After European qualifiers in both England and the Netherlands, it’s France’s turn to compete for places in the Killer Instinct World Cup as Kombo Klash comes to France on February 18th. Held in partnership with Killer Instinct France, Ultra Arcade and Yuzu Gaming Clan, the winner of Kombo Klash France will gain an automatic place at Killer Instinct World Cup in March, alongside complimentary flights to San Antonio, Texas to compete in the final 32-player bracket.
We're proud to support the Kombo Klash, the official FR Killer Instinct tournament that takes place on Feb 18th in Paris ! pic.twitter.com/8aToW3uKcO
France contains its fair share of top Killer Instinct players, with players like Bastfree, LeChatNoir, Crotus88 and JacketedBanjo flying “le tricolore” at both online and offline tournaments. After French players successfully defeated their Dutch compatriots back at Kombo Klash Netherlands and with the centuries old rivalry between the French and English still raging via Killer Instinct, expect plenty of close fights in Paris in February.
If you are interested in visiting Paris this year, additional information and registration details are available on the official Kombo Klash France website.
Robin is an oft unseen character in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tournaments, with many players choosing another one of the several Fire Emblem warriors instead of this hooded tactician. Yet, there are still a handful of players who are faithful to this magical swordsman, using his various spells and powerful Levin Sword to send opponents soaring to their doom.
One such player is Mad Ice King, who has recently put together a Robin montage to show off some of the tricks this magician has up his sleeves. Set to tune of “Bonetrousle” (from the indie game Undertale) and even using replicating the combat graphics from the quirky RPG, Mad Ice King uses all of Robin’s tricks to teach any opponents a painful lesson. Beware of this sorcerer supreme if you ever meet them in bracket.
Back on January 21st, the Japanese Killer Instinct community came together to compete for spots at the Killer Instinct World Cup with Kombo Klash Japan. For those who aren’t aware, Killer Instinct has a small but intensely passionate Japanese scene, lead by the dedicated OGTY and full of top players like the US ex-pat CAT DRUGS, lab fiend Domi, Riptor specialist Tomosama and Omen master Osomatsu among others. While the community is nowhere near as large as your Guilty Gears or Street Fighters in Japan, the Japanese KI scene is devoted to the game and will do anything to see it thrive.
Acting as the honorary US envoys, as well as streaming the event in English, Ultra Arcade’s Brandon Alexander and Kenneth “Bass” Armas traveled to Kombo Klash to help and compete within the tournament, helping to test the mettle of their Japanese compatriots. After all was said and done, the USA reigned supreme as Bass took first place after a close Grand Finals set with Osomatsu. The Japanese definitely gave Bass a run for his money, with Domi’s Kilgore and General RAAM forcing the American to switch off Spinal and use Mira in tournament.
As Bass has already qualified for KIWC, Osomatsu and Ret have earned places in that 32-man bracket, adding some additional international flavor to the tournament. They join threats from Europe and Canada who will also be attending the Killer Instinct World Cup, being held at the Tobin Center in San Antonio, Texas from March 10-12.
Bass has uploaded all of his matches to his YouTube channel and they can be found in the playlist below. If you want to watch the whole of Kombo Klash Japan, check out Ultra Arcade’s VOD from the event, also found below.
While established fighters were duking it out on the Genesis 4 stage, a future competitor quietly trained in the background. With Nintendo of America sponsoring G4, this brought a special demo station for the Nintendo Switch and their new fighting game, ARMS. For those who have yet to see this spring-loaded fighter, ARMS is Nintendo’s attempt to create something like Splatoon for the fighting genre: an accessible and welcoming experience, but with tons of depth for future virtual pugilists. It also makes full use of the Switch’s new JoyCon controller, with boxers holding both the left and right JoyCons to act as their character’s fists as they fling punches at their opponent. It’s certainly fun to play for the first few rounds, but time will tell if ARMS has the legs to fight alongside the heavyweights of the fighting genre.
