Golden guardians really came into the smash scene and did what most orgs should be doing. Making good content and promoting and giving resources to creators that the community enjoys. Can't wait to see what else you guys do together
I enjoy watching Zain play melee. He is my favorite Melee player. When he takes a stock, I think to myself “yes”. When the other player takes a stock, I think to myself “no”
thats what hbox was for a while, that endboss that most of the time won so him losing especially to a newer player at the time like zain was crazy and shocking
As a decade+ long spectator of Melee, Zain's rise is one of the most exciting and in a weird way reassuring things I've witnessed. Proof that there's always room for somebody else at the top no matter how old the game gets.
Zain's rise in Melee is super inspirational to any fighting game fan. He had to scratch, claw, and grind it out harder than almost any player I can think of and after years of hard work he's become almost untouchable in the game with how good he's gotten. Great stuff to Zain can't wait to watch the rest of the field try and catch up to him and Mango's level. Competitive Melee is gonna be very interesting in the coming years.
@@thugjuice69 But Zain did it in arguably one of the hardest games to get into not only because it's very fast and technical but because there is a much more significant gap between the best players and the rest of the field compared to so many other fighting games.
@@thugjuice69 The huge difference between Smash Bros Melee and other Fighting games is that in Melee is almost unlikely for a new player to go and make upsets. Even players that have pick up the game back in 2013-14 can barely touch Top 20 with few exceptions such as Zain. Melee is extremely consistent , your Top 8 in super majors would most likely be seeds from 1 to 8 and in some tournaments you would see seeds 1-6 in Top 8 and having two outliers. That's how consistent Melee is compared to other Fighting games
@@ExilixE If we're talking non-gods then yeah, although I'd include aMSa. But Hbox and Mang0 are definitely better than JMook, Leffen, Plup and possibly even Cody.
Shine 2018 was one of the first tournaments I remember hearing about when I was first getting interested in competitive Melee. 2018 was the volatile year for Melee that transitioned the scene into its current iteration. Long live this beautiful game. Melee is sick.
huh, interesting. I remember always seeing you in YT comment sections so I assumed you had been a fan longer than I had lol. The first tournament I watched live was Genesis 5
@@tysonfontanez | I first got into Melee from GRsmash compilations in mid/late 2015 (right around the time the Jeapie video came out). Then I got introduced to competitive mechanics and the scene in 2016. Then starting watching tournaments live with The Big House 8. But yeah, I just get around on the internet.
Worth mentioning, although the last official ranking puts Zain at 6th* (Thanks Okay person), he has had a strong case for 1st for over a year now, but there have not been any new rankings released in the pandemic era. The meteoric rise never stopped. Now Zain is just proving he can match his online results with in-person tournament wins. 10/10 content from GG.
i was there when it happened! craziest moment in melee up to that point for me. was sitting on the righthand side, and zain became one of my favorites on that day
a story i wanted to add onto that which i feel really encapsulates the endboss energy hbox had at the time: i was a bit of a dweeb when i was younger and i wanted to play on one of the stream setups, so i walked up and plugged in on an empty setup next to a projector. trust me, nothing feeds your ego more than playing godawful marth on a stream setup. it felt great. eventually, one of the TOs saw me and sat down next to me, plugging in and asking to play friendlies. we began playing, and it became clear that i wasn't going to take a game off this guy. he wasn't a top player, but that doesn't matter when his fox could shine spike me faster than i had time to process the last stock. it truly felt great to play against someone who was better and see all the years of experience come together. eventually, the TO asked if I could go somewhere else, as he had a set to play. i obliged, and i asked who he was playing. I turned around in my chair...and saw Hungrybox walking up the steps. i don't know if it's my fuzzy memory telling me lies, but i felt a genuine sense of unease or fear as i scrambled out of my seat so this unit of a man could sit down and annihilate the poor TO. to be clear, hbox is just a regular dude who looks like someone you would see at a supermarket or commuting to work. he's not some super megastar that you never see in real life. however, in that moment, my dumb 14 year old mind saw the invincible superboss of melee approaching my seat, and thought that if i didn't want to get digitally drawn and quartered, i should get out of my seat QUICKLY. scrambling to let the man sit and to get away as fast as i could, i left the poor TO behind to get b aired and rested into oblivion. esports people aren't gods; they're regular humans like the rest of us, except they're really good at a 20 year old party game. but after absorbing all of this melee mythology for so many years, it really did feel like i was watching legends going at it. that's why this grand finals set was so important: it felt like i was watching history being made.
