Sandbagging

Sandbagging is the act of playing poorly on purpose and/or intentionally using a character that the player would perform worse with. Most of the time, players sandbag in friendly matches to keep others from learning their style. Players also often sandbag against weaker players in tournament, and when playing friendlies, to have lower stress matches and avoid draining themselves before later tournament matches against stronger players.

Sandbagging, however, can be seen as a sign of disrespect when done in serious settings, as it is seen as the player not treating their opponent as an equal nor as a threat, as well as depriving their opponent of a pure competitive match. Due to compromising a tournament's competitive integrity and disrupting the natural progress of the tournament bracket, it is not uncommon for tournaments to have a rule forbidding intentional underperforming at the threat of being disqualified from the tournament altogether. This is a controversial ruling though, as it is not always clear if a player is sandbagging, thus making it difficult to enforce, as well as some players claiming it is the right of the player to perform however and use whatever character they want.

Sandbagging occurs at all levels of play, even in top level tournament play; some smashers, such as Isai and Mew2King, are well-known in the community for their frequent sandbagging.

Notable incidents of sandbagging

• Mango went through a period where he adopted the persona of "Scorpion Master", and used Mario at several tournaments; the most well-known of these instances was Apex 2010, where he placed 25th in Melee singles instead of his usual top 4 placing.
• American Smash 64 player Isai is infamous for his frequent sandbagging at tournaments for the game, often by refusing to use his main Pikachu in high-stakes matches or by using low or bottom tiered characters throughout a tournament.
  • At Apex 2012, Isai only used the bottom-tiered Link en route to a second place finish to SuperBoomFan. In an exhibition match against Captain Jack in Melee at the same tournament, Isai played in an obvious sandbagging manner, much to the audience's disappointment.
  • At the Smash 64 tournament in Apex 2013, Isai again sandbagged with his character choice, this time using Mario, despite the crowd yelling for him to use Pikachu several times. He placed second again, this time defeating SuperBoomFan, but losing to Kikoushi in winners' and grand finals.
  • At the Smash 64 tournament in Apex 2014, Isai once again sandbagged by exclusively using the low-tiered Jigglypuff. Unlike Apex 2012 and 2013, however, Isai placed first in singles without losing a single set, with Moyashi placing second below Isai.
• Canadian Fox main, Unknown522, incited controversy at Revival of Melee 5 by refusing to play his main against Mew2King in the grand finals, claiming to be tired, likely as a result of the controversy that had already occurred.
  • Unknown would then cause similar controversy in NEC 13 by again sandbagging against Mew2King in winners' bracket.
• Mew2King regularly sandbags in Melee, mostly in locals, smaller tournaments, or pools against opponents he does not deem to be competent enough, or if he is already guaranteed first seed in a given pool. This is done mostly to give himself more of a challenge and entertain the stream; most of his opponents have reportedly not minded this habit. His most common sandbagging choices are Pichu, Mewtwo, Roy, and Mr. Game & Watch; he may also opt to transform into Zelda at the end of a clearly uphill match. Sometimes, he allows the opponent to choose any stage they want with the Gentleman's Rule, and may even turn items on, resulting in outrageous tournament matches. Notable examples include:
  • winning against Keitaro in a biweekly using Pichu [1].
  • defeating a low-leveled Bowser player with his own Bowser and Mewtwo [2].
  • choosing Mewtwo and Roy to fight against Milkman in Grand Finals after winning the first two matches with his usual Sheik and Fox [3].
  • choosing Ness and Dr. Mario against a low-leveled Link player, and allowing him to strike to Venom and counterpick Onett [4].
  • in Grand Finals, fighting his opponent in Tiny Melee with Mewtwo on Fourside, then Lightning Melee, then with Poké Balls on [5].
  • A controversial case of sandbagging, however, occured at the Brawl tournament at GENESIS 2; Mew2King was red carded by the Unity Ruleset Committee for using Ganondorf and Falco in a losing effort against Sade in pools, after defeating everyone else in his pool with his usual Meta Knight.

See also

• Professionals
• Spam