NEWS (As of 8/21/08 at 3:49 PM CST):
Ladies and gentlemen? we have a standard. Thanks to the testing, balancing, research, and discussion of many, many people, we finally have a draft for a balanced and fair item listing, as well as a ruleset for use in tournaments. Speaking for everyone a part of the ?ISP? project, we can?t thank everyone enough for their help and support; this would have never happened if the community around SWF hadn?t put (at least some) of their support behind it. Special thanks go out to those who don?t even agree with competitive item play, but still discussed and debated with us to work towards a consensus.
Here is the result of nearly two months of extensive testing, balancing, and discussion:
[NOTE: We have since added a ‘counterpick’ list to our standard; the impressions thread has been updated with relevant information concerning this change.]
ITEMS APPROVED THUS FAR:
(Sandbag) (Food) (Warp Star) (Bunny Hood) (Beam Sword) (Lip?s Stick) (Star Rod) (Super Scope) (Fire Flower) (Motion Sensor Bomb) (Freezie) (Smoke Ball) (Pitfall) (Mr. Saturn) (Green Shell) (Banana Peel) (Franklin Badge) (Screw Attack)
COUNTERPICK ITEMS THUS FAR:
(Assist Trophy) (Pokeball) (Dragoon) (Metal Box) (Home-Run Bat) (Hammer) (Ray Gun) (Cracker Launcher) (Gooey Bomb) (Hothead) (Spring) (Unira)
BANNED ITEMS THUS FAR:
(Smash Ball) (Containers) (Blast Box) (Maxim Tomato) (Heart Container) (Super Mushroom) (Poison Mushroom) (Starman) (Superspicy Curry) (Lightning) (Fan) (Golden Hammer) (Bob-Omb) (Smart Bomb) (Deku Nut) (Bumper) (Soccer Ball)
CHANGES FOR 2v2 PLAY:
Item Spawn Rate ? Changed to ?Medium?
(Team Healer) - Neutral
(Smash Ball) ? Moved to Counterpick
(Superspicy Curry) ? Moved to Counterpick
(Cracker Launcher) ? Moved to Neutral
BRACKET PROCEEDINGS:
Double-Elimination
Best of Three (3) Sets, with a Best of Five (5) Finals
Matches Consisting of 3-Stock with an Eight (8) Minute Time Limit
In the event of dispute, controller ports may be decided by Rock-Paper-Scissors
No player may choose a stage they have already won on in that set unless agreed upon by both players.
Ties will be broken by lives, followed by percentages; if percentages are tied, then a One (1) Stock Sudden Death match will be played (no time limit)
Each player may declare One (1) stage and/or One (1) item to be stricken from the entirety of the set
BRACKET CHANGES FOR 2v2:
Controller ports will be determined in a 1221 fashion; whoever wins the RPS will choose first, then the opposing team will get their ports, and then the teammate of the RPS winner will get the last port.
Team Attack will be set to ON
Life Stealing will be allowed
Each team may declare Two (2) stages and/or Two (2) items to be stricken from the entirety of the set.
Color Blind rule: Should a player have a color-based disability, he or she may request in a teams match to have a specific color for their team. This is so characters such as Lucario or Sonic can be granted the blue team so that there is not unnecessary confusion.
MISC. BRACKET RULES:
Metaknight’s Infinite Cape glitch is banned.
If a game ends with Bowser doing his suicide klaw and it ends in sudden death, the sudden death will be ignored and that game will count as a win for Bowser.
Any action that can prevent the game from continuing (i.e., freezing, disappearing characters, game reset, etc.) will result in a forfeit of that match for the player that initiated the action. You are responsible for knowing your own character, and must be wary about accidentally triggering one of these effects.
Stalling is banned. Stalling is the act of deliberately avoiding any and all conflict so that one may make the game unplayable. Running away from an opponent to reach a better position is not stalling, while doing an infinite grab endlessly against a wall is. Any infinite chain grabs must end quickly after 300% has been reached so as to prevent excessive stalling.
Port slob picks: On a player’s counterpick, that player may opt to redo the port selection process with that player or team picking their port first.
The Mages DQ rule: After a match has been called, if a player is two minutes late he will receive a warning. At 4 minutes late, he will be given a loss for the first game of the set. After six minutes, he will be given a loss of the entire set.
MATCH PROCEEDINGS:
1st Match ?
