For Super Smash Bros. Melee players living in the UK, the long nightmare is finally over. A group of UK tournament organizers have decided to ban "Wobbling" the infinite Ice Climbers combo from competitive play, a move that will fundamentally shift how Super Smash Bros. Melee is played in England.
Wobbling is an infinite grab combo named after the player who popularized it, Wobbles. The combo starts when the Ice Climbers grab the opposing character. Once grabbed, the two Ice Climbers alternate hitting the grabbed character, locking them in place, allowing the Ice Climbers to do infinite damage. Unlike other crazy smash tech, such as the invincible Peach ledge attack, Wobbling is relatively easy to pull off, and works on every character. For this reason, Wobbling has been very controversial, and players have been calling for a competitive ban for a long time.
The ban was announced today on twitter by the UK tournament organizer Jay Sotee. In the tweet he said that after a meeting, 12 tournament organizers were in favor of the ban, 2 were opposed, and 3 abstained from voting. Melee is famously full of glitches, the kind that allow for crazy Melee speed runs. But none of the other glitches were banned from the competitive play.
Some players, especially Ice Climber players, will find this ban to be unfair. Even with Wobbling, Ice Climbers are still a mid tier character, and taking away their most powerful tool is sure to send them even further down the tier list. On the other hand, the combo is inescapable and predictable. Super Smash Bros. Melee is known for its fast paced epic gameplay, so wobbling can feel out of place, and fundamentally not fun to play against.
The real problem revealed by the UK ban is the lack of a consistent rule set for competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee. Nintendo has, at best, taken a hands off approach to handling the competitive scene, and at worst, actively tried to squash it. This is something that Hungry Box recently called Nintendo out for. If Nintendo provided better oversight for the game, it wouldn't be up to regional tournament organizers to make these choices.
Love it or hate it, Wobbling has been a defining characteristic for Melee for years now. But with the combo getting banned in more and more regions, Wobbling probably won't be included in the Melee mods that are coming for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Super Smash Bros. Melee is out now, exclusively for the GameCube.