• General Rules

• Melee Ruleset

• Ultimate Ruleset

• SSB64 Ruleset

• Additional Rules

• Payout

• Crews

• Code of Conduct

Game Settings

• Mode: Stock
• Handicap: OFF
• Team Attack / Friendly Fire: On
• Damage Ratio: 100%
• Items: OFF and/or NONE
• Pause: OFF
• Cutoffs for best-of-3 and best-of-5 TBA

Set Procedure

1. Select characters or Double Blind Character Select (see below)
2. Use Stage Striking to determine the first stage
3. Play the first game of the set
4. Winning player of the previous game bans a stage
5. Losing player of the previous game counterpicks a stage
6. Winning player of the previous game may change characters
7. Losing player of the previous game may change characters
8. Play the next game of the set
9. Repeat Steps 4 through 8 for all subsequent games

* See game-specific rules for stage ban and stage selection details

Melee Game Settings

• Stocks: 4 stocks
• Time Limit: 8:00 minutes

Melee Stagelist

Neutral (Singles)

• Battlefield
• Yoshi’s Story
• Dream Land
• Final Destination
• Fountain of Dreams

Counterpick (Singles)

• Pokémon Stadium

Neutral (Doubles)

• Battlefield
• Yoshi’s Story
• Dream Land
• Final Destination
• Pokémon Stadium

Counterpick (Doubles)

• N/A

Melee Details

• Stage Striking: Players/teams eliminate stages from the Neutral stagelist until there is one stage remaining. The player who strikes first may be determined by RPS (rock, paper, scissors) best of one. The winning player/team strikes the first stage. Then the other player/team strikes two stages. Then the winning player/team strikes one more stage and the remaining stage is used for the first game of the set.

• Stage Bans: After each game of the set, before counterpicking, the player who won the previous game may ban one stage from the stagelist. This rule is not in effect for best-of-5 sets. For Melee specifically, stage bans affect both players, meaning players who banned a stage may not counterpick that stage themselves later in the set.

• Stage Clause: A player/team may not counterpick any stage they previously won on during the set, unless agreed upon by the opponent.

• Wobbling is banned. This event’s definition of wobbling is a series of moves (4+ pummel effects) by Ice Climbers from a standing grab position that infinitely lock the opponent in hitstun.

• Ledge Grab Limit: In the event of a timeout, either player/team may invoke the Ledge Grab Limit rule by asking to view the Cliffhangers statistic for all Players in the results screen. If either player (or at least one player on a team) exceeded 60 Cliffhangers during the Game, that player/team forfeits the Game. If both players (or at least one player on each team) exceeded 60 Cliffhangers, this rule is disregarded. If players voluntarily exit the results screen before checking Cliffhangers, they may forfeit the right to invoke this rule.

• CRT TVs: All Melee tournament matches will be played on CRT TVs provided by our event partner Gaming Generations. Stream warmup setups will also be CRT TVs. Elsewhere in the venue, there will also be additional friendly-only monitor setups thanks to our event partner EON Gaming.

• Four-port arduinos: All Melee tournament matches will be played with four-port arduinos on the setups. Players may always opt out by holding up on the d-pad while plugging in their controller.

• Neutral Start: The following ports are to be used when a player/team invokes the neutral start clause. Any necessary port combinations must be enforced by the neutral start invoking player for each different stage throughout the set.

Singles:

Stage	Port 1	Port 2	Port 3	Port 4
Final Destination	X	X
Fountain of Dreams	X	X
Yoshi’s Story	X	X
Dreamland 64		X		X
Battlefield			X	X
Pokémon Stadium			X	X

Doubles:

Stage	Port 1	Port 2	Port 3	Port 4
Final Destination	Team A	Team B	Team A	Team B
Yoshi’s Story	Team A	Team B	Team B	Team A
Dreamland 64	Team A	Team B	Team B	Team A
Battlefield	Team A	Team B	Team B	Team A
Pokémon Stadium	Team A	Team B	Team B	Team A