ARMS works on a standard rock/paper/scissors system of punches beat grabs, grabs beat blocks and blocks beat attacks. There are only three offensive options in ARMS: your two fists and a grab, so Nintendo has had to get creative in order to layer on depth to this initially basic system. First off is the ability to arc punches by putting a twist on the JoyCon as you punch. By curving your hits, you can punch around environmental obstacles like stone pillars or even reach behind an opponent’s block to hit them in the back. As players in ARMS can equip special gloves to imbue their punches with different abilities, you will have to adjust your swings to account for your equipped boxing glove. The Boomerang glove naturally has a curved trajectory, while the Trident lets off three small punches which are harder to curve. Mixing up which fist you are punching with and accounting for player habits between rounds will be important for the ARMS metagame, as you can switch which gloves you are using for every round.
You can also charge up your glove’s power, imbuing them with an additional ability to do extra damage. This can be done by simply waiting for a second for your gloves to glow, meaning that the punch is charged. Once charged, the Toaster glove can set opponents on fire (which can deal additional damage), while the bomb-shaped Homie fist will explode after a short fuse time. You can even set up special traps, by using the Homie to lay down a timed explosion, while mixing someone up with the multiple hits of the Trident. There are even potential juggle combos, as the Boomerang whips up a small whirlwind once charged, knocking your opponent into the air for a juggle opportunity. I did not get a chance to try out all of the gloves, so expect people labbing glove-specific combos once ARMS releases.
While punching is great, throwing your opponent for a loop can be a great way to mix up their offense. You grab in ARMS by flicking both fists forward as the same time, sending your extendo-arms flying outwards towards the opponent. You cannot tech a throw in ARMS, but you can stop the incoming grab by punching out one of the incoming fists to negate the throw. This gives players a good opportunity to let off a flurry of punches, which was a tactic I found particularly useful in the handful of matches I’ve played. You can air throw too, with dash forward and jump up grab being a nasty surprise for my opponents. The only problem is there is no direct follow up after throws, as you almost automatically reset to neutral, so don’t expect any vicious Street Fighter V-esque throw loops in the future of ARMS. You also need to keep an eye on the health of each of your arms, as continuous blows to one particular limb can render it useless for a short period. A small yellow icon will appear at first, with it turning red to signal a stun, so bobbing and weave is essential.
Rounding out your offensive capabilities is the Flurry Attack, a super move which has boxers firing off a barrage of charged up punches. These are not character specific; they instead change based on the fists you have equipped, so expect certain Flurry Attack setups to become popular based on the stage you are currently fighting on. You can simply block this furious sequence of blows, but you do take slight chip damage, opening up the possibility of chip kills at low health.
While offense is good, you need a solid defense to really master the sweet science of punching. As we mentioned, you have your block, which activates by turning the two JoyCon controllers inward, along with a short range dash to get out of trouble. The ARMS team must like their Guilty Gear, as you can actually air dash for additional aerial maneuverability. The ninja boxer Ninjara even has a substitution justu for his aerial dash, disappearing and then reappearing following the input. With select arenas having trampolines and environmental hazards to send the battle into the air, mastering your air dashes will be essential for some matchups.
Speaking of potential matchups, let’s talk about the current roster for ARMS. It’s fairly slight at the moment, with only five fighters prepared to duke it out. Spring Man is the base fighter, with well-rounded attributes and a wicked blue pompadour. So far, people have not been able to discern his unique fighter trait but the prevailing theory at the moment is a higher initial jump.
His female counterpart Ribbon Girl gets three jumps instead of two, while Ninjara gets his substitution dash, as well as the ability to disappear and reappear following a successful block. These three represent the normal sized fighters, with Mechanica and Master Mummy acting as the heavies in this build of ARMS. Master Mummy is a huge undead bruiser, with his base fists looking like massive wrecking balls instead of regular sized hands.
