Editing Tournament rulesets (SSBM)

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:''This is the ruleset for ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' tournaments. For other rulesets and general info on tournament legal settings, see [[Tournament legal]].''

'''Tournament legal''' describes the rules and settings that are accepted for use in competitive ''Smash'' [[tournaments]]. The following is the current [[SBR]] ruleset for ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]'', as officially written on the [[SmashBoards]].

==[[Stage legality]] list==
The following stages are [[neutral stage|neutral]] in '''singles''':
*{{SSBM|Battlefield}}
*[[Dream Land N64]]
*{{SSBM|Final Destination}}
*[[Fountain of Dreams]]
*[[Yoshi's Story]]
The following stages are [[counterpick stage|counterpick-only]] in singles:
*[[Pokémon Stadium]]

The following stages are neutral in '''doubles''':
*{{SSBM|Battlefield}}
*[[Dream Land N64]]
*{{SSBM|Final Destination}}
*[[Pokémon Stadium]]
*[[Yoshi's Story]]
The following stages are counterpick-only in doubles:
*[[Kongo Jungle N64]]

All other stages are [[banned stage|banned]].

==1-on-1==
*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).
*Double Elimination.
*Each match is played with [[time]]d [[stock]], with 4 lives and 8 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, or if both characters lose their last life on the same frame, the match must be replayed. [[Sudden Death]] is not to be played.
*[[Items]] are turned off.
*The first match is played on one of the five [[neutral stage]]s listed above. Which neutral stage is picked is determined by either [[stage striking]], random selection, or both.
*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]].
:*The loser cannot choose any stage that has already been played earlier that round. This rule is known as "[[Dave's Stupid Rule]]", named after Scamp.
:*The winner may ban one stage from the opponent's selection, except in best-of-5 sets.

==2-on-2==
*Rules that apply to singles apply to team tournaments as well.
*[[Friendly Fire]] (also called "team attack") is on.
*Players are allowed to [[Share stock|steal stock]] from their teammates by pressing start after they lose all of their stock.

==[[Technique]]s/[[Glitches]]==
In order to prevent degenerate gameplay techniques, many tournaments ban exploitation of the game that gives one character an unintended and unfair advantage over others.
*Banned [[glitch]]es:
**Freeze Glitch
**Yo-yo glitch (sometimes)
**[[Name Entry glitch]] and its derivatives
**[[Soul breaker]] Glitch
**[[Wobbling]] (historically, though it's allowed more often than not)
*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 used ''to stall''.  Using them to recover is acceptable.

==Controversy==
Many casual smashers notice that the accepted tournament ruleset demands highly specific conditions under which they would rarely play, and believe that these rules are restrictive and make competitive play less fun. However, most tournament Smashers are of the opinion that the ruleset prevents "degenerate" gameplay, and that this makes competitive play more enriching and fun.

Acknowledging this, many players do argue about specific tournament rules. During the first few years of ''Melee'' 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 [[Hyrule Temple]], other stages were questioned; Final Destination, for instance, has been criticised as giving an unfair advantage to characters with many projectiles, such as {{SSBM|Link}} and {{SSBM|Fox}}. 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.

==External Links==
#[http://www.smashboards.com/showpost.php?p=8981808&postcount=1 MBR Recommended RuleSet for SSBM]
#[http://evo.shoryuken.com/additional-rules/ EVO 2015 ruleset]
#[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/74563582/Apex/Apex2015_Rulebook.pdf Apex 2015 Official Rulebook (PDF)]

==See also==
*[[Tournament legal (SSB)]]
*[[Tournament legal (DSB)]]
*[[Tournament legal (SSBB)]]
*[[Tournament legal (SSB4)]]
[[Category:Competitive play]]
[[Category:Stages (SSBM)]]
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