How'd you choose your main?

[JDavisR (NIX)]

(Hopefully) Everyone has a story behind how they chose their main in melee. It could be that you saw your favorite professional player using that character and decided to give it a try, or that your friend showed you a character that looked "so cool" lol so you just had to play him.

For me, it was a main 12 years in the making. My older brother got Melee the day it came out. I would sometimes play with him a few years later when I was older. Back then, I never focused on winning, just to have fun. Always playing with items on, 2.0 damage ratio, giant melee, all that casual stuff . But then My brother started always using Falco. He would beat me match after match after match, to the point where I started feeling my first grains of salt lol. He made Falco look so good that I wanted to try him out for myself, and I've been playing him ever since, for 8 straight years. When I finally decided to play competitive melee, it was an easy choice.

How about you guys? Is there any story to how you chose your main?

 

[Zylo]

I started out maining marth because I wanted to be able to do some sweet combos on spacies without having to commit to learning a ton of advanced tech. I went out of town to a tournament and my marth got 4-stocked for the first time ever against a sheik main in friendlies. I wound up going fox against him in tournament despite not really having played fox before seriously. I did alright, and started working on him as a secondary for sheik. A couple months later, I'm a dedicated fox main. Also, he was who I loved to play as a kid but my friends told me he was too cheap and wouldn't let me play him

 

[DerfMidWest]

First real main was falcon. I thought he was fun and I liked watching Silent Spectre.
Got really frustrated getting trashed by my friend's spacies, and I didn't have my own cube to practice on then, so I picked up Pichu, because I was pretty much just like **** it.
Then I realized my Pichu was really good.
I got really technical for the first time.
Used him at all my first serious tournaments and as my doubles character.

Then my pichu staled, I'd pretty much pushed the character as far as I could.
So I was like "hey, I wanna try to be really technical because I don't really care anymore"
So I started practicing spacies and then started having fun as fox, who pretty quickly got better than my pichu, for obvious reasons.

like 1 or 2 years later I started to use ICs for fun because I like really odd characters who have high technical capacity that is unique, and I've learned to use pretty much all of them at some point or another, and they just clicked. It only took about a month for my ICs to be the same level as my crappy fox.
And on top of that the ICs are my favorite character. They feel so natural and they are so fun to play, I've actually never enjoyed the game more, despite having to deal with frustrations of playing a mid-tier and all that jazz, I love the game and the character and have a lot of dedication to them.

 

[JDavisR (NIX)]

I started out maining marth because I wanted to be able to do some sweet combos on spacies without having to commit to learning a ton of advanced tech. I went out of town to a tournament and my marth got 4-stocked for the first time ever against a sheik main in friendlies. I wound up going fox against him in tournament despite not really having played fox before seriously. I did alright, and started working on him as a secondary for sheik. A couple months later, I'm a dedicated fox main. Also, he was who I loved to play as a kid but my friends told me he was too cheap and wouldn't let me play him

I know that feel, my friends have like a police line surrounding that Falco box on the character select screen lol

First real main was falcon. I thought he was fun and I liked watching Silent Spectre.
Got really frustrated getting trashed by my friend's spacies, and I didn't have my own cube to practice on then, so I picked up Pichu, because I was pretty much just like **** it.
Then I realized my Pichu was really good.
I got really technical for the first time.
Used him at all my first serious tournaments and as my doubles character.

Then my pichu staled, I'd pretty much pushed the character as far as I could.
So I was like "hey, I wanna try to be really technical because I don't really care anymore"
So I started practicing spacies and then started having fun as fox, who pretty quickly got better than my pichu, for obvious reasons.

like 1 or 2 years later I started to use ICs for fun because I like really odd characters who have high technical capacity that is unique, and I've learned to use pretty much all of them at some point or another, and they just clicked. It only took about a month for my ICs to be the same level as my crappy fox.
And on top of that the ICs are my favorite character. They feel so natural and they are so fun to play, I've actually never enjoyed the game more, despite having to deal with frustrations of playing a mid-tier and all that jazz, I love the game and the character and have a lot of dedication to them.

We got some top tier hate up in here lol

 

[Nicco]

Isai
"Isai are you watching?"
"I killed mufasa"

It was an easy choice

 

[krazyzyko]

I loved Starfox 64 and was interested on seeing how was Fox like off his ship. So I mained him on 64, then on melee because he got even better!
...
Then dropped him in Brawl.

