Super Smash Bros. Melee players are saying the old fighting game is superior to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and its top players once again. 

Mainstage 2021 featured some of the top players from all over the world in Melee and Ultimate fighting to qualify for the Smash World Tour Finals in December. The top 8s were stacked for both games, meaning non-stop action all Sunday night. Watching both top 8s back to back highlighted a lot of differences between the two games, including playstyles and viable characters. 

One Melee player decided to point out some differences he saw that made Melee superior in his opinion. New York's top Melee player Dawud "Aklo" Rahman took to Twitter late last night after Ultimate's Top 8 concluded to point out his disdain for the game, focusing on Matt "Elegant" Fitzpatrick's matches. 

"Watching Ultimate 'top-level play' and seeing Luigi literally only down B out of disadvantage every single time and the opponent still somehow not being able to catch on until last stock of game three makes me appreciate Melee and Melee players so much more," Aklo boldly stated. 

Super Smash Bros. community reacts to Aklo's Tweet about Melee superiority

The Super Smash Bros. community had very mixed responses to Aklo's claims of Melee supremacy.

Fans of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate were quick to point out the hypocrisy of Aklo's statement. One player replied that Melee also has a "frame one invincible move that hits people a lot and leads to kills" known as shine. 

Another Ultimate player decided to copypasta Aklo to further point out the flaws of his original statement: "Watching Melee 'top-level play' and seeing Fox literally only spotdodge shine out of tech options every single time and the opponent still somehow not being able to catch on until last stock of game 3 makes me appreciate Ultimate and Ultimate players so much more."

A lot of Melee fans did agree that the older game is more entertaining to watch, one reason it has lasted so many years. They pointed out that Ultimate's top-tier play is imbalanced, with Leonardo "MKLeo" Perez dominating tournament after tournament. Meanwhile, Melee doesn't have one dominant player so the outcomes are a lot more surprising. 

But Aklo's Twitter rant did bring the two communities together, a surprising result. Both Melee and Ultimate players questioned why Aklo would have to put down one game to praise another, wondering why they couldn't appreciate both. Smash Bros. content creator Calvin "GimR" Lofton added that Aklo was coming off as "elitist" and "ignorant," pointing out that the communities should build each other up. 

Aklo responded that he plays Ultimate all the time and is not criticizing the game, just the gameplay he watched. GimR replied that Aklo insulted an entire community after watching a few hours of gameplay, accusing Aklo of calling Melee players more intelligent. 

"I watched all of top 8 and I'm only talking about one set. I think that valid gameplay criticisms are important to the scene's growth, and pointing out that the comparative top-level metas for both games are at different levels shouldn't be tossed out as 'Ultimate hate,'" Aklo tweeted, seeming to back pedal on his original statement. 

The Super Smash Bros. community urged him to word things differently in the future if this was his true intention. But others stood up for Aklo, rolling their eyes at the idea of not being able to share an opinion on Twitter. 

Aklo decided to make a tweet mocking his original tweet as the drama continued. 

His fans applauded him for the shitpost and told the Melee player not to let the haters get to him. The "based" response to the drama won Aklo respect from the community, who decided to back off the Fox main. For now.