[Smash] Why stages are banned in Brawl

[Flint]

Brawl had 16 banned stages and 25 legal stages. Through years of tournaments that list was slowly brought down to 8 legal stages. Those stages are Final Destination, Battlefield, Smashville, Lylat Cruise, Yoshi's Island (Brawl), Castle Siege, Pokemon Stadium, and Halberd. Note that there might be more legal stages on some stage lists because many bans were controversial.

Brawl is highly fragmented and argumentative when it comes to which stages should be legal. As a result, the stage legality list is significantly messier than the previous two games, with most stages being disputed in one way or another. Additionally, a stage's legal status is heavily influenced by Meta Knight's legality, as he tends to gain even more drastic advantages on many fringe stages. Thus tournaments that ban Meta Knight tend to allow more stages than tournaments that keep him legal.

This table shows the status of each stage using a four-tier system:

* Tier 0 stages are legal in all rulesets.

* Tier 1 stages are usually legal, but may be banned in restrictive rulesets such as some Japanese rulesets.

* Tier 2 stages are the most contentious; they may be legal, or they may be banned.

* Tier 3 stages are usually banned, but may be legal in experimental rulesets.

* Tier 4 stages are universally banned.

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Universal Doubles Rules:

Double Meta Knight is banned; tournaments that keep Meta Knight legal will not allow players on the same team to both use Meta Knight.

Team attack is on.

Sharing stocks is allowed.

If time runs out and either player on a team breaks their ledge grab limit, their team loses. If players on both teams exceed the limit this rule is ignored.

If the clock expires and the total number of stocks of each team is equal, use the sum of the final percentage of the players on each team as the tiebreaker; whichever team has a lower sum wins. (A player who has been eliminated has 0 stocks and 0%).

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75m (Tier 4)

Overly large; camera has zooming issues and difficulty following characters; excessive stalling potential; random, powerful stage hazards; too difficult to move around the stage; walk off blast lines; very poor matchup balance, where characters with powerful and flexible air games, as well as those who can camp with projectiles, have a disproportional advantage.



Battlefield (Tier 0)



Big Blue (Melee) (Tier 4)

Random terrain; scrolling stage; ground too close to the cars; gives a disproportional advantage to faster moving characters; stage moves too fast for usual gameplay; too much emphasis on platforming



Bridge of Eldin (Tier 3)

High potential for camping/stalling; walk off blast lines; overly powerful stage hazard in the bomb thrown by King Bulbin; bottom blast line is not always available; abnormally high ceiling and walk-offs give a disproportional advantage to horizontal finishers. Walk-off could be easily abused by King DeDeDe and Ice Climbers. Has only seen legal usage in some Japanese doubles tournaments; banned elsewhere.



Brinstar (Tier 2)

Irregular stage design; acid disrupts gameplay; main platform allows sharking, poor matchup balance, where air based characters gain a significant advantage, most notoriously Meta Knight. Meta Knight's advantage on the stage is so large (Basically instant win) that it's universally banned nowadays in Meta Knight legal tournaments, but it may see legality in Meta Knight banned tournaments.



Castle Siege (Tier 1)

Second stage transformation and the transition between stage transformations have walk offs; second stage transformation has no access to a bottom blast line and thus does not allow offstage gameplay; second transformation is very large and allows ease of platform camping.



Corneria (Melee) (Tier 4)

Close blast lines and an abnormally low ceiling, which gives a disproportional advantage to vertical finishers; excessive camping/stalling behind the big fin; fin allows for wall infinites.



Delfino Plaza (Tier 1)

Several stage transformations have walls and/or walk offs; primary section of the stage on the hovering platform allows sharking. Meta Knight legal tournaments that don't intend to be as limited as the Japanese ruleset may ban the stage, solely due to Meta Knight's prowess on the stage. King DeDeDe was also extremely good on this stage.



Distant Planet (Tier 3)

Walk off blast line; an instant KO stage hazard in the Red Bulborb, which can drag players off screen; unreasonably powerful camping position at the bottom of the ramp underneath the platform; stage design allows the potential for circle camping. Also Meta Knight was considered too powerful on this stage.



