MoonlightNexus

Haven't gotten a lot of replies back yet for the info... I already have the first match set up, but I need everyone else's info to set up the rest!

I just over some MAJOR internet issues (for example, not even being able to get on the internet, which is sort of an issue). However, I spent time on it, even talked to someone in India (named Sarah...go figure...), so I'm ready to go again! It's time to cut all the junk and get this thing started! Everyone who wishes to participate needs to send me the following info: 1) Best time available to play 2) Top 3 characters you use 3) Favorite stage 4) Brawl Friend Code Why am I asking for your favorite stage? Because I'm brewing up something sneaky. I'll let you know more later, but one tip I'll give you is to pick your ABSOLUTE FAVORITE state, because it's going to make a difference!

That blasted fish + a somewhat inconvenient camera angle = ANGER!!! That fish has gotten me more than once... Spear Pillar is definitely out, but you guys bring up a great point about the Ultimate Chimera. It's like Shadow Moses, where the spotlight can easily be shaken off. So, EVERY stage except Spear Pillar and the scrolling stages? And maybe the Metroid stage where you fight for the "safehouse" to avoid lava (can't think of the name right now...)?

I've addressed the use of items over on the OCL World. Thanks for your input, I took a lot of it into consideration. I like the idea of having a low item drop rate during seasons (except for the Hammer, Golden Hammer, and Invincibility Star), with NO items during playoffs. This is still a work-in-progress, and the rules about items could change after awhile. A big thing I want to talk about is stages. I really don't want to use stages where different stage factors can influence the outcome (like the Ultimate Chimera in New Pork City). Two obvious ones to use are Battlefield and Final Destination. What are some of your ideas? Would something like Sonic's stage (where portions can fall apart) be "fair." Or even Pit's stage for that matter. Any scrolling stages are pretty much out, unless a strong arguement is made to include them. Bring on the comments!

[quote name='Allamorph'][FONT=Arial]I fail to see why the Smash Ball would be considered for inclusion. I mean, it is an item, and so it automatically alters the skill required to win. With that said, everyone's final smash can be nasty if the player knows how to use it, and every one can be avoided if the player knows what they're doing. Jigglypuff's, for example, will KO a player near her at the apex of her growth. Obviously, then, one wants to edgehog with it if one can, and keep the other players off of firm ground. The StarFox crew's smashes are similar, but Fox's has greater firepower, Falco's has greater flight time, and Wolf's has greater knockback on rolls. These are also avoidable, but a skilled player will know how to use mathematics to hit opponents in odd locations. Also, the Landmasters can die off the bottom of the screen. (I haven't felt like testing the limits on either side yet. =P) Link's (and Toon Link's) final only targets one person, but others may be caught in the destruction if they're close enough, though they won't be trapped by the Triforce. Ike's needs to hit one player, but his range is long; Marth's final will stop as soon as it hits the first victim or he crashes off the side. In each case, multiple people may be caught if close enough, but dodging should be very easy, as all these finals are linear in initiation. Triple Finish will only hurt if the player is on the shown screen, although Charizard's final burst of fire goes a little farther than the rest. Peach, along with Pit and all other characters with multiple jumps, should fare well against it, as will anyone who gets behind the pokémon. Lucario can only Kamehameha in one direction, so that tactic should be Divide and Conquer. Sonic and Pikachu are nasty, but if one can time the dodges right, they'll be useless. I could go on, but I think you get the point. I don't think they provide any one character with a clear advantage, just interesting ideas to play with. And I think R.O.B. is broken. Seriously. No one should be able to jump off Final Destination and regain the stage on the other side by [I]going under it[/I] and still be able to attack immediately.[/FONT][/QUOTE] Wow, that's pretty in-depth! Thanks for the commentary, I appreciate you taking the time to write all of that. The reason I have been considering adding the Smash Ball is that, while it is an item, I think it's such a [I]different[/I] item than everything else. It gives the player an ultimate attack, which is still a part of a character's unique repertoire. I was thinking about Street Fighter-type games, where special attacks are normal and frequently used. Like you mentioned, Final Smashes can be avoided, so the user has to have a certain amount of skill in pulling them off. Some assist trophies will keep attacking you, so you're pretty much certain to get seriously damaged or KO'd. Also, items like the baseball bat are one-hit KO's, which is totally unfair. I thought this uncertainty involved with Final Smashes made them more "fair play" than other items. Another thing I was balancing was how much Final Smashes could turn the tide of a match. On one hand, they could make a match more competitive by evening-out the stock count, but on the other hand this could seem as an unfair advantage. Someone who is clearly dominating the match shouldn't suffer because of a Final Smash. Thanks to the responses in this thread, I'm strongly leaning to not include the Smash Ball in official League matches. All things considered, they do seem to provide an unfair advantage, and while they do require some skill to use, it's not as much skill as just fighting would take. Besides, matches can be just as exciting without Final Smashes!

