Lethal League Blaze Etiquette

Overview

Everything about (dis)respecting your opponent before smackin’em down.

Introduction

Welcome to the morally conventionnal behaviours of Lethal League Blaze, where courtesy and consideration of your foes prime for a well earned win. The etiquette, albeit short, will provide dos and don’ts worthy of a samurai seeking for satisfaction in victory, all through honor.

Here’s the core 11 commandements of LLB, going along the fighting game spirit.

General Fighting Etiquette

Have you noticed that downwards moves are more frustrating to die to ? Down spike, down bunt, down throw, Switch upside down flip, Grid spike out of special, Doombox/Toxic snipe from above… Most likely because down moves are unidimensionnal and turn most of the map into a safezone, which is why getting killed by one can be bitter.

But not to worry, it’s because no action in the moveset allows for hitting directly above your head. There is smash of course, but it implies jumping, meaning getting closer, minimizing distance for the ball to travel, thus reducing reaction time.

By extension, getting grabbed and downthrown was at one point being given a second chance to live. Before the patch that made it deal 40% damage, it was the powermove that staggered tournament commentators. Either way, most often, both players realise that a life was spared and usually stop for half a second before moving on and resuming the burst.

Sun Tzu said to hit the hardest on an opponent when they are at their weakest. Upon serving, a lot of pressure is on the non-serving side when their health bar is blinking. “What cheap trick will they use to defeat me in one hit ? A throw ? Close combat ? A special ? A bait ? Many options to take me down in less than a second if I don’t pay attention.” As prepared they might be, they are vulnerable to 1hko. Thus their best bet is accelerating the ball enough to reach lethal speed (120) for both of you. Winning this burst would be the most honorable outcome, although a slowball kill is still okay since defending includes several methods, like keeping distance.

Furthermore, it is tolerated to defeat someone with the same move over and over. In a well-designed game, every behaviour has a counter. So perishing to 5 parries in a row should make one reconsider his strategy, which is one of the fundamentals of the game : adaptability to the enemy’s playstyle.

Finding shelter in the bottom corners is a reliable way of covering one’s back and feet. Combining it with bunt spam grants safety thanks to above-eye level hitboxes and short window span between each bunt. It’s a get-out-of-jail card that is very effective in dire situations, but is very predictible. One shall not stall the game by pushing this panic button, or will fear the parry that crawled up to them.

Emotes Etiquette

• “Nice”
  After a kill, when the burst was interesting for each party. When the last stock is withdrawn, the winner can work with the Announcer to say “Nice game”.

• “Oops”
  For players who died failing their combo, or walked to their death on a vertical ball. On the winning side, sarcasm will trigger a frenzier rest of the game. Its sole neutral use is upon resuming an interrupted match due to desync or connexion loss.

• “Wow”
  Used by itself to indicate that a burst was impressive or full of rebounds. Used in conjunction with the 3 others to strengthen the message.

• “Bring It”
  The taunt by excellence for its intended purpose : provocation. Peak usage when both players unsheath the “Bring It” at the beginning of a match. Also puts an end to friendly bursts and afk moments.

• Acceptable :
  – at the beginning of a match. Keep in mind that you will most likely lose the serve.
  – to take your hat off.
  – to get the 4th bar of special meter.
  – if the opponent already taunted once.
• Okay : once during the match after a burst was won. Celebration is natural and should not be refrained.
• Not acceptable : after every kill, and even worse, twice in a row after the last burst. Making it a routine defeats the purpose of taunting : highlighting and expressing intense moments of gameplay.

Crouching – More than a hitbox shrinker, in Blaze it’s an access to slides and crouch specials. Ducking is part of any fighting and FPS game to grant their user more options. It is also well known for taunting, with the renowned Tea-bagging, performed in LLB most often with a repeated left/right motion. Same rules as taunting.
Pressing down means many things. From friendliness, by showing that we’re not a threat, to receptiveness, to show that we understood a message, like reacting to an emote.

Corpsejuggling is an art achievable throught long and sweaty training. Dozens of variants can be executed with any character, each requiring some dedication. One might use it however they want, as long as they wish, without restriction.

Quickmatch Etiquette

• Power-ups that are no-noes for killing :
  – RC ball
  – Phantom ball
  – Ultra Speed ball

  Making their user invulnerable for their duration, their power is too high to be considered a real “kill”. Fortunately, most people don’t use them, or simply pretend that they’re going for a kill.

• Power-ups that require the “Bring It” :
  – (Ultra) Warp ball
  – (Ultra) Rugby ball
  – Invisiball
  – Double Pinball

  Consent is recommended because of the serve advantage the player unlocking the power-up has (ball tagging + serve parry). But once launched, everyone is subject to being struck by the ball.

• Power-ups that you have no control on :
  – Heal ball

  They activate automatically, and their effect is immediate. the Heal ball being its only representative, a true gentleman would stand still, share it and make the match last longer.

Disturbing the flow, desyncing, and potentially ruining the game, a person deserting amongst 3 or 4 in Free-For-All is not well-seen, despite the fact that they have no stocks remaining. It is advised to quit when the result shows, for the sake of the common good.

Ranked Etiquette

Dodging someone is either because their ping is too high, or you are aware of their greater skill in order to keep your rank. In the former case, it is understandably to avoid an unenjoyable match. However, by following the latter path, one shall engage one day or another against lower ranks who are stronger than them in combat, as in-game rank is not representative of one’s strength.

If dodging is the preventive variant of avoiding a fight, ragequitting is the reactive variant. One shall accept that they are weaker than whoever’s in front, and struggle until numbers appear on screen.

An idle animation might translate to your enemy having real life issues, like a call or a door to open. One ought to respect those kinds of interference by not harming the other, as they eventually come back in under a minute.
As such, if a stock was won, by accident or not, their own stock shall be drained as a tradeoff.

Final Note

Overall, Lethal League is a very fair game, where we feel responsible of 99% of our actions. Deaths are deserved, and wins are earned. At the end of a confrontation, the score is always justified : I caught their special, they stole my bunt, I grabbed their parry… And that makes the game very beginner-friendly (mistakes are easily identified so are correctible) as well as hard to master (so many situations, combos to pull off and to counter).

Those were some unwritten rules to illustrate how fairplay is part of any game involving at least two people. Just like real sports, e-sports have a set of values that players come with to make the game enjoyable for everyone, and if not, at least for themselves. Because let’s speak the truth, a 100% respectful match would be flat. We need some exceptions to create depth, make the game more exciting and hype it up with some disrespect (excluding trash-talking). Just remember that salt is a flavor enhancer, whether it’s in food or during a fight. This is another kind of interaction when designing a fighting game, to create rivalry, which is at the very heart of combat.