A New Era Of Smash Bros - Melee Will Never Be The Same Again

With the advent of Project Slippi, Super Smash Bros Melee is primed to enter a new era of online competitive play.
Created as a passion project by Jas ‘Fizzi’ Laferriere and his team, Slippi online boosts the quality of multiplayer online Melee using features such as rollback netcode that cuts down on lag.
With the addition of a matchmaking system and an unprecedented amount of post-match statistics, the people behind Slippi are helping make the international Melee community feel more connected than ever before.
In today's video, we take a look at the history of Super Smash Bros. Melee's online experience and how Slippi will be changing the future of the game forever.
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[@Akshonesports]

Hey everyone, we hope you liked this video! We wanted to make something to help spread some positivity in the Smash community during these times and spotlight the amazing grassroots-driven work that has gone into a passion project like Slippi while also doing a brief history of the Melee scene.

[@tigerfloof]

Thanks Akshon! It's appreciated.

[@amm6112]

I really love you guys and your work to spread positivity and knowledge about esports! Keep it up!

[@flosfogel306]

Are you going to make a video about supers genji ?

I think the idea of pedos being at the tournaments will ruin this game in the future and it’s really sad

[@rippfrs]

Man this really didn't age well, huh?

[@duyan3010]

He kinda sounds like the translator for Sakurai in Nintendo directs

[@thadex454]

Lmao

[@aprfinancing481]

you mean sakurai's eng dub VA

[@calebobvs9735]

APR Financing I’m going to call it that from now on

[@eeveewithcoffee9554]

I hate that you said that because that’s all I can hear now

[@Uhhhhh1188]

Yeah

[@Ludvix]

Super solid video, visuals, facts, history, great editing:)

[@ufhjfu4326]

Miss your videos bro

[@ahumai5392]

Please upload bruh

[@xaayyy3563]

BRUH WHERE YOU BEEN

[@Ludvix]

@@xaayyy3563 here

[@xaayyy3563]

@@Ludvix guys I found him

[@sammcgarry5822]

It blows my mind that Dan Salvato was involved with competitive melee, even though thats where i first heard of him

[@TheJoshAries]

coming from melee, i was even more blown away that he created Doki Doki Literature Club.

[@tjhunter9787]

@@TheJoshAries at a panel I was at, when he first announced he was making game, everyone who knew him were certain that he would make a fighter.

[@autumnshinespark]

@@TheJoshAries he did WHAT?

[@BeeLy1011]

I've heard some people talk about the possibility of Monika for Smash, and while I admittedly have very few ideas on how she could be implemented, and know that she's not a very popularly requested character, I can't deny that for what Dan has done for the Melee community, he does deserve to have one of his characters included.

[@oshifudge]

@@BeeLy1011 that would be great, almost like the rivals of aether custom character. Unfortunately I don't think it'll ever happen

[@alejandroramirez3217]

Yesterday in Mexico we had a tourney with 120 players, today there's a 128 player tourney. The biggest tourney in Mexico was 2 years ago when armada attend, it was like 150. The fact that 2 online tournaments are almost as big as the one that had armada attending is fucking amazing to me. It shows how incredible fizzis work is.

[@SlunkyBoi]

If the creator of this video is not a hardcore melee player, this is the best researched melee video I've ever seen haha. We appreciate generalized esports channels talking about melee, but they usually get a lot of details wrong, but this video was super spot on. Great job!

[@TheJoshAries]

hey! editor of the video here. Can confirm that we are pretty hardcore melee players :)

[@Duffy_SSBM]

@@TheJoshAries You love to see it

[@DoggyP00]

no

[@mortenera2294]

@@Duffy_SSBM Shut up already, they definitely know their stuff. Why do you guys feel offended if they get a small detail wrong?

[@saturnnz_]

Morte Nera ???? He said he loves to see it. Where does it sound like he’s offended????

[@johnhurley8918]

Imagine being a volunteer, opensource development team and adding more cutting edge features to a game that's 20 years old and big budget studios include in new releases.

[@kered13]

Good video, but you should have mentioned Faster Melee as well. A few years before Slippi, Faster Melee greatly reduced the amount of delay in online Melee, enabling it to go from mostly a curiosity to viable for regional play. Slippi is built on top of Faster Melee, with rollback enabling online play across a continent.

