The Best Way to Implement Custom Moves in Smash 4

[Oracle]

Hi, I'm Oracle, professional PM players and Tournament Organizer, as part of Tourney Locator. Like most of you, I'm extremely excited about the possibilities for running tournaments in the upcoming Smash 4. However, custom movesets have sparked a lot of discussion about whether or not they should be implemented or allowed in tournament play. On one hand, /they add a pretty unique and interesting aspect to the game, and add potential for a little more balance in the game. On the other, every player going in on each setup to customize their own character eats up a huge amount of time, as well as there being potential balance issues. Its extremely hard to plan for the release now, but I believe I have the solution.

Why don't we just run both events; custom moveset tournaments as well as default moveset tournaments? They both offer different options to different players. Lots of players love games where you just play with the default options, without having to deal with some new combination of factors they may not have accounted for; and many other players love games where they can go in the lab to test their own creations to give themselves a leg up on the competition. With two different gametypes, we can cater to a wider variety of the Smash playerbase, giving something for everyone.

This still leaves us with a problem for the Wii U version: how do we regulate time for creating the moveset? Other fighters like Soul Caliber have custom moveset options, where you can make a custom character with any weapons, altered stats, armor, etc. However, this is banned in the vast majority of Soul Caliber tournaments ,for two primary reasons.

- Giving players time to create their custom character makes the tournament run at a snail's pace
- Many custom options are extremely difficult or time consuming to unlock, so you can't always expect every console to have the tools you need

This seems fairly daunting. How are we going to get around these two massive hurdles? The answer is actually very simple: we play custom movesets on the 3DS version of smash. By having players customize their characters before the actual tournament, it removes the need to allot time for moveset creation; in addition, it puts the responsibility of unlocking the custom options on each player and eliminates the risk of not having custom options unlocked on each console. Playing this mode on the 3DS only also gives most smashers a reason to keep their 3DS version, rather than just everyone moving to the Wii U version once it comes out.

tl;dr: Play Smash without custom options on the Wii U, but with custom options on the 3DS. Before Wii U release, I'll be running both events at all my Smash 4 tournaments, but once the Wii U version comes out I plan to hold 3DS custom tournaments and Wii U default tournaments. What do you guys think? I really feel this is the most optimal solution to cater to everyone, and have yet to see a better one emerge.

 

[infomon]

We'll find out in a week. It might take < 10s per player to customize their moves. It's all up to Sakurai's menus. We'll find out soon enough.

Edit: We also need to determine a good strategy for counterpicking -- when does each player select their specific customizations. I propose something like (on a counterpick match, p2 won game1):
- Player 1 picks their character
- Player 2 picks their character
- Player 1 picks their custom moves
- Player 2 picks their custom moves

Although the vast majority of matches probably won't care so much about the opponent's particular moves, that might not be the case. Again, speculation.

Edit 2: This has been discussed in many other threads btw.

Edit 3: When people are used to customizing their moves on 3DS, they're probably not going to want to have to use the defaults on the WiiU version. There might not be anyone who will want customs disabled by that point. Alternatively, we might all realize that they're impossibly imbalanced and difficult to setup on the 3DS version. We'll see

Honestly I don't know why people want to have tournaments for this game within the first 2 months of release. Noone knows what they're doing yet. Just have smashfests and have fun first.

I think everyone is really excited for custom moves though.... and we're all afraid they'll be banned.

 

[Chosenl]

Wasn't it mentioned in one of the Nintendo Directs that you can upload your custom move sets in the Amiibo's? A custom tournament can work if everyone brings their own Amiibo's. As for secondary characters, people should just bring those Amiibo's too. Then there will be no need for people to wait on others to keep changing movesets

 

[Max Ketchum]

Not a fan. We should run the game with them legal first just to make sure they're not broken, on both the Wii U and the 3DS. If time is an issue, use chess clocks or egg timers. There would be issues with which mode is more "legitimate" for competition, time constraints, etc. Also, if there are two concurrent metas, people will probably be a lot less proactive about actually developing strategies around potentially "broken" custom moves and they could get carelessly banned.

