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Melee 'Genealogy' - A Unique History of Melee

thespymachine

Smash Ace
Joined
May 23, 2006
Messages
830
Location
Henderson, NV
MIOM's @prog started a discussion yesterday while giving shoutouts to members of the community for providing valuable artifacts for Melee's history that ended up influencing something special, it seems.

Essentially the discussion became focused on establishing a sort of cultural-anthropological perspective on Melee, specifically concerning where/who/when/what the 'common ancestor(s)' of the current metagame are (regarding what region/scene/crew players came from, who/what inspired and influenced them to start playing and keep playing, what player(s) did they watch the most, what player(s) taught them the most, what players(s) did they train with the most, etc).

This is an attempt to make an official historical account and a genealogy of Melee.

_________________________________________________________________________

Goals:
1. [Long-term] Form a Melee time-line.
- Compile a list of Melee history together (we the need information to work with)
- Make a list of important events that could be potential 'historic centers' (tournaments, matches, videos, etc)​
2. [asap] Establish primary and secondary purpose(s)/focus(es) of this history
3. [Long-term] Provide an aesthetically pleasing visual of this history (a wall of text will be fine for a bit)

_________________________________________________________________________

1. Melee History

Timeline (Draft Outline)
I. Ancient Melee
A. Competitive SSB (pre-Melee)
B. Pre-MLG (still division on ruleset, no international tournaments)
1. Tournament Go series
a. Ken wins TG4
b. TG5 brings top East Coast players (Azen placing 4th)​
2. Game Over (West @ East)
a. Chillin beats Ken
b. Ken and Isai get 1st and 3rd, respectively, and win teams - Azen gets 2nd​
II. Golden Era
A. TG6
1. First international tournament
2. First limited stage and no items tournament*
3. Azen wins, besting Japan's Captain Jack​
B. MLG 05
C. MELEE-FC 3
D. MLG 06
1. PC Chris defeats Ken at New York opener
2. Throughout year, 3 different winners at MLG [1]​
E. Post-MLG
1. 2007: Year of M2K
a. 1st @ Cataclysm 3, 2nd @ Pound 2, 1st @ FC-Diamond, 2nd @ OC3, 1st @ Super Champ Combo
b. Ken returns with a win at EVO​
2. Pound 3:
a. Mango defeats Catuar, Forward, Azen, Chu Dat, Cort, PC Christ, and then M2K in two straight sets to get 1stb. Brawl was released one month later in North America​
III. Silver Era
A. Mango's Dominance
1. After Pound 3, wins every tournament he attends besides one. [2]
2. Gets 1st at 25 out 28 attended tournaments in the years 2008 & 2009 [2]​
B. Revitalizing Hype
1. Wombo Combo (early December 2008)
2. M2K vs DaShizWiz 4 (March 2009)​
C. Genesis
1. Largest tournament at the time (290 entrants)
2. Armada's first time playing North Americans
3. Mango vs Armada
D. Pound 4
1. Quickly became the largest tournament at the time (347)
2. Armada loses to SS and Amsah
3. Mango defeats Hungrybox in GF
4. First major stream by VideoGameBootCamp*​
E. Apex 2010
F. Project M release
G. Pound V
1. Shenanigans​
H. Genesis 2
1. Armada wins​
I. Apex 2012
J. MELEE-FC Legacy
K. Melee It On Me
1. RoM 5 shenanigans starts podcast​
L. Apex 2013
1. Armada retires​
M. EVO
1. Melee wins fundraiser, spearheaded by MIOM
2. Road to EVO
3. EVO
a. Largest Melee tournament so far (696)
b. Mango wins
c. Wobbles retires​
N. The Smash Bros.
1. Documentary series by East Point Pictures
2. Provides even more exposure and players to Melee​
O. Return of the Mew2King
1. Wins The Big House 3
a. Hax's (plus others?) 20XX meme goes viral as it's shared on stream​
2. Wins Pound V.5, RoM6, Fight Pitt III, KoC3​
P. MIOM's Top 100 players​
IV. Renaissance
A. Apex 2014​


