Tournament

I've never played a Mario Strikers game in fact I've never really played any kind of sports game in my life and I've never had any interest or motivation to try so when I was invited to the Red Bull Mario Strikers cup with a juicy cash prize for first place I of course had to accept now being the hyper-competitive aunt that I am I don't enter competitions to lose the game came out on June 10th the tournament was on the 15th this meant I had five days to train there was one key detail I forgot though yeah I forgot I was moving a thousand kilometers to a new house but still I got in as much practice as I could so when the tournament day arrived I started my stream and shared with my chat how many hours I'd invested into the game I've literally never played this game and we're playing in a tournament an hour and 52 minutes from now I hadn't practiced at all anyways here's how I won I had two hours before the tournament started so I zoomed through the tutorial and and that was about it in those 120 Minutes I literally just learned the controls I think I had time for one practice match against some CPU use their so coordinated I was not feeling confident but again my goal is just to win one match if we win one match it's my first time playing the game and I beat someone with the modest goal of winning a single match the event began welcome everybody to the Striker's Pub we have an list of competitors here today first off smash personality Tony with a competitive background in Smash Bros I think there's already a foot forward here he actually asked me am I too good for this tournament as if we weren't gonna bring other Gamers speaking of which we have Doug Doug in here Doug Doug is experienced in so many games though I think that versatility really is gonna transfer over to being able to adapt to a new game yeah and when we talk about versatility I mean look at her accomplished gamer there's nothing that fur can't do when he puts his mind to it and if he has put his mind to winning this tournament then I think he has a chance at doing just that yeah absolutely coming up after that we have Kelsey Star Fox speedrunner extraordinary Link to the Past speedrunner as well versatile gamer right here always up to the challenge but over coming up next we got Mitch flower power quite possibly the greatest Mario 3 player of all time in terms of raw reaction time I think Mitch is going to have a strong chance today yeah absolutely and then we're coming up PK Sparks a proficient man at a plethora of Mario games right here really really going for the ultimate meta gaming and figuring out all the strats it's definitely going to be PK Sparks now speaking a Mario Maker extraordinaire incredible player right here Shoujo I mean tell me about the gamer Shojo I think the gaming speaks for itself she is definitely one of the favorites in this and then we have small ant is well that's where it is these are eight competitors after a brief tournament intro the competitors were already and the matches kicked off it was a round robin format where everyone plays against everyone else which wasn't good for me as I knew there were some very experienced participants in the tournament my first match was against Kelsey there was a brief moment of downtime before the game so I took the opportunity to learn about my opponent well how are you how are you excited I literally played this game for the first time yesterday so like you know oh no she has more practice than me not even though like two hours okay okay barely touch the game we both have two hours I started my stream two hours ago sweet lucky for me she had practiced the same amount I had a chance to achieve my goal right away and win just a single match here we go good luck good luck and we began the sports but the same in-game time is Kelsey I was hoping she would be as unfamiliar with the controls as I was I quickly realized this was not the case yeah that's right hit the wall Bowser oh she's good with matches being only four minutes each I now had only three minutes and 15 seconds to get myself together for the next 60 seconds I did my best playing defense to try and find some opening and at the two minute Mark some good luck fell right into my lap one of my characters happened to collect a hyper-strike power-up thing and if used correctly it gives two points I did that supports let's go I successfully pulled off the hyper strike and with only one minute and 40 seconds left if I just play defense I would win this first match did I play defense though nope with my tiny lead in Newfound confidence I went on the offense and surprisingly that worked great I got another gold and another hyper strike then another goal I finished the first match six points to one that was pretty good I'll take it just like that I had completed my single objective for the tournament win one match but I won that match with quite the lead you know I didn't want to get my hopes up but I thought to myself how hard could another win really be I find out in the next match against Shoujo okay how much experience do you have how much time how many hours I've just been playing since it came out let's go with like 15. okay so you only have like seven times the amount of experience I have and with that incredibly concerning knowledge the match began Shoujo was clearly far better than me taking a shot within the first five seconds of the match then another five seconds later then another this Relentless Onslaught continued the entire time by some miracle though my goalkeeper boom boom was on his AI a game for three full minutes every single shot from Shoujo either hit the edge of the net or was stopped by boom boom with 60 seconds of the match left she got her first point and pulled ahead now I needed a full two points to win the match but seemingly impossible feat based on difference in ability I floundered around for the next 45 seconds but right at the end while surrounded by shojo's characters a hyper-strike power-up landed directly onto my Bowser and right as an enemy Bob bomb was about to detonate I got the hyper strike off 10 second turn around for small and if this goes in which if my calculations are correct wow very nice oh my God have you ever seen anything like it oh my