The Forgotten Year: Storylines from Melee’s 2020 Offline Tournaments

By Brendan "wheat" Malone | 03/02/21

However, for a year marked by the disappearance of in-person events, 2020 had its fair share of notable events and players in the three months of LAN tournaments. They represent a time that is easily forgotten, one where 2020 represented the hopes of a new year instead of how we now view the year. The following are highlights of this overlooked time, showcasing the breakouts, victories and storylines of Melee’s forgotten year.

For most of Melee’s modern lifespan, the game has been ruled by a singular titan, with the past three years seeing

Hungrybox

as the number one player in the world. However, beginning with

Mang0

’s first place at The Big House 9 in late October 2019, 2020 was shaping up to be up for grabs when it came to the top slot. Mang0’s wins at late 2019 events such as The Big House 9 and Mang0’s Birthday Bash made him a contender, but it was

Zain

and Hungrybox who had the biggest claims to the title. '

At Genesis 7, Zain was able to accomplish what eluded him for the previous year: he was able to finally win a major, edging out players such as Hungrybox and Mang0 to take home the gold.

And it was at Smash Summit 9 only three weeks later where Hungrybox was able to work his way from losers to claim victory at the invitational. It was unclear who would end up as the number one player for the year, but one thing was clear: with this level of strong talent, it wouldn’t come easily.

One of the most exciting things about Melee in the year 2020 was the level of talent brimming over at the top level. While 2019 saw the emergence of

iBDW

as a top 10 player, 2020’s up-and-coming Fox players weren’t actually very up-and-coming at all. Both

Hax$

and

Fiction

had both been in the Smash community since the late 2000s, and both had previously been highly ranked in Melee before taking extended hiatuses from the game. However, when both returned in the past years, fans were skeptical of their ability to compete at their previous level. 

For Fiction, Melee became a hobby more than a lifestyle, with him only entering a handful of tournaments from 2015 before his return in late 2018. For Hax$, however, it was a more complicated story. With chronic hand issues persisting for most of the past few years, he approached this challenge with a unique solution: creating his own GameCube controller alternative, a Hitbox style controller named the B0xx.

Despite these roadblocks, both players saw success in 2019 with strong placings and many top level wins. Going into 2020, they were able to find new realized potential as bona fide top ten level players. With both players placing top 8 at the two most important events of 2020, Genesis 7 and Smash Summit 9, Hax$ and Fiction were well on their way to prove themselves as top level threats.

Despite Melee being on the better side of twenty years old, each year the community has seen new players etch their name into the storied history of the game. In 2019, nearly thirty players made their debut on the annual top 100, and 2020 was setting up to be no different. 

Among these new players were international talent such as

Soonsay

and

Pricent

, both who were able to show off their improvement in the first few months of the year. When Pricent, Norway’s first ever top 100 player, was voted into Smash Summit 9 expectations were low for the little-known player. Despite this, he was able to hold his own, taking games off of top level players and defeating

Shroomed

in the process.

As for Soonsay, his accomplishments were on a smaller, but no less important, scale. While his only big tournament was 65th at Genesis 7, his regional events showed a different story for the Fox main. Soonsay won strong regional events in both Canada and the United Kingdom, winning them over top players such as

moky

,

n0ne

,

Professor Pro

and

Setchi

, showcasing himself as a player primed for a breakout.

While it’s usually impossible to predict the outcome of the top 100 so early in the year, 2020 saw new players emerge building strong resumes only months into the new year. Players such as Philadelphia’s

SluG

, with wins over

Spark

and

Stango

, were capitalizing on years spent as a strong regional threat, whereas other players began to emerge from more mysterious origins.

Rarely leaving his home state of New York,

Aklo

follows in the footsteps of his brother, another strong Long Island player by the tag of

FoxyGrandpa

. Despite this, Aklo had cemented himself as one of the best players in all of Tristate by purely local prowess. While he picked up many ranked wins at the local series Hax’s Nightclub, it was his win at Scorpius 2020 that really solidified himself as an up-and-coming player, taking it handily over players such as

2saint

and

Ryobeat

. In addition to these players, we also saw strong international talent such as Finland’s

Solobattle

and Chile’s

Blassy

gain wins over top talent such as

Trif

and Spark, respectively. 

All of these players and events represented what 2020 could’ve been: yet another strong year in the long and exciting history of Super Smash Bros. Melee. And yet, while it’s easy to focus on the year that could have been, Melee has been able to thrive in these circumstances regardless. It’s thanks to the passion of fans and players that we can continue to see Melee in the current day, and when we finally attend in-person events again, a whole new crop of players and storylines will be there waiting for us.

Brenadn "wheat' Malone is a seeder of Super Smash Bros. Melee events and part of the adminstrative team for the MPGR. You can follow him on twitter at @GimmeDatWheat and watch his videos at the Melee Stats YouTube channel.