Ever heard of the Smash Valley series? If you look it up on SSBWiki, you’ll find that it’s listed as a German Smash 4 regional. Now, not to stomp on that event’s parade, but this is not the Smash Valley I’m talking about. What I’m referencing is an obscure regional series that used to be held around Penn State. That local scene used to occasionally hold big regional events which drew Midwest and Northeast talent alike.
Take Smash Valley V. I actually remember this tournament. The invading West Coast stars, Lucky and MikeHaze, had conquered the rest of the East Coast, and Lucky destroyed MikeHaze, as he usually did around this time. MikeHaze even tried Marth in grand finals to basically no avail. There you had it: the ultimate Fox vs. Marth match of this tournament. Alright, obviously, that’s a lie; nobody gives a shit about that set.
You see, long before these forgettable grand finals came a top eight qualifier between another Fox player and another Marth player. It’s not re-inventing the wheel or anything; just a solid set between two regional stars. In this instance, the Fox player was arguably one of the community’s most rapidly improving competitors; someone who hadn’t made the Top 100 and yet recently started taking sets from nationally ranked players. Speaking of which, the Marth player had recently made the Top 100 the previous year. It was mostly off the back of defeating Tafokints and Plup, of all people, as his first Top 100 wins. The Marth player ends up winning 3-2, holding off a potential reverse 3-0 in the process.
This would be the first of many battles between Cody Schwab and Zain. Approximately six years later, the two stand tall as arguably the definitive players of modern Melee. In today’s column, I’m doing a deep dive into Zain-Cody and where it stands by the numbers, what the rivalry ultimately “means,” and where it ranks all-time.
NOTE: For the purpose of time and keeping this column somewhat short, I’m going to avoid gameplay analysis or breakdowns of how the two contributed to the metagame or changed Fox-Marth/Marth-Fox. While it’s undeniably a part of their legacy together, along with their individual impacts on their respective character, I believe it to be above the scope of this piece and warranting its own individual breakdown.
By The Numbers
The lifetime set count does a tremendous disservice to Zain-Cody. It paints a somewhat misleading picture of what makes it exciting, with Zain currently up a dominant 20-12. Excluding online, this number goes to a slightly more competitive 16-12 count. Anyone unfamiliar with the full story will look at these numbers and merely assume it’s a “good” rivalry. However, the context behind these numbers tells a much better story.
Broadly speaking, you could split this rivalry into two different phases. The first one is where Zain mopped the floor with Cody. For 11 straight sets (7, excluding online play), Zain totally had his number. Save for the occasional game five, Zain outright big brothered him. At one point, Cody was considering Marth ditto’ing Zain on Final Destination or switching to Sheik, as another Fox peer had done. He would tell you himself that it genuinely seemed hopeless.
The second phase of this rivalry is the one we’re currently in. Starting from when he beat Zain for the first time at Smash Summit 12, Cody has actually had the edge. Purely by the numbers, and not excluding competitively gray or ambiguous sets at The Off-Season 2 or Redemption Rumble, Cody is up 12-9 in the head-to-head count. Were you to exclude those two tournaments, Cody would still have the lead within this time span at 10-8. This obscures an even more shocking subphase of this rivalry where Cody beat Zain thrice in a row, which Zain hasn’t done for the last two years.
There’s two fitting comparisons here. We’ll start with Hungrybox vs. Mango. Like Hungrybox, Cody began his rivalry with Zain, who like Mango, routinely outclassed his peer. And, like Hungrybox to Mango, Cody eventually broke a long losing streak versus Zain at a critical moment, then followed it up by gradually turning the dynamic competitive, or outright in his favor at various points.
The second one is Leffen vs. Armada. Leffen also began his rivalry with Armada as a significantly worse player, losing their first eleven sets before his eventual breakout to the top echelon. Not so coincidentally, that happened when he beat Armada for the first time. Although Armada boasts the career lead in the head-to-head, Leffen proved himself as someone who could consistently defeat him, not just take the occasional set. Briefly before Armada’s retirement, Leffen had seemingly turned the corner on him entirely, having won six of their last eight sets.
What Does Zain-Cody Mean?
Every great rivalry has a story. For Mango vs. Armada, you’ll hear a couple narratives brought up, the first one being that these two are the undisputed greatest players of all-time. The other one is that they represent different continents, America and Europe. Although there’s truth in these narratives, I don’t believe they pinpoint what really makes this rivalry special. In my opinion, its staying power comes from the fact that such a rivalry could exist at all, in spite of every circumstance going against it.
Just think about it: two people from entirely different continental two people who totally dominated a game that was not only still popular among a select few, but demonstrably proven as a viral commodity despite a sequel; two people who still cared so much about this game and were willing to travel to play each other for the first time in spite of having no idea how the other one would be; two people who could only do so because of their shared community’s undying passion for the game. Is there anything more indicative of the spirit of Melee? Is there any other rivalry that can be claimed to have preserved against the odds?
