The Melee Stats Top 100: 40-31
The Melee Stats Top 100 Players of All-Time as presented by PGstats continues today with the reveal of players 30-21.
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 Anokh "EdwinBudding" Palakurthi
Is it ever possible for to be bad? Let's take a look. After finishing in the world Top 50 for three years in a row, an achievement that would already cement his place in Melee history, Fiction took a two year break from the game. When he came back, it didn't take long for him to return to his previous level, and in early 2020, he basically looked like a Top 10 player in the world.
Think about how wild that is, and then consider that he's close to doing the same thing within the last year and a half - while switching characters. Already boasting career victories over the likes of , , , , and countless other top players, Fiction remains one of the best players in SoCal. I'm going to say that the answer to my original question is a resounding "no."
By Melissa Blight
I still can't believe, a decade after his peak chaingrabbing-Mew2King years, Drephen managed to outright qualify for Smash Summit 8. His ninth at Smash 'N' Splash 5 is a vastly underrated run in the annals of Smash History, and his two sets over and in the Summit tiebreakers are some of the most iconic sets.
This is not to discount his old-school days, where Drephen often showed up in big ways, much to everyone's continued surprise. All he did was spotdodge and grab - and yet, he consistently proved that was all you needed, most notably tearing Azen a new one almost every time they met.
By Melissa Blight
is quite possibly the biggest what-if in the history of our game. While Ken, Mew2King and Mango were dominating the scene in North America, Amsah was casually making the greatest comeback of all-time and cleaning up Europe, going over a year without dropping a tournament. He often ran through players like Ek, The Doug, Helios and a young . Eventually, he defeated the invading CaptainJack when the top Japanese player came to Europe.
By Melissa Blight
is the embodiment of Captain Falcon. On any other player, the tag of Darkrain would be lame, edgy, and honestly a little cringe. But in the hands of the Mind Reader himself, he was the coolest player ever grace the Earth. It's really hard to pick his most memorable moments, between the legendary Darkrain Combo on Isai at FC3, the quintuple knee on SFAT at FC Legacy, and his consecutive 25th placings at three Evos, which involved wins over and .
By Eryk "Ambisinister" Banatt
is a true icon, the original face of the technical green Fox player. Few know this, but God created Silent Wolf specifically so that he could make 's tournament career a living nightmare - a nightmare which would only end with Silent Wolf's eventual departure from the game.
An absolute menace against Sheik and Marth, Silent Wolf boasts sets against and Mew2King which still stand as some of the finest performances of his career. once got mad at us for not including more Silent Wolf in the Best Upsets of All Time bracket, but I'll have to reiterate - if you are just better than your opponent, can it really be called an upset?
By Anokh "EdwinBudding" Palakurthi
started his career as somewhat of an urban Smash legend from Nicaragua. Then, he quickly rose to the top of Canada and stunned the world by defeating Mew2King at GOML 2016 in one of the most mindblowing upsets of the modern era. That wasn't the only first for him; n0ne also eventually became the first Falcon in a decade to take a set from Mango.
There's probably going to be many other "firsts" that n0ne will give his character, but for now, I want to give him props for doing something even more crazy: winning Melee Jeopardy over PPMD and . This glorious accomplishment came in spite of n0ne falling behind in a special category about...himself.
By Melissa Blight
was, and likely still is, a genius. Best known for being "The Ice Climbers who didn't wobble", that didn't mean Fly couldn't kill you off a single grab: just ask about The Big House 2. Otherwise, Fly sometimes feels like a vastly underrated player among some of his peers, even as he has insane accomplishments.
Wins on Mango, Mew2King, Hungrybox and PPMD are nothing to scoff at, and his run to being No. 1 in SoCal in 2014, the deadliest Melee region of the era, is something that should not be overlooked. Nor should we ever forget his first place finish at The Next Episode or how he's one of only 30 people to make grand finals of a major.
By Anokh "EdwinBudding" Palakurthi
A fun fact about is that he began his career by destroying Hungrybox in-region around the same time as Hungrybox's national breakout. I could talk about how Colbol was the No. 10 player of 2014, how he beat Mew2King, or about how he made life hell for every Ice Climbers and Captain Falcon player who had to play him, but let's be real. There's no other Fox who sacrifices his own stocks in such consistently glorious fashion and still beats 99 percent of his opponents.
The year could be 2030 and I would be totally unsurprised to see Colbol in top eight of CEO, advancing the "side-B off the stage" metagame in spectacular ways and also running over some of the greatest players in the world like it's nothing.
By Melissa Blight
A line that I'll always remember about Jman is from the legend himself, . At The Big House 4, he made an offhand remark about Melee's shifting landscape, specifically how had basically replaced Jman as the primary challenger to the "five gods." In hindsight, Waff was spot on, with Jman being the clear sixth best player of the Brawl era.
From 3-0'ing Mango's Falco during Mango's dominant 2009 stretch, to winning Apex 2009, to even winning Don't Go Down There Jeff - where Jman became the first person to win a tournament that featured two "gods" - the comparison was apt.
