Written by Leeds Melee Tournament Organiser Dominic Kilminster
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What's Melee
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‘Melee’ or SSBM is short for ‘Super Smash Bros. Melee’, a fighting game released by Nintendo in 2001 for the GameCube which became its best-selling title. 26 familiar characters such as Donkey Kong and Pikachu battle it out on 29 platform-like stages with 4 players at once. Unlike other traditional fighters like Tekken, there are no health bars. The objective? Knock your opponent off the edge or blast them to the clouds. You don't need to learn button combos to use your attacks. It's remarkably simple on the surface.
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Players quickly saw more than a ‘family friendly party game’. Game stores hosted tournaments with new rules to increase competitiveness. No items, stages removed, and 1v1 matches with 4 lives each. Endless advanced techniques were found (still being discovered today), pushing the limits of possibility. Its physics engine allows for ‘freestyle’ movement and human expression, with long-time fans able to distinguish players from one another by gameplay alone. Top talent often average over 500 controller inputs per minute. It’s blazing fast. With a vast tree of options to choose from, no one match is ever the same.
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Establishing itself on MLG Circuits alongside Halo 2 and others, it would also feature at EVO, the biggest annual fighting game tournament in the world. In 2016, 15 years after release, and years after the later Smash Brawl and Smash 4 released, EVO still saw 2372 entrants for Melee alone. Players opt to play Melee for its unique gameplay over newer Smash titles. Top players believe the game will never be ‘solved’. YouTube videos document iconic moments through its history. Today, ‘WOMBO COMBO!!!!’ has 21 million views and ‘The Smash Brothers Documentary’ has 3.7 million, with 4 others reaching over 5 million.
Why Play
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Once a fortnight, Leeds sees 15-20 entrants at our ‘locals’, regular in-person events for players to socialise, play friendlies, and compete. The local is Melee’s bread and butter, and focuses on having fun but also improving at the game. Our inclusive community provides a home for many and has built countless friendships. You might have seen us at BrewDog or Belgrave with our retro TVs and a big bag of GameCubes. The offline social aspect of Melee is often the number one reason people play.
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Melee still thrives all over the world a whopping two decades later, regularly surpassing viewership numbers on Twitch of the most recent Smash release, Ultimate on the Switch. Over 1500 players entered the U.S tournament ‘GENESIS X’ in 2024. ‘Slippi’ was released in 2020, a community project that added online play on Windows/Mac GameCube emulators, making it easier than ever to start by removing the need to find retro equipment. Melee has even captured the interest of big online personalities such as Ludwig, MoistCr1TiKaL and Ninja.
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​Larger UK ‘regionals’ and ‘nationals’ provide all day or weekend party experiences anywhere from 48 entrants (Storm IX, 2024, Newcastle) to 548 entrants (Fête 3, 2023, East Sussex). Travel and see the country in the company of like-minded individuals. Prove yourself at big events and the UK Melee committee may officially rank you a top player and lobby donations to send you abroad to represent us. Leaving home to study or relocating for work? A Melee local is not far around the corner. Cities have more grassroots scenes than you can count on your fingers (Bristol, Bournemouth, London, Manchester, and Birmingham to name a few).