Thoughts on Erasmode?

[Comprehend13]

For the unfamiliar: Erasmode is a nonstandard tournament ruleset in which each player gets three character bans against the other player (as recently showcased on Tourney Locator).

Questions for Discussion: Do you think character bans are a good thing for tournaments and/or the metagame? Does Erasmode have a future in competitive smash? Has something similar been tried before?

 

[Bellioes]

The tourney locator Erasmode event was just a side event for fun. They still had the normal bracket as usual for the main event. I seriously doubt this is ever going to become a standard ruleset in competitive tournaments. Just something to keep people entertained.

 

[Kankato]

Yeah, I don't think a ruleset banning your opponent from playing their main will ever be taken seriously. Looks hella fun though.

 

[Strong Badam]

Very fun side event from what I can tell but certainly won't be replacing standard singles ever.

 

[DMG]

3 chars is probably too much, since the majority of players don't go beyond 2 or 3 solid characters. It also doesn't favor newer players or those who aren't "in the loop" about which characters people can play (how many people would be unaware that Sethlon could use someone besides Roy? If you didn't have prior knowledge, you'd have no idea). It heavily favors people like me, Oracle, and those with more than a handful of characters to use.

It's an OK mode, but it would probably shrink down to 2 char bans. Don't expect it to evolve from side event status ofc.

 

[KayB]

Seeing how Smash tournaments are as big as they already are, I don't really see Erasmode having a strong presence outside of PM exclusive tournaments, and even then they'll probably be outshined by the inevitable All-Stars tournament at the dawn of version 3.5. You might see them often as side-tournaments, but I doubt they'll really be streamed that much.

 

[CORY]

or....

erasmode allstar?

 

[KayB]

or....

erasmode allstar?

We would get hilariously bad matches and possibly one good one.

 

[proxibomb]

This would be more of a fun thing to do, rather than tournament-quality kinda thing. Imagine you've practiced playing a character for years, and then some guy just puts the ban up on your character. Not cool.

 

[TimeSmash]

Good thing I play four to five characters hehe. It would be a pretty cool side event

 

[Sethlon]

It also doesn't favor newer players or those who aren't "in the loop" about which characters people can play (how many people would be unaware that Sethlon could use someone besides Roy? If you didn't have prior knowledge, you'd have no idea).

It also doesn't favor the more popular people who everyone knows...its almost impossible for me to know the mains/secondaries of everyone at a 60 person tournament, but everyone knows I play Roy. Not so fun having to play my not-top-3 characters (quaternaries?) against people's mains. Personally I would have more fun playing either just raw Random like men (like the good ol' days) or All-star with 4 unique characters.

 

[CORY]

i think it favors dark horses far more than any other demographic, for the reasons sethlon just explained.

 

[GFooChombey]

I think this functions well on the couch with your regulars. Not so much in a tournament setting though.

 

[0RLY]

It's a fun side event, that is all.

 

[wiiztec]

Anything that could result in m2k playing falcon more is a good thing

 

[Problem2]

This format is also better for locals than for bigger tournaments simply because everyone knows everyone better and the dark horse syndrome isn't as prevalent.

 

[erasmorpheous]

It's a just for fun side event. I proposed it to infinity for one of the dfw weeklies and a lot of the players know each other so it definitely helps out there. The main singles event was still held which had at least twice the entrants. The players who didn't want to play it just didn't sign up for it. Oracle won ours because even though everyone knows his mains he has a very deep cast.

In my opinion it works well for dedicated weeklies and it was a lot of fun! If I recall Sethlon won our normal bracket as per usual anyway lol. I did run into cases where I didn't know the player and I agreed to tell him my main if they told me theirs which is 100% on an honor system.