In an otherwise modest week for Melee news, PPMD, a longtime “god” who left the scene in 2016 to focus on his personal health, announced that he’d begin streaming between March and May as part of his greater return to competing in Melee. He said this would involve both his own practice, analysis of other players and more.

PPMD’s hiatus happened after a relatively poor 10th place showing at Battle of the Five Gods, an event that happened in early 2016. Since then, he’s mostly disappeared from the spotlight, save for the occasional interview and a brief fourth place doubles performance at Bad Moon Rising 2 in 2017, where he and his longtime doubles partner L0ZR notably defeated Hungrybox and Crunch.

As far as events go, it was another quiet weekend. Moky defended Ontario from the visiting La Luna, winning Revenge of 6ix. Over in Michigan, KJH won UNITE. At the fifth edition of The NorCal Spartan, Kalamazhu took first.

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1. Melee Stats Podcast Update

After Genesis 6, the Melee Stats Podcast is entering an indefinite hiatus. Heading into the new year, I and SaveAsUntitled, who produces the show, discussed its future and what we thought was the best course of action.

Both of us are at different points in our lives and have different goals within Smash. Save wants to continue making videos for both Ultimate and Melee; and after his upcoming graduation, he will have more time than ever to focus on YouTube content creation full-time, as well as pursue music. Meanwhile, I want to publish my book in the next few months, dedicate myself to my full-time job and return to competing in my local Melee scene.

Our differences in perspectives aren’t necessarily new, but they frankly create a lot of creative tension and uncertainty surrounding the show’s future. That’s not even taking into account other members of Melee Stats, each of who have their own personal circumstances that make committing to a weekly show difficult.

Moreover, our schedules don’t match up. Save and I heavily valued the routine and weekly structure that came with the show. If we can’t do that, we both agreed the quality of the show would drop, which neither of us want.

However, we’re still around. You can still join the Melee Stats Discord here to talk to the team. Both I and Dingus are continuing our weekly series on the website. Wheat is now spearheading Melee Stats Deep Dives, which was initially supposed to be our Patron-only podcast but is now essentially succeeding the original show. You can see his latest episode below.

That said, we still have TBH8 compendium goals to fulfill, so I’d like to offer transparency for everyone who paid for them.

For the two people waiting on your scouting reports – they are coming up! We’re also still waiting to have all three of our special guests on at some point, so if I’m unable to have you guys on in the next two weeks, I will try to coordinate an appearance on Deep Dives. Worst case scenario, you may contact me in the future for reimbursement with proof of your purchase.

Thanks to everyone, as always, for your support. Working on the Melee Stats Podcast was a (mostly) fun time for all of us, and we’re happy to move on, at least for now.

2. Giga HoG Preview

So in the most random transition of all time, I’m going to talk about Connecticut because why not? This Saturday, keep your eyes out for GIGA HOG: Era, the systems first big monthly of 2019.

If you’re a smasher living in New England or Tristate and you aren’t attending this tournament, you’re fucking up. It’s among the most stacked events in Connecticut Melee history, and it goes beyond the 128 entrant-cap. Outside of the yearly CT GamerCon series, I can’t recall a single event within Connecticut having so much diverse Northeastern talent.

Massachusetts is coming down to play, with Tiramisu, Yasu and Ses, among others. From New Hampshire are Kalvar, bonfire10, Rasen, GWM420 and Golden, five of the state’s best players, along with its current No. 10 DarkGenex (who I still associate primarily with New Jersey). New York has Hax, Ryobeat, vortex, 42nd and 47 confirmed. Even New Jersey boasts killers: TheSWOOPER, Fable, bambi, FMB5k, Clutch, JJM and Greasy. Oh – and Connecticut will be defending its turf, with ranked players like lintgod, Swiftbass, Warmmer, Palika, Timtheguy, Speez and more confirmed.

The names above are only the people who have registered. Though he’s currently taking a break from Melee, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Slox make a big return. Moreover, from talking with the tournament organizer, Stoc, I also know that other people rumored to attend or confirmed are Massachusetts’ BigJoig, New York’s BIGKID, Captain Smuckers and a lot of older Connecticut players like DOOM, Hoodcash, Rold Gold, Ricky, Icy, Sweetheart, Shminkledorf and Melee Stats’ own Ambisinister. And I guess, uh, me, although I’ll be there late and am not a notable player.

From the different eras of Connecticut being together to the massive amount of Northeastern talent and the beginning of a new year for Connecticut Melee, GIGA: HOG going to be a hell of an event. Check it out if you get a chance – and hey, if we’re lucky, maybe it could see an appearance from someone like Swedish Delight or pique the interest of a certain retired Massachusetts Fox player.

3. Monday Morning Mailbag

Best smash tags?- Epicallytossed



Thanks for reminding me to come up with this! I’ll dedicate a segment on one of our upcoming shows to this, as you also purchased a topic on our compendium asking us to explore this topic.

One thing for sure: off the top of my head, “glock in my toyota” is one of them.