gosh devastating moment for Shoujo there were only nine seconds of the match left and Shoujo just didn't have enough time to come back yup ggs oh my God I'd managed to win two matches in a row could I keep this Victory streak going well yeah actually my next match was against Mitch flower power and he had about the same experience as me and just like the other matches I was saved by the hyper Strike last second yet again I was 3-0 all three of those matches were hard-fought wins Rye was 100 focused and just barely snuck out of Victory the thing is those three were probably the least experienced participants in this tournament everyone else I would face past this point was a category above and so the next match was a sobering snap back to reality I was up against fur now he didn't have a multitude of hours in the game only investing five or so since release but he had to be some Mario Strikers prodigy or something because most of his previous matches were complete blowouts he had beaten Shojo with five points and beaten Mitch flower power 7-0 matchups that for me I struggled to a win for handle them easily I was nervous but with three wins under my belt maybe I was more capable than I thought well I was about to find out the match began and right at the start it felt all right he was passing the ball around and I was able to intercept a bit and get in his way his skill was obvious but still seemed beatable even after his first goal ah what a shot holy crap I didn't want to let that one goal break my psyche so like oh what I'm sorry well okay two goals I'd come back from this deficit in the previous match so this is no big deal I maintained my focus and kept on playing as best I could you just how does he you have such accuracy okay zero to three now this is gonna be a little bit hard to come back from and I was starting to doubt myself but I knew the match wasn't over yet I had two minutes and 40 seconds to bring this back with some deliberate strategy and a little bit of luck I could do this okay finally a single goal I had interrupted for his uncontested scoring streak only two more points to tie well that is a forehead score again first point wasn't a complete loss for me in the moment before his goal I had grabbed a hyperstrike power up and it was still ready to fire off so I took full advantage of the opportunity once again I was doing it three points to four now just one more and we tie I had almost two minutes to do it things didn't go as planned fur found a hyper strike of his own and executed it perfectly returning his three-point lead for the next minute there was nothing I could do he kept me occupied holding off his expertly spaced advances and he beat me three to six for some reason I just couldn't keep up with his play he was too fast and then I read a message from my chat there's a sprint button wait you don't know there's a sprint button wait which how useful is it yeah so while I was rushing through the tutorial I missed the part about the sprint button could have been a good thing to know at the start of the tournament but I digress it was my first loss of the tournament but it wasn't the End by any means my three wins in one loss granted me second place on the current standings my next opponent though was first place on the standings a competitor that had been Unstoppable so far Coney the favorite to win this entire tournament in the previous iteration of the Mario Striker series Mario Strikers Charged Kony was one of the best players in the world playing competitively for years he had won every match in this tournament so far and didn't even break a sweat this match was going to be a major turning point if I won this I'd overtake him in the standings breaking his perfect streak and give myself a fighting chance for first if I lost it'd be an extreme uphill battle where I'd have to claw back wins to get to the top so who would win Coney with years of professional experience in participating in the competitive underground scene of Mario strike workers charged or me who just found out about the sprint button well the match started and I immediately took control of the game and I'm I'm lying he he destroyed me I literally had no chance he beat me two to five it's not even worth watching he completely embarrassed me so yeah the extreme uphill battle time instead of being tied for first I was now in fifth place to get first in this around Robin I desperately needed to start winning again the person to beat was PK Sparks my next matchup who had only lost to Coney so far my work was cut out for me as out of everyone in the tournament PK Sparks had prepared the most playing every day since release determining the most optimal team composition and strategies for success for this pivotal match I knew I needed to play better than ever before so it began I was tackling left and right stealing the ball and taking as many shots on goal as possible we fought for minutes with each and every shot just barely missing he took a shot and I took a shot got by boom boom hit the post his time got closer and closer to zero we realized what was needed to win if one of us got just a single goal that would be it with six seconds left on the clock PK Sparks took a shot and was deflected by boom boom I had one last chance to get a goal right as the timer ran out I took a final shot and was also deflected for the first time in this tournament a match went into overtime zero to zero first point wins the pattern continued though he took a shot then I took a shot I knew I needed to win this badly to have a place at the top of the standings and the tension was growing as we fought for an agonizing 90 seconds into overtime and finally PK Sparks finished it and scored I had lost and with that my chance for first place slipped away I had just one match left against Doug dug and so with all hope gone I just decided to have some fun with him we both picked a team of four toads and ran those little guys around the field tapping the ball into the Nets and surprise I lost again unsurprisingly if someone who only had two hours in Mario Striker I wasn't that good at the game but this isn't a sob story about how I lost a tournament I told you right at the start I was gonna win this I'm sure you've been thinking