Smash boards deleted my first post here...
(Still under 10 post I can't quote and my previous post was longer...now this is shorter lol)
A friend of mine and I were having a discussion last night about customs in tournaments. Would it just be possible to pool together any game changing custom and have a ban list with them? Then give the attendee the responsibility of communicating with the TO what set they'll be using on whatever character they will bring to the tournmanet? For example;
Tiger: Zelda 1113
Judas: Mario 3333, Luigi 1112
Whatever they write down on the list or communicate with the TO should be what they are allowed to use for that specific character. That would help eliminate people from switching customs up to specifically counter certain characters and will keep the playing field balanced because they confirmed that they'll be using that set for what specific character. Which will of course eliminate usage of the "default' set but other tournaments do that sort of thing. For example card game tournament such as yo-gi-oh the TO has the attendees write down every card that's in their deck and side deck and whatever are in their set they are allowed to use throughout the tournament. It's a system that helps eliminate the possibility of someone switching around to make their fight "easier". Skullgirls has a similar thing with their custom assist mechanic which creates a lot of diversity in what sort of team you have on smash is no different but in this case I feel like it's a lot easier to have a list of moves that should not be allowed in a set because of their game changing presence or a mechanic that will completely put the match in their favor.
Another thing, for those who have friends who do not want to invest the time in unlocking moves but have some money to spare in addition to having a 3ds with a not downloaded smash...the 3ds action replay can help spread the custom awareness around.
The point of customs is to change the game, so I disagree with banning them to begin with. Aside from that, there are some issues with the list system you propose:
Not everyone knows the TO in advance, nor necessarily has a direct contact line to them.
Half the point of customs is to swap a handful of moves for matchups. Rosalina has no point running Gravitational Pull against DK, and no point running Guardian Luma against Megaman. If I entered as a Rosalina with GravPull, I'd be handicapped against melee-only fighters because of a rather arbitrary "avoidance" of these extremely soft counters.
It isn't really comparable to Yugioh or TCGs, part of the point there is to ensure you don't cheat, since there are hard counters in the game from a design perspective. And while players typically run mains, the card-swapping analogy is more akin to having a character-lock tournament and someone changing characters.
Basically, if we run with your suggestion, everyone must rationally lock themselves into their optimal moveset to handle the greatest perceived threat, i.e. whatever they think counters Diddy. All that does is result in extremely narrow threat-analysis setup, with no room for adaptation on the fly if you get to the tournament and discover that (by a stroke of miracle) no one is playing Diddy.
For that matter, the whole point of customs is to make one character's fight "easier". Just like picking a character. If I'm playing Palutena and run Superspeed+Lightweight, that is precisely so that I can make my fight easier, and for that matter, make my character valid against others who have superior normals or default specials.
And lastly, what if twelve Diddy players all showed up and (for some reason) wanted different loadouts? You only have room for ten plus default without having to use a 3DS (or an unlocked U).
Not to mention the havoc players like me, who play a very large handful of characters with a large variety of movesets, could cause.
