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The Melee Stats Top 100: 60-51

By Melee Stats | 11/10/21

The Melee Stats Top 100 Players of All-Time as presented by PGstats continues today with the reveal of players 60-51.

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 Brendan "GimmeDatWheat" Malone
Picture a player who is a mainstay of the top 50, a multi-game threat and one of the most analytical minds behind their character. There’s actually two of them:
and
. Both brothers transitioned from practicing together in their home to gaining wins on nationally-ranked players at majors all across the country.
However, nothing proved lloD’s diligent, cerebral play style more than winning Even Bigger Balc in 2018. Using a little-known Peach technique called “sub-float”, lloD defeated
,
and
twice to conquer the West Coast just weeks before his first day at med school. What a month, huh?
By Eryk "Ambisinister" Banatt
There's a lot of talk about grinders these days. Sure, it's impressive when a player spends every afternoon playing strangers, but nobody can hold a candle to
when it comes to single sessions. He famously played Melee for 72 hours straight to break a world record at Smash The Record.
It should come as no surprise that Gahtzu emerged as one of the rising stars between 2020 and 2021, where he entered a mind-boggling number of tournaments and emerged with victories over
,
, and
. He even toppled Fiction, the final boss of Captain Falcon vs Fox, in their only set, becoming the only Falcon player to have a positive lifetime record over him.
By Anokh "EdwinBudding" Palakurthi
No Melee player actively dominated their local scene for as long as
ruled Chicago. For 10 years, Kels always ended up No. 1 in his city. More often than not, he would win bigger Midwest regionals too, beating players like
,
, VaNz, and other local legends.
You might remember Kels' first supermajor breakout at The Big House 4, but want to know what's more impressive than any player he beat? The fact that after years of sonning so many of them with multiple characters, Kels finally got the Midwest to root for him at a tournament.
By Leon "ycz6" Zhou
Before players like PC Chris,
, and
came onto the scene, the  No. 1 player in New York was a trash-talking Samus main from Manhattan. Wes dominated the Northeast in the early days of Melee, regularly placing top eight at national events.
On top of his tourney results, Wes’ stylish and innovative Samus play, his role as leader of top crew Deadly Alliance, and his brash, outspoken pride as a resident of the East Coast made him one of Melee's first big personalities in an era before social media.
By Anokh "EdwinBudding" Palakurthi
During the post-Brawl era, you could guarantee that Darc would be in Top 32 of any national. If it weren't for Mango and Hungrybox dominating the scene, maybe Darc would be more recognized by modern smashers as one of the original Jigglypuff legends.
On a tangential note, does anyone else remember the one-time doubles team of Darc and Hungrybox? It was an ungodly duo that finished second at Revival of Melee 7 - the best placement of a double Puff team at a major.
By Anokh "EdwinBudding" Palakurthi
Along with
, Axe, and
, Forward is part of a small group of people to ever finish No. 1 in an Arizona power rankings. However, his impact on Falco's metagame, including developing basic concepts of corner pressure and punish game, put him in a completely different stratosphere from otherwise comparable peers.
It would not be a stretch to state that Forward's influence is comparable or greater than Bombsoldier's. He even defeated his Japanese contemporary in a much anticipated showdown at Zero Challenge 3.
By Anokh "EdwinBudding" Palakurthi
Today's generation of Melee players might know
as a commentator. However, Lovage was once a player considered just under the tier of the gods. From stunning Hungrybox in pools at GENESIS 2 to his legendary loser's run to second at Northwest Manifest, Lovage boasts competitive accomplishments that few others have.
Not to mention, he casually has the greatest upset of all-time: beating
out of nowhere at GT-X 2017, years after the world thought it had seen the best of Lovage.
By Anokh "EdwinBudding" Palakurthi
There's few players who have reached the level of viral infamy as SilentSpectre. Beyond becoming the star of "Wombo Combo," SilentSpectre was one of the most electrifying players of DBR and a mainstay of NorCal Melee.
In 2009, he was one of four people to take a set from Mango, and to start the next year, he sent
to losers bracket early at Pound 4. Before you ask: No; I don't care that it was on 0.9 damage ratio - it was still awesome.
By Melissa Blight
Sastopher's resume is actually unbelievable. He often showed up when it mattered against the best of the best, being one of the only people to have wins on Ken, Isai, and
in the MLG years. Even though he rarely attended events, he was a serious threat at the few he went to.
Think about it for a second: Sastopher got second at a supermajor. Do you know many Peach players can claim they did that? It's a short list.
By Eryk "Ambisinister" Banatt
is, inarguably, the best Fox player ever to come out of Canada. He saw numerous strong finishes prior to 2013, most notably an impressive ninth place finish at Apex 2012. After his return to the game in 2015, it didn't take long for him to start posting impressive results again. He would occasionally break into the top eight of major tournaments, placing seventh at both Dreamhack Atlanta 2017 and EGLX 2018.
With wins on
, Gahtzu, and
, Ryan Ford is a player with a long history within the game, and a player whose history will no doubt continue into the future.
We've reached the halfway point! The Melee Stats Top 100 will continue Friday with the reveal of players 50-41. Follow @MeleeStatsPod and @PGstats on Twitter to keep up with the full series.