Now that everybody knows the Melee Top 10, smashers have much to talk about. Each player in the Top 10 seems poised for further greatness in 2024, but their most exciting sets won’t necessarily always come against each other. Sometimes, it may take someone outside of the Top 10 to suddenly take them to the brink.
In today’s Monday Morning Marth, I’m going to review the current Top 10 and assign each one of them a single player outside the Top 10 (or Leffen) whom they haven’t played in 2023 and whom I believe has a decent chance of defeating them. For the sake of diversity, I will be avoiding repeat options, as well as doing my best to come up with the most unusual answers.
Cody Schwab
It’s early 2020, and the future best player in the world just cannot defeat Fiction in Fox dittos. The two are friends, but Cody has been farmed for many sets in a row. In hindsight, it’s pretty crazy how different their careers turned out afterward. Cody would go on to win majors and become No. 1, while Fiction would both continue his respective success in Melee as well as take part in one of the most viral moments in Smash history.
.@ArmadaUGS teach me how to fuck up fiction https://t.co/n97DKh5Abv
— Nouns | Cody Schwab ⌐◨-◨ (@iBDWSSBM) February 2, 2020
The last set they had was a tight 3-2 win for Cody a couple years ago at Genesis 8. I would expect a future set between the two to be similarly close, but it could also involve Fox dittos, if Fiction’s stretch of playing Fox last year means anything. Or maybe even Fiction’s Sheik, if he’s still feeling like he wants to play more Sheik. I’m not sure. Regardless: I want to see this set happen.
Zain
Zain has an interesting history vs. Captain Falcon. For the early part of his rise, this seemed to be a problem matchup, like when Captain Smuckers fucked him up at The Gang. But then eventually he hit a point where he started dominating all the Captain Falcon players he ran into. Although S2J took a set from him at Riptide 2022, Zain’s most remained untouchable within this matchup. Still – it is Marth vs. Captain Falcon. For rising players who could have a sleeper shot vs. Zain, as well as force him to prepare for this matchup again, there’s few better choices than Salt.
To be clear, the two have played once before: a 3-2 victory for Zain at Smash Summit 13. Although Zain has certainly taken his game to a new level since that time, the same could be said for Salt. She’s lately made a killing from dominating her peers, yet lacks a top echelon win at a major to complement it – and no; Hungrybox at The Off-Season doesn’t count. If that win isn’t coming against a Marth player – even if it’s still Zain – I’m not sure who else she has a better chance against. Well, maybe it is Hungrybox, but that’s not a fun answer.
Jmook
Until Skerzo defeated him at GOML, Jmook was practically indestructible vs. lesser Foxes. And to this day, I still believe he’s heavily favored against any Fox player who isn’t Cody Schwab. But keeping that in mind, I’ve always been curious about how Panda would perform versus Jmook. For those of you not in the know, Panda’s spent most of this decade smacking down Krudo and basically every top Sheik player he’s run into. Although he’s not been immune to the occasional upset in this matchup, his overall record, as well as style, still paints a heavily favorable picture.
On the surface, you might be tempted to discount Panda’s chances, as Plup solidly 3-1’d him last year in a full Sheik-Fox set. But I’m inclined to think that this runs downstream from stylistic differences and Plup being a bit better suited to defeat Panda. When we’ve seen Jmook brutalize lesser Fox players, it’s usually by virtue of out-punishing them, staying alive for longer, and coming prepared. I feel like Panda is a bit closer to Skerzo in playing a very annoying style of Fox that can avoid grabs, but he also combines it with an unusually creative punish game vs. Sheik that won’t afford Jmook many opportunities. Then again, Jmook could just rinse him because he is Jmook.
moky
It wasn’t that long ago when moky had a peer in the fellow category of players who reached unforeseen competitive highs during the online era”. That peer was Ginger, who looked Top 10 in the middle of the pandemic. As a matter of fact, this seemed like it could be the case after the pandemic. Remember when Ginger beat Plup, or when he won The Function 2, an event that Cody Schwab finished in ninth place at? He actually ended up defeating moky in grand finals to win that same tournament.
The last time Ginger and moky played was Apex 2022, where moky ended up winning in a strange 3-0 where every game went to last stock. Before that, Ginger had won the previous set at Riptide, as well as the aforementioned grand finals at The Function 2. During the online period, they typically went back and forth, though moky had a 3-2 lead overall. He would be favored in a rematch, but I think Ginger still would be a relatively tough out for him.
Plup
What constitutes a “cracked” player? For me, it’s someone who boasts supreme technical proficiency, finds really creative solutions to their opponent’s decisions, and aggressively presses forward. Plup and SFOP are both cracked players I’d love to see face off. Tragically, you can barely find either of them competing, so it’s actually not surprising at all.
Minimal effort this year ( Top 10 skill) pic.twitter.com/5xlabFNEot
— TLOC | sfop (@sfopsfopsfop) January 24, 2024
Plup is a guy who could very well be the best player in the world, but he’s Top 5 because he barely enters anything. SFOP is possibly a Top 10 or 15 player, “in skill,” but he’s Top 30 because he barely enters anything. Like Plup, he’s dominated people we’d consider peers and has even scored big wins, and yet it’s never really seemed to be on anyone’s radar. That could change with a huge win over a player like Plup, a player who may as well just be SFOP on steroids. Yes, obviously that’s a simplification; no, I don’t care.
