Things of Beauty: Super Smash Bros. as Spectator Sport 

Coming back to this video over 7 years later to celebrate. On today, October 9th, 2022 aMSa The Red Yoshi just won The Big House 10, one of the most heavily stacked super major tournaments in Melee history. He beat Mang0, one of the old five gods and The Big House's reigning champion, having won four of them in the past including TBH 9. This is the FIRST time a Yoshi has ever won a major tournament, let alone a super major. aMSa's years and years of dedication proved this video right: Melee is STILL changing, STILL weird, and STILL beautiful.

Here from the future, Captain Falcon just won a supermajor.

Hey man, I'm from the future. A few seconds ago, Amsa won the Big House 10 in front of 74k+ viewers on Twitch. A Yoshi, solo. And melee will truly never die.

"Does amsa have staying power" He won his first major about 10 minutes ago in the year of our yoshi 2022. Love to see it

"a captain falcon has never won a major" NOT ANYMORE BOYS. MY BOY WIZZY HAS DONE IT.

you win this time recommended..

7 years, 1 month and 20 days after this video was posted, aMSa won The Big House 10. A solo Yoshi won the most stacked melee tournament of all time. This game will never die ❤️

Here from the future, Pikachu just won a super major. 2019 has been an absolute crazy year for Melee

To quote a wise man "Where you at? Where you at? Where you at? Ohh Oh my God. Wombo Combo"

“The more everyone does one thing, the more valuable it is to do anything else.” Fucking awesome line

Here from the future, Amsa the red Yoshi just won a supermajor.

Seeing that yoshi turned into a scary force of egg throwing madness beyond all logic terrifies me. Loved seeing the look on the dudes face when he lost to yoshi. He wasn't happy. He wasn't mad. He was in a alternate dimension questioning his own reality like all of us were lol. Even the winner was shocked lol.

"does amsa have staying power?" I'm from the future. Amsa is top 10 now. Guess he does.

My 57 year old dad was watching the Smash Con tourney with me (on the Twitch app for Xbox One) and he treated it just like a soccer game. The moment ESAM took a game off of Zero, he freaked out. He was able to understand the goal of the game and he was following along just like me. He's seen me play Smash before but maybe only twice, several months before Smash Con. I never even explained the mechanics to him, he just got it.

this video aged so well as amsa is reaching status as a top 10 mainstay. many of the gods are retiring/falling off the top. players are pulling out more knuckleballs to surprising effectiveness. if you ever make an update, i think that so many people would flock back to see your take on this evolution. thanks for the wonderful video!

I had no idea that you were both this guy and the guy making Alt-Right Playbook. Oh my god. You are THE content creator.

I get chills every time I see the Daigo Parry. The ingame sounds, the sound of the crowd... damn that clip is so good

16:22 "That's fair." Marth does a bunch of F-Airs

there's something about Melee that separates it from other fighting games and puts it in a category of its own. Melee has a physics system. it is a cartoon "analogy" of real-world physics - not a realistic simulation, but a collection of physical mechanics that combine to create deep and engaging gameplay. a fighting game can be seen as a high-speed competition of animation states. players are constantly trying to control space and get their character in the ideal animation state to put their opponent at a disadvantage. here's where Melee separates itself: in a traditional fighting game like Street Fighter, Tekken, etc, character movement is solely based on the character's animation tree, each state of which has a static velocity. usually this consists of back / forward walking states and a jump. the speeds of these options are static and don't change. in Melee, however, not only do characters have a deeper suite of movement states (walk, dash, run, turnaround, shorthop, fullhop, airdodge, falling) *a character's animation states interact with the physics system.*. a character with low friction travels farther before turning around; a character with high horizontal airspeed can float horizontally in the air farther after a jump. the combination of a deeper movement tree, options to influence momentum in the air and on the ground, and the characters and environment being endowed with physical properties, leads to a polynomial explosion in the complexity of the movement system. this is what takes melee into a whole new category. the fact that the space of movement options is so complex means that melee *feels physical*. it's the best way i can describe it. melee has such freedom of expression in movement that a player can express not only skill, but STYLE in movement. only in melee can you "break someones ankles" and "style on em" with the finesse of a streetball player. in a game theoretical sense, melee's game state is wildly complex compared to other fighting games. the number of properties influencing player interactions at any given time is huge. this makes melee a much more "open" game compared to traditional fighters, and i think this is a part of why the traditional FGC has been so quick to deride it. games like SF have a much more "locked down" state, and traditional FGC competition states like option selects become much more central parts of the experience as a result. this leads people to see it as a more "true" or "pure" fighting game focused on execution, yomi, and mindgames. in reality, though, melee has an equally central focus on reads, option selects, and mindgames, but like i said, there are simply more properties in play, so the skillset becomes a combination of traditional FGC skill and the "physical" skill / intuition of melee. in melee, you can force an option select by throwing a nair into a shield...but that nair can come after a jump with any different horizontal or vertical momentum. you can shorthop in with nair and drift back to just nick the shield, avoiding the hitbox of the opponent's counterplay. you can get hit, so you fly backwards, then airdodge 160 degrees to the left when you're 4 frames above landing on the platform, causing you to slide along the platform based on your character's friction value and the ground's friction value, falling backwards off the platform and throwing another move out on the way down to catch the opponent. etc.

