What does a main mean to you?

[mistermews]

Interesting question, I guess!
My thought process has already been laid out, but I'd like to share it anyways, regardless.

To me, "mains" are the epitome of your bond with a character. To "main" a character is to put them foremost, utmost and above all other characters. How, is up to you. I don't believe there is a specific way to "Main" a character, or if manning several characters as your Main is a bad or good thing.

As I am among fellow smashers, it's fine to mention characters in a non-objectified way.
People usually mark mains in a multiple number of ways;

1. Your favourite character, simply.
2. A group of favourite characters.
3. A character that is not necessarily your favourite or share a connection with, but you play the most efficient with him/her.
4. Several characters that you can equally use competitively.
5. A term that denotes the whole "maining" system; refers to your top mains, secondaries and playabouts.
6. Characters that you share a bond with through dedication, love for their game, and possessing a playstyle that suits you perfectly.
7. Any character with high usage by you.
8. All of the above, or etc.

That's pretty just much scratching the surface.
As the question is "What does a main mean to YOU?", here's the opinion that was slightly aforementioned earlier on.

Maining a character is completely singular. In my opinion, it's not perfectly ideal to take on several mains. I said before that you should treat this character above all others. You need to share a connection, a bond, a trust in them that may or may not affect your game. There has to be that one character; even if you main the whole roster/random, there will always be one for you. It's one thing I love about each Smash instalment, as new characters are added, new playstyles become more and more obvious, letting more and more people invest time to find a character, and in the case of Smash 4, it has the most unique fighters IMO ever, completely trashing my favourite Brawl lineup (Falco, Olimar, Peach) and replacing them with almost ALL newcomers (Wii Fit Trainer, Rosaluma, Lucario etc.) It doesn't even matter if you played their game or not!

Simply, choosing a character to be your main doesn't depend on if they're your favourite, or if you play well with them, but what really matters if you trust them, feel a connection with them, that feels real. You need to LIKE him/her! You want to know that this character is yours, and you are his/hers, because that will really, trust me, affect how you play. It's not any small decision. I really think that people should be more motivated to try the whole roster, and SSB4 is doing a great job of that. It's so diverse! Besides, older games were also very diverse with rosters, but with second thought, mayyybe not Melee IMO?
It won't matter! Mains are universal.

is my main. I wouldn't have it any other way. I can play with but in the end, I will never feel the Pokemon-trainer, unidentifiable, but very, very real friendship we could have. It takes bravery to choose one above all;

To belong, in life, video games, etc. is one of the most desired things a man could ask of.
And in Smash, regardless, it's the best feeling in the world to own one...

 

[Grass]

main is just the best character I use. I look for consistency, combo possibilities, and weigh various variables before I make a decision, or I just pick up Mario and not care.

 

[Ryan.]

For me it is the character you enjoy the most, spend the most time playing with, and are the best at. If you have more than one, I don't see what's wrong with that. Not everyone has to devote most of their time to just one character and then have secondaries. Right now I consider Villager my main and also Zelda., for now. My secondaries would be Bowser Jr., Link, and Pit. These are just the characters I feel like I fight best with and have played the most.

 

[Grass]

For me it is the character you enjoy the most, spend the most time playing with, and are the best at. If you have more than one, I don't see what's wrong with that. Not everyone has to devote most of their time to just one character and then have secondaries. Right now I consider Villager my main and also Bowser Jr., for now. My secondaries would be Zelda, Robin, and Pit. These are just the characters I feel like I fight best with and have played the most.

I haven't played a good villager in forever. :O

 

[Ryan.]

I haven't played a good villager in forever. :O

I would probably not be much of a different case lol. I'm definitely still learning, haven't had enough time to play.

 

[Grass]

I would probably not be much of a different case lol. I'm definitely still learning, haven't had enough time to play.

get a feel for your character vs. Lvl 9's then go online to test your mettle. It's how I gauge my skill.

