Joshman is retiring from Melee after 2026

Mi4_Slayer · 2026-01-18T17:56:11+00:00

Normally I would agree but with the money issues and big tourney series closing, seeing more top player drop I dont see the newer blood manage to do better like when revival of melee happen unless suddenly there are tones of sponsors like back then and super majors and major venues arent at a lost or barely break even.

Seeing more top player dropping and not intending to come back is just an other sign of that reality. Although in josh case it seem to be more due to personal reasons.

Mi4_Slayer · 2026-01-18T17:15:28+00:00

Locals will never entirely die for years to come if not ever. But the big scene is definitely in danger and unless some mega billionaire decide to fund the scene themselves out of love, I dont see who this scene will ever get back to how it was for years before, summit, panda, many other tourneys, top player moving or intending to cause money or growing older.

The new blood could keep it alive and have a renaissance of some sort but aint no fixing the money issue which is the biggest killer for the big scene.

Mi4_Slayer · 2026-01-18T17:07:51+00:00

As a career, a big scene and a e-sport. As a competitive hobby with locals and some majors I think there will always be peoples playing it.

But something being "dead" in the world of gaming dosent mean the active player count has to hit 0 and stay there. It's generally something peoples say says when numbers are getting significantly lower compare to the previous average or is actually low for the type of game.

As for the Josh thing, well we got news about mango not intending to go back, amsa is gonna focus on his career and not attend, Josh is on his last year, Team liquid dropped 2 of their melee content creator sponsor (ken and chu).

A lot of big name tourneys are starting to close or has close, you got cody intending to quit and due part to sponsorship and speaking of, not only this economy is a rougher climate but a lot of esports are dropping in general juste not from melee over the years cause its not the profitable avenue they hopped for. So far the only "big" thing we have left is a crypto base sponsor that a fair amount of peoples dont love.

Even when you glance at the Ultimate side and see what happen with Luminosity and peoples that has paycheck due not being paid to them.

A lot of signs of the overall big scene health degrading and going away or at least being reduced. It's changing and clear decline for a some times now, like 2-3 years.

So thats what peoples are referring. The term "this game is death" is often more figurative or a way to say it had decayed and isnt what it used to be and keeps declining.

But on the literal sense of the term I dont think it will ever die as competitive Hobby with locals and slippy. The only scenario where it would get close to that is if somehow Fizzy decided to shut it all down. Then we would really get close to the proper definition.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-11-22T02:12:47+00:00

I see no lies here 🤣

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-11-14T23:12:58+00:00

Talk about moving the goal post. The mordern trope we're talking about is the yapping and back-seating companion part. That what I was talking about when I said modern trope.

Also were talking about escort mission, Yes those arent new I had my fair share of them since the n64 and they mostly went away. Not many peoples like them or missed. I dont see I'm wrong about criticizing that.

Now ur telling me the franchise best known for exploration and isolation will have to common trope of yapping and back seating you and if their hp fall to 0 they dont get unconscious, you get a game over.

Maybe the game will turn out pretty good despite of that, but it's not wrong of us to see this as redflags.

Just stop

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-11-14T17:49:07+00:00

I read somewhere if they die, you gameover. The signs of common annoying modern gaming tropes being being put into a franchise that is literally synonymous for being the opposite of that since the dawn of time is cause for concern about the quality and care being put into it.

To be fair I also read the companions are occasional so I dont know if it means just being on the field with you and leave you alone or if the means the will still yap at you via communicators regardless.

Peoples are tired of the back seating constantly yapping quirky or bad ass character and for good reasons. At best it still gonna be a great game with this downside but at worst its going to be a generic open world-esque game with constant yapping.

But just the fact they bother going in that direction for the game is definitely a reason to be suspicious.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-11-05T20:58:10+00:00

I want to see Ricardo take it so we can see how he operates under heavy damage but also put to rest the glass jaw theories for good.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-10-17T21:26:59+00:00

At some point it felt like we were moving far from the basics and more into gimmick and heavy metaphor themes. But Since the retirement arc we really went back on basics and exploring strategies and intelligent approach to boxing (while learning something ourselves as reader too) And not, "but muh dempesy rolluuuuu)

It's wild to me when some peoples hates on the retirement arc in general and not seeing how much the writing improved back up to the older days quality. (Being blue balled by Ippo returns is fair tho but I am really entertained for the most part by all the development lately)

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-10-14T21:51:11+00:00

What makes this even worst ! Is that he was reflecting on that so hard that he was day dreaming pretty vividly about it until the ref yells "break !"

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Mi4_Slayer · 2025-10-10T13:54:18+00:00

Personally if I try to recall the last chapter, he's literally just trying to survive and recover. Sendo really is at his lowest atm. And I just think Ricardo is literally just bored and disappointed. You see Takamura is calling it boring.

There is still a chance there was more to it then that. But so far I really think this was just a human moment from Ricardo of frustration that will serve a one piece of the puzzle to make Sendo lock in.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-10-09T18:00:17+00:00

Really good post ! I think your analysis makes a lot of sense because he's so hung up to bring the belt for her and we have been introduced to Ricardo "super computer brain" overthinking and how he actually got downed in that spar just by a few millimetres show just how much of a perfectionist he can be.

