"Counterpicking"? "Double Blind"? Help with Tournament Terminology

[ninetales1234]

First post. Perhaps some of you may know me as ninetales1234 from the pokegym or pojo forums.

I have owned SSBM Since December 2001, and it is one of my favorite video games. Despite this, I have yet to participate/organize a SSBM tournament. I hope to organize one in Lusby, MD soon, so I came to this forum and the MLG forums to familiarize myself with common SSBM tournament practices (and inadvertently learning lots of gameplay terminology, like "sex kick"). There are a few things that I don’t understand so I got some questions for y’all. I’ve been to plenty of forums in which n00bs post a bunch of easy questions and expect to be spoon-fed answers (it's a pain in the butt). But, trust me, I’ve tried doing research- I know a lot more than I did a few days ago, but and there are some things I still don’t understand…

I have seen things like this:

- Stage Knock-out: Each player (or team, in teams) may choose to eliminate one of the legal stages (neutral OR counterpick) to be chosen at the beginning of the set.
- Advanced Slob Picks: Loser may choose the next stage or elect to go random, then winner may choose to change characters, then loser may change characters
- Double blind pick may be called at any time (the only time this is useful is, before players choose their first initial character, before the first game starts).
- Neutral stages: Fountain of Dreams (BANNED in teams), Dream Land 64, Battlefield, Yoshi's Story, Final Destination, Pokemon Stadium
- Counterpick stages: Any neutral stage, plus Rainbow Cruise, Green Greens, Corneria, Brinstar, Mute City, Poke Floats, Donkey Kong 64
- Any other stage is BANNED in both singles and doubles

1. Why would someone ban a specific stage? What factors do you use to decide?
2. What are “neutral” stages?
3. What is “counterpick”?
   Obviously there is some strategy in stage/character selection, but could someone describe the processes used in most tournaments, because the threads in this forum seem unfathomable, when it comes to stage/character selection rules.
   
4. What do “blind” and “double blind” mean? Do they mean the same thing?
   
5. I have read, in multiple threads, things like this: “Tactics such as Peach's Wallbombing and Jiggly's Rising Pound are allowed as methods of recovery or to maneuver around the stage. Using them (or any similar tactics) to excessively stall a match, such as dropping below levels intentionally and stalling underneath, is banned.”
   What is “Wallbombing” and “Rising Pound” stalling? I think I know, but I’m not sure what it means.
6. Some people post that they are using Major League Gaming rules. Where can I find the MLG rules? All I have been able to find is this, and it doesn’t look much like an official rules document.
7. A supermajority of SSBM tournaments use stock (with time limit) matches instead of time matches. Why is that? Could just be a matter of personal preference, but maybe stock is more "fair" somehow?...

And, please, if there is any “encyclopedia of SSBM terminology”, “SSBM FAQ”, or something like that, something you can post a link to, that explains all this slang, please do so.
I look forward to having a lot of stuff clarified.

thanx

 

[SLH]

http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=42749

basic thread of terminology

1. personal preference, their character does bad on it, the opponent's character does good on it, etc.
2. neutral stages are the stages that are put on random select, and cannot be banned. they are (in no particular order) final destination, fountain of dreams, yoshi's story, dreamland 64, pokemon stadium, and battlefield
3. counterpicking works differently based on what rules they go by. for example, some tournaments have you pick between picking the stage or switching character, while others allow both
4. not sure where you saw blind, but when someone calls for a double blind at the beginning of a match, both players tell their characters to a judge or neutral person, and are then forced to use those characters. it's mostly to avoid counterpicking characters before the set begins.
5. wallbombing is peach repeatedly using her side-b against a wall, rising pound is jigglypuff using an upwards angled side-b
6. honestly, not sure where to find an original copy of the MLG ruleset

hope this helps

 

[Tichinde925]

MLG Rules:

4-Stock
8 Minute Time Limit
Best of 3
Finals are Best of 5

There are 6 Neutral Stages (on Random)

Final Destination, Fountain of Dreams, Yoshi's Story, Dreamland 64, Pokemon Stadium, and Battlefield.

Fountain of Dreams is a banned stage for Doubles.

There are several counterpicking stages, though MLG bans Onett.

Red = Banned
Green = Neutral
Yellow = Counterpick
Top Part = Singles
Bottom Part = Doubles

Rest are exactly the same as any other tourny

Though some tournies ban wobbling (KDJ bans wobbling)

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Wobbling = Ice Climbers Infinite, where popo grab attacks and nana ftilts/dtilts

You cant use Wobbling to stall a match, so at most, you can wobble up to around 200-250%, more or less, before smashing the opponent to their doom.

Example of Wobbling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmoTSCxbY-c

---

SSBM Terminology FAQ

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=516492&topic=22412185

GameFaqs FTW!

 

[Wuss]

neutral stages are stages that are on random. A lot of people ban stages from personal preference, or if say they know that their opponent is a proficient peach player, they may ban mute city, because it is a good stage for peach. I ban battlefield a lot because the edges are so gay/glitchy, and always screw me over (funny with the gay joke...).