Time-outs should be a valid strategy, but there are a few problems with it in smash.
- There is no official standard for how long the game is supposed to run (unless we conform to FG rules)
- Very few people actually like way the game itself handles time-outs (Sudden Death)
- While the idea behind it might not be that bad, the implementation of Sudden Death is pretty bad
Since there is no standard on the settings for tourneys, the viability of wins by time-out varies greatly. A random TO might go with 2 stock 5 mins, 2 stock 6 mins, 2 stock 8 mins, 3 stock 6 mins, 3 stock 8 mins, or even stock matches without a timer at all. There is less incentive to stall for time when more time is allowed per game, so most TO's set the timers to make time-outs impractical, making games end sooner than they would otherwise. Until there is a decent in-game solution for settling ties that doesn't outright suck, it is in their best interests to make time-outs a nonviable strategy. Doing so also happens to make games end sooner, unless the timer is set to something so low it would probably distort the meta.
The only true measure of who's winning in stock matches are the amount of lives you have remaining. Everyone agrees whoever has more stocks should be declared the winner, even the game itself. However, if the stocks are tied the game ignores all other factors like % and goes to Sudden Death. This is where the problems start.
Objectively, the % lead is somewhat arbitrary in the context of who's really winning (closer to taking the opponent's stock). In other fighting games where dealing damage is all you do, comparing life bars is easy and the obvious thing to do. In smash, % is one of many factors that contribute to the end goal of getting KO's. Weight, knockback, recovery ability, and gimping potential are all variables that directly influence getting and avoiding KO's. A Jigglypuff at 99% is a lot closer to dying than a Bowser at 100%. Since % isn't a true indicator of who's winning, Sudden Death comes in to act as a tiebreaker match.
Sudden Death in its current form is hated by most tourney players for a few reasons.
- The game resets all the previous conditions of the match
- Both players start at 300%, which is high enough to KO with almost anything.
- Bombs randomly spawning on the stage after ~20-30 seconds to discourage players from stalling
It is fine that Sudden Death happens when time runs out regardless of the %'s for both players, but it is another thing for it to reset the %'s going into it too. If you were at 0% and your opponent was at 100% for example, having both get set to some arbitrary value is dumb. It is even dumber when that arbitrary value is so high, that almost anything KO's (hilariously biased towards characters that can land a quick hit safely). The fact that bombs spawn randomly after a short amount of time to discourage stalling adds another layer of crap to an already crappy tiebreaker mechanic. If the %'s of both players transferred over to Sudden Death and the anti-stalling bombs of death were replaced by something legit and not random everyone would embrace it.
A hypothetical fun and fair Sudden Death match could have the %'s of each player carry over and have mechanics like augmented knockback and/or poison to increase % over time to speed things up. Perhaps having no invincibility or shields that regenerate very slowly would be good ideas too. Maybe bursts of wind pushing the characters closer together and gradually strengthen over time could replace the silly anti-stall random bombs. There are a million ways to make Sudden Death more legit and more hype. Sadly, all we can do is hope for a patch (or more realistically the next smash game) to address this.
Due to how terribly Sudden Death was handled, most people think that the winner should be determined by % lead in the event of a tie in stocks left for both players/teams and just agree to honor that. It is arbitrary and perhaps even scrubby according to traditional FG philosophy, but for most people it is better than playing out Sudden Death.
