My Control Scheme and WHY 

I never understood A + B for smash until now. That's actually super cool.

Been playing with tap jump off this whole time but ESAM just changed my life with up-left and up-right turnaround grabs.

ESAM: "Having your jump button near your special button is really important." Me: Pro controller gang rise up!

Damn I didn't know hold buffer works with A+B smash. That's kind of life-changing.

"Claw can hurt your hand over the course of a day." >uses claw grip as default 24/7

Oddly enough, I find it very interesting to see the control settings of different players and the reasons for having them. I enjoyed the breakdown of your settings, ESAM! More players should do this.

Me, a tap jump user: *sweats nervously*

I see that Esam is cultured with his controls

Wow, I hadn't thought of how the hold buffer and a+b smash interact before. As someone who plays Fox occasionally and struggled with nair->up smash consistency, this makes everything sooo much easier. Nair, keep holding a, dash forward, stick up + b. Just about as easy as smash stick with no frame window for a+b to worry about :)

Thank you SO much for the AB smash explanation. I have not been using this feature to its full potential, I didn’t know you could just press B if you already had down and A held. Awesome video brother TYSM!

im glad that i'm not crazy for not using B for special. i got a "gamecube" pro controller because it lets me set left trigger to jump and left bumper to special which just feels so nice to me. great video :D

Been waiting on this from a top player

That Nair to DownSmash with the A+B Smash! Thank you, I never knew you could do that, I only thought you could to a NeutralSmash with it!

Thank you Esam for this pretty good explanation and also finally a good one in regards to A+B which actually makes sense.

A little camera to the controller and 10/10. In any case a lot of useful info, thanks a lot!!!

YES! I’ve been waiting since we talked on instagram. Thanks for video 🙏🏻

Cool tip for the A + B smash. I never thought it was that useful but that really does make that specific confirm much easier

My Pichu thanks you for the pivot grab and A+B smash tips. Very helpful.

It's just occured to me that the reason they changed and haven't "fixed" the c-stick is because it negates things like bidou tech. So thanks Esam, Sakurai ruined the c-stick because of you ;)

this is my controller setup too. Nice to know that pro smash players do the same thing. Also in Ultimate since two button short hop is a thing I use L-Y to short hop a lot just to be more consistent, and this setup lets you do that a lot easier, especially since it lets you tap A for aerials with the thumb on Y. Like yeah it isn't necessary to use two button short hop but I like it personally

i dont use tap jump because i’m a ken main so walking is very crucial especially in neutral. i usually slide to the top of the stick to walk around easier. i don’t have the precision to lightly tap the joystick.

I'm so happy you made this video

I wish more pro players would do quality guides on their mains like yours. Makes me wanna play Pika !

after taking 5mins to get used to your control setup... i must say you're a genius. So many techniques and combos are so much easier for input. It also gets rid of alot of ways you can accidentally input the wrong combo (jabs mainly)

This video helped me find a better control scheme for my personal play style. I’ve always wanted to use tap jump off but it felt so hard to jump with x and y. But now that I see you have l as jump, I might try it. Thanks for the video

L Special R Attack (smashes, jab, and buffers or shoto inputs) ZL Grab ZR Jump Tilt stick (for everything else) X Jump Y Attack (for dtilt spam as ken) A Grab (X+A for Lucas double jump cancel zair) B Shield Got everything without moving my fingers around, and always confuse my friends with this setup

Really cool video ESAM, I was a little surprised when it was just 11 minutes of GameCube controller ASMR, though

Really cool video, the only feedback I have for it is a controller cam showing the reasons for this control scheme instead of you needing to mash the buttons for us to hear. Still though, awesome explanations!

These are some really interesting control set ups pretty similar to mine, but I use the z button for hopping so I don't need to claw and I can easily short hop and still reach the c stick instantly

I've gotten used to similar controls on a switch pro controller, except I use RT jump and X shield. Just didn't realize how good ab smash is until now

4:20 Pikachu's face after getting headbutt from behind.

Looks like I’m changing my control scheme

Best controller scheme video from any pro player ever. Just goes to show, if you want something done right, Esam's gotta do it.

I always had big problems with tilt stick because going from x to c-stick up would take way too long to perform a well timed attack but the L jump really helps with that

So many of us learned how A + B smash actually worked from this video lol Thanks Esam!