 

[Oracle]

Or we could just not ban the custom moves in the first place. I really don't want this to be like smogon lol. Why can't they both be legitimate for competition? Also any chess clock or time rule is extremely difficult to enforce, especially at large tournaments.

 

[Problem2]

It's kind of what I figured we should do since the beginning.

 

[Xinc]

I'm quite a fan of OP's idea. It's a good plan, especially that the 3ds version minimalizes the slow pace that is bound to happen if you would do it on the Wii U. Meaning that it would take at least 2-3 minutes to input your custom character. If it would ever be done in Wii U, I recommend making the changes before the match (though that dampers a chance for your character to have a better chance to counter your opponent), as that would speed things up.

 

[yahooda]

I'm assuming that there may be a few custom moves that will be banned, but I'm hoping for the most part that we will be able to use them to some extent. It's going to be one weird looking tier list, though.

 

[Drigonaut]

I posted on our page when denti linked it, but i'll say it here also. I'm not 100% sure but if I recall correctly, isn't this why they were coming out with those amiibo things as well? to save custom setups and stuff to it and then you can load them up on any setup?

-EDIT- I just looked it up, and Amiibos don't work this way

 

[Anuran]

I am in favor of OP's idea. This also makes it so that people like myself who are in favor of just banning them off the bat have the choice to not play with them.

 

[Xinc]

I'm sure the custom movesets are just B moves, so there won't be TOO MUCH deviation from the original playstyle... with exceptions of course. (If Fox has a moveset that can be totally Wolf's, etc.)

 

[Drigonaut]

I like the concept of having both events done this way, but I personally don't want to be forced to a handheld to be able to play with custom movesets. It makes sense logically, but it still makes me feel like a group's opinion is pushed to the side. Like, i'm already going to spend XXXXX dollars on a console + gaming monitor + game, I don't want to spend another XXXXX on another console + game to play with custom movesets when I actually want to play on the wii U.

And as a few have already mentioned, i'm sure that we're just customizing B moves. I don't recommend playing with custom equipment. With that being the case, it's not much longer changing a few moves around than it is for someone to change their controls around, turn off tap jump, turn off rumble. It's just 4 moves, each with 1 of 3 choices. I'm sure most people will find which of those moves they like better anyway since they're supposed to have their own pros and cons

 

[Vashimus]

Palutena has 12 entirely different special moves, rather than variations of her default ones. A homing projectile, two explosive projectiles, two forward moving specials, a reflector, a teleport, a counter, a speed boost, an AoE, a Diddy-like rocket jump, and a Peach-like glide.

It's clear she was designed as a character to take full advantage of the custom movesets, maybe even balanced around it. Do we restrict her to stick with her 4 default moves anyway for the sake of matchup consistency?

 

[Empyrean]

I have a friend in Japan that confirmed custom moves are accessible via character select screen. #SUGOI #SmashBros pic.twitter.com/ylFNOip1Aa

— D1 (@xD1x) September 6, 2014

This might be big. I imagine the selection process would be quite quick. If so, then it would also not be a problem for the Wii U version. Only issue we still don't know about is how Miis will work on the CSS.

 

[NickRiddle]

I really don't want this to be like smogon lol

What if a specific move turns out to be too good? Something like a Brawl MK Nado. Would you be willing to be like Smogon and ban that specific move?

 

[MechaWave]

I have a friend in Japan that confirmed custom moves are accessible via character select screen. #SUGOI #SmashBros pic.twitter.com/ylFNOip1Aa

— D1 (@xD1x) September 6, 2014

This might be big. I imagine the selection process would be quite quick. If so, then it would also not be a problem for the Wii U version. Only issue we still don't know about is how Miis will work on the CSS.

Well it'd make sense considering there's a gigantic-af customize button at the top-right of the CSS.