 

[EPsilon933]

A month before GENESIS 1, I decided with certainty that my best character was Fox. At GENESIS 1, I saw ARmada play on the main stage. A month later, I was playing and winning against a friend of mine with Peach, mostly for trolling. I won most of those games. The 2 of us normally went even when I played Fox. Then in college I kept gradually player as her more often against my roommate. When I returned home that Winter break, I was playing Peach better against everyone than when I played Fox. Years later, I tried playing other, supposedly better characters like Fox, Marth, and Sheik. That failed because 2 of them take still and 1 of them is extremely boring to play as

 

[Tails_Glados_Puff]

I started out with Mewtwo and sucked. Both my brothers would destroy me. I used Kirby too, and Falco occasionally. We never played with items on though. Over time Falco just became my favorite personality in Brawl when I use to play it. Me and my brother sucked, always rolling around constantly, smashing, etc. I watched some videos on how to get good, and learned Falco ATs like chain grabbing, SHDL, etc. After Brawl started to get boring, I learned about mods like balanced Brawl, then Brawl -, then project m, then Brawl +. I thought it was impossible that Melee was better then Brawl, but I slowly shifted my opinion. It had been so long I barley remembered Melee and how it felt. I learned ATs in PM too, and switched between PM and Brawl. My new main became Metaknight, with my secondary being Falco in Brawl. My brother would always use Zelda and we practiced a lot........ Believe it or not, he can't even wavedash, yet is ridiculously good. I fought some people online from miiverse with brawl, and some PM players. Among those PM players I found on Miiverse was you Nix. We both then decided to go on smashboards to find new challengers, and have some fun. Ummmm..... did I bore you with my story? Well, back to the main question, Falcos snark personality is awesome, and I love him in the games. So freaking awesome. Plus, he's high tier, so that's a bonus, and fits my play style. I really can't ask for more.

 

[JDavisR (NIX)]

Yeah I just kinda got lucky with the whole tier list thing lol, I had no idea he was second until a few years after I started using him. This leads to a follow up question for everyone: Did the tier list influence your decision?

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

Play brawl before college. No one wants to play brawl competitively once getting there. Likes fire emblem series. Marth is supposedly a good character.
4 years later Marth is fun :D

 

[JDavisR (NIX)]

Play brawl before college. No one wants to play brawl competitively once getting there. Likes fire emblem series. Marth is supposedly a good character.
4 years later Marth is fun :D

Lol nice

 

[Jake The Preacher]

As a kid I played melee a lot and my favorite character was DK, and I liked Luigi, Link, Fox, Falco, and Captain Falcon since he was cool. I loved DK 64 so I played DK a lot, and I liked everyone else's series too. Then I get older and I really learn how to play and figure out that DK doesn't do it for me like he used to, so since Fox was the best and I liked him, why not main him? I occasionally played DK but it just didn't work for me. But then I discovered the glory of Project M. That DK, now that's a DK i can get used to. DK's now my main in PM because I can use him perfectly. My Fox is still great, but who knows the DK matchup over the Fox one? Not to mention he's my favorite character. Now I've tried using DK in melee every once in a while and he may not be my main in it, I've still got a good, fun secondary now. I just hope I can still play as all of them really good in Smash 4. Long live PM and DK mains!

 

[Tails_Glados_Puff]

Yeah I just kinda got lucky with the whole tier list thing lol, I had no idea he was second until a few years after I started using him. This leads to a follow up question for everyone: Did the tier list influence your decision?

We knew about the tier list for melee but didn't really care. For brawl though, we would go to the matchup chart and counter eachother. To bad it never worked. We had little understanding.

 

[210stuna]

I saw Hungrybox 4 stock Mango in a grand finals match.

Jiggs vs Fox

My other main Marth is because of Ken and how I loved him during the Melee old school days and I used to be an avid Survivor fan and was stoked when he won that too.

 

[Oatmeal.]

I just thought Luigi was hilarious, so I used him all the time.

 

[SAUS]

I saw Hungrybox 4 stock Mango in a grand finals match.

Jiggs vs Fox

My other main Marth is because of Ken and how I loved him during the Melee old school days and I used to be an avid Survivor fan and was stoked when he won that too.

I thought he came 4th in survivor.

I liked Young Link when I was younger, but then decided old Link is way cooler, so I started out the game as him. When I learned about tiers and stuff, I was a scrub and didn't believe in tier lists, so I continued to learn the game as Link. As I got better, and older (and more mature), it is clear that the tier list is meaningful, but every time I try other characters, I do about the same as I do with Link. I've considered switching a bunch, but I can't commit to it, and without committing to it, I hold myself back on both characters (the character I try to switch to and Link). The reason I chose Link in the first place is not very spectacular, but the reason I still main him is because of inspiration.

 

[Jake The Preacher]

I just thought Luigi was hilarious, so I used him all the time.