Hungrybox
I know KJH is an obvious choice. I don’t care. I’ll take any opportunity I can to watch KJH’s Fox take on a top floaty player. The last time they played was, after all, their CEO 2022 set, where KJH not only won 3-1, but forced Hungrybox off Dreamland with a convincing two-stock win. It’s worth noting the two had a flash in the pan rivalry during the pandemic when they played a ton of online sets at weekly events. Seeing KJH defeat Hungrybox in person differentiated him from a ton of his peers; it proved that he could repeat the same feat of beating him offline.
On a broader note, I’m quite high on KJH. It may have taken some time for him, but his Falco has caught up to his Fox, and it doesn’t seem like his Fox has suffered too much of a dropoff either. In general, I always want to see more from KJH, but because he and Hungrybox have a fun history, I’m going with him as the pick here.
aMSa
Hear me out about Solobattle. It’s true that aMSa has lately had Hungrybox’s number, and it’s true that Solobattle has never played a Yoshi like aMSa before. At the same time, aMSa isn’t totally invincible in this matchup, as 2saint proved. From my discussions with Jigglypuff players and Yoshi players alike, there seems to be a consensus that Hungrybox doesn’t abuse all of Jigglypuff’s advantages in this matchup either. That doesn’t mean another Jigglypuff can’t do it – Dawson, a Top 100 Jigglypuff, has taken aMSa dangerously close before.
Another session vs Trif. pic.twitter.com/ErS66v7WAO
— Solobattle (@Solobattle_) January 10, 2024
I could be totally wrong here. It’s very well possible, if not likely, that when these two play, aMSa brutally skill-gaps Solobattle. But I don’t think that will happen if Solobattle comes prepared. Solobattle is extremely dangerous with a lead, being both hard to hit and also hyper-aware of any potential for a Rest. At the very least, this is a rare matchup that I’m curious to see actually happen in a tournament.
Mango
Although he’s lately struggled vs. Zain – and has the occasional tendency to run at Marth players for 12 stocks and scare his fans- Mango typically beats Marth players very badly. However, If strongly positive records vs. Ginger and KJH show anything, it’s that Ossify eats Falco and Fox for breakfast. A matchup between Mango and Ossify would be amazing not only because of their demonstrated prowess against each other’s characters, but also due to it being a matchup of the old-school and the new-school.
Ossify’s gonna be top 10 one day
Main reason I say this? When I asked about his last session with kalindi, his first response was “hm, what was I working on again”
Nothing gameplay related, not about our friendlies, just a person who actually cares about the right things
— Nouns | Cody Schwab ⌐◨-◨ (@iBDWSSBM) December 6, 2023
I’m especially excited for both players because they seem like they’re on positive trajectories. It might sound weird to say that about Mango, but he’s fresh off a third place showing at Big House and has repeatedly demonstrated interest in fully returning to competing in 2024. Ossify has only looked better as the previous year went on.
Wizzrobe
Close your eyes and pretend that it’s 2019 for a second. You’re bumping “Sicko Mode” on Spotify, the Twitter app is still usable (and named Twitter), and, more relevantly, Wizzrobe and Axe are Top 5 players. In fact, they both had outright won majors. On any given day, either player could randomly look like the best player in the world. Obviously, a lot has changed since, but I still want to see the two play each other.
Melee has had as many first-time supermajor winners in the past 18 months as the prior 8 years:
Axe: Smash Summit 8 (2019)
Wizzrobe: SnS5 (2019)
Zain: Shine 2018
Plup: Genesis 5 (2018)
Leffen: CEO 2015
Armada: Genesis 2 (2011)
PPMD: Pound V (2011)
Hbox: Apex 2010— Andrew Nestico (@PracticalTAS) June 17, 2019
It’s actually pretty crazy that these two haven’t played in a year. It wasn’t too long ago when Wizzrobe was the one Captain Falcon player who seemed to consistently give Axe trouble, and there was even a time when it looked like Wizzrobe had figured out the matchup as well. The last time these two former Top 5 players squared off, Axe won in a solid 3-1 at Smash Summit 14.
Aklo
Aklo’s had an inspirational rise to prominence. Following years of only playing with his brothers, he became more notable through his local and regional performances in Tristate, and then further broke out over the pandemic during online tournaments. Since then, he’s become a mainstay of major top eights and hit the Top 10. But it wasn’t too long ago when Aklo had himself a fairly compelling rival of sorts in Logan: another player who once looked like they were destined for entering the Top 10.
Logan’s mostly disappeared since that period of time. Over the last two years, they’ve taken a big step back in terms of national activity. And yet every now and then, they’ve shown signs of greatness, either in their dominance of Philadelphia, winning Tristate regionals, or even taking players like Jmook and Joshman dangerously close. I don’t know what their future Melee plans are, but I would love to see a rematch between two former rivals of the pandemic. For what it’s worth, they haven’t played Aklo since beating him, 3-2, at Smash Summit 11.