Just a heads up, mac...people may be slightly...unforgiving towards your standpoint because not only are you posting in the Tucson threads (a couple hours south of Phoenix), but you're talking about Brawl, which there are more of in Phoenix, than Tucson (and those who play Brawl in Tucson, tend to play Melee as well). Have you ever considered trying Melee? I realize you don't have the game, but that doesn't have to stop you from playing it. Also, if you care enough about it, you can buy a gamecube and Melee disk for $35 total, which is fairly cheap in comparison to the average standard of living. If you don't have$35 to invest in this hobby, perhaps it isn't the hobby for you or perhaps there are other priorities in your life you should consider first. In my personal opinion, there are a few things that make it a better game for competition when compared to Brawl.
Firstly, there is more hitstun (not to the point of 64), and more techniques (wavedashing/L-canceling/etc.) that make the game more technical and thus, have a higher consistency cap than Brawl, which allows for a larger spread between good and bad. Secondly, the games, on average, tend to go much quicker due to combos and gimps and things that are much more rare in Brawl. Quicker games are more fun to watch; while camp-fests are much less appealing to most. Thirdly, what is considered the best character (according to the current tier list) is still able to be combo'd by almost anyone in the game. On the other hand, Metaknight is considered by several as broken, though someone else would be more qualified to explain why.
At any rate, good luck with finding what you are looking for.