Heavies get a flat stamina boost, meaning it takes longer for their limbs to get stunned, but Master Mummy also has the power to heal himself while blocking. While this seems overpowered at first, his health regen is not rapid and if you see him trying to turtle, you’ll wipe off any of his regained health with a grab. Nintendo have apparently been taking inspiration from Blizzard’s Overwatch, as Mechanica seems somewhat reminiscent of another young woman fighting in a huge robot. Mechanica’s mech suit certainly isn’t as sleek as D.Va’s mech, but it gives her the ability to hover in the air using her suit’s booster jets. It’s unclear at this time if specific glove types are tied to set fighters, but I can already see traditional fighter archetypes forming around the ARMS roster.
ARMS does look quite promising at this stage, with elements which could mark it out as a successful genre breakaway, much like Splatoon did with third-person shooters. While it has mechanics taken from traditional fighters and it certainly has the potential to have some real depth, my gut feeling is that it may not have enough here to satiate dedicated fighting game fans. However, never say never knowing Nintendo’s track record with games initially marketed as “fun party games”… The JoyCon control scheme is unique, but I imagine most players will drop the real punches for the Pro Controller very quickly, unless curving punches is significantly easier using the JoyCon. There is definite fun to be had with ARMS, but it needs more time in the ring to see if it is a future prizefighter.
We live in an age where balance changes are a regular part of fighting games. We all wait with baited breath whenever a patch is on the horizon, praying to every deity known to man that our character will get buffed, instead of nerfed into the ground. While nerfing certain overpowered tools is necessary at times, buffing weaker fighters is usually better for the life cycle of a game, instead of nerfing the stronger ones.
To examine this philosophy and give some reasoning as to why buffs are generally better than nerfs, Gerald from Core-A Gaming has gone into the history of both sports and fighting games, looking at instances where gives players more options to score or win a match has, more often than not, resulted in a more engaging game for everyone. From basketball, he takes the addition of the three point line and how this gave smaller players the chance to score, as they could avoid dealing with some lanky player guarding the hoop. For fighting games, he gives the example of the notorious Street Fighter II: Rainbow Edition and how while the game was beyond broken, it added certain elements like air specials, a teleport for Dhalsim and a fireball for Chun-Li that would go onto make Street Fighter more exciting, by increasing character options.
Psychologically, no-one likes to lose something of value and when a loss of a character option results in a game becoming less exciting, you can understand why people virulently hate nerfs. This does not mean nerfs are all bad, a clever nerf can actually give players more options, as seen with the changes to Shoryuken FADCs during the life cycle of Street Fighter 4.
As with every Core-A video, this analysis is worth a watch if you are interested in the methodology that goes into balancing a fighting game.
Building on their successes with last year’s Super Smash Bros. for Wii U online qualifiers, Panda Global are partnering with smash.gg and Unrivaled Tournaments for PG Key to Frostbite. This online qualifier is open to any players in North America, Mexico or the Caribbean Islands who are over the age of 13, with the grand prize winner getting an all expenses paid trip to Frostbite 2017 in Ann Arbor, Michigan from February 25th-26th.
Along with flights and their venue fee covered, the winner of PG Key to Frostbite will also get to stay in the Panda Global house over the course of the weekend, they will get to wear the PG tag for the whole of the tournament and they will receive a complimentary Panda Global shirt and hoodie.
The pools for this qualifier will begin on February 12th at 10am PST, with it progressing to top 8 over the course of the day. The final eight will then compete on February 16th at 5pm PST to decide the honorary member of Panda Global for the Frostbite weekend.
The rules regarding connection quality and match attendance are the same as previous PG Key events, but double check on the official smash.gg page if you are unsure of any rules. Frostbite is set to be quite the international affair, with several players from Japan making their first trips to the USA to complete. These include Link main T, Olimar master Shuton, as well as veteran travelers like 2GG|komorikiri and LG|Abadango.
