David Wonn
Smash Ace
At what points and in which situations do you show your opponent(s) mercy online? Also, when do you give none at all? I will give my scenarios to start out:
I most likely show mercy when...
1. I have an idle opponent in Team Battle. Sometimes it's not obvious right away if you like to get into the action immediately, as I do. I will back off if my opponent appears to be lifeless after I had initially attacked. I'll try to keep them on-stage and let my partner go one-on-one with the remaining opponent. I do this in hopes that the favors are returned when I am unfortunate enough to get stuck with that idle player. Of course that doesn't always happen, so there are natural exceptions to this rule.
2. I am dominating the match. This is evident when I am the only person with a positive score or if nobody kills our team at all. After a match or two like this, I am more likely to back off and switch to lesser used characters to even up the fight, and to give me some much needed practice where I am weak.
3. One player is getting ganged up on in Basic Brawl. I seldom ever enter Basic Brawl since it is rare to find a combination of skilled players, honorable players, and true free-for-all players. Even having just one player with one of the three attributes is rare enough itself. Therefore, I will not attack the player who is "crashing" the party, since I am all for that. If I'm lucky, I'll turn it into a 2 vs. 2 or a true free-for-all. The moment I see any of that "KO charity" or related garbage is the moment they have truly conceded that they suck, and I promptly disconnect the group with no questions asked.
4. An opponent picks Ganondorf. That does not mean I'm holding back, but I will refrain from some of the cheaper anti-Ganon tactics in hopes they will stick around another match so I can join in as Ganon myself. One of these days I'll get all 4 players to pick Ganon if I try enough....
"You'll get no sympathy from me" when...
1. I get an idle partner in Team Battle and the opponents attack without caring. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that I will lose, although ironically I have won these on occasion. I will definitely hang around long enough to ensure one of my opponents gets stuck with the idle partner. When (not if) this happens, I will show no ounce of mercy on either the live opponent or the one who is away. I might even stick around for one more to ensure the other player gets stuck with the idle partner and repeat the process.
2. Overpowered items are involved. Since I cannot tell for certain who picked them, I have to assume any one of my opponents did. I may even smack someone with the fan for the whole match just to show my disgust with their lousy choices. One exception might be if this scenario is combined with mercy rule #1. Then I'll just toss every item off the stage or eat them all as Kirby / DDD / Wario if I happened to pick one of them.
3. Taunters / teamers are involved. Fortunately they stick to Basic Brawl 99% of the time, so I don't have to deal with them much. But when they are foolish enough to attempt that childish stuff in Team Battle, I go after them relentlessly. That is, unless of course they pick someone fast like Sonic in the Hyrule Temple and think they can waste my time chasing them. In that case, I'll just double team against your partner and let you taunt all you want. :-) Either way, the taunters always lose. Always.
4. Chain grabbing scrubs are involved. Most of the time I run into these players that stick with Falco / DDD, I quickly find out that is all they know about the character. It becomes very evident with all the whiffed grab attempts as you get in close. I make sure they learn soon enough that there is more to the game than just grabbing. These players often get gimped quite easily and I capitalize on that as often as possible. I then rejoice as they promptly leave as they often do after getting unexpectedly owned for one match.
5. Someone picks a character with terrible recovery that heavily relies on tethers. This one might be slightly controversial, in that I have no qualms about edgehogging. I especially show no mercy as Ganon against an Olimar, but I don't encounter Olimars much online. Sometimes they are crazy enough to challenge me offstage when I use a character with a good ledge game, like Samus. Then they quickly forget that she has a tether too....
Given my personal "rules" as a starting point for discussion, what are everyone else's?
I most likely show mercy when...
1. I have an idle opponent in Team Battle. Sometimes it's not obvious right away if you like to get into the action immediately, as I do. I will back off if my opponent appears to be lifeless after I had initially attacked. I'll try to keep them on-stage and let my partner go one-on-one with the remaining opponent. I do this in hopes that the favors are returned when I am unfortunate enough to get stuck with that idle player. Of course that doesn't always happen, so there are natural exceptions to this rule.
2. I am dominating the match. This is evident when I am the only person with a positive score or if nobody kills our team at all. After a match or two like this, I am more likely to back off and switch to lesser used characters to even up the fight, and to give me some much needed practice where I am weak.
3. One player is getting ganged up on in Basic Brawl. I seldom ever enter Basic Brawl since it is rare to find a combination of skilled players, honorable players, and true free-for-all players. Even having just one player with one of the three attributes is rare enough itself. Therefore, I will not attack the player who is "crashing" the party, since I am all for that. If I'm lucky, I'll turn it into a 2 vs. 2 or a true free-for-all. The moment I see any of that "KO charity" or related garbage is the moment they have truly conceded that they suck, and I promptly disconnect the group with no questions asked.
4. An opponent picks Ganondorf. That does not mean I'm holding back, but I will refrain from some of the cheaper anti-Ganon tactics in hopes they will stick around another match so I can join in as Ganon myself. One of these days I'll get all 4 players to pick Ganon if I try enough....
"You'll get no sympathy from me" when...
1. I get an idle partner in Team Battle and the opponents attack without caring. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that I will lose, although ironically I have won these on occasion. I will definitely hang around long enough to ensure one of my opponents gets stuck with the idle partner. When (not if) this happens, I will show no ounce of mercy on either the live opponent or the one who is away. I might even stick around for one more to ensure the other player gets stuck with the idle partner and repeat the process.
2. Overpowered items are involved. Since I cannot tell for certain who picked them, I have to assume any one of my opponents did. I may even smack someone with the fan for the whole match just to show my disgust with their lousy choices. One exception might be if this scenario is combined with mercy rule #1. Then I'll just toss every item off the stage or eat them all as Kirby / DDD / Wario if I happened to pick one of them.
3. Taunters / teamers are involved. Fortunately they stick to Basic Brawl 99% of the time, so I don't have to deal with them much. But when they are foolish enough to attempt that childish stuff in Team Battle, I go after them relentlessly. That is, unless of course they pick someone fast like Sonic in the Hyrule Temple and think they can waste my time chasing them. In that case, I'll just double team against your partner and let you taunt all you want. :-) Either way, the taunters always lose. Always.
4. Chain grabbing scrubs are involved. Most of the time I run into these players that stick with Falco / DDD, I quickly find out that is all they know about the character. It becomes very evident with all the whiffed grab attempts as you get in close. I make sure they learn soon enough that there is more to the game than just grabbing. These players often get gimped quite easily and I capitalize on that as often as possible. I then rejoice as they promptly leave as they often do after getting unexpectedly owned for one match.
5. Someone picks a character with terrible recovery that heavily relies on tethers. This one might be slightly controversial, in that I have no qualms about edgehogging. I especially show no mercy as Ganon against an Olimar, but I don't encounter Olimars much online. Sometimes they are crazy enough to challenge me offstage when I use a character with a good ledge game, like Samus. Then they quickly forget that she has a tether too....
Given my personal "rules" as a starting point for discussion, what are everyone else's?
