Super Smash Brothers Melee is a better competitive fighter than Super Smash Brothers 4.

Let's begin. To start off, let me first lay the groundwork for what makes a game competitive. Many factors are involved, which I will name to the best of my ability. The first is spectatability. Sure, anybody can say that a game is competitive, but a majority of people will only agree if they either play themselves or can endure watching a match or round of said game. Let's use football for example. Football is a sport that you don't have to know the ins and outs of to enjoy. The most you need to know is when a team has the ball, what a touchdown and field goal are, and a few other basic, easy to understand concepts. Another example of this is a computer game called Counter-Strike, where the objective of the game for one side is to kill the enemy team, or detonate a bomb, while the other teams objective is to kill the other team or diffuse the bomb, simple to understand, easy to watch. This is a major part of spectatability. One will have issues enjoying watching a game if they understand nothing. Both Smash games have this, but it is my opinion that Melee has it more, and I aim to convince judges of this. The first reason why I believe that Melee has higher spectatability is due to the fact that Melee is what a fighting game, in the opinion of Pro, should be. When a person hears, "fighting game" they automatically think to games like Street Fighter or Mortal Combat and think of long and complicated combos, while none Smash game really has that, Melee is the game that most Smashers would relate to combos, at least if you asked them to choose between Melee and Smash 4. Here's why: In Melee, many people, most notably a player named Mew2King, has performed countless hours in-game to learn frame data for the game ranging from how long it takes a person to recover from being hit to the length of dodge rolls [1], and he has done the same for Smash 4. During his studies, compared the existing Smash 4 data [2], Melee has MORE hit stun, which is the frame amount that a person is stuck unable to react after being hit. This enables more combos, and faster games, where Smash 4 has LESS, so a person can simply air-dodge or jump aside and take no further hits, from experience, more players and spectators enjoy seeing crazy and exciting combos. It makes them sit on the edge of their seat for the next one to happen, whereas in Smash 4, you simply don't have that level of excitement for combos because they just don't happen. The second way a game is competitive is how much fun spectators and players have. For Melee, fans of competitive Melee has said that it's the fast speeds, crazy combos, upsets, and denials that can happen at anytime. There's a Melee saying that goes, "A skilled Roy can beat a good Fox. " This relates to the fact that, despite all the joking, many characters are viable in tournaments for Melee, the stereotype is that that is incorrect, making it all the sweeter when a Roy does in fact beat a Fox, and it's happened multiple times with different characters, the most recent example being a little over a month ago at Evo, where Plup, a Samus player, was in Top 8 in Super Smash Brothers Melee when nobody would ever expect such a character. Yet another example is Borp, a Shiek main who uses absolutely NO technical skill and goes on to win tournaments. Fans, players, and spectators alike all enjoy seeing a nobody or a player thought to be weak come through and win tournaments. However, this factor doesn't seem to exist in Smash 4. Smash 4's speed is greatly LESS than that of Melee's and as shown before, has no room for insane combos. From time to time, there may be a small upset, but since the game's release, there has been one player who seems to win all of the tournaments, so much so that he's on a 40 win streak as of right now. Many people have stopped watching Smash 4 tournaments because it's not fun when you know who the winner will be, whereas in Melee, people have fun because they know that SOMEBODY different has a chance to win out of many players, and people have fun when they have a favorite that they want to win. For comparison, Melee's peak viewers for EVO 2015 clocks in at 211,393 people [3], placing it 2nd overall in the entire event, unfortunately, I was unable to find data for Smash 4, though I remember somebody giving me a number roughly around 98,000, though you can take that with a grain of salt if you choose. (NOTE: One of the comments in source 3 states that Smash 4 was popular mostly on Saturday with 95,000 viewers, if you're interested in seeing this comment, find the name "caramell_dragon")1 - . http://clashtournaments.com...2 - . http://smashboards.com...3 - . http://www.eventhubs.com...Unfortunately, I am short on time, so that's all I can post. I will have more for my next round unless my opponent claims the arguments I plan to make, in which case I will attempt to rebut them. Good Luck to Con and I look forward to your response.