This is competitive gaming. Winning > honour.
The initial list of starters is really good, but the second list of ones to add is pretty bad.
First of all, neutrals shouldn't give characters huge advantages or screw over many characters badly. Keep that in mind. The stages are supposed to be
neutral.
Castle Seige is not a Neutral
-It transforms, which makes it hard to consider a neutral.
-Dedede and Falco can CG people to death during transformations and during the middle part of the trio of forms. The stage can simply transform while the Dedede or Falco is holding their opponent and hand them a free kill, which will easily decide matches.
-Grab release CGs will screw over a lot of characters during transformations and during the middle form.
-You can fall through the stage as it transforms.
Delfino Plaza is not a Neutral
-It transforms and moves, which makes it hard to consider a neutral.
-Dedede and Falco have many CG-to-death opportunities. Dedede has multiple walled sections to use his infinite. One section of the stage is pure walk-off, meaning Dedede has instant-kills. Falco can CG everyone to death at lower percents. Grab release CGs will screw over many characters.
-While the stage is moving, Fox, Falco, and Wolf have issues recovering because their f-b's won't auto-sweetspot.
-You can abuse ledgecamping while the stage is moving.
Halberd is not a Neutral
-It transforms and moves, which makes it hard to consider a neutral.
-It has deadly stage hazzards. While they are indeed predictable, neutrals shouldn't have deadly hazzards. You can be hit into them.
-The really low ceiling gives obvious advantages to characters like Fox, Snake, and Dedede that can kill at very low percents from the top.
-While the stage is moving, Fox, Falco, and Wolf have issues recovering because their f-b's won't auto-sweetspot.
-You can abuse ledgecamping while the stage is moving.
Pokemon Stadium 1 and Lylat Cruise are debatable either way. Both are clearly legal, and clearly more fair and balanced than every other counterpick stage. Atlantic North tends to keep Lylat Cruise as a neutral and Pokemon Stadium 1 as a counterpick, but either these stages fit well into either section. It should just be up to TO/player discretion.
Corneria
-Dedede has wall infinites on the right side. This is an instant-kill on 2/3 of the characters and he can run the clock with his infinite.
-Game and Watch can bucket lasers and instant-kill anyone. Game and Watch can kill the vast majority of the cast anywhere from 20%-60% depending on weight class, which is obviously stupid.
-DK can cargo u-throw most of the at ~40% on the fin and kill them.
-Characters with good ledgecamping, like Meta Knight, can fin camp massively to the point where it's nearly unstoppabe. Brawl's ledge mechanics allow this garbage to happen.
-The lasers can do match-deciding damage because every bit counts when the ceiling is that extremely low.
-The laser on the left side is an instant kill and Dedede and Falco can CG people into it.
-The stage promotes camping and is begging every player to run the clock on it.
Distant Planet
-Walk-off section allows Dedede and Falco to get instant-kills and grab-release CGs will result in instant-kills.
-The walk-off part encourages players to either make match-deciding risks or camp massively away from it. This is both boring and stupid.
-There are stage hazzards that can kill you and disrupt matches, like the water and bug thing that eats you. DK can cargo throw people into it and you can be hit into it.
Green Hill Zone
-Dedede has instant-kills on 2/3 of the cast from a grab anywhere on the stage.
-Falco can CG everyone to death from low percents.
-Grab release CGs kill a lot of characters from a single grab.
-The walk-off part encourages players to either make match-deciding risks or camp massively away from it. This is both boring and stupid.
-The walk-off sides combined with the checkpoints encourages massive camping. This stage promotes running the clock and it's very easy to do here.
Jungle Japes
-The alligator comes by much more frequently than it used to. This will kill everyone at very low damage, usually from 0.
-Falco and Dedede can CG people into the water, which often results in the alligator killing them.
-This stage is huge and characters that can camp can abuse either far side of the stage and camp massively, easily running the clock and forcing their opponent to be at a major disadvantage while approaching.
-The vastness of the stage combined with the very high ceiling makes running the clock a very legit strategy.
Luigi's Mansion
-This is the new Hyrule Temple. Gain an advantage and run the circle. Faster characters pretty much can't be stopped when doing this. The vastness of this stage and the mansion itself encourages camping and running the clock. There really isn't much else to this stage. We banned Hyrule Temple for these reasons, and we should ban Luigi's Mansion for the same reasons as well.
-The ceiling on the bottom portion allows stupid combos that can result in almost an entire stock loss. Olimar is one of the characters that do can this nonsense.
Norfair
-There are
six ledges on this stage, three on each side, those three being very close to together. Does more need to be explained? Well, sadly, yes, because this stage is legal a lot. Characters like Meta Knight and Game and Watch can abuse ledgecamping to the fullest extent the game's physics allows because of how close together the ledges are. A lot of characters, like Falco and Diddy, simply can't stop top tier ledgecamping and they can't win on this stage against such a cheap strategy. The ledgecamping also promotes running the clock.
-Random lava events, which have no pattern, can disrupt matches and cause deaths that can decide matches. Skill should decide matches, not random events.
Pictochat
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcojcb7ZMxc&feature=related
-The events do not have a pattern and are not predictable. They can appear where you are and take a stock and decide matches. Tournament match results should be determined by skill, not luck. If you're just fighting someone and you're at 70% using Marth and the spikes appear where you are, you die without being able to do anything about it and that will decide the match if it's your last stock. That is only one example of many.
Pirate Ship
-Excessive water camping gives characters like Toon Link, Donkey Kong, Ike, and other characters with great spikes huge advantages. If they are up in percent/stock, their opponents will be forced to take incredible risks to get to them.
-Canonballs kill most characters at very low damage.
-The front of the ship will spike you at 0% and you can be hit into it.
Yoshi's Island (Melee)
-Dedede has instant-kills on 2/3 of the cast from a grab facing the right side.
-Falco can CG everyone to death from low percents on the right side.
-Grab release CGs kill a lot of characters from a single grab.
-The walk-off part encourages players to either make match-deciding risks or camp massively away from it. This is both boring and stupid.
-The low ceiling allows silly low percent deaths consistently.
-The center blocks, like in Melee, can mess you up and are very annoying.
-This stage was banned in a game that gave you MORE options against nonsense, so why allow it now?
The Counter/Banned section should need no explanations. It's even more obvious that those stages are not fit for competitive play.
Brawl is bad enough as a competitive game already. There is absolutely no reason to make it worse by allowing gamebreaking and luck-based stages. Matches should be decided by skill, not stages and luck.
Me too.