 

[OnettGirl]

I'm kinda someone who believes in the philosophy that you don't pick the main, the main picks you. Mainly because of the story of how Pit became my main in Brawl. I didn't want him to be my main at first, I wanted my main to be Kirby, Pikachu, Ness or Link. So I kept trying with them for about a year, failing at different tourneys and friendlies until my best friend and sparing buddy at the time [who was and still is Ganondorf/Jiggs main] told me "you know you were a lot better and more fun to fight when you used Pit" [I remember those words vividly because they left a rather huge impact on me for some reason]. It was almost as if I had a eureka moment and I never went back. The more I fought with Pit the more I felt connected to my character. And I believe that is the most important thing to have when it comes time to choose a main. To have a connection with your character.

I've been playing around with a lot of characters to try and see if one sticks but i'm not really "good" with any of them. I kinda suck at this game right now though I want to get better. I want to find one who really clicks with me but I have yet to find him or her, and that might just be because i'm playing online agains people who are worse than me that I know I can beat [even though I still loose to dumb spammy tactics that are completely readable...kinda makes me feel like a looser]. Sadly we moved across country so it's hard to set up times to fight with my old sparring buddy and even then it's not the same as playing in the same room.

If I had my way...

Main: /
Secondaries: , , [blu team go]

But alas I don't have my way yet. I need to play more and against better people who actually know what their doing to get a hold on who i'm good at. Either better people online who I can actually talk to while i'm battling and figure out what i'm doing wrong, or in a local setting [but the closest weekly tournaments are an hour or more away from me.]

Currently though the characters i'm messing around with are:
/, , , , , , , , , , , ,

There's a main buried somewhere in this roster. I just need to find them. And who knows, maybe i'm over thinking it again and my main is right in front of my face. Only time will tell.

 

[Grass]

Main: /
Secondaries: , , [blu team go]

But alas I don't have my way yet. I need to play more and against better people who actually know what their doing to get a hold on who i'm good at. Either better people online who I can actually talk to while i'm battling and figure out what i'm doing wrong, or in a local setting [but the closest weekly tournaments are an hour or more away from me..

Props to marth players, mains or secondaries. Marth is ass in Smash 4 though. QQ

 

[KurashiDragon]

A very interesting question. I personally feel you cant answer that question with a straight up answer. There are multiple factors that go into what constitutes a main and in my opinion, you can have multiple mains. There are 3 factors that go into determining a main. These are:

1. The character you're best at.
2. The character you like using the most.
3. The character you use the most.

The thing about those factors is that they don't need to come together. You can have a character for each of those options. For instance is the character I like using the most but is the character I'm best at but is the character I use the most at this moment. However all these factors can come together. In brawl, was the character I was best at, that I liked using, and that I used the most. Sure I tried out lots of characters but it always came back to him.

In the end though, there's no true way to have a main other than to play the character you want to play as.

 

[Dan]

I've kind of gotten out of the mindset of having a main lately. I just play with whoever I'm feeling at that moment. I don't want to limit myself.

In Melee/PM and 3DS/Wii U I did kind of naturally find mains in both Marth and Little Mac respectively. My advice would be to not force yourself into the idea of thinking you have to 'main' a character. It should come naturally. Just play the game and choose who ever you want to play as and maybe, just maybe you'll find a 'main'.

 

[Grass]

I've kind of gotten out of the mindset of having a main lately. I just play with whoever I'm feeling at that moment. I don't want to limit myself.

In Melee/PM and 3DS/Wii U I did kind of naturally find mains in both Marth and Little Mac respectively. My advice would be to not force yourself into the idea of thinking you have to 'main' a character. It should come naturally. Just play the game and choose who ever you want to play as and maybe, just maybe you'll find a 'main'.

dude that is deep. lol

 

[Namefound]

For me, my two best smashers are and . I'll be honest with you, I like to think of Ness as my secret weapon, I'm pretty good with him, you know? and Used to also be mains, but I moved them to secondary. Anyone can be a main if you make the effort to master said character. I feel that Mains technically represent you as a smasher in-game, a mascot of sorts.

 

[palkia19]

Someone you are most comfortable with.

 

[McCrit]

I think a "main" is someone you are sufficiently lethal as and enjoy playing. I think you can have one or two mains and as many playabouts/secondaries as you'd like. I think peopled who claim to have 3+ mains don't really have a main and that's totally acceptable.

