I haven't read any of the thread other than the first page and this page, so I apologize if this has already been brought up, but I was curious, as someone who has played competitively for a while now, but would still very much like to join in the tournament scene, what current competitive players have to say about this.
On the subject of edge hogging:
I, admittedly, am one of those people who does not edge hog out of honor, of sorts; my logic was that, as a Link player with three projectiles at my disposal, if I couldn't stop someone from recovering, even if it took me jumping off to intercept, then it was my own fault, and my punishment for my lack of skill was my opponent's second chance (that, as well as the fact that I really don't think there are many times that are more demoralizing than not making it back to the stage because you couldn't grab on, especially if you only needed 5 pixels of height to have landed on the stage itself anyways). I make sure to ask before any match I have, out of respect for the other player, his or her thoughts on edge hogging; if he/she is alright with it, then I sometimes allow myself to do it, but I still don't feel particularly good about winning that way, and I certainly won't edge hog against a player who doesn't condone it.
I understand fully that many competitive players feel this is foolish, but I have risen to such a skill level now that I don't need to edge hog against competitive players to win a match, which is something I'm proud of; this would not have happened if I resorted to using edge hogging to win matches. Of course, I digress.
Edge hogging, regardless of my personal feelings about the tactic, remained a legitimate tactic in Melee because, with the exception of Samus and Link, there was no other way to recover; you either grabbed the edge, or you landed on the stage, thus negating the edge hog anyway. Brawl, however, has characters (Zamus, Olimar, and Ivysaur come to mind) whose recoveries are balanced on, and rely soley on, grabbing the edge (their tether recoveries) and, unlike Samus and Link in Melee, have no other way to recover. Period. The closest any of these characters has to an 'alternate method of recovery' is Zamus' Side-B, but this only gives lateral movement, and tether recoveries, as is apparent by their animations, was expressly designed to gain vertical distance.
I would like to interject that I have indeed seen the videos of Olimar throwing Pikmin to thwart edge hogs; I feel, though, that this is inconsequential, as neither Zamus nor Ivysaur have such a method to save themselves, as well as the fact that Olimar must sacrifice the reach of his recovery to do so.
My question to the SWF community is: does the knowledge that edge hogging literally breaks the recoveries of these characters change the legitimacy of the tactic any? If it does, will that affect the use of edge hogging in future tournaments? If not, why does the undermining of their recoveries not matter?
Thank you.