Hello! My name is Victra, a Falcon main from Alberta, Canada. This article was put together to challenge the mainstream view of Falcon, clarify the philosophy and ideas behind the 20GX Movement, and suggest their provocative idea that Falcon is not only a viable character, but the best character in Melee.

The Crowd Pleaser

“Falcon’s sick, and if you are going to lose at least don’t lose by being a lame dash dance camping ****o” – S2J

Falcon has always been known for being a fast, aggressive, and glass-cannon character with powerful combos and finishers. The Falcon players themselves have an enormous amount of creative flexibility and tools for opponent manipulation and conditioning available due to Falcon’s inherent speed and synergized moveset. However, Falcon holds the reputation of being a stylistic and crowd pleasing character that relies heavily on reads and multiple option coverages to see success in a competitive environment.

The Fall of Falcon

Hax, who was undisputedly the best Falcon in Melee’s history, left Falcon in favor of Fox and stated that he had pushed Falcon to the limits of the character despite trailing directly behind the 5 Melee Gods at that time. Despite Hax’s renowned efficiency with Falcon, Hax still had holes in his punishes that relied solely on getting the correct read or covering the right option. The Melee community was left with the precedent that Falcon’s limit had truly been reached. Falcon’s place in Melee’s metagame and Falcon’s metagame itself remained relatively static and unexplored, and Falcon’s reputation as a competitive character remained underrated and misrepresented.

“They’re not gonna get anywhere falcon sux” – Hax on 20GX

However, although late into Melee’s life and metagame, the advancement of Falcon is now being pursued scientifically by passionate players under what has been aptly named The 20GX Movement.

Space and Time

Before we look into Falcon and his strengths, we first have to consider the two underlying factors of competitive play: space and time. At any given moment, a character only has access to a certain space and range within a certain period of time (game timings, frames, human reaction time, etc).

The overall number of options available at any given moment for any character in Melee, even within a fraction of a second, is so overwhelming that it almost seems excessive. Consider a character in neutral position. They would have full access to all their attacks and the ranges of their attacks, as well as their spacing options via dash, jump, etc. In addition, there are spacing options that reset their neutral position in a new space within a brief period of time such as wavedash, pivot, etc and various spacing iterations within a wavedash, a dash (via pivots), and a jump (through analog and drift). There is also the dynamic of crouch cancelling, clank and rebound, trading, etc.

We can look at Schmoob’s out of shield heat map for a simplified visualization of this concept by significantly reducing the near infinite number of options to out of shield options only. We can see how Falcon has access to various ranges of space within various lengths of time while in shield.

A heat map of Falcon’s OoS options by Schmooblidon. Notice how the space that is capable of being covered by these options in a single instance is bounded by their inherent frame time. (See Falcon’s individual heat maps here).

The interactions between two players within space and time essentially involves both player threatening the range of the other (by zoning, asserting stage control, different timings etc) within the neutral game until a favorable interaction can be made in which one player has the space and time advantage over the other (such as baiting and punishing a whiffed move).

The space and time concept comes naturally when we play and is not often thought about in such a way, but further understanding opens up a greater depth within Melee that is unprecedented.

Falcon’s Core Strengths

Falcon has a long list of tangible strengths that objectively sets him above the rest of the cast in several categories if not all together. Falcon is also capable of utilizing existing and unexplored mechanics within Melee to their highest potential due to his innate skillset. These strengths are independent of the playstyle of the players themselves and how they may choose to apply and utilize Falcon’s tools and kit.

“Winning isn’t about being lucky, it’s about being bold.” – Douglas Jay Falcon

1. Mobility and Movement

Falcon has the fastest dash and dash jump speed, the longest dash and dash jump length, and the third highest air speed, making Falcon the fastest and most mobile character in terms of raw movement.

1a. Dash Length

Pivots and shield dropping have found themselves to be deeply rooted into the metagame of Smash 64, but their full potential is only now being explored intimately in Melee. These tools are particularly powerful when utilized by Falcon given that he has the longest dash length and therefore has access to every length of his dash through pivots (and shield stops), as well as access to any point along the length of a platform to position for shield drops.

S2J makes full use of the increments of his dash length using pivots and pivot shield stops to perfectly space outside the ranges of DEHF to apply pressure and convert an opening into a set winning punish.

When his superior dash length and dash speed is utilized in addition to the spacings that are made possible through pivots and shield stops, Falcon has the widest range of possible spacings from dash.

1b. Analog Jump

During the second last frame of jump squat, the game reads the location of your analog control stick to pre-emptively determine the velocity of your jump and the resulting displacement, prior to the influence of aerial drift. Application of this mechanic allows for a player to exert a higher level of control over their spacing. Although this is a tool that all characters can utilize, this mechanic is most significant for Falcon as he innately has the longest reaching jump, reaching the furthest possible distance from a neutral position.

By implementing analog jump, Falcon can pre-emptively access any point along the length of his maximum jump distance and can pro-actively adjust post-jump through the use of drift, giving Falcon the widest range of possible spacings from jump. (Learn more about Analog Jump by clicking here).

1c. Aerial Mobility and Aerial Range

Falcon has a strong control over his positioning when airborne due to his aerial properties. By utilizing his jump heights and fast fall, Falcon has access to an absurd number of ranges and timings.

