MLG Anaheim Melee Tournament Recap

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June 27, 2014

MLG Anaheim 2014 was the Super Smash Bros. Melee community's first time at a primary Major League Gaming event since 2006. The Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California hosted 325 Melee tournament entrants over the weekend of June 20-22. Videos can be found on MLG's Smash YouTube Account and full results for all events are below.

Dawn of the First Day

A huge crowd gathered as the dawn of the tournament approached. We could see into the venue, but no one was allowed to enter until 12:00 PM, so anticipation levels grew along with the size of the crowd. Finally, the doors were opened, and hundreds of players and spectators swarmed inside. We were greeted by an enormous space, dimly lit except for an ongoing laser light show and the constant beat of EDM playing in the background.

Championship Pools were clearly a highlight of the Super Smash Bros. Melee event. Throughout Day 1 and 2, the best of the best faced off in a Round Robin format, resulting in a constant stream (no pun intended) of fantastic Melee gameplay. Some highlights included Aziz 'Hax' Al-Yami vs. William 'Leffen' Hjelte, Masaya 'aMSa' Chikamoto's close sets with everyone, and Weston 'Westballz' Dennis's amazing 3-0 upset over Joseph 'Mang0' Marquez.

Full results of Championship Pools can be found here.

The Open Bracket was set to start at 2:30 PM, which was when the staff kicked everyone off of the rows of CRT TV setups. Due to a malfunction with MLG's software, the first matches weren't called until after 6:00, which was unfortunate since none of the Smash players knew what was going on or whether it was safe to go get lunch. Round 2 of the Winners Bracket was completed before everyone was called over to the main stage to watch the East Coast vs. West Coast Crew Battle.

Despite being a side attraction, Crews was one of the most highly anticipated events at MLG Anaheim. It was the classic rivalry, East Coast vs. West Coast, with 12 ridiculously skilled players on each side. T-shirts representing each side nearly sold out beforehand, with West Coast's color dominating in the Southern California audience.

Strangely, both crews opened the tournament with a series of Fox dittos, with Justin 'Plup' McGrath thrown in by the East Coast for good measure. Joey 'Lucky' Aldama defeated Plup and went on to take an impressive 6 stocks. But the MVP was definitely Mang0. He took 1 stock from Jason 'Mew2King' Zimmerman's Sheik, all 4 from Kevin 'PPMD' Nanney's Falco, and 3 more from Juan 'Hungrybox' DeBiedma with his remaining stock, single-handedly decimating three of the East Coast's "Smash Gods." Some would call it foreshadowing...

Daniel 'ChuDat' Rodriguez held it down for the East Coast against McCain 'MacD' LaVelle's Peach (a terrible matchup for the Ice Climbers), but the damage had been done. Landon 'DoH' Cox put up a good fight, but DaJuan 'Shroomed' Jefferson finished him off to secure a 5-stock victory for the West Coast.

Full results of the Crew Battle are available here. MLG has also compiled this video playlist.

Dawn of the Second Day

Day 2 featured the remainder of Championship Pools, most of the Open Bracket, and the community-run Doubles side event.

Numerous matches still needed to be played on the Winners side of the Open Bracket due to the previous day's delays, so the staff decided to start calling them out around 9:30 AM. However, many players had been told to arrive at 10 AM and ended up being disqualified. The tournament staff realized what had happened and reversed these DQs, an unprecedented decision at an MLG event. The Open Bracket progressed smoothly from then on and managed to finish on time despite all the unfortunate setbacks.

By the end of the day, 8 players remained who would advance into the Championship Bracket. Kevin 'PewPewU' Toy, Jeffrey 'Axe' Williamson, Colin 'Colbol' and Shephard 'Fiction' Lima made it out on the Winners side—they were then sorted into either Championship Pool A or B and went on to play everyone therein. Shroomed, Plup, Johnny 'S2J' Kim and Lucky rounded out the Losers side of the Championship Bracket.

Both Championship Pools were full of upsets, yet the top 4 spots were completely predictable. Pool A finished with PPMD in 1st place and Mew2King in 2nd, while Pool B awarded the 1st seed to Armada and 2nd to Mang0. Axe's run in Pool A was heartbreaking: he was inches away from defeating PPMD in their set, which would have won him the 1st seed. Instead, his narrow loss to PPMD gave him the same win:loss ratio as Leffen, and Leffen had beaten him head-to-head, so Axe wound up in 4th place.

The Doubles side event was run by the well-known organizational wizards Sheridan 'Hyugalisk' Zalewski and Robin 'Juggleguy' Harn. With only 43 teams and a stacked bracket of experienced players, the tournament ran quickly and resulted in some incredible sets. Some of these matches were streamed on Clash Tournaments' Twitch.tv page, but no comprehensive video archive exists. To absolutely no one's surprise, Adam 'Armada' Lindgren and Mew2King defeated Mang0 and Lucky to win the Doubles tournament. Again.

The Doubles Bracket can be found here.

