Best Year for Smash, Post-Brawl?

[KishPrime]

2006 was a spectacular year for Smash...there were so many great players fighting at every MLG every month. You'd have falling old greats Ken, Isai, Azen, and Chu Dat, new great PC Chris, and rising greats KDJ and M2K, all playing it out constantly across the country. And that's not even including the metagame shifters like King and Darkrain and Hugs who were as good as ever during that time period. Crazy amount of upheaval and constant metagame development through that whole year. In 2007 everyone started making "not practicing, just waiting for Brawl" johns since MLG money went away.

Sometimes you can't sort out the small years from the big years until you get away from them a bit, so now that we're in 2013, in your mind, what's the equivalent of that year in the post-Brawl era (2008-2013)? Or is it yet to come in 2013 now that Armada is retired and it's more open? I think it's hard to make the case that the game is more exciting once you lop off the top player without him losing first, but I could see someone trying to make the case.

It doesn't have to be a calendar year, either, could be like a Feb 2011-APEX 2012 type of year if you like. Just curious to gather some thoughts - always fun to see how people perceive the state of the game and when it makes leaps and bounds.

 

[Varist]

first, yes it is the best year, evo is the greatest thing that would literally ever happen to us and we have Genesis 3 and that anti-hype ****** Armada is gone now so the rule of mango will prevail forever. Evo is way better run now, gets lots more attendance, as long as we get good reception we're set for life mang.

also free unknown

 

[MountainGoat]

This has the potential to be a great year of melee and we're all pretty optimistic but it's just starting so we'll have to wait and see

 

[KishPrime]

first, yes it is the best year, evo is the greatest thing that would literally ever happen to us and we have Genesis 3 and that anti-hype ****** Armada is gone now so the rule of mango will prevail forever. Evo is way better run now, gets lots more attendance, as long as we get good reception we're set for life mang.

also free unknown

Evo is strictly a one-off - they're not going to run Melee ever again short of another donation-drive style win. They don't run old games there anymore. It'll be spectacular and amazing, but it's hardly going to make anyone "set for life."

So your case for 2013 being the best year for metagame development and competitive play in the last five years is: "Now that the top player quit, my favorite player will win every tournament?"

 

[Engo]

first, yes it is the best year, evo is the greatest thing that would literally ever happen to us and we have Genesis 3 and that anti-hype ****** Armada is gone now so the rule of mango will prevail forever. Evo is way better run now, gets lots more attendance, as long as we get good reception we're set for life mang.

also free unknown

Wow give the guy some respect. He's the best in the world, redefined a character and had a huge positive influence on smash.

Armada or not, 2013 has the looks of possibly being the best year in Melee. Who knows it could possibly top 2006?

 

[EPsilon933]

The year since Wombo Combo was uploaded. That got super popular super fast and it's basically a meme now. Then there was ROM 1 and GENESIS 1

This year's looking to be another great one now that we've got EVO (at least for this year)

 

[The Star King]

nothing will be as good as the MLG days to nostalgia goggle-donning old farts like KishPrime and AlphaZealot (serious post)

 

[Battlecow]

gotta say I enjoyed the who-will-upset armada hype the past couple years

a more satisfying conclusion would've been nice

but that doesn't make the years themselves any less great

 

[MikeHaggarTHAKJB]

gotta say I enjoyed the who-will-upset armada hype the past couple years

a more satisfying conclusion would've been nice

but that doesn't make the years themselves any less great

i think a flopmerican (you) giving money to a beautiful swede (beat) is a very satisfying conclusion

 

[Varist]

Evo is strictly a one-off - they're not going to run Melee ever again short of another donation-drive style win. They don't run old games there anymore. It'll be spectacular and amazing, but it's hardly going to make anyone "set for life."

So your case for 2013 being the best year for metagame development and competitive play in the last five years is: "Now that the top player quit, my favorite player will win every tournament?"

negative man kish being negative

2013 has M2K as a rising king, an even tighter gridlock for the top 4 in America
2013 has Melee at all Evo events year-round
2013 has Genesis III coming up
2013 has Melee partnered with a budding FGC community (SG), meaning melee-side events at most of their tournaments
2013 has been freed of **** like YL/Puff grand finals
2013 has Mango promising to go hardmode for the trillionth time, maybe he will
2013 has America's best traveling to Europe for the first time

that's a good case for 2013 being the best year so far. And it's only been a month.

