Super Smash Brothers Melee is a strange passion of mine. Despite never playing the game competitively, I am very fond of its competitive scene. I can tell you exactly where I was when Hungrybox came back on Armada at EVO 2016. I could write an essay about how crazy it was that Mew2King won 3-0 over Armada at Smash Summit 2. Yet, despite my love of the game, I've had my ups and downs. Most recently, I watched Zain, my current favorite player, have a heartbreaking loss at last weekend's LACS3. Feeling down, I've been thinking about how I got here, and what it is really all about.

I've been watching competitive Melee since 2016, which coincides with Zain's rise to the top. I remember hearing about this up-and-coming Virginia Marth player who upset the top 10 player Plup at the Big House 6. Then, I watched Zain in 2017 as he pulled a reverse sweep against the 3rd best player, Leffen, at Smash and Splash 3, his best win yet. And again I saw Zain push his limits farther in 2018, getting 3rd at the prestigious invitational Smash Summit 6 and then winning his first major tournament at Shine 2018 over the best player in the world. I followed Zain's meteoric trajectory in complete awe.

Zain's trajectory came to a peak in 2020. I was jumping out of my chair as Zain won Genesis 7, his first win at one of the hallowed supermajors. Following that tournament, from March to last weekend, Zain has only lost a single set, which was to the 2nd best active player, Mang0. In that time span, he boasted wins at The Octagon, LACS2, Smash Summit X, and 3/4 weeks of Slippi Championship League. At last, Zain was the best player in the world. No other player even comes close to his level of consistency across so many events. As a long time fan, I was glad to see Zain's hard work finally pay off.

But with such dominance, one may question why bother watching? If you already know Zain is going to win every single tournament, where's the excitement? After all, you don't let go of a ball and wonder if it's going to fall; you know that gravity is inevitable. For some, spectating would get boring after seeing the same person win again and again. So, even if I was a fan, why did I keep watching?

Well, despite how invincible Zain seemed for most of the year, he proved last weekend that he isn't. At the tournament LACS3, Zain dropped sets to Axe and S2J for a 5th place finish, his worst tournament performance in over a year. Despite how consistently better Zain appeared than everyone else, 2020 ends on the note that Zain is only human. But, is that what I expected to happen.

Well, there was always a chance that Zain would lose LACS3. As a Zain fan, I would love to see him have a multi-year reign at the top and be put alongside Mango, Armada, and Hungrybox on the all-time rankings. But I don't watch Melee because I want to see Zain win; I watch Melee because I love seeing everyone want to win. At LACS3 I didn't just see Zain lose. I saw S2J's efforts rewarded as he beat Zain for the first time in over a year and a half. I also saw Axe, after a rather quiet 2020, give an excellent performance showing that he still has what it takes to compete at the top. I still wished Zain won, but every loss is someone else's victory.

Despite being a 20-year old game, people still care about Melee, still want to be the best in the world. People like Zain, Mango, IBDW, and others all continue to spend hundreds of hours on the game a year just so they can beat each other and whoever else can show up. Seeing these players that love the game, how their stories overlap and intersect again and again in new and exciting ways, is why I keep coming back to Melee after so many years. And hopefully, for many more to come.