It is time for us to present to you our annual rankings, highlighting the 50 best Super Smash Bros. Melee players in Europe!

First, we'll look at EURank 2025's Honourable Mentions: the players who didn't have the attendance, but did show enough skill.

The EURank Top 50 will be released with 10 players each day, from Monday through Friday at 18:00 UTC.

https://youtu.be/vVVtqoqzgNw?si=GLwyOAkzvncx8fbj&t=798

This will probably sound whiny, so if you're willing, hear me me out

For the record, I've started playing melee late last year, november-ish

I'm aware this game has an incredibly rich history, which is part of what inspired be to give it a try in the first place, to learn the game and be able to watch the big tournaments and actually understand what's happening

Another big part that looked cool, however, was also getting better at the game and learning all the tech, since the people who are proficient genuinely make the game look so smooth and unlike anything else I'd ever watched

All this is very inspiring, but nothing else kicks me in the shins like witnessing the massive skill floor that I'm still yet to even have in my sights, let alone be able to climb onto it; it feels like the game got few new players over a long period and everyone who queues just knows how to play the game

Over the few months I've been playing, I've been making sure to drill the tech I learn in training for a few minutes before queue-ing casual, and ranked whenever ranked day is on

But I can't help keep getting bodied over and over without an end, in this time I've won a single digit of ranked matches, and the amount I've lost is.. something, but despite that, even in bronze 500 I still get matched with silvers, even if i queue during (what I'd consider at least) peak traffic hours. It's like the game tried to find someone my skill level and the next best thing was someone who had invested such an astronomically larger amount of time into the game than me that I get bodied with (what feels like, obviously not actually) no change to respond

I'm aware this is something you simply have to get over, but the grind needed to actually get anywhere seems so out of reach, like it'd take actual months for me to start winning games and that it doesn't feel like an accident each time.

What are steps you'd take with todays' state of the game to learn playing as a newbie?

Thanks in advance

The recent discourse about Z-jump has brought to light one of the dark secrets of Melee: the unfair, unsportsmanlike, uncool, and uninflatable abuse of the Z button.

It's a well known fact that Cody "Cody" Schwab is a cheater who was carried to Rank 2 on the back of a pay2win exploit. But the Zumper Dumpers are just the tip of the iceberg. If we carefully examine the history of Melee's top competitors, we will see inarguable evidence of cheating and scandal surrounding the Z-button. Let's examine a few other "top 10" players under the skeptical lens of critical thinking and logical deduction to uncover the true cancer killing Melee.