 

[Blistering Speed]

I think this year has the potential to do something unprecedented i.e. be host to more than one 300+ person attended tournament. Three, in fact.

That's a pretty ****ing big deal.

 

[Tee ay eye]

why are you so convinced that melee at EVO is going to be a one-off?

 

[MikeHaggarTHAKJB]

melee being on EVO is HUGE (is this even confirmed btw?). the gfs from evo gets uploaded on mother****in ign ffs, which will lead to TONS of new people finding the competitive scene. a huge problem for melee has always been that the community is so hidden. that is no longer a problem.
wobbles and wife should be for commentary, and focus on explaining basics. commentary in the style of me, waffles and sliq is more fitting for smaller tournaments where primarily ppl already deeply involved in the scene are watching.

 

[JPOBS]

2008 - ROM1/Genesis 1 was the best time for melee. (a little over a year?)

You had:
- Mango playing his best and no johns
- probably the greatest grand finals of all time at Genesis 1
- Shiz vs m2k
- waffles and phil commentary (almost single handedly responsible for keeping melee alive in the immediate post-bral lag)
- wombo combo

 

[KishPrime]

nothing will be as good as the MLG days to nostalgia goggle-donning old farts like KishPrime and AlphaZealot (serious post)

I never actually said 2006 is a better year than these years. <_< All I said was that I felt 2006 was the best of the pre-Brawl years, and asked for people to elucidate on what they thought was the best post-Brawl year in light of some historical context. Come on, man. The last two APEX tournaments, and especially this year's, is among the best I've ever seen, and I've posted about that repeatedly. The five-player top group makes for an extremely exciting tournament environment, and having like 7-8 characters represented in Top 8 matches is a ridiculously positive reflection on Melee. I mean, I literally couldn't stop watching APEX this year and I flipped it on at like, 2 PM.

Varist, that's more along the lines of what I was asking for.

I think if Evo is no longer running Street Fighter 2 and 3, it is likely that they have no interest in running old games. Smash 4 is another story entirely...if Smash goes well this year and with Namco behind it, I wouldn't be surprised to see that make it in.

 

[EPsilon933]

I think if Evo is no longer running Street Fighter 2 and 3, it is likely that they have no interest in running old games

SF3 is like super-dead. Only $70 was donated under its name in the donation drive. It does have some life in Japan at least

Isn't SF2 like an EVO tradition? It's been featured at EVO at every event except for the last 2 years, which were then reduced to a side event
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_Championship_Series

 

[Mr.Jackpot]

Evo is strictly a one-off - they're not going to run Melee ever again short of another donation-drive style win. They don't run old games there anymore. It'll be spectacular and amazing, but it's hardly going to make anyone "set for life."

So your case for 2013 being the best year for metagame development and competitive play in the last five years is: "Now that the top player quit, my favorite player will win every tournament?"

Evo doesn't stop hosting "old games", they stop hosting games that don't have active scenes anymore. SF3 and ST ran alongside each other until SF4 because people kept playing both games. If we put on a great show this year and continue to show a growing scene and attendance throughout 2013-2014 we can get in next year, same for Skullgirls too except they'll have to show a REALLY big growth in attendance.

inb4 people ***** about # of non-capcom games

 

[KrIsP!]

It's gotten better every year since brawl and 2013 started will a huge amount of momentum and is only looking up.

negative man kish being negative

2013 has M2K as a rising king, an even tighter gridlock for the top 4 in America
2013 has Melee at all Evo events year-round
2013 has Genesis III coming up
2013 has Melee partnered with a budding FGC community (SG), meaning melee-side events at most of their tournaments
2013 has been freed of **** like YL/Puff grand finals
2013 has Mango promising to go hardmode for the trillionth time, maybe he will
2013 has America's best traveling to Europe for the first time

that's a good case for 2013 being the best year so far. And it's only been a month.

2013 has varist making a post I enjoyed reading. Yup, think we beat 2006.

melee being on EVO is HUGE (is this even confirmed btw?). the gfs from evo gets uploaded on mother****in ign ffs, which will lead to TONS of new people finding the competitive scene. a huge problem for melee has always been that the community is so hidden. that is no longer a problem.
wobbles and wife should be for commentary, and focus on explaining basics. commentary in the style of me, waffles and sliq is more fitting for smaller tournaments where primarily ppl already deeply involved in the scene are watching.

omg haggar making a damn good post too? 2013 best year confirmed.

