So most people either agree that Brawl isn't really competitive or at least not as competitive as Melee. While the former isn't true and the latter isn't necessarily bad I still want to explain why Brawl is not as competitive as it could actually be. Brawl actually still has potetial to become more competitive than it is right now. The problem doesn't lie within the game itself but rather in the ruleset. A few things in the recommended Brawl ruleset (or in current yet undecided issues) should be thought over again. I don't actually want to critisize the ruleset but rather give another point of view on how the game could be more competitive.
This does NOT mean that I'm dissatisfied with the current rules or the game itself. These are just additional thoughts: None of them are proven to make the game more competitive - they aren't "explored" enough. But exactly for that reason they should be tried out more.
Items
I know: there is an Item Standard Play Project but I still want to mention that this project needs more support from the TOs. Few people even know that such a project exists and many people fail to realize its potential.
A guy named Titanium Dragon mentioned in one of his posts that in Melee all items were banned because even if you only turned on items that don't break the game there would still be containers randomly popping up. This stupid feature was removed in Brawl. It is now entirely possible to play with almost complete freedom in regards to items (the only thing it lacks are spawnrates for individual items). As a result items do not break the game anymore and some of them do not need to be banned, so why are they banned still? The purpose of a competitive game is to ban as little as possible. Melee needed several stages, mechanics and all items banned in order to become a competitive game. Having items turned on that don't break the game is perfectly acceptable in a competitive fighting game and banning them just because it used to be like that in Melee is just plain scrubby.
In Melee you couldn't turn on the Bunny Hood because as a consequence other game breaking items were turned on as well (Game breaking means that there's unfairly more reward in using an item than there are risks). This is no longer the case in Brawl therefore the game can be played with several items:
Sandbag: The Sandbag doesn't have any properties that make battles unfair. However, as a shield to block attacks it has tactical applications.
Banana Peel: Diddy can use them - why ban it?
Franklin Badge: This item has obvious uses but still doesn't make a worse player win
Bunny Hood: Same as the Franklin Badge
In teams it may even be possible to use Smash Balls and other items as you can hit your teammate as well - risk and reward might be balanced in this case.
The Item Standard Play also approves of other items such as Warp Stars or the Beam Sword - I don't think they should be allowed as they tend to over-centralize the match (although this needs to be tested) but what's wrong with having the Franklin Badge turned on? It helps characters, who lack projectiles but doesn't prevent the better player from winning. It may even make games more enjoyable to some people considering how popular projectile camping is in Brawl.
What the removal of these items does not do:
- Make the game fairer or more balanced
- Make the game more entertaining (shallow reason but still a reason)
- Make the game more competitive!!!
What leaving these items on does do:
- Give the game a lot more tactical layers
- Possibly make the games more entertaining
- Balance out "unfair" mechanics (banana peels interrupting King Dedede's CG)
In conclusion: banning items because it used to be like this in Melee is just as scrubby as banning Meta Knight. Remove as little as possible from the game to keep it as competitive as it gets - this does not need to be the case but it's still scrubby to not even try.
Custom Stages
I'm sure somebody made a thread about that somewhere before but I haven't found it so I ask at the risk of repeating an old question: Why are there no regulations regarding custom stages? There could be a regulation that allows a certain number of preset (probably by the SBR) custom stages (legal ones of course) for tournament play. I know that there's no need to do this but for the sake of variety (which may have an impact on how competitive the game is) it's still a good idea. There are certain "shapes" of stages in Melee that are unused in Brawl (DL64, YS, FoD) but can be generated additionally. Why should these left out? Adding a number of playable stages to give the players more freedom to pick and maybe make the counter pick system more prominent may have a positive impact on the game - at any rate it won't hurt it so using additional custom stages might as well be tournament standard.
Yuna once wrote in one of his posts that a game that needs too many modifications/bans/hacks/etc to be played competitively should be forgotten and something else should be played. He does indeed have a point but adding stages doesn't alter the game that dramatically - custom stages are features that are meant to be used and if they can be used competitively, then why not? There's a difference whether you have to hack a game and ban 90% of it's features or if you just use one of those features to improve the game - the developers gave us that option, which we still haven't used, despite the fact that there's no reason not to do it.
The option of creating own stages should be used more actually, as it gives us the option to decide for ourselves, to what level we want to push this aspect (with limits of course but legal stages have to be limited anyways) but we haven't even tried it - for what reason? It's better to use custom stages than debate whether garbage stages like Port Town Aerodrive should be legal or not (no, this is not a joke - there are indeed people who think it should be legal).
People are inclined to ban too much!
Seriously, what the hell is up with that crap? First MK, then D3s infinite and now planking? Next time you wanna ban projectile spam? People want more bans than the game needs - in fact it would hurt the game to ban so much. Keep on going on like that and you'll ban everything that makes (or is supposed to make) competitive...there are already unnecessay bans on things without even knowing whether they make the game uncompetitive or not (certain items, read above).
This is obvioulsy not directed towards the likes of M2K or DSF but to random SWF poster #3422, who can't beat random MKs in a random local tournament. Yes, the game could be more competitive but what really gives the game such an unvafourable reputation is its community. You guys wanna ban things until there's nothing left to ban.
...
