Alright, so in a recent poll regarding Greens (and in past polls on different tournament pages) I've been amazed by some people's views of the stage. Generally, people instinctively want to ban it due to the stigma against random events and a fear of the short sides and ceiling which case you to die earlier than you would expect.
Why it should not be banned
It's interesting how much faster the Brawl community is to ban things (and yes, I appreciate the irony of this statement in light of my writing the MK pro-ban argument on SWF). And while I actually do believe that, in a game designed by Sakurai to be noncompetitive, it is important to remove aspects that are noncompetitive, I do not believe that Green Greens as a stage falls under this banner. Once the mechanics of the stage are understood by the player, "random" events that always fall within a set region of the stage and can be prevented, managed, controlled, and minimized cease to have a significant deciding factor in the match, and rather become tools of the players. (Not to mention that the stage was legal in Melee >_> ).
The most important point that agrees with this statement, that "Green Greens is a competitive stage", is the fact that players can consistently win there, demonstrating that random events aren't an issue, and of even more note, that of all the regions that have it legal (as far as I can recall; Washington, Texas, Illinois, and some other Midwest states), none of them have ever banned it at a later date and the stage has caused no issues.
Washington, above all other states, has had a history of legalizing as much as possible and then banning them when they have demonstrated to be a problem. Early in Brawl's life, even Hanenbow was legal- but one player abused the stage, beating another by landing one hit and circle camping, and the stage was immediately banned with little question from that point. As stages prove to be an issue, they are removed. Greens has never caused an issue, beyond normal stalling that can be done on any stage and is eliminated via edge grab rule.
Importance as a counterpick
It's worth noting that the stage benefits several lower tiers (such as Peach, Zelda, Luigi, and Toon Link), and several higher tiers (Snake, G&W, and Dedede), but most importantly, it does not significantly benefit Metaknight. Snake vs MK is advantaged to Snake on this stage. By allowing Green Greens as a stage, MK is actually counterpickable by a number of characters, whereas normally they have to take him to a neutral (even Snake normally has to simply pick FD, since MK will ban Halberd).
The fact that MK cannot normally be counterpicked means that a stage that allows several characters to beat him or perform far better than usual is an important find and resolves some of the issues relating to him and the stage counterpick system.
How to actually play on the stage so as to eliminate issues
I'll begin with covering the most-complained about aspect of the stage: the bombs.
There's one key thing to note about Green Greens, and that is this; bomb block explosions have a hitbox that only lasts one frame, and they will explode immediately upon touching a hurtbox with their bottom.
This means that if you simply airdodge when passing through the columns, you can never be hit by the bombs. Similarly, standing by a bomb and spotdodging a projectile or attack from your opponent that sets off the bomb results in no damage to you, as the bomb explosion hitbox does not matter.
As to the importance of the bombs in the match. As there are many ways to prevent the explosions from doing damage (Spotdodging, airdodging, shielding, etc), they actually become a very important point. You can prevent Falco from side-Bing to safety by leaving pillars containing bombs intact, or stand by a bomb and have a safe point as large attacks like G&W's bair will set the bomb off and harm your opponent if you spotdodge.
Further, the bomb's knockback is greatly exaggurated. Stories of people dying at percentages as low as 40% are the result of horrific DI; it's very possible to survive at percentages over 100%, and it's even more possible to simply not let the bombs hit you. Opponents cannot launch you into the bomb (although dash grabs can push you in to them, however, doing this does not launch you at a killing angle) unless you momentum cancel with an aerial that breaks the bomb block (your own fault)- keep an eye out of the block formations.
The blocks in themselves can be managed when playing against characters like Dedede. If you destroy the lower blocks, Dedede cannot infinite you against the wall, and the lower blocks will not respawn until Dedede jumps up and breaks the top blocks (giving you an opportunity to chase him). And relating to the bombs again- by watching the formation of the top blocks, you will always know which pillars will or will not be reforming.
Further, the bombs do less damage than Snake's ftilt and have less knockback (IIRC) than the Melee version of the stage!
An older match:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXg1kauvemw
Note how ShadowRob survives past 150% every stock and we both survive high percent bomb explosions effortlessly. The simple rule is to airdodge when passing over pillars missing their top blocks, or move through them cautiously. Practice the stage and get a feel for it. The problem with Greens is that people with no experience on the stage run in to everything and cry foul- just like the ten-second-timer Klaptrap on Jungle Japes.