 

[Oracle]

Yeah based nintendo fixing our problems before they even happen

 

[PingPongCop]

Sorry, I just reaaaaally don't like the idea of seperating the two. I have a wierd feeling that it'll result in another war similar to the Brawl vs. Melee wars for some reason.

Custom moves should just be allowed, I don't see whats the problem. They're balanced enough, and they add an interesting level of depth to competitive play. Anyone who complains about them because they're "different from the normal ones" is just being whiny.

Time shouldn't be a problem either. It will at the most probably take a player 30s to pick customs. I wouldn't mind waiting that time.

 

[Mettie7]

I liked the OPs idea of having a standard tourney and a custom tourney, but what if for the custom tourney the players had to choose their custom specials beforehand during registration or w/e instead of changing it in between matches or depending on what character the opponent picks? I'm more a fan of choosing and adapting mid-game, but the time concerns are definitely an issue that we can all see happening. You can't change your moveset in between matches in Melee, Brawl, or PM so I don't think it's toooooooo farfetched

 

[infomon]

What if a specific move turns out to be too good? Something like a Brawl MK Nado. Would you be willing to be like Smogon and ban that specific move?

If Brawl had the option to ban tornado, I imagine it would have been very difficult to stop the ban-'nado crowd even as early as early-2009. The sad thing is, that was before many of the game's actual mechanics were actually understood by anyone, we didn't even have proper frame data. Looking back, it seems that 'nado is pretty severe in some specific matchups (MK vs Bowser?), but shuttle-loop seems perhaps more problematic, but maybe that's only after 'nado destroys several matchups from relevance..

It's just that, with MK, it's really not about any particular special. It's as a whole, how that character works relative to the rest of the cast -- his sword priority, disjoints, glide, recovery options, attacks including his wicked aerials. And even then, his ban really isn't obvious even to me now. It can be argued, perhaps merit, but it's not obvious.

I hope with custom specials, we treat any ban with great severity, for the sake of validity. If the move is to be banned, it needs to be because that move is too strong, not as a way for us to nerf a character that is too strong.

That's my proposal.

Edit / followup: We might want to consider how many matchups need to be entirely destroyed by a single move for it to be banned, if that move happens to be a special. Note that this could include even a default special.

 

[smashmachine]

I think all of the custom moves should be allowed unless as a whole they turn out to be incredibly busted.

 

[Anuran]

Palutena has 12 entirely different special moves, rather than variations of her default ones. A homing projectile, two explosive projectiles, two forward moving specials, a reflector, a teleport, a counter, a speed boost, an AoE, a Diddy-like rocket jump, and a Peach-like glide.

It's clear she was designed as a character to take full advantage of the custom movesets, maybe even balanced around it. Do we restrict her to stick with her 4 default moves anyway for the sake of matchup consistency?

in short yes, in long yeeeesssssssssssssssssss

 

[Kuraudo]

in short yes, in long yeeeesssssssssssssssssss

IMO that's a bit of a narrow-minded way of thinking about it. I had a long debate about this with a friend of mine whose adamant about being for it AND against it because we really know next to nothing about how they'll be implemented. The concern that is raised is that by using custom specials that we'll end up forgetting about the fundamentals of the character itself, although that in of itself is also a weakened argument due to the fact that there are far more aerials/jabs/smash attacks/etc than there are Specials for characters.

Also, it would be a foolish move to ban tornado from Brawl (it's not the topic, but on the hypothetical of banning specific custom moves from characters) since we have figured out how to fight against it, strong an option as it is. It's as Infzy said earlier, it's the character as a whole and the move just complimented how OP he was. The way that things should work out (and is likely how the Alberta Smash scene is going to do things) is that we are going to start with the customizations off at first, not because we don't like them, but because we don't know enough about them. They need to be tested and with the way it's shaping up with how easy it is to access the custom specials from the CSS, the only make-break of this all would be if a good majority of the custom specials wound up being LUDICROUSLY broken. But just as a disclaimer here? They would need to be more broken than Meta Knight's Brawl tornado. Meta Knight's 'nado is the starting point for us because we learned to overcome and shield and fight back against it without banning the move (MK was prematurely banned and then unbanned). If none of the custom moves scream "BROKEN!" on Akuma levels of absurdity? There's a high chance we could see them be implemented into the competitive scene. And I, for one, welcome it. Lower tier characters can carry extra tools with them that aren't stat buffs that could turn the tides and allow for even more diverse match-ups. Melee despite the flack it gets for being a Fox-only affair, lucked out pretty hard on giving us a diverse list of high/top/some mids that are seen coming out fighting for top spots. We could see that happen again with Smash 4 if custom moves are allowed.

