For the eSports team, see Team:Armada.

Armada is a smasher from Gothenburg, Sweden who mains Peach and Fox in Melee who was formerly ranked 1st on the European Melee Power Rankings and 2nd on the 2018 MPGR. One of the "Five Gods" of Melee, he is widely considered the greatest Peach player of all time, showcasing outstanding skill for many years with a character still considered to be subpar compared to other top tiers. Since becoming a top professional in 2007, Armada never placed below 5th at a tournament, won a multitude of majors and supermajors, and cultivated a streak over 8 years long in which he did not drop a serious tournament set to a player outside of Melee's upper echelon. His remarkable consistency and numerous periods of dominance lead many to regard Armada as the greatest Melee player of all time.

Armada cemented himself as the best European player in 2009, winning SMASH ATTACK and Epita Smash Arena 3, and facing Mango in grand finals at GENESIS, his first American major. In 2011 and 2012, he was considered the best player in the world, as he won GENESIS 2, Apex 2012, and Apex 2013. This was followed by a semi-retirement in 2013 which ended with B.E.A.S.T 4 in 2014.

In 2015, Armada regained the title of best player in the world, with major tournament wins including EVO 2015, The Big House 5, and Smash Summit. Armada began 2016 strong by winning GENESIS 3, but soon entered a slump in which he placed some of his lowest placings in a year at Get On My Level 2016 and Battle of the Five Gods and also failed to defend his title at EVO 2016. The latter half of 2016 saw Armada having a much better year, winning Smash Summit 3, DreamHack Winter 2016, and UGC Smash Open, and keeping his 1st place on the 2016 SSBM rankings.

Armada is also known for his domination of doubles events at tournaments when teaming with Mew2King. The Peach/Sheik team was considered the best Melee doubles team in the world from 2011 to 2014, having won nationals such as Pound V, Apex 2012, Apex 2013, SKTAR 3, CEO 2014, and Kings of Cali 4. They are still considered to be one of the best teams in the world, along with PewFat, as they won GENESIS 3 and Smash Summit 3. Armada also dominates doubles events at European tournaments with his younger brother Android, in what is known as the "UGS Team". Their best achievements include winning The Big House 5 and GENESIS 4 doubles. Armada also used to team with Ice and his brother Aniolas.

Armada also played Project M competitively from 2012-2015, maining Pit. He was one of the best Project M players in the world in the 3.02 era, with his precision with Pit's light arrows earning him the nickname "The Swedish Sniper."

Armada is sponsored by Alliance since November 6th, 2014[1]. On December 12th, 2016, Alliance was spun-off into a player-owned organization by former parent company Twitch[2]. Armada, along with the original Dota 2 members, was given a percentage of the organization.[3]

On September 18th, 2018, Armada retired from Melee singles.[4] However, he started commentating at The Big House 8 and began participating in Ultimate tournaments playing Inkling, Pokemon Trainer, Mewtwo, and Corrin defeating players such as ZD, Chag, Lemmon, and ZeRo. He is currently ranked as an Honorable Mention on both the Swedish Power Rankings and the European Smash Rankings.

Tournament history [ edit ]

Origin of the name [ edit ]

In 2004, Armada and his brothers Aniolas and Android entered a Nintendo contest in Gothenburg, Sweden. Each brother ultimately failed in going through the tournament, Armada specifically mentioning that Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 was the hardest game, as he had never played it up to that point. After the tournament him, Aniolas and Android founded The Ultimate Gamers of Sweden or UGS. Aniolas gave the name "Armada" to him and he has used it ever since.

It was rumored that Armada is short for "Action Replay Adam". AR are the 1st 2 letters and 'mada' is Adam backwards. D1 spread that rumor while commentating at Apex 2012. Armada later expressed his hatred for that name calling it "lame".[5]

2007-2008: Rise to fame [ edit ]

After a handful of promising performances in locals around his area, Armada surprised the entire European community in July 2007 by claiming 4th place at The Renaissance of Smash 4, his first national, eliminating Faab 3-0 in losers' quarters, and even coming close to knocking Amsah out in losers' semis (who was then considered the best player in Europe by a sizable margin).