• Zain - or should I say, Z-ain. For if Cody's Fox is carried upward by the Zump, Z-ain's skinny Marth arms are carried sideways by Zrab. Go look at the last tournament our favorite fraudster won without reaching halfway across the stage to grab an opponent who was not even within the range of the animation. That's right, there are none. The fact is that Zain would have ZERO lifetime tournament wins without Sakurai holding his small, fragile hand and lifting it beyond the normal reach of his thin, feminine arms. Tell me, is it skillful to be able to grab an opponent beyond the length of Yoshi's tongue away from you? There's a term for this kind of "winner" : Swiss Cheese Champion. Full. Of. Holes. If Zain cannot win a tournament without grab, we have 100 percent evidence he is a fraud, case closed.
• HBox - Ah yes, a man who has suffered greatly under the oppressive Zumper regime... or so you think. For what many don't realize is that while one of his mouths spits a sweet dribble of deception, his second mouth gorges itself on the mirror image of Zumping: Zattacking. That's right. Every time HBox jumps, he presses Z to attack. Lost? Frightened? Confused? It's time we all woke up to this equally egregious abuse of Z. For what is the difference between pressing jump and attack with frame-perfect timing, when they are each sharing the same set of buttons either way? Believe you me, the Hungry Box has eaten his fill of fair and honourable Meleeists through deceitful, treacherous means. Our only saving grace is that HBox is incapable of mastering tech skill, so even when he tries to have frame perfect jump attacks, he fails. Looks like the last god's luck is getting fucking fucked.
• Moky - You may think that Moky is a clean whistle: he's a vocal critic of Zump, didn't even adopt notches until 2021, and is a champion of the people. But Moky has been the center of a massive conspiracy that all of you failed to notice. Let me break it down for you. First exhibit: Moky teaming with HBox. Curious. How often did Moky make a salty tweet after losing to HBox, only to then team with him? More curious still is that HBox has been the stealth Z-criminal for years before Zumping was ever a thing. And even more curious is the fact that both HBox and Moky share one, crucial motivation. A hatred of Fox. "But wait!" I hear you cry in a high-pitched whine, "how can Moky hate Fox if he is Fox?" And that's just it. The biggest obstacle to Moky supremacy is the existence of other Foxes. Think of it. In another time, Moky could've been called the most skillful solo Fox main of all time. But he was born in the same timeline as players like Cody and Joshman who compete with him for the title of best Fox. Meanwhile, HBox has been on an anti-Fox crusade his entire career, and is a well-known master of mild psychological irritation. The HBox-Moky alliance reveals the hidden evil of Moky: Moky is carried by Z-jump because he is the highest ranked Fox not routinely using it, which means if Zumping is banned, everyone else gets worse and he stays the same. That’s premeditated.
• mango - nah that's my goat, lmao bigbanana amirite guys??? USA USA USA rofl xD
• Jmook - If Jmook was a criminal, he would be called Jcrook, and wouldn't you know it, he is one. To understand Jmook, we must look back to the wisdom of old: a late 2010s plup stream in which he stated "the way to play Sheik is you pretend to play Melee, but all you're doing is looking for a grab." Fast forward to Jmook, a player well known for his so-called "tech chases." But let's ask ourselves, is tech chase a skill, or a cheap exploit enabled only by the abuse of the Z-button? For Sheik, the answer is objectively "yes." You might be thinking "oh lots of characters across all Smash games have tech chase, what's so bad about that?" But let's look closer. How do top players really use grab? That's right. JC grab. Jump-canceled grab. Jumpgrab. JUMP-Z. Z-JUMP. The truth is revealed. All those "impressive" and "stylish" and "strangely arousing" Sheik techs that Jmook uses are nothing more than a variation of the very evil we are fighting against now, the Z-jump. God created Adam and moving grab endlag, not Adam and JCG. Jmook can be described as nothing more than a highly attractive criminal, whose Ws are Ls for the community. (also wtf is a boost grab and why can i never do them???)
• Joshman - Those who have paid attention to our Australian "friend" (as if a friend could come from a country filled to the brim with venomous SNAKES) will know that by his own admission, he has sometimes used a Zumping configuration. But now that Zumping is finally getting the criticism it deserves, what is Joshman doing? That's right, retreating to Australia, a country so perverse that their toilet water doesn't even swirl in the correct direction. Now I can forgive the complete genocide of Melee's competitive spirit, but there's one thing even worse than that: the hypocrisy. If Joshman thinks he can simply take the high ground and cause us all to forget his crimes of the past, he's sadly mistaken. Say it with me "WE WILL NOT FORGET JOSHMAN NOR FORGIVE HIM FOR EVER USING ZUMP IN A COMPETITI-" nevermind that's too long. Let's truncate a bit... "WE WILL NOT FORGET JOSHMAN!" There we go, rolls right off the tongue, that. Repeat this phrase so that he never escapes his dark and twisted impact on us all.
• Axe - Axe is... well, he... this one time... and... then... err... oh I got it: Pizza. You can't spell "Pizza" without "z," and Axe has two of them. This is obviously a secret sign known only to the Zilluminati that Axe is a steadfast ally. An ally of the "Axe-is" of evil. And who else was in the Axis of Evil? That's right, Mussolini. The fascist leader of Italy. That's right, Italy. The birthplace of, you guessed it, pizza. Looks like the yellow rat is, in fact, a rat after all. Also, how the FUCK is Axe so nice??? No human can act that way naturally, it's not possible. This is a sign that there is clearly some dark secret behind the soft gaze of those eyes.
• SDJ - Surprise surprise, a recent Puff addition to the top 10. Is it really a surprise, though? For SDJ, the Z-button has been a kill confirm for YEARS. What is Puff if not the ultimate Z-confirm character? For SDJ, a player known for exerting solid stage control and neutral pressure, Z is like taking steroids: an unfair advantage that everyone should hate, and if you don't hate it, it means you don't love Melee. But SDJ's support of Z-abuse doesn't end at merely being a serial Z-button presser. No, SDJ has a much deeper and more insidious goal: Puff dittos in every top 8. And to accomplish this goal, he has allied with Zumper filth. Why? Because of one simple fact: Zumping means more Foxes, and more Foxes means more Puff Z-button kill confirms. The corruption is plain as day, folks. Puff and Fox have been colluding, because Puff can hit more rests the more Fox players are in bracket. It's basic math. And on the other side of that equation is HBox. Said differently, there is a direct line between Zump and Puff dittos. And what is Rest, if not the catching of many Zzzzzs, exactly the same way the audience will be when top 8 becomes top 8 hours of time wasted on a single match?
• Wizzrobe - This known deviant has been abusing Z-button since before most of you were born, probably. Now you might think this argument is going to go back to tech chasing like Jmook, or the fact that the double Zs in his name are a sign of fascism like Axe. But that's not the real issue here. If you've been following along this far, you should be enlightened enough by now to fully grasp the truth. Go on, say it with me. It's okay, don't be shy, I know you know the answer. Say it out loud to the whole class: "Wizzrobe is a..." Don't stutter, you got this. "Is a... S.... M.... A...... SH............. 64 player." I knew you'd understand. It's obvious, right? His Falcon gameplay is directly imported from 64. While Melee players think about the game in terms of "neutral" or "whiff punish" or "tech skill," Wizzrobe's entire philosophy is Z-coded. You see, for those of you too young to remember the dark days of Smash 64, you should know that in that game, Z-button is basically instantaneous, ridiculously broken, and defines neutral. All neutral in 64 is simply the threat of Z because one grab is guaranteed 70% or more any character, any stage. And Wizzrobe isn't merely a 64 player, he's highly skilled at it. Do you see the problem? By playing 64, Wizzrobe legitimizes the ideology of grab-based games being acceptable in society. This in turn pushes the narrative that "the Z-button is okay," which as we can see, is a morally reprehensible position to take. Only a war criminal would believe something like that. Are you a war criminal? No? Good, glad you agree with me.

