Could we use stages to balance Melee?

[@Radarssbm]

If you enjoyed the video, I'd love to hear feedback on what you felt worked/didn't work!There was a lot of experimenting going on in terms of new types of content for this series. Examples include the music (all written by me), the shifts in style (title/text screens have melee game play in the background), the decision to explore melee through the lens of a different game (was this boring to people who don't know Starcraft?) So feedback will really help me improve for the next episode of this series (which probably won't be for a while as I have a bunch of Micro Melee ideas that I want to explore first!)

[@RadarHearthstone]

Also if you’d like to check out my new channel that covers Hearthstone, check it out on this channel!

[@KYUBIMATIAS]

As a Puff main, what are my best stages against the top 8? Dreamland takes the cake for sure, right?

[@Radarssbm]

Hyperdistortia this is kind of the wrong place to ask this question haha. Also it’s a very big ask, since every matchup is affected by stages in a different way. Play style also matters too. Generally speaking Puff does well/neutral on battlefield, FoD and Dreamland in most matchups, yeah. From there it depends...FD can be good in some matchups and poor in others. Same thing with Yoshi’s, although she obviously dies earlier on that stage, she also can’t get camped as hard. It just depends haha

[@mileswashington4788]

I’ve always wondered what warioware, smashville, and kalos would be like in melee. In ultimate I find these stages to be there most fun even though other players make complaints about them. I honestly feel as tho a stage like ware could make spacie/puff or spacie marth matches more even. But then the greater question would be how these stages affect lower high tier.. I honestly think we need stages to make lower tiers more viable but again dr mario and samus has a different stage preference than dk. All in all this a fantastic video and something I’ve wondered for some time

[@ViktorVoid]

youtube served up this badboi to me ;) look man, you got a great flow. everything was placed where it needed to be and as a video editor myself, i can tell you the footage you got too a long time to gather. totally worth it i'll be frank and just say, i don't understand why melee is coming up in my feed so often now, but that passion you guys have for this game is stunning. it really comes out in your work. keep it up, frank

[@hitboxcameron1416]

I seriously think that Rishi's Jungle Jam was one of the more important experiments in Melee's history, even if it you take it as just a joke. While I agree that the meta isn't necessarily stale at the moment, I don't think staleness is the only factor in ruleset changes - I think inducing excitement can be a good justification, for example. Coming from competitive Halo (2 and 3), I like the idea of pre-determined stages for games: they would pre-determine what maps and gametypes teams would play each set, and these maps and types would change for each round in the bracket. There was obviously overlap each round, but it allowed for a wider net of meta. [Grand Finals and Losers Finals would have different maps and gametypes, for example.] I've also always liked the idea of Pokemon Gyms or Tennis Majors: different environments players are having to deal with. [Pokemon: different types each gym; Tennis: different surfaces (grass, clay, hard)]. Great video. Glad you're posting again.

[@Radarssbm]

Yeah I agree. Just seeing a tourney with a slightly different stage list would be super super cool!

[@chairwood]

b0xx is better tho

[@jimmyliu3529]

The mention of RJJ reminded me about Sami singles (aka zoomer melee). The community also controls stock, time, and game counts. Single-stock games emphasize equal percent gameplay, compared to a typical game where players spend a significant amount of time fighting with a huge percent imbalance after respawns. Maybe a middle ground like two stocks would be interesting, too. Time is a poorly-explored concept compared to other fighting games because our community overwhelmingly perceives timeouts as lame. If everyone were really just playing to win, medium-sized leads would create more defensive play. Maybe we can do something to get the best of both worlds. Here are some ideas to mix and match (or not): - short timers designed to lead to timeouts even with fast-fallers - medium timers designed to lead to timeouts 50% of the time - losing a stock in the next game as a penalty for camping - losing the next game as a penalty for camping (say, in a Bo9 with 2 stocks) - a penalty rule that is only turned on if the previous game went to time - a penalty rule that is only turned on after a ledgegrab limit - a penalty for not entering the opponent's "bubble" for a certain amount of time (ex. you must get within 1 roll distance every 15 seconds). I originally imagined this as a fancy hack, but maybe we could enforce it just by video, say for top 8. Game count is straightforward: we use it to set expectations for how long a set typically goes (and the max it can go).

