Stalling is any deliberate attempt to avoid conflict and waste time, with the goal of making the game unplayable or winning a match by going to time out. It involves using actions and techniques to waste time, such as running away, planking, and infinites. Stalling is not to be confused with camping. A camping opponent still intends to fight, just at a distance; a stalling opponent does not intend to fight in any way.

Examples of stalling

Super Smash Bros.

Pikachu ledge-stalling in Smash 64.

• Abusing the invincibility frames of Pikachu's Quick Attack move while repeatedly planking the edge to render the opponent unable to damage Pikachu.
• Using the Luigi ladder with two Luigis to stall under or above the stage.^[1]

Super Smash Bros. Melee

• Using Peach's Peach Bomber repeatedly against a wall without gaining height. This technique is banned in tournaments if used just to waste time in a match, although it is allowed for recovering. Limited counterplay exists for some characters against this technique being used on certain stages. Characters such as Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, Samus and Pichu, among others, can challenge it, however some characters cannot challenge it at all without forcing a self-destruct.
• Using Jigglypuff's Rising Pound repeatedly, far away and outside of the feasible range of the other player offstage. As with Peach Bomber wall stalling, this technique is banned if used to waste time, though it is allowed for recovery. Contrary to popular belief, however, it is not a true infinite. Ness can challenge this.
• Using Jigglypuff's Sing after luring an opponent to the edge of the stage while planking to repeatedly put the opponent back to sleep, indefinitely depriving them of any sort of movement. This technique is banned in tournaments. This technique is also a true infinite. It can only be avoided by avoiding close proximity to Jigglypuff at the ledge.
• Using the Luigi ladder with two Luigis to rise a potentially extremely high vertical distance (as the Luigis will not be KO'd, even if surpassing the upper blast line while using this technique). This technique is banned in doubles play. Similar ladder techniques can also be executed by other characters as well.
• All fighters can indefinitely ledgestall, however the ledgegrab limit prevents this. Some characters, however, cannot get a fully intangible ledgestall from stalling on the ledge, and they can always be edgehogged during the technique, despite the varying amount of risk involved in doing so. Against characters without a fully intangible ledgestall, some characters possess limited methods of counterplay.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

• Repeatedly using Homing Attack with Sonic or Kirby under a stage to repeatedly rebound off of the bottom of the stage and stay in place. This technique is banned.
• Using Meta Knight's Infinite Dimensional Cape so that he cannot be attacked. This technique is banned.
• Gliding under the stage to the other side. Meta Knight is particularly adept at this since he can glide twice without landing. This is known as "scrooging" and is usually banned.

Super Smash Bros. 4

• Using the Pac-Ladder with two Pac-Mans to repeatedly bounce off each other's trampoline for potentially extremely high vertical distance (as the Pac-Mans will not be KO'd even if passing the upper blast line while using this technique). This technique is banned in doubles play.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

• Eliminating an opposing teammate, then alternating between Ridley's Skewer and Jigglypuff's Sing to lock the remaining opponent in place. This used to work with King K. Rool's down throw instead of Sing, but an update patched this so that Skewer could not affect opponents with Grab invincibility.
• Lucario can plank with Extreme Speed, even after the 6 grab limit has been passed. However, Lucario will not get any intangibility from successive ledge grabs.
• Sonic is infamous for being able to stall with his incredible speed.
• Using a combination of projectile, air, and circle camping, Isabelle can stall select characters with poor run and air speed on specific stages.
• Steve has a specific planking technique of putting a block under the ledge to mine and stall on the block. For the opponent it's extremely difficult and risky to approach Steve standing under the ledge.

In competitive play

Stalling is generally considered a viable strategy for certain matchups, as getting a quick lead early on and then avoiding the opponent until time runs out is considered easier than actually engaging and attempting to take stocks. Agile characters, especially ones with good air mobility that can safely travel under a stage, are usually the most successful at stalling. That being said, stalling goes against the fighting game philosophy of the Smash series, and therefore is generally looked down upon at a serious competitive level. Not only do most players find stalling annoying to deal with, most spectators find stalling boring to watch, leading to an unpleasant situation for everyone.

Many forms of stalling are typically banned in tournaments in addition to techniques that may lead to stalling. Excessive stalling can prolong a tournament and will often have the smasher disqualified. However, this rule is sometimes difficult to enforce, as "excessive stalling" is a subjective phrase with many opinions on where the threshold is. The act of punishing stalling at all has even proven controversial, as some consider stalling to be exploitive of character mobility and detracting, while others see it as a skillful and legitimate way to win, requiring careful spacing and effective mindgames. Some forms of stalling are allowed if the opponent is capable of dealing with them or if the technique is too subtle to be recognized as stalling. Other forms of stalling are allowed a maximum amount of executions, such as a rule in many Melee majors where a maximum of 60 planking attempts are allowed. However, this rule only comes into effect if the game goes to a time out, meaning players theoretically can perform the technique an unlimited amount of times as long as the they can take all of their opponent's stocks.

Supernova 2025 introduced an anti-stalling rule for their Ultimate bracket where any player who uses the same special move more than five (5) times without returning to the stage (ledge does not include stage) is stalling, and may be subject to a game loss. This rule only applies to actions taken beneath or outside of the stage ledges. Enforcement of this rule is done via replay review to avoid matches being stopped or stalled. A player may call a TO over after the match concludes. Characters using repeat special moves more than 5 times with clear intent to return to the stage (for example: using R.O.B. Up Special multiple times) or to progress the game state via engaging with the other player (through edgeguarding, for example) will not be penalized via this rule.^[2]

See also

• Cheap
• Broken
• Taunt match
• Tournament rulesets

References

• Techniques (SSB)
• Techniques (SSBM)
• Techniques (SSBB)
• Techniques (SSB4)
• Techniques (SSBU)