I agree with ChronotriggerJM.
I have no problem with Edge-hogging as a tactic in Melee and Brawl and i also don't deny the skill you need to use it, but it still looks and feels off. A good competitive game is also an exciting looking one and watching player fighting over the edge, is the best part of Smash Brothers. The change could force people to more often go after other players, which couidl create much more exciting situations. And if the players doesn't feel like it, at least it takes less time now, to go back onto the stage. Edge-Guarding will still be there, but with SSB4 it becomes much more riskier.
Edgeguarding was already risky in Melee, especially off-stage. Brawl, on the other hand... is the opposite of that -- there's no real risk to edgeguarding in Brawl (unless you go crazy and actually deplete every recovery option you have available to you) because you can always make it back to the ledge (esp. if you're Meta Knight).
Do you watch much competitive Melee? Or, for that matter, did you watch Apex 2014's Melee top 8? There's
plenty of off-stage play going on in competitive Melee. Brawl is where there's hardly any of that going on
because Sakurai buffed recoveries to high heaven which in turn nerfed edgeguarding options. Melee and Brawl don't share much in common when it comes to ledge play -- it's
very different.
Edit:
But in general, most people (
even competitive players), do not like edgehogging.
You probably get the idea.
Wtf this is not only wrong but a huge generalization. Competitive players LIKE edgehogging, maybe not the rolling up part that was in Melee, but definitely edgeguarding and what comes with that is also edgehogging. If you take out edgehogging completely, recovery is going to be
even easier than Brawl. It's a balance so the person on-stage has the tools to deal with the person off-stage. The person recovering should have inherent disadvantages and that is one of them, getting edgehogged.
What competitive players don't like is planking (aka ledge stalling) which in Melee is only used by a select few people and more importantly, only used to gain positioning advantage and/or to get some breathing room to think. In Brawl, it's used to purposefully timeout the other guy because they
literally can't do anything about it if the person planking is using Meta Knight and constantly Up Airing and then regrabbing the ledge. That's what competitive players don't like.
I've seen my fair share of casual players saying they don't like edgehogging and saying it's "cheap" and "lame", but it was intended to be in the game since Melee (as evidenced by the bonus result "Edge Hog"). I'll never understand how it's "cheap" when it is an edgeguarding option -- it is for positioning and to secure the KO where more often than not the person recovering
could have come back. It's boring to wait at the ledge on-stage and just use a tilt or smash attack to knock them back off-stage, it's way flashier to grab the ledge and do an amazing aerial at the right time to secure the KO. And comp. players
always vary their edgeguarding, you never see them do the same one each stock or same attempt each stock (unless it's guaranteed).
It's an option for the edgeguarder, I don't understand how that's bad, the person off-stage
should be disadvantaged hugely -- it was your mistake for getting knocked off-stage, now you have to actually
try to get back on.