Why Are 80% Of Melee Stages Banned?

Super Smash Bros. Melee has a total of 29 stages of which only 6 are used in competitive play.

The tournament-approved stages are limited to Final Destination, Battlefield, Yoshi’s Story, Dreamland 64, Pokemon Stadium, and Fountain of Dreams, but why?

Today, we’re going to look at what makes a good stage, what makes a bad stage, and how Melee’s ruleset has changed over time.

0:00 - Intro
0:37 - MBR Ruleset
2:05 - What is a "Bad Stage"?
3:36 - The "Walk-Off" Problem
5:25 - Stages That Were "Almost" Legal
10:30 - The Final 6
12:20 - Outro

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[Akshonesports]

Which banned Melee Stage would you want to see played for fun in a tournament?

[indigofenix]

The thing about Poke Floats and Rainbow Cruise is that, while janky as heck, they have two properties that the earlier banned stages didn't have: They aren't random and because they keep moving around they don't have any permanent features that can be exploited infinitely.

[Mythicalmage]

Corneria was always one of my favorites for casual play.

[poleon]

also the fact about us being used to Pokemon Stadium being frozen was mainly due to the fact that on slippi Stadium NEEDED to be frozen in order for rollback to actually function properly because the transformations messes with the rollback the same reason for the music having to be turned off

[Memecs]

I remember playing on the '08 stage list, back then thought the list was severe, later on when I learned match-ups and counterpicks I got to understand the reason of those bans...

Kinda remember that you could z-grab birdo's egg and throw it with the strenght of a stitch face.

[simanolastname]

Here are the current issues with the legal stages:

Fountain of Dreams - Can be laggy. Often banned in doubles.

Yoshi's Story - Slanted edges. Shyguys are random and can affect hitboxes and launch trajectories. Randall is technically very predictable but weird.

Final Destination - Considered a counterpick stage, can give some characters (see: Marth) significant advantages due to lack of platforms.

Dreamland - Whispy blows wind. Also has the biggest blastzones

Battlefield - Ledges can be janky in a phenomenon known as "Getting Battlefielded".

Frozen Pokemon Stadium - Pretty much nothing.

Unfrozen Pokemon Stadium - god how did we put up with this

[tree]

The video cites hazards like bomb blocks and barrels, but they weren't actually seen as that big of an issue. A lot of those stages were banned due to camping with strong defender's advantages, such as the rock in Kongo Jungle. Competitors will tolerate some wackiness or randomness, but they won't tolerate non-interactive play, which those strong defender's advantages often create.

Even with the wide stage list, over time the top players tended to prefer the more neutral stages, and it was seen as more "gentlemanly" or "honorable" to only pick neutrals as opposed to, say, Rainbow Cruise. As the game became more grassroots post-MLG, tournament organizers accordingly adjusted the ruleset to what they liked to play.

[NiklasEdinger]

I'd bring back Pokéfloats for sure. Great map.

[Electriceye]

It's amazing the popularity melee has to this day when competitive players largely find 95% of it to be completely unplayable

[charles]

It’s crazy to me that Rainbow Cruise and Mute City lasted longer than the Kongo Jungle maps.

[etxnjmu]

Little known fact, the DK stages were banned so as to prevent confusion between the ruleset of Rishi's Jungle Jam and the similar tournament ruleset of Super Smash Bros Melee. Spectators couldn't tell the difference at a glance, although the advantages of Rishi's Jungle Jam become obvious after a few moments.

[isucc]

my favorite moment regarding melee legal stage list was when ultimate was announced and people were bragging about all the legal stages they were gonna have for tournaments compared to melee (like, they do have 3-4 more stages than melee but they also banned a lot more stages than melee)

[baseballbat]

Honestly, I’d be interested in seeing Brinstar. I really wonder how anti-competitive stage hazards, especially ones as highly telegraphed as the lava in Brinstar. My biggest issue with it is actually the visibility lol.

[sithlordmikeyp]

I didn't realize people hate Big Blue. My best friend and his brothers and I always played on this stage (not solely, but it was always a contender)

[kefalos]

All the stages are fun in their own way, including Big Blue, which is chaotic fun especially with items

[benjamingesinski]

I think looking over the competitive stages in Ultimate should be interesting, especially because of the hazards toggle. It could explain why certain stages got banned, even with hazards off.

[Atlas-nfgw]

Kongo Jungle 64 being banned is so funny to me. Like, the barrel with a set path that has the ability to save players? Sounds a bit like an always visible Randall to me. Sharking under the stage? This community banned planking they could just ban that strategy too lmao
Melee's community is a bit strange.

[nlb]

One thought is that if we're happy with freezing stadium, aren't there other maps that'd be viable if they were frozen in their initial state?

[hennyzhi]

Seeing Brinstar return would be fun for the fact that, at least from my dumb casual understanding, it forces an engagement on the top platform when the lava rises. I just think that's a cool, dynamic way to prevent stalling. I would however be open to a mod version that removes the component where you can split the stage in half by attacking that segment of ground. I'm sort of half-n-half wondering what removing the tiltable platforms would do to matchups. So, at least for now, I'd say legal but just remove the stage split.

[FriedChckn]

I think the future of melee is interesting if we start including more stages, but maybe certain stage picks are only allowed if the chooser is *not* playing a specific character.

Like for example, don’t let a Peach player pick Kongo Jungle 64, but an IC player totally could if they wanted to or something.

It could allow for more dynamic stage picks and upsets, and adds a new factor of expertise to the top level, changing the playing field. We might see a player or two who are technically less impressive but know how to play more characters on more stages to their advantage.