I could really see Jmook being like armada in terms of consistency and dominance He was the only person in 2022 to not get massively upset and now he's only been winning. This could be the beginning There's no guarantee obviously, but I think it's possible
I think it's possible too, the only roadblock I see is Hbox, I fully believe that Jmook can level his Fox up to be a full counter because can Sheik really consistently win that MU?
Yeah, I've also been thinking about how Jmook's rise feels very similar to Armada's. Shows up for a while, and gets top 3 but doesn't win cause he can't beat HBox. Then gets around the HBox problem and suddenly wins two majors in a row. Winning two majors in a row is pretty hard in the modern era (it happened once in all of 2021 and 2022 combined--Zain winning two majors at the start of 2022). Winning a major from losers bracket is also very hard these days. Jmook did both in the first two tournaments of the year.
Melee content has been blowing up at an all time high, even like a year or two ago most of the melee content I’d get recommended was random clips. Now I’m seeing minidocs and analysis videos like this way way more frequently and outside of some of the bigger names too. Super cool to see and that really does seem to be defining this era, pushing content in an accessible direction the same way slippi did to make getting into melee as even a casual spectator way more accessible than in the past
I think that this modern era will mirror what the early Gods era looked like. Back when the 5 Gods era was still establishing, the way that the 5 pulled apart from the rest of the pack was their consistent placings above everyone else. From 2009-2011, the term "5 Gods" didn't exist yet, but they would emerge over time, proving they were the best (some examples were of course Armada's run at Genesis, Hungrybox's run at Apex 2010, Dr.PeePee's run at ROM3, etc). I think something similar will happen in this era. Right now, there is a lot of uncertainty and it seems like anyone seeded in the top 30 could potentially go out and get top 8 at a major. But we are already starting to see 3 newer players who are setting themselves up in a tier above the rest of the top 8 hopefuls (those 3 of course being Cody, Zain and Jmook). Over time I think some of the potentials (Wizzrobe, Moky, Llod, aMSa, Leffen, Plup, etc.) will either make that jump to join Zain, Jmook and Cody, while the others will fall into a lower tier the way that players like Sfat, Axe, Westballz, Hax, etc would fall into a tier below the 5 Gods. Do I think that we will ever see an era as dominant as the 5 Gods era was? Probably not, no, the competitive landscape is too big now, but I do think the true contenders will make themselves known with time.
This will be the most fun era Melee has ever experienced. Thanks to Slippi I think the game will grow significantly in popularity. It won't revolve around a few personalities like it did but build a large community. I think you will also see a rise in mid to low tiers and start seeing them dominate. Can't wait for what's to come.
I wish yall the best but realistically who the fuck is gonna drop their main game to play melee against fat smelly nerds who have played it for 20 years realistically no one
my theory is that this is the RPS era -- you'll see Jmook, IBDW, and Zain mostly taking each other out throughout tourneys, and whoever beats the other two will always face one more random contender. 20 players will be capable of being in the top 10 in the most hype ways. i am so happy to be here for Melee. ill also say that people will tune in for those 3 in the RPS, with everyone supporting their own player.
quite fitting how it's Marth, Fox, and Sheik, 3 characters that for the last decade have been played by countless players as viable characters but these three solo mains have just been tearing a warpath over the last 1.5-2 years. It's like Mew2King retired and split his three mains across three people and they all pushed these characters even further.
1000% agree with your ending sentiments; everyone go thank your TOs! events allow the community to come together and I've always felt community is the most important part about the melee scene. great video!