There are three people in WA who have truly spent the time to sit down and learn the stage. Me, Maos, and Valdens. All three of us consistently beat everyone else on the stage, and go even with each other there. Random events are NOT deciding matches, folks.
Debunking common myths
"Green Greens promotes camping". I've heard this from a number of people, usually ROB mains. t0mmy told me that he wouldn't ban Green Greens because, if I took him there, he'd camp me. He camped me. He went offstage and I fair'd him and killed him at some stupid low percentage. Jamnt0ast has made similar statements about the stage.
Green Greens does not promote camping via running away. Characters like Falco have to watch out for the pillars when side-Bing, and the blocks stop projectiles. Meanwhile, the character running away lines himself up for low percentage kills off the side, while the character that stays solid in the middle of the stage remains safe. Really, the best strategy is to camp the center and maintain the position, which is GREAT if you're counterpicking the stage on someone like Metaknight.
The stage favors characters that kill off the top, characters with good stage control, and it assists characters with poor recovery (due to the short sides making horizontal recovery distance unimportant). That makes it a good counterpick.
"Dtilt infinites!" As dtilts break the blocks they are supposed to infinite against, most infinites (such as Marth's dtilt infinite) simply don't work. The ones that do (G&W and ROB, for example) require the dtilt to be perfectly spaced so as not to break the blocks. Not only is it unreasonable to get this set up on a high level player (I CP every G&W and ROB here and they've all tried and not been able to), but by simply breaking the bottom blocks (which won't respawn while the top are intact), this is prevented.
"Dedede is really good here!" Honestly the only valid complaint IMO...it favors him in a lot of ways. Still, by breaking the bottom blocks, you can prevent the infinite from occurring and continue to fight him normally. Also, if the wind pushes towards the blocks, the infinite is interrupted. I have beaten several Dedede's here, though I would probably ban it against someone like Atomsk, I usually simply leave it on. It's not nearly as unwinnable as people think, and I'd rather have to worry about Dedede's here than not have the stage as an MK counterpick.
tl;dr version:
Green Greens is the best stage in the game and should be legal.
Why it should not be banned
It's interesting how much faster the Brawl community is to ban things (and yes, I appreciate the irony of this statement in light of my writing the MK pro-ban argument on SWF). And while I actually do believe that, in a game designed by Sakurai to be noncompetitive, it is important to remove aspects that are noncompetitive, I do not believe that Green Greens as a stage falls under this banner. Once the mechanics of the stage are understood by the player, "random" events that always fall within a set region of the stage and can be prevented, managed, controlled, and minimized cease to have a significant deciding factor in the match, and rather become tools of the players. (Not to mention that the stage was legal in Melee >_> ).
The most important point that agrees with this statement, that "Green Greens is a competitive stage", is the fact that players can consistently win there, demonstrating that random events aren't an issue, and of even more note, that of all the regions that have it legal (as far as I can recall; Washington, Texas, Illinois, and some other Midwest states), none of them have ever banned it at a later date and the stage has caused no issues.
Washington, above all other states, has had a history of legalizing as much as possible and then banning them when they have demonstrated to be a problem. Early in Brawl's life, even Hanenbow was legal- but one player abused the stage, beating another by landing one hit and circle camping, and the stage was immediately banned with little question from that point. As stages prove to be an issue, they are removed. Greens has never caused an issue, beyond normal stalling that can be done on any stage and is eliminated via edge grab rule.
Importance as a counterpick
It's worth noting that the stage benefits several lower tiers (such as Peach, Zelda, Luigi, and Toon Link), and several higher tiers (Snake, G&W, and Dedede), but most importantly, it does not significantly benefit Metaknight. Snake vs MK is advantaged to Snake on this stage. By allowing Green Greens as a stage, MK is actually counterpickable by a number of characters, whereas normally they have to take him to a neutral (even Snake normally has to simply pick FD, since MK will ban Halberd).
The fact that MK cannot normally be counterpicked means that a stage that allows several characters to beat him or perform far better than usual is an important find and resolves some of the issues relating to him and the stage counterpick system.