Let me draw up a definitely made up and completely imaginary hypothetical. Picture a world in which the act of going outside and being within six feet of another human being carries an implicit threat. This is a world where traveling to play video games in person with someone else is potentially dangerous. It’s an especially terrifying consequence for dedicated members of a community around a party game that cannot be played online on console. Have no fear though. Because not only have selected members of this community created better online multiplayer than basically every other fighting game – the best players in the world are able to consistently play one another from the comfort of their own home.
Surprise: this was not some crazy scenario I made up. This all actually happened, and within the span of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zain and Cody played quite a bit. Matter of fact, they still play quite a bit. Almost every single week, you can find the two best players in the world practicing with each other. When there’s a tournament and both are in attendance, you’ll still often find them playing one another in the venue – even when it comes to preparing for the other player in the tournament. It’s unlike every single other rivalry at a comparable level. They not only refuse to “dodge” each other; they basically just practice with each other for each other.
Mango and Armada would often go months without playing each other. Hungrybox became legendary for dodging friendlies from anyone who could seriously challenge him. But Zain and Cody would play each other in every possible scenario. Zain and Cody would play each other on a boat, with a goat, in the rain, in the dark, in a tree, in a car, in a box, with a fox, in a house, with a mouse, etc.
One other distinguishing factor to Zain-Cody is their shared commitment to their respective main. Unlike other rivalries, in which either player played multiple characters, this one has been unusually consistent: Marth vs. Fox the entire time. For the last six years, these two grew to define this matchup in a way that few other people have ever totally, exclusively defined one matchup.
The Best Zain-Cody Sets
There’s a funny element to rivalries that many people won’t acknowledge – that a “close” rivalry isn’t necessarily a great one. If anything, some of the greatest rivalries in Melee history are exciting because of times when the lesser player wins. However, when it comes to Zain-Cody, I can name several different events at which they played and had certified bangers, no matter who won or who was favored.
It’s hard to confidently pick any set as their best ‘set;’ there’s the insane 3-2 win Cody had on Zain at Smash Summit 12, where he beat Zain for the first time by inexplicably counterpicking him to Final Destination game 2 and winning, 3-2. After that, you have the wild winners semifinals at Genesis 8, a set they both now consider sloppy, and yet had me leaving it thinking it was the highest level of tournament gameplay ever. Later on that year, Cody would make an insane reverse 3-0 over Zain at Smash Summit 14, one of the best sets of the whole event.
That was all before this year. Somehow, these two have elevated the quality of their sets or matched previous ones in terms of excitement. How is anyone supposed to pick one game five barburner from winner’s semifinals at Battle of BC 5, loser’s finals at that same event, and loser’s finals at LACS 5? We additionally have a last-stock barnburner at The Big House 11’s loser’s semifinals, a set which basically determined who would win the event.
In my opinion though, Shine 2023 was the ultimate Zain-Cody experience. You have Cody completely running over Zain in winners finals, only for Zain to tear him apart in the first set of grands, and begin the second set by looking like he was about to make mincemeat out of him before Cody pulled a rabbit out of a hat and held him off to win the whole event. Both unbelievably and amazingly, this, to date, is the only Cody-Zain major grand finals ever played.
When I asked Cody about it, he told me, “I think the last set of Shine, we had great gameplay at points; the first two [sets] we traded being dogshit.” I can’t wait to see what more sets they have moving forward.
The Pantheon of All-Time Rivalries Pt. 1
I compared this rivalry before to Armada-Mango (29-21). The two clearly share a comparable “this shouldn’t have happened” factor. While that’s true, I obviously can’t put it on the same level yet. Mango and Armada basically played an entire decade’s worth of Melee with each other, with a fair share of legendary sets and epic beatdowns on the biggest stages. Save for maybe a year and a half in which Mango was goofing off with his Scorpion Master phase, the two were also supermajor contenders the entire time in which they competed together. Zain-Cody needs more time to get here; it’s barely been a couple years.
The next rivalry I’d definitely put above it is one which, unfortunately, is going through a dreadful phase. Mango-Hungrybox (51-47) are roughly in year 15 of a rivalry with just under 100 sets and a new wrench in it with Mango’s Dr. Mario. Although it’s easy to remember moments where one of them whooped the other, you could as easily mention classics they’ve had. Who can forget Pound 4 grand finals, Evo 2015’s hinge point loser’s quarterfinals, Genesis 3 loser’s finals, the epic Shine 2017 grand finals, or the dialing back of the clock at Super Smash Con 2022?