i've been watching alt right playbook for awhile now and i never connected the dots that you made this video too. anyway it's 2022 and amsa just won the biggest tournament in melee history with yoshi. feels good

I love how that streetfighter match was so revolutionary what he did, and the game was like."Eh... I'll give ya a B. Do a better clutch next time :T"

Here's what happened Ken (Daigo) had 1 pixel of health, Chun-li (Justin Wong) had the super, he couldn't jump it and he couldnt block it because he would still get hurt on block. But third strike has parries. Daigo had to press forward in a frame perfect direction to not die and build meter and styles on Justin with the jump, leading to a short combo in which he won the tournament. Evo moment 37 in a nutshell.

21 Years after the game's release, Amsa the red Yoshi just won the game's hardest major so far, never needing to swap after so long. He's no gimmick, he's only here to stay and improve :))))

Extremely little-known pointless factoid: Wobbles didn't actually invent wobbling, he just popularized it.

That’s Amsa section almost made me cry. I love that Yoshi.

Imagine if 7 years after this video, amsa wins the hardest melee tournament of all time. Would be so crazy

yoshi just won a major

here from the future, A YOSHI HAS WON A SUPER MAJOR

this video hits different today love you amsa

Man, I used to be a STAUNCH smash casual elitist. I'd play Brawl/PM/4 with smash balls on (and a couple other items), hated FD and 'boring' triplats, and thought that using "glitches" like wavedashing, desyncing, etc invalidated Melee as a viable competitive game, going as far as to say "Melee is a solved game" occasionally. Then, I watched this video, and shortly after, the Smash Doc. Needless to say, my opinion pretty much did a 180. Every once in a while, I'll come back to this video, and it makes me really happy that I've come around on the competitive.

smash is an anime

Came to this video specifically since aMSa just won Big House 10

I’m here from the future, Yoshi just won a supermajor :)

This video has become so much more beautiful after Wizzy's win at Smash 'N' Splash, Axe's at Summit, and aMSa's at Big House

Amsa just won a major

Yo... did he just walk up SLOWLY and down smash?!?!

Another update from the future: aMSa's Red Yoshi just won a supermajor. game is still beautiful, 21 years from release.

He did it. aMSa did it. And it was beautiful

Mango trash talk? You mean leffen. Mango is just the dad that likes to joke around

Aaaaaand Yoshi just won the most stacked tournament of all time

“Does Amsa have any staying power?” 2020 Top 10 Amsa: “Hi” Edit: 2022: YES HE FUCKING DOES LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Even as I know no one's won a major tournament with him in years" hehe

AMSAAAAAA WON HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE

Falcon mains play for the love of the game

Mark the calendar. October 9th, 2022. aMSa won a supermajor. I can't fucking believe it. Melee is so fucking sick.

From the future, Amsa the red yoshi won The Big House 10, one of if not the most stacked supermajors of all time. Unbelievable

For some reason I can't help but keep coming back to this video every now and then. There's something so beautiful about it; the set up, the buildup and satisfying ending about eye-widening comparisons.

Yoshi just won a supermajor

AMSA JUST WON A MAJOR TOURNAMENT

Man, I resonate SO MUCH with the concept shared in this video of "what the system can't stop you from doing". People will always write it off negatively as a glitch and undermine players for doing them, but when the glitches evolve into tech such as wave dashing or bunny hopping it amounts to so much more! The developers unintentionally create mechanically expressive games that make the game feel more rewarding for executing inputs skillfully, and creating a fast paced fun experience overall.

16:21 "That's fair" immediately after getting a fair stage spike. nice

Wow. Great video! Such a good stream of conscience, and you explain your thoughts. Also, you described just why i love Smash so much :)

Not only falcon won a supermajor, but so did YOSHI. This game will live on forever.

Amsa takes the championship at The Big House 2022

this man is an expert at pretending that he knows what he's talking about

AMSA DID IT LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I hope you watched Big House 10

Here from the future, aMSa the red Yoshi just won a supermajor.

HERE AFTER THE AMSA WIN

2022 and Amsa just won the most stacked tournament of all time.

Here from the future. A Yoshi just won a supermajor. ; )

14:09 Well, now we know.

To be honest. Smash Melee is a game which I can't get used to but love to death to watch Smash 4 is a game which I can play but don't love to watch it.

