Why L-Canceling is a Stupid Mechanic

Table of Contents

Introduction

What is “Shallow Tech Skill” :tm: ?

Why L-Canceling is Stupid

Why Dash-Dancing is Amazing

But doesn’t it take skill to make L-Canceling a habit?

What does L-Canceling do for Melee?

Closure

Introduction

One of the things Melee is most known for is its borderline overwhelming amount of tech skill. Some bread and butter combos require upwards 4 inputs a second, and more complicated combos can have even more than that. One tech skill in particular, I find to be incredibly stupid. I believe that L-Canceling, the ability to shave off half of an aerial’s landing lag by pressing shield while landing, is a mechanic that never should’ve been implemented.

What is “Shallow Tech Skill” :tm: ?

I would describe L-Canceling with the term “Shallow Tech Skill” :tm: . Shallow Tech Skill is tech skill that has very little depth, which is something that absolutely applies to L-Canceling. Shallow Tech Skill is either easy to input or apply, and does not require much skill in any way.

Why L-Canceling is Stupid

L-Canceling is dumb partially because of how basic it is when applying it. When you look at techs like wavedashing, edge-cancelling, perfect-pivoting, and dash-cancelling, there are multiple things they have in common. They all have multiple uses, are not overshadowed by objectively better options, are not overshadowing other options by being objectively better options, and can be applied in a variety of ways. Then you look at L-Canceling. L-Canceling is something that can only be used to land with aerials. L-Canceling is objectively better than landing with an un-L-Cancelled aerial. There is never a reason to not L-Cancel. It cannot be used creatively in any way at all, as it is something you should always do, which is why I would deem it Shallow Tech Skill. In any situation that you can L-Cancel, you should. Most techs don’t have this problem because they can be used in more than one situation, therefore if there is a situation where it is the best option objectively, it’ll be alright because there’s another situation where said option is not the best. This cannot be said about L-Canceling. The only positive thing I can see about L-Canceling is the idea that you get rewarded for doing a more difficult input correctly. But I don’t think something so basic should warrant a reward. Reward me for using a mechanic with a lot of depth creatively, not for using the option that’s objectively better 100% of the time that’s only moderately difficult in physical execution.

Why Dash-Dancing is Amazing

(This is a really weird example. Dash-Dancing is often done with longer intervals between the turnarounds).

To lengthen this blog a little, I’d like to share one of my favorite Melee mechanics. Dash-Dancing is the ability to turn around instantly in the beginning of your dashing animation, and it’s easily one of the best things in Smash (And the fact that it got removed is part of why Sm4sh’s and Ultimate’s movements are awful). Dash-Dancing can be used in neutral to weave in and out of your opponents hotspots and burst options to try and bait and punish something. It can also be used while techchasing to continue combos. There are multiple ways that players can apply Dash-Dancing and it ISN’T objectively better than walking, wavedashing, running in one direction, or jumping. All of these movement options have situations they can be used in and can be applied very creatively.

Why Optimal Follow-Ups aren’t Stupid

I’ve said I find L-Canceling stupid because it is objectively better than all other options. So what do I think of Fox’s up-throw up-air? Or Jigglypuff’s up-throw rest? I think these are both perfectly fine combos. Fox’s up-air and Jigglypuff have something that L-Canceling doesn’t. Fox’s up-air and Jigglypuff’s rest may be objectively better than other options after an up-throw at the right percents, but what they AREN’T is objectively better than your other options in every situation they can be used in. In the one situation you can L-Cancel, it is objectively better than not L-Canceling, meanwhile there are countless situations where up-air and rest aren’t the best option. So no, having one optimal option is perfectly fine. What’s not fine is having one option that is objectively better than all other options in every situation that that one option is available in.

But doesn’t it take skill to make L-Canceling a habit?

This is a far more subjective portion of this blog, so here’s your chance to hit my arguments the hardest if you disagree. One may argue that there are multiple things that make tech skill difficult, the two main ones being the input and applying it to your gameplay. I would absolutely agree with that. One might point out that L-Canceling requires skill in that it’s quite difficult to make it a habit. I would agree, although I would argue that any tech should have at LEAST a little of bit of difficulty in BOTH execution and application. You wanna know what tech requires nearly no thought at all in application? L-Canceling. Sure, it is very tedious to make L-Canceling a habit, and only players with a certain level of dedication will make it a habit, but for me, having the only skill a tech requires be making it a habit isn’t enough. There should be at least some thought you have to put into it, at least in my opinion.

What does L-Canceling do for Melee?

To be honest, L-Canceling is does a ton of good for Melee. Not only does it help with balance (the already unviable heavyweights would be even worse without L-Canceling), but it also allows strengthens three very important aspects of the game; shield pressure, combos, and neutral. When pressuring someone’s shield, you usually do a sequence of inputs that accumulate a lot of damage very quickly, such as a combination of fast aerials and tilts or fast aerials and multishines if you’re a privileged furry. Without L-Canceling, shield pressure would be much worse, which is a bad thing for a couple reasons. When an opponent’s shield is small, the everyone watching the match is just hit with this wave of tension, and the attacking player starts to rush down the opponent. Additionally, shield pressuring as a Spacie requires very fast inputs, so it’s quite impressive when someone shield pressures well. It’s really one of the most exciting things Melee has to offer. L-Canceling also helps the games combos. Many combos such as drill-shine, jigglypuff’s still up smash, and other things rely on L-Canceling to be true combos. Obviously it’s good for a game to have more combos as opposed to less. It gives good players more things to learn about their character, and picks up the pace of the game by punishing you harder when you lose neutral, as you’ll be taking a slew of hits instead of just one. Lastly, L-Canceling helps the games neutral. Characters now have many more options due to their aerials being safer. Having more options is better than having fewer as it gives the player more mixups, things to apply to their gameplay, etc. So overall, I think L-Canceling does a whole lot of good for Melee. I may think it’s really stupid, but having L-Canceling is definitely better than not having it.

Closure

Obviously L-Canceling will always be a thing in Melee. I don’t expect every TO to mod their setups so L-Cancelling is automatic. To be clear, I do NOT think that a version of Melee without L-Cancelling would be good. I think a version with automatic L-Cancelling would be better. This blog is only for entertainment and informational purposes. If you like L-Cancelling, feel free to tell me why in the comments.