Falcon’s aerial mobility gives the player the capabilities to drastically and critically change scenarios that are difficult to react to. Any time Falcon’s aerial drift is utilized, the disjointed range of his staple moves (his aerials) change, giving you access to a much larger set of spacing and timing variables than with grounded moves.

Notice Mango’s control as he hits Hax’s shield with a full analog jump, non-FF stomp OoS, and drifts back enough to make the range of Hax’s timings and attacks ineffective. In this particular case Hax goes for a fast bair oos and whiffs, leaving Mango with the space and time advantage to grab. 

When Falcon is placed in the middle of the stage, the number of spacing and positioning options he has at the macro and micro level inside a single brief period of time is unprecedented and unmatched by any other character. (Learn more about Falcon’s movement here).

2. Ledge Tech

Falcon has access to two invincible edge stalls and can safely force unbeatable edgeguard situations on any character with a tradition shoryuken-style upb.

Falcon Invincible ledge dash gif by Kadano. A precise set of inputs performed within 17 frames.

The invincible ledge dash (aka the Hax Dash) in particular deserves special recognition as it allows Falcon to remain entirely ambiguous as to whether he’ll come on the stage or not, forcing responses and option selects by covering both the stage and ledge recovery options for almost all characters that are offstage. This is particular powerful for Falcon due to his inherently strong ledge options (such as invincible knee).

3. Punish Game

Falcon’s punish game is an aspect of Falcon that has not been fully realized on any level. Consider how refined the punish games are for Armada’s Peach, Hungrybox’s Jigglypuff, Axe’s Pikachu, and Amsa’s Yoshi, and the overwhelming level of discrepancy between them and the subsequent players of their respective characters. We have not seen a Falcon with a crisp and honed punish game at a high level of competency and consistency, although we have seen several perfect and near-perfect instances from current and past Falcons.

The Falcon meta is leaving the mentality of hard reads and covering multiple options at once, and is beginning to move more so towards covering all options through raw reaction.

Falcon’s tech chase depends on two important points:

1. The Set Up: Utilizing Falcon’s mobility to place himself in an advantageous position to initially cover the missed tech and tech in place option.
2. The Follow Up: Reacting within 18 frames to cover all the tech options of the opponent. This requires a reaction time of 300ms. Average human reaction time is 250ms with the human limit of 100ms.

A common misconception is that the optimal Falcon punish game would be to simply opt towards regrabs off reaction, much like a Sheik would optimize her tech chases. However, Falcon is not limited to just regrabs. Due to Falcon’s superior mobility and his inherently powerful punish tools, Falcon is capable of following up with guaranteed aerials (such as knee and stomp) on any of the tech options, and can option select neutral get-up and get-up attack with shield grab, all entirely off reaction. (See more on Falcon’s tech chases here).

Another common misconception is that the utilization of read-based tech chasing is to be removed entirely from Falcon’s punish game. The subject of whether or not read-based tech chasing should be used is still primarily up for debate. Theoretically, read-based tech chasing is not necessary due to the power and consistency of tech chasing through reaction. However, reads can serve a solution to the human factor. Pressure and hesitation can cause reaction times to be slower which will result in dropped tech chases. As well, if the opponent’s habits are picked up but not exploited, the tech chaser is not utilizing all the information that is at their disposal.

This demonstrates that you can knee the miss tech and tech in place option of a Spacie, and still have the time to react (0.300ms) and cover the tech roll before the Spacie can retaliate.

As stronger punishes become more of a growing requirement in Melee, having the capacity to put on huge percent and take stocks effectively and efficiently, especially on Spacies, becomes a greater strength. Likewise, as Melee’s meta continues to develop and evolve and the intricacies of smash DI are explored more deeply, having access to punishes where both these factors are irrelevant becomes increasingly more significant. (You can see examples of frame tight tech chases demonstrated here).

Don’t Get Hit

In the deeply developed metagame of Smash 64, concise and precise movement is considered to be the most crucial skill as a single instance of sloppy or erroneous movement and misjudgment of space-time will lead to huge damage or the lost of a stock.

As punishes become increasingly more devastating as Melee’s metagame progresses, interactions and movement within the neutral game become increasingly more precise and essential. Getting hit or knocked off stage become synonymous to losing a stock or taking huge damage, and a greater emphasis is placed on the movement. Although Melee may never reach the same unforgiving punish game as Smash 64, the same notion can be made that argues for movement as the most important aspect in Melee (as long as the character is not severely limited in their ability to do damage).

20GX

Falcon undisputedly has the best movement in the game and has access to the greatest number of ranges of space within a given period of time due to his innate speed and displacement range. In theory and within the practical limits of human capability, Falcon should always be able to force an interaction in his favor by out-maneuvering and threatening the ranges of any character, and can secure percentage and stocks with his inherently powerful punish tools. Falcon’s only limitation is the player controlling him.

Useful Links:
20GX Facebook Group
20GX Twitch
20GX Youtube
Falcon Research & Development
Falcon Hate Group

Huge thanks to Gahtzu, Gravy, and Wizzrobe for their enthusiasm and support. Shoutouts to n0ne, Superboomfan, w33dl0rd, and Hax. Special thanks to everyone who participates in the Falcon R&D Group and supports the 20GX movement.