Sandbagging
Sandbagging is the act of playing poorly on purpose and/or intentionally using a character that the player would perform worse with. Most of the time, players sandbag in friendly matches to keep others from learning their style. Players also often sandbag against weaker players in tournament, and when playing friendlies, to have lower stress matches and avoid draining themselves before later tournament matches against stronger players.
Sandbagging is often seen as a sign of disrespect when done in serious settings, as it is seen as the player not treating their opponent as an equal nor as a threat, as well as depriving their opponent of a pure competitive match. Due to compromising a tournament's competitive integrity and disrupting the natural progress of the tournament bracket, it is not uncommon for tournaments to have a rule forbidding intentional underperforming at the threat of being disqualified from the tournament altogether. This is a controversial ruling though, as it's not always clear cut if a player is sandbagging, thus making it difficult to enforce, as well as some players claiming it's the right of the player to perform however and use whatever character they want. Despite the negative connotations behind it, it is not uncommon for players to use the excuse that they were sandbagging when they lose.
Sandbagging occurs at all levels of play, even in top level tournament play, where Isai in particular is infamous for rarely trying his best to win, regardless if a substantial amount of money is on the line.
Notable incidents of sandbagging
- At the Smash 64 tournament in Apex 2012, Isai only used the bottom tier Link, though he still managed to place second, only losing to SuperBoomFan, which regardless of the sandbagging, was a remarkable feat with a bottom tier character.
- Also at Apex 2012, in an exhibition match against Captain Jack in Melee, Isai played in an obvious sandbagging manner, to the audience's dismay.
- At the Smash 64 tournament in Apex 2013, Isai would again sandbag with his character choice, this time using Mario, despite the crowd yelling for him to use Pikachu several times. He placed second again, this time defeating SuperBoomFan, but losing to Kikoushi in Winner and Grand Finals.
- Mango went through a period where he adopted the persona of "Scorpion Master", and used Mario at several tournaments, including the Melee tournament at Apex 2010 (where he placed 25th instead of his usual top 4 placing).
- At Genesis 2, Mew2King was red carded by the Unity Ruleset Committee for using Ganondorf and Falco in a losing effort against female smasher Sade in pools, after defeating everyone else in his pool with his usual Meta Knight.
- Canadian Fox main, Unknown522 incited controversy at Revival of Melee 5 by refusing to play his main against Mew2King in grand finals, claiming to be tired.
- Unknown would then cause similar controversy in NEC 13 by again sandbagging against Mew2King in Winner's bracket.
- At Omegacon 2013, Mew2King sandbagged the second half of his loser's final set against Milkman. After destroying Milkman with his usual Sheik and Marth, he shocked the audience when he chose Mewtwo and Roy to fight subsequent matches. Despite this, Mew2King still ended up winning the set with Roy after losing with Mewtwo.
- Mew2King recently tried doing this again at The Big House 3 on Toph after being guaranteed first place in his pools, regardless of whether he won that particular set or not. Toph, however, managed to avoid being humiliated, and defeated Mew2King to win the match 2-0.
