Banned Tactics
By AlphaZealot | Published: January 22, 2009 9:03pm EST
 Occasionally tactics, strategies, or moves will be discovered that get banned from competitive play. The pre-conditions for banning a tactic vary from region to region, however the most universal reason for removing a tactic from play is because that tactic has the potential to stall a game completely. The easiest example of such a tactic is Meta Knight’s infinite cape glitch. This glitch allows Meta Knight to disappear (and therefore cannot be hit) for the entirety of the match. The potential for exploiting this at tournaments is obvious, so practically every tournament in the country bans the technique. Other examples though are not as obvious. Some tournaments ban infinites, while others don’t. The variance is based largely regionally and while most tournaments do not ban infinites, enough do that it should be noted. Banning infinites is a heavily debated aspect within the Smash community and centers on two philosophies. The first dictates that we should not limit a characters potential, like the Ice Climbers, by removing infinites (the Ice Climbers have a series of chain grabs and infinites that essentially define the characters as playable). The second philosophy is that infinites cause some characters to be unplayable in tournaments, and that banning the infinite causes more good than harm. At tournaments where infinites are banned it is usually enforced by a judge’s rule. If infinites are not banned then the performance of the infinite is typically limited to 300% to prevent stalling. Some tactics can be performed that freeze a character or the game and are likewise banned. |
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