The Five Gods

The Five Gods is a term referring to the five very best players of Super Smash Bros. Melee from around 2008 - 2018, who consistently dominated tournaments after the "Golden Age of Smash" while rarely losing tournament sets to players that aren't "Gods" themselves. 
The players considered the five gods, in alphabetical order, are:
*
*
*
*
*
==History==
 
After the release of Brawl, the "Golden Age of Smash", marked by the dominance of players like , , and , had effectively ended, with Brawl superceding competitive Melee for some time. However, this changed with , a tournament that brought about exactly what its name claimed. During this period, , , , , and (then known as Dr. PeePee) soon established themselves as the "Five Gods". 
The Five Gods won nearly every Melee tournament where at least two of them were in attendance from 2008 to 2014, while rarely losing tournament sets to players not among the gods themselves. The sole exception was , where Mango sandbagged for part of the tourney.
While The Five Gods had continued to dominate Melee majors in the new era, notably featuring 's two wins at EVO 2013 and 2014, and had emerged as true challengers to them, and are the only two players who have defeated all five in a tournament set. Following his rise in 2014, Leffen won B.E.A.S.T 5, marking the first non-God victory at a major with at least two in attendance since 2008; he won his first American major, CEO 2015, that same year, with three of the gods present. He also won Get On My Level 2016, defeating four gods all in a row without dropping a set. Plup became the second player after Leffen to win a major with two or more gods in attendance, taking DreamHack Atlanta 2017 over Hungrybox and Mew2King; he then won GENESIS 5, winning over Mango and Armada, and double eliminating Hungrybox.
Many new players also went on to defeat the remaining gods and win majors, some with unconventional characters. At , defeated early in winners, and Armada made an impressive losers run only to lose to in Grand Finals, marking Leffen’s first EVO win. claimed victory at over Mango and Hungrybox and has continued to be a threat to the gods; he later went on to win his first supermajor at as well, once again defeating Mango and Hungrybox. Wizzrobe earned his first supermajor victory at by double-eliminating Hungrybox, marking the first Melee supermajor won by a solo main since at all the way back in 2005. Similarly, took 1st at while defeating Zain, Mango, Leffen, and Wizzrobe, marking Axe’s first supermajor win and the first ever major win by a solo . The rise of unorthodox characters has spurred renewed interest in Melee, and rise of many new challengers to the Gods has signaled the end of their reign.
==Demi-gods==
Some players have achieved notoriety and success comparable to the five gods and whose skill level lies at or around the top players; these players are most commonly considered the "demi-gods". These players are known to frequently earn high placings in large tournaments, and even occasionally take sets off of the gods and other top players, but do not have quite the historical significance or have reached quite the skill level or consistency of the gods. A common barometer for being considered a demigod is to take at least one set off of at least one of the gods. For example, and have both taken a set off of all five gods, and have each taken sets off of four of the gods, except for . , , , , , , SFAT, , , and have each beaten three of the gods.
==Tournaments in which all five gods participated==
The first tournament with all Five Gods in attendance was Pound 4 in January 2010, although PPMD was not considered in contention at that event. 
Tournament 	Date 	Armada	Hungrybox	Mango 	Mew2King	PPMD
Pound 4 	January 16th-18th, 2010 	4th 	2nd 	1st 	5th 	9th
Apex 2010 	August 6th-8th, 2010 	2nd 	1st 	25th**	3rd 	4th
Pound V 	February 19th-21st, 2011 	2nd 	3rd 	17th**	5th* 	1st
GENESIS 2 	July 15th-17th, 2011 	1st 	4th 	2nd 	5th 	7th
Apex 2012 	January 6th-8th, 2012 	1st 	2nd 	3rd 	17th* 	5th
Apex 2013 	January 11th-13th, 2013 	1st 	5th 	4th 	3rd 	2nd
EVO 2013 	July 12th-14th, 2013 	4th 	3rd 	1st 	5th 	5th
MLG Anaheim 2014 	June 20th-22nd, 2014 	2nd 	7th 	1st 	3rd 	4th
EVO 2014 	July 11th-13th, 2014 	3rd 	2nd 	1st 	5th 	4th
Apex 2015 	January 30th-February 1st, 2015	2nd 	5th 	4th 	9th 	1st
GENESIS 3 	January 15th-17th, 2016 	1st 	3rd 	2nd 	9th 	6th
Battle of the Five Gods	March 17th-19th, 2016 	3rd 	1st 	2nd 	7th 	10th
*Mew2King forfeited in losers after losing to PPMD at Pound V and Wobbles at Apex 2012.
**Mango was sandbagging under his Scorpion Master alias.
==Legacy==
The Five Gods have attained a near-mythical status in the Smash community, especially Melee, making them a household name among players. 
Documentaries covering Melee inevitably discuss the Five Gods. The Smash Brothers covers the seven greatest players before the era of the gods, affectionately referred to as the Golden Age of Smash, where and are part of both groups. Said documentary revolutionised the Melee community at the time, prompting an influx of new players, occasionally referred to as "doc kids". Metagame employs a similar format to The Smash Brothers and focuses on The Five Gods themselves, as well as , the "Godslayer". 
In 2016, invited all Five Gods in addition to other famous players, with a payout of $13,000, at the time the highest payout in the game's history. won the event. 
==See also== 
* Super Smash Bros. Melee in competitive play
==External links==
* YouTube playlist with nearly every single tournament set ever recorded with the Big Six
Category:Terms
Category:Smashers