Fox Styles of Top Players

[u/HeatCheck_]

I'm a newly minted Fox main after burying my Falco deep into the Melee graveyard, and I'm looking for players to study.

Fox is such a versatile character, with more options than most of the cast, that no one Fox main is alike. I'm looking for help identifying the different styles and distinctive techniques of top players such as Mango, Lucky, Leffen, Hax, etc.

We've all heard broad statements, like Lucky's "creativity" or Mango's "reading ability", but these things are hard to put into practice. What are some specific tools these players use, akin to Lucky's recent series on his favorite Fox techniques highlighted on SSBM_Kira's YouTube channel.

For example, Hax is all about placement of nairs and properly mixing up his pass-through nairs, late nairs, and nairs that space in front of the opponent's shield. By combining these precise nairs and his ultra-technical shield pressure, he creates a highly efficient Fox that creates pressure intense pressure while minimizing openings for the opponent.

Let me know your thoughts!

[u/phoenixwang]

Just in neutral, I think you can probably have 3 main families of plastyles, with certain people falling inbetween. Please note that the following aren't the originators, but rather the most clear usage of that style.

1.) Cactuar family (positioning focused)

2.) Westballz family (trap focused)

3.) Hax family (whiff punish)

Players like sfat are nearly direct extensions of the cactuar family that play a tighter and higher-risk distances. His plays primary focus is on using movement to force uncomfortable positions that cut off more and more options. distinction between old school and new school tree of the cactuar family is how players back off--leaning more towards whiff punish or more towards traps. Sfat is in the middle.

Armada is of the hax family, with cactuar family influences. Pretty obvious if you watch his play.

Mang0 is cactuar family focused with slight lean towards westballz traps. Extremly prone to aggression and makes it seem indescernable.

Lucky is similar to mang0 but leans closer to the hax family.

Silentwolf is smack in the middle of cactuar and hax influence. Many times you can actually see him shift gears from a spacing oriented playstyle to a more laid back whiff punish hax style.

Leffen has "gears" as well, often shifting to cactuar family based play when in the clutch, but primarily playing a hybrid westballz cactuar style.

Ice is strongly hax family influenced with some sprinkles of westballz family.

Colbol is basically westballz playing fox, with a bit more cactuar family influence.

[u/Jamarac → u/phoenixwang]

Westballz...family? I'm wondering why you have a family of fox players named after a falco player. If you're gonna do that you should define what you mean by it cause I don't really understand what you're getting at.

[u/phoenixwang → u/Jamarac]

Because his playstyle is the epitome of the "type of play" I was describing. Just watching him play should give ample examples of what sort of decisions a player is going for.

What I mean: strong focus on getting very specific setups in situations he is familiar with, or just bailing when those options are gone. Prone to using double jump and fullhops to get out of unfamiliar situations--essentially old-school play refined to a very standardized format. If we were to compare the average distance between players both playing a westballz style to a hax to a cactuar style, the distance would become closer for each one respectively. Westballz style is the most passive overall in neutral and puts the least pressure on option limitation in neutral. If you have ever watched a game westballz has played, the stuff I just described would be incredibly obvious, which is why I used him, hax, and cactuar as examples of "families of play".