[@lordmew5]

Games should live and die on their own merits. We shouldn't be trying to keep them alive.

[@iamawin8272]

lordmew5 don’t make stupid comments anymore

[@turndownforwalt]

HE DON’T MISS!

[@normalrachael]

IT'S TRUE

[@medea6341]

Makes me think of the recent change of freezing Pokemon Stadium. Some thought it should be banned, and some wanted it to be frozen, and some wanted it to be kept as is. I guess we reached a balance by not removing it, but instead keeping it in a more neutral layout permanently, so we don't have some of the jank or infinites that sometimes happened on it. That definitely did influence the metagame.

[@themax2848]

In advance: I appreciate you uploading this video

[@MatosMadness]

i second this

[@Tridec13]

Armada sent me. Have some traffic, my dude.

[@jeremyhorvath2052]

I loved how you explained the parallel between Melee and SC 1 - I've always found those similarities super interesting, even between players (bonjwas and 5 gods) and communities and stuff. Great stuff!

[@AxiomApe]

Thanks for doing this. Melee and Starcraft (along with chess) are my favorite games of all time. Super hyped to see this topic ! A big reason why S2Js streams are so awesome lol

[@normalrachael]

This is by far some of the best melee content on KZbin. Get this man the subscribers he deserves

[@SchlimmShadySmash]

very cool video, and i actually love the idea of rotating those newer stages around, i think there should be a tournament series or two that allows this

[@pippincovington1348]

0/10 didn't fix G&W shield and L cancels jk good stuff, the music sounded good :3

[@Faulheit]

my takeaway from this video: bring back pokefloats

[@NotaSkeleton]

Great video! So happy to see you making this type of content again after the accident. Personally, I would love for the Melee community to introduce new, reasonable stages in the forms of mods or hacks. Frozen Stadium is already a pretty popular pick, but we can probably take it further than that. Project M has a really good, interesting list of legal stages that have distinct differences and platform layouts and Melee could improve by implementing some of those ideas. I also like the idea of moving platforms. Nothing radical, but something akin to a toned down Smashville, where the platform doesn't extend beyond the ledge, allowing players to use it to mix up recoveries, but not to camp close to the blastzone, fishing for an easy kill. One of the most interesting parts of Melee, and Smash as a whole, is the platforming elements. So, it's a shame that it's not emphasized much with the current stage list.

[@BirdOfCreation]

Imo, changes have to be made before there is a decline. We probably still have a few years, especially since the new smash games keep on bringing new players to Melee, but these same players are probably the most accustomed to diversity.

[@spirit8296]

I did like this video, like, a lot, but the platform segment probably rung the most true of the whole video. As a Falco main myself, I can feel the difference on Yoshi's in comparison to Dreamland. All in all, a great video, dude!

[@SSB_Seal]

Love to see a new series of Melee youtube content! Looking forward to more videos.

[@RoundCubee]

I really really really really enjoyed this. Solid piece of content. Need more high production content creators like you for the melee community. Fucking kudos.

[@Radarssbm]

If you want to help out, feel free to tweet at top melee personalities to check out the video, I’d love to see them react to it. Also, tell your friends. Either way, thanks for the positive words :)

[@JohnDoe-wl6qe]

Cool concept bro, the fanbase does bring good ideas to make the product better.

[@thecakeofreason]

Great video, I love the idea of changing the stage list or adding a ban in Bo5. I will say I didn't love having most of your script on-screen as you said it. Makes it come off more as an article than a video

[@Radarssbm]

special_K thanks for the feedback! Yeah I think I’m used to using this style in tutorials because it can make the concepts stand out more and I’ve generally had good feedback on it, but I agree it was probably overused here. I’ll definitely be mindful of this in the future!

