Final Thoughts

This guide is hardly all-encompassing. You absolutely have several very good questions about things that weren't covered here, because much like the community for the game we play, this website was a grassroots labor of love. There's no reason for a full-grown adult with a 9-5 to spend 20+ hours making this website, and no reason for several other full-grown adults to help out adding features and information, but the only reason anybody involved with making this website had the opportunity to do so is because of people like you. Melee's lifeblood is new players. Without you, we would be lucky to have a single major, let alone several a year, and local scenes would be small groups of random people occasionally getting together to play the game.

There's no way around it. Getting good at a competitive video game, especially one like Melee, is a fool's errand. The hundreds of hours spent poring over frame data and small match-up intricacies could be much better spent learning a "real" skill, but something keeps bringing us back to it. Is it chasing the rush of hitting that one combo you've been learning? Is it pushing your mentality as far as it can go, putting everything you have into getting better? Is it the torrent of adrenaline you get in a close set, adrenaline that most people rarely feel? Is it the friends we made along the way?

Esports, as little as Melee shares with them, are still a new concept, and we don't have the answers as to why, but ultimately, if you stick with Melee, it will stick with you. The Michigan Melee community is full of amazing people who are happy to help you every step of the way.

Check out the Tournaments tab for information on upcoming events! Have fun!