Super Smash Bros Rulebook

Last Modified: 8/21/21

These rules are subject to change at the administrator’s discretion. If rules should change, all captains will be notified accordingly.

I. Season structure

  1. CEA Fall 2021 Season Calendar

    • September 4: Pre-season
    • September 11: Week 1
    • September 18: Week 2
    • September 25: Week 3
    • October 2: Week 4
    • October 9: Week 5
    • October 16: Week 6
    • October 23: Week 7
    • October 30: Week 8
    • November 6: Week 9
    • November 13: Week 10
    • November 20: Week 11
    • November 27: OFF - THANKSGIVING
    • December 4: Week 12
    • December 11: Week 13

     

    CEA Season Format Overview

    • Pre-Season: One practice match which follows the same rules and weekly structure as the regular season. The pre-season is mandatory so that the CEA and teams can work out logistic kinks before charity prizes are on the line! Read the specific game rules for the weekly schedule.
    • Regular Season: The Regular Season will be a non-elimination Swiss format.
    • Playoffs: Top teams will compete in a single elimination tournament bracket. Some matches later in the playoffs may be professionally cast.
    • The Grand Finals will be broadcast live on Twitch with professional commentators. Schedule and rough timing will be announced at the beginning of Playoffs.

    Weekly Structure of the League

    • Matches will be distributed each week on Monday.
    • On Friday, lineup submissions are due.
    • Each team plays one match per week with results due by Sunday at 4pm Pacific. The CEA observes Daylight Saving Time. If not enough players on your roster are able to make the default match time, contact the opposing captain as outlined in our ‘Match rescheduling’ section to see if they’re able to accommodate a reschedule.

II. Super Smash brothers ultimate overview

  1. Player Eligibility: All players participating in Super Smash Bros. competitions must have an active Nintendo Online (North America) account in good standing displayed on their tournament interface profile. Only registered team members playing under their main account are allowed to play for a team.
  2. Team Roster Size: A team may start the season with 4-10 participants. Rules for qualifications for rostered members can be found in CEA general rules.
    1. After the beginning of Regular Season play (Week 1 matches), a player rostered on a team may not transfer to another roster within the same company for the same game with out the Game Lead's approval.
      1. The main circumstance permitting a transfer would be a team losing players and falling below the minimum team size.
      2. Companies with multiple teams playing the same game may have players on multiple rosters as outlined in the general rules under “Team Eligibility.” Being a floater is not considered transferring.
    2. After Week 5, removing players from the roster does not free up additional spots.
  3. Floaters: Within the same company and within the same game's tournament, a player may play on multiple rosters with the following restrictions:
    1. All teams must meet the minimum team size without counting any players who are listed on multiple teams.
    2. Shared players still count towards a team’s maximum roster size.
    3. A player on multiple rosters may only play for one of those teams of each game in any given week. Violation of this rule will lead to disqualification from the CEA.

    4. If a company elects to have floaters for any of its games, a representative of the company should inform that game's Game Lead which rosters are affected, and inform the game lead each week which team that floater will play on.
    5. The maximum number of floaters allowed across a company's teams in a particular tournament depends on the number of teams that company has in the tournament as well as the minimum roster size for that tournament, and is as follows:
      • 2-3 Teams = 2 Floaters
      • 4-6 Teams = 4 Floaters
      • 7-9 Teams = 6 Floaters
    6. Each floater may be rostered on no more than 3 teams. Each team may have no more than 2 floaters.

    7. Cross-Game policy: Within the same company, players are typically discouraged from playing on teams across multiple games. Doing so may be allowed at Game Leads' discretion as long as the following criteria are met:

      1. All teams must meet the minimum team size without counting any players who are listed on multiple teams.
      2. Teams should understand that relying on a Cross-Game player's availability is not a suitable reason to reschedule a match (all matches occur at Noon Pacific on Saturday by default)
      3. A Cross-Game player should not plan to be a primary player on more than 1 team.
  4. Half-Team / Joint-Team Policy:

    1. A Joint-Team may consist of members from different companies if the following criteria are met:

      1. There are no more than 2 companies represented on the team.
      2. The companies represented are not represented in any other teams in a single game's tournament.
    2. A Joint-Team is subject to all other rules normally surrounding CEA teams.
    3. A Joint-Team may have 1 single captain from either company, or may have 2 captains total (1 from each company).
    4. Registering:
      1. Two Half-Teams may combine and register as a Joint-Team through the normal registration process without first consulting CEA. Please list both companies on the registration form.
      2. Half-Teams may also consult CEA for help with pairing, and upon being paired will register as a Joint-Team through the normal registration process.
  5. Registration: The SSB registration fee will be $160 per team. The captain pays this fee during registration on the CEA website.
  6. Game Version: All players must have their game up to date with the latest patch.
  7. Weekly Structure:
    1. Monday: Matchups for the following weekend are distributed (assuming all previous round match results have been entered).
    2. Friday: Rosters are submitted by 7:30pm Pacific.
      1. Failure to submit on time will result in the opposing team getting an extra ban that is to be posted in the match chat on the tournament platform.
    3. Saturday : All matches are played on Saturday starting at 12pm Pacific (3pm Eastern).
    4. Sunday: Latest for rescheduling a match and replays submitted by 4pm Pacific.
  8. Season Format: Exact season format will be announced before the season begins when we know the exact number of teams. This section will be updated along with an announcement email for all captains. There will be two at minimum two stages: Non-elimination Regular Season (~8 weeks) and Elimination Playoffs.

