I) Rules of a Set

  1. 4 stocks.
  2. No items.
  3. Pause option should be disabled in the game menu. If left on, a player who pauses accidentally or deliberately during a game must forfeit a stock. A player who quits the game with Start and L+R+A+Start automatically loses the game.
  4. 8 minute time limit. In the event of a timeout, the player who has the most stocks left wins the game. If both players have the same amount of lives, the character with the least damage wins the game. If both characters have equal lives and damage, the game must be replayed. Sudden Death is never used.
  5. Winner DSR: a player cannot pick a stage on which they have previously won during the current set.
  6. Pamaro’s Stupid Rule (PSR): The character and stage selection should be made reasonably quickly.
  7. Gentleman’s Clause: If both players agree to it, any stage can be chosen.
  8. Stalling (avoiding combat in order to reach the end of the timer) is banned. Stalling is not camping; in case of doubt, the TO has the final word.
  9. Wobbling is banned. If Nana gives a fourth hit of any kind during Popo’s grab, the player automatically loses the current game.
  10. Yo-yo glitch is allowed.
  11. Color glitch is banned (two identical characters with the same color).
  12. Playing as Master Hand is banned.
  13. Any glitch than can prevent an opponent from controlling their characters is banned.
  14. Before a game starts, a player can request to play on neutral ports.
    For Fountain of Dreams, Final Destination and Yoshi’s Story, the neutral ports are ports 1 and 2.
    On Battlefield and Pokémon Stadium, the neutral ports are ports 3 and 4.
    On Dream Land 64, the neutral ports are ports 2 and 4.
  15. Before a game starts, a player can request to have a neutral start: both players face each other on each side of the ground platform.
  16. In the event of a dispute, the choice of controller port or the color of a character is settled by Rock-Paper-Scissors.
  17. Players are allowed a 1 minute warm-up before playing their game.
  18. Coaching is allowed between games, but not during a game. If a person is coached during a game, the player (player and coach) get a warning. Any player with two warnings gets disqualified.
  19. A player can take a 5 minute break between two consecutive sets.

II) Set Procedure

  1. Players pick their character.
    A referee can be asked to organize a Double Blind Pick: Both players secretly reveal their character to the referee, who makes sure those characters are chosen.
  2. After character picks, players proceed to Stage Striking:
    The winner of a Rock-Paper-Scissors battle strikes one stage from the list of five neutral stages, then the loser strikes two stages from the remaining four. The winner then decides amongst the two remaining stages where the first game of the set will be played.
  3. The first game is played.
  4. After the game is over, players proceed to Stage Banning with the following rules:
    – If the set is Bo3 (Best of 3), the game winner bans one stage for the next game.
    – If the set is Bo5 (Best of 5), there is no stage banning. DSR applies.
  5. The game loser then announces which stage will be played (Neutral or Counterpick) for the next game, except stages banned during Stage Banning or in regards to Winner DSR.
  6. The game winner may change character.
  7. The game loser may then also change character.
  8. The game is played.
  9. After the game, if the set is not over, steps 3 through 7 are repeated until the set is finished.
  10. If one of the previous rules was not respected, affected games must be replayed.

III) Rules specific to Doubles

  1. 8 minute time limit.
  2. Friendly Fire is on.
  3. Share Stock is allowed.
  4. Fountain of Dreams is banned due to lag.
  5. Pokémon Stadium is Neutral (not Counterpick).
  6. No Stage Striking.
  7. Before a game starts, a team can request to play on neutral ports:
    For Pokémon Stadium, Battlefield, Yoshi’s Story and Dream Land 64, the neutral ports are: ABBA.
    On Final Destination, the neutral ports are ports are: ABAB.

IV) Stages

Neutral stages are the following:

  • Final Destination
  • Battlefield
  • Yoshi’s Story
  • Dream Land 64
  • Fountain of Dreams (banned in doubles)

Counterpick stages are the following:

  • Pokémon Stadium (Neutral in doubles)
  • All neutral stages

All other stages are banned.

V) Tournament Format

  1. a.The tournament can start with a qualifiers phase: Swiss rounds, pools, or bracket. If the qualifiers are pools or a bracket, the TO must seed the players before the qualifiers.
    b. Qualification phases are Bo3.
    c. In case of a tie during the Round Robin phase, players are ranked as follows:
    d. First, the ratio of sets won is considered. If several players have the same ratio, the ratio of games won will be considered. If it is a 2-player tie, only the results between the two of them are considered. In case of a tie between 3 players, they play their games again (the number of stocks and the percentage is taken into account).
    e. If there are qualifiers, their results will be used as seeding information for the tournament. If there aren’t, the TO must directly seed players.
  2. Tournaments are a double-elimination bracket (with a Loser’s bracket compatible with Challonge/Smash.gg). It is divided into 2 parts: The Winner’s and Loser’s bracket. At the end of each Round, winners progress in the Winner’s bracket, as in a single-elimination competition. Losers join the Loser’s bracket and play in order to stay in the tournament. A second loss will cause a definitive elimination from the tournament. The Grand Finals opposes the winner of the Winner’s bracket and the winner of the Loser’s bracket. If the Loser’s bracket winner takes the first Grand Finals set, a second set is played. The number of players must be a power of 2 (8, 16, 32, 64 …). If not, it is possible to complete this power of 2 with fictive players called « Bye », who will lose all their games.
  3. During the tournament, every set will be Bo3. The TO can take the decision to fix a round after which every set will be Bo5.
  4. The winning player must announce the result of a set.
  5. If after 10 minutes a player does not show up in order to play his set, they lose it. No negotiation possible. In pools, every 10 minutes, the player loses against an opponent, by decreasing seed order.