I was just literally talking about going to Shine 2018 and watching Zain's run with my bros as one my highlights of my life. I even took that crowd chip at 1:10
your guys' content is nothing short of incredible, constantly. been watching Melee for roughly 7 years now and it's so nice to see an org have so much love for the game. keep it up
Excellent job as always to Walt on this video! It had been a while since I revisited the feeling of watching Zain win Shine 2018 and this brought back some good memories.
GG should host an exhibition match featuring Zain versus each of the five gods in individual Bo3s. It would be interesting to see if anybody besides mango gave him trouble.
Honestly the only one that has zero chance is ppmd everyone else is at least capable of taking a game though doubt they have much of a chance of winning the set.
Zain litterally just clapped Hbox, do we really need to see that shit again? The only one I can realistically see taking a game that isn't active is maybe M2k, considering that he took a few games off plup in the exhibition they played and that Zain just 3-0d what just might be the new best current peach. No disrespect to pp either, but I don't think he's in this convo.
I love these types of videos, and there's no better way to use this style of video than to tell the story of crowning a king. Loved the video Turndownforwalt! (Also is it just me or did those opening/ending scenes gave you guys goosebumps!)
I started playing and watching melee in 2015 after Apex 2015, and Zain is one of the reasons I love this game. I remember hearing about him at Big House 6 when he upset Plup, and then slowly he started popping up more and more in Top 32s to Top 8s to winning majors. Incredible to watch his trajectory over the years and now he finds himself being possibly the best player at the moment. Great video Walt and GG.
possible concept melee combo horse; set with a combo (easy example: ken combo or stomp knee) and the other three have to try and replicate it, either on unranked or training
Would love for golden guardians to keep this going and do players that arnt just gg players series like these are what let new players really understand how crazy this game is
Zain is a problem now! Rewatching my favourite Melee videos and it’s amazing how Zain got to where he is now. No god, no godslayer. He rose too fast to label him lol
Thank you to Golden Guardians for the collaboration! I hope you all enjoy and I look forward to working with the team in the future!
Can you make the turning point for Toph as the first time he was on commentary with Scar
Audio seems to start getting out of sync about halfway through the video jsyk
Golden guardians really came into the smash scene and did what most orgs should be doing. Making good content and promoting and giving resources to creators that the community enjoys. Can't wait to see what else you guys do together
I'm begging for a pound V pp turning point
I've been watching you for years and I'm so happy to see you getting the opportunities you deserve
I like that Junebug guy, he seems chill and he wears the freshest clothes
That Zain guy is cool too
How would you describe the restaurants he frequents and the dudes he associates with?
ur mom loved ur dad
Junebug is a cool guy, he probably is a great content creator.
He’s alright
That junebug guy sure has an awesome beard
I enjoy watching Zain play melee. He is my favorite Melee player. When he takes a stock, I think to myself “yes”. When the other player takes a stock, I think to myself “no”
The "yes" Marth strategy
i was at home watching melee when phone ring
"marth is kill"
"no"
I always felt this way for Mang0 but with the rise of Zain I feel the same way for both of them
@@queuedjar4578 genius
This sounds like a robot just found out what it means to be a fan
That’s so cool that Armada gave Zain the advice that won him the set. That’s Mr. Miyagi shit.
It's a really cool fact for a really cool moment
Armada the Goat.
The way HBox walked on-stage for Grands, cracking his neck in preparation...
