With Summit Champions League (SCL) season two over and done with, the smash community is ready for Smash Summit 11 on July 15, 2021. Players such as William “Leffen” Hjelte and Masaya “aMSa” Chikamoto have already received their invitation. While others such as Zain “Zain” Naghmi, Joseph “Mango” Marquez, Zachary “SFAT” Cordoni, Cody “iBDW” Schwab, Kurtis “moky” Pratt and Justin “Plup” McGrath, have qualified for Smash Summit 11 by placing high enough in SCL Season two.
There are still eight more spots available for players to be eligible for Smash Summit 11. Six slots are for “Crowdfunded Players,” which has yet to be determined. Two of the slots are going to the winners of Rollback Rumble and SAME Circuit tournaments, respectively. It seems the Smash community has a few tournaments to look forward to before Smash Summit. Here’s a brief overview of both SAME Circuit’s Fête Online and Rollback Rumble as well as predict who will be taking these two slots for Smash Summit 11.
S.A.M.E 2021 Overview
S.A.M.E 2021 official logo
SAME 2021 is a Smash Melee tournament circuit hosted by Smash Europe. The circuit consists of 11 qualifying tournaments followed by a championship event later in 2021. The circuit started on January 31, 2021, with “Valhalla Online.” Other tournaments such as “The Upset,” “Phoenix Blue Online,” and Regen Online have already taken place as well. The upcoming tournament in the circuit is “Smash Sauna Online” on May 4, 2021, followed by “Fête Online,” which takes place June 26, 2021. On April 19, Beyond The Summit announced that the point leader after Fête Online will be invited to participate in Summit 11.
SAME 2021 operates on a point system that is determined by how high players place in subsequent tournaments. First place gets 100 points; second gets 80, third gets 65, and so on. The player who has the most points and therefore the most likely to participate in Summit 11 is Elliot “Frenzy” Grossman with 260 points, followed closely by Linus “Pipsqueak” Nordin with 250 points and “Alvaro Garcia “Trif” Moral in third with 200 points. Leffin is also placed high on the SAME placement with 180 points. However, he has already received his invitation to Summit 11.
Top Player’s in S.A.M.E’s League
Frenzy is a Falco main who currently ranked third on UK Power Rankings sponsored by GRIP Esports. He has done exceptionally well in SAME’s circuit. He placed third in Valhalla Online, third in The Upset, and first in Regen Online. With his slight lead of 10 points and having momentum from winning Regen Online. Frenzy is posed to place high in Smash Sauna Online and has a higher chance than most of getting into Summit 11.
Pipsqueak is a Fox main from Sweden, currently ranked third on Sweden’s Power Rankings. Pipsqueak has done exceptionally well in the past, winning three out of seven tournaments he has played in 2021. He won Valhalla Online in a bracket reset situation with Leffen in the grand finals. As well as Placing second in Phoenix Blue Online, and has done exceptionally well in the doubles brackets for said tournaments. While Pipsqueak has done exceptionally well, he needs Frenzy to place low in the next two tournaments, or he will not have a high chance of making it to Smash Summit 11.
Trif is a Peach main from Spain, currently ranked first on the Spain Power Rankings. Rank number one in Spain is not to be taken lightly, having multiple wins on high-ranking smash players. In terms of SAME 2021, He took Pheonix Blue Online from losers, resetting the bracket on Pipsqueak and taking the grand finals set. He also placed second in The Upset, losing to Leffen in grand finals 1 : 3. However, he only put 9-12th in Regen Online, which drastically affected his placement on SAME’s ranking system. Currently ranked third with 200 points, he will need to win, or at the very least place, exceptionally high in order to overtake Frenzy and Pipsqueaks positions.
S.A.M.E. 2021’s likely Representation
SAME 2021 still has two tournaments left before the qualifying player can go to Summit 11. While the players listed above have a higher chance than most to get into SAME 2021. These players still have a battle on their hands, having to go up against players like Leffen, Mustafa “Ice” Akcakaya, Ville “Levingy” Miekk-Oja and many others to make it into Smash Summit 11. As it stands now, Frenzy has the most likely chance of getting into Smash Summit 11, but only time will tell if he will keep his first place placement and move on to Summit 11.
RollBack Rumble: The Big One Overview
“Rollback Rumble: The Big One” is set to begin on July 3, just a few weeks before Smash Summit 11 on July 15th. It has multiple events such as Melee singles, Melee Doubles, Volleyball Doubles and Wolf Singles. Since Rollback Rumble is an open invitation to anyone in the Americas, it is unknown who will take the top spot in the tournament. Registration for the event is still live and will close on July 1, 2021.
The Re-awakening of Offline Tournaments
Smash Summit 11 will be the first offline major tournament in the United States. It will consist of sixteen of the best Melee players in the world. Players who have not made it into Summit 11 will have their opportunity to join if they have enough votes from the smash.gg crowdfunding event. All of the proceeds from the voting campaign are used to fund the event and the prize pool. After a year of COVID, the Smash community will finally have its chance to watch a major offline tournament. With lineups still being determined, Summit is looking to be the most exciting smash event in the past year. It seems like Smash Summit will finally put to rest the debate of who is better offline versus online play.