Much like the rain that drenched San Jose over last weekend, events like Genesis 4 rarely happen. G4 was a perfect storm of emotion to kick off Smash in 2017, a weekend chock full of excitement and disappointment which will no doubt inform much of the year’s action. It was an event of the highest highs and the lowest lows, and one which no-one is likely to forget, due to some of the precedents it set for both tournament organizers and players. It is a suitable benchmark for the year ahead, providing some important measures which the community at large should try to break through in the coming twelve months, as Smash continues to climb up that esports mountain to greater things.
Traveling across an ocean in order to attend, my own personal expectations were set fairly high going into the event. With its successful revival in 2016 and the continuation of the Mango and Armada storyline, Genesis acts as a mecca for competitive Melee fans, as well as a welcome place where all Smash games can coalesce in one massive convention hall. Just from the lengthy badge pick up line on day one, it was clear that Smashers were ready to break records with this event. The actual hall was packed to the rafters with setups galore for each game, alongside artist and vendor tables, a specialist setup for the Nintendo Switch and even a massage table for those who may have popped off a little too hard in their last match. The place was buzzing, with hundreds packed in tight around monitors and CRTs to warm up and practice for their upcoming pools. For Melee, day one was fairly uneventful but Smash 4 wasted no time in causing some upsets. From PGR players like MSF|Larry Lurr, PG|ESAM and Tyrant getting sent into losers very early to low tier heroes like Sinji, Brood and Afro Smash racking up notable wins, the Smash 4 section was crackling with excitement from the word go. This electricity would carry through for the rest of the weekend, sparking off throughout day two and coming to a head on finals day.
There were a few issues on day one though, mainly when it came to running the larger crew events. Smash 4’s World Crews became a real slog for competitors, with players from Japan and the USA being forced to play late into the evening to finish the event off. It didn’t help that the team from the USA looked unstoppable in the face of the other crews, winning 9-0 and 5-0 versus Japan and decimating the combined forces of Mexico, Canada and the EU. Tweek and RNG|Dabuz took 19 stocks between them against the MexiCanEu team, eventually forcing that team to forfeit for the sake of time. The Melee Draft Crews didn’t fare much better, with multiple players deciding not to compete which caused the whole event to start an hour late. When you compound the absence of players with the fact that many of them were floated through pools in order to give them time to enter events like Draft Crews, you have to question whether these side activities are actually worth everyone’s time. The band did play on though, with the 64 combo contest being an absolute joy to watch and a testament to the creativity of that scene’s top players.
Day two saw the action intensify, for good and for ill. Melee really started to heat up, with sets like Tempo|S2J versus Armada threatening to bring the house down before finals day in the Civic Center. The Ice Climbers were on the warpath throughout top 64, with VGBC|ChuDat, Army and dizzkidboogie carving their way through bracket to defeat players like IMT|Shroomed, LG|Ice and Wizzrobe. Melee’s new generation made waves too, with 20XX harbinger Syrox taking Selfless|Lucky while SmashG0d defeated both RNG|Swedish Delight and Professor Pro before losing to dizzkidboogie. On the other side of the aisle with Smash 4, the air was thick with tension. While being in a venue like the San Jose Convention Center comes with its fair share of bonuses, it also meant that Genesis 4 was at the mercy of the city’s stringent union guidelines, which put a dampener on keeping all games running at maximum capacity. The Smash 4 area had many of its friendly setups taken away, forcing players to horde monitors for one game rotations until pools had to be played, with spectators being jammed into tight corridors if they wanted to catch the action. Combine this with major issues with certain round 2 pools which resulted in incorrect matches being played, games being played off stream, and throttled internet causing major stream problems, and you have quite the disappointing day for Smash 4 players and spectators.