III. rules

  1. Settings and Stages:
    1. Stock and time are set to 3 stock and 7 minutes
    2. Final Smash Meter: Off
    3. Spirits: Off
    4. Damage Handicap: Off
    5. Stage Selection: Anyone
    6. Items: Off and None
    7. First to: 1 Win
    8. Stage Morph: Off
    9. Stage Hazards: Off
    10. Team Attack: On
    11. Launch Rate: 1.0x
    12. Underdog Boost: Off
    13. Pausing: Off
    14. Score Display: Off
    15. % Show Damage: Yes
    16. Custom Balance: Off
    17. Echo Fighters: Separate
    18. Radar: Big
    19. Teammate Highlight: On
    20. Mii Fighters: All moveset combinations are legal
    21. Stage List
      1. Starter Stages
        1. Battlefield
        2. Town and City
        3. Final Destination
        4. Pokemon Stadium 2
        5. Smashville
      2. Counterpick Stages
        1. Kalos Pokemon League
        2. Lylat Cruise
        3. Yoshi's Story
  2. Stage Determination:
    1. The first game of every set will be played on Pokemon Stadium 2.
  3. Character Counterpicking:
      1. After each game of the set, the player who won the previous game may ban 2 stages from the list. These bans only apply to the next game, not the duration of the set. The loser of the previous game then chooses from any of the remaining stages, however, a player may not choose a stage they have previously won on during the same set.
      2. After Each game in the set, the following is the procedure to determine character counterpicks.
        1. The winning player of the preceding game must announce their character selection for the next game.
        2. The losing player of the preceding game must announce their character selection for the next game.
        3. The next game is played.
  4. Format: Each individual game is a best-of-three between one rostered player from each team. Players may not play multiple games with the exception of the "Ace" set.
  5. Ace Set: If neither team has won the match after the first 4 sets, a 5th set is played to determine the match winner.
    1. Any single player on the team roster can play an Ace set, including players from the first 4 sets. Before playing an Ace set, each team captain privately submits their team’s player and character to the referee (or neutral third party if no referees are available). Once both teams have submitted, the referee reveals the players and characters. (Note: an ace player’s character need not match their character from previous sets).
  6. Pausing and the Home Button: Pause setting is to be set to off. However, if it is not, pausing is only legal while either player remains upon their OWN respawn platform, and only for the purpose of summoning a tournament official or in the case of a controller malfunction. All other pauses will incur a stock loss to the player who pauses the game. If the pause causes the opponent to lose a stock, the pausing player receives a game loss. This rule also applies to controllers which cause the game to revert to the Switch home screen.
  7. Stalling: Stalling, or intentionally making the game unplayable, is banned and at the discretion of tournament staff. Stalling includes but is not limited to becoming invisible, continuing infinites past 300%, and reaching a position that your opponent can never reach you. Stalling will result in a forfeit of the game for the player that initiated the action.

V. Season Format Details

CEA Season Format Details

 

Knowing the format is not critical to your team's success, nor is it necessary to have fun. If you'd like, just show up every week to play your match, and we'll figure out the details to find the best opponents for you. However, for those of you who are curious to understand our matchmaking algorithm, feel free to continue reading.

As per the CEA Captain's Guide, the season is broken up into four phases: preseason (Sept 4, or "week 0"), swiss (generally weeks 1-5), placement (generally weeks 6-8), and playoffs (generally weeks 9-12).

  • The regular season swiss phase will look very similar to past seasons. This will be a standard, unseeded, Swiss bracket.
  • The seeding phase is also labeled the "round robin" phase in the CEA handbook.* The different groups in each phase will be sized according to the number of teams that register, and the performance of teams through the season. To that end, many games will have groups in the seeding phase that are actually round robins, and many will not.
    • The placement group is guaranteed a spot in playoffs.
    • Approximately the top 1/3 to 1/2 of the challenger group will advance to playoffs based on their performance in their group.
    • The consolation group is not playoff eligible, but the top team in the playoff group is guaranteed an appearance on at least one CEA broadcast before the end of the season.
  • Then we get to the big show. The number of teams taken into playoffs for each game will vary based on the number of teams in the tournament, but will be defined by a clear cut off substantially prior to week 8 of the regular season. Some higher seeded teams will receive a bye in the first week of playoffs.
 

*A three round Swiss with 4 teams is equivalent to a round robin, which gives this phase its name.

VI. Contact info

  1. Discord Server: discord.gg/cea
  2. Email Contact: administrator@cea.gg