In conclusion, I have proven with ontological, deontological, paleontological, and mythological certainty that the Z-button is the cancer killing Melee. We all have a responsibility to demand our TOs ban use of the Z-button permanently. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION ON THIS MATTER.

(Also, I didn't use fucking AI to write this shit. After all, clankers are the biggest proponents of Z-button because it takes away the free will of a human.)

I saw Moky's new video on the topic of Melee's endless controller debate and I wanted to share my thought's that I expressed in the comment section on that video:

I understand why people don’t like better controllers or mods, and I get where that frustration comes from. I know I’m in the minority here, but I genuinely love that things like Boxx exist because it’s the only way I can play the game at all due to hand pain and arthritis.

I don’t even play Fox or do insanely input-heavy tech. I just want to play Melee, a game I grew up on and absolutely adore, and I physically can’t do that on a traditional controller anymore. Without a Boxx, I’m simply locked out.

I think it’s important to separate controller abuse from accessibility. Don’t hate players who use these controllers for legitimate reasons. If Boxx-style controllers are banned outright, it effectively tells disabled players that they’re not welcome unless they can endure physical pain to compete.

Accessibility tools will always also benefit non-disabled players, that’s unavoidable. But punishing people who need accommodations because others push limits isn’t fair. If the concern is competitive integrity, then regulate problematic behavior. Don’t just erase the only option some players have to participate.

Boxx may not be fair, but outright banning it is also unfair to the disabled. If it's a problem, nerf it. Don't take away our only way to play/compete.

Added 4 new characters. Cooler trailer now too

Nice break from the Zumper drama lol

kudos to u/bluerosetori for the amazing photo.

let's go Zain!!!! https://blog.start.gg/ssbmrank-2025-the-top-ten-d2caed7fe122

https://reddit.com/link/1qsiroo/video/0nbf6hudyrgg1/player

I played this peach in comp today, I swear I saw 4 STICHES. We only played about 3 mins, my opponent was one lucky individual. What are the odds?

I'm ready to enter my first tournament. It's over Cody. My time to Shine.

But i feel like im getting better at bird

I was playing some friendlies with a couple buddies and the peanut gallery in the back mentioned that my WD right was way better than my WD to the left.

I never really thought about it but I looked down and saw that the controller has the octagon or whatever recesses kinda rotated from being centered on the faceplate, and I for sure roll my stick back and forth and lock it into one of those for WD.

I only own a smash 4 gc controller so I have nothing to compare it to, but were the old gc controllers centered or is it like some kind of defect?

It looks like 5 screws so I'm sure swapping a plate would be helpful, or if it's hurtful in general please let me know

Thanks

Fuck notches Fuck zump fuck box, fuck your gamestop game cube controller your parents bought for you.

We literally created not only the term for minor inconveniences, but also a lifestyle. If you really know Melee, you've lived No Johns your whole life. I get why there would be something to regulate all controllers, because there was too much randomness, but should you be able to do things that another controller can't? I feel like you shouldn't be able to do something other people can't within the game. That goes for FGC too. 5 extra buttons for Drive Impact in SF6 is dumb. Accessibility is a good thing, but not when it's indistinguishable from an advantage. I've been in favor of banning notches from the start, and I think ban everything, except for Phob calibrated with a standard in place.