Main:


Playabouts:
:4zerosuitsamus: :miigunner:

 

[Ness Gymrae]

To me, a main is just a character that you are the most comfortable with of using. a main is just one character while the rest of the characters you like to play as sometimes can be secondaries

 

[HeavyMetalSonic]

To me, a main is someone I'm comfortable with, and you can deal with the majority of the cast sufficiently well. Someone who you can apply as much knowledge you know about them into real, competitive matches without having to think about it. Someone who you can pick up the controller with and just think "Yeah... This feels right. This works". Someone who makes you smirk when you get an insane kill or comeback. Someone fun.

That's how I feel anyway. That's why I main Sonic in both Smash 4 and Brawl, as well as Snake in Brawl (DACUS is SO much fun to use as well as controlling the entire stage with all his gadgets at his disposal). Their playstyles just flow perfectly with me. I don't need to think what I'm gonna do next, I just do it. If I wanna run in and batter someone, I can. If I want to take a backseat and observe someone until I'm comfortable to approach, I can.

As you can see in my signature, I like and can use a lot of the characters pretty well, even those in the "Learn/improve" section. But I feel so comfortable with Sonic. I love using Falcon too, I switched to him for a bit, but I'll always main Sonic I think.

 

[ZarroTsu]

I think of a main as a character where everything 'clicks'. Where the moves come out at the speed you want, and the options you resort to as a growing player are options you can continue resorting to instead of being discouraged.

Of course, I've had a lot of trouble actually deciding on a character to really focus on, since there's several that "come close to" clicking. It really requires trying all the characters out, even the ones you don't like.

 

[TimeChain]

For me, a main is a character(s) in a fighting game that you feel the most comfortable and/or most dedicated to mastering compared to other characters in the fighting game roster.

As for my mains, I mostly main in all the games, but I love trying out different characters and getting good at all of them!
Other Mains:

 

[Creede]

All a main is is the character you play the most. I love sheik for who she is as a character (although I wish she was represented slightly closer to how she is in OOT or even Hyrule Warriors. Deku Nuts or a Magic Harp would be amazing), and all her options that Nintendo decided to give her this version of Smash.

A main does tell a lot about who someone is. Competitively, if you see a Diddy, they're playing to win, despite how much fun Diddy is to play. Same goes with Rosalina, super fun to play as and really good. Sheik is a different story. Yes, she's good, and at her max she may even be overpowered, but it takes a special type of player to decide to master Sheik. She is an incredibly complex character and it makes each game even more so like a strategy game than with any other character.

However, it can get even deeper with low/mid tier mains. Either they really want to make Smash 4 challenging by playing a character with few options, or they just love that character. I personally think if Toon Link played more up close and was just better overall, I would never play anyone else because of nostalgia. Wind Waker was my first game I ever played, and to this day it is my favorite. So for me, it's a balance between who I love and who I love playing, which in the end it boils down to Sheik.

 

[Iceweasel]

To me, you can only have 1 main. It's the character you use the most. I play Fox, Falcon, Lucina, Ness, and Ganondorf. Only my Falcon and Lucina are worth mentioning, but my Falcon is far better than my Lucina because I use him so much more. Thus, Captain Falcon is my main, with my alts being Lucina, Ness, Fox, and Dorf.

 

[Dre89]

A main isn't just a character you like playing. It's a character you play a disproportionately amount more to the rest of the cast. That's why you can't have 13 mains, because they're not mains anymore. If you play them all equally then you simply don't have a main.

 

[BlueShadow.EXE]

I was lead to believe that you only had a single main, and then a secondary.

Yeah, I'm the same.

 

[Trieste SP]

To me 'mains' means characters that I personally use competitively. I don't have only have one main.

 

[pikadrewuniverse]

In my opinion a, "main" is anyone that either you are best with, or training to become the best with. Simple as that.

 

[MapleWooD]

A main is like your left nut

 

[COLINBG]

I always thought a main was:
1. The character you put the most effort into mastering.
2. The character you like to play the most.
3. The character you play the most.
4. The character with whom you win the most reliably.
Usually, when people have a main, the character fulfills these 4 points. When one point is lacking, I hardly consider it a main anymore.

