Yeah, I'm not going to any tournament with a 25 edge grab rule. I'm also Cincinnati's only
primary driver; if you're lucky you might get Tyr for half an event. So, count out all of
Cincinnati for every event with this.
UNLESS....
You do the following:
Add in a projectile rule. No more than 30 projectiles thrown a game. Bananas, nades, lasers,
these all count. Spamming projectiles is NOT how this game was intended to be played, and by
that I mean I don't like it and therefore should make an arbitrary rule to defeat an
inexistant problem.
Remove all CGs. Anyone caught doing any chain grab that is over 3 successive grabs will lose
the set immediately. Losing control of your character isn't fun and not how the game was
intended; if a grab is supposed to do 10%, you shouldn't be able to do 50% using that same
grab.
Add in a "no drought" rule. Planking is boring, but not broken. Obviously, it's because
people are CAMPING TOO MUCH. It isn't FUN. NO ONE LIKES CAMPING. Because of this, we should
add in a no drought rule. If the game ever has a "no drought" rule for more than 5 seconds,
we compare statistics of ground time, air time, grab attempts, ground attacks, air attacks,
damage given, damage taken, and flight distance to determine which player was actually
"camping", and they'll be DQed from the tournament.
OR
when someone is knocked off the stage, you have to go to the opposite ledge and allow them
to return to the stage. You then count down to 3, and can approach each other from that
point forward UNTIL SOMEONE IS KNOCKED OFF THE STAGE. Any attacking off the stage is not how
the game was intended to be played.
We add in items. MK sometimes has a hard time killing heavy characters like Snake, and
sometimes has trouble getting through his grenade traps. This was not how the game was
intended to be played, it's boring. If items are on, pokeballs will appear and this will
force Snake to get in the air, where you can hit him. This will also automatically edgeguard
people, but YOU won't be edgeguarding since its a pokemon. This will give us a very deep
metagame and be how the game was intended to be played.
Alternative solutions to your problem:
Add in food on the lowerst setting. You heal 100% of damage on average over the 6 total
stocks in an 8 minute game, assuming all food is eaten. Evenly, that's 50% per player, or 6
-7% per stock. This also gives Diddy's peanut gun peanuts, and the shy guys food on Yoshi's
Island. This will prevent planking and not completely and totally alter the metagame that
we have created. Instead, it will merely give incentive for players to leave the ledge.
If they don't, their opponent will just heal percentage.
Alternative alternative solution to your problem:
Don't be a tool.
The only even partially serious part of this post happens to be the last two.
You're creating a solution in search of a problem.
So here's a few questions for you:
If you need an anti-planking rule, this assumes that planking is a problem.
There are three possible issues it could be about.
1. Planking wins and is unbeatable
This can't be, as planking hasn't won a tournament ever.
2. Planking has caused overcentralization of a certain character or stage due to its
effectiveness
Also can't be true, as "planking ability" hasn't effectively increased any character
numbers. While ability to play on the ledge or off the ledge factors into a character's
ability, it doesn't make or break a character save for a few matchups. This is nothing new
to competitive play; some people can't deal with disjointed hitboxes, some can't deal with
certain chain grabs, some can't deal with good edgeguarding characters, some can't deal with
heavies, etc., etc.; it's an aspect of your character that affects the whole.
3. Planking is merely not desireable in a 'fun' sense.
This is dangerous territory. The moment you ban something just because you don't like it and
spout off nonsense as asinine and toolish as "it's not how the game was intended to be
played" or bass-ackwards as "it won't even affect the game that much, it's only if the time
runs out", you have effectively opened the floodgates. Every single "solution" I put in this
thread is just as viable. I don't like dealing with campy Snakes throwing grenades and
setting traps; it's annoying and slow to dismantle them. I also hate having to air dodge and
powershield through Falco's lasers, and Diddy's bananas are irritating too. Why not have a
projectile limit? Doesn't this force more "fun" gameplay? I've seen more standoffs between
projectile spammers and people without projectiles than people planking in tournament,
anyway. Having a projectile limit and then saying if the time runs out if you have a
projectile count that is higher you lose the set would help increase enjoyability for many
players, I'm sure. Not everyone has a projectile.
So now that we know there isn't a single shred of evidence for anti-planking rules in
tournament save for matches of Metaknight, the BEST planking character in the game,
versus Falco, the WORST at attacking someone on the edge in the game where obvious results
come into play and we know people are just doing this because they want to, we can
move on from the bull****.
So let's disect this rule, as people attending have to deal with it.
Should your opponent grab the edge 25 times, you can wait out the timer and win regardless
of your stock count.
We now can no longer effectively grab the edge at will to avoid things; we have to take more
dangerous approaches, lest the time run out and we lose.
Stages that traditionally go to time, such as Luigi's Mansion, Jungle Japes, or PS1, are now
much more effective counterpicks for those that don't require the grabbing of the edge.
Characters that traditionally have to grab the ledge multiple times to gain position, such
as MK, G&W, Pikachu, etc., are weakened. Characters that do poorly against those on the
ledge, such as ICs, Falco, Fox, Wario, etc., are strengthened.
Characters that are lighter are weakened. They can be knocked off the stage easier than most
others, and by simply charging a smash and giving them a free and open ledge, you make their
choice clear. Do this multiple times in a set and among the natural ledge grabs you will do
much better.
Characters that can force regrabs are strengthened, especially Snake. Dropping a c4 and
immediately exploding it, dropping grenades, even hovering a nikata makes the best possible
option to grab the ledge.
Characters that are required to grab the ledge to recover are weakened, especially those
with traditional recoveries like Marth. Simply hitting them off the stage forces a regrab.
Characters that do not require the ledge to recover are strengthened, especially Snake and
Falco. As Falco's over-b is nigh unpunishable when used properly unless the opponent is in
the right position (and even then can be canceled to create a RPS effect from many
positions) and Snake's best method for recovery is to go as high as possible and land on the
stage, they can practically ignore the ledge grab rule.
And, the top of the crap pile:
It is only in place if the time runs out.
So...
You're telling me that a 25 edge grab limit is necessary, but have no problem with
saying that it won't occur because 1) the time has to run out and 2) most people don't grab
the edge that much anyway.
If people do'nt grab the edge that much anyway, it isn't a problem.
If you are waiting for the time to run out, you aren't fixing the problem. You are
merely adding an alternative method of winning and losing into the game that is as arbitrary
as counting damage given rather than stocks.
If you don't expect for a problem to be rampant, you probably shouldn't be making a rule for
it.
Seriously, don't expect Cincinnati at any tournaments with a 25 edge grab limit. There's no
rhyme or reason to it, its just standard scrub talk.
