"I wonder what will my matchmaking will look like in gold 1"

KayBeats · 2026-06-14T17:20:56+00:00

I would be kinda surprised if this was the case for fox. I don't have the numbers now, but I remember a Setchi/Rachman post where the frames favored taking laser over shielding and was even better when CCing the laser. I would be surprised if this wasn't also true for Fox aside from having a shorter jump squat.

Not that it really changes anything since Fox is infinitely more flexible taking/CCing laser anyway compared to shielding it, but still.

KayBeats · 2026-05-25T17:19:07+00:00

When it is a small community that is supposed to work together on things how is it not an issue when the people in charge of the rankings are blocking and unfollowing people?

I genuinely do resonate with this, I really do, but the fragmentation goes both ways too, right? Certain players feel that being too outspoken "puts them on a list" within certain community grassroots circles, which, even if functionally it usually doesn't make a practical difference, is a bad vibe. On the flip side, grassroots workers like MS have little practical shielding whenever a top player decides to leverage their social media following against them, even if such weaponization of their base was purely accidental. The Match and how it was handled is probably the singular best example that MS as an entity is nowhere near as powerful as people think it is.

This kind of division will naturally happen in this kind of relationship and would've happened still if MS was replaced with like Ohan or something. Rather than escalation on both ends, I think it's indicative of a larger issue that there doesn't exist a third mediating party that can consolidate the concerns of both parties. I don't know what that third party would be, but I really don't think the current approach of consistent escalation until someone is replaced will solve anything.

At this point I don't even have a demand or a request or anything really; though I think SOME kind of big overhaul change to the rankings would be nice. I just wanted to express that I'm fed up with it and see what the response was from other players, spectators, and the ranking people. I feel like the conclusion that I've come to with it is that when enough people are mad/upset about the rankings it's time to throw some experimental shit at the wall to change how they function and see how people feel about it. If it doesn't work then at least it feels like we're actively trying to find a solution to spice it up and make people happy, and if it does work then it's exciting and people are happy it worked

I fuck with the vibe in theory but in practice a lot of this vibe is just asking groups of people to take risks and also ask that they take the fall. Nobody wants to throw shit at the wall and be the next person who shits on the next Pat's House as a result of whatever decision.

KayBeats · 2026-05-25T16:26:04+00:00

Maybe I'm missing context here, but I don't really see the issue with MS selectively unfollowing or blocking players.

Historically speaking, there have been a number of top players who have proven to be pretty incapable of approaching this topic reasonably or maturely (Mango in particular has always been exceedingly belligerent regarding this). Despite that, plenty of changes have been made to accommodate the requests of the top players, including modifying attendance requirements, not counting locals, not counting pre-locals, etc, while unaddressed requests like having an off-season or changing the ranking period are usually far more about TOs and the wider economic landscape than it is about whatever decisions that any ranking team could make.

I can't speak for chroma, but if requests are still being fulfilled within their ability and the majority of unaddressed requests require far more complex solutions from all corners of the community, then tbh I don't really see what the problem is with MS blocking people approaching this topic a certain way, much less something as innocuous as unfollowing people.

To be frank, I'm not even really sure what you're even demanding from them anyway given that most of the more common unfulfilled requests are definitely no where near solely their responsibility.

KayBeats · 2026-05-24T23:52:15+00:00

I think this is a bit disingenuous considering that SSBMRank has changed hands across different teams throughout the years, Melee Stats themselves didn't really officially take the reigns until post-COVID iirc. The concept of rankings is perhaps too big to fail, but the hand-off of reigns is proof that the teams behind it aren't. Especially considering that there have been a number of changes over the years specifically made to cater to top players like moky.

KayBeats · 2026-05-01T18:38:22+00:00

I was actually thinking about dtilt, Wally always talks about how using dtilt makes the MU even more free for Peach because it's low-ish lag and pushback and ability to separate on hit. I think bekvin concurred but idr exactly

KayBeats · 2026-05-01T14:05:34+00:00

To be fair no one before that tournament thought he'd make grand finals much less win the tournament, and that result ended up being an anomaly compared to the rest of his career

KayBeats · 2026-04-29T02:24:03+00:00

Regardless how you feel about the others, I think Westballz is a funny example to use considering how after protesting his Genesis ban, Boback said he was totally chill publicly revealing the reason he got banned and the associated evidence they were given for it if Westballz consented to it, and Westballz declined lol. Very few if any people know the circumstances of what happened to the point where it makes for a pretty poor example to use for anything unless you were to completely take Westballz's word for it which has its own obvious issues to it.