Dawn of the Final Day

Only the Championship Bracket remained. On the Winners side, starting at Winners Semifinals: Armada vs. Mew2King, and PPMD vs. Mang0. In Losers: Westballz, Leffen, Joshua 'S0ft' Gillette Davis, Shroomed, aMSa, S2J, Hax, PewPewU, Fiction, Rehman 'Remen' Shafi, Lucky, Axe, Gonzalo 'Zero' Barrios, Plup, Colin 'Colbol' Green, and Hungrybox.

Shroomed defeated S0ft 3-1 before being taken out by Westballz, who himself lost a very close 3-2 set to Leffen. S2J eliminated aMSa's fan favorite Yoshi 3-2 before narrowly losing to Hax, also 3-2. Hax would again clutch victory from the jaws of defeat against PewPewU, 3-2, before dropping an equally close set against Leffen in Losers Quarterfinals (yet another 3-2). In the other half of the Championship Losers Bracket, Lucky 3-0'd Remen while Plup was 3-0ing Zero, both of which unfortunately happened off-stream. Plup would then eliminate Colbol 3-1 before being eliminated in turn by Hungrybox 3-1—a sad state of affairs given that these were the only three remaining Florida players, and all close friends. Lucky would overtake Fiction in Fox dittos 3-1 only to lose afterward to Axe's Pikachu (3-0).

Then, perhaps the most amazing upset of the tournament occurred: Axe's Pikachu defeated Hungrybox's Jigglypuff 3-1, sending him home with an unprecedented 7th place. At this point, the Winners Bracket needed to progress. Mang0 defeated PPMD 3-2 in a set that saw PPMD claim a 3-stock with Marth in game 4 then switch back to Falco in game 5. Armada 3-0'd Mew2King, moving on to play Mang0 in Winners Finals.

Back in the Losers Bracket, Axe then lost 3-0 to Mew2King's Sheik (despite beating him in the same matchup in Championship Pool A) and finish in 5th, alongside Leffen, who went out 3-1 again PPMD (another rematch from Pool A). Mew2King claimed an unexpected (yet not unprecedented) 3-2 win over PPMD in Losers Semifinals. It was a hard-fought set, and Mew2King jumped out of his seat upon winning, almost forgetting to shake PPMD's hand.

It was now time for Winners Finals. Mang0 had lost an extremely close 3-2 set to Armada in their Championship Pool, but Winners Finals swung in the opposite direction, with a 3-2 win for Mang0. Armada and Mew2King fought in Losers Finals: their slow-paced, Spacing-heavy set was a test of each player's intelligence and stamina, and Armada came out on top, 3-2.

Grand Finals. Mang0 and Armada had already played twice at this tournament, in Winners Finals and in Pools, with each claiming a win in one of their nail-biting 3-2 sets. But, frankly, Grand Finals was not close. Mang0's Fox was running circles around Armada, catching his Peach's movement patterns with raw Fox Up-Aerials, and somehow managing to equalize with the Swedish player's notoriously brutal combos and consistent edgeguarding. Mang0 even went so far as to attempt a ridiculous wall-jump Up-Aerial in game 2 which completely missed and probably cost him the match. The set finished 3-2, but the matches themselves were fairly one-sided compared to the rest of the tournament. Mang0 was crowned the MLG Anaheim 2014 champion to massive cheers from the West Coast crowd.

Most people had predicted that either PPMD or Armada would take the tournament. Mang0's trademark cocky style came out immediately in his interview as he stated that, if there were ten commandments for Smash, #1 would be "Thou shalt not sleep on The Kid." This was followed by "I have not had a beer all weekend. It is time. Let's go." (The author can confirm that Mang0 did indeed go to "The Pint House" shortly afterward, which served decent food and inexpensive beer.)

Results

Championship Singles

1. Mang0 (Fox, Falco) - $5000
2. Armada (Peach, Young Link) - $3000
3. Mew2King (Sheik, Fox, Marth, Captain Falcon) - $2250
4. PPMD (Falco, Marth) - $1750
5. Leffen (Fox) - $1000
5. Axe (Pikachu, Young Link) - $1000
7. Hax (Fox) - $500
7. Hungrybox (Jigglypuff) - $500
9. Westballz (Falco, Captain Falcon, Fox)
9. Lucky (Fox)
9. PewPewU (Marth)
9. Plup (Samus)
13. Shroomed
13. S2J (Captain Falcon)
13. Fiction (Fox)
13. Colbol (Fox)
17. Soft (Jigglypuff)
17. aMSa (Yoshi)
17. Remen (Falco)
17. Zero (Fox)

Full Results

Championship Pools

Pool A	Pool B
1. PPMD [6 - 1]	1. Armada [7 - 0]
2. Mew2King [5 - 2]	2. Mang0 [5 - 2]
3. Leffen [5 - 2]	3. Hungrybox [5 - 2]
4. Axe [5 - 2]	4. PewPewU [3 - 4]
5. Hax [4 - 3]	5. Fiction [3 - 4]
6. Colbol [2 - 5]	6. Westballz [3 - 4]
7. S0ft [1 - 6]	7. Zero [1 - 6]
8. Remen [0 - 7]	8. aMSa [1 - 6]