Fand, it's totally cool to sit the season out. Look forward to having you in Season 5.
This Twitter discussion is exactly my thoughts on customs:
https://twitter.com/ZeRoSSB/status/604847003235803137
Nick Allen ‏@RiotNickAllen 21h21 hours ago
@ZeRoSSB I don't see a world where more options = less gameplay. That feels illogical.
「ZeRo」
‏@ZeRoSSB
. @RiotNickAllen That's what I originally thought. But customs often turn into centralized decision making. One custom does it all.
Great examples of this are Bowser and Donkey Kong. Dash Slash is amazing, and completely changes how the character plays. Cronox will agree, I'm sure, that the move is straight up
addictive. It turns some matchups into a joke. Mewtwo has no hope against custom Bowser. Without customs, Bowser has a rough time in the matchup, though.
On the other hand, while Dash Slash makes Villager extremely manageable, Villager gains his own custom, the Trip Sapling. This custom makes the matchup almost impossible for Bowser, completely negating any benefit he gains from Dash Slash. As a result, the matchup becomes entirely surrounded around the Trip Sapling - if it's down, Bowser is fucked. If it isn't, Bowser has a really good shot. Dash Slash basically turns Bowser into a whirl of unpredictable chaos. He goes from a low risk, low reward character that makes his wins off of good reads to a high risk, high reward character that makes everyone wet their pants if they don't have the matchup mastered.
Initially, I just thought it was great to give characters more options, but in reality, there are a few customs that are straight upgrades, and so powerful that they completely "remake" the character into something he/she isn't intended to be. That isn't a good thing. It isn't good that Bowser has an air dash, that Villager gains the ultimate camp move, that Donkey Kong is basically "Up B: The Character", or that Rosalina can sit back and pelt you from across the screen + disruption while sitting behind Luma. These moves take characters with defined weakness and circumvent them entirely.
After Evo, it'll be interesting to see how the community proceeds. If a lot of tournaments go no-customs, I'll bring it up for a vote on the ranbats. In general, though, I think we should do what the big tournaments do, because our practice here needs to be relevant. Even better, Sakurai could just balance the customs so they're all interesting and worth using, while toning down the stupid ones.