 

[Sixth-Sense]

I actually think Armada's retirement is really gonna spice up the competion in the scene, the top four are gonna be fighting for the throne more than ever, and theres gonna be tons of other high-level players going for that 5th spot.

M2k is back, Apex was really suprising, more-so than Zenith 2012 when he won WF vs dr.pp, This year he beat Mango 2 times in a single tourney, and he was pretty damn close to beating PP too, hell i think he would have done amazing against Armada.

Melee being brought back to EVO for more than 5 years is amazing, the majority of the FGC will have a a front row seat to Melee's current metagame, it's friendly competion, and hopefully even the trolls will finally understand that Melee is not brawl in any way, thanks to 2008 EVO. Also, as far as i know they keep games as long as they have a strong scene, and since the majority of other games like SF and MVC always switch to the newest version, the old one usually loses the spotlight, just look at how MVC2 (which for me is MUCH better than MVC3) was completely changed to MVC3, and from what i've seen and read, lots of the top pros prefer MVC2. Oh and then there's the fact that Melee is extremly fun to watch and is really hype, even if you don't know whats going on. Now imagine 50k+ people watching melee and just saying "wow this is REALLY fast", also the amount of money we raised for the donation should be a sign as to how this community is very much alive and thriving, if anything we are having the hypest years ever.

I also consider the sudden influx of players from around the globe amazing, last year we had Javi representing Mexico, and even breaking top 5 ( well he reped latin america for me) and this year we got more mexico and we had a bunch of Japan players coming out of nowhere (i actually thought that melee was dead in Japan, since the only other thing i ever seen from it was freakin bombsolider, so this was a cool surprise). All in all i think Melee is thriving more and more as time goes on.

I love this game so, so much

 

[Theftz22]

Ditto on getting wife to commentate at evo.

 

[Varist]

Commentators I want to see at Evo:

For pools: s0ft
For early bracket: Dogy, D1, prog (black man tier)
For Semis/Finals: Wife and Wobbles
For GFs: HMW and Phil
For GFs and mango brings back jiggs: Scar LOOL

 

[whitegirlwednesday]

Hopefully SSBB will die this year.

 

[EPsilon933]

Hopefully SSBB will die this year.

If Brawl was any other fighting game, it wouldn't have lasted this long. Smash is so different with its freedom of movement. There are secretly a lot of Brawlers just waiting for Smash 4 to release. Don't hate. They'll be playing the next game and I have faith it will be better than Brawl. The developers of Tekken are making it


Or did I just respond to a troll post?

 

[KrIsP!]

Check date, check posts, check avatar.

Yeah.

As for commentary, I love waffles, I really do. Give him G3. Evo needs wobbles-wife. Prog D1 got Apex and I'd like to see them back next year, wouldn't mind if they commentated for ev but I like switching up commentators based on the type of tournament. Waffles does need to get on stream for an exhibition match or something to show FGC what they're missing.

And lol@Scar commentating anything jiggs related

 

[Revven]

Commentators I want to see at Evo:

For pools: s0ft
For early bracket: Dogy, D1, prog (black man tier)
For Semis/Finals: Wife and Wobbles
For GFs: HMW and Phil
For GFs and mango brings back jiggs: Scar LOOL

Ehhhh, I think it'd be better if you had one hype guy like HMW and then one informational/play by play guy like prog, Wobbles, or D1 for GFs tbh.

But I don't even think Evo staff would allow HMW on unless he cleaned up his vocabulary (too much cursing). He could be hype without cursing.

I forget, did they even have Yipes on commentary last year for Marvel at Evo? Because if not, then yeah HMW wouldn't be able to commentate either. Their both really similar in how they commentate, that's why I ask.

 

[N.A.G.A.C.E]

I always have thought of of era's, like 2004/05-2007 was the golden age, 2008 was the death of melee, 2009-2012 was the revival. Now i believe 2013 will be our biggest year yet.

Now for a single best year, i might just have to go with either 2012 b/c it is fresh in my mind, but whatever year it was that amash and armada first came over to the US was a pretty major year in the history of melee.

