Camping
Camping is the act of moving to and staying in an isolated, relatively safe place, such as the far corner of a stage, to evade opponents.
Overview
The term "camping" originates from games in the first person shooter genre, where a player "camps" in an easy to miss and/or hard to reach area and attacking opponents without necessarily engaging them. As similar strategies in other competitive games have developed over the years, the term is now widely adopted in the greater gaming lexicon. In fighting games, camping typically refers to running away and playing defensively, only engaging with projectiles or if the opponent is vulnerable. Camping in this context is also referred to as turtling.
In the Super Smash Bros. series, camping has a slightly more narrow definition. While running away and playing defensively are still important factors, the major difference is that stages are varied in size and shape. Many stages will have certain areas that only certain characters can easily reach, meaning they can stay in these areas to do many things, like chip away at opponents with projectiles, charge resources if applicable, wait for the opponent to lose patience and act recklessly, and even perform various types of stalling.
It is possible to camp in the Subspace Emissary by avoiding close-range combat and simply firing projectiles into enemies, staying out of range of the army's footsoldiers, but the game discourages it by making most enemies resist projectiles.
Types of camping
While camping is the general action of keeping away from the opponent, there are various methods to camping.
Projectile camping
The most common form of camping, projectile camping is the act of camping while utilising projectiles to keep the opponent away. Unlike other methods of camping, there are many characters who are incapable of utilising this method of camping, due to the obvious lack of a projectile attack, or possessing a projectile that has too short a range and/or too much start-up/ending lag to be campable with (such as Bowser with Fire Breath). While it is feasible to projectile camp with any projectile, faster projectiles, and those that are transcendent, are typically more effective at keeping the opponent away. Large, flat stages with little or no platforms are also typically the most effective stages to projectile camp on (Final Destination being a particularly controversial example). Examples of characters that are excellent at projectile camping include Falco and Olimar, who possess very fast projectiles that rack up damage quickly, the former being able to reflect oncoming projectiles as well with his down-special.
Unlike other forms of camping, projectile camping is rarely done with the intention of timing the opponent out or gaining easy KOs. Instead, it is typically done to force the opponent to approach, as unless the opponent is in possession of an effective reflector or a more effective projectile, they will continue to sustain damage while the camping player doesn't. Projectile camping is also the only form of camping that can be practical in even or losing situations if the opponent refuses to approach, as it is feasible to rack up enough damage through projectiles to regain a lost lead and force the opponent to approach.
Air camping
Air camping is the act of staying away from the opponent in the air, which is typically utilised by characters capable of keeping themselves in the air for extended periods while being able to effectively defend themselves. While it is possible for any character to try air camping, it is a practical method of camping for few characters. Superior air mobility, slow falling speed, multiple or high-reaching jumps, and fast aerials with sufficient reach/hitboxes to keep opponents away, are necessary attributes a character must have to be able to air camp effectively. Jigglypuff (who excelled at all the aforementioned attributes more than any other character in Melee), Meta Knight (who, despite having poor aerial mobility, has access to multiple jumps and an incredibly quick down aerial with great reach, which allows him to keep opponents away in the air), and Wario (whose incredible air mobility and fast aerials, with long lasting hitboxes, allows him to be difficult to catch in the air) are the most prominent examples of characters who utilise air camping in the Smash Bros. series.
Platform camping
Platform camping is the act of staying away from the opponent, by utilizing elevated platforms. To platform camp, a player waits on an elevated platform, and hops from platform to platform as the opponent approaches. Platform camping is the most accessible form of camping, as essentially every character is capable of utilizing it in a practical manner, though characters possessing the same attributes that benefit air camping (with faster falling speed instead) are more effective. However, how effective platform camping can be is largely dependent on the stage, with it being a very accessible tactic on stages with a plentiful elevated platform setup (such as Battlefield), while being impossible to utilize on stages that lack such platforms (such as Final Destination).
