Making the Handicap option viable for Low Tiers

[Jugoken]

What do you guys think about making use of the Handicap option in melee for low tiers?

It can make them viable for tournament use by increasing their defense when being hit and knockbacks in their attacks.

You can range the handicap level from 1-9 so you can even nerf characters as well.

What do you guys think? 20PichuXX? hahaha

 

[20YY SS | Saiblade]

What do you guys think about making use of the Handicap option in melee for low tiers?

It can make them viable for tournament use by increasing their defense when being hit and knockbacks in their attacks.

You can range the handicap level from 1-9 so you can even nerf characters as well.

What do you guys think? 20PichuXX? hahaha

That's actually not TOO bad of an idea. If we could control the scaling, I don't see why not.

 

[Jugoken]

We can finally have more than 8 viable characters! :D

 

[CptJPuff]

Diving into the topic, no disrespect.

This might catch on in small local tournaments, but it for sure won't in Regionals are anything larger. Also, I would say "Nay" because I, like many other people, personally don't like change to something that's been established for years. I see that you're trying to make the game more balanced and all, but if you want a balanced Smash game, go try PM or Smash 4.

And a few questions:

If this were to happen, which "low tier" characters would be allowed handicaps?

Should there be an enforced system (matchups, tier lists, personal tier lists, personal skill, track record, etc.) for these "handicaps", or should the handicaps be chosen by the two (or four) people playing?

Would the handicaps adjust to the stage being played on?

Could these handicaps potentially break the game?

EDIT: Gave more "depth" to a question.

 

[Spak]

Also, CC would be abused like mess and Roy would become top tier because CC->F-Smash/D-Smash would kill at low percents and work while Roy is at high percents.

 

[Jugoken]

We dont have to Increase the level of handicap tooo much. Just enough to give certain low tiers like Pichu or Game and Watch a fighting chance. Im sure a lvl6 handicap Roy wouldnt be over the top strong. Thats just one level up from the default level 5.

 

[Flippy Flippersen]

This is tbh a terrible idea. Before amsa came to the scene yoshis tierplacing was pretty awful. (google said 18 but it was from some old wiki which isn't as reliable) That would mean if this handicap came out before amsa played he would have taken pretty much any tournament until yoshi was accepted to be better on the merit of having a character that due to handicap is pretty ridiculously toptier (since whilst yoshi isn't like top 8 argueing he's lower than 11 is really really hard which means he'd get buffed up to a character 7 spots higher than he had the right to at least) and was a completely unknown matchup for any player when he came to be.

Additionally low tier characters are low tier cause they have less options. For example bowser is slow with no combos and pretty combo able. Which makes it pretty easy for people to play him. Not a lot to learn afterall(In comparison to our current toptiers) It would effectively hurt the depth that is in the top tier vs top tier matchup cause learning a toptier is a lot harder. (and with this no longer more rewarding) This means players will make the switch to bowser to get the same result with less effort. I don't know if you've ever seen bowser dittos but they generally aren't that deep and exciting. Since bowser doesn't have a handicap vs bowser the match will play out the exact same as the normal bowser ditto which is to say 2 bowsers praying the other bowser attacks their shield so they can up b oos.

Of course this only applies in the case that handicap actually affects the characters to a notable extend. Which is also really hard cause lowtiers aren't lowtier cause of their lack of knockback or because of their weight. They're bad cause they have no good tools.

I'm not against more balanced characters. But I am against balancing the bad characters in melee by purely adjusting the knockback they give/take (which is all handicap does afaik) As someone else said before pm might be a thing for more balanced characters.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

I would be against it simply for division among the population. This is assuming this ever got any wide spread usage. Smash in general already has some pretty large dividers of S64, Melee, Brawl, P:M, and now S4.

Plus, who should be granted the handicap boost is something that I believe can never be solved unless there was some organization which comprised of relevant people to make such a standard. Otherwise, I would only ever expect this to reach a status of side tournament fun.

 

[Wreckarooni]

This is a terrible idea. At a local and regional level I see low-mid tiers able to win tournaments all the time. They don't need handicaps.

And at Nationals no one in their right mind would allow such a silly thing. It would be like saying "Okay in this tournament Fox and Falco aren't allowed to use their shines, k?"

Not only that but even low tier mains would be against this, would feel like cheating to them and their characters would lose a bit their charm and underdog factor.

This is just the nature of fighting games, there will always be top and high tiers whether intentional or unintentional. That group is usually fairly well balanced and it's usually 1/3 or 1/2 of the cast.

 

[ECHOnce]

Before getting into the legality of it all (since everybody else seems to have covered that base pretty well), let's think about how effective this would be in the first place.

Characters below low-mid tier are bad because they have bad options, bad frame data, etc. Handicaps just change BKB (idk about KBG). Just tinkering with one multiplier across their whole moveset wouldn't fix things. That would be far too ideal, even in a perfect world.

 

[the muted smasher]

Bring our the big 2005 guns about giving mewtwo an extra stock

But this is pretty insulting for real low tier mains

 

[Comet7]

it's 20LC not that 20pichuXX garbage

LC stands for Little Cup

 

[pershona]

This would never catch on, and low tiers can already win locals without the handicap option.

 

[JANKX]

I just tested out SD Remix 3.2, and one of my first thoughts was, "Eew, how dare you make my Young Link viable!" With that said, I doubt many other low tier mains would remotely endorse handicap settings.

I know that imbalance is one of the biggest cons of Melee, but I'm a firm believer that the game is more balanced than most people think. Many low tiers have severely underdeveloped metas and some low tiers counter top tiers (YL beats Peach and Purin, for instance).

The only hope for a balanced Melee is if SD Remix catches on, but even that will require a huge effort to become popular, and there's a fat chance you'll ever see it at a major event unless the entire community backs it up.

 

[Jugoken]

I just tested out SD Remix 3.2, and one of my first thoughts was, "Eew, how dare you make my Young Link viable!" With that said, I doubt many other low tier mains would remotely endorse handicap settings.

I know that imbalance is one of the biggest cons of Melee, but I'm a firm believer that the game is more balanced than most people think. Many low tiers have severely underdeveloped metas and some low tiers counter top tiers (YL beats Peach and Purin, for instance).

The only hope for a balanced Melee is if SD Remix catches on, but even that will require a huge effort to become popular, and there's a fat chance you'll ever see it at a major event unless the entire community backs it up.

Thank You for the idea for another topic of discussion~!!! I totally forgot SD Remix existed!

 

[Yung Clap]

I don't agree with this at all.

If you choose to play a low tier character then you should be committed to put in the time and effort and learn the skill needed to go up against higher tier characters and win with out any shortcuts or help.

Sure everyone in the community says they are no were near tournament viable, but that shouldn't be a reason to doubt your viability as a player. Being a low tier main requires endless amounts of tenacity, determination, and perseverance. And if your not willing to put in the work to succeed with harsh conditions then why even bother picking up a low tier.

But what do i know... I'm just a F.SMASH happy Marth main.