Over the past few weeks, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. Melee, PGstats.com has been proud to present the Top 100 Melee players of all-time as voted on by the experts from Melee Stats.
The rankings take nearly two decades worth of Super Smash Bros. Melee competition into account in order to construct this pantheon of the game's greatest players.In the end, Mang0 was voted as the greatest player of all time, just edging out Armada for the crown. Voting was extremely close, with Mang0 taking the top spot by one vote. Hungrybox, Ken and Mew2King rounded out the Top 5, with Panda's Plup and iBDW both making the list at 10th and 22nd respectively.
The six panelists include Project Director & Melee Stats Editor-In-Chief Anokh "Edwin Budding" Palakurthi, Lead Data Collector & Writer Melissa Blight, Melee Stats Partnership Director Brendan "GimmeDatWheat" Malone, Melee Stats Creative Director Eryk "Ambisinister" Banatt, and Melee Stats Staff Writers Leon "ycz6" Zhou and Glenn "KayB" Kim. Panelists were asked to rank the players on the following questions:
How consistent was this player during their active years of competing?
How well did a player perform at the biggest majors of their era?
How long did their playing career last?
If this player never existed, how much does their absence impact the metagame?
What are the player’s best wins and how significant are they in Melee history?
The ranking considers 17 years of competition, dating from 2004's Game Over, won by the legendary Marth main Ken, to 2021's Riptide, won by Panda's own iBDW, spanning multiple eras of history in one of the longest lasting competitive gaming scenes out there.To see the rest of the rankings, head over to PGstats.com. The rankings can also be viewed in video form at the PGstats YouTube.