From May 30-31, the Canadian player-led video game organization Even Matchup Gaming hosted the largest Canadian Super Smash Bros. event in history, with 386 entrants competing across all events.

The tournament brought many notable American Smash players to Toronto, including Hungrybox, Hax$, MacD, Duck, DJ Nintendo and The Moon. It also featured the top Canadian talent: KirbyKaze, n0ne, Ryan Ford, Raynex and Weon-x.

Hungrybox (Jigglypuff) came out on top in both the singles and doubles events, beating his doubles partner Hax$ (Fox) to win the Singles Grand Final. KirbyKaze (Sheik) and MacD (Peach) rounded out the top four and also contributed to the unique character pool.

Hungrybox asserted his dominance over the tournament, but that is not to say that he was the only star of the show. Impressive play came from all sides, especially from top Canadian KirbyKaze, fan-favourite SAUS and runner-up Hax$.

The best in Canada

KirbyKaze, the best Sheik from Canada and one of the world’s top players from 2010-2013, continued his resurgence this event. After taking a short break in 2013, he has slowly been making a return to his top eight standing, taking seventh at Apex 2015 and I’m Not Yelling!

In the past, KirbyKaze has gone head-to-head with the world’s best players, and he continued to represent the best of Canada against the American invaders at this tournament. In Pools Round 2, KirbyKaze faced off against Kalamazhu, a Peach player from Michigan. By the end of the match, he looked like he was showing off, almost pulling off a JV five-stock — the community term for when you finish a game without taking damage.

In the bracket stage, the only American player KirbyKaze could not defeat was Hax$, who knocked him to the Losers Bracket in the third round of Winners. KirbyKaze started off strong in the match, but Hax$ kept him from recovering by ledge guarding perfectly, forcing Kaze’s Sheik to land on stage and then punishing the play. After dropping a close first game, Kaze managed to take the second easily, finishing with three stocks left. Kaze went up 2-1 with another win, but he couldn't close the series.

When they met again in the Losers Final, Hax$ and KirbyKaze were neck-and-neck. Going into the fourth stage, KirbyKaze was down 2-1, but he was controlling the game. Hax$ got fortunate when KirbyKaze self-destructed his first two stocks. Even though he threw away two lives, KirbyKaze was on top, but he could not do enough to close the gap and force the final game.

Although Hax$ took the series 3-1, KirbyKaze was one step away from surpassing expectations.

KirbyKaze’s third place finish was not the only impressive Canadian performance as the hype buzzed around another Canadian player.

The Last Link

“I always believed that there was a true sauce boss in this world — in this realm, and today, I met him. He is the sauce boss.” -Hungrybox on SAUS, 2015

SAUS, the Canadian player known for his stylish, high-level Link play was the fan-favorite of the tournament; despite being knocked out in the first round of the Losers Bracket, the spotlight was shining SAUS. His sets featured some of the most exciting games and every time SAUS took the stage, the crowd and commentators went wild.

SAUS vs The Moon

SAUS turned heads in pools by taking down The Moon, a high-level Marth player from New York, in a close match that came down to the final stock of the third stage. The Moon, bombarded by perfectly-placed SAUS bombs, was looking uncomfortable, failing to ledge-guard until the final stock of stage two.

In the second game, The Moon adapted to SAUS’s play with enough time to force a third game on Battlefield. Although the match came down to the wire, SAUS looked one step ahead throughout, catching The Moon unprepared for the matchup.

SAUS vs Kalamazhu

In Game 1 between SAUS and Kalamazhu, SAUS appeared to be in control, placing his projectiles perfectly; even catching and re-throwing his bombs when Peach deflected them.

Kalamazhu came back and aggressively took over Game 2, mirroring SAUS’s projectile based-play by using his turnips excessively.

The final stage, Pokemon Stadium, housed one of the biggest upsets of the tournament. With both players on their final stock, SAUS had Kalamazhu cornered and was one smash away from taking the match, but an unfortunate bomb backfired on SAUS, giving Kalamazhu the only chance he needed to set up a match-ending stage dive.

SAUS vs Sauc3

The most upsetting outcome of the tournament was the battle for the title of the best sauce. In the first game of Losers Round 1, the sauces faced off on Battlefield. SAUS’s play at the start of the matchup was rougher than he had been all tournament, missing many of his projectiles and grab recoveries, but he managed to recover and impress the crowd by taking over the game on his last two stocks to win the stage.

In response, Sauc3 picked Yoshi’s Story for Game 2. Both players fared well on the stage, and the game came down to the final stock where SAUS barely lost.

Even with the loss, SAUS felt confident going into the third set after switching to his Goron tunic and repicking Yoshi’s Story. His confidence was on display early, but an unfortunate SD put him behind. SAUS played out of his mind to turn the game back in his favor, putting Sauc3 down two stocks to one.

Even with an extra stock, SAUS could not finish his opponent off and to the audience’s disappointment, he was eliminated from the tournament.

SAUS’s impressive showing exposed the Get On My Level audience to the ins-and-outs of Link play on a level rarely seen. Even when SAUS lost, he went out big; consistently getting his opponents down to their last stock.

20XX postponed indefinitely

Previously known as the best Captain Falcon in the world, Hax$ switched to a solo-main Fox in early 2014, claiming that he could never be the best while playing Falcon. His theory revolved around the idea that in a post-apocalyptic future, everyone would play Fox, and only the most technically sound Fox player would prevail. His 20XX theory may contain some truth as ever since he made the change, Hax’s tournament results have improved drastically.

But 20XX hasn’t begun yet as Hax$ fell short in both of his matches against Hungrybox’s Jigglypuff.

Hax$ was knocked into the Losers Bracket in his first match against Hungrybox, losing a deceiving 3-0 in the Winners Final. Although the score was lopsided, Hax$ traded evenly with the Puff god, but a few crucial mistakes and good reads by Hungrybox put Hax$ into an unrecoverable position.

When they met for the second time in the Grand Finals, Hax$ came into the match with momentum, choosing to apply pressure rather than abusing the runaway laser style that is more common in the matchup. He took two straight games to put Hungrybox on the ropes, then out of nowhere, Hax$ got reverse-swept, losing his shot at first place.

Expected results

After the Grand Finals, Hungrybox commented that as a Jigglypuff player going against a Fox, he was comfortable risking the first two games of the match to get a better read on his opponent rather than going all out; the gamble paid off as Hungrybox was the Get On My Level champion.

Although all of the favorites finished in their expected placements, SAUS’s games were the highlight of the tournament. Even Hungrybox’s final words were about the Canadian hero SAUS:

“He’s so quiet — and his bombs were so loud.” -Hungrybox 2015

Melissa Angilletta writes and edits for theScore eSports. You can follow her on Twitter.