Seems like items vs no items as well as 1v1 vs free-for-all are around 50/50, and that separate tourneys would be the best solution.

I would also love a 2v2 tournament down the line though.

After a few standard tourneys so that I can pick the ideal partner >:)

Normally stock, no items (competitively) 3 - 5 lives.

When I have friends over we go full rampage with all items on and 10 lives

we build a closed stage, with only a little hole in the middle to the characters fly away from it.
Its fun cos, we end battling with 300+% most of time, any contact you are bouncing in the walls very fast!

Items -> Very High, Only pokéballs and all kind of explosives.

Half of the scenario is mine and the other half is my buddies's, we can only pick items that fall on our side.

20 lives.

Man, that would make tournament management tons more convenient (as well as making tournaments far less time consuming). Unfortunately, I don't see this mode becoming available online even in Smash 4.

And yeah, to keep the number of participants as high as possible I don't see two+ tourneys happening at the same time either.

Three lives stock, eight minutes, no items, specific stages, Spanish style.

Einsam_Delphin said: HylianSwordsman said: Stock. Always. I hate time. Almost everyone I know hates time. As for people being able to go through a match without getting a kill, that's precisely why I like stock. Wanna win at a time match? Just get really good at Ike or someone else who kills a lot. Not every character has the same ability to get kills. You could do more damage than everyone else combined, and still get fewer kills than deaths. I can't tell you how many times I've won a stock match under these conditions. It depends on the person's playstyle as well as the character used. It's not fair to certain players to use time. Furthermore, in a tournament, matches are 1 on 1, so the winner will always be the one who got the most kills, so it's better to do stock. Otherwise you could have one lucky kill or self destruct and the rest of the match nothing. Stock makes it almost guaranteed that at least some skill is involved. Still not sure what yal are getting at here, as it's always been the case that some characters are simply better than others. I'd prefer if it wasn't like that, but with characters having unique movesets n attributes, it's pretty much impossible to have perfect balance. Also, you still needa do damage first since not even Ike can kill at 0%, and likewise, you still needa be able to kill in Stock battles. Oh, and skill is always involved since characters don't move themselves! Lastly, the tournaments here aren't necessarily gonna be 1 on 1s. It'll probably depend on how many people and how much time we have.

You're just helping my point here. Some characters are better in time free-for-alls than others, and it usually just comes down to how many killing moves you have. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten more damage than everyone else in the match combined, but still died more times than I actually killed. You gonna tell me I wasn't in the fight? I would lose a time match in this case, but I regularly win stock matches. Take the Ike example. Say you have a timed match, and I'm Wolf, and Ike is the one sitting in the background. Ike does no damage the entire match until I get the other two people up to 150%, at which point Ike comes in and steals my kill because he has better killing moves. Ike never dies, does maybe 100% worth of damage to everyone, but gets 5 kills. I die three times, get 750-1000% damage on everyone, and get no kills. I get last place even though I did the most work. In a stock battle, I could still win, because it's last man alive. Ike probably wouldn't get away with standing in the background, because once everyone was down 3 lives and he's still at 5, everyone would gang up on him, and he'd fucking deserve it. In a 1 on 1 stock match, I'd kick Ike's ass. In a 4 player free-for-all time match, Ike wins with just 5 smash attacks. Fuck time matches. I wish they'd never been included. If you need a time limit on a match, you should just put a time limit on a stock match.

Regardless, if we have a tournament, we should at least play teams. I know it's doable because I remember being in a 2 v 2 tournament. If we're playing competitively, the tournament should be a measure of skill. The best measure of skill is 1 v 1, no items, stock match, with selective stages (not necessarily just final destination, but at the same time stages like Rumble Falls need to go). Lives can vary depending on the time you have, but remember you can put a time limit on a stock match. I suggest about 8 minutes for a 4 player, 3 live stock match. It's a tried and true tradition. Team tournaments are actually lots of fun though, because certain characters support each other better than others, so it adds a whole new layer of strategy.

Stock, 5-6 lives, competitive

Tbh I've always played competitive (and always have been best among my friends and cousins)