...if there was a parallel Smash Bros. series with rosters based solely on our contests, emphasizing (in roughly ascending order of importance) those characters who have made many contests, who have often been strong and/or won many matches, who have been highly and/or consistently memorable, and most of all who have been significant in the course of these contests and impactful within them, which characters would each game's roster have?
This isn't an alternate universe 'what if Smash Bros. existed in a different form than the way we know it?' idea. Rather, what I mean for it to be is sort of a way to ask for lists and other opinions on contest characters' importance as per the above metrics, but framed in a way that I hope will be easier to latch on to.
There are quite a few ways to approach this idea, I'm aware. I favor assuming that each parallel contest Smash Bros. 'game' released exactly five years after its counterpart, as a relatively non-arbitrary increment and because this aligns Melee -> Brawl with CJayC -> SBAllen as eras. As well, it feels to me like a necessary baseline condition to give each parallel roster the same number of characters as its Smash Bros. equivalent. (...I realize these two points result in a total lack of new contests with characters to help draw the parallel-Ultimate roster's additions from.)
Preassuming the above two specifications produces the following parallel game rosters to fill:
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Contest Smash Bros. - 12 characters, based on 2002 and 2003 only
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Contest Smash Bros. Melee - 26 characters, based on 2002-2006 + Villains
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Contest Smash Bros. Brawl - 39 characters, based on 2002-2010 + Villains + Rivals
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Contest Smash Bros. 4 - 58 characters, based on 2002-2018 + Villains + Rivals
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Contest Smash Bros. Ultimate - 89 characters, based on 2002-2018 + Villains + Rivals
As for whether to consider any additional Smash Bros.-paralleling factors, such as by emphasizing contests newer relative to each pre-Ultimate game or in terms of DLC or whether or not to remove characters from previous installments, or whether any bonus match-exclusive characters matter enough, that's up to those of you who are interested enough to respond. Alternatively, I encourage you to approach this idea your own way if you'd prefer, whether by ditching the above specifications or by ditching the parallel Smash Bros. framing altogether. Please do post if you feel what I wrote above doesn't work or is off as an approach to this subject or isn't an interesting idea at all or whatever else!