The Melee Weekend Recap: Local Upsets Edition

As I wrote earlier, the Summer of Smash (https://thegamehaus.com/2016/09/13/summer-smash-melee-recap/) has come to a close and now it’s back to local and regional tournaments.  This past weekend didn’t have the flare of the Summer, but it did have four tournaments with 150+ entrants. We got surprise winners and some high-level match ups throughout the weekend.

Syndicate 2016

The most notable tournament of the weekend had to be Syndicate 2016. The event that took place in the Netherlands brought together Europe’s best players and Weston “Westballz” Dennis. It came down to two familiar faces in Grand Finals with Westballz matched up against Adam “Armada” Lindgren.

Armada was his usual self, only dropping two games against Westballz in the entire tournament. He took out notable European players like Jeapie (#1 EU Captain Falcon player) and Aaron “Professor Pro” Thomas, Britain’s top Fox player. Charles “Fuzzyness” Kimmelman was able to make it back into the top four after dropping a set in winners round of 24.

Outside of Armada’s run, Westballz was able to utterly dominate against Mustafa “Ice” Akcakaya. He took the two sets with a combined set score of 6-1 with three-three stock wins. Westballz second place finish was his highest finish since Clutch City Clash, where he got fourth.

Here are the full top 8 results –

1. Alliance Armada (Peach)
2. G2 Westballz (Falco/Fox/Captain Falcon)
3. mYi Ice (Fox)
4. Revolution Fuzzyness (Fox)
5. VwS Professor Pro (Fox)
6. Zgetto (Fox)
7. Overtriforce (Sheik)
8. Baxon (Falco)

Only five original characters used in this top 8.

Norcal Loves Teams

Norcal Loves Teams is an event that was put on by the company Discord at the Discord HQ in Burlingame, California. The event had both a singles and double event but was centered more around the team’s tournament.

The event brought out ranked players not only from Northern California, but from all over the west and east coast. Randomly enough, a southern California Captain Falcon main, Johnny “S2J” Kim, and an east coast Marth player, Ryan “The Moon” Coker-Welch took home the doubles event.

S2J did get the win in teams, but DeJuan “Shroomed” McDaniel got his revenge in singles winning 3-1 in Grand Finals. Shroomed took the overall stock count at 6-1, showing how strong Sheik can be in that match up when played correctly.

Kevin “PewPewU” Toy didn’t make it into the top 16 losing to Griffin “Captain Faceroll” Williams in winners and to The Moon in losers. It was a tournament of upsets as Captain Faceroll and Connor “CDK” Nguyen both finished in the top eight. CDK finished fourth and Faceroll fifth. Faceroll’s run included wins over ranked players such as PPU(2-0), Tafokints (2-0), Darkatma (2-0), Hugs (2-1), and Homemadewaffles (3-0).

Here’s the singles results –

1. Winterfox Shroomed (Sheik)
2. Tempo S2J (Captain Falcon)
3. Splyce Nintendude (Ice Climbers)
4. CDK (Fox)
5. Captain Faceroll (Sheik)
6. Laudandus (Sheik)
7. HomeMadeWaffles (Falco)
8. Azusa (Peach)

Three Sheik players in top eight. Only one Fox and six unique characters.

Super Smash Con 52

The final event of the weekend was the Socal classic, Super Smash Con. Mike Haze, a seasoned veteran in the Southern California scene, was able to take home his first SSS title with a narrow win over Joey “Lucky” Aldama, 3-2. The field of players wasn’t at its strongest, but it still had a number of ranked California players there. Mike Haze, who has been on the up as of recently, had little trouble at the large local. The only player he struggled against was Lucky, but he still won in straight sets. Haze continues his success against spacie mains with four set wins over Fox/Falco at SSS 52.

Haze continues to push his overall rank into the top 20, as he strengthens his resume once again with a SSS win.  Lucky’s downswing the last month continues with another loss to a player ranked below him. Now here’s the rest of the results –

1. Mike Haze (Fox)
2. Selfless Lucky (Fox)
3. Squid (Falco)
4. NotAlex19 (Fox)
5. Kira (Fox)
6. EastCoastJeff (Fox, Pikachu)
7. LuigiKid (Luigi)
8. Jace (Captain Falcon)

Five Fox mains made top 8, making it a little bit easier for Mike Haze to take the event. There were five unique characters, but six spacie mains (Fox/Falco mains) overall.