First Round stage???

[coolhandluc]

Hello competitive smashers.

I am soon to be hosting my first ever smash tournament in my area with much excitement and anticipation. I think I have most of the finer details worked out. I plan on using the standard rule set from SmashLeague Gaming. My one little problem is deciding who picks the first stage. The rules for EVO 2015 have the players striking stages back and forth until only one stage remains. At Apex I believe each player was to strike a stage and the third remaining stage was the starter. I have also heard of just rock, paper,scissors being used. So what is the most accepted way of deciding that first stage? Might not be a huge deal, but having a rule beforehand should make the tournament move along smoother.

Any feedback is much appreciated,

Lucas

 

[Ansou]

The standard is to have a starter stage pool of 3 or 5 stages.
Both players play Rock, paper, scissors. If the stage pool has 5 stages (Battlefield, Final Destination, Lylat Cruise, Town & City and Smashville) the winner then bans 1 stage. The loser then bans 2 stages. The winner then bans 1 stage, leaving 1 stage left which the game is played on.

 

[Budget Player Cadet_]

It's kind of a big deal.

3 starter has not been the standard since EVO finalized its ruleset, and either way it's pretty much terrible. The SmashLeague Gaming ruleset isn't awful, but it's not great either. If you just want to emulate some community standard, I strongly recommend going with EVO (as it's both an international and for the most part pretty good). Otherwise, there's no reason for any ruleset to have Wuhu Island banned, and there's a pretty good case to be made for Skyloft and Pokemon Stadium 2 as well.

For the first stage, the best way to do it is to take your whole list and strike down from that. If you have an even number, you probably want to add one stage to the list to make it odd, so that the striking works out, or just have one stage as a counterpick and all the rest as starters. For the SLG ruleset, that 11th stage would probably be Wuhu. Then, players take turns striking from this list until only one stage is left, and that is the stage for round one. This is what Evo does, and it's pretty much guaranteed to give the fairest stage for round one in the matchup. Just two small things: it shouldn't be 1[-1]*, It should be 1[-2]-1, where you repeat that 2 howevermany times is needed; and you should lock in (and announce) character picks before striking starts.

( [x] = repeat x as many times as needed)

 

[Ansou]

It's kind of a big deal.

3 starter has not been the standard since EVO finalized its ruleset, and either way it's pretty much terrible. The SmashLeague Gaming ruleset isn't awful, but it's not great either. If you just want to emulate some community standard, I strongly recommend going with EVO (as it's both an international and for the most part pretty good). Otherwise, there's no reason for any ruleset to have Wuhu Island banned, and there's a pretty good case to be made for Skyloft and Pokemon Stadium 2 as well.

For the first stage, the best way to do it is to take your whole list and strike down from that. If you have an even number, you probably want to add one stage to the list to make it odd, so that the striking works out, or just have one stage as a counterpick and all the rest as starters. For the SLG ruleset, that 11th stage would probably be Wuhu. Then, players take turns striking from this list until only one stage is left, and that is the stage for round one. This is what Evo does, and it's pretty much guaranteed to give the fairest stage for round one in the matchup. Just two small things: it shouldn't be 1[-1]*, It should be 1[-2]-1, where you repeat that 2 howevermany times is needed; and you should lock in (and announce) character picks before striking starts.

( [x] = repeat x as many times as needed)

How common has full stage striking been before EVO announced that they would use it? I've kinda never seen it before. I think it sounds like a cool idea, but my scene hasn't been doing it and just has 5 starter stages instead.

 

[Budget Player Cadet_]

How common has full stage striking been before EVO announced that they would use it? I've kinda never seen it before. I think it sounds like a cool idea, but my scene hasn't been doing it and just has 5 starter stages instead.

Not as common as it should be, although the closer we get the more we're seeing it. I think Aftershock had it. And 5 is a damn sight better than 3, I'll say that much.