Luckily, the matches themselves did not disappoint—if you were fortunate enough to see them. The Japanese Duck Hunt triumvirate were causing some major upsets throughout the event, but it was Brood’s astounding wins over TSM|ZeRo and Zinoto which brought this much-overlooked character into focus. Brood’s masterful usage of Duck Hunt’s can to create damaging throw setups and traps was a joy to watch, with both of his games having quite the explosive finish. Unfortunately, he didn’t reach the final 16 with an eventual finish at 25th but watch out for the new wave of Duck Hunts taking flight during the spring. Top 32 was full of drama, with friends and teammates being forced to battle in the journey to finals day. CLG teammates Nakat and VoiD had an incredibly close set to kick off top 32, while friends Ranai and 2GG|komorikiri had to fight in the final round of top 32 to get into top 8 on Sunday. The two were clearly reluctant to fight each other, with komorikiri looking visibly disappointed as he sent his teammate packing. Locus and Fatality’s five game series was a grueling fist fight between Ryu and Captain Falcon, while ZeRo soldiered through Losers with some close matches against MVG|Salem and NRG|Nairo. There were clear flashbacks to the days of Brawl in ZeRo’s sets, with Salem trying to run the clock against ZeRo as he almost took out the current world number one at 25th place. It is so unfortunate that many of these games were not recorded, as there were some absolute gems played off stream. Some players like FILIP and MrConCon were able to local record sets via phone cameras, but the lack of properly recorded sets is a blow.
Genesis 4 finals day was a slow burner to start, with 64 running an hour over-schedule thanks to some particularly drawn out matches in the top 6. I think the 64 community will sincerely have to consider the future of the five stock format going forward, as the non-64 faithful were certainly not sympathetic to it delaying the other games by such a long time. There are even talks of a soft ban of Kirby and Pikachu for singles play, to potentially avoid such glacially paced events. They did keep it going, with the Peruvian Pikachu Alvin eventually taking the trophy after narrowly edging out the recently sponsored PG|SuPeRbOoMfAN in the first set of Grand Finals. It was then the turn of Smash 4 to keep the train rolling and boy were there some fireworks along the way.
Following a clash between ZeRo and Dabuz to start proceedings, it was the turn of Louisiana Bayonetta CaptainZack and one of the last Japanese hopefuls komorikiri to battle it out in Losers bracket. The match was polarizing to say the least, with komorikiri’s Sonic running circles around Bayonetta, just to get clipped by an Afterburner Kick or a Witch Time and killed within a matter of seconds. The set finished at 3-1, with Zack strutting to victory and sending komorikiri out at seventh. With all seemingly being well, the finals continued and I popped to the restroom of the Civic Center in the downtime, hoping the next match would be queued up by the time I’d finished. I returned to chaos on stage, the crowd chanting “Run it back!” and general uproar in the auditorium. In my absence, players had checked the game settings to reveal that the last set had been played on a 0.9 launch rate. This meant that the knockback of every character’s moves had been slightly reduced, resulting in things not killing when they should have, and making certain combo strings harder to escape. With the initial consensus being that this 0.9 launch rate had only been in effect for the one game, a hasty decision was made by the TOs to run only the last match back, which Zack won quite convincingly. As emotions were running high on stage for everyone involved and proceedings already being an hour behind, it was declared that this rule change had only been active for one match and that things would continue on as normal.
This in turn set the Smash investigators into action, with Dabuz himself complaining that certain moves that should have killed in his set versus ZeRo did not. Further investigation proved this to be correct, as players simulated certain situations from both sets to determine whether two sets had been played on the incorrect setting. The fact that some of the world’s top players couldn’t tell for certain that the game was played on the wrong setting shows how easy this factor is to miss–but looking back on the sets, some of komorikiri’s kill setups with Sonic were not connecting in situations that they normally would. Combine this with the lower knockback setting making it potentially harder for komorikiri to escape Zack’s aerial combos, and you have a recipe for quite the controversy.
The Genesis 4 TOs have since apologized profusely for the mishap, and have promised to compensate not only Dabuz and komorikiri, but players affected by the earlier bracket problems. I appreciate the TOs’ transparency and genuine shock at the mistake, but the resulting Twitter arguments certainly put a downer on the rest of the Smash 4 finals. Zack would go onto completely eliminate Japan from the competition by defeating Abadango 3-2, while ZeRo in turn defeated CaptainZack 3-0 in Losers Semis. The Losers Finals between long standing rivals C9|Ally and ZeRo did reignite the crowd, with ZeRo switching to Cloud and almost defeating the pesky plumber. Ally continued his winning streak against ZeRo, putting up the first win on the board for 2017. However, he was unable to triumph against teams partner and his own personal demon, FOX|MVG|MKLeo in a close game 5 set in Grand Finals. South America certainly seems to be the continent to beat in Smash games ending with the number four, as Alvin, MKLeo, Ally and ZeRo all have their roots south of the border.
