I think the reason that Melee metagame has made it this far is that there are subgroups all around the world which play differently. The subgroups have learned bits and pieces from each other but eventually reach a plateau where everyone can only get as good as each other. After solid playstyles are established, it's the mixing of the subgroups that further develops the metagame. You won't get very good simply by playing the same small group of people for a decade.
True, but we're not talking about playing a small group of people for a decade. Most melee groups or crews have been made up of no more than 5 truly dedicated players; you start playing the players and your game gets inbred. With a larger population--say, a hundred dedicated smashers living in close proximity to each other and vying against each other, every one of them itching to move a spot up on the ladder, innovations would spring up faster than they possibly could in a group of three buds playing friendlies.
The closest thing we have to an example of this comes from 64--the city of Tacna, in Peru, never really adopted melee or brawl, but kept a thriving 64 scene from '99 to the present. While they weren't aware of a competitive scene outside their city until I believe 2010, they had, in their own words, "25 pro player," and "good player are like fish in the sea." They played with each other regularly, and by 2011, their best players were able to compete with and nearly defeat Isai, who's traveled the world in search of competition and has been the center of the major 64 competitive scene as long as it's existed.
Not necessarily a prison, I guess. The vault or whatever is cool.
Also, smash IQ is not the same as normal IQ- they may be correlated, but I know some real *******es who've shown a greater degree of aptitude for the game than really smart people.