Madden: I'm addicted to those games, and I think I've easily racked up over 100 there. Mario games: Specifically Super Mario 64, but still, those games are too much fun to put down. Final Fantasy games: I'm sure I'm not alone here... Smash Bros.: All of these are fun too, especially the multiplayer. Runescape: I used to play this thing everyday, but I've really slacked off from it in the past couple years. I guess this one still counts as a "video game." Harvest Moon series: Too...much...fun... 6 different games/series...That means over 600 hours MINIMUM...I really need a life...

[quote name='Desbreko'][color=#4B0082]From my experience playing the game for around fifteen hours now, I'd say smash balls shouldn't be allowed in serious competitive play. Some characters get a big advantage with their final smash while others have pretty crappy ones and it can really throw off what would otherwise be a balanced match. Some characters also have a lot easier time breaking the smash balls due to the types of attacks they have.[/color][/QUOTE] That's a very good point. Some can be one-hit KO's, while others (like Jigglypuff and Peach) don't provide much of an advantage, and even others (like Sonic) can KO the person using it. And yeah, my brother was playing as Lucario (who gets stronger as he gets more damage), and he ended up getting the Smash Ball 9 times out of 10. Thanks for mentioning this, it's exactly the kind of thing that needs discussion.

UPDATE: New question to go with what's below: If the majority wants Smash Balls to stay in, but you do not (or the other way around), would you still being willing to play in the League? When I think about competitive gaming, I tend to think of people using their own skills, not relying on foreign objects to be the best (excluding games like Halo). This said, I initially wanted to set up official League matches to use no items whatsoever. However, the new Smash Ball adds a very unique element to the game, and I think it would be exciting to let players use it. So what's your take? Yes or no for the Smash Ball? Or are you in the camp of letting all items stay in? Comment here or on the OCL World. -Matt P.S. I'll try to put up a list of participants on the World soon (probably tomorrow), so check in!

[quote name='nabgeta']I'm not sure that it's a big difference other than some attacks that some people do other than that no real change in how that game is played:animesmil[/QUOTE] I was talking more about the different things he wanted for seasons. I really need to be clearer when I talk, lol :animeswea

[quote name='PyrusDragon']Brawl and Melee are totally different according to Sakurai-san (director of Brawl for those who don't know) I like the idea of multi-month seasons personally, and I think it would be easy to pull off, but we should have different things every season to keep things interesting.[/QUOTE] By different things, do you mean along the lines of different match types/stipulations?