Posts/Threads

Evolution of Smash - thread no OP
Smash History (Top Ten Moments 2008-10)
Melee Year in Review: 2007 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013
(atm, all taken from @Stratocaster 's "2013 SSBM Compendium of Knowledge")


Moments

- TG6
- Nintendo Power (2005) Melee Article (Once I find my copy, I'll try to get it on here)
- MLG 2005-06

- Shine Blind

- Wombo Combo

- Shiz vs M2K 4 (ROM1)

- Mango vs Armada (Genesis 1)

- Armada Retiring

- EVO Top 8

- The Smash Bros. [playlist]
(Part 1: Show Me Your Moves [Remaster])




Interesting things

HugS' Smash Chains


2. Purpose

Primary
Establish the 'common ancestors' of the current centerpiece(s) of Melee's metagame

Secondary
- Form a 'family tree' from 'common ancestors' (showing the interconnectedness of the community)
- Have all of Melee's history in (at least) on place or (at most) write/compile a whole history right here
- Figure out the discovery and spread of tech


3. Aesthetics

Ideas
- yED

_________________________________________________________________________

Discussion:
It seems that people were stoked about this idea, and, since no body 'important' was taking up the task immediately, I took the job (currently).

References:
 
Last edited:

thespymachine

Smash Ace
Joined
May 23, 2006
Messages
830
Location
Henderson, NV
Current mission(s)

All Members:
- Post your genealogy: what region/scene/crew(s) you come from, who/what inspired/inspires and influenced/influences you to start playing and keep playing, what player(s) did/do watch the most, what player(s) taught/teach you the most, what players(s) did/do you train with the most,

- Share Smash/Melee history stuff

- Let me know what you think we should do and how we should do it
 
Last edited:

Ryuker

Smash Lord
Joined
Sep 16, 2003
Messages
1,520
Location
The Hague , Netherlands
So I was asked to post a compilation of the post I made on facebook regarding were the early euro scene came from. I've copied the condensed version over for now, I'll try to write a more elaborate one from my point of view when I have some more time.

There's probably some mistakes in here but from what I can remember all of early days europe can pretty much be traced back to MrSilver(Netherlands), Helios(Sweden), Masterlink(France), TheDoug? and Kone(UK), and some others that I'm not sure of right now, since they pretty much kickstarted the scene in their respective countries. Interesting enough MrSilver attended the earlier TG's which probably inspired him to step up the tournament quality in the Netherlands. Helios and some of the french and UK attended his later tournaments and after those it kinda spread out.
I think most of us studied US and Japan players and local top players and well used smashboards. Then there were players that had a good friend+training partner and didn't really care about top players or smashboards that much.
In the end CaptainJack brought us all together since he was the guy everyone wanted to meet and beat and when he came over we all tried to attend to catch a glimpse of him, that is of course until EK and Amsah challenged him and Amsah beat EK and CJ. Then came Armada (but that's skipping ahead quite a bit :p)

Obviously there's a lot more to it with all these small groups together and local champions but this is the extremely condensed version of it I guess.

In addition I posted a idea for how I could imagine data like this could be visualized. Think it can be really cool if you could enter the data somewhere for each player and then visualize it with web of links to players your connected to and a option to organize in a family tree and stuff. Then you can start grouping based on those.

Kinda like you can dynamically sort and order different elements in a program like yEd - http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.htm

Guess the hard part is getting the data, once you got that you can visualize it in a million ways.
 

MookieRah

Kinda Sorta OK at Smash
Joined
Mar 7, 2004
Messages
5,384
Location
Umeå, Sweden
The crew I came from is quite unknown, but we were a big part in helping establish the Memphis scene, which included people like Iori and Pika-Chad. Our crew even had ties to Isai and MikeG.

Would you guys be interested in that?
 

thespymachine

Smash Ace
Joined
May 23, 2006
Messages
830
Location
Henderson, NV
@ Ryuker Ryuker Thanks! :)

The crew I came from is quite unknown, but we were a big part in helping establish the Memphis scene, which included people like Iori and Pika-Chad. Our crew even had ties to Isai and MikeG.