[@emprox1]

I found your channel from your OoT speedrun guide (which is great btw), I also play melee and this video was really good. Hope you'll make more.

[@stone3016]

I think this is a great video, subscribed. I would just add something to the title in regards to "stagelists" just so that it's a bit more clear on what you discussed.

[@ThePharphis]

I'm late to viewing but want to say thank you for sharing your thoughts. Great video (music, editing, etc.)

[@Jytami]

i see, you're a man of culture. The YT algorithm recommends you videos of one of the greatest Smash players of all time, rising content creator, ZeRo. Nice. Very interesting video! Nice work, keep it up, love it!

[@bb97979]

Welcome back dude!

[@Radarssbm]

Thanks! But hopefully you've seen the previous videos I've released right? I keep getting comments like this and it seems like not many people have noticed I've made some videos since this year!

[@bb97979]

@@Radarssbm I've seen them yes! Just wanted to express some hapiness to see an upload from you after a three month Hiatus Michael :) Good to see that you're still up and running during these weird times.

[@TheBeggies95]

What a good channel my man! Thank you so much for the content, melee is sick

[@Riokaii]

Heroes of the Storm is an example of a moba where the drafting and meta changes entirely based on which map is being played. It allows characters with niche strengths to become top contested meta picks despite their lack of consistency or generalist-usefulness. This means more of the roster sees play, and the meta develops more broadly as a whole, and there is less likely to be "unexplored" aspects of a character that drastically shifts the meta upon its discovery years down the road.

[@Rael0505]

Blessed content, love your channel, thanks for continuing to make stuff

[@squidnamedfinger]

I think Falcon could REALLY benefit from custom stages. As of right now 2 out of the 6 stages are absolutely horrible for him. Sure people have gotten better at FoD combos and using platforms to their advantage, but when his arguably best stage is relegated to a counter pick, he really suffers. Freezing stadium is definitely a good first step to mitigate that, and adding custom stages would help him in SO many matchups.

[@aprfinancing481]

I really like the idea of experimenting with new stages. As someone who loved playing brawl competitively, I loved how much variety and uniqueness its stage list had. There was a lot more subtle interactivity and tricks you could pull off on certain stages compared to melee's stages. I would love to play a version of melee that has the dynamic stages that brawl had.

[@Athorment]

Smash Bros. Crusade developer here. Really important video as being able to literally sprite and code any type of legal stage means the team we'll need to be selective, while also having the perfect opportunity to have the widest arrange of legal stages available for our ruleset. I just love stage ruleset discussion so much

[@dario6758]

Great video. I think this vid brought up some interesting points and I do hope to see some smaller tournaments try this out. However, if the meta does get stale, I personally think changing the ruleset is something to consider first. Heck, even changing the time limit can have a huge impact on the meta. So while I think changing the stage list could be big, I think it should be something to consider after changing the ruleset. Just my 2 cents.

[@robo-rex0239]

Great video love this channel

[@gabrieljreed]

Amazing work, I loved every minute of this video!

[@nel2556]

I've thought about this a lot, great video.

[@redxxiv739]

This was a very interesting analysis man. Id like to see melee comp players discuss about new stages

[@Radarssbm]

Tweet at your favourite players to get them to watch the video!

[@cyfer115]

This was a great video! You got a sub today 😊

[@keyanklupacs6333]

Honestly I'd love to swap up some stages or add some new ones. Maybe not something as wacky some of the vanilla maps but a map making community would be really interesting and I think has a lot of potential.

[@Br0k3nS41nt]

As a Starcraft and melee fan, I am very glad I watched this video.

[@jdmh_]

YOOO thanks for using my renders!

