Hello, everyone! Pikachu942 and I are happy to present the next part of our Top 100 Melee players of all-time. In our last post, we uncovered the the players ranked 71-80. Today, we’ll be going over the players ranked 61-70. Here’s a brief FAQ on our project:
What is the Smash History Top 100 Melee Players of All-Time project?
It’s a ranking of the top 100 Melee singles players of all-time, determined by both members of the Smash History research and editorial series team: Edwin Budding (myself) and Pikachu942. The project is also an expansion of what I wrote in 2016, but with even more research, having taken us half a year to prepare on its own.
How did you guys determine the Top 100?
In order to rank players, we collected a list of every player ranked within the Top 25 of SSBMRank, mentioned within RetroSSBMRank and every player who placed in the top eight of a supermajor since Game Over in 2004, what we consider the start of competitive Melee as we know it today.
After creating this initial list, we added more notable names that we felt were “outlier” players whose results and rankings may not accurately reflect their playing impact on the Melee scene, such as international players.
What did you take into account when ranking players?
The four key factors we looked at and tried our best to stay consistent to were the following:
- How well did a player perform at the biggest majors of their era?
- How consistent was this player during their active years of competing?
- How long did their playing career last?
- If this player never existed, how much does their absence impact the metagame, large major results or the greater scene in Melee history?
I’ve never heard of you or Pikachu! What makes you guys think you’re qualified to determine Melee’s best players above anyone else?
Because until someone else helps write over 300 pages of Melee history on a personal website for free, we feel like we’re about as qualified as anyone can reasonably be.
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70. Alex “Lambchops” Ucles 
9th at GENESIS
9th at MELEE-FC Diamond
9th at CEO 2014
13th at Revival of Melee 3
17th at APEX 2010
If you ask who has the greatest lasers in all of Melee, the only right answer is Lambchops. His style inspired DaShizWiz and PPMD during their rises to prominence. In the modern age, Porkchops, King Momo and KPAN all come from the same tree of Falcos. Even Westballz has called Lambchops one of his favorite players.
Today known as Beerman, he actively plays with and mentors newer players within New York City, continuing his legacy as one of the game’s wisest teachers. He doesn’t take competing as seriously as he used to, but to this day, only he can truly claim the title of laser guru.
– Edwin Budding
69. Robert “Scar” Scarnewman 
5th at GENESIS
9th at The Big House 3
13th at Viva La Smashtaclysm
13th at Winter Gamefest VI
13th at Super SWEET
Is there anyone more worthy of being the No. 69 Melee player of all-time? We think not. Although many remember him for his unforgettable sixth place showing at the first Genesis, three years afterward, the “I Killed Mufasa” star had one of the most underrated bracket runs in Melee history. In NorCal’s The Deep, Scar defeated PewPewU, Shroomed, Lovage and S2J to win a stacked West Coast regional of the post-Brawl era.
This was arguably even more impressive than when he defeated Azen and PPMD earlier in his career, as those wins came outside of their relative primes. Today, the “Lean Melee” innovator currently focuses on being a community leader and commentator, but we can speak for all smashers when we say that the Melee It On Me creator and member of “The Reads” is still the most electrifying man in Melee.
– Edwin Budding
68. Dave “DA Dave” Campodonico
4th at Game Over
7th at MELEE-FC3
7th at EVO East 2007
9th at MELEE-FC
9th at MLG DC 2005
Imagine Falco. Chances are that you envision him performing a short hop laser. Thanks to DA Dave, this technique is now commonplace and a quick way for Falco players to control space, rather than just shoot grounded, laggy, punishable projectiles.
Dave’s impact on Melee went beyond being a Falco forefather. During the MLG era, he remained among the borderline top ten of the United States, also defeating Azen at FC3. Today, he still plays on Netplay under the tag “PapaDav3,” though he plays Fox, Marth and Ice Climbers in addition to his trend-setting Falco.
– Edwin Budding
67. Ryan “Ryan Ford” Ford 
7th at IMPULSE 2012
7th at DreamHack Atlanta 2017
9th at APEX 2012
9th at Canada Cup 2016
9th at Canada Cup 2017
Ryan Ford, formerly known as Unknown522, sports a Fox that is among the scene’s most calculated and deliberate, being especially proficient in the Fox ditto. The Canadian Fox once defeated Mew2King in a set that remains one of the scene’s most notorious for its controversy surrounding its final match, which had to be replayed.
For the early part of his career, he also struggled with anger issues and violent outbursts within the community. This led to a temporary local ban in late 2013, in which he eventually returned over a year and a half later. Now entering tournaments under his real name, he’s gained acceptance at tourneys across the greater public scene, made amends with many he previously hurt and avoided any other issues since.
– Edwin Budding
66. James “Dope” Hafner
7th at MLG Anaheim 2006
7th at MLG Dallas 2006
7th at MELEE-FC
9th at MELEE-FC3
Dope frequently gets forgotten in comparison to other old-school Falcos, but veterans of the scene can testify to his skills. A member of the Midwest Big Five, he dominated Michigan as its best player and had a slew of strong nationals over the course of his three-year prime.
