Many characters in Smash Bros Ultimate are still waiting to find their spotlight. Zackray, a Japanese Smash Pro player, used to play Ultimate with strong, debatably top-tier characters such as Joker and ROB. As this new year approached with Ultimate’s developing meta, this player’s interest also changed. He found himself challenging one of the most packed Smash Bros majors with one mid-tier character with his divine playstyle, Pit.
How It Started
On February 4, 12oo Japanese players came over to the Smash Bros major tournament held in Tokyo, Kagaribi 9. Zackray was dropped early in the loser’s bracket before reaching the top 24 brackets. His top bracket run consisted of powerful players, including Umeki’s Daisy, Eim’s Sheik, Kameme’s Sora, Ken’s Sonic/Sephiroth, Neo’s Corrin, and others.
Zackray used Pit’s strengths phenomenally with his pinpoint accuracy and pressure. While he wasn’t taking riskier plays off-stage, he was overwhelming his opponents’ neutral. Keeping up Pit’s advantage state isn’t always easy, especially when facing tougher matchups like Yoshi and Sonic.
Pit is a great all-around character in Smash Bros. His neutral game is standard while his moveset lets him challenge any opponent. He has arrows to challenge opponents from a distance while having shields to protect him from attacks and projectiles. Though he has weaker kill power, his attacks link very well together. When taking advantage, he does well enough to make himself look like a high-tier fighter.
Pit’s Hindrances in Smash Bros
What slows the illiterate angel down is his extremely standardized moveset. The character’s depth is too basic and shallow, making Pit’s next move obvious. He can’t set traps like Snake, use a command grab like Incineroar, or set up shield break pressure like Ryu/Ken. He has no tricks to mix up the opponent, which makes it hard for users to hide their overall honest game plan.
Pit’s disadvantage isn’t great. He can linger off-stage pretty well compared to other characters, though how he recovers is obvious. He has two ways to recover: Up-B and Side-B. His Up-B has no hitbox, which exposes Pit to any attack. While Side-B does have a hitbox and some super armor, it’s slow and can leave Pit vulnerable during the move’s recovery. Pit is the only Smash Bros character who can block in the air with his deflecting shields. The major problem is that he only blocks horizontally. He can still get hit above him on his head or below him with his exposed foot in the air.
Pit is a reasonable example of why players shouldn’t equalize a character’s stats. Being too balanced can be challenging to change the momentum of the fight. Not having excellent stats like Ganondorf’s power or Sheik’s speed can be troublesome for Pit, especially when losing a match.
His advantage state is good, though it’s short and isn’t overwhelming. This can force Pit to play neutral again to regain match momentum. Having weaker kill power doesn’t help his case. Many of Zackray’s matches lasted over 15 minutes since he had to build damage and overwhelm his opponent’s neutral to win. Pit relies a lot on the player’s skills to have better neutral against his opponent. This can be a challenge against many characters, especially DLC.
Most of Pit’s attacks are multi-hits, which aren’t favorable for players. How multi-hits are implemented can have inconsistent results, creating scenarios that might harm the attacker. While some characters like Pauletena and Pikachu face minor issues, Pit suffers from them. Sometimes opponents fall out of his smash attacks due to his smaller hitboxes or the opponent’s shifting hurt boxes. Such inconsistency could prove fatal for Pit taking the opponent’s stock or match win.
The End of the Angelic Smash Bros Run
Zackray’s run was astounding as he got closer to the grand finals. Acola, a strong Steve player, was waiting for his opponent in grands. Zackray wanted to challenge him, but first, he had to face Asimo, a Japanese Ryu. Despite Ryu being debatably the worst fighting game character (FGC) in Smash, Asimo’s movements oppose that theory. Zackray took the first two matches in the BO5 set, though both matches ended in last-hit scenarios. He needed one more match to challenge Acola, which Asimo didn’t want to give up easily. Instead, Asimo reversed 3-0 Zackray and hopped into the grand finals, leaving Zachray in 3rd place.
An experienced pro player helped release Pit’s potential. Earning such a high placement in a packed major doesn’t make Pit a top tier. His weaknesses can be exploited when fighting Ultimate’s roster, especially DLC. If he had greater killpower and more consistent attacks, he would be a threatening character. Despite such problems, he’s still pretty viable enough to reach top 8. The player does have to put in work for the character to earn higher tournament results.
