Melee It On Me is a podcast series and community platform that discusses news and headlines within the Melee community. The podcast was originally created by Scar in November 2012 in the aftermath of Revival of Melee 5, where controversial events sparked a debate that resulted in the inception of a national Melee Facebook group. Along with Scar himself, the podcast currently features a panel of notable players and TOs such as Mango, Prog, Juggleguy, and Hyuga, who talk about a variety of topics around the Melee world including recaps of recent tournaments, discussion on the latest community headlines, and previews of upcoming tournaments. MIOM expanded in 2013 with the additions of Toph, Tafokints, SFAT, and PewPewU to the team, as well as the launching of an official website, Twitter, and YouTube channel. The Melee It On Me title is a play on the phrase "lay it on me" and has continued at a biweekly pace in 2014.
Background
Despite having been "revived" and continuing to grow in large numbers, the Melee community still lacked a significant social media presence and organization for several years in the post-Brawl era. That changed in November 2012, when Scar created a Facebook group entitled Melee It On Me in an effort to complement the Skype meeting broadcast that had been called for in the aftermath of Revival of Melee 5. The Skype meeting panelists, Scar, Prog, Hyuga, and Cactuar, used the broadcast to discuss what went wrong at ROM 5 and inform the community how things could improve moving forward. Thanks to the help of VGBootCamp's outreach and the quickly-growing Facebook group, the broadcast was considered a success in both viewership and influence, and Scar decided to make Melee It On Me a regular podcast that could be assembled at any moment of need for the betterment of the Melee community.
EVO 2013 Donation Drive
On January 8th, 2013, the Evolution Championship Series announced its lineup of games for EVO 2013 in the upcoming summer season. Although the lineup did not include Melee as Smashers had hoped for in the aftermath of a dominating Facebook straw poll, the EVO staff announced an 8th game donation drive for breast cancer research, wherein the community that donated the most money to charity would earn their game an official spot at EVO 2013. Facing stiff competition from the Skullgirls community, a massive push from Scar and Prog (popularly dubbed the "Spirit Bomb" donation drive) resulted in the Smash community raising over $94,000 and winning Melee the final spot at EVO 2013. The campaign and its results effectively immortalized the Melee It On Me podcast as a highly influential community platform and provided incredible momentum for the Smash community going into the rest of 2013.
Nintendo Stream Crisis
On July 9th, 2013, the directors of EVO 2013 announced that they had received a cease-and-desist letter from Nintendo of America prohibiting EVO 2013 from streaming Melee on its worldwide broadcast, putting the Melee community into adversity again. Prog led the charge for a decision reversal with a well-organized social media campaign, whose rallying point centered around the MIOM Facebook group. With the aid of frontpage Reddit exposure, vilifying coverage by more than 30 gaming-related news outlets, and a legion of Twitter voices, Nintendo shockingly reversed its decision just hours after the initial announcement, prompting a renewed celebration by the Melee community about its spot at EVO 2013 and a huge sigh of relief for all Smashers following the news.
Moving Forward
Melee It On Me has taken huge strides in both outreach and production value. An official website, Twitter, and YouTube channel were launched in June 2013 thanks in large part to the efforts of Juggleguy. The podcast gained a new producer, CosmoNaught, in August 2013 to improve podcast production quality and ease Scar's workload. Toph and Tafokints joined the team in November 2013 to promote the team's outreach in commentary and content creation, respectively. The "SSBMRank" Top 100 gained significant influence within the Melee community thanks to Tafokints in December 2013. And finally, SFAT and PewPewU joined the team in January 2014 as sponsored players and a world-class Melee team. The podcast remains a biweekly endeavor in 2014, and there are tentative plans to launch a new spin-off podcast to fill the Thursday timeslot every week moving forward.
Episodes
Season 1
# | Title | Date | Summary | Resolution/Recap Links |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | RoMKnee 2012 | November 21, 2012 | Google Doc | |
2 | Pain in the NECk | December 5, 2012 | ||
3 | Reaching our Apex | January 2, 2013 | ||
4 | Genesis vs Evolution | January 16, 2013 | ||
5 | Apex After the High Wears Off | January 23, 2013 | ||
6 Part 1 | Six Hours to Midnight | January 31, 2013 | ||
6 Part 2 | THE SPIRIT BOMB | January 31, 2013 | ||
7 | The Next Step | February 13, 2013 | ||
8 | Untitled | February 27, 2013 | ||
9 | Don't Stop Me Now | March 20, 2013 | ||
10 | To Sweden and Back | April 17, 2013 | ||
11 | The Melee Experience | May 1, 2013 | ||
12 | Worst Episode Ever | May 13, 2013 |
Season 2
# | Title | Date | Summary | Resolution/Recap Links |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Winter is Coming | June 5, 2013 | ||
2 | M2K vs Sakurai | June 19, 2013 | ||
3 | Welcome Home | June 26, 2013 | ||
4 | Live from Sunnyvale | July 7, 2013 | ||
5 | Live from EVO 2013 | July 11, 2013 | ||
6 | EVO Reaction | July 17, 2013 | ||
7 | Where’s Prog?!? | July 31, 2013 | ||
8 | Fall Preview | Aug 14, 2013 | ||
9 | When Puffs Collide | Aug 29, 2013 | ||
10 | Shorthanded Edition!!! | Sep 12, 2013 | ||
11 | FGC vs Grassroots Smash | Sep 26, 2013 | ||
12 | Live from The Big House 3 | Oct 11, 2013 |
Season 3
# | Title | Date | Summary | Resolution/Recap Links |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | The Smash Brothers Era | Oct 24, 2013 | ||
2 | Pound V.5 and ROM 6 Preview | Nov 7, 2013 | ||
3 | One Year Anniversary | Nov 21, 2013 | ||
4 | Game of Thrones | Dec 12, 2013 | ||
5 | Good Tidings | Dec 19, 2013 | ||
6 | 2013 in Review | Jan 2, 2014 | ||
7 | Live from Apex 2014 | Jan 18, 2014 | ||
8 | Future Foe Scenarios | Jan 30, 2014 | ||
9 | Stuck in the Air | Feb 20, 2014 | ||
10 | When's Melee | Mar 6, 2014 | ||
11 | MLG vs EVO | Mar 13, 2014 | ||
12 | Melee It On MeSports | Mar 27, 2014 |