Double-blind character selection (may be waived with agreement of both players)
Each player may declare stage/item strikes
Opponents start the stage striking procedure
High seed deactivates One (1) item
Lower seed deactivates One (1) item
Match begins on stage chosen during strike
Subsequent Matches ?
Loser switches the status of One (1) item
Winner switches the status of One (1) item
Loser switches the status of One (1) item
Loser picks stage
Winner picks character
Loser picks character
MATCH PROCEEDINGS FOR 2v2:
1st Match ?
Controller port selection
Double-blind character selection (may be waived with agreement of all players)
Each team may declare stage/item strikes
Opponents start the stage striking procedure (1221 order as determined by RPS)
Higher seeded team deactivates One (1) item
Lower seeded team deactivates Two (2) items
Higher seeded team deactivates One (1) item
Match begins on stage chosen during strike
Subsequent Matches ?
Losing team switches the status of One (1) item
Winning team switches the status of Two (2) items
Losing team switches the status of One (1) item
Losing team picks stage
Winning team picks characters
Losing team picks characters
Match begins
Taken from SBR Recommended Brawl Stage Lists:
TOs must move stages from the starter/counterpick into either the starter or counterpick categories and must move stages from counterpick/banned into either the counterpick or banned categories.
Stages in the Starter/Counter and Counter/Banned list did not receive 2/3 majority, and therefore you are given the option to put those stages in either category, as we did not come to a consensus on it.
The SBR Recommended rule list uses the stage striking system. In this system, players take turns striking stages from the starter list until only one remains; these stages are not banned and can be counterpicked later in the set. There must be an odd number of starter stages.
Starter
Battlefield
Final Destination
Smashville
Yoshi’s Island
Starter/Counter
Castle Siege
Delfino
Halberd
Lylat Cruise
Pokmon Stadium 1
Counter
Brinstar
Corneria
Distant Planet
Frigate Orpheon
Green Hill Zone
Jungle Japes
Luigi’s Mansion
Norfair
Pictochat
Pirate Ship
Pokmon Stadium 2
Rainbow Cruise
Yoshi’s Island (Pipes)
Counter/Banned
Green Greens
Mario Circuit
Onett
Port Town Aero Dive
Skyworld
Banned
75m
Big Blue
Bridge of Eldin
Flat Zone 2
Hanenbow
Hyrule Temple
Mario Bros.
Mushroomy Kingdom I
Mushroomy Kingdom II
New Pork City
Rumble Falls
Shadow Moses
Spear Pillar
The Summit
Wario Ware
Any rule-list that closely follows this guideline may include a note in its opening post (suggested beneath the tournaments title in smaller font) that reads “ISP Certified”.
If you would like to read the detailed impressions of all of the items, you may find them here. If you are a tournament organizer and you would like to hold a tournament using this standard, we ask that you keep records (of some kind) of the proceedings and post in this thread any helpful information you gather during the course of the tournament.
TESTERS:
Jack Kieser (Phaze): 3566-1264-7112
Sephi_hatu (Sephi): 0087-1978-8381
Metallic_Igloo: 3523-1714-9284
nesdude: 2492-3777-7739
Rich: 0860-3024-9262
Trexxen (Trexn): 0774-3925-3469
POSTS WITH TEST DATA / WRITE-UPS:
Jack Kieser Item Test 1
nesdude Test 1
nesdude Tests 2 & 3
Jack Kieser 2v2 Test 1
Jack Kieser 1v1 Test 2
Jack Kieser Human 1v1 Test #1
’Item Standard Play’ Online Tournament (4/19/08)
‘Item Standard Play’ 5/24 1v1 Tournament
VIDEO EXPERIMENTS:
Bombs / Pokeballs: [media=youtube]oNkWlrubGgM"[/media]
nesdude Test 1 (feat. Dragoon): [media=youtube]Scuzoo3neLQ"[/media]
nesdude Test 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=J1yRjgtnwv4
nesdude Test 3 (feat. multiple Smash Balls): http://youtube.com/watch?v=k5WvDF6eXyI
Past News
*Good news for people who want to help test, but have no idea where to start! I finally got on my computer and made a template in Wordpad to help give people direction when they are testing. The template has slots for your input and places to put data pertaining to the test setup AND results! Unfortuantely, it’s not post compatible (meaning you can’t copy/paste the results into a post for SWF), but I’ll work on that.
The 1v1 version can be found here, while the 2v2 version can be found here. One note: make sure your margins are .5" all around, or else the formatting goes all the hell.