Revised Smash 4 ruleset restores Lylat Cruise to stage rotation
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tournament organizers have revised the new recommended ruleset that was proposed in late January. The revised ruleset, released by Scott “Tantalus” Robertson on Tuesday evening, contains some notable amendments to the original rough draft, based on feedback from fans and pro players. One of the biggest changes is that Lylat Cruise, originally banned in the ruleset’s first draft, has been restored to the stage selection rotation.
“[Lylat Cruise] wasn’t easy to remove or add back in,” Bassem “Bear’ Dahdouh told Yahoo Esports. “But essentially, in combination with a majority voicing their opinion to add it back in was a factor, along with rounding out a five-stage starter list.”
The full starter stage list consists of Battlefield, Final Destination, Lylat Cruise, Smashville, and Town & City. Counterpick stages will consist of Dream Land 64 and the Midgar/Suzaku Castle/Wily Castle Omega Stages. Battlefield and Dream Land 64 will be treated as the same stage during ban phases, as will Final Destination and the Omega Stages. Duck Hunt will remain banned, as originally proposed.
The Omega Stage list was whittled down from a much larger selection list in the original proposed ruleset. According to Bear, the reasoning comes down to keeping things as close to Final Destination as possible.
“Many regions have different Omega Stages that they deem standard, but the truth is that not every Omega Stage is an exact alternative to Final Destination,” Bear explained. “So we had to narrow down to Omega Stages that are the closest to Final Destination without the color blindness/crazy transitions in the background. Or without any differences in blast zones, item ledge problems, no Z-axis, no grass, and nothing that’s truly drastically different from Final Destination.”
Other major elements to the original proposed ruleset are set to remain in place, including the coaching rule that allows players to call in a coach once per set and the settings check rule that was added following the controversy at Genesis 4.
Bear also said the new Smash 4 ruleset would be implemented starting with Frame Perfect Series 2 in March. It will be used for all Smash majors, including 2GGC: Civil War, CEO Dreamland, DreamHack Austin, Combo Breaker, CEO 2017, Evo 2017, and Shine 2017. Frostbite 2017 on February 25-26 will be the final Smash 4 event to run with the current ruleset.
Ozzie Mejia bids farewell to the ducks. Follow him @Ozz_Mejia.