[@ruadhanduffy3361]

This channel has to be one of the most underrated esports channels. I’m never disappointed by the quality of these videos. Thank you Akshon :)

[@Tmob]

It has 150k subs...

[@ruadhanduffy3361]

Tmob yeah, but it deserves 1mil at least

[@Akshonesports]

Haha thanks! We're working really hard this year to expand our content variety and buildup a community that loves gaming/esports content.

[@Tmob]

@@ruadhanduffy3361 I guess you right

[@vitordaltro6200]

Always can expect quality from akshon, incredible script, editing, dub and everything else! Extremely underrated channel!

[@soapman-3678]

True!

[@stazmo957]

100%

[@Akshonesports]

Thank you so much! A lot of work goes into making each one of these, but we believe in quality over quantity so it makes us super happy to see that people are enjoying the content.

[@KuraiMuin]

It was surreal hearing the name "Dan Salvato" associated with his Melee scene life and not to DDLC. Hey BTW this channel is amazing?

[@drakath5727]

He's more known for Project M and Super Mario Sunshine's Custom Debug Cheat, but yeah, DDLC is up there for one of his bigger solo projects.

[@fetkreb6216]

@@drakath5727 dont forget 20xxte

[@andrealeonardo417]

I imagine the dokis being fucking tryhards on smash lol

[@fetkreb6216]

@@drakath5727 Also, he worked on pm!? proof?

[@braxinIV]

Fet Kreb one of the intro screens that changes in DDLC says “PM died for this”

[@henryreturns1397]

Good thing after good thing for Melee : - Dolphin Emulator so everyone can access it - Netplay so people can play online with each other - Uncle Punch , 20xx training pack , Project Slippi and more - Rollback so online gameplay can feel as offline. - And all of these by fans of the games that are passionate, Nintendo with their billion dollars will never give you any of these, not even for the newest smash game.

[@malady_73]

That is understandable though, since the recent scandals. I agree with you, though.

[@megasoniczxx]

Ultimate truly does feel like it embodies the whole "This is a game where you use your favorite characters to beat other favorites up" moniker since it feels like a game more concerned with dishing out as many characters as it can shove in there over tuning and improving the mechanics of the game and it seems to really be all the fans actually care about when it comes to the game. It's crazy to think that this game was made back in 2001 and it's still being improved upon and played to this day.

[@mamacrow2759]

It's always hard to want to shit on Nintendo for smash ultimate, so much effort is in it. The netcode is really a culmination of rollback not being a big thing in japanese fighting games (not big yet at least). Even if you play in just the US, being on the opposites side will make delay based always unplayable, while Japan is just a small island so delay based isn't really a problem. I do want to say, Nintendo isn't as blind as people think, and Sakurai does a lot for the fans. I find it odd you brought money to the example because a lot of the content in smash ultimate was just passion. Take something like Pokemon, that literally start to neglect a huge portion of their fanbase that have been there to gen 1, it always sickens me to think about. But yeah why would Pokemon care anyways the have so much money, and all the money they make off of is the merchandise so the only purpose the games serve being rushed out each year is for more pokemon to merchandise. I honestly believe rollback will eventually be a thing in smash, you also gotta realize rollback requires being able to run tons a frames in a single frame, that's computation power that increases with items and other players. The game is probably already pushing the switch. Smash will eventually have rollback, you just got to give it time. If I had to predict I'd say 25% possibility on their next release and a 86% on the release after that.

[@Snowballsage]

InspireTheLiars I’m guessing you don’t play ultimaye

[@megasoniczxx]

@@Snowballsage *Looks at the copy of Ultimate that I had for over a year now* No, I guess not.

[@JoelElRican]

Melee will hold a special place in my heart, not only because I played it as a kid, but because of one of my best friends that I lost to an OD. He was only 25, but he loved this game. The last thing we did together before I lost him, was that me, my brother, my friend and his brothers played about 2 hrs of Melee on his Gamecube. I will never forget that day and Melee will be special to me for the rest of my life.