Final Destination (Tier 0)



Flat Zone 2 (Tier 4)

Randomness of the stage; overly small; numerous damaging and powerful stage hazards; no bottom blast line; walk off blast lines



Frigate Orpheon (Tier 1)

The stage flipping between its two transformations is susceptible to causing what is commonly seen as unwarranted self destructs; the first stage transformation has no grabbable ledge on the right side of the stage, giving a disproportional disadvantage to characters with tether recoveries and other characters who heavily rely on the ledge to recover. Meta Knight legal tournaments more often than not have this stage banned because picking this stage with Meta Knight was pretty much considered an instant win.



Green Greens (Tier 3)

Over-centralises gameplay on camping; randomly appearing bomb blocks disrupt normal gameplay; blocks allow for wall infinites


Green Hill Zone (Tier 4)

Excessive camping near checkpoint hazard; walk off blast lines; bottom blast line is not always available; horizontal blast lines that are close with walk-offs and a high ceiling give a disproportional advantage to horizontal finishers.



Halberd (Tier 1)

Stage has a rather low ceiling, giving a disproportional advantage to vertical finishers; the hovering platform portion of the stage allows sharking; the Halberd Bridge portion of the stage has powerful stage hazards. Meta Knight legal tournaments that don't intend to be as limited as the Japanese ruleset may ban the stage solely due to Meta Knight's prowess on the stage.



Hanenbow (Tier 4)

Stage is overly large; irregular stage design forces major gameplay changes; high camping/stalling potential.



Jungle Japes (Tier 3)

Overly powerful stage hazard in Klap Trap; unusually high ceiling gives a disproportional advantage to horizontal finishers; high potential for camping and stalling; very poor matchup balance, giving a disproportional
advantage to characters with projectiles and those that can traverse the stage well (most notoriously Falco, to where the stage is seen as an autowin for Falco in most matchups).



Luigi's Mansion (Tier 3)

Impassable platforms create caves of life; stage design allows the potential for circle camping.



Lylat Cruise (Tier 0)



Mario Bros. (Tier 4)

Gameplay is vastly altered by stage enemies; overly powerful stage hazards; impassable platforms create caves of life; walk off blast lines; no lower blast line.



Mario Circuit (Tier 4)

High potential for camping/stalling; walk off blast lines; frequent stage hazard in karts that often disrupt gameplay; no lower blast line. King DeDeDe and Ice Climbers can abuse the walk-off with their grabs.


Mushroomy Kingdom (1-1 and 1-2) (Tier 4)

Scrolling stage; stage moves too fast for usual gameplay; bricks create caves of life, especially in 1-2; ledges are not grabbable; walk-off blast lines



New Pork City (Tier 4)

Stage is overly large; walls allow for wall infinites; excessive stalling/camping potential; camera has zooming problems; OHKO stage hazard in the Ultimate Chimera; stage is abnormally difficult to traverse, disrupting gameplay.



Norfair (Tier 3)

Overly powerful, frequent stage hazards that disrupt usual gameplay; stage has many ledges that can be easily abused.



Onett (Melee) (Tier 3)

Irregular stage design; frequent stage hazard in cars disrupt gameplay; walls allow infinites; walk off blast lines; no lower blast line. Characters like King DeDeDe and Ice Climbers can abuse the walk-offs with their grabs.



Pictochat (Tier 3)

The order in which the drawings appear on the stage is random, and the time to prepare for each drawing is minimal; some drawings can cause a player to be KO'd or fail a recovery against their control (such as the Eyes drawing preventing a recovering character from grabbing the left ledge, or the Gusty Gus drawing appearing and stage spiking a character after they have been knocked back); some drawings create walls, allowing wall infinites; some drawings promote camping; overly powerful stage hazards; numerous glitches can occur on the stage, such as the Earthquake glitch and the Spin glitch.