Mang0 sets and Hbox sets also have a decent amount more views on RU-vid then the rest of the top players. I think we need more then a narrative, I think we need a video about current melee, that blows up on RU-vid. Like Emplemons video on hbox or the smash doc. But of course, it’s easier said then done. Maybe some figurehead should do a crowdfund, to pay for a melee essay from a famous essay-RU-vidr? Idk 🤷🏼♀️
THIS. I second. Congrats to Jmook never really like the dogshit character Shiek though or Fox lmao but I would LOVE to see a wild DK or Samus run this shit special shout out to AXE and Amsa
I hope online becomes a bigger thing, it got me into playing it, after having not been able to since I was a kid. My parents got a mean dog shaped creature, and it ate my disc.. and a lot of other things, and for the next 6 years after that, I took every chance to find another disc, but when slippi came out, I though it’d get torn down, but it’s still here, and I hope they can do free for all at some point, or offer a casual experience too with custom rules search or whatever. There’s always more melee to be played, it would help us if we can preserve the game as long as we can.
Lowkey the history kind of underplays Hbox dominance. He was #1 for 3 years and we all just kind of see it as some bizarre transition period instead of an era in its own right
I think hbox contributes to this too ngl, he was so dominant that I think he might not think it’s worth it for him to talk about how good he was/is lol, for the sake of his brand
I hope this era will become Zain, Cody, Jmook, aMSa let’s call it the Roman era potentially, the Roman’s took and changed the Greek gods but fudimentally were about the same, these big ten players are the ‘new gods’
I feel its the era of meta breaking, and character climbing. Past eras built up the building blocks of peak competitive melee pushing top tiers to their peak. and now we are breaking those expectations of meta and the original game as a whole. I mean if you asked anyone back before the slippi era NO ONE would believe the people at the top being a yoshi and a sheik.
@@MrKynzer yeah another peach player for sure. but honestly please no falco. mango is great man but he caused the slippi falco masterace and its so annoying lmao. but because of slippi these falcons are bound to rise
Turn Down For Walt is another content creator who truly adds to the Melee scene; his "What To Expect" series in particular really helps with the hyping up of a tournament and gives familiarity to the viewers of the players that will be attending. I daresay you're reaching his level as far as quality content is concerned :)
On the topic of knowing players, as a spectator, I love when players stream just so you get to know them more. Unless you have an extremely unique gameplay style, it's hard to root for you just by what I see you do in tournement gameplay I didn't really care for Jmook until he went on Radio Melee then started streaming, now he's one of my favourite players because I know what he does Sparg0 in ult is a big example because I've watched every offline tournament thess at since 2021 and I have no idea who he is or what he's like. Of course thats okay, privacy online is hard and taking it where you can get it is a good idea, but it does mean I basically never root for him.
Loved your editing style bro, the gameplay in the back with you green screened onto the video isn't something I've seen in the melee space before now, keep up the good work
i loved the video but i really hope you either can get or have gotten a webcam with a higher framerate!! your videos are so great but the choppiness sometimes was distracting :/ please keep including your narrating self tho it really is great content
Cool topic, but the 5 gods era was absolutely not 2007. That was the MLG era and was still mostly Ken. Not trying to be too critical, but you should definitely update the thumbnail to have ken era be 2006 and 5 gods be 2012-13
I feel like most "eras" were identified after the fact, so to try to coin this new one as "an era of uncertainty" isn't really saying anything ] considering all of them were at one point,
One thing that I loved about the narrative of smash is each generation has it's own top player title and they're not passed down. Ken will always be the King of smash Mango, Hbox, M2k, PPMD, and Armada will always be the Gods Plup, Axe, Wizzy, Sfat and S2j will always be the Demigods Leffen will always be the God slayer. Im exited to see what title we end up giving to Zain, Jmook Amsa and Cody. Imo they are the faces of the new era
I like that there’s a chance to see upsets. I typically will try to watch top 8 live, but have recently been watching more than the top 8 bc the games are so tight.
Hey, this isn't related to the subject matter of your video itself, but I wanted to let you know that I think the music in your video is mixed too loud--it's louder than your voice in many instances (some songs are louder than others). Like at 2:46, it feels like the music is taking up way more of the foreground more than your voice. I'd say maybe make the music about 10-15% less loud, and/or make your voice about 10% louder. I hope this helps!
