Smash Bracket has pretty strict criteria for a lot of extraordinary phenomena represented in fiction. I’ve finally codified those criteria with the help of the research team. While many of these criteria are based on the criteria found on Versus Battle Wiki’s pages for laser/light beams and black holes, I have organized them by importance, clarified which criteria are absolutely necessary, and explained the criteria we use to give leeway to a feat. Those articles are still a great place to read up on the reasoning behind most of these criteria (I’m planning a detailed write up later that will also cover the criteria we’ve added on our own).

These guidelines are intentionally very strict because these are some of the most extreme things that physics is able to describe. My article about appealing to reality covers this in more detail, but the idea is that we shouldn’t try to apply our understanding of physics to situations where fictional physics takes precedent. These guidelines are designed to filter out those situations and leave only the feats that actually follow the rules of our world.

Lasers

Must meet all the following criteria

• Travels in a straight line

• It originates from a realistic source of light, such as somebody who has demonstrated light powers in the past or technology that can produce light.

• It is a continuous beam, unless whatever mechanism that is firing the laser can separately be proved to be relativistic or the distance traveled is measured in tens of miles at least.

Any of these criteria disqualifies a beam from being real

• It travels at different speeds in the same material/medium

• It is tangible and can be interacted with physically by normal people

• It is shown traveling at the same speed as other, provably non-lightspeed objects or creatures. This includes gravity.

• It explodes on impact

• It exerts force or makes a sound on impact. A laser can technically do this, but it would need to also show a significant effect on the surrounding air and environment.

• It doesn’t look like light

• Is stated by a reliable source to not be a laser or real light.

Secondary Criteria

These help prove intent for light speed, but aren’t enough on their own. Each of these criteria being met is enough to ignore one of the primary criteria not being met or ignore one of the disqualifying criteria.

• Is stated by a reliable source to be a real laser or real light explicitly. The name of an attack/weapon/ability doesn’t count.

• The beam refracts (not curves) in a new material, such as a liquid or…

• The beam diffuses in a reasonably realistic way or reflects off a material that it can be expected to, such as a non-magical mirror.

• Specifically for lasers, the beam is coherent. This means that the width of the beam doesn’t change at any point and it interacts with objects in the same way at any point along the laser. The beam width must also be very narrow and monochromatic.

Faster Than Light Movement

It’s important to note that this criteria is for the sole purpose of measuring the speed of an object or character. I will have more direct guidelines published later for how that applies to actual stats.

Must meet one of the following criteria

• Display the speed in a way that can be accurately measured. Note that flying past background details doesn’t count unless those background details have been explicitly confirmed or treated as what they appear to be (this mostly affects flying past glowing lights that get called stars).

• Display the speed in a way that cannot be accurately measured and have an accompanying statement from a reliable source stating light speed (such as moving through a formless void where there is nothing to indicate the speed traveled).

Any of the following criteria disqualify a feat from being light speed

• A character or object is moving at a speed relative to something that is provably not relativistic

• Gravity operates at the same speed as normal during ftl travel.

• Other sources of light travel faster than the character or object being examined.

Secondary Criteria

These criteria aren’t enough to prove light speed on their own, but their presence can help indicate intent. Each of these that are present allows you to ignore one of the criteria that normally disqualifies a feat.

• Time stops or is extremely drastically slowed for everything but the character moving and other light sources. Especially if light is dimmed during the effect or sounds are dampened.

• A “sonic boom” for light is demonstrated.

• A character’s mass is treated as increasing towards infinity (or the energy of their attack/movement is treated as increasing towards infinity)

Black Holes

Must meet all of the following criteria

• There must be a statement from a reliable source that something is a black hole. The name of an attack, power, or technology is not enough on its own.

• The black hole must affect all matter within its radius equally. For example, if it were created inside a building, it couldn’t destroy the walls and ceiling but not the floor.

Any of the following criteria disqualify a black hole

• The black hole extends its gravity or disappears faster than the speed of light.

• There are objects floating around inside the black hole

• The black hole emits light

• Characters can see inside the black hole from the outside

• A character or object can withstand the singularity of the black hole by increasing their durability. Since it would require infinite durability to endure a black hole, finite increases can never be enough to survive a singularity.

Secondary Criteria

These criteria aren’t enough to confirm a black hole on their own, but for each criteria present we can ignore one of the normally-disqualifying criteria.

• Light is bent outside the event horizon

• Hawking radiation is shown to be present

• There is some indication that the gravitational pull of the black hole is appropriate for its size (outside of destruction, such as orbiting planets for a sun-sized black hole)