But what if items DIDNT favor a lucky person? like, there was an obvious warning as to where the items was going to drop. Bringing action to different sides of the stage and rewarding the person to control that area.
(Just completely What If's, btw)
If there was an obvious warning, there would be camping and zoning and stupid stalling. That would be equally as bad. In fact, it might be worse, because it would inevitably favor the better character (without items) and the fastest character (which is usually the better character).
With anything random like items, you're damned if they spawn randomly, and you're damned if they spawn in set points. Items like that only work in 3D games about point capturing or king of the hill, like multiplayer RPG's or shooters (particularly with King of the Hill Mode on). Either way you'll either end up with broken combos, worse balance, and of course lots of camping, stalling, and slowed down action. Nobody wants that in actual tournaments.
Also, there are only a few set spawn points for items in each stage. If you play with items enough you memorize them. The only Smash game I ever super got into it with items was Smash 64, and I would commonly zone and camp so I could do my easy combos and edge guarding with items there (this was before I was any good, too).
Smash Bros is not CoD. You think people are honestly going to camp for a piece of food, Mr. Saturn, or beam sword? No.
They will keep duking it out until the item appears. and if items are set to a low appearance setting then there wont even be that many items throughout a match.
I wouldn't doubt people's ability to camp or stall to win. I actually got timed out in a match I won (back when Brawl had 10 minute timeouts) in a 3 stock match because the other guy thought he stood a better chance at camping. Trust me, there's lots of people like that (and it isn't just Brawl, either). Not everyone is a crazy backyard brawler/all out aggro smasher like me, lol!
Any player who knows the power of the beam sword would camp out for one. Those things make it to where you have so much range your opponent can't even get to you. On top of that they do insane damage (more in each game I think), and they are insane as a edge guarding tool, both for melee attacks and for throwing.
Keep items out of main tournament matches, but I would love to see side events that do allow items.
This is what most of us are trying to say, and honestly, this is done to an extent with each smash game.
Heck, I'd like to see more such side tournaments in general. Teams (that should be a main event more), and mid, low, and bottom-tier (side) tournaments.
I feel like a lot of these posts are assuming ALL items will be legal in the next Smash. I'm not saying that to be a knee-jerk supporter of ISP, but I would assume that if we had an ISP subset of tournaments, only specific items would make the cut.
Regardless, most items are super overpowered, especially in Brawl. It also doesn't help it will lead to camping, stalling, and slowed down matches. I've done enough matches with people with items (including absolutely top tier players in Smash 64, Melee, and Brawl) to know that it leads to longer (and more boring) matches.
And don't even get me started on how it kills the competitive vibes, or how it creates further imbalance.