I hope some of this ideas will be read by some well-known TOs and inspire some people to actually try these. People want to ban game mechanics and even a whole character (!) after already banning something that doesn't need to be banned in the first place. Something I'd like to mention is that I don't demand that these rules need to be added to the standard ruleset. However there should be an alternative ruleset that actually considers these things, since they possibly make the game more competitive.
tl;dr ban less, make more use of the game's features
This does NOT mean that I'm dissatisfied with the current rules or the game itself. These are just additional thoughts: None of them are proven to make the game more competitive - they aren't "explored" enough. But exactly for that reason they should be tried out more.
Items
I know: there is an Item Standard Play Project but I still want to mention that this project needs more support from the TOs. Few people even know that such a project exists and many people fail to realize its potential.
A guy named Titanium Dragon mentioned in one of his posts that in Melee all items were banned because even if you only turned on items that don't break the game there would still be containers randomly popping up. This stupid feature was removed in Brawl. It is now entirely possible to play with almost complete freedom in regards to items (the only thing it lacks are spawnrates for individual items). As a result items do not break the game anymore and some of them do not need to be banned, so why are they banned still? The purpose of a competitive game is to ban as little as possible. Melee needed several stages, mechanics and all items banned in order to become a competitive game. Having items turned on that don't break the game is perfectly acceptable in a competitive fighting game and banning them just because it used to be like that in Melee is just plain scrubby.
In Melee you couldn't turn on the Bunny Hood because as a consequence other game breaking items were turned on as well (Game breaking means that there's unfairly more reward in using an item than there are risks). This is no longer the case in Brawl therefore the game can be played with several items:
Sandbag: The Sandbag doesn't have any properties that make battles unfair. However, as a shield to block attacks it has tactical applications.
Banana Peel: Diddy can use them - why ban it?
Franklin Badge: This item has obvious uses but still doesn't make a worse player win
Bunny Hood: Same as the Franklin Badge
In teams it may even be possible to use Smash Balls and other items as you can hit your teammate as well - risk and reward might be balanced in this case.
The Item Standard Play also approves of other items such as Warp Stars or the Beam Sword - I don't think they should be allowed as they tend to over-centralize the match (although this needs to be tested) but what's wrong with having the Franklin Badge turned on? It helps characters, who lack projectiles but doesn't prevent the better player from winning. It may even make games more enjoyable to some people considering how popular projectile camping is in Brawl.
What the removal of these items does not do:
- Make the game fairer or more balanced
- Make the game more entertaining (shallow reason but still a reason)
- Make the game more competitive!!!
What leaving these items on does do:
- Give the game a lot more tactical layers
- Possibly make the games more entertaining
- Balance out "unfair" mechanics (banana peels interrupting King Dedede's CG)
In conclusion: banning items because it used to be like this in Melee is just as scrubby as banning Meta Knight. Remove as little as possible from the game to keep it as competitive as it gets - this does not need to be the case but it's still scrubby to not even try.
Custom Stages
I'm sure somebody made a thread about that somewhere before but I haven't found it so I ask at the risk of repeating an old question: Why are there no regulations regarding custom stages? There could be a regulation that allows a certain number of preset (probably by the SBR) custom stages (legal ones of course) for tournament play. I know that there's no need to do this but for the sake of variety (which may have an impact on how competitive the game is) it's still a good idea. There are certain "shapes" of stages in Melee that are unused in Brawl (DL64, YS, FoD) but can be generated additionally. Why should these left out? Adding a number of playable stages to give the players more freedom to pick and maybe make the counter pick system more prominent may have a positive impact on the game - at any rate it won't hurt it so using additional custom stages might as well be tournament standard.
Yuna once wrote in one of his posts that a game that needs too many modifications/bans/hacks/etc to be played competitively should be forgotten and something else should be played. He does indeed have a point but adding stages doesn't alter the game that dramatically - custom stages are features that are meant to be used and if they can be used competitively, then why not? There's a difference whether you have to hack a game and ban 90% of it's features or if you just use one of those features to improve the game - the developers gave us that option, which we still haven't used, despite the fact that there's no reason not to do it.
The option of creating own stages should be used more actually, as it gives us the option to decide for ourselves, to what level we want to push this aspect (with limits of course but legal stages have to be limited anyways) but we haven't even tried it - for what reason? It's better to use custom stages than debate whether garbage stages like Port Town Aerodrive should be legal or not (no, this is not a joke - there are indeed people who think it should be legal).
People are inclined to ban too much!
Seriously, what the hell is up with that crap? First MK, then D3s infinite and now planking? Next time you wanna ban projectile spam? People want more bans than the game needs - in fact it would hurt the game to ban so much. Keep on going on like that and you'll ban everything that makes (or is supposed to make) competitive...there are already unnecessay bans on things without even knowing whether they make the game uncompetitive or not (certain items, read above).
This is obvioulsy not directed towards the likes of M2K or DSF but to random SWF poster #3422, who can't beat random MKs in a random local tournament. Yes, the game could be more competitive but what really gives the game such an unvafourable reputation is its community. You guys wanna ban things until there's nothing left to ban.
...
I hope some of this ideas will be read by some well-known TOs and inspire some people to actually try these. People want to ban game mechanics and even a whole character (!) after already banning something that doesn't need to be banned in the first place. Something I'd like to mention is that I don't demand that these rules need to be added to the standard ruleset. However there should be an alternative ruleset that actually considers these things, since they possibly make the game more competitive.
tl;dr ban less, make more use of the game's features