[@Radarssbm]

You're more than welcome, would you like credit in the video description? I totally forgot to ask you if you're cool with me using them!

[@jdmh_]

@@Radarssbm It's no big deal, I made them so anyone could use em anywhere. Just link to my twitter or the download so other people can get them if they want. Thanks again, the video was great!

[@davidolinger3948]

That music was cool, nice baselines

[@Chishado]

freeze Pokemon stadium and add a stage with a one middle platform.

[@pedlar6839]

Yes to the second one, but normal Pokemon stadium is awesome I wouldn’t have it any other way. Windmill shite, pit fights, the giant boulder next to the ledge, unique platform layouts, plup dying for no reason, best stage

[@choboswaggins1107]

As long-time fans of both games, my friends and I have long compared BW to Melee and found many of the same similarities that you have, as well as many more - the parallels between Nintendo and Blizzard, for example. However, I don't want to focus on that. I think I agree with your final thoughts on the video - this is a useful discussion to have, and it helps to start it early, but I don't think we necessarily need to deviate from the current maps for satisfying top level play. I will go back to the topic of similarity between Melee and BW one last time to address what I believe is the biggest limiting factor to both communities - ease of access. It is hard to jump into these gaming communities as a beginner when there are people with decades of experience under their belt, and even Bronze players on netplay know how to wavedash, tech, etc. The barrier of entry is egregiously high for many potential players. What usually follows this logic is a desire to make the game easier for beginners. I am not going to go in that direction, because that would be the antithesis of what these beautiful games are. Instead, I believe we need more community involvement, more content, and more pupil/mentor leagues. In BW, I was an administrator of a Coach/Pupil league where coaches would get a ragtag team of newbies, and spend 3-4 months training them for weekly match-ups against one another. The players had a team environment with an experienced mentor, weekly motivation to play and improve, and I feel this is the kind of structure that could really benefit Melee now and in the future. Thank you for the great video, I'm looking forward to more in this series!

[@Radarssbm]

Thanks for the great comment! I love discussions like these. I agree that it’s tricky to get into melee. I got into it at a time where a bunch of my friends also were starting out, so we all just played with each other as we got better which made it a lot more fun. I do wonder if I would have quit if I just constantly was getting 4 stocked or something

[@buggybaguette5916]

Making lcancel automatic would reduce the skill gap without denaturing the spirit of the game in my opinion

[@tortillapizza5226]

I think that a stage like lylat cruise would make a great addition to the roster.

[@joshford256]

Hey, nice to see you upload again!

[@rakkatytam]

I love the music that starts around 5:50. Gives me some Martin Rev vibes.

[@Radarssbm]

Thanks for the feedback on the music! So far this is the first comment I think hahaha. That song is called “Dreamland” (not a coincidence hahaha) and you can find it on Spotify and other music services if you want. Link in the video description!

[@rakkatytam]

@@Radarssbm Awesome thanks for the info. I don't suppose there's a way to purchase/download music files? I think it would be cool to try and put it inside 20XX

[@sour2398]

I love the idea of new custom stages

[@matthewgonzalez2555]

This is super good man.

[@Knuxsega]

Adding 2 stages within a few years to shakeup the meta would definitely keep Melee fresh. Although, such an idea would bring a lot of kickback..

[@laughman7357]

Melee fan: insisting stages matter Halo fan: uh..

[@rhos-gfx]

would be nice to have some sort of ubiquitous tournament crowdsourcing website so we didn't have to worry about sponsorships from the big N.

[@ZackSilver77]

Ucf + SD remix + Custon Stages = Melee Heaven

[@MeshTheSnake]

loved it brother!

[@pedlar6839]

Amazing video! Take it easy dude :)

[@Zekersaurusrex]

We've can't be objective unless we've defined what the objective is. If the objective is to keep melee from being stale, then it's tricky because each of us has our own opinion of what is fun and interesting. If the objective is fairness, then it's also tricky. To me, it would be fair if any character was capable of taking a super major. However, some could argue that the game is fair already. We are all subject to the same rules and no one is forcing you play a bad character.

