Discussion of Wobbling's Legality in Competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee

Named after the professional player Wobbles; Wobbling is a powerful technique, unique to the Ice Climbers in Super Smash Brothers Melee. In fact it is an infinite if preformed correctly, meaning that the opponent cannot escape once the Wobbling has started.

This is demonstrated below:

The way to initiate the Wobble is to get a grab (provided that Nana is alive and appropriately positioned too). The fact that an infinite grab in a fighting game such as Melee exists obviously causes much controversy within the community. The main issue that is brought up against Wobbling is that it really skews the Ice Climber's punish game in such a way where the opponent must play around it constantly. This usually entails very defensive play, often very platform orientated to avoid being grabbed.

The fact that a character has a fantastic punish game is not an issue in itself, the issue lies within the fact that the skill required to preform a Wobble is very low relative to other character's optimal punishes. This is especially true for the more tech-savvy characters such as Fox and Falco, where they must perfectly execute difficult techniques very fast whilst accounting for their opponents DI and general movement. Ice Climber players who grab and start Wobbling must only press A to pummel at a certain rate, whilst completely disabling the opponents options. The lack of interactivity of the player being Wobbled is of major concern, often causing salt and a passionate hatred for the Ice Climbers. This has lead many top players, most notably Mew2King to advocate the complete banning of Wobbling.

There was a time in the past of competitive Melee where Wobbling was banned, this did not hinder the Ice Climbers player's placements too much as Ice Climbers have other powerful options to punish their opponents. In particular Hand-Off combos are substituted, since they are very difficult to escape and require extremely precise timing and de-sync strategies. So if Wobbling would be theoretically banned, Ice Climbers players could master Hand-Offs to substitute Wobbling. This is already shown to be very effective by player like Fly Amanita and Wobbles himself. As a matter of fact, Wobbles has stated that he hates how Wobbling is being used in the current meta, since it halts the Ice Climber's progress as a character. In other words other areas of the Ice Climber's gameplay is being ignored and unexplored due to an over-reliance on Wobbling.

Personally, I do believe that the community heads should come together and think up of a solution for Wobbling as it turning top players off from the game, whilst simultaneously degrading the spectator experience. Both of these will undoubtably hurt the scene if it were to get any worse. A possible solution that is not often talked about is to limit the amount of Wobbles a player may preform during a set. This will allow for more strategic play, as the Ice Climbers player must choose when to use a Wobble as opposed to always relying on it. This possible solution will also push the Ice Climber's meta much further, since the players must now get used to punishing without using Wobbling all the time. With that being said, it is definitely a decision that must be thought about very much before any final rulings are made. With that I kindly invite any ideas/points from fellow Melee fans in order to reach a consensus within the community.