Luigi is fun as crap no matter which game you play. Luigi power for the win man

 

[Tetheta]

Sword + Cape = Instapick Marth when I first started playing years ago. Never knew there was a competitive scene until the documentary but was pleasantly surprised to find he's high tier too. Around the same time that I picked him for playing melee I picked up the Fire Emblem games and absolutely love them, so don't think I'm ever going to change.

 

[WumpaWolfy]

I started out with Pikachu (the only character from a game I'd played since I was a playstation fan boy at the time) when I would play against my cousins in smash 64. They used to always complain about my thunder spamming so I chose Fox and they shut up because firefox spam was way less deadly lol. That and I saw him as a sci fi Crash Bandicoot. Fast forward through experimenting with several melee characters (Y.Link, Doc, Pikachu, and Bowser) and starting to pick up brawl competitively when I met some players that took melee seriously. I started grinding out tech skill with Fox and attended my first tourney where my first and only tournament set consisted of Marth U-throw chain grabs to fsmashes. The more I played the more I realized Fox didn't fit my playstyle. I tend to be a more patient and reactive player and I just couldn't get a hang of his waveshine and pressure game. During my second tournament I was matched up against the same Marth player (no pools) and I counter picked my pocket Doc (only used for single player modes) and nearly won! I love his pills, his crouch canceled down smash, his cape gimps, his kobe's, and his hard to combo weight. He just feels like he has so many tools for so many situations, tools that fit my playstyle like a glove. That and I kind of liked being known as that guy that plays a mean Doc rather than feeling like the worst Fox in the room. I've wavered a few times since, experimenting with Marth and Jiggs who also complement my playstyle well, but every time I watch Shroomed play it reignites my Doc fire.

 

[caLviN-1260]

My main is Falco, but the reason I got into him was Fox. I always used to use Fox as more of a casual player because of his speed, and I used to up throw to up air all my friends again and again. After I found about the competitive community and got into tech skill, I found Falco easier to work with, especially with short hopping. I just kept using Falco after that and I really enjoy him as a character.

 

[Jiggle4Life]

I "chose" Pikachu (pokemon pun intended) when I was playing some friendlies cuz I had no main and ive mained him ever since lol

 

[braintrain]

Started playing as a marth main, but then I started playing Smash high with friends and used falcon in FFAs because I thought the knee was sick. Haven't thought about maining anybody else since lol

 

[Waverider900]

My friends used to talk about how much Brawl sucked (I liked Brawl at the time), and the reason they gave was that Falcon had been nerfed terribly. So I always held Melee Falcon in some kind of reverence, and then Evo 2013 got me into the game again (I hadn't played since 2009), so I chose Falcon

 

[rawrimamonster]

Knee.

 

[Jake The Preacher]

Knee.

One of the most well rounded reasons of all time. Short and sweet

 

[dkuo]

i started with pika since i really like his tools

but then i started playing falco and i just knew
felt so good

nowadays i play with falco/fox/marth the most because controlling them feels good for muscle memory

 

[RazeriaN]

Basicly, my parents were too cheap to buy a gamecube with SSBM. So every day i would go to wallmart to play some SSBM. I played every character but I liked IC's the most. 5 years later, I bought a wii and brawl. I started playing IC and I was pretty decent. A few months ago I saw "The Smash brothers" I thought that it was sick that this game had a community this big after such a long time. I started playing melee on dolphin and P:M on my WII. Basicly Ice climbers were the only character that caught my attention and they just felt right.
Later on I saw the P:M Tier list. Ice climbers at the bottom... so I started practicing Fox, because he was fun and he was also top tier.

 

[Jake The Preacher]

Basicly, my parents were too cheap to buy a gamecube with SSBM. So every day i would go to wallmart to play some SSBM. I played every character but I liked IC's the most. 5 years later, I bought a wii and brawl. I started playing IC and I was pretty decent. A few months ago I saw "The Smash brothers" I thought that it was sick that this game had a community this big after such a long time. I started playing melee on dolphin and P:M on my WII. Basicly Ice climbers were the only character that caught my attention and they just felt right.
Later on I saw the P:M Tier list. Ice climbers at the bottom... so I started practicing Fox, because he was fun and he was also top tier.

I like your profile picture, classic and to the point. Fox is a really fun character and I bet the IC's are too if I ever played them

 

[VegiLohrd]

I owned the game when I was younger but I never really took it too seriously, and when brawl came out I switched to that just played whoever I felt like (I was in like 7th grade so sue me). After seeing the Smash Brothers doc, my friends and I went out and got a setup and started playing the crap out of it. I jumped around characters for awhile until we unlocked Ganondorf. So I gave him a shot..... And after the first time I stomped my to the bottom, I knew I had found my main. I've just always liked big bruisers and tanky guys in every game I've played so it seemed logical

 

[Upke]

Back when my friend and I just started to get competitive, he used Peach and did that Peach stuff (spotdodge/CC dsmashes). Being bad at the game, I thought of an easy way around it which was outranging it. I thought Marth was dumb so I went for Zelda's kick. It went well, then as I started to get good, I fell in love with her spacing game. Then she became my baby girl, and I can't leave her, no matter how terrible she is.