Merci d'avoir mis cette vidéo en français ! J'aime beaucoup ce que tu fais 😁

i used to use x for lucas's djcz, and I am trying to pick up pika. this will be a learning curve

Super helpful video, preciate man

As a pikachu main I definitely needed this 🙏🏽

Ok so I’m extremely annoyed that I’ve never used X as special. Like I’m here wondering why my double jump pk magnet cancels are inconsistent 🙄

Thank you esam! (Also, ab smash is a must for robin)

Hey, its my control scheme! (aside from x special, i don't understand that at all). I main Cloud in Ultimate, so having jump on L helps with approaching b-airs. As for the tilt stick, i played Marth in Sm4sh, so its all i know anymore.

Could you explain this with on-screen controls or handcam? I still can't get some of the moves you do and I don't know what I do wrong :O

I got very used to tap jump, it's just my instinct to just flick the stick to short hop But A+B smash looks very useful 😯

Why do you use stick sensitivity medium? Great video :)

I never use tap jump, going back to when I mained Zelda in Ultimate. If you have tap jump on with Zelda and have a preference for Up-Special, you will literally just die a bunch of times. For those who don't know, if you hold down after using Up-Special, you'll teleport in place (or a little bit to the right/left depending on how much you angle sideways while still going down). However, that only occurs if you're on the ground -- if you're in the air even an inch, your destination will slide along the ground in the direction you press (other than down). If you do press straight down, it'll go down until it hits the ground, then forward. You will easily teleport off the ledge.

This would have been the perfect video for a camera on the controller. Thanks for the info though!

I would love to see some pro players in friendlies using each other's control schemes.

I'm a Pika main and I use tap jump. I just like to have access to everything right there instead of having to move my thumb up to jump then back down to the C stick or A button for the attack. I can jump and have my thumb already ready for the attack. But that's just me. I don't have issues with buffering jumps or quick attack but I don't really use quick attack like that

In brawl and smash 4 I was a noob and didn't know you could change your controls so overtime I got used to the default controls. I'm used to smash stick which means I have to gently move the control stick and press a to do a tilt. I tried, but I SD without tap jump cuz I'm used to just flicking up.

But if this is a new configuration, how it was your old configuration at starts of the year?

I can't consistently short hop with one jump button so I will have both x and y set to jump so I can press X and Y to get a short hop. So nair loops are wacky to input for me but somehow I make it work. I also use smash stick for easier nair confirms.

Do you have any specific gamecube controller modifications, like trigger plugs or cut springs?

Ayyy Esam with that Toby Fox Pokemon music I see you

If you jump with L, do you have to press all the way down? Or does the adapter makes it so you only have to just press it a bit? This for me is crucial

I do use X as special for some duck hunt things too

Overall great! Thanx. But you know Esam that you can also make backair attack with jump and smash cstick? :)

Bro how the hell did I not know about attack cancelling. Thanks ESAM.

How do you rise up every time you use down special? It seems like even after using both jumps you still rise upwards with down special

So what your saying is... YOU'RE USING TILT CONTROLS!

For me i use the pro controller and all i change is no control stick jump and switch the ab with the xy

The Battle Tower music ;)

"Rumble off" you disgust me. Jk great video.

I prefer Left Trigger to Shield and Right to Jump as it keeps jumps on your right hand like your brain likely is already used to, and I’ve always only shielded with my left index because I grew up on Smash 64 which had Shield on the Z-trigger. Also it’s more intuitive to RT+Y/X to short-hop if you’re into that because it’s the same hand doing both motions simultaneously.

Do this tips work with the dual Joy-Con Controller?

Your mashing and sdi techniques? I forget you might have a video on masking I can’t remember

Do you notice much of a difference for stick sensitivity? Also, have you thought about switching to a Pro controller (maybe with slats cut into the stick for more accurate upB angles)? I found it really easy to switch from GC to Pro, so I was wondering if you still used GC because of habit or if there was a concrete reason to stay?

I think every intermediate and above player in Ultimate must use Attack-Cancel to Instant-Back-Air; not uncommon at all. I think the only other way to do it is to do a loop with the L-Stick as in Ledge-Grabbing and Wave-Bouncing, which is awkward.

