Hey guys, I know this is being discussed in a lot of places right now, but I figure it would be good to get a thread dedicated for just this purpose.  I think we would like it here if we came up with some official rules for tournaments that people can adhere to.  When we've come up with something that we all find agreeable, we'll make a page for it for easy access, as well as allow these default rulesets to propagate to the tournaments you create if you desire this to be so.

So what do I mean by tournament rules?  Most of you probably know this, but just to be sure, I mean:

# of Stock
Time Limit
Items/No Items
Team Attack On/Off

In Melee, rules were: 4-Stock, 8-minute, No Items, Team Attack On

In Brawl, I've heard rumblings about doing 3-stock instead of 4-stock to shorten tournament times, especially since lives last longer in Brawl as well.  I personally, don't like that, but that is up for discussion.

So anyway, as I see it, current Tournament Brawl rules are as follows:
3-Stock
8-Minute
No Items
Team Attack On

Discuss.

No Items and Team Attack On seem pretty standard.

I've taken 6-7 minutes playing 3-stock games, and none of the 3-stock games I've played lasted shorter than 4 minutes unless my opponent was a moron. For that reason I'm a bit wary of sticking to the 4-stock rules from Melee.

I'm okay with either 3 or 4 stock. 3 goes quicker, but if you keep the same time limit of 8min, I don't see why 4 stock could be too much of a problem. Besdies, maybe we'd see more sweet sudden death matches lol But I think with 4 stock, stupid mistakes are more forgivable then 3 stock. I prefer that, being a ZSS user (I still screw up my recovery from time to time...)

The problems arising now are smash balls and levels with walls. I think the majority of the competitive smash community agrees that smash balls should be turned off just like every other item, but the wall problem is still up in the air by what I see. There are many potential infinite combos involving walls, but the walls are still avoidable. I'm not sure whether I'm for or against walls, as I have yet to be caught in one of the infinite combos, but it seems to me like it would just be part of the strategy to avoid it, or perhaps an additional rule could be simply "no infinites".

I think for the first year we should do 3 stock 6min. if people start getting kills quicker we could up to 4stock 6min.

no items/TA on


I dont want to ban infinites. I'd much rather sacrifice a stage over a tactic.

I'd prefer 3 stock for sure.

Same rules apply for sudden death as in Melee I assume? Also, 1v1, 2v2, FFA would be a bit different correct?

Keep it 3 stock, don't even think of changing it to 4.... if i play Lucario and go up against a Wario that's smart(the only Wario's i've faced that's smart are 2 of my crew members) those matches in a 3stock match are always over 5mins... if it was 4stock it would take even longer... which would be stupid

Stages with walls have to go, mainly Shadow Moses.. that has to go, u can constantly keep teching off that.. and its not hard to tech in this game, Fox can infinite shine against the wall... its not hard to get ppl into the wall, Drill to grab to fthrow to chase and repeat til they are against the way then infinite shine which is broken

Three stock.

3 stock, 7 mins, no items, team attack on. ^_^

it should definatly be 3 stock because as mentioned before its take a longer time to kill in brawl. Also items should definatly be turned including smash balls, usually if someone manages to obtain one it pretty much means an automatic/easy kill off the opponent.

I just ran a 32 person tournament today. We had 7 setups, and we tried Melee style rules to see how it'd go:

4 Stock
8 Minute Time
2 out of 3, Finals Best of 5
No Items
No Final Smashes

Matches were started very quickly (which was nice for once :D) and we finished in 4.5 to 5 hours. There wasn't too much camping going on at all, and we stopped for 10 - 15 minutes for pizza. We had more matches run out of time then usual, and that really slowed parts of the tournament down.

I'm still going back and forth on what I think Stock/Time should be set at, but hopefully the above proves helpful to the discussion.

Even though it takes longer to kill in brawl, I think 4 stock is still a good choice to have =\

There are really only two reasons to keep 4 stock:

1) Melee competitives are already used to that format and want to keep it that way.

2) More characters rely on tether moves for recovery, which can be easily edgeguarded no matter what percentage, thus putting more pressure on those character users in a 3 stock match. But still, characters in Melee had crappy recoveries too, so that argument is pretty subjective.

However, with all of the complaints about easier camping (particularly with Pit), if 4 stock were to be kept, the time limit would have to be extended to accommodate IMO.

what about the final smash? shouldn't be there? there have been controversies about it, but i don't see why it can be in. how about this: if both players (or all players for doubles) agree to have the smash ball on, they should have it on on low occurrence. if one player disagrees, then its shut off for that match. what do guys think?

Time needs to be kept at 8 minutes.

Well if there are no items, therefore you can't have final smashes

If they agree, fine, but there can still be johns about it. Plus, have you tried it on low before? It'll still show up 3-5 times in a 3 stock match because it's the only item. I don't know where I stand on this, but I think there are many more people against it than for.

Plus, as for the agreeing thing, it'll be hard to find people who agree when, say, a Sonic is facing a Kirby. That brings in more complaints about no one agreeing, etc... It's probably safer to just turn it off, then in more local tournaments where there's not as much on the line, go ahead and try it out. As for the big tourneys, appeal to the masses and turn them off.

My first post!
6-stock
6 mins
smash balls on low
no other items
team attack on

I'm still convinced that there is some strategy to getting the smashball, and that it's not actually random AND rewarding enough to one player in that either player can get it as it takes afew hits to break it open.
Then there's the argument that it's an item, it should be off, but other items only required to be picked up (which only takes a split second) and can also interfere with doing tilts; sometimes while playing lucario, instead of an uptilt i will accidentally pick up a fireflower and ruin a combo.
Then of course some characters' are better than others, which adds a slight bit more depth to the game.
I think having smashballs would be good to have on, so long as they are on low.

I'm saying 3 stock 8 min because a 3 stock game in brawl takes only slightly more time than a 4 stock game in melee, so I don't see why we'd lower the time limit.

I agree with 3 stock 8-minute.
We could possibly put smashballs on low as a counterpick option.