Summary: Winner is Character-locked, Loser chooses to counterpick a Character OR a Stage (after bans)
Sorry if this idea has been brought up before, I'm sure plenty of changes to counterpicking have been suggested.
At first I thought how it was strange how every fighting game ever was set up so that the champion was character-locked and the challenger could pick a different character (this goes for both arcade mode and tournaments) except Smash, but then shortly after I realized it would be too much of an advantage to be able to counterpick both a character and a stage without the winner being able to do anything about it. This thread only really came up a lot of years after the fact.
It is my opinion Smash could use a slight change to counterpicks because of how deadly some character and stage combinations can be. Many will disagree with me saying that if you learned an extra character you deserve this powerful advantage, but the way I see it is that the player didn't really put that much effort into the character, he/she learned how to use it on a single stage. Concrete examples: Counterpicking FD and using IC: You never have to learn how to deal with platforms; Brinstar and MK: Approaching becomes much easier with sharking and edgeguarding is much more potent requiring less thought, etc.
So how can you change this so that people who learn multiple characters are still rewarded? If you force that Stage OR the Character Matchup to be the same, you can counterpick without double whammies occuring. Keep in mind this is AFTER the stage striking process for the first game.
So, here's the match process:
1. Player Priority is determined by G&W's Judgement if it can not be agreed on.
2. Each Team selects one controller port to use for each Player.
3. Each Team selects one character for each Player. A double blind pick may be called by any player.
4. The first game is played on a Stage selected from the Starter Stage List either by mutual consent or through the Stage Striking Method. The order of stage striking will be 1-2-2-1 (Team 1 strikes a stage, followed by Team 2 striking two stages, with Team 1 then striking one of the two remaining stages).
5. The first match is played.
6. The team that lost the previous match may opt to re-pick controller ports (with themselves picking first).
7. The Team that won the previous match may announce one "Stage Ban" if they have not already done so in this set.
8. The Team that lost the previous match announces either a change of characters for each Player or the stage for the next match from either the Starter or the Counterpick Stage List (Both options can not be chosen simultaneously). Any Stage named as a "Stage Ban" by either Team may not be selected. No Stage may be changed to by a Team that has already won on that Stage in this set.
9. The next match is played.
10. Repeat steps 6-9 for all proceeding matches.
Sorry if this idea has been brought up before, I'm sure plenty of changes to counterpicking have been suggested.
At first I thought how it was strange how every fighting game ever was set up so that the champion was character-locked and the challenger could pick a different character (this goes for both arcade mode and tournaments) except Smash, but then shortly after I realized it would be too much of an advantage to be able to counterpick both a character and a stage without the winner being able to do anything about it. This thread only really came up a lot of years after the fact.
It is my opinion Smash could use a slight change to counterpicks because of how deadly some character and stage combinations can be. Many will disagree with me saying that if you learned an extra character you deserve this powerful advantage, but the way I see it is that the player didn't really put that much effort into the character, he/she learned how to use it on a single stage. Concrete examples: Counterpicking FD and using IC: You never have to learn how to deal with platforms; Brinstar and MK: Approaching becomes much easier with sharking and edgeguarding is much more potent requiring less thought, etc.
So how can you change this so that people who learn multiple characters are still rewarded? If you force that Stage OR the Character Matchup to be the same, you can counterpick without double whammies occuring. Keep in mind this is AFTER the stage striking process for the first game.
So, here's the match process:
1. Player Priority is determined by G&W's Judgement if it can not be agreed on.
2. Each Team selects one controller port to use for each Player.
3. Each Team selects one character for each Player. A double blind pick may be called by any player.
4. The first game is played on a Stage selected from the Starter Stage List either by mutual consent or through the Stage Striking Method. The order of stage striking will be 1-2-2-1 (Team 1 strikes a stage, followed by Team 2 striking two stages, with Team 1 then striking one of the two remaining stages).
5. The first match is played.
6. The team that lost the previous match may opt to re-pick controller ports (with themselves picking first).
7. The Team that won the previous match may announce one "Stage Ban" if they have not already done so in this set.
8. The Team that lost the previous match announces either a change of characters for each Player or the stage for the next match from either the Starter or the Counterpick Stage List (Both options can not be chosen simultaneously). Any Stage named as a "Stage Ban" by either Team may not be selected. No Stage may be changed to by a Team that has already won on that Stage in this set.
9. The next match is played.
10. Repeat steps 6-9 for all proceeding matches.
