In part one I left off with dropping both Peach and Puff heading into last summer and adopting a new character. This character was none other than Falco. I gained a vast amount of inspiration from watching both PPMD and Westballz. Falco had everything that I wanted in a character. He was flashy, aggressive, versatile and had the ability to dictate the pace of the match. Unfortunately, getting used to playing as Falco was a struggle. Up to that point, I had exclusively played floaty characters and had little experience with fast fallers. It took a lot of effort for me to learn Falco but eventually my perseverance paid off. I learned to short hop laser, l-cancel his aerials, jump cancel shines and jump cancel grabs. Falco was the character that taught me many nuances within the game and allowed me to analyze it to a greater extent. For once, I was content and fully comfortable with a character.
At the start of my sophomore year of college, I had the privilege of meeting a group of people that played Melee. I had not met anyone that followed the competitive scene or played the game as much as I did until this point. We would hold a few tournaments during the semester to test our skills. I did pretty well despite not having any kind of tournament experience. One issue I did identify at tournaments was my constant switching of characters. I considered Falco to be my "main" but I could not help playing other characters, such as; Peach, Puff, Marth and Fox. Once again, I was in a state of confusion and had no idea what I wanted out of the game.
With finals week approaching, I would play Melee one last time so I could focus on my academics. My friend Tim and I would play for several hours. He revived his Falcon, a character which he had dropped for Marth. I challenged him to Falcon dittos and we would have the most amazing time playing the game. I had never given Falcon a shot, yet I felt in complete control. It felt like I was born to be a Falcon main. I was absolutely reckless with Falcon and played the game the way I wanted it to be played. I threw away stocks in an attempt to be as stylish as possible. Falcon reignited my love for the game and made it fun again. I had taken the game so seriously, but when playing Falcon I had no expectations or fear of losing. I exclusively mained Falcon through the halfway point of the second semester of my sophomore year.
As expected the trend continued and I had a change in heart. I decided to revive my Falco in an attempt to dual main both characters. This worked for a brief time but I eventually came to the decision of dropping Falcon. I felt as though the combination did not make sense and would take too much of an effort. I found myself going into the summer in the same spot I was last year: a Falco main.
I spent the first month and a half of summer exclusively playing Falco. I analyzed a large quantity of competitive matches and added both waveshining and shine wavelanding to my arsenal. I had made many improvements to my play style and was so proud of how far I had come. One day I decided to switch it up and try Fox. I had always aspired to play Fox but did not because of three main issues. 1. The community already had an over saturation of Fox players. 2. I was not comfortable playing as Fox. 3. I endured hand pain when playing as Fox for an extended period of time. In that moment of playing Fox for the first time in months I was awestruck. I was able to perfect wavedash, waveshine and even short hop. Prior to this I could perform none of these techs without constantly screwing up. I felt in total control of the character for the first time ever. There and then I had a revelation: I should dual main Fox and Falco.
As you can see, choosing a main or mains in Melee is an arduous process. It took me a year and a half to finally decide what characters were right for me. It was an incredible journey and I would not have chosen an easier path to my conclusion. I learned so much about myself as a person and the type of player I am. If any of you are struggling to choose a character take your time and let things play out. A character will find you eventually!