Seven months later, at Epita Smash Arena 2 (the largest European tournament at the time), Armada placed 3rd in singles. He lost to Captain Jack in winners' semis, and then eliminated Adam 3-0 in losers' quarters and Masashi 3-1 in losers' semis (including a 4-stock against his Marth in game 4), before losing to Captain Jack 2-4 in losers' finals.

2009-2010: Taking the European crown and debuting in the United States [ edit ]

In 2009, Armada won his first national, SMASH ATTACK; although he lost to Zgetto 2-4 in winners' finals, he managed to take both sets of grand finals against Zgetto, winning 8-0. He won Epita Smash Arena 3 shortly after without dropping a set, defeating Amsah 4-0 in grand finals. Armada was soon considered the best smasher in Europe. He also attended his first tournament in the United States, GENESIS, in which he won sets against DaShizWiz, Mew2King, and Mango in the winners' bracket, playing undefeated before losing to Mango in both sets of grand finals, placing 2nd in the Melee singles tournament.

In 2010, Armada attended Pound 4, which was his second tournament in the US. He was upset by SilentSpectre in winners' bracket, losing 0-2, though he managed to eliminate Hax, Plank, Lucky, and Mew2King in losers' bracket before being eliminated by Amsah 1-3 in losers' semis, placing 4th in the Melee singles tournament. Later that year, he placed 2nd in Melee singles at Apex 2010, defeating Axe and Zhu in winners' bracket before losing to Hungrybox in winners' semis, and then eliminating PPMD and Mew2King in losers' bracket before losing to Hungrybox 0-3 in grand finals. That year, he also won Epita Smash Arena 4 and Smash Needs You.

2011-2012: Period of Dominance [ edit ]

In 2011, Armada won B.E.A.S.T without dropping a set, once again defeating Amsah 4-0 in grand finals. At Pound V, he started using Young Link as a counter to Hungrybox's Jigglypuff, and the result was defeating Hungrybox 2-0 in winners' bracket. He also defeated PPMD in winners' finals, but lost to PPMD in both sets of grand finals to take 2nd place in Melee singles. Later that year, Armada won his first major tournament in the US, GENESIS 2, where he defeated Mango 3-2 in grand finals. This was the start of a nearly two year long period in which Armada won singles at every tournament he entered, including several US nationals. He also won B.E.A.S.T II, once again not dropping a single set, and defeating Ice 4-0 in grand finals.

In 2012, Armada won Melee singles at Apex 2012, and also won Melee doubles with Mew2King. He defeated top professionals such as Shroomed, PPMD, Mango, and Hungrybox. At Smashers' Reunion: Melee Grande, he defeated PPMD in winners' finals, lost the first set of grand finals against him, and then won an extremely close second set 4-3. .

2013: Apex 2013, EVO 2013, and Retirement [ edit ]

Armada later defended his titles in 2013, winning Melee singles at Apex 2013 by defeating Silent Wolf, Wobbles, KirbyKaze, Hungrybox, and PPMD once again in grand finals. He also won Melee doubles with Mew2King by defeating Aza and JAVI, Shroomed and PewPewU, and Hungrybox and Plup in grand finals.

After Apex 2013, Armada announced his retirement from competitive Melee singles events, although he did return to compete in EVO 2013, where he placed 4th, losing to PPMD 0-2 in winners' bracket and being eliminated by Mango 0-2 in losers' semis.

2014: Return to the scene, Competing in Americas, and Continued Success [ edit ]

After one year, Armada announced his return to the competitive Melee scene, and entered the B.E.A.S.T 4 Melee singles tournament, placing 2nd behind Leffen. At this point, Armada started using a lot of Fox in singles, alongside his Peach. Armada had previously used Fox sparingly in tournaments, including against Zgetto in winners' finals at SMASH ATTACK, Mango in the second set of grand finals at GENESIS, and in doubles against Hax and Hungrybox at GENESIS. In an interview with Armada at Avalon III, Armada stated that he would be using Fox primarily against Jigglypuff and in the Fox ditto in the future, the matchups he claimed to have the most trouble with using Peach. In the same interview, he also stated that he would be attending major tournaments in the US once again to try and regain his throne, confirming that he was fully active in the scene once again.