You can virtually *see* the endboss energy
i was thinking the same shit lol
thats what hbox was for a while, that endboss that most of the time won so him losing especially to a newer player at the time like zain was crazy and shocking
"I always joke about being Zain's mentor"
> see's it's Mahone
Oh look it's the literal twitch user zainsmentor :)
As a decade+ long spectator of Melee, Zain's rise is one of the most exciting and in a weird way reassuring things I've witnessed. Proof that there's always room for somebody else at the top no matter how old the game gets.
yeah i could easily do it if i wanted, since zain did it. i just dont wanna try, its not cool hehe :p
@@pIayingwithmahwii lol
Perfect time to drop this vid considering Zain just clapped everyone at SWT
only dropped 3 games the whole tournament and only one in bracket to polish… actually insane
@@raghavarun9275 we gotta give props to polish for an insane breakthrough tournament
@@abrayz3967 polish alr won a major wdym
@@raghavarun9275 Polish was also the only dropped game where it felt like Zain wasn't playing for style points.
Technically it was the SWT qualifier instead of the SWT
Did you hire turndownforwalt for this? Dope
Zain's rise in Melee is super inspirational to any fighting game fan. He had to scratch, claw, and grind it out harder than almost any player I can think of and after years of hard work he's become almost untouchable in the game with how good he's gotten. Great stuff to Zain can't wait to watch the rest of the field try and catch up to him and Mango's level. Competitive Melee is gonna be very interesting in the coming years.
Every single champion grinds to the top. There is no easy road in fighting games.
@@thugjuice69 But Zain did it in arguably one of the hardest games to get into not only because it's very fast and technical but because there is a much more significant gap between the best players and the rest of the field compared to so many other fighting games.
@@thugjuice69 The huge difference between Smash Bros Melee and other Fighting games is that in Melee is almost unlikely for a new player to go and make upsets. Even players that have pick up the game back in 2013-14 can barely touch Top 20 with few exceptions such as Zain. Melee is extremely consistent , your Top 8 in super majors would most likely be seeds from 1 to 8 and in some tournaments you would see seeds 1-6 in Top 8 and having two outliers. That's how consistent Melee is compared to other Fighting games
You could replace zain with hbox in this comment and it would still jole
"Plup won Genesis, Leffen won Evo, Zain won Shine. The era of the five gods was over" what a dope line
Yeah the new era now is Leffen Plup Zain IBDW & JMook
@@ExilixE I mean Mango and HBox are still right up there too. But yeah it’s a new era now
@@jordandwiggins1026 Whats the new power ranking?
@@ExilixE If we're talking non-gods then yeah, although I'd include aMSa. But Hbox and Mang0 are definitely better than JMook, Leffen, Plup and possibly even Cody.
Shine 2018 was one of the first tournaments I remember hearing about when I was first getting interested in competitive Melee. 2018 was the volatile year for Melee that transitioned the scene into its current iteration.
Long live this beautiful game. Melee is sick.
huh, interesting. I remember always seeing you in YT comment sections so I assumed you had been a fan longer than I had lol. The first tournament I watched live was Genesis 5
@@tysonfontanez | I first got into Melee from GRsmash compilations in mid/late 2015 (right around the time the Jeapie video came out). Then I got introduced to competitive mechanics and the scene in 2016. Then starting watching tournaments live with The Big House 8. But yeah, I just get around on the internet.
Watching this video right before the top 8 for Shine 2022. Absolutely fire video. Walt stays putting out fire
Worth mentioning, although the last official ranking puts Zain at 6th* (Thanks Okay person), he has had a strong case for 1st for over a year now, but there have not been any new rankings released in the pandemic era. The meteoric rise never stopped. Now Zain is just proving he can match his online results with in-person tournament wins.
