The SSBM game timer should be 7 minutes instead of 8.
The standard Super Smash Bros Melee game timer for competitive matches should be seven mins instead of eight. A lot of games that involve puff and another floatie or mid-weight go to time or the last minute. For example, if you look at the set that happened very recently, Vinodh vs OkaimiBW at Don't Park on the Grass 2018. This set took at the very least 35 mins to complete which caused the tournament to lag behind. If the timer was 7 instead of 8, 35min would be the MAX time. This kind of set on stream can really hurt a first time viewers impression of the game as well. For comparison, the longest a Tekken 7 set can possibly go is 25 mins if every single round goes to time. On the Vinodh vs OkaimiBW set only 2 of the 5 games went to time and it still took a significant more amount of time. The longest a melee set could possibly take is 40 mins. At EVO 2018 many top players complained that is was not bo5 until winners and losers finals. If we made this change it could seriously have them reconsider and give us bo5 at top 32. Finally, 90% of melee players would not notice this change since it is only a minute off but could make a big change in the long run. I know this is not a completely realistic change since we use UCF which has it's standard set at eight but I'm just trying to throw some ideas out to solve the problem of melee tournaments taking longer than most other fighting games. Oh and time outs are hype so this could lead to a little bit more.
Posted Dec 16, 2018, 11:51 PM UTC