**** Sheik

 

[Saxophoneoftime]

I always played Samus when I played as a kid, and after I found out about the competitive scene I booted Melee back up and realized that I didn't like floaties. I was talking to my friend a few days later on Skype and asked him who he played in Melee, and he said that he always used Doc when playing with friends. I thought "Hey, NO ONE used Doc when I played with friends, he's pretty obscure. That'd be cool." I thought that his fall speed was comfortable enough, and started learning the game with him. Now I love Doc, and secondary Pichu as a joke but I may replace him with Fox soon.

 

[MrTea]

All my friends thought yoshi sucked so I just decided to pick him up for the hell of it one day.
And then i kept accidentally jumping through everyone's **** and that's pretty much how that started

 

[DownWitDaWaveDash]

-Back in time-

I started off as scrub with Kirby (down b) for a week.

Then I moved to link. I got extremely good with him, perfect l cancels 100% etc, to the point where I can honestly and boldly state that my link in my prime was better than anyone elses. I placed well in all tournaments that I went to.

Then I went somewhere and fought M2K.... RIP Link

I main Peach/Marth/Fox now. lol

 

[SpiderJerusalem]

I was 6 when Melee came out, and I played Roy for at least 5 or 6 years because I thought "holy **** he literally blows himself up with his sword how cool is that"
When I started like actually playing the game, I wanted to learn Falco because he was my favorite in Star Fox Assault. I then started to main Marth along w/Falco because I learned that Marth was better than Roy and I had just started getting into Fire Emblem as well, so I thought I should main him.

 

[Waverider900]

I was 6 when Melee came out, and I played Roy for at least 5 or 6 years because I thought "holy **** he literally blows himself up with his sword how cool is that"
When I started like actually playing the game, I wanted to learn Falco because he was my favorite in Star Fox Assault. I then started to main Marth along w/Falco because I learned that Marth was better than Roy and I had just started getting into Fire Emblem as well, so I thought I should main him.

I was the same way about Roy (Fox was the best in Assault, though). My friends were always impressed by how "good" Roy's up-b was

 

[pokemongeof]

When I was 5, I played MP7, my first Mario game. At the time, colors mattered, and I liked Green more than Red. So I played Luigi. Then I started to realize the character that was Luigi, underrated, yet subtle and never wanting to outshine Mario, rather, Luigi was there to help him.

Playing at 6 years old, Luigi was my fav character, but I did play Mario and Falcon from time to time.

When I found the competitive scene, I watched some matches, but wanted to stick with Luigi. When I saw Vudujin, Ka-master, Pakman, and Eddy play, I knew I would stick with Luigi forever. Plus his wavedash is dope.

I played Falcon as my secondary after watching SilentSpectre, Hax, and Darkrain play, but SS will always be my fav.

 

[Shintarru]

I have a long and boring story so I will cut it short but I picked marth because I used to watch old mlg matches and Ken was an inspiration to me so I picked Marth. Fox is actually my favorite Nintendo character so I used him but I couldn't for the life of me do any of the advanced stuff so I stayed with Marth. Thinking about it I am going to pick up fox now lol.

 

[Encephalon Decay]

I actually had started out with Pikachu back when I was a no-skill scrub. I didn't even know what an l-cancel or wavedash was.

Then I saw Chu's Frostbite vid...The first thought that had crossed my child-mind was "Dude...I wanna do that o.O"

I haven't looked back since then. IC's for life.

 

[SpiderJerusalem]

I was the same way about Roy (Fox was the best in Assault, though). My friends were always impressed by how "good" Roy's up-b was

haha yeah, it's funny how differently I look at the game now, and how a lot of my favorite characters were in retrospect not that good

 

[Radical Larry]

Back then, oh, back then, I was a huge Link/Bowser/Mewtwo player. This was when I was starting out, however. Moving along the lines, when I saw the tier lists, I saw them rank low, especially Mewtwo. However, this did not deter me from using him or Link, but once I found out Bowser's attacks started to get to me, I was done with him and started Ganondorf.

As I progressed, I added 3 more characters to my mains; Dr. Mario, Marth and Falco. So basically, I have 3 high tiered characters, 2 mid-high tier characters and 1 low tier character. It's funny how far I've really come; and yes, I do count Link as a mid-high, not a low.