After winning various tournaments around Europe using a combination of Fox and Peach, Armada attended Republic of Fighters 3, a 5000 point MLG Anaheim 2014 qualifier, in May. He teamed with Ice and won Melee doubles over Leffen and Fuzzyness. In Melee singles, he defeated Professor Pro 2-0 and aMSa 3-0 to make it to winners' finals against Leffen, where he won 3-0 in Fox dittos (including a low percent 3-stock in game 3). However, in grand finals, Leffen came back and won 6-0 against Armada's Fox, taking the tournament over Armada. Due to this loss, Armada stated that his Fox was not ready for events in the summer, and that he would likely not use him in singles until next year. He reverted to using Peach against Fox again, subsequently managing to defeat top Fox players in tournament, such as Mango. Despite having claimed to be using Fox against Jigglypuff, Armada also proceeded to use Young Link against Hungrybox, and initially continued to do very well with him, winning their set in pool play at MLG Anaheim 2014 3-0, and also taking two sets off of Hungrybox's Fox primarily using Young Link at CEO 2014.

Armada's first tournament in the United States since EVO 2013 was SKTAR 3, where he placed 4th in Melee singles, losing to PPMD 1-2 in winners' semis and then beating Westballz 2-0 in losers' quarters before being eliminated by Mew2King 1-2 in losers' semis. However, at Super SWEET the next week, Armada managed to beat Mew2King 3-1 in winners' semis, Mango 3-2 in winners' finals, and Mew2King 3-1 in grand finals, winning the tournament. He proceeded to take 1st place at SSS Lock-In, defeating Mew2King 3-1 once again in grand finals. At all three of these tournaments, Armada won Melee doubles with Mew2King in a dominant fashion, only dropping one set.

Having qualified for the championship bracket at MLG Anaheim 2014 due to his strong placements at Republic of Fighters 3 and SKTAR 3, Armada managed to defeat every player in his pool without dropping a set. He beat Mew2King 3-0 in winners' semis, but lost to Mango 2-3 in winners' finals. After eliminating Mew2King 3-2 in losers' finals, he once again lost to Mango 2-3 in grand finals, taking 2nd place at the tournament. Armada later attended CEO 2014, where he beat Hungrybox 2-1 in winners' semis, and lost to Mango 1-3 in winners' finals. After eliminating Hungrybox 3-0 in losers' finals, he managed to win both sets of grand finals against Mango (3-0 and 3-1) to take 1st place at the tournament.

Armada's next tournament was Kings of Cali 4, where he defeated Lucky and Fly Amanita 3-0 before reaching winners' finals against Mango, where he lost 1-3. He eliminated Mew2King 3-0 in losers' finals, and took the first set of grand finals against Mango 3-0, though still lost the second set 1-3, placing 2nd overall in singles at the tournament. CEO 2014 and Kings of Cali 4 also extended Armada and Mew2King's dominance in Melee doubles events.

At EVO 2014, Armada defeated Plup and Fly Amanita 2-0 in the winners' quarters pool to make it into the top 8 from winners' bracket. However, in winners' semis, he lost to Hungrybox 1-2. He eliminated Axe 2-1 in losers' quarters and PPMD 2-0 in losers' semis, but lost to Hungrybox again in losers' finals, this time 2-3, placing 3rd overall at the tournament.

Armada's first tournament in Europe since Republic of Fighters 3 was COMEBACK I. At this tournament, he defeated Dev 3-0 in winners' semis to make it to a highly anticipated match against Leffen in winners' finals. He ended up winning this set 3-1. In grand finals, he defeated Leffen again, this time 3-2, winning Melee singles at the tournament. In Melee doubles, he placed 2nd with C, losing to Android & Zoler 2-3 in winners' semis, then defeating them 3-2 in a rematch in losers' finals, and losing to Leffen & Beat 1-3 in grand finals.