Ultimate Game Settings

• Stocks: 3 stocks
• Time Limit: 7:00 minutes
• Final Smash Meter: OFF
• Spirits: OFF
• Damage Handicap: OFF
• Stage Selection: Anyone
• Items: OFF and NONE
• First to: 1 Win
• Stage Morph: OFF
• Stage Hazards: OFF
• Team Attack: ON
• Launch Rate: 1.0x
• Underdog Boost: OFF
• Pausing: OFF
• Score Display: OFF
• % Show Damage: Yes
• Custom Balance: OFF
• Echo Fighters: Separate
• Radar: Big
• Teammate Highlight: ON
• Mii Fighters: All moveset combinations are legal

Ultimate Stagelist

Starters

• Battlefield*
• Final Destination*
• Town And City
• Pokémon Stadium 2
• Smashville

Counterpicks

• Kalos Pokémon League
• Lylat Cruise
• Yoshi’s Story

* Battlefield and Omega variations of the stages are allowed when a player counterpicks either Battlefield or Final Destination respectively. The Battlefield and Omega forms must be from the list below:

• Arena Ferox
• Battlefield
• Castle Siege
• Corneria
• Delfino Plaza
• Dream Land
• Final Destination
• Frigate Orpheum
• Great Plateau Tower
• Halberd
• Kalos Pokémon League
• Kongo Falls
• Kongo Jungle
• Lylat Cruise
• Moray Towers
• New Donk City Hall
• Peach’s Castle
• Pokémon Stadium
• Pokémon Stadium 2
• Reset Bomb Forest
• Skyworld
• Smashville
• Super Happy Tree
• Suzaku Castle
• Town & City
• Umbra Clock Tower
• Unova Pokémon League
• Venom
• Yoshi’s Island (Brawl)
• Yoshi’s Story

Ultimate Details

Stage Striking: Players/teams eliminate stages from the Starters stagelist until there is one stage remaining. The player who strikes first may be determined by RPS (rock, paper, scissors) best of one. The winning player/team strikes the first stage. Then the other player/team strikes two stages. Then the winning player/team strikes one more stage and the remaining stage is used for the first game of the set.

Stage Bans: After each game of the set, before counterpicking, the player who won the previous game may ban two stages from the stagelist. For Ultimate specifically, these bans are game-long, and do not persist after a single game.

Stage Clause: A player/team may not counterpick any stage they previously counterpicked to and won on during the set, unless agreed upon by the opponent.

Self-Destruct Moves & Sudden Death: If a game ends with a self-destruct move, the results screen will determine the winner. If a sudden death occurs, a standard sudden death play-off game applies. If a game goes to Sudden Death, the winner is determined by stocks and percentage at the time the game ends. If both players are tied in stocks, the player with the lower percentage is the winner. In the event of a percentage tie, or a game in which both players lose their last stock simultaneously, a 1-stock tiebreaker will be played with a 3-minute time limit. The results of an in-game 300% Sudden Death do not count. If Sudden Death occurs in a Sudden Death game, this process is repeated.

Patch: The Big House 9 will use whatever patch is currently live on 09/30/19, the Monday before event weekend.

Squad Strike Details

3v3 variant: Squad Strike follows the same set procedures as Singles, with one exception: players may not request a double-blind roster selection, but they may request a draft-style selection. If either player wishes, both players play RPS, and the loser selects their first character. The winner then selects their first two characters. The loser then chooses their last two characters, with the winner selecting their final character afterwards. Note this is only applicable for Game 1; subsequent games follow Singles order (the winner of the previous games selects all their characters first). In a draft-style selection, players are still free to select whatever order for their three characters they want in the selection screen that follows Character Select.

Best-of-3: All Squad Strike sets are best-of-3, including finals.

Character Notes: No team may have an original AND echo fighter on their team. Specifically, this means no team may have BOTH: Daisy/Peach, Lucina/Marth, Pit/Dark Pit, Simon/Richter, Samus/Dark Samus, Chrom/Roy, Ken/Ryu. This only applies to echo fighters as defined in-game; near-clones (Pichu/Pikachu, Mario/Dr. Mario, etc) do not apply to this rule.

SSB64 Game Settings

• Stocks: 4 stocks
• Time Limit: 8:00 minutes
• Items: OFF
• Team Attack: ON

Characters

• There will be no character restrictions for singles or doubles.

