This is peak Melee, 2 doc kids that play the ubiquitous Fox vs. Marth MU, pushing the meta to its absolute limit even when everyone else thinks that it cannot be further optimized, while racing for #1 in a very mature meta for a 22 year old game. Zain and Cody are legends and this is fitting for the final Shine tournament.
Probably the set of the year , we went from double both Cody and Zain destroying each other with 3-Os into a Game 5 last stock , and last tournament game. THERE IS MUCH MORE MELEE TO BE PLAY !
@@DJprofessorK my first thought after it ended was "DAMN zain made him play such a good set". there was no mercy, that fd m2k game wouldve broken most players. Cody really had to step it up to win and he played some of the best melee ever to do it. there was NO free space the entire time. absolutely unreal precision and speed and knowledge and preparation from both players. that walltech game looked literally like TAS stuff from the old times
@@CreamyPesto505 Easily, I think the only time his commentary bugged me was when Armada went YL against Hbox. All he could keep going on about is "this is so stupid". There was actually A LOT going on from a mindgames standpoint, if HMW could look beyond the characters not constantly interacting like he's used to. Almost wish they got a low tier main to commentate that set, cuz we're used to playing that battle of attrition to compensate for what strengths our characters lack.
@@hibernate44 Your opinion; commentators are supposed to be unbiased, especially for a major tourney. HMW annoyed the fuck out of those of us actually intrigued by the match-up and game play. It was like watching chess on steroids, and I fucking loved it. If he couldn't say anything constructive, they should have gotten someone who would.
Cody putting on a huge grin going into his last stock of the last game at the last ever Melee set at Shine, then winning... something about it gives me goosebumps bruh
Zain and Cody are setting up to have one of the most memorable rivalries in Melee history. People tend to say that without Mang0 or Hbox the game would die out, but, man, if you ain’t watching Melee right now just because the old guard is slowly fizzling away, you are missing out on some awesome gameplay. I sure hope Amsa and Jmook start coming back into the form they should last year, because Cody, Zain and Leffen are starting to widen the gap from everyone else.
It's a bit weird to include Leffen when Jmook has more majors than him this year while Leffen barely went to anything to even have bad losses. E.g. imagine if jmook just went to the same amount of tournaments as leffen since the start or the year...people would still think he's top 2.
@@Dlord1PlayStation honest to god, your life on the line, would you bet on Jmook or Leffen to win a major with every top 50 player in attendance? Leffen's only lost to top 8 players + Joshman. Jmook has been losing to a lot of people outside of top 10 lately. While I do think Leffen's attendance should leave him out of any ranking, skill wise, Leffen is up there with Cody and Zain, imo. We could theorize how much more or less he would lose to people outside of top 10 if he attended more, but Leffen has a reputation of being extremely consistent.
@Supertaldo916 That's a flawed question because 1. most people would have said jmook after Collision, which is my point. You know jmook is still ahead of Leffen in the rankings, right? Leffen wasn't close to jmooks consistency up until that point. Jmooks head to heads were a lot better than leffens last year. Most of these bad losses came from the last few tournaments, which is my point. Same could have happened for leffen if he went to more tournaments. Recall that leffen has been upset many times throughout his career before. 2. Even if I did choose leffen, this doesn't prove that there's as large a gap between them as zain and cody. If leff didn't win LACS5, he wouldn't have even been top 5 in the rankings. That's how small the gap is. So no, leffen has not done enough this year to prove he has a substantial gap over jmook. He could be higher seeding wise because his last tourney win was more recent, but that's it. I'm sure jmook will get out of his slump, as leffen and others have done. Let's wait and see.
This whole tournament was incredible, so many moments to be preserved. But to have this specific Grand Finals matchup for the last iteration of Shine, a tournament series known for its crazy moments, felt so poetic and right. Raising chairs, S2J stomping Plup through Stadium, lloD taking a game off Hbox with Peach for the first time, SFAT counterpicking M2K to FD, and Zain taking his first set off of Axe. And now, the clear #1 and #2 in the world duking it out with everything they had, Set 2, Game 5. May Melee live on for many, many years more. This game is beautiful.