[@MageKirby]

Melee fan and old BW player here. I used to think about this all the time too. I think given how melee is played in tourney already, I think this could be a cool and plausible way to make the game even better. But I guess the fact that Nintendo might be heavily opposed is a shame.

[@dfed324]

I would think the best way to enhance Melee would be 2 things. 1st, add a few extra stages like Smashville, Elite 4 stage, Town & City, Lylat Cruise. I'd prefer the stages & platforms stationary like Ultimate, but leave it up to what the people want. 2nd, give a few characters small buffs like an extra % to a move here or there like pikachu, few more pixels to a box like Samus's nair, reduce sheik's up-b landing lag and give it some drift (that's just sad really), shave a frame or 2 off a thing like Falcon's elbow or up smash start ups. Almost never nerf, only buff to a point where it is helpful and not drastic.

[@Exl6243]

While you didn’t cover characters, I think buffing low tiers would be very interesting. Fixing glitches such as Mr. G&W’s shield would definitely bring more characters to viability.

[@Radarssbm]

I’ll address this in a future video 👀👀👀

[@Exl6243]

@@Radarssbm Nice! I actually made a Reddit post about potential character changes. Here's what I thought of, and what others came up with: www.reddit.com/r/SSBM/comments/goox0v/if_you_were_in_charge_of_making_melee_hd_what/

[@Exl6243]

@@Radarssbm hi! When will you make the sequel?

[@Radarssbm]

Elliot Lin working on a bunch of videos right now so can’t guarantee but the sequel is absolutely something I’ve got a couple drafts going for and will do it eventually. Expect other videos like the “what should Slippi ranked look like” video first!

[@Exl6243]

@@Radarssbm Thanks!

[@CaptainSuppy]

I remember you saying something about having a really bad concussion? Hope you are doing better, dope video yo

[@Radarssbm]

Yeah I’ve just taken a really long time to recover from the concussion, mostly because I apparently have a lot of the factors associated with a long recovery (previous concussions, past experiences with depression, history of migraines, etc). Despite dedicating a ton of time and energy to getting better, I’m still not at 100%. I’m way better than I was early on, but I still have problems working for long stretches of time, and it’s very common for me to get headaches after certain kinds of activities if I do them for a while. So if I worked in a more physically active job like, say, as an electrician, it might not be as much of issue....? But because my job requires me to sit at a computer and write for 8 hours a day, it just starts to wear me out and by the end of the week I feel like shit in a way I never felt before lol

[@kennyzk27]

stages are a myth - crush

[@xNightxxWingx]

I honestly feel like melee should without a doubt should come up with new rulesets or utilize more stages. These alt stages along with slightly different rulesets can go a longway in making melee more “fresh” even if they are just side events. With that said, I personally would LOVE to see balance changes to the fighters. No nerfs ofcourse, with only low/very low tier receiving some moderate buffs to make them more competitive, and perhaps even slight buffs for some of the mid-tiers. The only thing that would come about with these changes is that tournaments would have much more diverse characters, and tops 8s would be hella more exciting to watch. Thats just my opinion though.

[@AndroidMessiah]

Any meta where leffen whines is the best meta

[@cross25011990]

Great Video ! :)

[@diego4lonso]

good video :3

[@davidolinger3948]

Nice, I play with 11 stages in ult and having fun stages is awesome

[@Jerome616]

9:46. Lefin has entered the chat...

[@pajamaman99_23]

Yeah, that'd be fun to some of 20xx stages in competitive or other stages modded for competitive play.

[@swank8508]

I think we should start making new stages YESTERDAY. if we wait for melee to get stale before changing stage lists, it will already be too late. Think about the thought experiment where armada plup and leffen all mained puff and ledge camped. By the time they proved how op the strat is, it would be too late and melee would die

[@ImEcchi]

love the idea.