10/10 content from GG.
actually the last ranking has him at 6th, which IMO should've been 5 over wizzrobe
The editing on this video was insane! The music especially near the end hyped things up so well!
i was there when it happened! craziest moment in melee up to that point for me. was sitting on the righthand side, and zain became one of my favorites on that day
a story i wanted to add onto that which i feel really encapsulates the endboss energy hbox had at the time:
i was a bit of a dweeb when i was younger and i wanted to play on one of the stream setups, so i walked up and plugged in on an empty setup next to a projector. trust me, nothing feeds your ego more than playing godawful marth on a stream setup. it felt great.
eventually, one of the TOs saw me and sat down next to me, plugging in and asking to play friendlies. we began playing, and it became clear that i wasn't going to take a game off this guy. he wasn't a top player, but that doesn't matter when his fox could shine spike me faster than i had time to process the last stock. it truly felt great to play against someone who was better and see all the years of experience come together.
eventually, the TO asked if I could go somewhere else, as he had a set to play. i obliged, and i asked who he was playing. I turned around in my chair...and saw Hungrybox walking up the steps.
i don't know if it's my fuzzy memory telling me lies, but i felt a genuine sense of unease or fear as i scrambled out of my seat so this unit of a man could sit down and annihilate the poor TO. to be clear, hbox is just a regular dude who looks like someone you would see at a supermarket or commuting to work. he's not some super megastar that you never see in real life. however, in that moment, my dumb 14 year old mind saw the invincible superboss of melee approaching my seat, and thought that if i didn't want to get digitally drawn and quartered, i should get out of my seat QUICKLY.
scrambling to let the man sit and to get away as fast as i could, i left the poor TO behind to get b aired and rested into oblivion. esports people aren't gods; they're regular humans like the rest of us, except they're really good at a 20 year old party game. but after absorbing all of this melee mythology for so many years, it really did feel like i was watching legends going at it.
that's why this grand finals set was so important: it felt like i was watching history being made.
babe wake up there is a
a GG video
His genesis 7 win is one of my favorite grands of all time, had me hella moist
I was just literally talking about going to Shine 2018 and watching Zain's run with my bros as one my highlights of my life. I even took that crowd chip at 1:10
your guys' content is nothing short of incredible, constantly. been watching Melee for roughly 7 years now and it's so nice to see an org have so much love for the game. keep it up
Zains PowerPoint slide show about Hbox must be fire af! Hope they share their data with thorough analysis and statistics, etc one day.
love this series! hope you continue it, cause I really want to see which set y'all come up with for pp
"I would be able to recognize that those feelings exist and be able to concentrate at the same time"
Such a simple thing, but so hard to do.
Excellent job as always to Walt on this video! It had been a while since I revisited the feeling of watching Zain win Shine 2018 and this brought back some good memories.
The reaction of s2j on 3:03 always gets me
Zain is the reason I play Melee.
n0ne's involment in the video is so perfect
He gets all of his power for being a Smash Brothers player that actually knows how to shower.
Great storytelling! Was an awesome watch.
I love using Walt for this. GG is doing EVERYTHING right
Only thing I was waiting for was how he got like every stock with pivot tipper, which M2K said was legit impossible
These videos are so fucking good. No joke this stuff is like melee crack
Every time I see that drawing of Zain on the thumbnail, I am always thinking it's a farewell video lol
GG should host an exhibition match featuring Zain versus each of the five gods in individual Bo3s. It would be interesting to see if anybody besides mango gave him trouble.
Honestly the only one that has zero chance is ppmd everyone else is at least capable of taking a game though doubt they have much of a chance of winning the set.
+ Leff. the OG godslayer himself
Zain litterally just clapped Hbox, do we really need to see that shit again? The only one I can realistically see taking a game that isn't active is maybe M2k, considering that he took a few games off plup in the exhibition they played and that Zain just 3-0d what just might be the new best current peach. No disrespect to pp either, but I don't think he's in this convo.
Armada has no chance and for PPMD without training it's the same. Mew2King with sheik could make it work
Shine 2019 was the first Melee shirt I bought because I *KNEW* this moment was so God damn important.