Along with beating Mew2King and Isai, Dope also won Show Me Your Moves 6, placing above his fellow Big Five rivals in Drephen, Tink, Darkrain and Vidjogamer. It’s clear that his name belongs in the top 10 or 15 players of the MLG era, as he also finished 2006 as the No. 9 player, per the Smash Panel Power Rankings. To start early 2007, he held an impressive standing within the entire Midwest: No. 1.
– Edwin Budding
65. Edgard “n0ne” Sheleby 
4th at Canada Cup 2017
5th at UGC Smash Open
7th at GOML 2016
9th at DreamHack Austin 2017
9th at EGLX
Playing Captain Falcon against Mew2King was considered impossible for almost a decade – until n0ne defeated him at GOML 2016. The current Ontario No. 1 started off as a community fan favorite, with jaw-dropping punishes reminiscent of Scar. There’s not many people in Melee who delete stocks in as few seconds as n0ne.
Quite a bit of n0ne’s style came from playing within Nicaragua, where he claimed that it’s a common cultural practice to avoid shielding. Perhaps this inspired n0ne’s Lord-esque ability to convert off crouch cancels and trick his opponents into throwing out unsafe moves, while still having access to all his offensive tools.
– Edwin Budding
64. Masaya “aMSa” Chikamoto 
5th at APEX 2015
5th at Kings of Cali 4
9th at GENESIS 5
9th at APEX 2014
9th at GT-X 2017
For over a decade, Yoshi’s potential remained capped by the heavy amount of execution needed to succeed with him. That changed with aMSa, who over the last five years has revolutionized the character.
His egg-stalls, punish game, lightning fast parries and impressive platform movement led to an upset over Mew2King at Kings of Cali 4, a year after taking a game off of him at at Evo 2013. Still a top player today, the current Japanese No. 1 has proven himself, not just as a flavor-of-the-month low-tier hero, but as a sustainable member of Melee’s top echelon of play.
– Edwin Budding
63. Daniel “The King” Hutchinson 
5th at MLG Dallas 2006
5th at Zero Challenge 3
9th at MLG Anaheim 2006
9th at Zero Challenge 2
13th at MLG Chicago 2006
When you think of top tier Jigglypuff players in the history of smash, The King should be one of the first names that pops into your head. With a truly creative and groundbreaking style, King burst onto the scene in 2006, showcasing aggression with the pink puffball that was rarely seen and continues to be a scarce sight in today’s day and age. His usage of all of Jigglypuff’s toolkit was a sight to behold, as The King basically created the standard to be even a decent Puff today. If you’ve ever heard of “the King” combo (nair to rest), you now know who invented it.
His talent wasn’t restricted to character advancement or DBR combo videos either. King’s results more than backed up his skill, as he made multiple major top eights and top sixteens in his career. Not to mention, King’s performances inspired a young up and coming player who also played the Balloon Pokemon. You might know him – his name is, uh…Mango?
– Pikachu942
62. Sean “Forward” Benner 
5th at Cataclysm 3
5th at EVO East 2007
7th at Super Champ Combo
7th at MOAST 3
9th at Pound 3
One of the defining players of his character, Forward is often credited as one of, if not the first player to truly push Falco into the place he stands in the modern era. Showing prowess in the game as early as 2005, the long-time theorycrafter fought against the best players of his era with fair success, showing off technical ability rarely seen from anybody else at the time. Forward notably invented the aerial Falco shine into platform wavelanding to begin a combo, a staple of any Falco with a half-decent punish game in this day and age.
He also honed and mastered pretty much every other aspect of the character, and what Forward showed with the blue bird can still be seen in any Falco, be it from the Golden Age of Melee or the modern times. With a deadly Sheik to complement his Falco, the Arizona great himself is a worthy addition to our list.
– Pikachu942
61. James “Swedish Delight” Liu
4th at Pound 2016
5th at Shine 2016
7th at UGC Smash Open
7th at Smash Rivalries
9th at The Big House 7
Originally hailing from Rutgers University, Swedish Delight actually started off as a Samus main before in 2008. Eventually switching Fox, and later Falco, he finally decided on Sheik after being convinced by Eggm. Swedish began taking sets from some of Tristate’s best players, including Hax, and finished an impressive ninth at Zenith 2013 in a little over a year.
Defeating Plup at Apex 2015, he continued improving and earned community favor, being voted into the first ever Smash Summit. A tech chase-heavy player with edgeguards worthy of comparisons to Mew2King, Swedish was arguably robbed of a Top 10 rank in 2016, in which he seemingly finished ninth place at every tournament. With wins over Mew2King and last-game sets on Mang0 and Hungrybox, Swedish has shown that he’s capable of competing with some of the game’s greatest players as well.
– Edwin Budding
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Thank you for reading, everybody. We’ll be back with 51-60, coming soon!
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