[@theSato]

On the "Fox Vs Puff" part, at 10:34 - which perspective is this from? Who is the "You"? Fox's name is first, so I'd assume him, but Puff's picture is shown on the left. Clarification would be appreciated, thanks!

[@Radarssbm]

I agree the positioning of puff could be better, but yeah “Fox vs Puff” refers to Fox’s perspective. Once you look at the stages though I’d argue it’s fairly clear which side (few would argue puff loses on dreamland but wins on FD, Pokemon Stadium and yoshi’s story haha)

[@rakkatytam]

Really wish Warrio Ware stage could be implemented. But think I heard someone like Leffen or Mango saying it would be too good of a stage for Marth

[@mspaintspartanman5230]

I watched the whole video despite already having played project m/+ where I'm used to stage and character balance changes still exciting stuff though

[@dentaphon]

WTF was that cursed Goku Black combo

[@alexanderleitner6270]

great video but I don't see how this actually balances the game as a whole. You seem to be saying that this can be used to help the characters that are already played (the top tiers), but the bad characters don't gain anything by changing a stage if they still retain moves that don't work. Would it be possible to design a stage that balances the game so bowser can become viable against marth?

[@Macdaddypain1]

I really think the top 8-10 characters are perfect. However, the rest of the cast at a high level would be much more viable/balanced if pre/post animation lag frames was shaved off, or if damage or knock back was adjusted just a little bit. This would make the game way more attractive to the masses because it’s not just the same top tier 8-10 characters in every match. 20 years of data should show that some characters honestly are at a disadvantage and it’s not just a play style thing, or a stage advantage thing. Slippi, if you’re reading this, you are in control of the biggest viable melee update the world has ever seen: Rollback. Please consult professionals and consider my request :) Thank you! P.s. I think adding 1 new tournament legal map the community approves of would be a great idea.

[@jameyhall5255]

Godlike

[@kickitsmooth]

Frozen Stadium, FD counterpick

[@T.Miller1234]

Ok well now I have to subscribe

[@NCozy]

Here's the thing, I don't think stage rotations could work like it does in an RTS game like StarCraft. The reason being is that there isn't enough variance in stage layouts, at least ones that are fair. I don't personally know much about StarCraft but an RTS game I do play, Age of Empires handles maps in a similar way and its maps all play really differently. Some allow for players to stay behind walls easier and play defensively, some are more open and favor offensive play and faster units, some have water, some don't, and some have chokepoints which funnels the action into a few lanes. Hell, one has an area in the center with a lot of resources with a risk reward system of if and when you should try to push the center. The point is that changing maps works because there's so many variables. In Melee if you stop to think about it, how many unique and fair platform layouts can be made before the community runs out of ideas? Rivals of Aether and Smash Ultimate have stage creators and a lot of the balanced stages are remade layouts we've seen in other games, such as Project M. Like you mentioned there are subtle changes that make each stage unique, but those are just that, subtle. We can make the stages slightly bigger or smaller, we can change the blastzones or mess with the size of platforms or change the layouts but there aren't enough factors that can be changed without making a stage that might be unbalanced. If Melee were to start getting stale and die off, adding new stages might be life support, not something that will reinvigorate it.

[@Radarssbm]

I agree that maps are more influential in the RTS genre. However, I think considering the space is basically completely unexplored right now, I do actually think there's a decent amount of room for mixing it up. Also the point of the video is arguing that subtle changes actually affect things a lot. So a slightly wider platform SEEMS subtle, but it can actually make a big difference. Again, this difference isn't always going to be as significant as in an RTS...but that doesn't necessarily mean it's not worth discussing either. I also agree that if Melee was truly stale and boring, the game felt totally solved, and the same players were winning every time... stages wouldn't be enough to fix it. However I believe if we were to implement these kinds of changes we should be doing that weeeeelll before we get to that point (if ever). I think it really depends on how each person defines stale.