[@morganometry]

I knew more or less every plot beat in this video already and yet it was still so entertaining because of how well it was scripted and presented. The Toph interview was especially dope. Subscribed :)

[@Akshonesports]

Thanks!

[@AdzNecromancer]

This was a good video and exploration of Melee. I just disagree with the notion that Melee was supposedly on its last legs prior to the announcement of the Smash World Tour. Even without being at EVO the scene was in a healthy position in 2019.

[@BacchusGames]

I mean, it wasn't dying, but it definitely was falling. Attendance was down at basically all levels by a notable margin. Wouldn't say last legs, but I think that it was more to emphasis the resurgence that really occurred with the smash world tour

[@2BuckFridays]

Yeah, that's the only place I disagreed. 2019 was an awesome year for Melee and honestly way more exciting than 2018.

[@whatarewaves]

i agree not last legs but definitely on the decline

[@Cherry-xp9xz]

Rollback netcode is becoming the new standard, i would personally really like to see an episode on the Undernigh In birth community

[@shisuiki]

Here's a video that might satisfy that want, Title: Long live the night: an under night in-birth story Link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIeceIuIar5no7c Edit: did this on mobile, so had to add the link in an edit

[@adcrengar9877]

Smash Ultimate is in the darkest of timelines at the moment while Melee is seeing a revitalization. Destiny works in weird ways.

[@Darquake]

Just got this game! Really wanna get into it!

[@exe16]

I wish we could get netcode like that im Ultimate. Considering the pandemic and the scandals, there's a good chance Ultimate may die so that Melee could rise again.

[@Fizz-Q]

@@exe16 but japan is so prideful about their own shit they can't use something that wasn't made by them

[@dustdt]

Fizzi is a literal god for the scene. Donate to this man.

[@antoniowong1920]

Thanks for mentioning Nintendude. RIP We all miss you.

[@IndicaEuphora]

What?? What happened to Nintendude?

[@shippudenedx77]

@@IndicaEuphora Hax killed him it was so awful rip Nintendude

[@BigOlBoon]

@@shippudenedx77 huh?

[@IndicaEuphora]

@@shippudenedx77 Like did he talk shit or something? I'm not finding any recent matches between them

[@clairomybeloved]

Ran into Dan Salvato recently on rollback, he has a dope Link and his old tag was Internet Explorer for anyone who's curious

[@cboscan1]

As a 25 yo who grew up on smash 64 but never played melee competitively, I’m definitely having more fun on rollback, getting rekt by the skill floor bois than playing campy online samus in ultimate. My friend and I are grinding melee out, I really think this is gonna be a new era and I’m so hype for it

[@aorusaki]

Amazing i was just about to play melee for a little bit just for nostalgia but it's amazing to see this when i came back!!!

[@PeeedaPan]

I got melee for Xmas 2001 and I been in the community since 2005. I still play all the time. Its my favorite game of all time. If I can play it for another 20 years, that'd be amazing

[@nintenx1235]

For awhile I was used to ultimate’s online, but after hearing the praises of slippi and having my PK thunder eaten wayyyyyy to often I downloaded everything needed and I can’t go back. I would get so pissed from missed inputs I’d throw my controller but I can go on a lose streak and still have a ton of fun with melee. When I lose it’s on me, or my opponent was better.

[@altanic5855]

This is a great time for Melee. I feel like the rise of the low tiers is coming too. With all these newcomers and connections to players all over the world, I think we are going to see underdeveloped characters reach levels we never expected. I think we will start to see Mario, Ness, DK, Mewtwo, Roy, and Link pop up more often.

[@peeron6829]

That would be so dope bro

[@monsieurmcmuffin6966]

I love you guys making videos on different games every once in a while. It gives those games a brand new audience, while still being interesting. Keep it up!

[@MightGuy-e2u]

Bro am I the only one having goosebumps listening to the intro of SSBM?!?! This is truly a testament that a good game will allways survive the test of time. Skill gap is important in order to keep a game interesting! This game will honestly never die. Not soon in my opinion.

