Main

This article refers to a main character in terms of a player. It does not refer to the main character of a game (i.e. protagonist).

A player's main character, often shortened to main, is the character a person uses the most often. For instance, Ken's main in Super Smash Bros. Melee is Marth. "Main" also can be used as a verb, e.g., "Isai mains Captain Falcon and Sheik". In contrast, secondary characters are used in specific situations or just for casual play.

It is possible for a player to use more than one main character, though multiple mains are generally less common but have become increasingly more common in more recent years with the majority of the top 10 players having 2 if not 3 mains with some exceptions. In tournaments, multiple mains are more common with low tier mainers as they usually require more than one character in order to face all matchups.

One may also main different characters in different games, like how ZeRo mains Fox in Melee, Meta Knight in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Diddy Kong in SSB4. This is common, seeing as many characters' tournament viability can fluctuate in different games.

The sub-term character loyalist or character specialist' refers to someone who mains 1/2 characters throughout different smash games. A notable example of this is DEHF who uses Fox/Falco in the 4 smash games he plays all with top results, being Melee, Brawl, Smash 4, and Project M. This is a potential issue with buying new smash games with certain players as they might not want to buy the new game if their main character is considered to be much worse or is absent (such as certain Ice Climber/Snake mains from Brawl to Smash 4.)

The opposing terminology would be a random character main, as in someone who mains no one and uses the entire cast, though this is predominately a non-competitive ideology. People who do this jokingly say they "main the random button."