64 Stagelist

• Dreamland

Controllers

All controllers are subject to the following restrictions:

• Maximum 1:1 mapping of original buttons on first party controller allowed (Hori) (1 A button, 2 Z’s, 1 R, etc. No extra buttons that aren’t on the controller)
• Maximum 4 directional mappings or 2 joystick axes allowed, combinations of the two are not allowed
• Macros, other than Z+A, are illegal
• Turbo buttons and functions are illegal

Violation of above rules will result in immediate disqualification from an event and all previous wins in the event are forfeited. Examples of legal controllers are, but not limited to, the original N64 controller, Hori Mini Pad, GameCube controller, Xbox/keyboard/other wired input devices as long as they meet the restrictions above.

Stalling

• Excessive unwillingness to engage the opponent is disallowed at the risk of being forced to forfeit the match by the TO. If there is no movement from either Player, the losing Player is considered to be stalling.

Pausing

• All matches will be played with hold-to-pause enabled. 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. Before pausing, the subject(s) must notify their opponent(s) first. All other pauses will result in a forfeiture of the game.

Alternate Costumes

• Only naturally-appearing costumes are legal. Players reserve the right to request natural costumes for their tournament set. Natural costumes are defined as costumes available through 1v1 or 2v2 in SSB64.
• There is no penalty for unnatural costumes if the match has already started and damage has been dealt on either side.
• Players are responsible for noticing unnatural costumes and if no damage has been dealt, are to pause and notify a TO to restart the game. If damage has been dealt the game must be played out.
• A player refusing to play natural costumes will be penalized a full game.

Round Robin Tiebreakers

• Round Robin standings are determined in the follow order: Set count, head-to-head, game count. In the event a tie still exists, the players tied will play another round robin, where best-of-1 and stock differential will be recorded. The tiebreaker round robin will use the same tiebreaker order with stock differential being the final tiebreaker. This is repeated until no ties exist.

Neutral Start

• The following ports are to be used when a player or team invokes a neutral start rule:
  

  	Port 1	Port 2	Port 3	Port 4
  Singles		X		X
  Doubles	Team A	Team B	Team B	Team A

• Gentleman’s Clause: There is no gentleman’s clause at the event. Players may NOT play on any stage that is not on the legal stagelist, and players may NOT agree to change the number of matches to be played in a set.

• Double Blind Character Select: Either player may request a double blind character select for the first game. In this situation, a third party is told, in secret, each player’s character choice. Both players then select their character, and the third party validates that the character selected is the same as what they said.

• Port Priority: If an agreement cannot be made as to who gets what port, the players may enact a best-of-1 game of Rock Paper Scissors. Winner gets their port selection, loser selects any other port.

• Neutral Start: Either player may enact this rule. Once enacted, both players may only use one of the two neutral starting ports. A best-of-1 game of Rock Paper Scissors may be used to determine who chooses port first. If both the Port Priority and Neutral Start rules are invoked, the player who is granted Port Priority selects one of the neutral start ports. Neutral starting ports are only applicable to Super Smash Bros. Melee.

• Pausing: In the event that pause is not turned off, pausing the game is only legal while a player remains upon their OWN respawn platform, and only for the purpose of summoning a tournament organizer, or in the event of a controller malfunction. All other pauses will incur AT LEAST a one stock loss to the offending player, perhaps more if the offending pause further disrupted the opponent at the discretion of the TO.

• Stalling: The act of stalling, or intentionally making the game unplayable, is banned and at the discretion of the TO. Stalling tactics include but are not limited to becoming invisible, infinites, chain grabs, or uninterruptible moves past 300%; or abusing a position in which your opponent can never reach you. Any action that can prevent the game from continuing (i.e., pausing, freeze glitches, disappearing characters, game reset, etc.) will result in forfeiture of that match for the offending player. You are responsible for knowing your own character, and must be wary about accidentally triggering these effects.

• Timeouts / Ties: The winner of a match that goes to time (time out) will be determined by stocks and then percentage. When the timer hits 0:00, the player with the higher stock count is the winner. If both players are tied in stocks, the player with the lower percentage is the winner. In the event of a percentage tie, or a match in which both players lost their last stock simultaneously, a 1 stock tiebreaker will be played with a 3:00 time limit. The result of the game’s built-in Sudden Death does not count towards the set outcome.

