I'm not applying to the MBR but I saw something about which being more important, combo or first hits.
That's a question I've thought about a lot ( i actually have a lot written down on this topic, I'm at 5 pages in MS word and I'm only about 1/3rd of the way through, so there's no way I can talk about it as in depth as I want right now) and I've determined that there is no solid answer, and it's dependent upon which level of play you're at, and the higher you go towards the top, the more the line blurs between combos and first hits, and the more equally important they become.
Actually, the question itself is really irrelevant to someone who's aiming for the top spot (at least this is how I feel) because you have to master both, and even if you don't TECHNICALLY have to master both, you're just holding yourself back if you're not mastering both.
Some players focus on first hits because they don't want to spend so much time mastering comboing (which is, in Melee, a pretty abstract system compared to other fighters), and that's fine. But then there's the other player who focuses on first hits just like other players, but this player has their combos down much better thus the second player will place higher.
Look at Tuar's playstyle for example. First of all, ****ing brilliant and I have a lot of respect for his Fox and Marth, but mainly his Fox. Second of all, a while ago I used to look at first hits/combos as very linear aspects of the game. They were very measurable to me and very quantifiable. You know, ranking the efficiency of a combo based on how much percent it deals, and ranking how good someone is at getting first hits based off how many they get.
But the more I study and the more I advance, the more I think that my old model of first hits/combos doesn't work due to the depth Melee has and its abstractness. Here's what I mean.
You can look at Tuar's placing and see how much better he is at getting first hits than his opponents, then compare it to how hard he gets combo'd from his opponent, and you can almost take a lot of factors and turn it into an equation if you really wanted to to determine which is better.
But to DO that, you'd have to ignore so many different factors that would affect the answer you're looking for:
*How you get the first hit in (grab, weak nair with fox, dtilt with marth) because every move leads to different rewards, both percentage based and in terms of leading to another move
*The matchup (Getting first hits in is much more important than comboing in Marth dittos, because marth can' really death combo himself, but if you're playing a fox ditto, you better be good at getting the first hit in, and even then you need grabs)
*What skill level your opponent is- like i said, at the highest levels of play both are equally important, but at low-mid levels, a player is better off learning how to death combo rather than getting the first hit in. This is because at low-mid levels, player's tech skill isn't that great so you're going to be getting more first hits in just due to your opponent's error, and if you can punish him much much harder than he can punish you, even if he's forcing more first hits on you, the player that's better at comboing will most likely win)
*Tiers- this should have gone in matchups but whatever, but when you see someone who can combo amazingly well but can't get many first hits in, that's a huge sign of someone who will struggle with low tier matchups. Since low tier characters have difficulty comboing, they're going to know how to get in on you much better than you know how to get in on their niche character, AND low tiers are harder to combo generally than high tiers, so your strength of comboing isn't going to do much. (this is also why tuar beat mango's mario and will probably, very rarely lose to a low tier player. and don't say axe because the factors that determined that match kind of go against the general rules that i'm speaking about)
It's a fun topic to play with and think about, but to anyone trying to be the best they can be, it's a waste of time to try and figure which is more important. Do both for best results.
