since there's no streams that interest me right now, i'm watching the zenith stream even though my knowledge of melee is non-existent. can anyone please give me a brief guide on the competitive melee scene like who are the top tiers in the game and which players to look out for?
Melee tiers are, roughly:
Fox, Falco, Sheik, Jigglypuff / Peach, Marth, C.Falcon / Ice Climbers / others (Dr. Mario, Ganondorf, Pikachu, Samus all see some 'specialist' play)
Fox/Falco are rushdown characters built around their jump-cancellable one-frame Down-B ("Shine") attacks, where fox has stronger horizontal movement but better upward KO options (giving better matchups against lightweights like Puff/Peach) and Falco has strong vertical movement leading to an up-down combo called Pillaring, but also great horizontal approach due to the hitstun on his Laser. Fox and especially Falco (due to his shorter recovery) are "fragile" in that many characters can keep them in long, multi-hit combos that do not work on other characters, due to their combination of weight and fall speed. In general, though, the fall speed benefits them more than it hurts them.
Sheik has a very strong throw game that can lead to chain-throws on lightweights and "tech chases" on fastfallers, where Sheik's downthrow results in a techable knockdown and Sheik tries to read or react to the direction of the tech to land another grab. Sheik is able to keep up with Fox and Falco mostly due to her strong offstage "gimping" game, which refers to hitting low-percentage opponents out of their recovery until they're just far enough from the stage to not be able to make it back, and provides early K.O.'s. Sheik play generally involves using grabs or lighter ground-based attacks that set her up to forward-air attack the opponent off the stage.
Puff is notable for strong horizontal aerial mobility and a one-frame (almost-)instant kill in Rest. Puff play revolves around rest setups and zoning with her high air mobility + disjointed hitbox on her back-aerial. Puff is also notable for having the strongest matchup against Peach of any character in the game. She is, however, very light, and dies from upward hits at very low percent.
Peach is a strong defensive Anti-Metagame character. She's notable for her strong, safe edgeguards, powerful downsmash (if the opponent is holding the wrong direction, a downsmash can deal 40-50% damage), and her unusual aerial lag cancel technique ("float cancelling") that lets her drop in with a high-priority aerial and almost instantly cancel into a downsmash or other follow-up. She also has a chain-grab on Fox and Falco. Armada is still the only player to see real success with Peach.
Marth has a very strong combo and gimping game on the fast-falling characters bordering on 0 to death on some stages, but struggles with some of the lighter ones. C. Falcon is reads-based and has explosive potential against most characters, but he has poor recovery options and is easy to tech-chase. Ice Climbers can kill any character off of a single grab but are held back by their lack of priority and approach options, as well as the erratic behavior of the CPU-controlled partner.
The most relevant players are Armada (Peach), Mango (Fox/Falco), Dr. PP (Falco/Marth), Hungrybox (Puff), Mew2King (Sheik/Marth), and then after a small gap Shroomed (Dr. Mario), PewPewU (Marth), and Hax (C. Falcon). Armada (from Sweden, the only relevant international player) is generally seen as being on top right now, but he "retired" after Apex 2013 (in January) and doesn't seem to intend to come to EVO.
The primary fanboy debate is over whether Mango or Armada is the stronger player, with PP generally receiving the most recognition after those two. Armada is notable for his strong safe play and punishment with few mistakes. Mango is notable for his insane rushdown, technical ability, and game sense. PP, I would say, is notable for having the strongest fundamentals of any of the top players.
