L-Cancel was also vital in some characters' gameplan, and you basically HAD to use it to have any chance of winning against anyone who had an idea of what he's doing. Link's dair is a crazy good move for example, but it lags for HOURS if you don't l-cancel it and it gets himself killed if used anywhere that whiffs.
I'd recommend watching
all these videos to learn a few advanced techniques before the tournament. Some don't apply anymore (wavelanding, wavedashing, l-cancellingm shffling) but others (dashdancing, out-of-shields, teching, edge hogging/edge hopping and such) are still very useful techniques that are very good and easy to learn. I'd recommend watching match videos too but it's pretty useless now seeing as how everyone sucks more or less and nothing gamebreaking has been discovered just yet.