[@lloydirving6209]

Ok, this is epic

[@NicholasSunderland]

Great video

[@nintendude073]

Great vid

[@riosol8950]

good video

[@aarondx3764]

4:55 He trying so hard not to laugh.

[@shmulinadel9527]

Micro melee, what is ur opinion on buffing low tier characters to make them around the same level of ganon?

[@Radarssbm]

Shmuli Nadel gonna do a video on this eventually so keep your eyes peeled for it! Probably in like a month as I have two videos I wanna do first

[@anthonyl149]

Yay new videos

[@quesote20]

I would fix broken stuff. G&W + DK's shield. Roy's aerials. Some stupid bad grab ranges (like ness's, yoshi and bowser's running grab) Pkmn stadium transformations. We need more viable chars, or at least entertaining to play.

[@SwanPrincess899]

If they actually tried a melee sd remix approach where they buff and fix the bad characters while leaving the top tiers the same it'd be interesting to see the low tiers do something cool.They would never play melee sd remix though cuz its not the beloved janky melee.

[@kirjian]

That's me at 1:08 :D

[@DrtyWhiteBoy]

There's something pure about playing on the original game(with small exceptions like UCF.) Instead of adding new stages, how about freezing or tweaking hazards of already existing stages. Not just freezing Pokemon Stadium but maybe removing blocks/apples/etc from green greens or removing the barrel cannon from Kongo jungle. There could be bigger reasons why these stages are banned but maybe a compromise could be made. What if Frozen Pokemon Stadium could be picked/banned along side regular Pokemon Stadium? Also I say all this in mind that no current stages are going to be removed when "adding" more stages.

[@Radarssbm]

DirtyWhiteBoy I think this an idea that sounds great on paper but I am almost positive it wouldn’t work for the majority/all of the stages. However it’s a super cool thought experiment and I love comments like this! Without giving it too much thought...here are a couple problems. Removing the barrel on Congo Jungle for example would fix some things but the campy nature of the stage, which is the main reason it was banned, wouldn’t be solved. So characters like Peach and Puff would be a problem, as they were before. This would also be a problem for Green Greens. Jungle Japes also has camping issues and has a very very high ceiling, nerfing characters that rely on vertical kill options. Mute City would still be a problem because the ledges can’t be grabbed (making it very bad for falcon), among other reasons. Corneria and Pokefloats are a problem regardless for obvious reasons as well. The only one I would be curious about is Brinstar. A lot of the problems do seem to come from the lava. If you took the lava away, maybe it would be ok, but I’d have to play it again and really think about it. The point to remember is that these stages were played on for years, so people had time to develop strategies and ways to abuse them. It’s not as simple as “the hazards are the problem.”

[@dogslovealex]

One balance change would be good: FIX G&W. Make his shield normal, and all his arials L-Cancelable.

[@ariesomega2487]

Falco can't ledge cancel on yoshis ?!

[@Radarssbm]

He can’t edge cancel off the ledge without shortening. Whereas he can consistently edge cancel side b on the other stages (besides FD). He can still edge cancel his side-b if he’s off stage at the right height but it’s just not an option in the same way

[@dddmemaybe]

All of the music was too good for me tell them apart in the end. I enjoyed the music passively and focused on the video.

[@ratsinpublic]

How did PPMD influence Rainbow Cruise being banned? I know the video you heard that from, but do you actually have a reason for thinking it's true?

[@Radarssbm]

As far as I'm aware, the way he played out the match made people feel that the stage was long overdue for a ban. It just favours a passive gameplan too heavily. If you watch the match, you can see PPMD's game plan is to run away and shoot lasers, forcing M2K to engage due to the way the stage works (where if you're in a bad position you have to approach or you'll die). This kind of campy playstyle on a stage that's already designed to encourage camping was probably the straw that broke the camels back. It looks super super difficult from the sheik's position imo.