As an decent pikachu main, this video was amazing.

I also have my x button as special move It's good for easy b reverses

I have L set to jump as well, but for me it's my only jumping button. I had to re-learn how to play Smash, because before I always used stick jump, but accidentally double jumped way too often resulting in unnecessary deaths, so I turned it off. I don't use X or Y to jump, because I think it's awkward and I like to use my thumb only for A, B and the C stick. Since I never used L to shield, I figured I set my jump to it, because even though I never used it, my index finger always rests on it.

I have L(sheild), R(Jump) Y(jump) X(Grab) A+B smash on, Tilt stick, Tap jump off, High Sens, and rumble is like w/e, little similar

Why do you use normal stick sense as opposed to high or low?

Did you disable jumping with your joystick?

Are there any videos on pikachus up throw thunder?

Mine isn't too far off, I just don't have X is still jump instead of special, A+B smashes are off, and is rumble on. I play Ridley so I don't think A+B smashes are that useful for me, but it could help my Mario 🤔

Did u know what ist the beat settings for Captain falcon?

Esam your a goddddddd!! I'd love to speak with you sometime !

ab smash is inconsistent for me. i just slam the big green button aand my left stick in the direction i want and i dont get speacials

Thank u

I still feel like Smash could be drastically improved if Nintendo stopped pretending they have to play it with a NES controller and stopped mapping all attacks to the a-button, or any single button for that matter, while they simultaneously have 2 jump buttons and 2 shield buttons in the default layout. The fact that the input for the quicker option (tilt) takes more time and restraint is also weird and counter-intuitive. I've never had consoles until I was a little older so controllers have never felt altogether natural and when I discovered tilt-sticking I was like 'omg, I can play the game and use all the options, finally.' Also, also, why are there two jump buttons, and two jumps, but no way to separate them out by button? Instead I have to press a button for basically no time, messing me up constantly. Maybe this is just my PC roots talking, but two options should have two buttons whenever possible. Nintendo does a lot of weird things with controls, frankly, like hiding the use of one button (that I really wanted to use) in a random area, which they did in Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, or taking a game based on exploration, but making it very hard to look up and making a button which automatically makes you look at the interesting things (metroid prime). Why would you do such things when you could just not. Ok, I'll stop now, since I'm ranting in the youtube comments section about random things that annoy me at this point.

Can you explain a little more why you use Attack Cancel Bair/Uair instead of normal RARs Also any tips on practicing Attack Cancels with Pika or how to know you’ve done it correctly. Instant RAR doesn’t feel too difficult but when I try to run up AC it looks the same as traditional RARing and I’m pretty sure I’m not doing it right. Thanks

What is difference of iRAR and AC Bair? Does perma claw has its benefits? I clawed for a month and my right hand hurt like mad hell after a tournament.

Can anyone explain how to do the offstage jump and down b move? I try doing it but end up moving at the same time where the thunder doesnt hit me. not sure how to stop in place then do it. Thanks for the help!

How do you shorthop ESAM? There's a new tech that if you press 2 jumps you definitely shorthop. Do you use that?

I use pro controller, I use x and a to rar bair and my c stick is tilt, y is useless to me, and I use tap jump (I am a pika main)

Are you allowed to set up your control scheme at tournaments?

do people aeriel with c stick or joystick?

Why normal sensivity instead of high sensivity? Is there a big difference?

Dear Mr. Lew, Since i saw ur control guide, i tried the same control. But since then i'm 2 trained the new gameplay with this controller option. I have 2 train this remote, but since i've played this new option, i can't play my old options actually really like i did before.. 😂 I'm in strugle withe the air today.. What's wrong with me? I'm feeling like a noob now 😂

What does the stick sensitivity change pros and cons?

why stick sensitivity to medium?

you have the exact same controller scheme as I do

what i use: ...default. (except back buttons are flipped) played the default way since the first smash. i can't change it now

Stick sensitivity?

But you can rar with c stick is it easier with tilts

Swap Z and X and we use the exact same controls. Good reasoning.

Why medium sensitivity instead of high?

Almost the same layout as me except r is jump instead of l

I play with tap jump on, does that put me (as a Pikachu main) at a disadvantage?