Melee at Evo: Holding Its Place

Melee has always been something of a dark horse as far as competitive gaming is concerned. Melee competitions started out in people's houses, not convention centers. Top Melee prize pools reach the thousands, not the millions. Pristine Melee requires the use of a "dead" technology, not PCs or upgraded consoles. Even today, detractors call Melee a party game, not a fighting game. But Melee will never die, because—contrary to the belittlement—its players and fans are fighters.

EVO has been the premier international fighting game tournament for over a decade, garnering more fans, more attention, more players, and more money than any of its contemporaries. And EVO is always growing. Since its inception as a 40-man Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament nearly 20 years ago, EVO has grown to become the end-all and be-all of fighting game tournaments, as well as something of a summer streaming spectacle on par in viewership with other Twitch.tv annual traditions like the Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) events. EVO was a 40-man tournament in 1996. It will be at least a 10,000-man tournament in a few days, and that's just counting registration for the main games.

How did these two phenomena in competitive gaming cross paths? Sliding back to 2004 in Melee's history, we see a game whose competitive depth and grassroots dedication caught the attention of Major League Gaming, a long-standing fixture in North America's professional competitive gaming scene. For three straight years, Melee was featured prominently in MLG's Pro Circuit, effectively bringing the game to the big leagues for the first time. Each Pro Circuit sported a series of tournaments across the U.S., culminating in a final national championship. Ken "Ken" Hoang won two of these national championships back to back, adding to the accolades that would define him as the King of Smash. Melee's time on MLG's Pro Circuit was fated to fade, though, finishing off with MLG Las Vegas in 2006, an exciting 8-man contest of champions that still retains the distinction of having one of the highest Melee prize pools ever.

2007 saw Melee in the wake of being dropped off the Pro Circuit boat. To compound the dire tides, Smash fans were looking forward to the next Smash iteration, Brawl, which had been gaining hype since its E3 announcements. Was Melee destined to be discarded in the inexorable march of time? No. In 2007, amidst unprecedented highs in popularity mixed with uncertainty about the future, Melee was featured on EVO in the form of the tournaments EVO South, EVO East, EVO North, and EVO West, closing off with EVO World as a finale in Las Vegas. EVO World 2007 turned out to be Melee's largest tournament yet, remaining unsurpassed in attendance for two years. It featured storylines like the return of the King, Ken, who appeared to take first place. Also in attendance was the 15-year old Joseph "Mang0" Marquez, who would later become a back-to-back EVO champion. He took 3rd place in a field of 270.

That was the first intersection of Melee and EVO, a historic event that showed that Melee could be played anywhere from a living room to a resort-casino. What followed were darker years, with Melee getting supplanted by Brawl both in general attention and on the EVO main lineup. But the members of the Melee community are fighters. People kept playing Melee and hosting tournaments, eventually leading up to the 2009 tournament Revival of Melee, whose resounding success emphasized that any reports of Melee's death had been greatly exaggerated.

Fast forward to 2013. Both EVO and Melee were growing steadily. EVO boasted over 3,500 competitors in 2012, an all-time high, indicative of a trend that could only push upwards. Melee now had three tournaments behind it that each surpassed EVO 2007 in attendance: Genesis, Pound 4, and Apex 2012, with Apex 2013 right around the corner for more. Even one of Melee's most well-known internet memes, the "Wombo Combo," was trending higher in popularity, accruing over twice the search interest it got back in 2008.

The stage was set for a collision course, and the opportunity for Melee and EVO to meet again was opened up shortly after Apex 2013, when EVO announced that it would select the 8th game on its main lineup for 2013 by the results of a donation drive. Whichever game's community donated the most to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation would be chosen for the coveted final spot on the EVO 2013 main lineup. Fighting game communities everywhere rallied to the cause, launching into furious fundraising campaigns. The Melee community's donation efforts were spearheaded by Melee It On Me (MIOM), in the form of a donation drive known as the Spirit Bomb. Via its podcasts, streaming events, unity and fervor, the Melee community raised over $94,000 in donations, clinching first place in a field that collected over $225,000 in total. Melee earned a spot on the EVO 2013 main lineup, but following the result, Nintendo nearly blocked Melee from airing. Fortunately, the company changed their minds within hours in the face of an explosive outcry from the community and across media outlets.

When EVO 2013 finally arrived, Melee proved itself yet again by attracting a phenomenal 134,000 concurrent Twitch viewers, briefly becoming the most watched fighting game of all time, surpassed only by Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The tournament offered hype storylines in addition to the astounding online metrics. Players from outside the U.S. appeared in force, representing Sweden, Germany, UK, Mexico, Denmark, Japan, Canada and others. Masaya "aMSa" Chikamoto stole everyone's heart with his technical red Yoshi. Robert "Wobbles" Wright shocked everyone by piercing through three of the "Five Gods" of the time. And Mang0 let everyone know, with a shirt and a trophy, that he was the greatest.

Melee's hype train barreled onward as The Smash Brothers documentary was released later that year, bringing in its wake yet another wave of interest in the game. That wave of interest carried over into 2014, making it one of the biggest years in Melee history. MLG picked up Melee once again, running MLG Anaheim 2014, which—along with EVO 2014—became one of the cornerstones of the so-called Summer of Smash. Sponsors picked up more and more Melee players. Streams abounded, as did tournaments. Weeklies, monthlies, annuals, locals, regionals, nationals—you name it, the Melee community ran it. Smash 4 was set to release in 2014, but the Melee community kept growing at full steam.

Melee was chosen for EVO 2014's main stage with no contest. Even Nintendo could not help but to address the community at EVO, with Reggie issuing a request for "No Johns." EVO 2014 featured strong performances from Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, Jeffrey "Axe" Williamson, Otto "Silent Wolf" Bisno, Adam "Armada" Lindgren and innumerable others, with players all around the world pushing their skill boundaries constantly. It also featured Mang0's second EVO championship in a row, making him the first back-to-back Melee EVO champion. In less than a week, he'll have the opportunity to score an unprecedented three-peat, but the competition field now is more dangerous than ever. According to top tournament threat William "Leffen" Hjelte, the Age of Gods is over.

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Writer: EchOne
Editor: Souma
Graphics: teckworks
Photo: itsjustatank