Later that month, enough funds were raised for Armada and Lucky to attend Shadowloo Showdown V, an Australian national tournament. At this tournament, Armada convincingly won both Melee singles and Melee doubles, defeating Dekar 3-0, Lucky 3-1, and Lucky 3-0 to win singles, and teaming with Syke to take doubles over Lucky and Skeletom.

One week later, Armada attended Hit & Stun Tournament 2 in Spain, and won Melee singles without dropping a game, defeating Overtriforce, Leffen, and Ice. He teamed with Trif in Melee doubles and defeated Strawhat Dahean & Overtriforce 3-0 and Leffen & Ice 3-2 to make it to grand finals, where they lost the first set to Leffen and Ice 2-3, but still took the second set 3-1.

In late September, Armada traveled to the United States once again, primarily to attend The Big House 4, a very large national tournament in Michigan featuring competition from all other North America and Europe. During the first week of his stay, Armada won both singles and doubles at The Shape of Melee to Come 5, convincingly defeating Mango 3-1 in winners' finals and 3-0 in grand finals to win singles.

At The Big House 4, Armada defeated Darkrain 2-0 to make it into the top 32 bracket, where he defeated SFAT 2-0 and Westballz 3-1 to make it to winners' semis against Leffen, in which he lost a very close set 2-3. After defeating Hax 3-1 in losers' quarters, he was eliminated by Mango 1-3 in losers' semis, placing 4th in Melee singles. He continued his and Mew2King's winning streaks in Melee doubles by defeating DoH & Colbol 3-0 and Hungrybox & Plup 3-1 and 3-0 to take 1st place in Melee doubles.

He left Play-For-Keeps and Deadly Alliance simultaneously on November 2nd, 2014, the same day that ZeRo resigned from CLASH Tournaments. On November 6th, Swedish team Alliance announced that they were signing him and entering the Smash arena.

2015: EVO 2015 Champion and Post-Dominance [ edit ]

EVO 2015 had a total of 1,869 entrants for Melee, surpassing the record set by EVO 2014 and becoming one of the largest Melee tournaments of all time. In winners quarters pool, Armada defeated Silent Wolf 2-1 and PewPewU 2-0, to make it into the top 8 via winners' bracket. In the top 8 winners bracket, Armada defeated Hungrybox 2-1 in winners semis and PPMD 3-0 in winners finals. He then once again defeated Hungrybox 3-2 on grand finals, to take 1st place.

After being ranked 1st on the 2015 SSBMRank after winning EVO 2015 and several other tournaments, Armada continued his dominance over other Melee competitors during the first half of 2016 with a string of firsts, only failing to win Battle of the Five Gods, Get On My Level 2016, and WTFox 2. At Enthusiast Gaming Live Expo, Armada forfeited on day two due to stomach pains, finishing in 17th. At Get On My Level 2016, Armada placed his lowest since Paragon Orlando 2015, placing 5th.

2016: EVO 2016 and The Big House 6 [ edit ]

EVO 2016 is currently the largest Melee tournament of all time, with Armada in prime position to win his second title after defeating Plup in Winner’s Finals. However, Armada lost in two sets of a Game 10 Grand Finals to Hungrybox in what many consider to be one of the greatest sets of all time, leading Hungrybox to claim his first EVO win.

Resuming his dominance after the loss at Evo, Armada won the next 12 tournaments he entered with the exception of The Big House 6, which Mango won. During this time, Armada was rated 1st on the 2016 SSBMRank.

2017: No Longer the Best [ edit ]

After a period of dominance from winning GENESIS 4, B.E.A.S.T 7, and Smash Summit Spring 2017, Armada would end up losing Royal Flush to Mango. This is often jokingly attributed to the ‘Mother’s Day Effect,’ which claims that Mango performs best on Mother’s Day. He would also go on to place 3rd at Smash 'N' Splash 3, losing to Hungrybox and Leffen.