--

Also to the OP, on the topic of reliability of custom specials being unlocked, we've grinded for characters and hidden stages in the past. If Smash Run (and however we obtain them in Wii U version) prove to give us our custom specials at a fair rate, retrieving all the specials for all characters for tournament set-ups won't be a problem. If we can't even do that, we gotta play more JRPGs because those are HUGE time spenders and fans of the genre don't complain, same goes for the Monster Hunter series. I'll be severely disappointed in the community if we see multiple complaints about "B-But we gotta unlock ALL of them. ", granted if it's like Shiny Pokémon status I'd be in a similar boat of how difficult it'd be to obtain them all. But I digress.

Also the issue with running Custom/Non-Custom side by side? You KNOW what will happen. Look what happened with Balanced Brawl and Brawl +, not to mention that you know that one will be glorified over the other. How good would that make you feel playing the game when your version isn't the one garnering the attention? I'm not talking for customs either, but if CUSTOMS caught on and the non-customs was a side tourney that was side-stepped. It's not like Melee and Brawl going side by side because they are different games. Smash 4 and Smash 4 with custom specials are still literally the SAME game with the same engine and arguably? Probably not a drastically changing tier list at the end of it all.

Yes we gotta unlock specials that aren't the default ones, but if a concern becomes that it mixes things up too much, what's stopping Marvel vs. Capcom? Every single character has three varying assists with different properties and frames and all. The time-consuming part will be custom controls, and even THAT'S been sharpened to typically a 10-15 second affair, the time it takes to contemplate your next stage choice when counterpicking your opponent which could even be longer.

I'm an advocate FOR the specials, but I will eat humble pie if the custom specials proved RIDICULOUSLY broken. Again as I stated earlier? Beyond Brawl MK's Tornado broken.

 

[z00ted]

I wouldn't want their to be two separate metas, discourages attendance. Either keep them both or ban.
I'm all for custom moves though, especially on the WiiU.

Just play Smash under seasons similar to how Konami regulates Yu-Gi-Oh, Smogon w/ Pokemon, etc. until we encounter a problem. People are going to play the game regardless near the beginning even if everything is utterly insane. The deeper the game's lifespan will be, the more "accepted" and "tournament viable" it will become. You can keep the metagame at such a fair and beautiful state w/ the proper type of monitoring and the right amount of time. We've even done it in prior releases. Wobbling? Banned. Infinite Cape Glitch? Banned. DDD infinite? Banned. Even in the massively famous Project M we see characters tinkered with to appease to it's audience. It still amazes me how people are willing to ban EVERYTHING off the bat without even giving it an honest chance yet to see how it plays out come Sept. 13th... when we're being given exactly what a good portion of the community is already doing (Project M) on a silver platter from Sakurai himself.

Even if a majority of custom moves are broken - there's a high chance that every character has at least ONE of those moves assigned to each special. I don't think Sakurai would just go outright crazy on making a select few characters overpowered within range of everyone else. And if it's an issue? Ban it for a SEASON. Say 3 months or so to see how the community reacts to it and how character / tournament results play out. Players are going to naturally flock to the stronger custom specials regardless, and if they don't it could be for their own personal reasons (adding depth to the metagame/their playstyle). And by that I mean we'll be able to gauge a pretty efficient tier list on characters even with the custom moves legal. Tournament results will still prove a character's worth regardless of how many options there are, the thing is - we'll just have 4x the amount of potential to allow that said character develop.