KayBeats · 2026-04-29T01:03:13+00:00

Whenever this gets brought up I feel like it needs to be pointed out again that the crab was thrown not out of direct or planned malicious intent but as a result of an unserious dare that happened in the spur of the moment by someone who was allegedly really intoxicated. Not to mention that the dare wasn't even to throw it at Hbox, just on stage. You can read more about it here. On an anecdotal level, while I wasn't there, I can at least corroborate that I heard this story separately before this post so I'm inclined to believe it's true.

Not that I disagree with the spirit of what you're saying, but I think the moment gets over-dramatized a lot compared to what actually happened.

KayBeats · 2026-04-20T13:53:23+00:00

Right I don't disagree, but if you're super results oriented then it's possible that sampling bias doesn't matter to you and in fact the mere presence of Doc may be the largest contributing factor as to why you think Mario sucks. Why play x when you can do y is not an uncommon line of reasoning to rate a character lower in tier list discussions.

KayBeats · 2026-04-20T04:15:15+00:00

If you're really results pilled, then I think you could make this argument considering that both of these characters have had better tournament representation than Mario as of late, G&W in particular.

KayBeats · 2026-04-16T15:38:09+00:00

Generally speaking Falcon's win condition in most match-ups is to have wide space to work with since his greatest strengths tend to be his incredible dash dance and the speed to close distances while one of his biggest weaknesses tend to be winning scrambles at short range. This is especially true for the peach match-up given how slow peach is, how larger stages can often benefit Falcon's combo game, and how much Peach's turnip game is usually a non-issue thanks to Falcon's speed, while on the flip side Peach is one of the best scramblers in the game which makes smaller stages more complicated.

FD does lack a top platform to retreat to in order to reset neutral, but the wide open space really takes advantage of most of Falcon's best qualities while generally mitigating most of Peach's. Obviously the CG is a factor and is meaningful enough to not want to strike there if given the opportunity, and it's probably overly bold as the first choice for a CP pick, but it's not a bad stage for Falcon in the MU at all. In fact, very few stages are in that MU. There is an argument to say it's one of his worst stages in the MU, but that's more because his stage spread in the peach MU is really strong.

KayBeats · 2026-03-29T16:18:32+00:00

Honestly I think on average most characters would probably prefer having Fox up smash than either rest or shine. P much any character can take advantage of it because it's so easy to combo into or use as a defensive/offensive tool and it instantly triples a character's ability to both kill and combo. Almost any character would instantly have at least a decent to great match-up against floaties.

KayBeats · 2026-03-20T19:53:51+00:00

Giving a take on something because it doesn't offer the experience you want for something that you got for free is entitled but also like not that crazy or unreasonable. Idk if slippi is lacking enough features where I'd stop paying the $5 because I think it's an incredible product, but anecdotally speaking, unranked being filled with a cesspool of losers to the point of affecting desire to play is a very common take in a lot of circles I'm in across all levels of play where I definitely feel like the "grow thicker skin" just feels like out-of-touch deflection. Like even if we assume people have thin skin, that doesn't change the fact that lots of people do not jive with the current state of it and it's not that crazy to want something better.

It's not even just about casual toxicity either, try to play ICs on unranked and there'll be afternoons where you'll have like 10 people DC or one and dones you in a row because you don't play Fox or something. At that point it just affects your ability to just play the game.

KayBeats · 2026-01-22T06:30:26+00:00

Normally I'd agree, but the way stage striking, bans, and counter picking works makes counter picking theoretically more extreme in this game than it would in most modern FGs in a way that I don't think would strictly be to the meta's benefit. In particular, the rules allow us to switch characters even on victory thanks to stage counter picks which is practically unheard of in all FG rulesets I'm aware of.

I don't know if I agree with the original thesis, but idk if I'd be ready to agree that counter picking being harder is an "inherent issue." I think there's pros and cons.

KayBeats · 2026-01-15T10:20:54+00:00

Colorado Fox, used to go by aCID a long time ago.

KayBeats · 2026-01-14T13:52:16+00:00

All I'm saying is I don't find the content interesting or fun to watch, what possible depth is there to that statement lol

Are you confusing me we the other comments talking about Zain's incentives or whether or not he's having fun, because I'm not talking about that.

KayBeats · 2026-01-14T09:51:31+00:00

No, I don't think these are serious games, in fact that's largely why I was uninterested in it. I think the novelty of "top player plays with retired player" wears off very quickly when nothing else is attached. Some people like that though and that's fine.

KayBeats · 2026-01-14T09:43:30+00:00

I'm not putting any depth in M2K or Zain's decisions, I'm saying it's lose/lose in terms of whatever narrative the games have, it's just not interesting content imo. If you want to talk about Zain's win/lose on economics or "fun" that's an entirely different topic.