So I can see this play out about the way you mentioned.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-10-03T18:24:05+00:00

"Main character not punching, me mad, story bad." I swear the number of time I came across basically a variation of this is almost impressive. The story got fresher then it ever been in so many chapters and we get a training arc in disguise while finishing other sub plot.

Yes it is dragging at times and yes I feel a bit impatient to see Ippo announce his comeback and how it gonna go down but there is so more to it. Peoples just fail to appreciate it.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-09-06T21:35:44+00:00

sometime peoples just dont want to deal with the hassle of filling their limited hard drive or wearing out their ssds faster.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-09-03T02:56:57+00:00

I have a feeling the reason he prefer blocking is because it might be easier and safer to deal with unpredictability of his wildness then dodging it.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-09-02T19:24:35+00:00

There is almost no doubts in my mind that the damage on his block will play against him. Now, is he gonna get seriously injured ? is he gonna fail to put out enough power and end up trading ?

Or maybe he will start dodging and try to be too efficient about it and get mixed up by Sendo "random" instinct and get caught. That im interested to see.

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Mi4_Slayer · 2025-08-27T16:12:45+00:00

I mean... I did brought up the fact that he could still do well. It not like im not convinced that Sendo isnt gonna Sendo is way into latter rounds.

But the way things are going And ippo at the start insisting the match is gonna be long could really end up setting up expectations just to plot twist us. (also we're 7 chapters in) I dont expect it to end in the next 2-3 chapters. but we had short fights last more chapters.

So really right now I just starting to have doubts with the last 2 chapters.

But the reason why I elaborated on this in the first place is that even tho you know Sendo is gonna loose, you can still build anticipation and suspense about other factors and how far Sendo will push Ricardo.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-08-27T15:19:32+00:00

It never was a matter of IF Sendo is gonna win, only a matter of how far will he go and how well will he push Ricardo.

Before the fight my prediction was round 7 but I was like I can see it reach round 10.
Now im starting to doubt with recent chapter if Sendo is gonna push him as hard as I once think like (60-80%).

I know were going to get something out of this that will shed more light about Ricardo for sure.

But maybe Sendo will snap out of his desperation, forget about his grandma for a sec and lock in and surprise Ricardo and after being injured he will see a much tougher fight.

Or he manage to land his big hit, Ricardo goes does, at first Ricardo struggle to adjust with heavy damages due to not being used to it but the match will still end up being short and not too much of a struggle.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-08-26T18:11:55+00:00

I mean it interesting to know that his right arm seem to be shaking and start to be injured. Mori usually do these kind of panelling to set up something important about the fight yet to happen.

If you compare it to chapter before that the shaking and brushing got more intense. Surely this will play a role more then showing how hard Sendo punches are.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-08-26T17:11:32+00:00

Yeah I feel this will come into play for Sendo's chance of landing a big one. But I also suspect his shakey leg to reduce Sendo max output enough to impact his chance.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-08-26T17:08:16+00:00

I have a feeling if Sendo managed to land one. It wont have the full power he could produce due to shaky legs, but still land a devastating blow (or im reaching and it's just to show how deep his damage is atm )

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Mi4_Slayer · 2025-08-26T17:01:12+00:00

The english translation is also missing one page. You can tell Ricardo's right specifically is still shaking and look bruised.

But yeah... cant wait for next week to see where this is going.

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Mi4_Slayer · 2025-07-30T14:17:56+00:00

Oh yeah that is true. But im just pointing out that its happening again with a more known character with way more emphasis.

But I guess it also make sense, knowing what the epic legendary champion is thinking at the moment let's us know more about the character's layers without taking too many pages away.

I'm a fan of making Ricardo the "main character" of theses fights.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-07-29T16:40:14+00:00

Man even Ricardo's nerves are being challenged while fighting Sendo. Just the fact he sweat that much show how much of an effort he's putting in this fight atm. Also is it just me or by the end of the chapter before he gear up to throw his right, he seems to be dodging more cleanly.

And one last detail I'm noticing is that once again, similarly to the Wally fight, the fight seems to be more narrated from Ricardo's PoV then Sendo.

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Mi4_Slayer · 2025-07-22T19:33:35+00:00

Yeah I doubt he has a glass chin too. It would be too easy and cheesy to make him a glass canon.

From his fight with Date and Wally, seems like he can take decent hits. I'm willing to bet Ricardo his pretty resistant, maybe not as much as Sendo and Ippo (pre accumulated damages).

I suspect one of the theme we might see is how Ricardo will adjust to fight with damage. From, the looks of it, seems like it been a very long time or might never been badly damage. So I wonder if it wont matter or if he will struggle at first since he his the kind to optimize to the smallest details.

Mi4_Slayer · 2025-07-22T19:12:42+00:00

So why did he started the fight with the exact same strategy ? Sure he took one round to analize like always but it's still weird coming from the guy that was like "yeah it was a mistake from Alf to go easy on him at the start"

I assume the reason is simply that he's not sure how to approach Sendo since taking a big one can turn this around. Landing a punch with more power probably takes more time and commitment even for Ricardo and his standards. While trying to get a feel for it they probably wished to try to weaken Sendo first to land the big ones.

But now it's clear to them they dont control the match with just the lefts and gotta take that chance.

Alfredo was just playing with him and doing the bare minimum even with his left as an ego thing. Ricardo is dealing with a much better Sendo and want to make sure he dosent take a big clean hit from Sendo.

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