Custom moves just bring in such a beautiful variable to a fighter such as Smash Bros.
I'd love to see it implemented to it's full potential.

 

[Logsmash]

Most of what I wanted to say has been said, so I'll be brief in listing why customizable movesets should not be banned/limited on either platform:


- Custom vs Default is a no-go. Given that there will already be a messy Melee/PM/SSB4 split at tournaments for the foreseeable future, to say nothing of the SSB4 3DS/Wii U split itself, we don't need any more dividers in the community than we already have. Furthermore, customization could be one of the things that really set SSB4 apart from any previous iteration of Smash and cement its place within the competitive Smash community.

- Only the Specials are customizable, so the time it would take to select a moveset is negligible relative to total tournament runtime.

- Customizable moves taking time to unlock is not a valid excuse for banning them from tournaments (with that reasoning, you could make a case for unlockable characters being banned). Worst case scenario, their inclusion should be delayed (but still tested and explored) until TOs can get enough set-ups with the moves unlocked.

- A custom move should only be bannable if it literally breaks the game in some way (freezes, infinite, other glitch, etc.) If the move can be matched/countered/outplayed in some way (no matter how difficult), it should be allowed.

- Custom movesets have the potential to facilitate balance in the game on a scale we have never seen before. Characters that are considered "weaker" may have stronger alternative moves that could allow them to compete with characters that are all-around better. However, we also shouldn't limit a character's useable moves simply because that character is, by default, "stronger" or "better".

- Although not technically a competitive-relevant point, custom movesets could alllow for even further differentiation between clones/semi-clones, depending on their available alternatives.


Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad this discussion is happening on such an ongoing basis, and it's good to see that multiple perspectives are being examined. This is how we, as a competitive community, can arrive at the most logical conclusions. Healthy debate, along with rigorous testing and otherwise "ironing out the kinks", as it were, is the best way to reach a consensus that will make sense and allow the system to run smoothly. With that said, I'd like to ask peoples' opinions on a similar topic:


Customizable stats. They're available for use in the game and while I think they should be subject to different rules than custom movesets, given that they effect the characters differently than the movesets do, I also think that to ignore them/ban them outright would be short-sighted given the way they could add layers of depth to the game. A hurdle in this discussion is that, as stated by Sakurai, even custom stats with the exact same name could possess different properties. For example, one Big PowerGlove could give +50 Atk - 50 Def while another Big PowerGlove could give +80 Atk - 30 Def. One way to counter this might be to have a cap on how much any given stat could be increased, for example no more than +100 Atk (as the completed build, taking subtractions into account). In this case you could have items that, totaled together, give +200 Atk, which would be legal assuming your stats gave -100 Atk throughout the build. Note that this is just an example, and the true cap for each stat should ideally be tested and calculated on a character-by-character basis. If this doesn’t work, what other ways could we implement customizable stats into the game?


Considering how much custom movesets alone could keep a metagame from stagnating, when used alongside custom stats the potential combinations are utterly mind-boggling. All fighters have 81 special-move configurations (although I believe Palutena and Mii Fighters may have even more options, depending on how their special moves are assigned), and when combined with the different stat allocation possibilities, you could see 10 Marios or 100 Marios in a single tournament, all set up and played with varying degrees of difference. This, I feel, is what will make SSB4 the greatest Smash game to ever exist. Finally, players will be able to take their favorite fighters and truly play them in the way they want to. Just think, stat allocation could even function as a counter to custom moves that are seen as "OP", making it unnecessary to ban them.


TL;DR The potential for this game is truly sky-high, let's not limit ourselves in any way before we've even had a chance to play the game. Sorry for the walls o' text.