How to actually play on the stage so as to eliminate issues
I'll begin with covering the most-complained about aspect of the stage: the bombs.
There's one key thing to note about Green Greens, and that is this; bomb block explosions have a hitbox that only lasts one frame, and they will explode immediately upon touching a hurtbox with their bottom.
This means that if you simply airdodge when passing through the columns, you can never be hit by the bombs. Similarly, standing by a bomb and spotdodging a projectile or attack from your opponent that sets off the bomb results in no damage to you, as the bomb explosion hitbox does not matter.
As to the importance of the bombs in the match. As there are many ways to prevent the explosions from doing damage (Spotdodging, airdodging, shielding, etc), they actually become a very important point. You can prevent Falco from side-Bing to safety by leaving pillars containing bombs intact, or stand by a bomb and have a safe point as large attacks like G&W's bair will set the bomb off and harm your opponent if you spotdodge.
Further, the bomb's knockback is greatly exaggurated. Stories of people dying at percentages as low as 40% are the result of horrific DI; it's very possible to survive at percentages over 100%, and it's even more possible to simply not let the bombs hit you. Opponents cannot launch you into the bomb (although dash grabs can push you in to them, however, doing this does not launch you at a killing angle) unless you momentum cancel with an aerial that breaks the bomb block (your own fault)- keep an eye out of the block formations.
The blocks in themselves can be managed when playing against characters like Dedede. If you destroy the lower blocks, Dedede cannot infinite you against the wall, and the lower blocks will not respawn until Dedede jumps up and breaks the top blocks (giving you an opportunity to chase him). And relating to the bombs again- by watching the formation of the top blocks, you will always know which pillars will or will not be reforming.
Further, the bombs do less damage than Snake's ftilt and have less knockback (IIRC) than the Melee version of the stage!
An older match:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXg1kauvemw
Note how ShadowRob survives past 150% every stock and we both survive high percent bomb explosions effortlessly. The simple rule is to airdodge when passing over pillars missing their top blocks, or move through them cautiously. Practice the stage and get a feel for it. The problem with Greens is that people with no experience on the stage run in to everything and cry foul- just like the ten-second-timer Klaptrap on Jungle Japes.
There are three people in WA who have truly spent the time to sit down and learn the stage. Me, Maos, and Valdens. All three of us consistently beat everyone else on the stage, and go even with each other there. Random events are NOT deciding matches, folks.
Debunking common myths
"Green Greens promotes camping". I've heard this from a number of people, usually ROB mains. t0mmy told me that he wouldn't ban Green Greens because, if I took him there, he'd camp me. He camped me. He went offstage and I fair'd him and killed him at some stupid low percentage. Jamnt0ast has made similar statements about the stage.
Green Greens does not promote camping via running away. Characters like Falco have to watch out for the pillars when side-Bing, and the blocks stop projectiles. Meanwhile, the character running away lines himself up for low percentage kills off the side, while the character that stays solid in the middle of the stage remains safe. Really, the best strategy is to camp the center and maintain the position, which is GREAT if you're counterpicking the stage on someone like Metaknight.
The stage favors characters that kill off the top, characters with good stage control, and it assists characters with poor recovery (due to the short sides making horizontal recovery distance unimportant). That makes it a good counterpick.
"Dtilt infinites!" As dtilts break the blocks they are supposed to infinite against, most infinites (such as Marth's dtilt infinite) simply don't work. The ones that do (G&W and ROB, for example) require the dtilt to be perfectly spaced so as not to break the blocks. Not only is it unreasonable to get this set up on a high level player (I CP every G&W and ROB here and they've all tried and not been able to), but by simply breaking the bottom blocks (which won't respawn while the top are intact), this is prevented.
"Dedede is really good here!" Honestly the only valid complaint IMO...it favors him in a lot of ways. Still, by breaking the bottom blocks, you can prevent the infinite from occurring and continue to fight him normally. Also, if the wind pushes towards the blocks, the infinite is interrupted. I have beaten several Dedede's here, though I would probably ban it against someone like Atomsk, I usually simply leave it on. It's not nearly as unwinnable as people think, and I'd rather have to worry about Dedede's here than not have the stage as an MK counterpick.
tl;dr version:
Green Greens is the best stage in the game and should be legal.
get people to like it.
