Project M-etagame Brawl Development

This article is part of Project M-etagame. Find out more here. 

 
 This record is to the best of my knowledge. If you have an addition, correction, or video link submission send it my way. Info on the main page linked to at the top of this article. 


Brawl Metagame Development

Offense/Defense

A: 2008 A New Beginning

• Everyone started playing Brawl like Melee. This made it difficult for some to adjust to Brawl’s style. The entire metagame and community reset to the same tactics that Melee started with.
  • a1: Smash attacks.
  • a2: Rolling.
  • a3: Spamming projectiles.
  • a4: Shield grabs
    • a1 to counter a4
  • a5: Chain grabs
  • a6: Air dodging
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg9qyNmLQJU
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4zisMrTbsw
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd1DgN9VL-4
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn9OfzdD4AQ
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqUmbuXZ7Jk

B: Stale Moves. Sharpening moves. Smash DI.

• Stale-move negation is more effective than ever. Conserving and mixing up attacks became instantly necessary. Smash DI added variation to the route combos that were developed (especially from grabs).
  • Conscious  variation and conservation added to playstyles
  • b1: Sharpening Strategies. grab+pummel, jabs, stage structures (to counter stale-move negation)
  • b2: Stale baiting. Staying in zones to temp the opponent to use a stale move (to counter stale-move negation & a1)
  • b3: Smash DI (to counter grab combos)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nuQOp_2Dcg
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wNKeQIN0HA
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWgdR6wNwXI

 
C: 2008-9 In-and-Out

• Shield grabbing discourage mindless aerial approaches from most characters. Some auto-canceled their aerials. Everyone else had to sweet hop (short hop animation canceled aerial) to use their moves near the ground or use multi hitting moves. This developed into in-and-out style air attack playstyles.
  • c1: Sweet hop to get more utility from non-auto-canceled single hitting aerials (to counter a4)
    • c2: Spot dodge (to counter a3, a4, & c1)
      • c3: Cross up (to counter a4 & c2)
      • c4: Charge Smash  (to counter c2)
        • a2 & a3 (to counter c4)
  • c5: multi-hitting attacks (to counter a4)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LK5G5zZkx8
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY-RawBFqAo
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUbtBqXEKKQ
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ovHARCOHaQ
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv2wqAaxE1g

D: 2008-9 Shield Play

• We got good at perfect shielding projectiles and working down opponents by walking around (because we couldn’t dash and immediately shield or dash dance). Zoning with projectiles and other moves based on the in-and-out style.  But this phase contained lots of excessive defensive roll/back ups.
  • d1: Very intentional perfect shielding (to counter a1, a3, & c1)
    • c4: Charge Smash counter to d1 for a frame trap.
      • d2: Shield drop (to counter a1, c3, & c4)
        • d3: Jabs (to counter d2)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkSk19NbZ_w&NR=1
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auvt5b7IICw
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlMs80f6dOg
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUoXgumFnIQ

 
E: 2008-10 Beating the air dodge with Spacing and Timing.

• Trying to hit falling opponents Melee style with aerials was punished or highly unsuccessful because of the air dodge system. So we learned to follow targets and use tilts, jabs, and grabs to counter their air dodges. This is the start of Brawl’s ground game including frame traps. This beat excessive rolling and spot dodging but not shielding.
  • e1: Walking, power-walking, also used to follow targets.
  • e2: Tilts to counter (a2, a4, a6, c2, & d2)
  • e3: Traps timing about 2 moves to account for some of the opponent’s options
  • e4: Pivot grab (to counter c1 & e2)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FOhaaJNAuY
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjpznT5du9Q
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZY1X1Jem-Y
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeJdEsnVeEk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7EbULlx9ds

2009-10 Back to Level B.

• With new pressure and follow up techniques, smash DI became even more stressed. The better we got at smash DI the more stale-move-negation revealed the weakness of a singular effective kill move/strategy.
  • b3: Smash DI to counter all kinds of attacks.

F: 2009-10 General Coverage

• Players fight around each other indirectly and directly to overwhelm with offense and motion.
  • a3: Projectiles used to created traps with followups.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwEZFyzfnhs
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo8Hwz9ybF0
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0cZ-Y3yRA8
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrJ9kUokco4
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv3FAfzDaH8

G: 2010-11 Focused. Calm. Deadly

• Then we realized the power of using folded moves and layering attacks. It’s not about raw power and running over the opponent with dominating combos. It’s about how each move sets up a situation of give-and-take or decay dynamics.  Projectile characters control space with zoning. Close range characters must navigate the space before fighting back. Careful followups are key. Patience, pressure, frame traps  and reading is common. Mixups create possibilities.
  • Attacks used to layer rather than fill out space or spam “safely.”
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb1pfEBk0ng
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwZymPUU9mA
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_djreTc24P0
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLlaXKQVC5E
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV4LHg1y7-0
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tD4qrnFJEk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7MkgMiXdFk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8IUrPGEcLY

Recovery

• In general characters can recover better than ever especially with the aid of the ledge snap.
• We learned that getting up from the ledge can be difficult because the invincibility doesn’t last as long as Melee, attacks are easier to react to, and the air dodge system is more limited for the recovering player.
• Planking (edge invincibility abuse and stalling) emerged and was soon discouraged. From soft bans to new tournament rules limiting total ledge grabs in the even of a time out.
• Off-guarding (going off the stage to edge guard) is picked up.  But wasn’t very developed because stronger DI allowed players to recover from higher up.  
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV4LHg1y7-0
• Edge guarding is a mix of on and off the stage actions. Pressuring a recovering player to either land on the stage or grab the edge. Is just one step in pressing one’s advantage against a recovering player.

View the complete tier list history here.