.8 dmg... let's make the games last even longer.... I know increasing dmg lowers the percent to which falco can do his inescapable chain throw, so an inverse relation would be that lowering the dmg means it increases the percent he can chain till?
L canceling vs S canceling
At the very highest level of play sure L canceling is not missed 99% of the time. Almost no one gets to that level of play though. Even the people with the best tech skill I've seen or people that are just good (Alex, Lee(LA), Cave, etc) I have not met a single person who's missed L cancels I could not punish. Meaning there were missed L cancels. With L canceling the other person can do a lot to change the timing for when your L cancel needs to be, this is even more true in brawl, and by making you miss it then punish you for it. Even if you do get it 99% of the time there is still that 1% that a good player will punish you for greatly. With S canceling there is no timing it, it is simply a free 0 lag everytime no matter what the other person does. This does not take skill, this does not allow the other person to mess up your timing. If it's like that than the code should just be to give all aerials 0 lag in the first place with no need to hold down the shield button. L canceling is something that rewards those who put time and effort into practicing to get better. It's something that adds skill and depth to the game. When I play Alex for instance if he does a super insane combo on me that just shouldn't happen I know it's because of the massive amount of time he has put into bringing his tech skill to that level. Even at my best I would not have been able to pull off that combo as I would probably miss one of the eight L cancels needed to string the whole thing. Such a feat should not come free. Take CvS2 for the gamecube. There is an option that allows you to do specials with the C-stick so Akuma's Demon Rage can be done simply by pushing the C-stick in a diagonal direction, or other like specials. This is of course banned as it takes away the skill of the game. Of course it's better to end your combo with a special everytime as it adds more dmg but it's something that takes skill to do and should not be free and automatic. Yes L canceling will take practice and it should be done everytime, but rightfully so. The fact is you won't get it everytime, especially in brawl where it's harder and the timing can vary in much greater degrees causing more misses, but it still adds possibilities for both you and your opponent. You can do a laggy move expecting to get the L cancel and your opponent can do something to change your timing for instance which causes you to miss it which you didn't plan, now your opponent can punish you because of something they did.
Hylian you didn't really make any arguments for S canceling over L caneling and that's why I didn't respond. You're one argument is that L canceling doesn't add much. This is just wrong, test it some more. L canceling allows plenty of consecutive hit combos that were not doable before, even without hitstun. As I try out hitstun more though it seems quite nice and as though it should be included and with L canceling so much more will be possible on top of what it already possible without the increased hitstun. Being able to spam any aerial you want (S cancel) with increased hitstun on is even worse...
My recommendation for a Brawl+ stageset.
Starters:
Battlefield
Smashville
Final Destination
Yoshi's Island (Wii)
Lylat Cruise
Starter/Counter:
Pokémon Stadium 1
Pokémon Stadium 2
Halberd
Delfino
Castle Siege
Counter Pick:
Rainbow Cruise
Frigate Orpheon
Brinstar
Pirate Ship
Jungle Japes
Counter/Ban:
Luigi's Mansion - can get the lead and run away the rest of the match if faster character, somewhat balanced by the fact you can destroy the house with sufficient time
Corneria - wall of infinites, nearly impossible to avoid having to go down there, divider to promote camping and running away with a percent lead
Norfair - lava kills at low percents and combos everywhere, though it's more of just different not really broken
Skyworld - hyrule running away with percent lead, gimp recoveries are gimped worse
Distant Planet - walk off stage to the left
Pictochat - lots of stage hazards that can kill you at low percents, again nothing really broken
Green Greens - walls, glitches, run away camping galore!
Port Town Aero Dive - cars that kill at 40%.... technically not broken...
Green Hill Zone - walk off ledges on both sides.... I mean come on....
Yoshi Pipes - walk off stage to the right
Everything else banned for obvious gayities, walls, walk off stages, and camping (let me know if you need an explanation of why any of those aspects are ban worthy)
If you want more starter stages I would suggest picking from the starter/counter list, else just make all those counter picks.
I provided a simple analysis of each stage I listed in the Counter/Ban section. I personally feel that certain of those should certainly be counter and some should certainly be banned but I'm not hosting the tourney so I'll leave the call up to you. Let me know if you want a more in depth analysis of any of those stages.
Note (after seeing the stage list you put up) - If walk offs were banned in melee due to waveshine kills which only worked on select characters and took skill to do then shouldn't they be banned in brawl where one DDD grab can walk off half the cast without any skill at all? Not to mention falco can do it semi decently and people can just camp a side for a low percent back throw kill...)
Edit: I'm fine with random stage select or the striking system, but I do not see any logical reason why striking would be sooooo much better as Hylian put it. If the starters are neutral stages as they should be then the people should be able to play on any one of those particular stages. There is even a random reset if there's a stage you really don't like.