Realizing Your Character’s Victories: A Guide to Smarter Play

Melee is inherently a fast-paced game with flashy combos, incredibly disciplined technical nuances, and steep gameplay knowledge requirements. The most popular moments in Melee’s competitive history usually come in the form of absolutely insane combos, hard option reads, or plain disrespect through one’s gameplay to their competitor.

There’s a rowdy aura surrounding Melee that attracts the fast, flashy, and daring to the game’s unique fighting gameplay. While this style and mindset usually gets wrapped up as the image of Melee, some of the most successful players in Melee (while still having their flashy moments) play a much more hit and run playstyle emphasizing defense over overwhelming combos. While difference in playstyle differs across players, it shows that characters can be played in different playstyles as well. Often Spacie players newer to the game will hail the “20XX” style of hand numbing tech skill over the more deliberate and well positioned Fox/Falco defensive playstyle. A way to retrain your brain from this mindless playstyle is to realize what counts as a victory for your character. The question then is "What counts as your character’s victory?"

The Stray Hit over the Combo Chase

Due to the culture, vibe, and attitude of Melee’s scene, the energy from pursuing a combo can be hard to resist. However, in a lot of situations in Melee, focusing on spacing in the neutral game and tacking on percentage one hit at a time is a safer way to go about playing against your opponent. It’s important to realize that because you’re not getting combos on your opponent it can be easy to mentally feel as if you aren’t making any offensive progress against your opponent. Because of this feeling, you can easily fall into the trap of chasing combos where they are dangerous and unguaranteed. Instead, retraining your mentality on stray hits into a retreating position as a victory rather than a lucky landing is an important step in realizing what counts as a victory.

Characters such as Samus and Jigglypuff don’t always have great combo setups on a lot of the cast, so rather focusing on tacking on percent one hit at a time with f-tilts (Samus) and b-airs (Jigglypuff) as a means to win a game can be more effective than chasing the combo that isn’t necessarily there.

This strategy is not just limited to these few floaties however. Playing the hit-and-run strategy can be very effective with the space animals, as their fast movement speed and quick aerials can get you in and out very quickly to rack up percentage. Focusing more on openings in the neutral game and punishing those moments isn’t as stylish as the hyper-aggressive Falco/Fox combos that exist on the internet but can win sets if mastered.

 

Not only is landing the hit an important part of this strategy, but also the retreat to an advantageous position. Taking control of center stage after pushing the opponent back into the corner of the stage is sometimes more effective than perusing the opponent further and risking them taking control of center stage. Counting that interaction as a net-victory for your character and setting yourself up to be favored for the next interaction can sometimes be the wisest move. This retreat tactic will not only strongly set you up for the next fight, but if in the lead, force them to challenge you on your stronger turf.

Positioning over Engaging

Backing off of the attack and setting yourself up in an advantageous position over the opponent is sometimes the key to mentally resetting yourself and giving your character an advantage in game. Similarly, controlling space that directly counters your opponent and/or benefits your character is a victory in and of itself. This easily overlooked especially as a new player or when frustrated in a tournament set, but simply getting the upper hand positionally should be counted as a victory in your head. For Jigglypuff, this can easily be seen through players like Hungrybox who work to corner the opponent through positioning himself right outside b-air range.

 

The threat of a long reaching attack and provoking a mistake in the neutral nets you a small victory within the match that can lead to big damage and combo potential. It’s all about putting these micro engagements into perspective and counting them mentally as victories mid match. Analyzing a set after it has happened, you can pick apart a lot of tiny engagements that went in your favor or not. The key to improving in this mental state is to recognize the successful interactions during the actual set and adapting your playstyle.  

Controlling Center Stage

Transitioning from the last point, positioning is incredibly important and what better way to position yourself than being as far away from the blast zones as possible. Placing your character at center stage immediately gives your character the most advantageous position on any stage. This is a great defensive position to set yourself up in as the directional influence you use on any move against you will yield the most amount of effect when trying to save your character’s stock. This is so important, as positioning yourself better for a strong hit can literally lead to you living where you might not have if were positioned slightly different. A strong forward smash from Falco might not kill you in the center of Dreamland like it will near and around the ledge.

Training your brain to be defensively conscious about risk and positioning will set you up to be a far greater threat in tournament play. Remember, this should count as a victory for your character! Capturing the center of the stage will lead your opponent to come fight you on your strongest turf, and you’re the safest you can possibly be position-wise from their incoming attacks.

Conclusion

You aren’t going to get anywhere in Melee without some decent combo play, but too often retreat tactics and positional consciousness are completely ignored by players to focus on the hyper-aggressive playstyle. Use their foolish playstyle against them and start counting more of these micro engagements as mental victories for your character, and the progress will surprise you.

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