Am I crazy for my favorite Shine moment being Mekk vs Lucky last year? That was the set that got me back into being obsessed with Melee hilariously enough.
@@Amalingthey probably are referring to all the stuff he says on his streams when he’s playing. A lot of times he comes off as toxic. Watch his online matches between him and KJH recently, it’s almost like he has beef. Me personally, I think he uses anger to motivate his progress.
Cody haters should really give the guy another chance. Idk why the post game interview isn't here but in it he talks about how much work he's put into his mentality and it really shows. For the last year or so when Cody loses in irl tournaments it is always ggs, almost never johns, he tweets he needs to work harder and he does. Dude smiles on his tournament stock while fighting Zain because he appreciates the game that much. Ik Cody is known for being salty but that shit is always online and honestly his salt levels are FAR from abnormal for the average anonymous online gamer, dude just has a camera on him so we all see it. In person though you can really see how far he's come and I find it extremely admirable, how far his mentality has come and how much he has improved himself (not an easy thing to do) is legitimately extremely impressive. Lets go Cody Fuckin Schwab. Happy you won :)
Well judging from the crowd cheering and even twitch chat gave him respect he got a chance. Will every player always have their haters regardless if they improve as a person? Yes but overall those haters are a vocal minority and Cody has turned around his reputation and it's great to see. I hope his surgery for cancer goes well.
Nah, Im good. Trump haters should really give that guy another chance. Bush haters should really give that guy another chance. Thanos haters should really give that guy another chance. Anakin Skywalker haters should really give that guy another chance. Hulk Hogan haters should really give that guy another chance.
Instantly became one of the most iconic and legendary sets in Melee history. Between the amazing competitors, the commentators, and the crowd, this was so hype! Was rooting so hard for Zain but Cody played out of his mind, huge props to him!
cody has some of the best recoveries in the scene, the shine to fast fall recoveries he does off-stage is so interesting. such a good set and great commentary.
Incredibly clutch by Cody!! He’s so good at the Marth matchup… Man what a grand finals, what a perfect intense finish to the Shine series. The first and only spacie to win Shine
What an amazing grand finals, that was one of the closest 3-0s I’ve seen in a long time and then a game 5 last stock game to finish off True Finals. Nah man, just another showcase of why Melee will never die.
@@jesiah391 What are you doing looking at comments before you watch a set? Someone is gonna spoil it. Never look at the time remaining in the video/never look at comments is the standard for watching any tournament. You played yourself
@@paulpallo5513 I mean half true, def true that someone is going to spoil no matter what and I should have averted my eyes, but not true I was looking at the comments lol. I wasn’t in the comments, there’s always one comment showing when you’re on mobile and that happened to be showing right under the video. 2 points to consider tho: 1. The comment is actually top tier, the way it played out is def poetic so I say it outweighs the spoil so np 2. I didn’t play myself I played you 🫵🤣
I don’t understand how these guys can go back and forth beating each other up so badly.. they have more ridiculous one sided beat down games ON BOTH SIDES then any other two top player f2f
[EVERYBODY LIKE THIS POST TO DEPOSE THE ONE FULL OF SPOILERS THAT'S CURRENTLY SHOWING IMMEDIATELY FOR PHONE USERS KTHX] (no shade at the guy who posted - he was clearly just excited)
Game 2 of reset made me a Cody fan. That was pure heat, this guy pulls every trick out of his arsenide a magician. Normally a fox hater but this guy is a beast
@@peashooter6628If Zain had been on winners side this tournament, Grand Finals would have been less than 9 minutes. That hasn’t happened at a major since Armada vs Mango at one of the Genesis tournaments more than 6 years ago. Let that sink it.