Pirate Ship (Tier 3)

High potential for stalling in the water or under the ship's rudder; overly powerful stage hazards.



Pokémon Stadium (Tier 0)



Pokémon Stadium 2 (Tier 2)

Stage transformations can cause what many players see as large, disruptive gameplay changes; wind transformation reduces gravity; ice transformation has slippery terrain; electric transformation has large, fast moving conveyor belts that disrupt usual gameplay; all transformations but ice have powerful camping positions and high potential for stalling. One of the most heavily debated stages, as many players have vouched for the stage and argue its transformations to not be as disruptive as commonly claimed, or in some cases that its transformations are even beneficial to gameplay. Many other players however adamantly refuse to touch the stage, and thus it remains commonly banned.



Port Town Aero Dive (Tier 3)

Randomness of the stage; overly powerful stage hazards in the cars (which can KO under 50%); cars can be difficult to see coming due to the colors and their speed; main platform has no grabbable ledges.



Rainbow Cruise (Tier 2)

Scrolling stage; some portions of the stage have no grabbable ledges; some portions of the stage have walls, allowing wall infinites or walk-off blast lines, creating an over-centralisation on horizontal KO moves; poor matchup balance, where air based characters have a significant advantage, most notoriously Meta Knight. Meta Knight's advantage on the stage is so large that it's universally banned nowadays in Meta Knight legal tournaments.



Rumble Falls (Tier 4)

Scrolling stage; gives a disproportional advantage to characters with fast, high jumps; punishes characters who rely on tether recoveries; first spike is an OHKO stage hazard if not teched; irregular stage design forces major gameplay changes, given an emphasis on keeping up with the stage instead of fighting.



Shadow Moses Island (Tier 4)

No lower blast line; walls block access to side blast lines when not destroyed; over-centralisation on teching; game mechanics change too quickly when walls are destroyed or up, giving a disproportional advantage to vertical finishers when the walls up, and giving that advantage to horizontal finishers when they're down; walls allow for wall infinites; walk off blast lines when the walls are destroyed; a glitch can allow characters to stay on the other side of the walls when they rebuild, allowing the character to safely camp there until the wall is destroyed again. King DeDeDe was considered an instant win here.



Skyworld (Tier 4)

Impassable platforms; cave of life in centre of stage creates an over-centralisation on teching; the combination of "supersoft platforms" and the aforementioned impassable platforms results in frequent onstage stage spikes, that cause frequent low damage KOs on the stage from what should be a neutral position; potential slowdown in doubles.



Smashville (Tier 0)



Spear Pillar (Tier 4)

Randomness of Pokémon attacks; overly powerful stage hazards caused by Pokémon; Pokémon can cause disruptive changes in gameplay, such as slowing down time, reducing gravity, and reversing control; stage design allows the potential for circle camping; lower area of the stage provides a large cave of life. Palkia considered too disorienting and Dialga disrupted the flow and pace of the gamestate.



Summit (Tier 4)

Terrain is slippery; lower gravity occurs at one point of the stage; instant KO stage hazard of the fish, which quickly drags characters beneath the lower blast line with no hope of survival; ledges are not grabbable, giving a disproportional disadvantage to characters who rely on ledges to recover, especially those with tether recoveries; lower area provides a cave of life; stage design allows the potential for circle camping.



Temple (Melee) (Tier 4)

Overly large; large cave of life in lower area over-centralises gameplay on teching; multiple areas allow for run away and circle camping; excessive stalling potential; gives an extreme advantage to fast characters.



WarioWare, Inc. (Tier 4)

Random bonuses from Microgames have an over-centralising effect, to where someone can win being luckier with the bonuses; walk off blast lines during microgames; overly powerful stage hazards during microgames.



Yoshi's Island (Tier 0)



Yoshi's Island (Melee) (Tier 3)

Rotating block platforms create caves of life; walk off blast lines; marginalizes offstage skills; blast lines are abnormally close to the stage. King DeDeDe and Ice Climbers abused the walk-offs on this stage.

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If you guys have any criticisms or questions I'd like to hear them.