I love to hear Zain's recognition that this can't last forever, but what will is what he has learned on this journey. Gave me chills. GGs Zain.
I love these types of videos, and there's no better way to use this style of video than to tell the story of crowning a king. Loved the video Turndownforwalt! (Also is it just me or did those opening/ending scenes gave you guys goosebumps!)
I started playing and watching melee in 2015 after Apex 2015, and Zain is one of the reasons I love this game. I remember hearing about him at Big House 6 when he upset Plup, and then slowly he started popping up more and more in Top 32s to Top 8s to winning majors. Incredible to watch his trajectory over the years and now he finds himself being possibly the best player at the moment.
Great video Walt and GG.
That music gave me chills, so good!
11:36 king opinions
possible concept melee combo horse; set with a combo (easy example: ken combo or stomp knee) and the other three have to try and replicate it, either on unranked or training
This was so well made! Good job to Walt and GG Melee!
Mahone's bookshelf is full of Disney VHS's. Zain is a footnote in this video.
As a Michagander what the hell was that "Welcome to Ohio" bullshit when zooming in on the big house tourney????
inexcusable
Beautiful stuff Walt and GG, such echelons of the community
beautiful work from Walt as usual
I still find it crazy that me and Zain are from the same hometown, that's amazing to me
fantastic as always
Would love for golden guardians to keep this going and do players that arnt just gg players series like these are what let new players really understand how crazy this game is
Walt is so good, really brought the story to life
This channel is killlin it for the melee community
how could you not be romantic about melee?
That jigglypuff dude in the balloons lol
Sick video GG, please never stop making content! You're doing wonders for Melee
YOOOOO HE’S ZAIN AND WE’RE WATCHING GOLDEN GUARDIANS?!?!
hehehe "Against All Gods". Strong documentary.
God I love melee. Gives me goosebumps.
24:58 He said it!! He Said the Line!!!
Great documentary. Surprised by the low views. I’d recommend a better title and using hashtags so YT knows who to promote it to.
man this was so fking inspiration. love it
Zain is actually the fuckin best
Pewpewu vs Hbox at Apex 2015 was best of 3 not best of 5. Pretty important distinction
Great video as always, Walt
Shine 2018, otherwise known as "The Apotheosis of Zain Naghmi"
GG’s content so professional
I FUCKING LOVE ZAIN :,)
i think it would be appropriate to call zain a demigod, born from the influence of the 5 gods and rose to surpass them
Zain is a problem now! Rewatching my favourite Melee videos and it’s amazing how Zain got to where he is now. No god, no godslayer. He rose too fast to label him lol
Love zain
It's 2021 and people still feel the need to remind you that PPMD is (formerly Dr. Peepee). 😂
8:08 this is not true. Apex 2015 set between PewPewU and Hbox was a BO3. You can even see it in the replay..
Shows a picture of a line going to Michigan.
Shows a mediocre animation of a sign that says welcome to Ohio right after
lol
Beautiful
Godlike, love the walt
This was awesome!!
He said it he said the title!
Does anybody know the name of the extremely hype song that plays in the beginning of this video?
Nice collection of Disney VHS tapes tho
Bruh make one about Franz he’s sick
ohhhh so junebug beat hbox not zain i get it now
Awesome content once again!
This was so cool
Junebug? That's my guy
11:34 LMFAO
My take away:
Armada anointed Zain and allowed him to take his spot
sick video
Actually apex 2015 set against pewpew was a best of 3 so I wonder when he last lost a best of 5 from that point in time
The Hbox PewPewU set at Apex 2015 was a Best of 3 not Best of 5
Myles pog
Thanks for showing me that Jigglypuff balloon for the first time in my life... Hopegully it's the last.
hell yeah walt
Yes
more of this
when's the toph doc
Great video
Inzain in the membranes
cool
Can someone explain n0ne’s arduino comment? plxthnx
What is the song starting at 19:17 ?
What's the music?