@@johnkramer2144 Eh, you can't really say that. The player on winner's never plays their best because they're not looking elimination in the face, and they're usually not as warmed up as the loser's player. There's no way to know how the set would have gone if zain came from winner's. Sure, it could have been a 3-0 for zain, or cody could have 3-0ed for the reset like zain did and then have the same 5-game final set. We're not living in the timeline where zain came from winner's, so there's no way to know how it would have gone.
@SonGohan-fx3vb I'm not talking about results in tournament, I'm talking purely about melee technical ceilings, Cody is definitely on the same level if not better
Winners into the was some of the best Melee I’ve ever witnessed. Both were playing so well and the tension there was off the charts. So glad I got to see this live, and what a send off for the Shine series!!
This is what it looks like when the two best players in the world face off. The mind games run so deep. The defense is actually mind-boggling, on both sides, but Cody especially...he must be so frustrating to play against.
I didn't think anyone would ever dethrone Mang0 vs. Leffen as my favorite player matchup to watch, but Cody and Zain have done it. *Every single time* I watch these two play I feel like I'm watching the future of Melee in real time. No two players can come close to the collective height of skill that they reach when they're both on and it's fucking beautiful to watch. They're starting to build a case for greatest rivalry in Melee history.
15:34 "how did he get the Doraki... in Chillin we trust... up-air the red marth like he's chillin... the fendrick lamar?!... MewTwoKing!..." basically just namedropping for 30 seconds from the commentators lmao
Phenomenal commentary. A few recent tournaments have been nearly unlistenable with stupid internet jokes and commentators who provide no substance. Glad the last Shine wasn’t one of them.
It's crazy how much some players have been able to push the Fox counterplay on Marth. I have a feeling that this set is going to be a hallmark in the meta.
Both winners playing Fox, both winners from around New England, both winners getting shine combos during the set, both winners popping off and really caring a lot about winning this particular tournament. And both grand finals being some of the best Smash we’ve seen in a long time. Perfection ❤️ I’m glad Shine went out on top
It's impressive to see both Zain and Cody develop into abolsute menaces. Zain became famous as the different Marth with swagger and style but now he's also deadly precise like M2K was in his prime. Kind of reminded me of him, in some moments he was like a concrete wall. Cody for famous with the cracked Fox tech skill but now has a lot of the Mang0 esque "just wing it" play to him. Endless mix ups and creativity but still cracked tech skill. It's kind of interesting to see their style develop over the years, the skill ceiling in this is nowhere to be reached.
(Spoilers for both Melee and Ultimate) Until this time, no Spacie player has ever won a Shine tournament, and now both Ultimate and Melee have a Fox winning the last ever one.
Glad to see most of these comments congratulating cody ans recognizing how insane his fox is, it seems like for a long time people gave him shit for small reasons and called his fox boring and basic.
@16:41 Zain ends up standing entirely offstage after a WD f-smash for part of the animation. I don't remember ever seeing anything to that extreme. Does this happen fairly often?
It's just a very long wavedash at the edge of the stage, very ideal for extending its reach if you want to get on the last pixel of the stage's ledge without teetering and whatnot.
This may be a bit of a controversial opinion, but the more I watch Zain play, the more boring it gets. I know he does "crazy things," but he plays like he is ticking off a checklist, which is booooring AF.
Banger of a grand finals 🤯 ***This is no criticism of the format or players, I completely understand how double elim brackets work*** but it’s wild how in this particular set the player that won 5 out of 8 games lost the tournament Again, not meant as criticism cause the reset was a total monster of a set, just not a statistic I feel happens too often and out of context feels very weird lol
It's not totally uncommon, also if you take winners finals into account Cody the game count was 6-5 over 11 games. These two are insanely evenly matched
Double elimination is more about not losing than winning. Why should the person in winners have the same leeway as the person in losers. I also think it allows a lot cooler player mu
