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The Melee Stats Top 100: 30-21

By Melee Stats | 11/17/21

The Melee Stats Top 100 Players of All-Time as presented by PGstats continues today with the reveal of players 30-21.

For more on the methodology behind these rankings, the people who made this all possible, and the schedule going forward, read our introductory article here.
For other articles in the series, see below:
By Melissa Blight
In the early days of Melee, Japan was often seen as the clear best region in the world, a mythical land of true gods of the game that Americans could never even touch. While the validity of that statement is debatable, one thing is for certain:
was the real deal.
Coming over for the legendary Tournament Go 6, CaptainJack immediately turned heads with his destruction of Ken in friendlies, where he destroyed him with Donkey Kong and Bowser. He proceeded to get second at the same event, where he beat
, also following up the performance at MLG San Francisco 2004, where he defeated Ken and 6-0'd Isai to win the tournament.
CaptainJack remained an international threat for many years after, as he occasionally traveled to both Europe and Australia to take on many of their best players - years before we'd ever have a truly connected scene.
By Anokh "EdwinBudding" Palakurthi
has a strong case for being the most decorated NorCal player ever, as he finished No. 1 in his region eight times.
With that said, I bet if you asked PewPewU what he was most proud of, he'd instantly bring up doubles. In this format of the game, its uncontested greatest modern Marth player constantly teamed up with his longtime pal
for about a decade, at one point winning 12 straight doubles events together.
However, my personal favorite PewPewU moment came in singles, when he outdueled SFAT in an incredible 14-game marathon to win the 10 year anniversary Wombo Combo tournament. Upon coming out on top, PewPewU, unsurprisingly, embraced his best friend.
By Zane "Epengu" Bhansali
Every year,
,
, and
go to Round Table and order a gargantuan Wombo Combo pizza to share. That Zhu eagerly extends a legend in which he is literal punching bag is the best testament to his character: always in on the joke, always for the good of the community. 
His legacy also extends far beyond that of team combo ragdoll; before there was
or
, it was Zhu who put Falco in top eights and inspired young birds to stretch their wings (I should know - I'm one of them). A year before retiring, he promised that if he couldn’t top eight a major in the next year, he would hang up his controller. When he made good on that promise, Melee lost one of its greatest competitors, but it didn’t lose Zhu. Trust me - we never will.
By Melissa Blight
is a pillar of our scene, from its very beginnings to the modern day. From player, to TO, to commentator, he's done it all, reaching highs that seem surreal when you take a step back.
No other player can say they have set wins on Ken,
, and
in their primes. No other player can say they practically invented modern TO'ing, as Chillin basically ran the first modern major ever at 2004's Game Over. No other player can say they made a career of making banger raps directed towards smashers.
In every facet of the game, Chillin is truly top of the line. If "My B" proves anything, it's that he can even turn a loss into an incredible win.
By Zane "Epengu" Bhansali
According to
, the greatest Melee to ever grace this earth occurred in the hours of friendlies that came from his stay with
for Super Nebulous 4. We’ll never see the VODs of that night, so you should take Westballz with a grain of salt - but after watching their set from that same tournament, you might be inclined to believe him.
Great players reveal the borders of our game; incredible players make it clear those borders don’t exist. At Westballz’s best, he threw the limits of Falco so far to the horizon that we couldn’t see them anymore.
By Anokh "EdwinBudding" Palakurthi
If there were such a thing as an All-Decade Team for Melee players,
would make the 2010s list. Having beaten Mango,
, Mew2King and
, Lucky has also finished in the Top 25 of the MPGR in every year of its existence.
One especially overlooked accomplishment, however, is that from 2007 to 2020, Lucky finished at least Top 10 within SoCal - 14 years of being considered among the best players in Melee's most historic region. This is a place where winning any of its weeklies used to be considered accomplishments right under winning majors, and Lucky's done that numerous times across multiple eras. No matter what year it is, he's going to be someone to look out for; an undeniable legend of the game.
By Jacob "chroma" Robins
Scour the ancient internet, and you'll find a video from 2008 titled "Hey Hugs," a "combo" video of Evo 2007's runner-up that's mostly just him slowly winning neutral. Cute, you think, but no way a player like this could keep up in today's blindingly fast, punish-heavy metagame, let alone as Samus.
Cut to ten years later at Genesis 5: a gigantic crowd watches as
battles
, a player so dazzlingly innovative and modern that he seems sent from the future even now. In the early hours of his 32nd birthday, HugS finally emerges victorious to make top eight of a supermajor once again.
He started playing this game at dozen-player locals held in SoCal garages, losing to Ken's sister, and now you can catch him commentating events as a Big 4-accountant-turned-content creator, burgeoning Rally mogul, and legend of the game. Who could've imagined?
By Melissa Blight
is my favorite player of all-time, in no small part because of the immense impact he left on Melee history. Since his regional ninth-place breakout at NorCal Tournament 2, where Ken coined the term "wobbling," Wobbles'smere tag has become a term that you can't forget once you learn it.
Funnily enough, he didn't even invent wobbling, but he did invent hand-offs, which were, of course, not named after him. Regardless, his EVO 2013 run is easily the best second place run of all-time. Coming with sets over
, Lord,
, Mango, PPMD, and Hungrybox, it's practically equivalent to a major win, as Wobbles vanquished impossible foe after impossible foe before suddenly finding himself as the last person standing in winners bracket.
By Anokh "EdwinBudding" Palakurthi
started garnering national attention when he made the New York City Power Rankings for the first time in 2016. Today, he's a household name, beating Hungrybox, Mango,
,
, SFAT, and several others on his way to where he is now.
If you're wondering why iBDW is so high in spite of a relatively short career, it's that winning Riptide made him the newest member to Melee's pantheon of major champions. This is an extraordinary accomplishment that should never be underlooked in the context of assessing all-time legacies.
Sidenote: it's worth noting what a shining example iBDW sets for what a dedicated top player looks like. Breaking long-established community precedent of top players dodging their hardest opponents in friendlies, iBDW instead goes out of his way to grind matches with his toughest peers. If you've been following his stream, you'll know that he sometimes chases down potential rivals just to kick them into shape.
By Anokh "EdwinBudding" Palakurthi
's entire career has been the story of proving people like me wrong about his character. Every time you think he can't possibly do it again, he does it again. Mew2King, Hungrybox, Plup: he's defeated all of these players and more.
His success isn't just a byproduct of character unfamiliarity either. Today, more mid-level Yoshis have entered the playing field and given his rivals more experience against the character. Meanwhile, aMSa, who doesn't get consistent practice against top players at all, beats Mango, one of the best players in the world, at Smash Summit 11 on his first try since the start of the pandemic. Imagine what we'll say if aMSa ever finally wins a major.
The Melee Stats Top 100 will continue Friday with the reveal of players 20-11. Follow @MeleeStatsPod and @PGstats on Twitter to keep up with the full series.