 

[Anuran]

IMO that's a bit of a narrow-minded way of thinking about it. I had a long debate about this with a friend of mine whose adamant about being for it AND against it because we really know next to nothing about how they'll be implemented. The concern that is raised is that by using custom specials that we'll end up forgetting about the fundamentals of the character itself, although that in of itself is also a weakened argument due to the fact that there are far more aerials/jabs/smash attacks/etc than there are Specials for characters.

Also, it would be a foolish move to ban tornado from Brawl (it's not the topic, but on the hypothetical of banning specific custom moves from characters) since we have figured out how to fight against it, strong an option as it is. It's as Infzy said earlier, it's the character as a whole and the move just complimented how OP he was. The way that things should work out (and is likely how the Alberta Smash scene is going to do things) is that we are going to start with the customizations off at first, not because we don't like them, but because we don't know enough about them. They need to be tested and with the way it's shaping up with how easy it is to access the custom specials from the CSS, the only make-break of this all would be if a good majority of the custom specials wound up being LUDICROUSLY broken. But just as a disclaimer here? They would need to be more broken than Meta Knight's Brawl tornado. Meta Knight's 'nado is the starting point for us because we learned to overcome and shield and fight back against it without banning the move (MK was prematurely banned and then unbanned). If none of the custom moves scream "BROKEN!" on Akuma levels of absurdity? There's a high chance we could see them be implemented into the competitive scene. And I, for one, welcome it. Lower tier characters can carry extra tools with them that aren't stat buffs that could turn the tides and allow for even more diverse match-ups. Melee despite the flack it gets for being a Fox-only affair, lucked out pretty hard on giving us a diverse list of high/top/some mids that are seen coming out fighting for top spots. We could see that happen again with Smash 4 if custom moves are allowed.

--

Also to the OP, on the topic of reliability of custom specials being unlocked, we've grinded for characters and hidden stages in the past. If Smash Run (and however we obtain them in Wii U version) prove to give us our custom specials at a fair rate, retrieving all the specials for all characters for tournament set-ups won't be a problem. If we can't even do that, we gotta play more JRPGs because those are HUGE time spenders and fans of the genre don't complain, same goes for the Monster Hunter series. I'll be severely disappointed in the community if we see multiple complaints about "B-But we gotta unlock ALL of them. ", granted if it's like Shiny Pokémon status I'd be in a similar boat of how difficult it'd be to obtain them all. But I digress.

Also the issue with running Custom/Non-Custom side by side? You KNOW what will happen. Look what happened with Balanced Brawl and Brawl +, not to mention that you know that one will be glorified over the other. How good would that make you feel playing the game when your version isn't the one garnering the attention? I'm not talking for customs either, but if CUSTOMS caught on and the non-customs was a side tourney that was side-stepped. It's not like Melee and Brawl going side by side because they are different games. Smash 4 and Smash 4 with custom specials are still literally the SAME game with the same engine and arguably? Probably not a drastically changing tier list at the end of it all.

Yes we gotta unlock specials that aren't the default ones, but if a concern becomes that it mixes things up too much, what's stopping Marvel vs. Capcom? Every single character has three varying assists with different properties and frames and all. The time-consuming part will be custom controls, and even THAT'S been sharpened to typically a 10-15 second affair, the time it takes to contemplate your next stage choice when counterpicking your opponent which could even be longer.

I'm an advocate FOR the specials, but I will eat humble pie if the custom specials proved RIDICULOUSLY broken. Again as I stated earlier? Beyond Brawl MK's Tornado broken.

You have changed my opinion sir. I'm still very skeptical but willing to give it a shot.

 

[TreK]

I don't like the idea of having custom moves on 3DS to make sure people customize their character before the tournament begins. To me it loses one of the things that could potentially make custom move brilliant, which is the ability to counterpick custom moves.

Specials like Metaknight's down B in Brawl, which have a game-breaking bug/glitch associated to them, should be banned. Not OP moves like his tornado (I've seen a few people mention this). Spoiler alert, the game is not going to be balanced, with or without custom moves. No fighting game has ever been even close to balanced, because they are, by nature, asymetrical.