Would you guys be interested in that?
Incredibly interested. Any way we can get the totality of Melee history into one place would be great.
And any ties to Isai would be incredible. lol
 

MookieRah

Kinda Sorta OK at Smash
Joined
Mar 7, 2004
Messages
5,384
Location
Umeå, Sweden
It's kinda weird how it all came about with Isai, same with MikeG. A series of strange circumstances. We also had a run in with Anden, Azen's old training partner (at the time he was like Azen's Isai, but he wasn't as known because he moved to Arakansas farily early in the Golden Era), and he crashed at my place. I'll try to write all of this up when I have the time though.
 

MechWarriorNY

Smash Master
Joined
Oct 3, 2009
Messages
4,455
3DS FC
5387-4245-6828
I'm hype.
With how many Smash-history relevant media there is, WE'LL NEED A SEPARATE THREAD
SPEAKING OF WHICH
http://www.youtube.com/user/EastPointPictures
They can help(already have with the documentary, but they probably have a lot of stuff they didn't use, etc.)
THE TIMELINE WILL BE REAL AS HELL
 

thespymachine

Smash Ace
Joined
May 23, 2006
Messages
830
Location
Henderson, NV
Timeline draft up.

@ MechWarriorNY MechWarriorNY


Timeline (Draft Outline)
I. Ancient Melee
A. Competitive SSB (pre-Melee)

B. Pre-MLG (still division on ruleset, no international tournaments)
1. Tournament Go series

a. Ken wins TG4
b. TG5 brings top East Coast players (Azen placing 4th)​
2. Game Over (West @ East)​

a. Chillin beats Ken
b. Ken and Isai get 1st and 3rd, respectively, and win teams - Azen gets 2nd​
II. Golden Era
A. TG6

1. First international tournament
2. First limited stage and no items tournament*
3. Azen wins, besting Japan's Captain Jack​
B. MLG 05
C. MELEE-FC 3

D. MLG 06

1. PC Chris defeats Ken at New York opener
2. Throughout year, 3 different winners at MLG [1]​
D. Post-MLG
1. 2007: Year of M2K
a. 1st @ Cataclysm 3, 2nd @ Pound 2, 1st @ FC-Diamond, 2nd @ OC3, 1st @ Super Champ Combo
b. Ken returns with a win at EVO​
2. Pound 3:
a. Mango defeats Catuar, Forward, Azen, Chu Dat, Cort, PC Christ, and then M2K in two straight sets to get 1stb. Brawl was released one month later in North America​
III. Silver Era
A. Mango's Dominance
1. After Pound 3, wins every tournament he attends besides one. [2]
2. Gets 1st at 25 out 28 attended tournaments in the years 2008 & 2009 [2]​
B. Revitalizing Hype
1. Wombo Combo (early December 2008)
2. M2K vs DaShizWiz 4 (March 2009)​
C. Genesis
1. Largest tournament at the time (290 entrants)
2. Armada's first time playing North Americans
3. Mango vs Armada
D. Pound 4
1. Quickly became the largest tournament at the time (347)
2. Armada loses to SS and Amsah
3. Mango defeats Hungrybox in GF
4. First major stream by VideoGameBootCamp*​
E. Apex 2010
F. Project M release
G. Pound V
1. Shenanigans​
H. Genesis 2
1. Armada wins​
I. Apex 2012
J. MELEE-FC Legacy
K. Melee It On Me
1. RoM 5 shenanigans starts podcast​
L. Apex 2013
1. Armada retires​
M. EVO
1. Melee wins fundraiser, spearheaded by MIOM
2. Road to EVO
3. EVO
a. Largest Melee tournament so far (696)
b. Mango wins
c. Wobbles retires​
N. The Smash Bros.
1. Documentary series by East Point Pictures
2. Provides even more exposure and players to Melee​
O. Return of the Mew2King
1. Wins The Big House 3
a. Hax (plus others?) meme 20XX goes viral as it's shared on stream​
2. Wins Pound V.5, RoM6, Fight Pitt III, KoC3​
P. MIOM's Top 100 players​
IV. Renaissance
A. Apex 2014
 
