Smasher:Foghorn

Aaron Kirschner "Foghorn"
Character info
Smash 64 mains	Kirby, Jigglypuff
Other Smash 64 characters	Luigi, Donkey Kong
Brawl mains	Kirby, Marth
Other Brawl characters	Zelda, Diddy Kong
Team info
Crew(s)	SLAPAHO
Personal and other info
Real name	Aaron Kirschner
Location	Iowa City, IA
Miscellaneous info
Skill	Semi-pro

Aaron Kirschner is an amateur smasher and tournament organizer in Iowa City, IA. He sometimes goes by the alias "foghorn" and his user name on the Smash Wiki is Clarinet Hawk. He is primarily a doubles player and is one of the founding members of the SLAPAHO crew. He is credited as the discoverer of the SLAPASTICK glitch.

Smash Styles

General

A master strategist with some of the best prediction skills in the game, Aaron Kirscher is one of the most adaptable smashers and has proficiency with at least 15 Melee characters and 20 Brawl characters. He is a master of identifying his opponents weakness and exploiting it, and can change his style almost instantaneously if he feels his opponent has found his weakness. It is not uncommon for him to go down 4-2 in a four stock match before roaring back to win, taking less than 50% damage for the rest of the game. His goal is to play a mistake free game and exploit each and every one of his opponents miscues. This, coupled with his sometimes unorthodox attack choices, has led to some complaints from other smashers that playing him is "playing against Aaron Kirschner, not playing Smash." His finals berth in his debut tournament was challenged because "he didn't actually beat [his opponent], he simply out played him. [The other smasher] had much more technical skill, but Kirschner was simply the better strategist." Needless to say, the tournament did not over rule his victory or his second place finish.

N64

Kirschner's main character was Kirby in the original Super Smash Bros. While he never played competitively during the time only the original was out, he began playing again in 2007 and greatly improved his skill. He focuses on using Kirby's drill kick, cutter, and neutral A to rack up damage, then using the drill kick to spike an opponent after knocking them off the edge. He is also quite good at performing Kirbycides.

Melee

Doubles

Aaron's main character is Marth, but he has been known to play Young Link if he feels so inclined. He will usually team with Alex "Ax" Schumacher (a Roy player). When playing as Marth, his job is to put damage on the other team and set up kills from Roy's power moves, while also edgeguarding and spiking as appropriate. When Ax plays Link Kirschner will use Young Link and flip roles. As Young Link, he uses the Dair as his primary move and has developed impeccable aim with it. Also, he will play Mr. Game & Watch when the SLAPAHO team is playing in Hyrule Temple and his partner is playing Samus. Here, the team makes good use of the Oil Panic attack (both glitch and normal).

Singles

When playing singles, Kirschner will use Marth in almost every situation. He is a very opportunistic player, making good use of Marth's counter until his opponent reveals an opening. He is also relentless with Marth's spike. His tertiary move is a combo involving Marth's back throw into a forward smash, often followed by a spike. He is currently progressing as formidable opponent with both Fox and Jigglypuff in addition to Marth

Brawl

Doubles

Kirschner plays Zelda in Brawl doubles. He most often teams with Ax playing Pit. He is an expert edgeguarder and generally takes the support/finisher role on the team. He and Ax have developed multiple strategies to take advantage of the fact that Din's Fire does not hurt Pit while he is using his Angel Ring. They will often get one character caught in the ring and have Zelda repeat Din's Fire until there is enough knockback to kill the opponent.

Singles

Kirschner plays Marth, Kirby, and Diddy Kong as his mains in singles. He is also known to counterpick with Pikachu, Meta Knight, and even Bowser. He maintains his normal strategic defensive play coupled with burst of high intensity offense. His edgeguarding and spike skills are two of his best assets. His main goal in a game is to knock his opponent out of his/her primary strategy and force them to face him on his own terms. By having such a large collection of characters, Kirschner is almost always able to force his opponents into poor matchups.

Tournaments

Kirschner placed second behind SLAPAHO teammate C.J. Palmer in his debut tournament.

In subsequent tournaments, Kirschner and Palmer have had the misfortune of meeting in early rounds of single elimination tournaments. That said, Kirschner's only losses in tournaments have come at the hands of Palmer.

Kirschner hosted, organized, and officiated the Last Hurrah Doubles Tournament.

Trivia

• He is arguably the best Zelda player in Iowa City.
• Aaron used Pikachu, then Zelda, Mewtwo, Ganondorf, Roy, and Young Link as primary characters between 2001 and 2003 before settling on Marth.
• He is among the top 10 clarinet players at the University of Iowa.
• He is studying to become a professional music composer.

Music

If you've seen my trivia section, you know I'm a composer. If anyone is in need of some form or orchestration/arrangement of music from Smash Bros. (or any general commission for that matter), let me know. I can work out a very reasonable way to get that to you.