 

[<π]

What if a specific move turns out to be too good? Something like a Brawl MK Nado. Would you be willing to be like Smogon and ban that specific move?

I'm SO against banning anything. Brawl-Nado is definitely strong, but we beat it. Shuttle loop? Amazing, but we could still beat it.

Something like dimensional cape is a better example, I feel, of when we should be up in arms about the consideration. A move that can give permanent invulnerability that ban worthy.

 

[Yoshi Kirishima]

At least in the sense of the short term, this sounds great!

We'll find out later whether the balance issues are too big and whether or not it's really that hard to unlock everything. But for now, for the next few months, that sounds like a good way to organize it. This will also make it fun to unlock things on your 3DS so that you can go to tournaments and have the right moves

Even if it turns out to be imbalanced later (moreso than just keeping default, though it would have to be REALLY imbalanced for some matchups because there will be such a combination of movesets per character to adapt/counter), we will at least have fun while Smash 4 is new and we don't quite know the game very well yet.

 

[BBG|Scott-Spain]

This hasn't been brought up, so I'll just mention it here.

It's a fair assumption that players will win faster if given the option to customize moves, making the sets themselves faster. The move selection itself would take up time, though.

I personally don't care. I just hope we can come to a conclusion before the console release. Heck, we may need to revisit this issue when the console version does come out.

 

[KernelColonel]

I don't believe (that is, I confidently hope) that any single custom move will be too powerful for tournament usage. If anything, custom movesets will provide the opposite -- a level of playability to characters who had some absolute bricks in their special move slots. Ness is a good example, half of his specials in Melee/Brawl are highly unusable in a competitive environment, as energy based projectiles are a relatively fringe attack type and the PK Flash is eternally slow. Being able to change those special moves into something usable is absolutely critical to keeping certain characters from being utter garbage. And that, in itself, ought to be reason enough to include custom specials in tournaments.

Add to that, unlocking every variation and trying them on for personal optimization will take a long time, which as someone mentioned earlier, will keep the meta from stagnating for a significant period of time.


This is the process I would like to see in, say, a 1v1 best of 3 match (contingent on moves being changeable from the Character Select Screen):
-Both players pick characters blind
-Selections revealed
-Both players submit moves blind, and change their moveset accordingly
-Game 1 begins on random tournament-allowed stage
-Winner picks character, second player allowed to counter-pick character and stage
-Both players submit moves blind
-Game 2 begins
-Repeat game 2 process if needed for game 3

Alternatively, you could also allow the loser of the previous game to see the opponent's moveset submission and counterpick his own moves accordingly. Or, you could even select the custom moves 1 by 1 with the winner going first and locking in one special, adding another layer of counterpicking strategy (although it might not be terribly relevant, an example of it potentially becoming important would be the aforementioned Ness, if the loser of G1 has locked in three non-energy specials but has the potential to add one in his fourth special selection, the Ness player might feel pressure to pick energy absorption as his last special just in case). It could be time consuming for something as simple as a 3 stock game, but the level of strategy would be immense, potentially making it totally worth it.


I would love to see this become the norm. I don't think a "default moveset" tournament would have remotely the same level of depth, and if someone really didn't care for custom moves (or didn't have them unlocked) they'd be able to choose to use the base moveset in a custom-moves-allowed tournament scenario anyways. Someone mentioned earlier that creating two tournament types would lead to lower turnout in both cases, and I agree. Besides, I'm seeing a LOT of people supporting custom moves and very little opposition.

 

[PikaSamus]

Only custom moves, no equippable items

 

[slimjim]

For those of you who don't know already, the custom moves are set up such that you can save up to 10 variants FOR EACH CHARACTER. NOT 10 total. This gives access to quick selection for tournies.

Innocent until proven guilty: Legal until proven broken.

PROOF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPp_k_ykybY#t=14805 4:19:15

 

[Bedoop]

Has anyone else seen the shinanigans of Luigi's Custom Moves?
His 3rd Side B option is CRAZY in terms of recovery.