Editing Tournament rulesets (SSBM)

'''Tournament legal''' describes the settings that can be used in many competitive [[Super Smash Bros. Melee]] [[tournaments]]. Because some stages, settings, and rulesets can lead to degenerative gameplay, tournament organizers have generally agreed on enforcing the following conditions in tournament play:

'''Neutral Stage:''' A neutral stage is any stage allowed in the initial random select for the first game of a match (i.e. [[Battlefield (SSBB)|Battlefield]]).<br />

'''Banned Stage:''' A banned stage is any stage that is not allowed either in the initial random select or by choice in games two and three (i.e. [[Temple]]).<br />

'''Available Stage:''' An available stage is any stage that can be chosen by a player in games two and three.  These include all of the neutral stages, but exclude all banned stages.  Therefore, all neutral stages are available stages, but not all available stages are neutral.  For example, [[Poké Floats]] is an available stage that is not a neutral stage.

*Usually, sets between players are played best 2 out of 3 matches (using 3 out of 5 or 4 out of 7 for final rounds).

*Each match is played with [[time]]d [[stock]], usually 3 to 5 lives and 6 to 10 minutes.

:*In the case that time runs out and both characters have an equal amount of lives, the character with less [[damage]] wins the match. If both characters have equal lives ''and'' damage, [[Sudden Death]] will determine the winner.

*The first match is played with a Random Stage.

:*The random select is comprised of neutral [[stage]]s:

::*[[Special Stages: Final Destination|Final Destination]]

:*In some tournaments, players are given the option to "strike" stages from the random select

*For the first match, characters are chosen double-blind - at the same time, so that neither player knows his opponent's character beforehand.  In practice, this rule is often ignored, but players always reserve the option to force a double-blind pick.

*The loser of the first match (and of successive matches) chooses the next stage, and then the winner chooses his character, and then the loser chooses his character.  This series of choices is called slob picks.

:*The loser can pick either a neutral stage or a [[counterpick]] stage:

::*[[Brinstar]]

::*[[Congo Jungle|Kongo Jungle (N64)]]

::*[[Rainbow Cruise]]

the Counterpick stages' list is based on the MBR Recommended Ruleset, as of August 19th, 2010

::*[[Flat Zone]]

::*[[Yoshi's Island (SSB)|Yoshi's Island (N64)]]

::*[[Princess Peach's Castle]]

::*[[Mushroom Kingdom (SSBM)|Mushroom Kingdom I]]

:* As with the first match, in some tournaments players can strike stages from the opponent's selection.

== 2-on-2 ==

::* [[Icicle Mountain]]

::* [[Yoshi's Island (SSB)|Yoshi's Island N64]]

::* [[Yoshi's Island|Yoshi's Island (pipes)]]

::* [[Fourside]]

::* [[Mushroom Kingdom|Mushroom Kingdom I]]

::* [[Big Blue]]

::* [[Fountain of Dreams]]

* [[Friendly Fire]] (also called "team attack") is on.

* Usually, players are allowed to [[life stealing|steal lives]] from their teammates by pressing start after they die.

== Techniques/Glitches ==

* Banned Stalling Techniques

:* Repeated [[rising pound]]

:* Repeated [[Peach Bomber]] on a wall

:* Luigi Ladder

::* N.B. The rising pound and peach bomber on the wall are only banned if they are being use ''to stall''.  Using them to recover is acceptable.

== Controversy ==

Acknowledging this, many players do argue about specific tournament rules. During the first few years of [[Smash World Forums|Smashboards']] existence, items were a major point of contention amongst Smashers - generally, East Coast Smashers did not want them used in tournaments, but West Coast Smashers wanted them turned on. Those in favour stated that the use of items required skill and did not reduce the depth of the game, while those against argued that items were unfair because of the element of randomness involved when they were turned on, particularly the unpredictability of their spawning in relation to explosive items such as [[Bob-omb]]s and [[capsule]]s. Eventually, the community reached a consensus that items should be turned off in tournaments, due to the element of randomness.

Another controversial topic is the legality and categorization of stages - debate over which stages should be classified as legal or banned. While there was universal agreement over the banning of some stages, such as [[Temple|Hyrule Temple]], other stages were questioned. Some smashers wanted to reduce the legal stage list to simple stages, and remove all moving and irregular ones, while others believed it was better to to allow all stages that did not foster any unfair advantage to one strategy or character. As of late, there is a generally accepted standard for legal and banned stages, but the lists still vary between tournaments. Competitions in which all stages are permitted are very rare, and are not considered [[SBR]] certified.

== See also ==

* [[Tournament legal (SSB)]]

* [[Tournament legal (SSBB)]]

[[Category:Tournaments]]