[@silverk08]

This is really incredible. I knew Melee is great but don't know these things behind it. Thank you Akshon

[@whatarewaves]

Literally love melee been playing since I was a kid, playing seriously since the doc days and you told this story so well. Thank you so much. The game is special and I think once someone gets on Slippi and tries it out with some friends in discord they'll realize what a blast this game is. Melee Forever 💖

[@MrPomegranX]

I’m glad Melee can continue to grow even after 20 years. I hope to see games like P+ get Rollback in the future

[@baileybenins1971]

I'm actually surprised this channel doesn't have more subs

[@jyro1072]

5:10 why did this throwback me so much? Like dude, it's just the sound of a TV starting up, but man does it sound like childhood.

[@Fizz-Q]

Ponk

[@KindOldRaven]

Decided to give Slippi a try and... well... let's just say it's about 230x better than SSBU even though I prefer the latter as a total game (I never got into melee originally so... yeah). But as an online experience? I'm sorry but Slippi destroys anything Nintendo has ever done with regards to online play. It kinda feels like that one other platform brawler that has good online (Brawlhalla) and that's a huge, huge compliment seeing this is basically a pet project on a game that wasn't even built with this in mind. My mind is absolutely blown!

[@maplemiles3381]

Mario kart and Splatoon have servers that are in fact better then slippi

[@zaprodex]

@@maplemiles3381 This is simply not true, and even if it was, they are completely different game genres.

[@edgelord8337]

The smash ultimate competitive scene is basically ruined so now everyone goes back to melee. melee and always been a pillar of smash and it's really nice to it return.

[@X19Virus]

@PixelLightShow Damn. Did Melee hurt you as a child?

[@ruadhanduffy3361]

Downshift 😂

[@ven9821]

PixelLightShow: They refuse to progress and refuse to adapt to anything that comes after. COVID19: Haha no more clean melee Slippi Rollback: And this...is...to go... E V E N F U R T H E R B E Y O N D

[@hypernovab2254]

@PixelLightShow What if Melee is fun?

[@dmwanderer9454]

@@hypernovab2254 then don't play it competitively

[@joshuakahky6891]

As great as everything that's been going on in the Melee community is, having people like you spread the word is probably just as important. The only way any community survives is by making sure there's a constant stream of new members, and videos like yours do a great job at helping us with that. Thanks for taking the time to let people know what's going on with the best game ever :-)

[@AlxandreNotavo]

20 years and still going strong baby!

[@nekosedey]

The production value, research/knowledge, and sheer quality of these videos is why I like to watch ALL Akshon videos, even though I subbed years ago just for Overwatch. Great stuff guys!

[@Akshonesports]

Thank you so much for the support all this time and for coming along with us for this wild ride as we try to raise the bar on esports content.

[@Axzle_MC]

Melee is and always forever will be sick.

[@Snowballsage]

Nintendo: not if I have anything to say about it

[@ven9821]

You're already one my go-to for overwatch esports content. It'd be awesome if you covered more melee!

[@CaptainSuppy]

really appreciate the research in this video, usually a lot of esports videos on melee get a lot of things incorrect but this was rlly spot on. Good shit

[@iceypumpkinhead]

Everyone: how are you not dead? Melee: I have no idea!

[@KuraiMuin]

so... you're telling me Melee has rollback but SFV and GGXRd don't. That's just hysterical.

[@dethkid7]

SFV did have rollback, but you know...

[@jmfragger]

GG is getting rollback

[@RedThunderSP]

SFV has rollback, it's just implemented very horribly.

[@f8ith0]

Thank you so much for lower the volume on the Armada clip. Every time it's used in a highlight video I die a little inside

[@LukeTextbook]

Melee is so healthy that they started with the golden age and went UP from there. They gotta keep making up new ages lol

[@JulianTorres97]

Ashkon I love your Overwatch content, but my true love is melee and it makes me so happy to see high quality melee content. Thank you!

[@davidvkimball]

Phenomenal video. Thank you for putting this together!

[@Akshonesports]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@CHRIS-X]

I kinda wish that we played more PM online more than melee cuz I wanna play as melee wolf and sonic and meta knight, but this is still awesome

[@GELTONZ]

Okay, Ultimate players switching to Melee because it has better netcode is hilarious and amazing. Also my mind is blown by what they've done. Gonna need to grab this even though I don't play competitive Melee. I just...I need to try this.

