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2015 VS 2017 Meta

A Scrub

BonghornLeghorn
Joined
Mar 28, 2017
Messages
159
Location
Western Canada
NNID
BonghornLeghorn
Hi all,

I was watching some videos of ZeRo, M2K, Dabuz, etc. during the early 2015 season of tournaments. It's amazing to see how far the meta has evolved. A couple things I noticed, and would like to point out for discussion. Keep in mind I only got into competitive Smash around May 2016. So the final patch had dropped, DLC was all out, and the meta had some time to stabilize after 1.1.5. And all this early stuff was brand new to me.

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind I'm am merely a mid-level Smasher, and these opinions likely reflect the views of someone of my caliber.

Gameplay speed is the first thing that stuck out. With the changes in the way shielding works, it encouraged more aggression. The matches were quite a bit slower, closer to the pace of Brawl. The tech skill of the players has also gotten better, making the matches more interesting.

We've also seen a huge increase if variety of characters performing well at tournaments. This is both due to the nerfs Diddy, Shiek, ZSS, and other top tiers have received, in addition to the buffs that characters like Marth, Ike, Samus, and others over time. We've seen the meta's for many characters evolve into the most efficient combos that they can pull off, and counter strategies to high-tier tactics. The nerfs, buffs, and meta development has allowed much more of the cast to be seen in high level play than we've seen in prior games Melee and Brawl.

Finally we come down to combos. This is one thing that sets Smash 4 apart from Brawl or Melee in my opinion. While a large portion of the cast has combos that are guaranteed at low to mid percents, as you start getting up in percent it becomes a game of reads and tech chasing. Some characters have either kill confirms or throws, and most have a 50/50 that works at certain percents. What this shows in the intellectual skill of the player, rather than the executional skill. This isn't to downplay the executional part of the game either, it's very important. But there is such a depth, complexity, of getting your KO's, rather than a demonstration of the the execution, which to me is more of what Melee is about.

In summary, what we have seen is a game that has gotten faster in pace, and takes a different sort of mental and technical skill than what was was required in Melee, and made it fun to watch. Brawl was their first attempt at this, and it failed, but Smash 4 was able to take the positives and cut most of the negatives, giving us a very different, but competitively viable, platform fighting game. I can't wait to see what happens in 2017 and beyond.
 
Last edited:

eggsplosiveguy

Smash Rookie
Joined
Mar 8, 2017
Messages
14
If I had to describe the biggest change we´ve seen since 2015 to now would be a single thing: Smash has gotten more Fun.
Let me explain. You see matches like Apex 2015 Grand Finals ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12vAUFA8O2E ) and, its not particularly fun to watch. Hoo hah here, hoo hah there. It really seems like the Melee waiting room. Not saying there are boring sets on the pre patch days. Anti vs ZeRo on BH5, Anti vs Abadango on BH5, Esam vs ZeRo on BH5 (Yeah I know, lots of BH5), ZeRo vs Nairo on MLG WF come to my head.

But post patch are generally way better sets. ZeRo vs Tsu at Frostbite, ZeRo vs Ally at G4, Fatality´s run at Civil War, Esam vs Ally at Civil War, Ally vs ZeRo Smash n Splash 2, ZeRo vs Ned last week at Midwest Mayhem 8 (as well as ZeRo vs Locus that same tournament), Nairo vs Void at Abadango Saga, Leo vs Larry Lurr at ZeRo Saga, Nairo vs Mr. E at UGC, Anti vs Zinoto at CEO, Void vs Kameme at EVO, Komorikiri vs Captain Zack at G4, and many others. May have missed some, but I have to say, it seems every tournament now has at least one nailbiter. That´s amazing.

I really like where smash is now. Patches allow more character diversity (Lucario, Falcon, Link, DK, Bowser, etc..) have given us some of the most exciting moments in our game history. None of these characters are top tier. Characters are also more well developed. For instance, its arguable that Diddy and Sheik carried ZeRo (I don´t really agree with that). But now ZeRo has developed Diddy´s meta. He has perfected combos, mix-ups, and kill confirms. The removal of broken stuff has made characters such as Diddy, Sheik, Luigi, among others, more less one-dimensional and more fun to see.

Also, something really important I´d like to point. The stories of smash are better developed. Before, the most important story was ZeRo being undefeated, and who´ll finally defeat him at tournament. Not so exciting. Now we have stories like Leo´s callouts on ZeRo and his coming to the US, Ally vs ZeRo and the whole Civil War, etc. It seems like games need stories to maintain themselves exciting, to have something on the line that isn´t money. I can safely say, Smash 4 has them.

Not to be forgotten, new players have risen since then. Most notably, I´ll say, MK Leo, Elegant, Locus, Captain Zack Fatality, and of course, the japanese scene has been getting the recognition it deserves with players like Kameme, Tsu, Kirihara, and Hikaru.

I´m really confident when I say the meta is at its best right now.
 
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