When combined with air camping, or projectile camping for a few characters with access to explosives that can hit opponents below platforms (such as Snake and Link), it can be especially effective for running time out. Platform camping alone, however, is typically ineffective, and is instead usually done against characters that have access to a dangerous chain throw in Melee and Brawl (such as the Ice Climbers and King Dedede) or otherwise have oppressive ground or grab games (such as Little Mac in SSB4 and Ultimate for the former, and Luigi in Ultimate for the latter) but generally struggle to deal with platform camping themselves, as staying on the platforms will help keep the player from being grabbed or otherwise overwhelmed on the ground.
Planking
Planking is a form of camping that abuses the intangibility of stage ledges. It refers to repeatedly dropping off the ledge and regrabbing, being protected by the ledge grabs' intangibility frames, while typically combined with aerials and recovery moves that possess large hitboxes to hit opponents through the ledge. Planking is possible in all games, though is primarily prominent in the first three games, especially Brawl. Starting in Smash 4, only the player's first ledge grab grants intangibility; subsequent ledge grabs will no longer have intangibility until the player sustains hitstun or lands on solid ground, and they no longer conserve their intangibility after letting go of the ledge, severely nerfing the effectiveness of planking. Ultimate further nerfed planking's viability by only allowing six ledge grabs in a row without landing on solid ground or taking hitstun (similar to tether recoveries' limit of three ledge grabs, which now also contribute to this general limit), at which point the player will be unable to grab the ledge, as well as making it so that each regrab reduces the amount of intangibility granted by ledge getup options, to the point of them having no intangibility at all from the fourth ledge grab onward.
Circle camping
Circle camping, a form of camping that can be unbeatable when it can be utilised by the right character, is when a player constantly flees from their opponent, by going around a certain stage section that prevents the opponent from intercepting them, thus running away around a "circle". Every character can utilise circle camping if the stage allows it, though how effective it is dependent on how fast they and their opponent can traverse the stage. Depending on the stage design, and if the fleeing character is fast enough, the opponent may never be able to reach the fleeing character, as the opponent's character is not fast enough to catch them in a straight chase, and the stage design prevents the opponent from intercepting the fleeing character. Because of this, stages whose design enable possible circle camping are nearly always universally banned. Otherwise, very fast-moving characters, such as Fox, Captain Falcon or Sonic, would be able to utilize game-breaking camping on these stages, and be nearly unbeatable by the majority of the cast.
A prominent example of a stage that enables circle camping is Spear Pillar, where a player can run away from the opponent into the underground area, and if the opponent tries to chase them in the underground area, the player can run out the other side and onto the top area of the stage, which can repeat until time runs out if the fleeing player does not make a mistake (it is possible for the Pokémon serving as the stage hazard to break the camping, but this is rare and can be considered cheap in its own right). Temple is also notorious for allowing circle camping. Other infamous examples include the very large Palutena's Temple and The Great Cave Offensive stages.
Pipe camping
Pipe camping is the act of warping from one end of a warp pipe to the other repeatedly in Mushroom Kingdom (SSB) in Smash 64.
In competitive play
Camping is generally considered a viable strategy depending on the matchup, as running away and taking pot shots at the opponent where they can't counterattack is easier than actually engaging. Characters who are fast, have long range, and have many projectiles thrive with a camping playstyle, as engaging with a stronger opponent that is slower and has less range puts them at a disadvantage. Camping is generally disliked by the larger competitive community, who tend to view camping as cheap and bad sportsmanship by using underhanded tactics to win be default. Despite these misgivings, there is no universal rule that outright disallows camping, as such a rule would be difficult to enforce with different opinions on when camping goes too far.
Camping is sometimes considered a vital aspect of competitive Smash, especially in Brawl. The ability to camp, as well as break through opposing camping, has a major influence on a character's competitive success. Falco, for example, has been a perpetual top tier character in both Melee and Brawl, due largely to his ability to outcamp nearly every other character in each game. Ganondorf, on the other hand, is considered one of the worst characters in Brawl, in large part due to his inability to outcamp any other character, as well as the extreme difficulty he has in overcoming opposing camping.