[@ratsinpublic]

@@Radarssbm word, thanks

[@VelaniTheOne]

@@Radarssbm Rainbow cruise was still legal later that year at Pound 5

[@pauldaulby260]

Interesting video, but I dont know how worthwhile it would be to just shuffle around the top tiers. While there are some very unbalanced exceptions, top tiers are just good on stages because top tiers are good. I cant see how you should make a stage list that makes DK more viable relative to characters higher than him for example

[@Radarssbm]

I think the idea wouldn’t be to shuffle around the top tiers, although in hindsight I can see how the video may be interpreted this way. It’s more about seeing how new stages have an effect on the game generally, but also how they could be used specifically to affect balance if we needed them. The point wouldn’t be to just arbitrarily shuffle them in the case of balance, it would be to, for example, remove dreamland and replace it with a stage that’s not good for Puff if we had a long long streak of just Hbox winning. In the case of Starcraft games, it would sometimes take a while for players to figure out optimal strategies on certain maps and how to best abuse them, and that might be cool to watch in melee

[@_counterspell]

Let's see scar and toph commentate GSL blind lol

[@DragonTheta]

I support balancing Melee but by buffing all characters up to Fox's level.

[@taylorbee4010]

I think mailey has the same problems 3rd strike and everyone thinks is perfect and no one wants it to change like Street Fighter 4..but honestly certain characters and strategies are just barely if not completely undoable.doesn't mean Mario can't be powerful or anything but I'd like to see the man at least win. He was my favorite character in the game.

[@johnbenis4180]

how about shortening the timer so that sets dont last an eternity

[@Radarssbm]

John Benis since when are sets lasting an eternity? Also, while shortening a timer might sound like it would automatically shorten games, what you’re forgetting is that a shorter timer actually encourages playing for time outs lol. So it’s not that simple. A 6 minute timer means that timeouts would be in play for the majority of floaty matchups, and even a 7 minute timer has been experimented with

[@johnbenis4180]

@@Radarssbm floaty matches last way too long and certain matchups are almost guaranteed to be a timeout. something like 3 stock 5 minutes would be great. timeouts are not intrinsically a bad thing, sets and games lasting way too long is.

[@johnbenis4180]

@@Radarssbm because its pretty fucking wack that melee has an 8 minute timer. have you seen the timer length for basically any fighting game? games and sets do NOT need to be so long. the only reason its 8 minutes is because some dudes randomly decided it should be that long in like 2002. the timer ruleset is so fucking archaic but the melee community is terrified of change and anything that god forbid could MAYBE buff jigglypuff (even though I really dont think it would)

[@ssbVanilla]

make a video about falcon

[@Radarssbm]

As in a tutorial? My main issue right now is that Melee is a very hard game, where it’s very easy to distribute misinfo. If I made a video about falcon, a character I don’t play seriously, I worry I’d make mistakes. That being said, I do have a bunch of ideas for content that relates to falcon, and I’d argue that all my macro melee stuff falls under that category as well. As I get better with more characters I’ll hopefully be able to make more videos, but I think for the same reason, it will be a while until I make content for characters like Samus/Yoshi/Peach/Luigi/ICs

[@ssbVanilla]

@@Radarssbm i love all your content so just keep making what videos you want to lol

[@thepwrs]

Great video. Start with stages, then introduce character buffs. After a while more stages are not going to cut it. In order to get more people involved in the scene I think it would be better to make some of the less represented characters more viable. It's way more controversial than adding new stages but I think in the long run can help the community grow better

[@Radarssbm]

Highly disagree. This game is far from solved. We're still seeing a ton of debate in terms of tier lists, even this far into the game. I think if Starcraft is one community to learn from, Starcraft has never needed buffs/nerfs to stay interesting, and Melee doesn't either. There's still so much that needs to be figured out!