to yourself well how does he win this if he keeps losing all the time well I forgot to mention the round robin matches were only half of the tournament the group stage was yet to come and for the group stage if you weren't in first place then the next best place to be was fifth let me explain in this tournament the round robin matches were conducted to find the four best players once the round robin stage was complete those four players were made team captains the team captains got to pick one partner to play the rest of the tournament with and the captain in first place had first pick of the remaining four players so by being in fifth the odds were high that you would be picked by the best captain and have incredible odds at winning the whole thing unfortunately I was in sixth which put me in an awkward position Shojo was in fifth ahead of me and over the course of the tournament she proved she was definitely better by a long shot with Coney in first place having the first pick it was a no-brainer Shoujo and win I think if he picks Shoujo I think they will win I feel like Shojo was very good at blocking the play style I knew I had to do something I couldn't let them sweep the tournament together oh thank you small land oh it's not a bribe actually no I'm just I'm just giving him Ted Subs because I had an incredible performance yeah you gotta respect the performance it would be rude he's just so good you know smell it you're trying to get a teammate is this your way of buttering me up brother your gameplay was so good you deserved it yes thank you can I go for it it's either Shojo or small lamp and here's the thing like it's definitely either one of those Shojo knows how to play the game smell it beat Shojo sure pretty soon might be small Aunt bro it's like throwing flowers onto a theater stage Coney's performance was incredible you're just honoring it exactly yeah let's move on in uh with Coney right now to see how we're looking on this first round pick Cody we've heard about the bribes that have been going on are the bribes going to influence your traffic at all I think what it comes down to I was going between small land or Shojo Shoujo was great only player to defeat me well done and played very well around hyper strikes however I did find out that small ant actually defeated Shojo in their match so I gotta go with small end on this one that's my guy how important this trophy is for you now do you have a spot already picked that for the have you seen how prestigious this trophy we're in boys the bribery worked I like it small ants throwing the duck and not for the bribery maybe a little bit and just like that I was in with the show of financial appreciation to help throw my name into the mix a bit I now had a chance at Redemption with Coney picking me though this created a massive problem fur got Shoujo Shoujo was the only person to beat Coney and fur beat basically everyone else when Coney picked me I honestly felt a little bad my skill really didn't match up with our opponents I really didn't want Coney to regret picking me so I made a promise if Coney is able to get the most points he gets an extra 300 so we're gonna try and get an extra 300 for Coney at the bare minimum there was an additional price for whoever got the most goals during the tournament going into the group stage Coney was tied with fur on goals I promise to do every everything in my power to win Coney at least that price so my chat and I strategized and came up with a clever idea a method to optimize the points Kony could receive there was no time to try it out though so I entered into the semi-finals with an untested gimmick and a hope that I wouldn't let him down our semi-finals were against Doug Doug and Kelsey we immediately put our secret plan into action Coney scored almost immediately a great sign and then he scored again and again and again in the two games we played against Doug Doug and Kelsey Kony was able to score 13 times they didn't stand a chance in a simple effort to get Coney some extra points we inadvertently created a strategy that gave us perfect teamwork and communication the secret to our revolutionary strategy I played as Waluigi that's it that's the whole thing it might seem simple but this gave us a massive Advantage here's why in single player Mario Strikers there's a really convenient mechanic where you automatically gain control of the character character that has the ball it allows the gameplay to be very predictable and smooth in two player mode however this automatic switching gets very confusing because you never really know which player is going to control which character now my chat made the realization that there's a setting to turn this automatic switching off and before the semi-finals we proposed an idea to Coney okay my chat had an idea what's the best defensive character uh Waluigi by a lot what if I go to manual and play only Waluigi then no matter who I pass to it gives it to you [Music] you could play it on auto and I could like collect items and other stuff and like play defense as best I can yeah yeah I mean if you don't mind that that that would be the play yeah because then then you always know who's gonna be getting the ball like if you see Waluigi it's me if you see anyone else it's you yeah yeah yeah absolutely dude with this strategy we had full confidence in whom the ball was going to and we're ready to fully capitalize on every Opening Our opponents created this extended into the finals where we were Unstoppable Cody and I coordinating together like a well-oiled point-scoring machine despite me being at a distinct skill disadvantage that did not hold us back we played three matches against foreign Shojo and won all three matches with Coney securing another 14 points and with the finals finished we claimed our Trophy and I fulfilled my promise and then some we had won together the Mario Strikers cup anyways that's all I got for now if you enjoyed the video please subscribe and I'll see you next time

Channel: SmallAnt

Views: 3,691,080

Keywords: mario strikers, mario challenge, grandpoobear, smallant1, mario online, battle league, mario, challenge

Id: ukNyR5P1eY0

Length: 18min 45sec (1125 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 19 2022