Continuing off my point that Olimar doesn't suck... watch the below videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zzM9TEy0 o0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzRrONs56 8c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgnkwnfmZ O4&feature=related
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Now, on the topic of items. It's true that, if dispersed evenly to all players, items still make the match somewhat even for all the characters, if not even more even. However, items are extremely fast and powerful, killing people at ridiculously low percentages. It's true that they can be avoided sometimes, but the very notion that most items can blow people straight to hell with a simple, unpredictable input of Forward and Z, with an extremely low chance to avoid, is simply unacceptable in most competitive play.
That said, items are all fine and dandy in friendly play, especially in Free For Alls, but if you're trying to compete to see who's the best, or you're trying to prove one character is better than the other, items are simply too hazardous to show the true skill of the players, and more importantly, the characters themselves, since items aren't part of a natural character's moveset and therefore makes it impossible to determine which character is better than the other.
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Supersteph54, go to your Start browser and start your program 'Run.' Type in 'cmd' and click OK. A command prompt will open up. Type "ping/t www.newgrounds.com" without the quotes and hit enter. The program will begin to ping Newgrounds and a list will start to manifest on the program. On each line, there should be a phrase that says 'time=XXms.' Figure out the average time you get. If it's 60ms or less, the lag likely isn't your fault, but rather; the distance between you and your opponents. If it's ridiculously large, like, for example, in the triple digits, then it's likely the lag was your fault.
If that is the case, with the triple digits, simply restart your computer and make sure you have no Youtube videos or chatrooms open when you decide to start playing Brawl wifi again, and the lag will have likely resolved itself.