Norfair is a great level and the lava shenanigans help much more than hinder. Hitting an opponent towards the wall of lava and then readying an attack for when he comes flying back is great, intentional, and is 'using your environment as a weapon' in the best sense of the word. Until somebody can consistently 'break' the level (by super planking or circle camping) It should remain very much legal. Hell, it should be a starter if stage striking is in (but I doubt I'll convince you guys of that just yet...).
Infzy's post about Luigi's Mansion says it all. Not-broken until proven otherwise. However, it seems like it's an unpopular level for some of you. I'm not terribly fond of it as there as better choices for any advantage it may seem to bestow on people but I wouldn't want to see it go. Nobody picks it anyways so you might as well leave it alone, like a benign tumor.
Pirate Ship was banned here when Brawl first came out because, like a bunch of scrubs, we all wrote it off as being too unpredictable and hectic. After Only in Niagara, where Percon had the balls to try it out, we realized that it wasn't broken in any way so we adopted it into our stages list. After the novel strategy of water camping was quickly beaten (I haven't seen that work in ages and I doubt It'll ever work on the Ottawa guys again) and we learned not to ignore the bombs (and, in fact, to use them as a way to stage control) it happily became just 'one of the stages'. Because of all of the many different positional situations it enables, I feel that removing it would be a step back. Plus, it's one of the best noob stomping levels around (players new to the level never seem to notice you pushing them into where the bombs are about to hit).
Re: Ben as new Tournament Organizer:
I've noticed over the past few bi-weeklies that Ben usually has to take charge of things at some point or another. He's exceptional with the organizing part and really works to keep things running smoothly and efficiently. Sometimes bi-weeklies go a bit too long for my taste and I feel that Ben is the best man for the job of keeping things running on time. As well, he's been somebody who jokes around (well, I'm assuming he makes jokes sometimes...
) at certain times but also knows when to keep things straight and on track. Add to that the fact that he is currently, by far, the best Brawl player in Ottawa right now and I believe that, no matter how great a job other people may have been doing, Ben would be the one most suited to be our Smashkage.
