Tournament rulesets
Rules and game settings that are widely accepted in the competitive community for use in professional Smash tournaments are considered to be within the bounds of what is tournament legal. These rules are listed by a tournament and all participants must follow these rules or else face punishment. These rulesets did not suddenly appear overnight, but instead have been tweaked and iterated on since the inception of the series.
Most rulesets typically run all settings at default and disallow any gameplay modifiers, and use both stock and time for a game. Some multiplayer game elements, such as items and certain stages, are believed to cause gameplay to become degenerate or unfair in the context of tournament level competition. Because of this, these elements are not considered tournament legal, and are illegal in competitions barring fringe examples like the Gentleman's rule. For example, the Melee stage Big Blue is not accepted as tournament legal and is a banned stage. At a level more specific to tournaments, certain advanced techniques that have been discovered over time have been specifically disallowed for being considered unfair. Examples include Wobbling and any glitch that makes a game unwinnable for a player. The most widely accepted sets of rules for Melee and Brawl are those proposed by the Smash World Forum's Back Room (the SBR rulesets), while the original Super Smash Bros. does not have an official SBR ruleset. The formation of Smash 4 and Ultimate rulesets are less centralized and are more the result of large tournaments simply proposing certain rules and eventually coming to a consensus.
While tournament rulesets are generally accepted by most major tournaments, they are not set in stone. There may be minor differences between them, and some local tournaments may make their own ruleset completely different from the standard to meet their specific goals. Rulesets are also subject to change at any point in an effort to address a loophole or account for a new gameplay discovery.
Common rulesets by game[edit]
- Red Mario/Moyashi Ruleset for Super Smash Bros. in Japan
- N64 BR Ruleset for Super Smash Bros. in America
- SBR Ruleset for Super Smash Bros. Melee
- Summary of various rulesets for Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- Summary of various rulesets for Super Smash Bros. 4
- Summary of various rulesets for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