[quote name='Solo Tremaine'][COLOR=#503F86]Well, I'd certainly love to be a part in this, but being in the UK my Wi-Fi connection may not extend far enough, and also, being in the UK, I'm not getting the game till gone June. Hmm.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] Anytime you get the game is fine, you'll be welcome to join. I'm hoping the WiFi works out for you, definitely keep me updated! [quote name='Shinmaru']I'm definitely joining in. I'll be more than happy to be everyone's whipping boy! Seriously, though, I was soooooo rusty the last time I played Melee. My skills (what little I had, anyway) have deteriorated so much. :( I like the idea of seasons; they should definitely be used to build toward tournaments. Wouldn't be too difficult to determine records - I don't remember if Brawl keeps track of records, but if not, then we could keep track of those ourselves. They might be different, though, depending on whether we're a 1-on-1 league, four-player league, or all match types, or whatever. Something to think about, anyway. We should figure out a way for this to not become so dense that it scares people away lol.[/QUOTE] 1v1, 2v2, etc. will most certainly depend on how many people sign up, so we'll have to see. I love the idea of seasons too, the trouble is how to set them up. Making a schedule shouldn't be a problem, but it's deciding at what point a season ends, and how soon to being the next season. We could end up having 10+ seasons per year! One potential idea is to have 1 multi-month seasons, playoffs for each, then add in some big tournaments between the seasons, combined with user-created events (like the minigames mentioned in this thread earlier). The trouble I foresee is that people may get bored with multi-month seasons, and may not want to wait for another. But hopefully people will keep doing what you're doing and give me some ideas about what would be most fun for them. And hey, it's been awhile since I've played Melee, so there's at least one person you can beat, lol.

Alright, the World for the league is initially set up! I've settled on the name "The Otaku Champions League." I BARELY had enough room to make the title "Otaku Champions League," so it has to stay as that on theO. the address is: [URL="http://www.theotaku.com/worlds/tocl"]http://www.theotaku.com/worlds/tocl[/URL] So go there and join the World if you're interested, but still use this thread to talk about the league!

[quote name='KisukeUrahara']Unfortunately, there's going to be a bit of a delay in me getting the game, but when I finally do get my hands on it, I'll definitely be sure to stop back by here again and let you know; this sounds like a lot of fun! ^_^[/QUOTE] No worries. Doesn't matter how late you buy the game, you'll be more than welcome to join whenever you want! [quote name='nabgeta']Well I think we should post are SSBB codes as soon as we get the game that way we can start to get this league more off the ground and to start kicking each others butt at the same time :smirk:[/QUOTE] Very true. We could probably post them here and on the World group whenever I set it up. But since James gave the green light for this to become the discussion area for the league, that's a great idea.

I'm going to respond to a couple things here, so please bear with me. James: I'm definitely hoping to use Worlds to have an official group when Version Vibrant releases. It seems like the perfect base for this sort of thing. Official support would be amazing, definitely more than I thought possible when I thought of this league. I still need to get everything off the ground and get more participants (I have a grand total of 2 so far...yeah...). Thanks for the offer! Inculta_Bellum: Your minigame idea sounds perfect. Seems like a nice way to mix competition with the more laid back atmosphere that Desbreko was talking about. I'd want to make this more open, meaning that I'd love for anybody to suggest a minigame idea (like you did). I shouldn't be the only one who has a say for that, since there's a lot of different options for a fight like you mentioned. I'd like to get suggestions from people, then make an announcement for their special brawl, and hopefully attract more gamers. Also, since Version Vibrant is coming out soon, and I plan on using it for the league, so you will need an account there. Like Adam has said, myOtaku and Version Vibrant are going to be separate, so you will not need a myOtaku account. If you want to join the league another way, I'm open to working that out. Version Vibrant is supposed to go up this weekend, so I'll FINALLY have a Worlds page officially dedicated to this league! I'll let you know where to find it when I can set it up. In the meantime, anybody have any good ideas for a name? I was thinking: theOtaku Super Smash Bros. League. I know, kinda stale, but that's why I'm taking ideas! [color=#4B0082]Please use the edit button rather than double posting when you need to add something to a post. Thanks. - [i]Desbreko[/i][/color] Sorry Desbreko! I'll try to keep that in mind for future posts. Thanks for the help! -MoonlightNexus

[quote name='Desbreko'][color=#4B0082]Hmm. I've never really done much with organizing stuff like this. I usually prefer more laid back gatherings where people just get together and play for fun. But I might join in once I get some experience with the game since I'll also be buying it at launch.[/color][/QUOTE] I'm hoping that will be sort of a secondary effect of the league, in the sense that people will be able to get in contact with others who play the game and trade friend codes. Then hopefully some groups will build where they can just come together and play for fun. Also, I know being in competition all the time can get tiresome (and sometimes take the fun out of things), so I'm thinking of also having casual group meetings where people can just come and play for fun.