Editing L-canceling

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|image=Lcancelink.gif

|caption=Two Links performing a short hop down aerial. The red Link L-cancels.

'''L-canceling''' (an abbreviation of '''lag canceling''' or '''[[L button]] canceling''', also called '''smooth landing''' on the official ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' website) is a technique in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' and ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]'' that allows characters to act faster than usual when landing in the middle of an [[aerial attack]]. L-canceling is done by pressing a shield button 11 [[frame]]s or fewer before landing during an aerial attack in ''[[Smash 64]]'' (the grab button also works because of its unique properties), or by pressing the shield button 1 to 7 frames before landing in ''[[Melee]]''.

Only regular aerial attacks can be L-canceled; [[special move]]s that have landing lag cannot. If an attack is [[auto-cancel]]ed then L-cancelling has no effect. All aerials can be canceled except {{SSBM|Mr. Game & Watch}}'s [[n-air]], [[b-air]] and [[u-air]].

Better known as '''Z-canceling''' as the [[Z button]] is the shield button, L-canceling in ''Smash 64'' is performed by pressing the Z button 11 or fewer frames before landing. Doing so causes the character's regular landing animation to play instead of the air attack's landing animation, reducing their lag to 4 frames. Compared to lag intervals in the 20-30 range, this can allow incredible attack speed when combined with techniques such as [[double jump cancel]]ing, resulting in [[shield break combo]]s.

L-canceling in ''Melee''  is performed by pressing L, R or Z up to 7 frames before landing. Doing so causes the aerial attack's landing animation to play at double speed, cutting the lag time in half (rounded down). While not as potent as the previous game, the decrease in lag is still significant enough to make L-canceled aerial attacks better than comparable ground attacks. This is especially true for characters with heavier aerial landing lag, most notably {{SSBM|Bowser}} and {{SSBM|Ganondorf}}.

L-canceling is not present in ''Brawl''. It was removed because, like [[wavedash]]ing, [[Masahiro Sakurai]] felt it made the gap between beginner players and advanced players too large. The lack of L-canceling acts as an indirect [[nerf]] to characters that have aerial attacks with heavier landing lag and/or low jumps (most notably {{SSBB|Ganondorf}}).

L-canceling continues to be absent from ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]''. However, [[equipment]] may have the Smooth Lander effect, which automatically provides a similar result. Depending on the number of times the effect is stacked, landing lag from aerials can be cut to 0.7x, 0.6x, or even in half as in ''Melee''. Additionally, landing lag of most aerial attacks from ''Brawl'' is now reduced to properly compensate for the loss of the technique, notably those of {{SSB4|Ganondorf}}.

*It is impossible to L-cancel {{SSBM|Mr. Game & Watch}}'s neutral, back, and up aerials due to using a nonstandard landing lag state (as they function as [[special move]]s, which cannot be L-canceled), similarly to how {{SSBM|Ness}}'s up and down smashes act unusually.

[[Category:Advanced Techniques]]