Melee All "Day-lee"

Jeffrey "Axe" Williamson at Evo 2014

Fighting games are a prominent genre with competitive gamers all over the world. One game that has become popular over the years is “Super Smash Bros. Melee.”

“Super Smash Bros. Melee” was released in 2001 for the Nintendo GameCube. The game was such a success with critics and fans alike that it became the highest selling GameCube game of all-time.

A niche community of devoted players developed a competitive tournament scene around the game. Nearly 15 years since “Super Smash Bros. Melee” was first released, the competitive scene is still going strong. 

The basic premise of the game is simple. Up to four players battle it out on any number of different stages with 26 playable characters. The objective is for opposing players to knock their opponents beyond the boundaries of the stage. It becomes more complicated for tournaments, because there are advanced techniques and rules that casual players might not be aware of. At its core though, Super Smash Bros. is about having a good time with your friends. 

What makes Smash stand out from other fighting games is that it wasn't supposed to be competitive. 

The creator of the game, Masahiro Sakurai, has stated on multiple occasions that he intended for the Super Smash Bros. series to be a casual gaming experience and not a competitive one.

“What I’m more going for is something like a party game, something you can play on a whim and have fun as all sorts of things take place on screen,” he said in an interview with mashable.com.  

Nonetheless, players still developed a competitive scene around the game. 

Another element that makes “Super Smash Bros. Melee” stand apart from other games is the speed and technicality required to be successful in tournaments. Wynton “Prog” Smith, a Smash commentator, talked briefly about the speed of “Super Smash Bros. Melee” in a documentary called "The Smash Brothers."

“Players learned how to use wavedashing and other advanced techniques to speed up the game to the point where it basically got ridiculous. Most people figure that we put in about six or seven inputs per second,” Smith said. “It kind of broke the boundaries of what people expected to see in Smash.” 

The Smash scene started off very small. Tournaments were held at people’s houses with 20 or so players in attendance. However, the Smash community eventually grew out of its underground fight club roots and emerged as a major title at major events. 

Major League Gaming (MLG), a competitive video gaming organization, ran “Super Smash Bros. Melee” at their tournaments from 2004 to 2006 with cash prizes. Christopher “PC Chris” Szygiel won $10,000 for winning the MLG championship in Las Vegas in 2006. 

After the MLG championship in Las Vegas, the Smash scene returned to the underground. For a while it looked like that was where it was going to stay—until 2013. 

The Evolution Championship Series, or Evo, is the largest fighting game series in the world. In 2013, Evo staff held a donation drive for breast cancer research. The gaming community that donated the most money would get the last spot in the Evo 2013 lineup. The Smash community won by donating nearly $95,000. 

Joseph "Mango" Marquez after winning Evo 2013

Evo 2013 became one of the largest “Super Smash Bros. Melee” tournaments of all-time with 709 entrants. A year later, Evo 2014 broke that record with 970 entrants. Evo 2015 will take place July 17-19 and is already the biggest tournament of all-time with over 1,000 entrants registered to compete.

In the same Smash Bros. documentary, a tournament organizer, who goes by the gamertag Jv3x3, was interviewed. 

“I think ‘Melee’ is one of the deepest and most intricate games you can ever play competitively,” he said. “Which is crazy for a game made by Nintendo that wasn’t supposed to be competitive with cartoon characters, but it just kind of was like a beautiful accident.”  

At a glance:

• Go to reddit.com to find your local Smash scene
• Go to evo.shoryuken.com to register for Evo 2015
• For more information about the competitive Smash community, go to smashboards.com 
• The Oregon SHFFL  is an upcoming Melee tournament in Eugene, OR. It will take place on June 20,
• NW Battleground  is an upcoming Melee tournament in Des Moines, WA. It will take place on June 13.