I played melee competitively like a decade ago. Brawl was meh, I missed the PM boat (boy does that make me sad) but i got way into smash 4, and then back into the competitive scene. at a small local none of the smash 4 brahs showed up, just me and a melee guy who refused to touch smash 4, so I thought I'd try dipping my toes back into melee. I let him know I haven't put in time for years so give me a little bit to warm up my hands, nope. Immediately wobbles me. Wobbles every stock off of me for 6 consecutive games while I try to get a handle on marth's spacing and get a feel for good wavedashing and L-cancelling, and it just put a bad taste in my mouth. It was just friendlies and if we had a melee tourney it wouldn't have been for a pot, it's not like he needed to warm up his wobble powers, he was just being a ****. Which is fine, but it put such a bad taste in my mouth that it really soured me on a return to competitive melee - back when I used to play it wasn't a thing yet. (or hadn't reached WI? I dunno) So on the one hand, I understand that it's really tough to close down viable options, and a non unified opinion in the community is what kills a game competitively. (See: Metaknight in brawl) And EVO dropped it so it's a rough time for the community to split in half on anything.



But if we compare it to other similar moves - let's say rest, first off, if you whiff rest, you are gonna die almost for sure, but you are definitely going to take a very heavy punish. Iceys don't really suffer from anywhere near as huge a risk, even on whiff.



Rest can kill super early on some characters, especially depending on how it's set up, but does it ever just flat kill from zero off a single move/combo starter that's relatively reliable? I know, wobbling isn't totally true until 15% or whatever, but the point still stands - You get grabbed, you die. Not even rest results in this all the time.



It's super frustrating. If a jiggs has is doing a stylish WOP to rest SD/kill combo it's badass, even if you are the victim. If a marth hops out and does sideB/sideB/tilted down sideB and spikes me, it's badass. If a cpn' falcon hops out and lands a falcon punch far off stage, it's super badass - even if you are the victim you have to get a giggle out of that level of disrespect/blatant disregard for risk.



Icys don't risk this by fishing for a grab. they are just fishing for a grab, but unlike other characters who can tech chase your landing and regrab, but that's some reactive work, rather than just... a rhythm.



So obviously I don't play melee competitively anymore, and I do friendlies pretty rarely, so my opinion isn't super valid, but I will say it soured my re entry, and i can see it souring new entries that bleed over from shared venue ultimate tourneys - and I think it's super great for both scenes that melee and ultimate have had so much permeability. I'm not a fan of wobbling, it makes the game not fun and frustrating when you are subjected to it. When I see it in a stream, I find another stream or just close it and move onto something else, because the whole match will be like that.



If there were to be a compromise, I think the frustration and viewership issues could be addressed by just agreeing that if a wobble begins, the icy lets go and you plunge your stock off - then at least you don't have to sit there for 30 seconds and just watch it happen to you. Arguably that's not fun to see either, "why did that guy kill himself?" etc, but the game would get back to the action much faster.





But either way, I do think the community as a whole needs to stop weighing in and instead find a way for TOs in each state to communicate and put together a real plan of action, some kind of polling for national sentiment - because I'd rather see melee survive with wobbling than die without it, and I think that's what is most important here.