You also can't have more than one main. Because that's the concept of a main: you only have one. It's the very essence of it. As soon as someone mentions having more than one main, to me that means they don't have any. If they're not sure who their main is either, they don't have one. It should be really clear who your main is. You can from time to time play different characters, and use a character a little more in certain very bad MUs, but the main should be the one you go to in a great majority of your matches.

Not having a main is not always a bad thing; it's very possible, and having one is in no way necessary. Honestly, a lot of people don't have one. I don't consider myself to have any. My profile says I main Villager, but that's really because he's the one I played the most with, and I did not want to leave that space blank, that's it.

Also, not having a main doesn't mean you won't do well in the game. It can actually help in some ways. You don't have that one character that you're absolutely amazing with and know his every options by heart, instead you'll have a panoply of characters that you're very good with, possibly at a tournament level with many of them. You'll also be more aware of your MUs, and have less problems facing the characters you play because you'll know them well.

The two characters I use the most are and , but I'm also very comfortable with , , , and . I don't main any of them, but I'm very confident in myself when I'm playing one of these six characters. And I can do relatively well with , , , , , , , , and if I have to use them for whatever reason. So yeah, I don't think having a main is that important. If you want to place top 1 in BIG tournaments or play at a top competitive level for money, it might be necessary, but for the vast majority of competitive players I don't think it is. And even then, you see a lot of top players using different characters in a top level, highly competitive environment. The number of people who actually have a main is probably much less than we think it is.

I know many won't agree with me on this subject, but that's what a main means to me.

 

[ELITEWarri0r115]

To me, A main is someone you are most comfortable with, and that you love using in matches

 

[Lus146]

Not criticizing but the thing is that Smash is a game unlike other games, ie. League of Legends, where you should feel comfortable with any character. There isn't a whole lot to do with matchups and it is rather based off skill and knowledge of the game. That is just what I think so personally I prefer 1 main and one secondary. But I still play a ton of characters for fun

 

[Fluorescent]

What a main means to me is a character you truly know all the in's and out's, mechanics, counters, advantages, disadvantage, strategies, etc. However I don't limit how much characters you can main, so in my sense I could have a few characters I would consider as my main(s).

While I don't have a lot of main's in my play (my two: ) I can still have more if I decide to invest time in learning my in's and out's of a character.

 

[Purin a.k.a. José]

It means that I play a character more then others, that I can play better with it and have more fun!

 

[Pepto_Bismol]

I'd argue that a main would mean your go-to character, the be-all end-all kind of thing. As such it would be acceptable to have multiple mains or just one.

 

[Deleted member]

To me a main is a character that you feel you can use viably in competitive play. For me they would be:
(R.I.P.)
A secondary is a character that you aren't as good with but working on them. For me they would be:

A playabout is a character you aren't that good with but still enjoy using or are good with but don't use often For me they would be:

 

[Honest]

I would define a main as the character you have spent the most time refining and therefore would most likely be your best character and the character you would generally pick. I think that there also has to be a certain amount of pride for your main, you have to be somewhat happy with your choice. I also agree with the idea that you can really only have one main, and that a main is a reflection of your playstyle and personality generally.

 

[fez4321]

I also disagree with the notion of having many mains. I've learned how to play quite a few characters well, but I feel your main should be the one with which you are the most comfortable.
The way I see it is that your main is the character that you would use if challenged to a money match (assuming you knew nothing about your opponent).

 

[SmasherP83]

I don't really have a "main" but my status says otherwise but I like to play as every character I don't know why I've never liked having to have to limit what characters I play cause I like playing as them over rest of the cast.

 

[Goolloom]

To me, my main is the one character I like using the most and that I am the best with, it's that one character that I spend the most time on to get better and better, refining techniques and learning the matchups for that character in particular. My main in that case is

My secondaries, are the characters that I like to play, not as much as my main, but I still do pretty well and improving with them. Right there my secondaries would be , and

Then my ''other'' characters are the ones I pick when I'm just messing around. I know the basics, but I don't spend that much time on learning their techniques and such. My other character are ,,,and