Project M-etagame Melee Development

This article is part of Project M-etagame. Find out more here. 

Melee Development

• This record is to the best of my knowledge. If you have an addition, correction, or video link submission send it my way. Info on the main page linked to at the top of this article. 

Offense/Defense

• A: 2001 The Beginning.
• Slow to react. Lots of pauses or stops. No flow. Very reactive and tactical.
  • a1: Smash attacks.
  • a2: Rolling.
  • a3: Spamming projectiles.
  • a4: Straight forward jump-ins.
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA0OPFy8csk

• B: 2002 Static Defense
  • b1: Shield grabbing (to counter a1 & a4)
  • b2: Crouch canceling (to counter a1)
  • b3: Killing throws
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA0OPFy8csk

• C: 2002-4 L-canceling
  • c1: L-canceled short hop jump ins into spot dodge, smash attacks, or tilts (to counter b1)
    • c2: Spot dodging & a2 (to counter c1)
  • c3: L-canceled jump ins into shield (to counter b2)
  • c4: Some wavedashing.
  • c5: Tilts
  • c6: DI (to counter b3)
  • c7: Throws to set up combos. 
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA0OPFy8csk

• D: 2005 Air into Air
• The increased the safety, utility, and speed from L-canceling air attacks into air attacks opened up the combo/pressure game significantly. Players played with higher mobility and with fewer pauses. 
  • d1: Better spacing of air attacks (to counter b1 & b2)
    • d2: Some dash dancing (to counter b1, c1, & d1)
  • d3: Jump OOS (out of shield) (to counter c1 pressure)
    • d7: Some jabs used to interrupt opponent (to counter c1 & d3)
  • d4: Weaker moves for control (tilts, lengthy air attacks, and nuanced functions of moves) preferred over stronger moves.
  • d5: Grabs more useful because JCgrab technique (to counter B)
  • d6: Some wavelanding
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te483jnEP6M
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH29y2rBMok
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E18B1m4rgeU

  

• E:  2006-7 General Coverage
• Pressuring the places the opponent might be. After a hit, combos follow for a few hits of strong and fast attacks. An evolution of air to air that’s only possible with high mobility. Pauses in flow added because the speed of the game increased.
  • e1: Fully integrated wavedashing/wavelanding.
  • e2: Movement based mixups (to count A, B, & D)
  • e3: Using high speed offense to counter multiple opponent options.
  • e4: Occasionally switch from high speed air (d1 & d3) to grabs (d5) & tilts (c5).
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5lMcLPH17U

• F: 2008-9 Long combos. Great edge guarding. Clever matrices.
  • f1: Jabs used to reset and continue combos.
  • f2: Reading or reacting to opponent tech rolls and recovery options
  • f3: Staying close to the opponent to follow up a combo, but not too close to be in danger just in case.
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVi6zMMlm0g
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9UYHdL_fzQ
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNncLAjGXxs

• G: 2009-11 Clean. Focused. Deadly.
  • g1: Smarter DI to edge cancel (to counter f2 & f3)
    • g2: Players opt for control and resets over continued combo attempts (to counter g1)
  • g3: Calmer movement style focusing on reads and control (to counter E & F)
  • g4: Shield Pointing (example and explanation here)
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQT4zbGdER8
  • http://youtu.be/kpbCBT1TGdg

Recovering

• All recovery freely while the on stage player waits.
• The on stage player may use a few ground attacks (smashes) from the edge to prevent the opponent from recovering.
• Traveling off stage forced many players to invent new ways to recover while increasing  the importance of DI.
• Edge guarding became a more elaborate process than just hitting the opponent out further. Matrixing (traps) so that opponents must land on the stage and getting more hits became effective.  
• With more edge recovery techniques like sweet spotting, aggressive edge guarders had to be very careful not to have the situation reversed on them.
• So player guarded safely from the edge and just off of the edge of the stage to force the opponent out of their comfortable recovery zones.
• Then edge tech was discovered. When you couldn’t sweet spot, you could DI into the stage, get attacked, tech, and fall for another chance to live.
• Players on the stage use precise tilts, spikes, or smashes to prevent edge teching and to keep their opponent in a very disadvantaged state (with no jumps) to eventually get an edge guard.
• Now opponents have a variety of mixups they can used based on their recovery options (up b, side B, air dodge,) by aiming for new spots. By nearing the stage in specific zones, recovering players can keep the opponent guessing. Landing on the platforms on the stage is common.

View the complete tier list history here.