I just want to put in my two cents on the whole competitive smash community thing.
Y'all really shouldn't be surprised that you earned the reputation of being the most elitest, snobby, and most annoying group of competitive fighters in the gaming community. My experience with them has always been lukewarm, to eye rolling. Sadly this kind of extends to my friends as well.
My first time playing Smash was when I was 5 or 6 and I had gotten an N64 console. Since then I have played every iteration since (granted the Wii U version is the first one I've actually owned.) As I grew up I learned all the air dodging, ground mitigating, fighting tricks and tips one comes to expect in a smash game. But the most fun I've ever had in Smash is when I'm playing with friends with items on. I love the randomness, and funny shit that comes out of it. And honestly it truly does give less than good players at least a fighting chance at winning the game.
My fun in Smash started to wane when the competitive community (Especially on the Meless front.) started to become more and more pervasive in not just the online community, but in real life as well. It seems as of late, the only people who like/don't care about having items on in their smash games are people under the age of 14 and lightweight smash players, and said opinion is very much a minority opinion in the college age demographic. I fell in love with Smash BECAUSE it was meant from the very beginning to be a fun party bralwer. But after Melee people have just gotten more and more insufferable about it. I can't have nearly as much fun as I used to have with real life smash friends like I used to because everyone but me in the group are into the whole "Final destination, No Items" schtick and get all downer when I want to play with items. Don't even get me fucking started on public Smash gatherings either. You even so much as bring up items match and you got the whole fucking group railing on your ass 'NO ITEMS, WE AREN'T DOING ITEMS, FUCK THAT!!" Like shit man. Fine, okay, let's play final destination flat stage.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my one on one no items competitive match. But that's not what I started playing the game for the fun of it. But it's like in every facet of the Smash community inside and out, the melee and competitive fanatics always have to shut everyone else down by being a big Debby Downer about it, or being so bossy over it that people agree with them just so they would shut the fuck up about there being items.
It also really alienates people who just aren't good at playing smash. Like I said earlier items does give an advantage for lesser skilled players. Nobody likes to lose all the time, and in no item matches anyone who doesn't know how to play the game all that well is guaranteed to lose like 5 minutes in. That's not fun at all.
The problem with Melee and competitive fans is that they think they are the core demographic of the game, when they really aren't. They are simply a subset of a much larger Smash fanbase. Similar to how Pokemon has a casual, kid friendly fanbase, and a competitive hard core fanbase. You want to know why nobody in the Pokemon fanbase complains about the competitive snobs? Because they at least have enough self awareness to know that Pokemon does not, and will not cater to them 100%. They make their own online communities to talk about their tactics, and keep it between them and other fellows. But when it comes to the outside public they don't act like shit lords and enforce Smogon rules up the ass to casual player Sam, and little kid Tabitha.
Melee and competitive players on the other hand thinks that the game was made solely for them, and will make sure that everyone fucking knows it.
It's fucking not. Sorry Sakurai didn't make everyone in the game balanced little angels for your flat staged orgy fest. Just this Thanksgiving break I was at my friends place, and her mother's friend had two daughters- one probably around 5 and the other 6-7 playing Wii U smash and having fun. I sometimes hear middle schoolers talking about playing smash and having fun, hell even casual people have fun with smash. None of them ever gave two shits that Bowser is broken. They play their favorite franchise characters and go with it.
I honestly wonder if Sakurai and team were poking a secret jab at the competitive scene by having a "For Fun" and "For Glory" section.