Smash Melee’s 4 Ages
The Golden Age (2004 - 2008) - As chronicled in 2013’s critically acclaimed The Smash Brothers documentary series, the Golden Age of Melee saw the dominance of Ken, Isai, Azen, ChuDat, PC Chris, KoreanDJ, Mew2King, and Mango as they battled across the United States during the Major League Gaming Pro Circuit.
The Dark Age & The Rise of the Five Gods (2008 - 2012) - Following the release of Brawl in 2008, the Melee community went into hibernation for over a year until Revival of Melee was held in 2009. During this time, the largest Smash tournaments were dominated by the same five players. The era of the Five Gods of Smash had begun.
Platinum Age (2013 - 2018) - The 2013 release of The Smash Brothers Documentary and Melee’s surprising inclusion in EVO 2013 kicked off the Platinum Age of Melee. The largest events were attended by thousands of players and top players were picked up by major esport teams. Rising above all those players were the five gods - Armada, Mango, Mew2King, PPMD, and Hungrybox. The five gods who won nearly every major tournament through 2016 and were it not for one player, Leffen, they would have stood completely unchallenged in this era.
The Chaos Age & The Fall of the Five Gods (2018-2020) - In 2016 some of the gods began to attend fewer and fewer events and in 2018 with Smash Ultimate’s release, interest in Melee once again began to wain. Following 6 years of continuous inclusion, EVO finally dropped the oldest game in the lineup in 2019.
