While Super Smash Bros. is often seen as a united esports scene from the outside, there has always been a bit of tension between Melee and Ultimate players. The two games cannot be more different, and their players are different as well. Recently, the FGC noted that Melee players seem to have a “superiority complex” over Ultimate players, sparking debate among pros.
The original meme started in late March 2026, with one someone tweeting: “A lot of Melee players have a huge superiority complex over Ultimate players for playing Melee, I’m noticing.”
Someone quoted the tweet and said: “A lot of chess players have a huge superiority complex over checkers players, I’m noticing.”
The gist? Melee is way more complex than Ultimate. While Ultimate is newer and more popular – especially among younger players – it’s often seen as far less technical and much more forgiving.
Melee vs. Ultimate: Is One More Competitive Than the Other?
New York Fox main Dawud “Aklo” Rahman weighed in on the discourse on April 5th, 2026. After winning plenty of tournaments in Melee and Ultimate, he felt he could provide valuable insight. But the FGC was not happy.
“Ultimate is a pretty fun game casually. But it’s one of the least competitive games I’ve seen played competitively. That’s not to say you can’t get good at the game — it’s just that getting good at Ultimate often rewards some sort of degen jank or not interacting, whereas getting good at Melee often rewards difficult execution,” he said.
“Not only does the game lack competitive mechanics, but it actually has anti-competitive mechanics. The input lag is abysmal. There is noticeably more input lag than in Smash 4, and the game has double the input lag of Melee AT BEST.”
He concluded: “The next up-and-coming Ult player will be another 13-year-old ‘prodigy’ who mains Minecraft Steve anyway. Melee is one of the most technical fighting games with a dedicated fanbase and a captivating history. Competitive platform fighting games at the scale in which know them today would not exist without SSBM.
“If Melee is fun to you, play it. If Ultimate is fun to you, play it. But let’s not lie to ourselves lol.”
The response? Ding, ding, ding: angry Smash players! Many people felt he was “putting down” Ultimate players and showcasing “elitism.” Others felt that games don’t have to be overly technical to be competitive.
And some didn’t even feel Melee was superior at all. One guy wrote: “A game that was rushed in 11 months and accidentally became competitive with hundreds of glitches while breaking thousands of people’s hands is not a better ‘competitive’ game.
“It is better for a small group of elitists, while Ultimate is better competitively for a broader audience.”
Melee Has a Better Competitive Scene
Both Melee and Ultimate are competitive, just in different ways. Just because Ultimate has more viable characters and fewer technical inputs doesn’t mean skill isn’t required to come out on top at a tournament. Everyone is playing the same game, so you gotta play it better. That’s competition.
Meanwhile, Melee has older players who have been around for years. Decades for some. There are intense rivalries, exciting career arcs, intense matchups, crazy upsets, and players always doing insane things to push the boundaries of a 20-year-old game. It’s just incredible to watch. There is nothing else like it in all of esports. They’re doing it for pure grit and passion.
The Ultimate scene has become more diverse lately, now that Japan travels internationally. Although some may argue that it’s usually just Japanese players in the Top 8’s now. But I love Mr. Game & Watch, so I don’t mind it! What I was going to say, however, is that Ultimate has still lost its overall magic. The scene’s hype is dwindling.
But Super Smash Bros. 6 is coming, which is part of the reason. This will re-energize the new-gen scene for sure. Through it all, however, Melee will be there. It sticks around no matter how many new Smash are made. But again: I’m just saying Melee is more exciting to watch. I’m not saying Ultimate is not competitive. The competition is just a bit more boring to watch.
