Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Tournament

Tournament rulesets (SSBU)

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This is the ruleset for SSBU. For other rulesets and general info on tournament legal settings, see Tournament rulesets.

Tournament legal describes the rules and settings that are generally accepted for use in competitive Smash tournaments. In SSBU, while many elements of tournament rulesets are consistent across major tournaments, they are not set in stone. Some specific details vary from tournament to tournament, with some local tournaments having completely different rulesets depending on the goals of said tournament.

General ruleset

Singles

  • Ruleset: 3 Stock
  • Time Limit: 6-8 minutes
  • Items: Off
  • Stage Selection: Anyone
  • Stage Hazard Toggle: Off
  • Final Smash Meter: Off
  • Spirits: Off [1]
  • Damage Handicap: Off
  • First to: 1 Win
  • Launch Rate: 1.0x
  • Underdog Boost: Off
  • Score Display: Off
  • % Show Damage: Yes
  • Custom Balance: Off
  • Echo Fighters: Separate
  • Radar: Big
  • Mii Fighters and their respective custom moves are allowed. Movesets will be shown in their name with each individual special move numbered from 1 to 3, based on the order shown on the move selection screen (ex. 1111, 2223, 3121).
  • Similar to previous Smash titles, if time runs out, the winner is first determined by how many stocks remain, and then by the percentage after time is up.
    • If both stock and percentage are the same, or a game ends in both players losing their last stock at the same time, then a tiebreaker is played, which consists of a 1 stock and 3 minute match with the same characters and the same stage.
  • If pausing is turned on, rulesets will have clauses on how to proceed if a pause occurs. This does not apply if pausing is turned off.

Doubles

  • All rules for singles apply for doubles.
  • Team Attack: On
  • Teammate Highlight: On
  • Share stock is allowed.

Online

  • All rules for offline matches apply.
  • All players are allotted a time limit to report to a match. This time limit is typically 5-10 minutes. Failure to report within this time limit will result in a disqualification.
    • Players are responsible for contacting the tournament organizer to report their own connection issues.
  • A wired online connection is typically required. A "lag test" is sometimes enforced to determine if a wired connection is being used and to gauge the connection quality of individual players. Players that are not wired and/or have sufficiently poor connection speed may be disqualified.
  • Should a catastrophic internet-related error occur, the party who caused the incident will be held responsible. Said party will be punished in type and severity at the discretion of the tournament organizer.

Stages

Due to the size of the competitive scene and number of stages in the game, there is no universally agreed upon stage list. This is why some tournaments use stages that are banned in others. When the losing player is choosing a counterpick stage, the winning player is sometimes allowed to ban one to two stages they have not counterpicked to or won on in the set. The list compiled below is an estimate based off of the most recent major Ultimate tournaments. All stages not listed are assumed to be universally banned.

Universal starters

The following stages are on the starter lists of virtually all tournaments, meaning they can be selected for any game in a match:

Counterpicks

The following stages are commonly seen as counterpick stages, meaning they can only be picked after the first game in a match. In some tournaments, they may be used as starter stages, or be banned altogether:

Uncommon counterpicks/Semi-retired

The following stages rarely see use in larger tournaments, but may still be found in smaller tournaments and tournaments hosted by Nintendo. These stages may also see use in competitive play via the Gentleman's Rule.

Specific rulesets

There have been several attempts at forming a unified ruleset, often for a specific region.

Unified European Ruleset

The Unified European Ruleset was initially used for tournaments in the Netherlands starting in 2021, and has since been adopted by many other European regions.

Game settings

Stages

Uniquely, the stage list does not feature a starter/counterpick setup, and players can choose from nine different stages from the get-go.

Other

  • Characters are declared before stage bans.
  • In game 1, rock-paper-scissors is used to determine the player who bans the first stage. RPS winner bans three stages, loser selects two of the remaining stages, winner chooses one of the two stages.
  • After each game, the winner bans three stages and the loser chooses from the remaining stages. DSR is not in effect.

Unified North American Ruleset

The Unified North American Ruleset was unveiled on June 5th, 2024. The project was spearheaded by Dakpo, involved many prominent tournament organizers in North America, and was approved by Nintendo, who specifically mentioned that copyright on the stages' music would not be an issue.