VI) Equipment rules

  1. Bring your own controller!
  2. Kadano’s rule: Controller modifications and alternative controllers of any kind are allowed, except for those enabling macros or turbos. The only legal macro is the Z button, or any equivalent input (R/L +A) to grab.
  3. Trigger Trick is allowed.
  4. Freejon’s Stupid Rule: It is forbidden to unplug a player’s controller during a game, or playing instead of your partner.
  5. The game will be played on 4/3 screens with lagless devices. TVs with no lag are either CRT (cathode ray tube) TVs or flat screens with under 16ms of input lag (non-exhaustive list)
  6. The game is played in 60Hz mode.
  7. The game is played on the NTSC version of the game, with every character and stage unlocked.
    a. UCF should be switched on for every console in the tournament, using a memory card or an adaptor plugged into the console directly.
    b. Both players must make sure UCF is switched on for their setup before starting a tournament set. If a player notices during a set that UCF is off, they can ask for it to be switched on for the rest of the set. Games already played in this set will only be replayed following a TO’s decision.
  8. Only Nintendo Wiis and Gamecubes which can run an official game disk are allowed. A Wii console that can play an ISO of the original game is accepted and the use of Slippi is recommended whenever possible. A player can ask to play on the original game disc.
  9. If a game is interrupted because of external causes (alarms, fire, dysfunction of a TV/console, power cuts…), it must be replayed.
  10. In the event of a rematch caused by a dysfunction, a player can ask to change setups.

Glossary

Best of (Bo): The maximum number of games that can be played in a set.

Bracket: A tree of every set of a tournament, or of a part of a tournament.

Winner’s Bracket: A tree of the sets played between players with no set losses.

Loser’s Bracket: A tree of the sets played between players with one set loss.

Camping: Staying in one area to attack an opponent at a distance and/or force them to approach.

Color Glitch: A glitch allowing two players to choose the same character and the same color without being on the same team.

Counterpicking: Choosing a specific character or a specific stage between two games of a set.

Counterpick stages: Stages available for stage striking starting from the second game (Pokémon Stadium), and the stages chosen by a player after the first game of a set.

CRT: Stands for Cathode-Ray Tube. Refers to cathode ray television screens.

Double Elimination: A tournament format in which a player is eliminated after two losses.

DSR: Stands for Dave’s Stupid Rule.

Friendly Fire: An in-game option which allows teammates to hit and damage each other.

Grand Finals: (Only in a double elimination event) One or two sets between the winner of the Winner’s bracket and the winner of the Loser’s bracket.

Hz: Stands for Hertz. Refers to the refresh rate of a TV screen, the number of images (or frames) it can display per second.

Input: Activating a controller’s buttons or joysticks to change its value (X1/Y1 for the grey stick, X2/Y2 for the C-stick, 0 or 1 for the A/B (etc…) buttons)

Lag: Time delay between a controller input and the game executing it.

Macro: Performing two or more inputs while pressing a single button.

NTSC: Stands for National Television System Committee. Refers to the US and/or Japanese versions of a game, amongst others. To differentiate them, the US version can be called NTSC-U and the Japanese version called NTSC-J.

PAL: Stands for Phase Alternating Line. Refers to the European version of a game, amongst others.

Pools: Qualifying phase of a tournament during which players face every other player in their pool.

Swiss Rounds: Qualifying phase of a tournament made of several rounds of sets. The assignment of the sets depends on each player’s number of victories and defeats. The total number of rounds must be fixed as the tournament begins.

Rounds: A part of a bracket made up of a specific amount of sets.

SSBM: Stands for Super Smash Bros Melee.

Seed: Ranking of a player relative to the other players of the tournament.

Stalling: Waiting out the clock by avoiding or preventing the fight, in order to win by Time Out.

Set: Group of games played between two or more players to determine a winner. Usually comprised of 3 or 5 sets.

Stages: Selectable in-game maps where games take place.

Stage Banning: Choosing a stage which the opponent cannot pick for the next game.

Neutral stages: Stages available for stage striking from the first game.

Stage Striking: A stage picking procedure used to determine where the first game of a set will be played.

Time Out: Reaching the end of the in-game timer.

TOs: Stands for Tournament Organizers. Refers to the people organizing, in charge of, and responsible for one or several tournaments.

Trigger Trick: Holding down the R or L controller triggers before plugging the controller in, so that the triggers can only be used in-game by being pushed down completely (instead of gradually).

TSR: Stands for Tero’s Smart Rule. TSR states during Stage Banning, a player cannot choose to play a stage on which they have already won during the current set.Turbo: A button which executes an input continuously as long as it remains pressed or activated.

UCF: stands for Universal Controller Fix. Refers to a mod of SSBM, made to eliminate the potential differences between players’ controllers in order to guarantee a fairer level of competition.

Wobbling: An infinite combo on a grabbed character, notably using Ice climbers or in Doubles, making the grab inescapable, and potentially bringing the percentage up to 999%.

Yo-Yo glitch: a glitch exclusive to the character Ness, using Up-smash.