"They treated their only female smasher as no more than someone's girlfriend." Yeah, that's because MilkTea didn't do anything interesting or impressive. The 7 players the documentary focused on were all amazingly accomplished, and she happened to be the girlfriend of one of them for a short while. If you're saying you want to give a girl special attention because she's a girl, that sounds somewhat sexist. See Jade, she gained notoriety in the smash 4 scene not for being a girl, but for beating Trela with Bowser Jr, a mid-low tier.

I AM HERE TO ANNOUNCE THAT AMSA MADE HISTORY AND WON THE BIGGEST STACKED SUPERMAJOR TODAY

YOSHI YOSHI YOSHI YOSHI YOSHI Y...!!!!!!

Little did he know that he was not reaching at all. aMSa is steadily climbing. The art of doublejump armor, and super-well timed parries, truly has changed Yoshi's rating and viability.

In regards to the thing about Milktea. They did what they could. It's actually good that they didn't hype her up as some kind of anomaly. That would be highly reductive. Not saying her inclusion was anything other than completely boring but honestly, not drawing attention to "OOH LOOK A GRILL" was the best way they could've gone about it; 'cuz if were going by clout and skill alone she probably wouldn't have been included at all. She was pretty good but she wasn't like, top 8 good.

Hearing you say "I love captain falcon even though no one has won a tournament with him in years" is SO SATISFYING NOW THAT WIZZY WON SnS

coming to this video as asma just won the big house, can't wait to see wwhere melee will go

EVERYONE roots for captain falcon regardless of their main. He's the most hype character in the game.

The rage here over his (brief) comments about MilkTea and women in the sport is generating SO much nerdrage and butthurt. Its really rather astounding. The vitriol seems so disproportionate and unfounded to me. Shrinks really should do some studies on this.

The year is 20XX and yoshi won a major 🫡 go Amsa

Here from the future, aMSa and Yoshi just won a supermajor

Dude, this a fantastic video. I think you just put into words what everybody's been thinking subconsciously for a while now. Really well done.

YOU TALKED ABOUT SMASH IN A COHERENT WAY - AND YOU TALKED ABOUT THE COMMUNITY WITHOUT SKIRTING AROUND THE EXTREME LACK OF WOMEN PLAYING - subscribed

Here from the future, a Yoshi just won a supermajor tournament

Today is October 9th, 2022. aMSa has just won a super major. A super major considered the hardest melee bracket of all time. Whether or not that’s true, what is absolutely true is that aMSa is an inspiration… and his journey is a thing of beauty

"I have favorites" Red circle around Hbox

This video makes me feel that evo is getting more mainstream attention everyday which is pretty cool

Happy to say that in late 2021 amsa is still relevant and a joy to watch

Just came back to this video after a long time. I think the biggest thing about melee is that it actually feels like a sport and like you are the character on screen. It's like you express yourself with the character through skill and you don't beat your opponent's characters, you beat THEM. Kinda like in boxing, when you get your movement and skill high enough, no normal chump can ever even touch you and there really isn't a limit on how good you can get. Once you land a cool combo in melee and your friends pop off like DAMN - you are literally hooked for life.

god bless. Smash is imo the easiest esport to watch. Commentators like scar and toph bring hype AND knowledge (in that order), which help me have fun watching and understand. Its just so accessable and understandable, thats why i too picked up falcon and sheik a month ago. I LOVE this video thus far. I share your strong passion for both watching and participating. no other esport, or dare i say game, has made me feel like this. I love your point on tech in smash compared to combos and such in other games. Its not like sakurai put those in.. clearly. Its great how the games greatest tech and combos are named after the greatest in the game, like a legacy. Glad you talked about yoshi too

Competitive Smash fights look like DBZ fights at times, it's crazy

here from even further in the future, yoshi just won a supermajor.

the aMSa section of this video is very relevant right now... he just won one of the biggest majors of the year. with a mid tier

Here from the future, aSMa’s yoshi just won a supermajor.

Here from the future, yoshi just won a super major

Here from the future, Yoshi just won a supermajor LETS GO AMSA

“Does AMSA have staying power?” Coming from October 2022, yes he does

Amsa the red yoshi took all the games en route to a supermajor win at the Big House 10. A yoshi has won it all boys; 21 years into a developed meta. Absolutely iconic.

I watched this when it first came out and it got me into competitive melee. Amsa has always been one of my favorite players and to see him finally win a super major after so many years is fantastic.

I can't belive this vid is nearly 6 years old. I still remember when it popped up on my recommended shortly after it was uploaded

Does aMSa have staying power? Well he just won The Big House 10.

YOSHI WON A SUPERMAJOR

One of the worst comment sections I have ever seen. I feel horrible for anyone without much information about Smash who might be trying to learn things and seeing this comment section.

The fun thing about this video is that I’m basically just a smash fan, but it was so well made that now I watch every innuendo video and love learning about the politics

It's fun hearing your excitement

But then everything changed when Serge (Lucario) beat Darkfall (Link)

Watching this video after Summit 11 and seeing the call out of aMSa and Yoshi's viability is like watching someone read the future. Love this video Ian, very well done