Mexico takes it all for Smash 4.
It was then Europe’s turn to dominate, as Melee Doubles sought to rebuild the excitement and get the crowd jumping for the main event. Doubles top 4 really showed just how advanced the Doubles meta has become, with the tech team even setting up a separate comms feed with headsets for each doubles team. While the CLG team of PewPewU and SFAT seemed like the favorites to win, they were sent spiraling into Losers’ after a swift 3-0 from Leffen and Ice, leaving them to await either the other American team of PG|Plup and Tempo|Axe or the actual Smash Brothers of Armada and Android. Plup and Axe put up quite the fight, with Arizona and Florida cheering on their boys against the invading Swedes. Unfortunately, the sibling connection was too strong and Team UGS continued onto Losers Finals to face the last American hope of PewFat. Armada and Android grow stronger when the crowd chants against them, with their Peach and Sheik team triumphing over the hometown heroes and causing an all European Grand Finals. With a quick switch to Fox for Armada, almost resulting in an entire 20XX Grand Finals, the brothers Lindgren ran to victory and secured yet another non-American win on the Genesis 4 stage. It would be up to fate and the remaining US players in singles to either defend the house, or facilitate the fabled Armada and Mango Grand Finals for the fourth time in Genesis history.
With an initial loss to Armada in Winners Semis, Mango was sent into the lion’s den for the rest of Genesis 4. He would have to defeat Leffen, Liquid|Hungrybox and FOX|MVG|Mew2King in his mad dash to Grand Finals, a task that would seem insurmountable to a mere mortal. Drawing on the overwhelming support from the crowd, Mango was able to overcome this gauntlet, with his set versus Leffen being one of the most exciting sets in Melee’s recent history. There were people crying and hugging in the crowd as Mango tore through his opponents, with entire rows popping off for their boy. With fate willing yet another Mango and Armada Grand Finals, the stage was set for another legendary battle between these friendly rivals.
The rivals meet for their fourth showdown.
However, the sheer force of will needed to complete this Losers run must have sapped Mango of his energy, as Armada absolutely demolished him 3-0. While the first game looked fairly close, the Swedish Sniper clearly smelled blood in the water and destroyed Mango without a second thought. After the sheer excitement of the past three sets, it was quite the downer to end on, with the crowd staging a mass exodus from the Genesis venue as soon as Armada won. It acted as a muted end to an otherwise fractious final, with Mango even throwing his second place medal to the crowd. Someone else is now sporting the ‘Super Mario Bros. Melee’ 2nd place title, thanks to an unfortunate spelling error across all championship medals. At least Genesis 4 can join Evo 2016 in the hall of fame for misspelled tournament paraphernalia.
For all the highs and lows, I feel Genesis 4 accurately represents the struggles Smash has going forward. The community now has to balance their overwhelming desire for bigger and better things, with the logistical and human factors that go into running ever larger events to avoid the issues that hampered this otherwise great event. TOs, streamers and support staff are definitely up to the challenge; they just have to temper their passion with the lessons learned from this event. There are plenty of events to test the community’s mettle this year, so the only way is up.
With his recent trip to the land of the Rising Sun to compete in Kombo Klash Japan, Ultra Arcade’s Bass was able to take a trip into the lab with some Japanese combo wizards to see what they have been cooking up for various characters. As Kilgore is the latest addition to Killer Instinct–and a character ripe for new tech discoveries–the Japanese KI community has been hard at work seeing what this prototype robot soldier has under the hood.