Last edited:

DarkDragoon

Smash Champion
Joined
Dec 19, 2007
Messages
2,694
Location
AZ
NNID
LordDarkDragoon
Current mission(s)

All Members:
- Post your genealogy: what region/scene/crew(s) you come from, who/what inspired/inspires and influenced/influences you to start playing and keep playing, what player(s) did/do watch the most, what player(s) taught/teach you the most, what players(s) did/do you train with the most
Region: Origin - New England/Connecticut/Massachusetts - I watched Mew2King the most. Spawn, Zoso, Banks, and HazyGoose taught me the most, and I trained the most with Spawn, HazyGoose, KevinM, Zoso, Yedi (whack), and GotPho. Member of: Four Swords, Blade Breakers, WPI Crew.

As of 2013 - Moved to AZ. Haven't done a whole lot of playing since I've moved here, but I've played a good amount with AZ Smashers whose tags I don't even know aside from TAI. And MacD is going to be one of my groomsmen in a wedding I have coming up in 2015. Probably not relevant though?

I was inspired by MLG Videos/that article that named Ken as one of the most dangerous gamers(I forgot that's where I got started until I heard it mentioned in the documentary!). Although I don't think I was really inspired as much as I was just made aware that this was a thing.

-DD
 

Engo

Smash Ace
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Messages
865
Location
the dog,the dog he's at it again!
I always thought of Melee's history as roughly parallel with some different historical periods.

2001-2004 Archaic Melee (Like Archaic Greece this era cemented the founding blocks of the community which would forever remain part of its idenitity)
2004-2007 Classic Melee (Like Classical Greece the smash scene is flourishing and represents the era synonymous with Professional Smash)
2008 The Dark Ages (The severe drop in attendance and activity, tournaments, retiring players is akin to the demographic, urban and intellectual breakdown of the first few hundred years of Western Europe after the fall of Rome)
2009-2012: Modernity. gradual return to activity, professional tournaments, commentary, quickly advancing metagame. The international scene becomes a more real concept with the activity of Armada and other Europeans in America.
2013-Now: Neo-Classic Smash.A second golden age.
 
Last edited:

MechWarriorNY

Smash Master
Joined
Oct 3, 2009
Messages
4,455
3DS FC
5387-4245-6828
I always thought of Melee's history as roughly parallel with some different historical periods.

2001-2004 Archaic Melee (Like Archaic Greece this era cemented the founding blocks of the community which would forever remain part of its idenitity)
2004-2007 Classic Melee (Like Classical Greece the smash scene is flourishing and represents the era synonymous with Professional Smash)
2008 The Dark Ages (The severe drop in attendance and activity, tournaments, retiring players is akin to the demographic, urban and intellectual breakdown of the first few hundred years of Western Europe after the fall of Rome)
2009-2012: Modernity. gradual return to activity, professional tournaments, commentary, quickly advancing metagame. The international scene becomes a more real concept with the activity of Armada and other Europeans in America.
2013-Now: Neo-Classic Smash.A second golden age.
Like I've termed it before sometimes, "Smash History"; you thought that was just jargon?

On serious notes, definitely the right ballpark, and close enough to being unquestionably close enough to utter truth that the only questionable parts of a timeline like this are what gets to be in the blurbs, everything else is stuff all smashers would be nodding their heads at(I certainly did).
OD good job, dude.

Sir, I just wanted to say that I like your hype.
I like being the spectacle/part of one no matter what. Smash/the FGC inspire me to do so efficiently.