Although he would go on to win EVO 2017, defeating Mew2King in Winners Semis and Mango in Winners Finals and Grand Finals, Armada failed to continue his streak of wins. He placed 2nd to Hungrybox at GameTyrant Expo 2017 in a close Game 10 Grand Finals, considered among the best clutches of all time, and 4th at The Big House 7. He notably lost to Plup 1-3 in Winner’s Semis, his first loss to a Sheik player since losing to Amsah at Pound 4 in 2010. Though he defeated Mango 3-1 in Loser’s Quarters, Armada lost in Loser’s Semis 2-3 to Hungrybox. He would also end up placing 3rd at Canada Cup 2017 (losing 0-3 to Leffen and 2-3 to Mew2King) and 2nd at Smash Summit 5, which marked the end of his Summit win streak, losing to Leffen in Winners Semis and Hungrybox in Grand Finals. As a result of Hungrybox's rise and Armada's decline, the 2017 SSBMRank placed him at 2nd to Hungrybox, marking the first time Armada is not ranked 1st in the rankings since 2014.

2018: Second Retirement [ edit ]

After failing to win Valhalla, GENESIS 5, and Smash Summit 6, Armada won his first 2018 tournament at Battle Arena Melbourne 10, defeating ChuDat 3-1 in grand finals; he subsequently won Smash 'N' Splash 4, DreamHack Summer 2018, and Smash Factor 7. However, in Low Tier City 6, he was knocked into loser's bracket by Leffen during winner's semis, and was eliminated by Hungrybox in loser's finals, placing 3rd. Because of his relative lack of participation in major tournaments, Armada was ranked 3rd on the Summer 2018 MPGR, marking the first time Armada was not within the top 2 since the start of the SSBMRankings.

At EVO 2018, Armada was unexpectedly upset by Swedish Delight in round one of Top 48, sending him into an early Loser's Bracket. Despite this, he was able to defeat Gahtzu, Mew2King, Zain, S2J, Mang0, Hungrybox, and Plup in an incredible Loser's run, before losing to Leffen 3-0 in Grand Finals, placing 2nd. Armada would next emerge triumphant at Super Smash Con 2018, splitting sets with Mew2King 2-3, 3-2 in a grand finals many consider to be among the greatest ever [6]. At Heir 5, Armada did not enter singles, however he and Android defeated Overtriforce and Trif in grand finals, placing 1st.

On September 18th, 2018, Armada announced that he was retiring from Melee singles, saying that he no longer has any fun playing in Singles, and stated that he would not be participating in the next Smash Summit. However, he said that he would still participate in doubles, and would be at The Big House 8. [7]

Other Smash games [ edit ]

During 2008 and 2009, Armada occasionally entered Brawl tournaments, primarily using Sheik. He won Brawl singles at SMASH ATTACK and placed 17th in Brawl singles at GENESIS, though he never made any large impacts in the Brawl scene and has not played Brawl competitively since. He also attended a few Smash 64 tournaments at that time, maining Captain Falcon.

Armada also used to play the Brawl mod Project M. He used to main Pit in version 3.0.2 of Project M, and later mained Peach and Fox in version 3.5 of the mod. He was considered the premier Pit main in the world during his debut, making full use of his character's aerial combos, followups, and edgeguarding, and infamously disrupting recoveries with Palutena's Arrow, and is still considered one of the two best Pit mains along with ZeRo. Armada won Project M singles at Apex 2014 and proceeded to win Project M tournaments without dropping a single set for four months, until Professor Pro took a set off of him in winners finals at Smash or DI (though Armada still won two sets of grand finals). He defeated a large number of Melee and Brawl professionals in tournament with his Project M Pit, taking sets off of Mew2King, DEHF, Mango, and others. SKTAR 3 was the first Project M tournament that Armada failed to win, placing 5th after losing to Emukiller and ESAM.

When Smash 4 first came out, Armada played the game briefly to earn a small amount of winnings outside of Melee and Project M. As with many players on release, he picked up Diddy Kong, and quickly became one of the best Diddy players in Sweden. He consistently got top 4 in Smash 4 tournaments with Diddy, despite not investing much time into the game. After some time passed, Armada stopped entering tournaments; DrømmeLAN 4.5 was his last major Smash 4 tournament, where he did not enter singles. He has not entered any majors since then and would call Smash 4 his least favourite smash game. Shortly before the release of Smash Ultimate he played at lot of Smash 4 again for preparation for the new game, maining Corrin.

