Written by Craig Alphonse

Sweat pours down Hax’s face. He wipes the waterfall away quickly with his sleeve, knowing there is no space for error. With his perspiration stymied, he is able to land his infamous 20XX wave-shines to take M2K’s fourth stock and reset the bracket. A wave of relief washes over Hax, but little does he know it is all for naught.

Such was Zenith 2014, the Smash event that took place at NYU this passed weekend. Despite only one of the Fabled Five showing up, there were great matches, upsets, heartbreaks, and celebrity appearances.

Dylan Sprouse, of The Suite Life with Zach and Cody fame, appeared at Zenith to watch and possibly commentate. Dylan has been showing up over at the r/smashbros subreddit a lot recently, and went to NYU as he said he would on his AMA. Despite stating his hesitance online about commentating, he did hop on the mic next to Prog, and did a decent job. He clearly cares about the game, and seems down to earth and relatable, which are key points for a commentator. I would not mind if he showed up to more tournaments in the future.

On to the real action. The first standout player tonight was Poor Zhu. Zhu did not even place in the top 25 for SSBM at Evo, which caused many to drop him off their radar for this tournament. Zhu surprised everyone, however, by beating Axe and placing higher than Fly Amanita. Both of these players placed top 8 at Evo 2014, and it just goes to show how contingent a player’s performance is on the specific day. Zhu’s Falco was spectacular for Zenith, and he had countless matches that reminded me why he is one of my favorites to watch. I highly recommend checking out his matches.

The other star of the night, if you cannot tell by the introduction, was Hax. Hax played Mew2King twice in this tournament, once in Winner’s Finals, and once in Grand Finals. The Winner’s Finals match looked promising at first, with Hax taking the the first two games of the best-of-five. Something seemed to break in Hax, however, as he lost the next two matches, and for the deciding match he switched to his Falcon. This ended up being a poor decision, as Hax later stated that he hadn’t practiced his Falcon at all that weekend, so it certainly was not ready for M2K.

Hax was able to pull out a close win against Zhu and earn his run-back against M2K. Hax’s fight with Zhu appeared to reinvigorate him, as Hax proceeded to reset the bracket by winning 3-1. The happiness was short-lived, however, as M2K won the reset 3-0. It was very exciting to see the reset, and the possibility that Hax could have won the tournament if he hadn’t dropped the Winner’s set is certainly intriguing, possibly suggesting that the pedestal we place the Melee Gods on might not be as sturdy as we think.

Or maybe not. Mew2King stated after the match that his battles against Hax always happen that way. Hax starts off well, but as the matches go on Hax begins to make mistakes and M2K begins to adapt. At the end of the day, M2K did walk away with the victory, so the Gods are still standing tall.

I was saddened that MOR Axe did not have a chance to face M2K, as he has been playing so well lately and could have possibly given M2K a significant challenge, but losses to CT Wizzrobe, who also had a standout tournament, and the unpredictable Zhu caused Axe to miss the opportunity. I am certain Axe will continue to impress in future tournaments, however, and I find it fantastic that his team Mortality is sending him to many tournaments.

Zenith is another example of the plight of Smash players. On any given day, anyone can win. One day, Zhu can be playing poorly and Axe can be getting top 5, and another day Zhu can be on fire and defeat Axe for a place in the top 3. So much of this game is momentum based, and a player can be out of the money simply because they did not get much sleep the night before. All I know is that with every Smash tournament, you can expect surprises and upsets.

And I wouldn’t want it any other way.