[@EdwinAlguera]

“Welcome to the diamond age of melee” !!! , I love the sound of that

[@saltytea7367]

Aaagh the quality is so good. Documentaries and videos like this get people into melee alot.

[@TylerHyperFace]

I'm so damn proud of this community :') I was blown away when I attended Apex 2015 as my first tournament ever, and it was relicared to a convention center on such short notice. This is now another example of how intense the love for this game is ❤

[@MattStylesHK]

Excellent video. I am absolutely loving rollback. The thing I like most about is not actually the lag reduction, but the super easy & quick in-game matchmaking! I can't wait for ranked mode

[@dylanhenderson5806]

And now Nintendo stopped big house online we are in another dark era

[@BF_Kanon]

#FreeMelee

[@lordmango6060]

Just wanna say, the editing in the video is beautiful. Wonderfully done!

[@ScourgeBliss]

The 5 gods of melee are the generation of miracles while leffen is the phantom 6th man

[@Ganobrator]

Jonah did a great job with this video. Major props.

[@furyberserk]

The god age of melee will be when we get to hd those graphics with unlocked frames. So maybe 3 to 4 years.

[@Phayssal]

we... we already can...

[@Falariel455]

Fighting games with unlocked frames ? Moves are calculated by frames lol

[@jfmedits1577]

hell yeah melee content you love to see it

[@etaquince5220]

I dont play this game competitively. But man seeing this game growing and growing is so beautiful.

[@ChesireWaltz]

Holy cow this is incredible. The gaming community is always one of the most fantastic things in what fans will create and share with each other just to... Share. Be helpful. I love it!

[@X115Megaman]

If it weren’t for my summer class, I’d be playing this so much, and be top in my town. Lol but yeah, rollback is the best thing to come out of this year

[@danakim9253]

Behind The Akshon is the perfect gaming channel for me both being an ow player and smash player, keep up the good work

[@Werelight]

For the record, the plural of Hungrybox is Hungryboxen.

[@CalebWillden]

HA.

[@Brodie12]

Always great videos!

[@hectormaldonado8827]

Just wanted to say thanks, ive been trying to get up to date on whatsup with Melee and this vid really helped me understand everything in a short fun way. love it. =]

[@coolbrotherf127]

I'm totally down to try netcode again. I played a bit with the old system, but it just didn't feel great and matchmaking was kind of a pain because you had to do everything manually and there were usually problems.

[@cake6851]

It was a brief but glorious age.

[@OmgDAM1]

Its crazy to think that any remote skill I have in melee came from Rivals.

[@fandeslyc]

Awesome video ! When you do a video on a game "that's not Overwatch", do you have someone on your team who's already knowledgeable about the game? Did you have a Melee enthusiast? Same for Lethal league?

[@TheJoshAries]

hey, editor of the video here! can confirm that a good chunk of us are pretty hardcore Melee fans. we also have really talented writers who research and interview community members to get a full picture of the scene!

[@fandeslyc]

Thanks ! That's nice to know !

[@antkneewashere8923]

It's so weird to see Joey Cuellar still part of EVO

[@Lugmillord]

If a game has a strong group of fanatics with technical expertise, there are no boundaries.

[@adhaona-ghnothach7360]

Brilliant research. Lots of hard facts to help you understand. Great video!

[@Its_Miikii]

there are a couple misnomers in the vid- melee being on its last legs wasn't really the case, and we've been researching adapters to allow gamecubes to operate lagless on select monitors for a while now (With Hungrybox spearheading that front). Other than that though, this is wonderful! Right now I'm really hoping slippi can figure out rollback with more than two players for teams, because at that point he'd have pushed rollback farther than anyone else, full stop. We can only dream that one day Nintendo hires this man or at least makes rollback netcode themselves.

[@josephs.3372]

I pray Nintendo steers far from the Slippi team. The last thing we need is such talent being locked away by a horde of suits, HR workers, and middle managers.

[@AlexVaatu]

Amazing video! As always

[@ssg6135]

Wow, of course this in my recommended now.

[@X1erra]

It goes to show the impact of the cancellation of the Big House 2020 was with Slippi and Emulators being the main reason. Nintendo has been our nemesis in terms of preservation of games, but I'm sure it won't stop players from enjoying Slippy and tournament organizers are going to keep appealing it to make sure this diamond era is fully realized.

