Taunt match

Sonic's side taunt in Brawl. While not specific to all taunt matches, the taunt is generally associated with the concept.

A taunt match is a type of match wherein players refuse to take the actual battle seriously, instead focusing on behaviour that is aggravating or otherwise irritating to players who are interested in actually fighting. Taunt matches can be seen as a form of griefing, owing to the fact that players who start taunt matches often team up on players who attempt to take the match seriously.

Overview

Captain Falcon's pink and white attire, dubbed "Captain Fabulous" by fans, is a common occurrence in taunt matches, as is repeated use of his down taunt.

Exact behaviour in taunt matches vary from match to match, but the overall concept remains the same. Contrary to their name, taunt matches do not have to specifically feature excessive or non-stop taunting from players; moves that produce repetitive, loud noises can also be done by players, such as Ganondorf's up-smash or Kirby's crouch animation. As other forms of griefing, players can also abuse glitches, hack the game to display unusual stages or force desynchs, exacerbate the lag seen on Wi-Fi via abusing moves such as Transform, or otherwise act uselessly, such as by constantly backfiring Diddy Kong's Peanut Popgun, constantly breaking their shield, or even completely refraining from performing any actions whatsoever. Costumes can also play a role in taunt matches; Captain Falcon's pink and white attire is particularly infamous in its use with taunt matches, as is Meta Knight's pink and red costume, among others. The stage of Temple is a common pick amongst taunt matches, as its large size allows players to easily avoid serious players, though the deadly stage hazards of New Pork City make that stage a relatively common pick as well. Outside of all of this, players may also merely act uselessly in order to irritate serious players,

A sense of cooperation is generally seen in taunt matches, with most of them involving a group of either two or three people on the same console all working together in the match. Cooperative players may use the same character as to synchronise taunts or to otherwise assist in preventing serious matches from occurring. Etiquette is also often displayed by those who start taunt matches; accidental attacks are sometimes followed up with the offending player crouching as a form of apology.

An idea behind a taunt match is to get all players into the spirit of the match; despite this, serious players often attempt to "force" the taunt match to end, but the presence of multiple players can make this almost impossible. Players who wish to keep the taunt match going may either constantly run away from the serious player via the aid of large stages, crowd in the same area to create a near-impregnable camping tactic, or team up on the serious player; in this regard, the use of Mr. Game & Watch is popular with characters such as Samus or Ness, due to his Oil Panic move, though other strategies may involve forcing serious players into a Falcon Punch or other moves, or otherwise merely inflicting considerable damage and then getting an easy KO.

While taunt matches are theoretically possible in any mode, the anonymity of Basic Brawl allows for numerous taunt matches to occur in the mode, especially as online traffic for the game began to fall. In addition to numerous other reasons, the inability to otherwise avoid taunt matches via a reporting system or similar method has caused Basic Brawl to garner considerable criticism from players. For this reason, players who wish for serious fights often use the Team Battle feature of Wi-Fi.

Common taunt match behavior

• Constantly taunting.
• Trying to be the same character so they can match up their taunts.
• Camping.
• Teaming up on other players that are serious.
• Mocking serious players and imitating them.
• Chain grabbing serious players, even infinitely such as King Dedede's wall infinite chain grab.
• Choosing Temple or New Pork City to run away from serious players. In Temple, players may also perform a Hyrule Jump or one of its variations.
• Sometimes using launch resistance to make Sudden Death last, or suiciding during Sudden Death.
• Constantly spot dodging
• Attacking any player just when the match is about to end.
• Showing off their skills. (going under the stage)
• Showing off advanced techniques (such as DACUS)
• Suicides when they accidentally killed their friends.
• Ducking when they hit another taunter. (Trying to say "sorry")
• Pushing other players but not attacking.
• Laying on ground after pratfalling or being knocked into the air and landing on the ground.
• Wario, Kirby and King Dedede players eating items, even their own Bikes, or Waddle Dees/Waddle Doos.
• Yoshi constantly using Egg Lay.
• Footstool Jumping.
• Ditching Pikmin when playing as Olimar (Better known as Nolimar) and attempting to use Pikmin-required moves without them.
• Crawling around (Crawling isn't used very often in a match).
• Gliding around the stage.
• Spamming projectiles without even aiming them at anyone.
• Sandbagging.
• Executing Luigi's down taunt and hitting a player with it. (Luigi's down taunt inflicts 2% damage upon contact with another player)
• Exhausting a shooting item's ammunition, then attempting to shoot the other players.
• Dash dancing and/or ledge running
• Constantly shield dropping and shielding immediately after.
• Picking up Snake's box with Donkey Kong and walking around with it.
• Intentionally breaking their own shield, even with Jigglypuff. (Jigglypuff flies off the top of the screen when it breaks its shield and is Star KO'd)
• Showing off glitches (Like using the Earthquake Glitch on Pictochat or the Puff Up glitch).
• Abusing Transform or Pokémon Change.
• Utilizing the Smash Taunt when playing as Snake or the Star Fox characters on their respective stages (Wolf can't use the Smash Taunt on Corneria), whilst other taunters protect the Smash taunter from being interrupted by serious players and/or items.
• Utilizing the Smash Taunt as Snake and intentionally SDing to cause the "SNAAAAKE" scream, as well as SDing during the scream to cause it to loop continuously.
• Grabbing other players or using grab attacks like Monkey Flip, but not doing any damage.
• Ducking repeatedly.
• Riding on the top of a Rolling Crate.
• Jumping around.
• Running around the stage.
• Attacking Mr. Resetti if he is summoned via Assist Trophy in a brawl.
• Intentionally SDing.
• Dash dancing.
• Absorbing or Reflecting others projectiles.
• Jabbing other taunters if they accidentally KO and then suiciding the jabbed character to tie the match.
• Wasting Final Smashes or using Final Smashes until the time is up.
• Standing there doing absolutely nothing.
• Making a match last as long as possible during Sudden Death.
• Using Sacrificial KO moves.
• As Kirby or King Dedede, using Inhale on nothing, or as Wario, using Chomp on nothing.
• Constantly using an uncharged Wario Waft.
• Teetering.
• Constantly Prat Falling.
• Diddy Kong's Peanut Popgun constantly backfiring.
• Bouncing on Sonic's Spring
• Edge dashing.
• Using any moves that produce a noise that some find annoying. (Kirby's "Hi!" taunt is an infamous example)
• Meta Knight's Infinite Dimensional Cape.
• Repeatedly making Wario do his up taunt and duck as if he's dancing to "WARIO CHA CHA CHA!"

See also

• Stalling

External links

• A video explaining a taunt match