Melee seems to pass down to younger generations just fine since there are younger players in the game like Magi and Moky are clearly younger than someone like Hugs and Chudat, so melee dying due to lack of top players is not likely due to the fact that it has new players are still coming into the game and willing to compete at top levels.

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However melee isn't a game you can professionally play forever due to the insane amount of technical difficulty that the game has on a Gamecube controller. Players even at a young age like Leffen, Hax and Silent Wolf have all had hand injuries and either had to stop playing entirely or had to take a hiatus. The box does exist for a better ergonomic controller for peoples hands but most people will not switch to that since they would have to relearn an entirely new controller.

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Also sometimes life issues just comes in the way too. Only the top 20 really can play this game for a living since payouts at major events only are for top 8 and around that level a decent a sponsor can pay you enough to make it a living. It doesn't really seem realistic to play melee in your 40s when you have other things to be worried about like a stable income for retirement. Maybe I could be wrong here but I honestly don't see mango playing spacies when he is in his mid 40s in tournament let alone competing and may just focus on twitch/content creation.

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Maybe they players could move on to either streaming, commentating or something related to melee when they are older and stay away from competing similar to what M2K is doing right now. It really could be interesting in where melee could be in the next 10 years or so and where current top players will be when they are older.