Game settings

Stages

Starter Counterpick
Battlefield Pokémon Stadium 2
Final Destination Smashville
Town and City Kalos Pokémon League
Small Battlefield
Hollow Bastion

Other

  • Characters are declared before stage bans.
  • In game 1, rock-paper-scissors is used to determine the player who bans the first stage. RPS winner bans one starter stage, loser bans two, winner chooses from the remaining stages.
  • After each game, the winner declares their intention to switch character before the loser. Winner then bans two stages from the full stage list and the loser chooses from the remaining stages. Modified DSR is in effect.

Midwest ruleset

Initially meant for Midwest events, the ruleset has since been adopted by many other tournament series, most notably those ran by Even Matchup Gaming and organized by Cagt and his team.

Game settings

Stages

Starter Counterpick
Battlefield Final Destination
Pokémon Stadium 2 Hollow Bastion
Small Battlefield Kalos Pokémon League
Smashville
Town and City

Other

  • Characters are declared before stage bans.
  • In game 1, player 1 bans a starter stage, player 2 bans two starter stages, and player 1 chooses from the remaining two stages.
  • After each game, the winner bans three stages and the loser chooses from the remaining stages. DSR is not in effect.

The Coinbox ruleset

The stage list was initially used for The Coinbox tournament series, however it has since been adapted for most online tournaments in North America, becoming the de-facto online ruleset for North America. The Coinbox ruleset is near-identical to the Midwest ruleset, with the exception that the winner of each game bans two stages instead of three.

Battlefield and Ω forms

Most Battlefield and Ω forms are typically allowed, but there are several that are explicitly banned for one reason or another. Stages that only have two dimensions cause significant differences during gameplay due to manipulating the Z-axis, and as such are always banned. Stages that conceal the ground are banned due to the unfair advantage they provide to characters that lay traps on the stage, such as Snake, Isabelle and Steve. Stages that conceal the blast zone walls are banned due to hindering player visibility and unfairly affecting characters that rely on offstage chases; though this rule is sometimes contested due to the introduction of the radar.

Stages that manipulate the Z-axis

Stages that conceal the ground

Stages that conceal the blast zone walls

No longer banned as of version 8.0.0

  • Fountain of Dreams (Previously banned due to the water's reflection causing framerate drops.)
  • Garreg Mach Monastery (Previously banned due to the stage's ceiling blast zone differing from Final Destination and Battlefield.)

Controllers

Bring your own controller

Players are typically expected to arrive at a tournament with a controller already secured. It should not be assumed that the tournament will provide controllers to players unless expressly outlined in the rules. This clause is sometimes acronymized as BYOC.

Wireless controllers

Using a wireless controller is typically allowed, though users are expected to keep these controllers turned off or have their batteries removed if applicable outside of designated play sessions to prevent unintentionally pairing with a console. The user of the controller is held responsible if such an occasion occurs. Some tournaments go as far as to ban wireless controllers for these same reasons.

Controller modifications

Any controller that has been tampered with in some way must be inspected and approved prior to use. If a controller is denied and the player cannot secure a replacement in a timely manner, the player is considered forfeit. Most modifications are allowed, with the exception of alterations that allow player to perform actions not feasible or physically possible by an average player with an unaltered controller (e.g. turbo buttons, auto-fire, SOD capabilites).

Other Rules

The Gentleman's Rule

The most basic form of the rule dictates players may tweak the rules of their specific set if all players in the match mutually agree to it. This can manifest in players requesting to play on banned stages or changing the length or amount of matches. This does technically defeat the purpose of the competition by allowing sudden rule changes, though this is typically justified by all affected parties accepting the outcome and the tournament continuing as normal. While tournament organizers usually don't impose any restrictions on the Gentleman's Rule, they may occasionally explicitly disallow banned stages from being played on at all regardless of the rule; extending or shortening the amount of games to be played in a set is generally disallowed as well.

Player conduct

All players in a tournament are expected to be respectful and well behaved. Attempts to ruin the integrity of the tournament, e.g. match fixing or bracket manipulation, as well as physically disturbing fellow players, e.g. purposeful distraction or assault, or generally being aggressive and destructive is not tolerated and will be dealt with by the tournament organizer and potentially law enforcement.

References

  1. ^ Even if Spirits are not used, having them turned on will slightly decrease the hitlag of certain moves. https://twitter.com/Meshima_/status/1389695223194783746
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