 

[luzbwl]

Yipes did comentate the marvel top 8 but I don't think he cursed at all, still very hype.

 

[TaFoKiNtS]

Get Yipes to commentate Melee, lol.

 

[KanyeRest]

Get Yipes to commentate Melee, lol.

oh my god this

 

[Bones0]

2013 has Melee at all Evo events year-round

lol wut?

 

[Mr.Jackpot]

Get Yipes to commentate Melee, lol.

*****, get Waffles to commentate Marvel.

 

[Mew2King]

i was never really gone though

it's either a good day and/or good controller or the opposite of that usually

and i cant beat pp (or i can but even when i can fate will interfere and it won't happen anyway much)

and the main reason I did the evo drive was honestly not for myself, it was for the community mostly. i was more happy to be a huge deciding factor in that than I was for any of my apex wins, since i helped the entire community with that

my fav year was 07, before i ever touched brawl and was much more perfect (although i had less characters). After that i don't have much opinion, so idk.

 

[rjgbadger]

lol wut?

this. evo is just the one time in july man

kids these days X/

 

[Europhoria]

That stretch from like March 09 - early 2010 that I think included the first 2 ROMs, Genesis and Pound 4. Seemed like it really got the scene going again in terms of people traveling outside of their immediate area, brought hype back to the game after Brawl, etc.

 

[Revven]

i was never really gone though

it's either a good day and/or good controller or the opposite of that usually

and i cant beat pp (or i can but even when i can fate will interfere and it won't happen anyway much)

Are you going to practice solely Melee for the next few months now, though? Surely focusing on Melee only would help, right?

 

[Dr Peepee]

I'd say RoM1 to Pound 4(09-beginning of 2010.)

I forget if that year included the Wombo Combo or not, but either way the hype built off of it and Mango's/Hungrybox's rise to power and having all of the European greats(Armada in particular) impress us at the biggest Melee tournament ever has been unsurpassed in this time period imo. Pretty much everyone was playing and in practice at this time except like Shiz and M2K but they still went to tournaments and did well lol.

The game will survive fine without Armada. There were close sets when he was playing, and there will still be close sets after he was playing. Hype is what keeps this machine running(besides how awesome the game is anyway lol.)

 

[Beat!]

Wombo Combo was in 2008.

 

[ElloEddy]

i was never really gone though

it's either a good day and/or good controller or the opposite of that usually

and i cant beat pp (or i can but even when i can fate will interfere and it won't happen anyway much)

and the main reason I did the evo drive was honestly not for myself, it was for the community mostly. i was more happy to be a huge deciding factor in that than I was for any of my apex wins, since i helped the entire community with that

my fav year was 07, before i ever touched brawl and was much more perfect (although i had less characters). After that i don't have much opinion, so idk.

you can beat PP .... next time.....destroy him .....**** him up ...have faith in yourself

 

[ElloEddy]

if you think the golden years of melee were 2008- to 2010 your sadly mistaken.... i dont wanna hear NO JOHNS

i see melee in 2012 being big, there's top players, new players , old player coming outta retirement ....that are training , hyped , and preparing. we even got top levels players from other games even considering picking up melee. We are on the RADAR NOW MORE THEN EVER...people are watching from all over. Its time to win over the hearts of the FGC etc ....

also i wasn't around for all the amazing moments and hype of 08-2010 but...
lets make new ones that rival wombo combo and shiz vs m2k
lets hope for players coming outta no where and slaying legends

also i feel like ppl keep living in the past, well the past is past its on youtube re-live it later. for now worry about our future as well as our present... 2013 and making this the best year melee has ever had we already started with a bang and lets make that bang bigger.... bring back they hype!!!. i wanna see , salt, upsets , 0-deaths , 4 stocks, comebacks/close games , low tier hero's , new players rising to power, the top players get toppled, and much more.

so lets melee 2013 the year of evolution and a new legacy

 

[Jockmaster]

Commentators I want to see at Evo:

For pools: s0ft
For early bracket: Dogy, D1, prog (black man tier)
For Semis/Finals: Wife and Wobbles
For GFs: HMW and Phil
For GFs and mango brings back jiggs: Scar LOOL

**** yeah mang these would be the ****

Specially s0ft and black men. Dogy/D1/Prg triumvirate singlehandedly kept me watching Apex