Time out

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A time out is when a player wins a stock match due to the clock expiring, as opposed to winning via KO'ing the opponent. Once time runs out in a stock match, the player with more stock remaining is the winner; if there is a tie in stocks, then all tied players partake in a Sudden Death. In tournaments, Sudden Death is ignored, and instead the winner is whoever has less damage; in team battles the stock and damage counts of each player are added together to form a team's "score". Should damage also be tied in a tournament match, the tiebreak procedure varies.

Players with the lead may attempt to play for a time out victory by playing very defensively via camping or stalling, and will often choose to simply avoid the opponent rather than try to get inside for more damage. As a result, characters with spammable projectiles and high movement speed are better at forcing time outs than others.

Stock matches in SSB cannot have an in-game time limit, so tournaments wishing to enforce one can only use an external stopwatch, or play a time match that is declared over and quit once a player is KO'd a certain number of times.

Time outs are contentious among the community. Many feel that playing with intent to time out is cheap or unsportsmanlike, while others see it as a legitimate strategy that gives certain characters a chance to win. Indeed, characters such as Samus and Sonic are often accused of being unable to win outside time outs due to lacking KO moves. The amount of time allotted by tournament rules affects the feasibility of time outs and as a result is widely debated as to what the "correct" value should be.