Why do you think I money matched so much(before rent was a problem if I went overboard)?
 

thespymachine

Smash Ace
Joined
May 23, 2006
Messages
830
Location
Henderson, NV
Timeline (Draft Outline)
I. Ancient Melee
A. Competitive SSB (pre-Melee)
B. Pre-MLG (still division on ruleset, no international tournaments)
1. Tournament Go series
a. Ken wins TG4
b. TG5 brings top East Coast players (Azen placing 4th)​
2. Game Over (West @ East)
a. Chillin beats Ken
b. Ken and Isai get 1st and 3rd, respectively, and win teams - Azen gets 2nd​
II. Golden Era
A. TG6
1. First international tournament
2. First limited stage and no items tournament*
3. Azen wins, besting Japan's Captain Jack​
B. MLG 05
C. MELEE-FC 3
D. MLG 06
1. PC Chris defeats Ken at New York opener
2. Throughout year, 3 different winners at MLG [1]​
E. Post-MLG
1. 2007: Year of M2K
a. 1st @ Cataclysm 3, 2nd @ Pound 2, 1st @ FC-Diamond, 2nd @ OC3, 1st @ Super Champ Combo
b. Ken returns with a win at EVO​
2. Pound 3:
a. Mango defeats Catuar, Forward, Azen, Chu Dat, Cort, PC Christ, and then M2K in two straight sets to get 1stb. Brawl was released one month later in North America​
III. Silver Era
A. Mango's Dominance
1. After Pound 3, wins every tournament he attends besides one. [2]
2. Gets 1st at 25 out 28 attended tournaments in the years 2008 & 2009 [2]​
B. Revitalizing Hype
1. Wombo Combo (early December 2008)
2. M2K vs DaShizWiz 4 (March 2009)​
C. Genesis
1. Largest tournament at the time (290 entrants)
2. Armada's first time playing North Americans
3. Mango vs Armada
D. Pound 4
1. Quickly became the largest tournament at the time (347)
2. Armada loses to SS and Amsah
3. Mango defeats Hungrybox in GF
4. First major stream by VideoGameBootCamp*​
E. Apex 2010
F. Project M release
G. Pound V
1. Shenanigans​
H. Genesis 2
1. Armada wins​
I. Apex 2012
J. MELEE-FC Legacy
K. Melee It On Me
1. RoM 5 shenanigans starts podcast​
L. Apex 2013
1. Armada retires​
M. EVO
1. Melee wins fundraiser, spearheaded by MIOM
2. Road to EVO
3. EVO
a. Largest Melee tournament so far (696)
b. Mango wins
c. Wobbles retires​
N. The Smash Bros.
1. Documentary series by East Point Pictures
2. Provides even more exposure and players to Melee​
O. Return of the Mew2King
1. Wins The Big House 3
a. Hax's (plus others?) 20XX meme goes viral as it's shared on stream
2. Wins Pound V.5, RoM6, Fight Pitt III, KoC3​
P. MIOM's Top 100 players​
IV. Renaissance
A. Apex 2014​
 

-ShadowPhoenix-

Smash Bash
Joined
Nov 22, 2009
Messages
2,295
Location
El Paso, Texas
NNID
ShdwPhnx
3DS FC
2595-1989-8575
I would add that Mang0 was sent into losers round 1 at Pound 3 because he lost link dittos against silentwolf making his climb to grand finals even more impressive
 
Joined
Jun 27, 2005
Messages
10,463
Location
the west
dont forget to mention that genesis 1 was basically the revival of melee after brawl basically shattered the scene. and the legendary "**** brawl" chant that took place there lmao. i was upset genesis didnt get enough mention in the documentary.
 

Alexo30

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Oct 9, 2013
Messages
355
Location
Memphis
The crew I came from is quite unknown, but we were a big part in helping establish the Memphis scene, which included people like Iori and Pika-Chad. Our crew even had ties to Isai and MikeG.

Would you guys be interested in that?
What up tho, Memphis hype.
 

FooltheFlames

needs hugs~<3
Joined
Oct 27, 2008
Messages
951
Location
Ashley's Haunted Mansion!
Almost 13 years later and were STILL playing this game and (finding new things?;haven't been arounf for while) and STILL having fun with it! That's why it's my favorite!
I predict most people will move on from brawl and not head back anytime soon to Brawl...
 
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