Griefing

Griefing is the act of intentionally ruining other players' experience with a game. Seen in essentially all multiplayer games, especially those playable online, it entails a variety of acts aimed to deliberately agitate, make the game not fun, or make the game outright unplayable, for opponents and teammates alike.

Griefing in the Super Smash Bros. series can consist of:

• Self-destructing repeatedly and using share stocks to deprive others on the team of their stocks.
• Constant use of team-damaging moves such as many explosives simply to damage teammates instead of the opponent.
• With team attack on, intentionally attacking teammates.
• Crouching repeatedly (teabagging).
• Ganging up on a player in a free for all, especially if one player specifically uses ineffective moves (such as Water Gun) to just annoy the victim and distract them from the other players.
• Deliberately attacking one specific player and, once they're out, either acting friendly with others or making no attempt to battle with anyone else.
• Simply being useless, e.g. not taking any actions while at the controller or doing nothing but taunting.
• Continuously using loud taunts or taunts that get annoying with repetition (Such as Captain Falcon's Down Taunt or Ridley's Up Taunt) to throw off or annoy the players around them.
• Choosing an abnormally large stage such as Temple or a large Custom Stage, often in combination with a fast-moving character such as Sonic or Fox to constantly and safely run away from the opponent until the timer reaches zero.
• Abusing tactics that make themself very difficult or outright impossible to hit at all, such as the Infinite Dimensional Cape with Meta Knight, shell hopping with Falco, and other such stalling tactics.
• Deliberately playing online with an awful internet connection to subject players to extremely laggy matches, often while constantly fleeing from the opponent in order to prolong the match as long as possible.
• Interfering with one's own internet connection on purpose, such as by applying tin foil to the router or rapidly moving the Nintendo Switch around if it's in Handheld mode, in order to create lag and throw off the opponent. Commonly known as "lag switching".
• Employing hacks to desynchronize online participants or play as an invincible character such as Giga Bowser or Wario-Man.
• Repeatedly using Pokémon Change with the Pokémon Trainer in online play to lag the game (although this does not work as effectively in Ultimate, where the switch is much faster).
• In online play on Smash For Wii U, changing their name tag to something insulting or otherwise offensive, and optionally proceeding to play using the new name.
• Quickplay in Ultimate can be subjected to its own specific forms of griefing:
  • Purposefully disconnecting from an online match by closing the game upon a loss, so their opponent doesn't gain any GSP for beating them.
  • Intentionally tanking one's GSP so that they can get matched with worse or more inexperienced players, or using a different account if one's main is a Starter character.
  • Deliberately using nonsensical rules, like running three stocks with an abnormally short time limit and relying on either timing the opponent out or winning via Sudden Death. One can also run more casual-oriented rules, such as having items enabled and all stages available, with the intention of griefing competitive players, particularly in higher GSP ranges, though it's ambiguous if one is running such rules with that intention or because they legitimately want to play with those rules.
  • In early versions of Ultimate, the Special Flag was an individually toggleable item for Quickplay. This resulted in griefers running rules that had only the Special Flag enabled, often in combination with Stamina, causing matches where eliminating the opponent's stocks was nigh-impossible and so guaranteeing every match going to time out. Version 3.1.0 would remove the option to toggle Special Flags in Quickplay to prevent this.
  • Playing as Rosalina & Luma and turning on Poké Ball and Assist Trophies, then abusing her Gravitational Pull in order to easily secure all the items, resulting in a swarm of Pokémon and Assist Trophies targeting the opponent and making it very difficult, if not impossible, for them to win.
• In Ultimate, Battle Arenas are also susceptible to their own specific forms of griefing:
  • Going into Arenas with competitive rules and where the option for players to choose their own stages is enabled, then deliberately picking a non-competitive stage, especially one that enables circle camping.
  • Joining an Arena with a 2-player limit, and then deliberately staying in the Waiting Area or the Spectator Stands instead of entering the ring, forcing the Arena host to kick them. This can be attempted with larger Arenas to take up a spot, but as long as one other player is able to join, it doesn't completely prevent any matches from happening.
  • As the Arena host, kicking a person mid-match to force all players back to the arena. This can be extended to abusing their kicking powers in general, such as kicking someone right as they get into the ring after waiting a long time, or kicking people to bypass the queue to immediately get back into the ring after losing.
  • If enabled, playing loud sounds or music over the Voice Chat in Arenas to annoy players or cause voice chat lag, known as micspamming.
  • As an Arena host, defeating an opponent, and kicking them from the arena for no other reason.
• Reporting a player for no legitimate reason, or for losing to that player.
• When Miiverse was active, sending a player a friend request attached to an insulting message. In Ultimate, they can instead send a friend request over the Switch's friend system while changing their name to display as an insult or something else offensive.
• Ultimate's Stage Builder additionally has its own series of actions that may constitute as griefing when posted via Shared Content:
  • Using offensive words, or slurs not already disallowed by Ultimate's Shared Content filters in the name of one's stage or within the stage itself, or naming stages after inappropriate actions with the intent of causing shock, or discomfort.
  • Creating stages that are sexually explicit or feature potentially sensitive content.
  • Creating stages that employ multiple moving parts or explosions and portals to cause a large distraction during a match.
  • Stages built to call out professional players, and belittle or insult them.
  • Stages made to promote third party services or content that could be potentially harmful to use or see.
  • Using hacks or exploits to bypass the build limit set by the Stage Builder engine, and creating a stage with the purpose of causing the game to lag, or crash.
  • Creating a stage that makes it impossible to be knocked off stage, such as inescapable cages, and portals that can interrupt the flow of a match.

Griefing was especially common in Basic Brawl, as the combination of anonymity, complete lack of control over the match rules, free-for-alls being mandatory, and no restriction over stage and item selection created conditions unfavorable for serious matches and ripe for griefers to abuse. This is one of the main criticisms players had of Basic Brawl, as many found it unenjoyable for those choosing not to resort to griefing themselves.

Smash 4's griefing scene was far less rampant, but still was common enough in For Glory, which was intended for serious matches. Unlike Brawl's Wi-Fi mode, which was entirely unmoderated, the system in Smash 4 allows the reporting of griefers, which can result in them being sent to For Glory Hell. Additionally, they could be blocked via the Wii U's built-in friend system, which would indefinitely prohibit them from matching with players until they were unblocked.

Griefing persists in Ultimate, but its impact can be better mitigated, through the better reporting system, and with players being able to block anyone they play with, which will then prevent them from being matched together on Quickplay and prevent each other from joining their Battle Arenas for the duration of the block.

Some competitive players are also known for griefing; the practice is generally reviled, as it shows poor sportsmanship and contributes to an unhealthy gaming atmosphere. One such player is Manny, who has been criticized by the community for his frequent acts of griefing, including yelling at Mew2King during a set.