Bass got the chance to play with Japanese lab monster and Evo 2015 finalist Domi, who has been hard at work with Kilgore to try and maximize his potential. In order to spread this information to the general Killer Instinct community, Bass has recreated some of Domi’s combos and tech for other Kilgore players to experiment with. These combos mainly utilize both Kilgore’s OTG potential off of Light Gun Barrage, with the raw power of his Instinct mode.
Following a meeting of minds between many notable TOs from across the USA, a new recommended ruleset for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has been put forward for future events. This reformed rule change mainly deals with alterations to the legal stage list and the removal of the much debated “Dave’s Stupid Rule,” which restricts players from returning to a stage they have previously won on.
The two main casualties from the new 2017 ruleset are the loss of Duck Hunt and Lylat Cruiser as counterpick stages. Many players, both high and low level, have been calling for Duck Hunt’s ban, as the stage promotes campy play due to the tree on the left side, making it a practical instant loss for characters like Little Mac and Ganondorf. The loss of Lylat is a real bone of contention, as while the stage provides well needed variety to the stage list with its titling main platform and alternative tri-platform layout, recovering players can occasionally fall through the stage when trying to recover, resulting in a loss of a stock.
The new stage list would have only three starter stages, being Battlefield, Smashville and Final Destination with Town and City, Dream Land and Omega stages acting as counterpicks. While most players seem to be receptive to the new three starters, the inclusion of Dream Land is a confusing decision, as this new proposed ruleset has a ban for Battlefield also banning Dream Land. While they both have tri-platform layouts, they have different stage attributes, which means players will pick them based on character and player match-ups, rather than it being just that they want to go to a tri-platform stage. The currently proposed list of Omega stages is also problematic, as stages like Mario Circuit Brawl and Bridge of Eldin cause recovery problems for those with teleport recoveries.
The post in question does concede that this stage list is only recommended, and that elements of it will change as 2017 continues–but the TOs listed as consultants for this document will use this rule set in future tournaments. The lack of any representatives from Europe is troubling–and I am personally fiercely against the Lylat ban–but we’ll have to see how this proposed rule change pans out at upcoming tournaments like Frostbite and 2GGC: Midwest Mayhem Saga.
Following a meeting of minds between many notable TOs from across the USA, a new recommended ruleset for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has been put forward for future events. This reformed rule change mainly deals with alterations to the legal stage list and the removal of the much debated “Dave’s Stupid Rule,” which restricts players from returning to a stage they have previously won on.
The two main casualties from the new 2017 ruleset are the loss of Duck Hunt and Lylat Cruiser as counterpick stages. Many players, both high and low level, have been calling for Duck Hunt’s ban, as the stage promotes campy play due to the tree on the left side, making it a practical instant loss for characters like Little Mac and Ganondorf. The loss of Lylat is a real bone of contention, as while the stage provides well needed variety to the stage list with its titling main platform and alternative tri-platform layout, recovering players can occasionally fall through the stage when trying to recover, resulting in a loss of a stock.
The new stage list would have only three starter stages, being Battlefield, Smashville and Final Destination with Town and City, Dream Land and Omega stages acting as counterpicks. While most players seem to be receptive to the new three starters, the inclusion of Dream Land is a confusing decision, as this new proposed ruleset has a ban for Battlefield also banning Dream Land. While they both have tri-platform layouts, they have different stage attributes, which means players will pick them based on character and player match-ups, rather than it being just that they want to go to a tri-platform stage. The currently proposed list of Omega stages is also problematic, as stages like Mario Circuit Brawl and Bridge of Eldin cause recovery problems for those with teleport recoveries.
The post in question does concede that this stage list is only recommended, and that elements of it will change as 2017 continues–but the TOs listed as consultants for this document will use this rule set in future tournaments. The lack of any representatives from Europe is troubling–and I am personally fiercely against the Lylat ban–but we’ll have to see how this proposed rule change pans out at upcoming tournaments like Frostbite and 2GGC: Midwest Mayhem Saga.