Armada was invited to compete in the Super Smash Bros. Invitational 2018 before the release of Smash Ultimate. He ultimately placed 4th. After the release of the game and his retirement from Melee singles, he played Ultimate on his stream often, spending the majority of his time using Inkling. He was slated to compete in Ultimate singles at Valhalla II, but dropped out because of sickness. A month later, Armada competed in Ultimate singles at GENESIS 6, placing at 97th. Additionally, Armada was one of the six invitees of the first Smash Ultimate Summit. He placed 9th and took sets off of ZD and ZeRo.

Playing style [ edit ]

All aspects of Armada's gameplay are well-rounded. He is most notorious, however, for his punishes and edge-guarding. With Peach, whom he has mained for years, he emphasizes amazing positioning and hitbox placement (decimating most non-top 6 players and consistently playing on par with PPMD's Marth, who is widely regarded as a bad matchup for Peach), strong punishes (capitalizing on the first hit that he lands), and an insane edge-guard game, particularly on spacies. All of this has carried over to his Fox, a much more recent pick-up, where he implements the tools that Peach does not have, such as Fox's shine spike, unparalleled movement and attack speed, and consistent KO options (showcased in his set against Leffen at Paragon Orlando 2015, where he 4 and 3 stocked Leffen in two back to back games in the Fox ditto). Armada is not only mechanically strong in Melee, but also has one of the strongest mental games. This is well demonstrated in his matches versus Hungrybox, where Armada was the only one of the top Fox players (himself, Mango, and Leffen) to effectively counter Hungrybox's use of ledge-stalling at EVO 2015, and single-handedly made Hungrybox completely abandon the tactic altogether in subsequent matches. Because of his mental fortitude, he does not lapse as easily as the other Gods, leading to very consistent tournament results. Armada also possesses an amazing understanding of doubles play, teaming numerous times with Sheik players (his brothers, Mew2King, and Shroomed), and netting almost just as many doubles wins as singles. While Peach is still the usual choice in many matchups for Armada, Fox is more of a niche character pick, often reserved for specific player matchups, such as Hungrybox, Leffen, Plup, and PPMD (although he generally counterpicks PPMD's Falco with his Peach and has used Peach on Final Destination against Leffen). He has recruited Snowy as a practice partner for the Jigglypuff matchup, and has flown him out to events such as Summit in order to prepare for facing Hungrybox in bracket.

However, for all of his achievements, Armada is not perfect, and has faltered to the other top 6 players before. He has been noted to have a tendency of being too optimal in the neutral game, which still has a counter-play that the other five players have successfuly pulled off. Armada's Peach has started to show cracks against Sheik. In addition, Armada is heavily reliant on chaingrabs and reacting to approaches when playing Peach against fastfallers which is why more passive players like Leffen, Swedish Delight, and PPMD have been able to force him off Peach. Armada is also considerably less consistent with Fox if he is not playing particularly well, which has, at worst, led to a dropped game against Bizzarro Flame's Ganondorf at I'm Not Yelling!. Mango and Leffen have also exploited this, particularly in GENESIS 3 and Battle of the Five Gods for Mango and Get On My Level 2016 for Leffen, where Armada's Peach was eventually forced out.

Tournament placings [ edit ]

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner Smashers Reunion 4 December 26th-29th, 2008 1st 2nd Aniolas SMASH ATTACK April 3rd-5th, 2009 1st — — GENESIS July 10th-12th, 2009 17th — — Pound 4 January 16th-18th, 2010 49th 49th Aniolas

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner DrommeLAN 4.0 November 7th-9th, 2014 2nd — — Avalon VI November 29th, 2014 2nd — —

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner Beauty 9 December 5th-7th, 2014 2nd — — B.E.A.S.T 5 January 9th-11th, 2015 4th — — DrømmeLAN 4.5 April 24th-26th, 2015 — 3rd Smasher89

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner Smashers Reunion 4 December 26, 2008 2nd — —

Trivia [ edit ]

Gameplay videos [ edit ]