While I remember playing Melee on a friends GameCube back in the day, it's only the last year or two that I've really gotten into the game, since I got Ultimate. About six months ago I started going to my locals, and I'm still going 0-2 every time (there are some word-class players here, FML). That said I've been putting some work in and I've definitely improved. I main everyone's favourite interstellar bounty hunter, Samus Aran.
Tournaments can be demoralizing when you end up playing against some cracked players. I have realized that I am more of a friends only smash player, although part of me is still drawn to tournaments.
Do you know about https://smashcords.com? I don't know how you've looked for tournaments before, but if you join your region's Discord channel then you might find one anyway, or at least some people in your area you can play online with.