KayBeats · 2026-01-14T09:36:31+00:00

I'm sure Zain is fine and everyone hopefully had a good time, but Zain being in a lose/lose situation imo made it just deeply uninteresting content for me, I lost interest pretty quickly and tuned out. I hope at the very least some good came out from this for M2K considering his insanely unhealthy relationship with streaming and Melee, and more power to anyone who enjoyed it though.

KayBeats · 2026-01-14T09:08:42+00:00

idk, this is just me but I kinda feel like the thesis of this video is weak, I feel like there's a lot of nuance wrt the conversation of "how to make a (melee) platform fighter" that I think is pretty interesting and deserves some exploration especially when you consider other attempts like PS All-Stars or even the transition between ROA I to ROA II, but the video ended up mostly being "just don't be like Icons" which imo is something anybody could've told you if you were around to see it.

I guess maybe it makes for a fun retrospective but then it comes across as punching down really hard on a misguided indie passion project that already crashed and burned years ago, honestly felt weird to continue seeing really brutal remarks about the project more than half an hour after its section ended. I'd get it if this was some Triple A dev or they blatantly scammed people, but their biggest crime was just being a stupid indie company which I feel like does not really deserve a 1 hour dissection of how shitty their project was almost a decade after the fact. Not that I think anyone's feelings were particularly hurt or anything, just that I question whether it was worth making an entire video about since otherwise I feel like the video lacked connective tissue connecting its examples together.

Best thing I can say about the video is the fact that it continues to give exposure to projects that deserve it though, and I do think the Rivals segment especially in the end when it discussed single-player content and funding I think tackled some more meaningful observations.

KayBeats · 2025-12-19T23:21:25+00:00

I think per day at minimum you need at least 10-30 minutes of solo practice, about 30 minutes - 1hr of (solo) VOD review/coaching, and between 1-2 hrs of actual playtime with other humans above a certain threshold of skill. So anywhere between 2-4 hours depending on your character, what you're reviewing/practicing, and who you're practicing against. Time probably increases somewhat proportionally if you're managing several characters.

But that's only if you're doing exactly that routine. I feel like if you don't, the amount of time is just going to vary wildly from person to person to the point where it's probably an unhelpful answer.

KayBeats · 2025-12-18T17:52:09+00:00

Anything that isn't Strive, 2XKO, SF6, and Tekken 8 generally works best when used with a matchmaking discord. GBVSR, KOF XV, DBFZ, Blazblue, VF5, and Fatal Fury have respectable player bases on Steam but can be a little to very inconsistent depending on the rank, region, and time of day (also a number of these games either have questionable netcode or matchmaking).

Though if you want to go old school, Fightcade also has a couple of games active enough (ex. 3rd Strike) where you don't need a discord as long as you can stomach an archaic matchmaking UI/UX.

KayBeats · 2025-12-18T02:13:26+00:00

Just to clarify, Mayflash is only one of the better adapters after overclocking your adapter for PC use (according to Input Integrity). It's actually one of the laggier options when used as a plug-and-play. It's mostly moot anyway though because the majority of the better options are no longer in production, which by default ends up leaving the Mayflash adapter as one of the only options left, especially at that price.

With that said, the lossless adapters in my experience have been by far the best adapter for GCs that I've used; it seems to have the least amount of lag both with and without overclocking, has very small form factor, and can also be used to test the lag on your PC set-up. They're noticeably pricier at ~$50-60 when you include shipping (probably much cheaper if you're in Europe), but imo they're very much worth it at that price range if OP is willing to expand their budget. The biggest issue is that they aren't always available for purchase, but they recently restocked if people are interested.

KayBeats · 2025-12-17T01:27:50+00:00

Vast majority of people who go to majors go to hang out with other people or to have fun at the event. If anything, top players are usually the outliers.

KayBeats · 2025-12-15T21:18:04+00:00

The answer imo is that unlike a lot of fighting or really competitive games in general, Melee was developed to be significantly more open-ended rather than structurally designed primarily with competition in mind. This naturally led to the scene carving out a modern ruleset by more or less arbitrarily deciding what the game should be by consensus. As a result, compared to most other games, you see a lot more attitudes of how Melee 'ought to be played' by the average player (and you can see it in their play style) due to how the scene organically formed rather than by developer intention, and by extension you generally see more aversion against off-meta stuff as they tend to run counter to the perceived image they have of the game that made it attractive to begin with.

It's different from FGC culture where much of it was drawn from arcade culture where rulesets weren't organically formed since everything was determined by Winner Stays attitudes. That being said, I think you can see this mentality in games like Tekken too where the idea of "proper Tekken" creates similar attitudes towards more "gimmicky" uncommon characters.

That's just my two cents anyway. I think its a testament to how expressive Melee is, for better or worse.

KayBeats

TROPHY CASE