The SmashBox is in question
If you haven’t been following Melee by now, you probably never will. It’s been one of the most popular and hotly debated fighting games of the past decade, with many calling it “not a real fighting game” or calling for its tournaments to end after any given subsequent Smash iteration. Smash 4 seems finally poised to take the crown (and had bigger numbers at EVO this year), but Melee players aren’t down for the count just yet.
The latest controversy involves controllers, of all things. Five tournament organizers (TOs) have organized a unified rule set that involves a ban on controllers that are not GameCube remotes, removing the comforts of custom controllers and the widely used SmashBox. This has already made waves across the community, as the claw-hand motions needed to pull off quick maneuvers and wavedashing aren’t conducive to a standard remote (at least, that’s what some contend, and over long periods of time I’d be inclined to agree). This isn’t even going into the arena of needed a malfunctioning controller to back dash. Pro Melee play has been all sorts of complicated for a long while!
This ruling has been debated for some time, and for now, seems to be final and is even supported by other big-name TOs like Alex Jebailey. More testing will commence on creating a SmashBox that might not provide an advantage, and rules are always fluid, but for now, it’s set.
Ruleset [Melee it on Me]