[@aloevera3317]

My mind is exploding now! This has the potential to revolutionize multiplayer fighting games in general!

[@adcrengar9877]

While the Smash Ultimate is crumbling at the loss of Zero, Nairo, D1, and Anti it is truly a dark time for Smash Great of you to make a Smash video that isn't talking about drama or farming views like Thescore and actually is showcasing something positive.

[@wyattcharron1753]

Great video. Well explained and concise, yet you dive into what makes me excited to be a melee fan!

[@triforcelink]

Nintendo: We’re not making any money off this... SHUT ER DOWN!

[@zoulabean]

literally found your channel today and I love it, thanks for being so informative and awesome!!!!!!

[@Bones0]

Everything was very accurate. I'm genuinely impressed.

[@metaknightex]

The gamecube actually has the ability to connect to the internet with thr btoadband adapter

[@neme6is.mp4]

slippi is already insane for only one reason : you can play SSBM without having a gamecube, only with your PC, and today, almost everyone has a PC. As a new player, i can start SSBM in 2023 without ever touching a gamecube, And it only increases the size of the community, which is very good news.

[@erinlear8423]

Amazing video, whoever researched this deserves all the praise!

[@orendamusic7577]

Diamonds are forever- just like Melee. Perfect naming

[@PlagueTv-X]

The June 22nd announcement of rollback melee was a real nice Birthday treat for me lol

[@imanthonyjames]

Lord vs S2J is still one of the most hypest matches in melee history.

[@Thief005]

Nothing to say but Concise, informative and, interesting, overall great video. 10/10

[@GalaxiaKnightX]

Well congrats for Melee being once again a game that will survive. Hope you guys have fun. As for me I'm just gonna enjoy Smash Ultimate.

[@kyidk]

with that online hard pass

[@Kmn483]

This video was so optimistic... and then Nintendo decided to pull a Disney well... Nintendo is pretty famous for it too

[@serenitynow85]

5:10 It's been years since the last time I felt that

[@jaysefgames1155]

I couldn't play melee if I wanted to. CRTs can make a really high pitched noise when on that most people can't hear, but a few can. It is maddening

[@theremix54]

Jaysef Games most people under the age 18 can, its an age thing fyi :)

[@idontcheckmynotifications]

Bruh I was just watching like four of your videos

[@gonbad6865]

The thing I'm asking myself the most is "Will Armada come back?"

[@Clayaga]

The reason Melee is always going to be relevant is that its flexible enough to allow people to overcome almost any character with their own playstyle, and because Nintendo hasn't acknowledged its competitive scene and has since walked away from it. Think of how much a patch in any regard would ruin the idea of skill in this game. Thats why I like melees community way over ultimate. Ultimate will keep changing its game itself, because when flaws are highlighted, they are fixed whereas the melee community will continue to adapt their playstyles and learn to overcome every single thing. For example Fox was considered the best for the longest time and yet while hes still relevant, there have been a lot of people overcoming that playstyle by learning to beat the manuevers. Its all skill and the game itself allows that to continually shape the meta. It was accidental, but still relevant because of how much of a banger they produced.

[@maplemiles3381]

Ultimate is growing and has a good competitive scene alone to keep the game going. Melee is super glitchy and was also rushed as a GameCube launch title. Nintendo has slowly got into the esports scene in a good why with ultimate and Splatoon alone. Before you bring up the cease and assist accident at big house. All those do to covid slippi was the only safe way to play Melee online it was off a illegal pirate emulated copy of the game and emulators are illegal and they were playing a illegal version of the game and Nintendo had good reasons to take it down. Before you bring up how Nintendo is behind the times with online play. MK8D and Splatoon 2 have really good servers even dedicated servers can have bad coding I played those to games online and have good servers overall. Ultimate is tight and smooth we'll Melee is slippery and all over the place.

[@ivanp8723]

amazingly made video theres so much melee to be played

[@spirit8296]

melee is the absolute goat of competitive gaming, there isn't any doubt.

[@iMbenjee]

Ty for the Melee content :')