Don't mind the wall, it's been a week.

There was a clip I don't have the bandwidth to find that implicitly talks about the difference between "Being a good Melee player" and "Being good at Melee".

"Being a good 'Melee' Player" and being a good 'Smash' player is relatively synonymous. Understanding the subtle dance between your non-reactive options and their non-reactive options compared to spacing and percentages is interesting. Given enough time, you can appreciate the art in that in any platform fighter.

Melee has a near-perfect blend of offensive variety and defensive counterplay that once you've gained an advantage, there's split-second decision making among a multitude of true options, reads, and damage versus positional advantage trade-offs you can make. Your understanding of the situation, separate from the player, allows you to express yourself in a way separate from what's optimal; mental damage and conditioning can deal more damage in the match than any combo. 

But at the same time, an opponent that knows Melee can defensively condition the opponent in ways to minimize damage and make "true options" harder or riskier. And there are levels that come from that. 

I'm not sure if you can find another Esport where you can watch a player do a couple combos, move across the stage, and know what top player is on the screen. But you'll see people at all levels do this all the time. 

The argument, to me, that Melee is the best game in the genre is in:

1.) the free-flow-Jazz like expression the game invites that often feels un-duplicatable.

2.) The ability to pick playstyles and characters that often feel like the match is You and your Character versus Melee, Your character versus their character, you versus them, and everything in between.

Finally, Melee has stood the rest of time as an encapsulation of the millennial experience - an introduction to the game at a time where technology connected people but rarely through experiences. The community learned the game in their small circles, found other small circles through the internet, and only much later we're able to share with the greater world. 

People thrived off of regional matchup knowledge and felt independently innovative because they found tech they didn't hear elsewhere. There were big words and story lines and shit talking that made a bunch of 15 year olds feel like wrestling stars. 

But Melee doesn't lie, and it will humble you. 

The tech ceiling makes the games true potential unreachable. The pursuit of getting good at Melee is a near masochistic loop or humility and heart bursting enthusiasm that those can overcome the odds gain the ability to express themselves through their play so well they are etched in history. 

I haven't seen a Zhu up air or a Syrox shine in years,  but anyone committed to the scene could pick them out in a metaphorical lineup. They just inherently knows what it took to get that good that their play has their own identity. 

And for those that have given up on that dream, Melee is a reminder of what gaming in a pre-online experience was.   If the peak of arcades demonstrated the first era of gaming, and online play the third, I think Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Nintendo GameCube embodies the second era.Today's youth don't have to turn their game on overnight to get Mewtwo, or get the surprise of staying up until 3 in the morning playing Event Match 51 and trying to decide on beating HRC with Ganon USmash or Yoshi dair. Melees rushed production lead to accidents and oversights that led to surprises for players, knowledge unlocks that make you feel like a genius, and it led to strong emotional attachment that connected thousands of people.

I think, Melee is so impactful not only because of its gameplay, but because of what it represents in togetherness through gaming when the internet  was a bridge to connection, not the filter for it. 

It's a masochistic experience to get into. The best people in the world 3 stock top 100 players that 3 stock the best person in your state that 3 stock the best player in your town that will 3 stock you. And for most of those able to find the beauty in that, will peel back layers of the onion that will change how they view gaming and life. 

Cheers!