Super Smash Brothers: Melee - Rules

General rules

  • Bring your own controller.
  • Double elimination bracket.
  • 4 Stocks.
  • 8 minute timer.
  • Items are set to "off" and "none".
  • Set team attack to ON. (Doubles)
  • Life Stealing is allowed. (Doubles
  • All sets with the exception of winner's finals, loser's finals, and the championship are best of 3 matches. Sets are best of 5 for all "finals" matches.
  • No player may choose a stage they have already won on in that set unless agreed upon by both players.
    • In team matches, the ports will be determined in a 1221 fashion; whoever wins the RPS or coin flip will choose first, then the opposing team will get their ports, and then the teammate of the RPS/coinflip winner will get the last port.
  • No player may choose a stage they have already won on in that set unless agreed upon by both players. (Dave's Stupid Rule)
  • In the case of a GameCube/TV malfunction, the game will be restarted from the beginning, no matter what time it crashed.
  • All decisions made by tournament officials are final.
  • If the timer runs out, the victor is determined first by stock and then by percentage.
  • Wobbling is banned.
  • Any action that can prevent the game from continuing (i.e., freezing, disappearing characters, game reset, etc.) will result in a forfeit of that match for the player that initiated the action. You are responsible for knowing your own character, and must be wary about accidentally triggering one of these effects.
  • Excessive stalling is banned.
    • Stalling: The act of deliberately avoiding any and all conflict so that one may make the game unplayable. Running away from an opponent to reach a better position is not stalling, while doing an infinite grab endlessly against a wall is. Any infinite chain grabs most end quickly after 300% has been reached so as to prevent excessive stalling. Projectile camping is not considered stalling. Ledge camping is not considered stalling if the opponent is within range of punishing a return to the stage.

Set format (In Order of Procedure)

  1. Opponents choose their characters for the first match.
    • Double blind character selection may be called for the first match.
  2. Each player may announce one stage to be banned for counter picks of the set.
  3. The first stage will be randomly selected from the starter list. Players may also agree to start on one of the starter list stages.
  4. The loser of the previous match announces the next match's stage from either the Starter Stage List or the Counter Stage List.
  5. The winner of the previous match chooses their character.
  6. The loser of the previous match chooses their character.
  7. Repeat steps 4-6 for all proceeding matches.

Starter stages

Battlefield
Dreamland 64
Final Destination
Fountain of Dreams (Banned in doubles)
Pokemon Stadium
Yoshi's Story

Counter pick stages

Brinstar
Corneria
Jungle Japes
Mute City (Singles Only)
Poké Floats
Rainbow Cruise

Banned stages

Big Blue
Brinstar Depths
Flatzone
Fountain of Dreams (Doubles Only)
Fourside
Great Bay
Green Greens
Hyrule Temple
Icicle Mountain
Kongo Jungle
Mushroom Kingdom 1
Mute City (Doubles Only)
Onett
Peach’s Castle
Venom
Yoshi's Island 64
Yoshi’s Island (Pipes)