Then we get into a few rivalries that would close out my top five, all which I’d have cleanly above Zain-Cody. I touched upon Armada-Leffen (40-25) before and would only add that the legacy Leffen holds as the Fox who forced Armada to switch adds a flavor to their rivalry which only Hungrybox can claim to. On that note, the wealth of characters involved early on in that particular rivalry (Armada’s Young Link, Hungrybox’s Ness, Hungrybox’s Falco, and Hungrybox’s Fox, in addition to their mains) carries unique novelty value for Armada-Hungrybox (33-19). You could also mention the fact that these two played the most viewed supermajor grand finals in the game’s history. The last factor to mention here is an unexpected co-existence of two strange bits of trivia: Armada actually beat Hungrybox way more often than not, and yet Hungrybox is also the only player to ever defeat Armada five times in a row.
For my number five spot, I’m willing to give it outright to Zain-Mango (25-14). Although this rivalry has lately been sincerely painful to watch, it’s worth remembering that it boasts two of the greatest sets of all-time (or four, more specifically). Anyone in their right mind would understand that this goes a long way in boosting its legacy, as does the fact that both players were the clear one and two in the world during the pandemic. Besides, the offline lifetime count is way closer anyway (16-11, Zain).
The Pantheon of All-Time Rivalries Pt. 2
Now, here’s where it gets interesting: all the rivalries which I consider in the same all-time category as Zain-Cody. Let’s start with the weirdest one to retroactively assess: Mango-Mew2King (35-28). The storyline of Mango forcibly displacing the former No. 1 of the game on his own to becoming the best player in the world is fairly remarkable. The same could be said for their wealth of sets and Mew2King’s eventual turn toward becoming a more capable rival. With that said, the history between these two and their different personalities carries how this rivalry is typically remembered. Although they have many iconic sets – Pound 3’s grand finals, the grand finals played in an empty venue of Fight Pitt IV – I wouldn’t consider any of them “must watch” ones.
Speaking of which, Mango-Leffen (18-13) began with two of those in a duo of game-five sets that ended in iconic four-stocks. It eventually grew into the most volatile rivalry in the game, as it became the figurative poster for the term “slobber-knocker.” For half a decade, these two played Falco-Fox at the highest level of the game. Their sets ran the entire gamut from six minute 3-0’s on either end to game fives that had viewers chewing their nails and biting their fingers by accident (no; I’m not speaking from experience). With that said, Mango has lately bulldozed Leffen by the set count, having won all their last six sets. At the same time, that streak is a little misleading on the surface: it’s come with four game fives. If it’s become lopsided, at least it’s still been fun to watch.
The last two I’d like to mention are Zain-Hungrybox (26-21, 21-19, excluding online) and Leffen-Hungrybox (25-24). On the surface, they have more sets and are closer than Zain-Cody, but both rivalries suffer in key areas. The former undeniably has had nail biter moments (Shine 2018, Smash Summit 7, Low Tier City 7, Genesis 7, Apex 2022, and Super Smash Con 2023), but the turn toward Zain usually swatting Hungrybox like a volleyball across the screen has lately made it a snooze fest. Meanwhile, many good sets of Leffen-Hungrybox tend to blend in together, and they fail to distinguish themselves from the other Fox-Puff sets of their time. Frankly, I don’t think the personal history between either player is enough to place it any higher. Maybe this is just me being drunk off the hater juice – I genuinely think this element to the rivalry makes it fairly cringey.
SURPRISE MORE RIVALRIES
Okay; I can’t stop myself from writing about this topic, but there’s a couple other rivalries you could probably argue to be in the Top 10, as well as some others I wanted to acknowledge as “important.”
- Ken-Isai (7-6) definitely has a special place in Melee history, with Isai being the first person who wasn’t immediate roadkill for Ken.
- Ken-Azen (6-2) wasn’t particularly close, but in terms of what they represented for the West Coast vs. East Coast, they deserve acknowledgement.
- ChuDat-Mew2King (12-9) is quite possibly the dumbest rivalry, as well as one of the longest running between two all-time legends of the game. No, I’m not going to explain why it’s dumb – just trust me.
- Any assortment of the five gods, Leffen, or Plup which I haven’t mentioned.
- Any assortment of aMSa vs. Mango or Hungrybox.
- Any assortment of Jmook vs. Cody Schwab or Zain.
Conclusion
Is Zain-Cody the greatest rivalry of all-time? Not yet. I think it needs a little more time and more supermajor grand finals to reach the status of the Top 5. But you could reasonably place it anywhere from the fifth spot to the ninth spot.
For now, I’m willing to give it number seven, right between Mango-M2K (at six) and Mango-Leffen (at eight). With more time and sets played on the big stage, however, we could see this quickly make its way up the pantheon.