• Stock Sharing is allowed in doubles. Trading controllers with another person during doubles is not allowed.

• Colorblind Clause: Players may request that their opponent change colors to accommodate colorblindedness, or if their color is indistinguishable from either the other team color or the stage background. This request must be made before the first game of the set.

• Warm-ups: Warm-up periods, button checks, and “handwarmers” may not exceed 30 seconds on the game clock. Violation of this rule may result in forfeiture of a game at the discretion of the TO.

• Misinterpretation: Games or sets are not to be replayed due to a misinterpretation of the rules; it is the players’ responsibilities to ask the TO for any clarification of the rule set in the event of a disagreement, and the outcome of a game or set will not be changed after the fact unless under extreme circumstances. If players begin a game with misconfigured player-specific controls (controller settings, etc.), players may not back out of a game to correct their settings once ten seconds have passed. After this time limit has passed, players must use their misconfigured settings, subject to the discretion of the TO.

• Coaching: Any coaching that happens during a set (anytime between the beginning of game one and end of the set) is banned. Players who violate this rule will be subject to disqualification from the event or eviction from the venue.

• Collusion: Any collusion or results manipulation with your competitors is forbidden. If the TO determines that any competitor is colluding to manipulate results or intentionally underperform, the colluding players may be immediately disqualified. This determination is to be made at the discretion of the TO. Anyone disqualified in this manner forfeits all rights to any titles or prize money they might have otherwise earned.

• Controller Legality: The legal Melee controllers include the wired Nintendo GameCube controller and the box controller variants as long as they abide by the latest MIOM controller addendum. The legal Ultimate controllers include the wired Nintendo Gamecube controller, Pro controller (battery removed), Wii Remote, Wii Remote + Nunchuck, Wii Remote + Classic Controller, and the Nintendo 3DS Family in controller mode. However, violations related to wireless controller interference will be subject to DQ and possible eviction from the venue.

• Malfunctions: Any malfunctions associated with your controller are your responsibility. Players are responsible for using the correct settings BEFORE the set begins. Both parties need to agree if a match is to be paused or restarted because of a controller problem.

• Audio Equipment: Players are responsible for bringing any audio equipment they require with them to all tournament matches. If a setup has equipment provided and a player does not have their own immediately ready, they cannot request a different setup or equipment. Refusal to play will result in a DQ.

For each individual event,

If more than 750 entrants:

1st	40%
2nd	20%
3rd	12%
4th	8%
5th	5%
5th	5%
7th	3%
7th	3%
9th	1%
9th	1%
9th	1%
9th	1%

 

If 250-750 entrants:

1st	40%
2nd	20%
3rd	15%
4th	10%
5th	5%
5th	5%
7th	2.5%
7th	2.5%

 

If 100-250 entrants:

1st	45%
2nd	20%
3rd	15%
4th	10%
5th	5%
5th	5%

 

If fewer than 100 entrants:

1st	50%
2nd	25%
3rd	15%
4th	10%

Melee Crew Ruleset

Players compete in 1v1 gameplay versus the other crew until one crew runs out of stocks. The crew with remaining stocks at the end wins.

Gameplay:

• 4 stocks per player, 99:00 minute timer, items OFF.
• Players are character-locked for the entirety of each individual crew battle.
• Each crew must make their roster of players and characters available beforehand.
• Each crew has 16 stocks total: although each crew has a 5 player roster, only 4 players will play.

Stagelist:

• Battlefield
• Final Destination
• Yoshi’s Story
• Dream Land 64
• Fountain of Dreams
• Pokémon Stadium

First matchup to be decided by double blind pick and stage striking. In all following matches, the incoming player counterpicks from the stagelist, and the sitting player enters the next match with only the stocks remaining from the previous match, starting at 0%. No stage bans.

The safety of all attendees is a top priority to the The Big House. We care about everyone’s event experience, and any harassment or violations of the code of conduct will not be tolerated.

Attendees are expected to abide by TBH9 Terms of Service (agreed to upon registering) and the code of conduct. Both documents can be found below.

TBH9 Terms of Service

TBH9 Code of Conduct