By Jason “Nardwell” Mani and Josh “BarkSanchez” Brody

Every week we will be posting a look back at the previous week in Smash. This week we find Florida invading Georgia, learn some unfortunate news about Super Smash Con, and check out what went down in Smash 64 around the world.

Metro Smash Masters 2

This past weekend, the peaches of Georgia were stormed. MrMarbles, TANK, Loto, and nothing comprised the imposing crew from Florida and CTG was the lone ranger from Texas. These five were poised to bruise the pride of the Georgia locals and take home the prize money that came with it.

After going 3-1 in pools, nothing entered the Top 12 bracket as the eight seed. He was matched up against Georgia’s favorite son, Kirbstomper. Nothing’s Falcon was able to prevail over Kirbstomper’s Kirby, winning the set 2-0. Kirbstomper lost the set despite bringing game each game to a last stock scenario after facing early deficits.

TANK and Loto also advanced to Winners Quarterfinals after 2-0 wins, along with Senior Henior moving on with a 2-1 victory. Winners Quarterfinals was set to fuel the Florida vs. Georgia rivalry, as TANK would face Caneut and Loto would take on NTA. This round would also be Florida’s first chance to exact some revenge against CTG, as nothing would take him on in what MrMarbles called, “…one of the most hype sets I’ve seen in a long time.” CTG and his Jigglypuff would take game one after a solid two stock of nothing’s Falcon. Nothing was able to gather his thoughts during game two. After an edge-guard that was a little too deep for CTG to recover from, it came down to a last stock situation. nothing managed an excellent grab with his Falcon between the shield pressure caused by a peppering of Jigglypuff utilits. Nothing then forward threw CTG, leading into an excellent combo that ended with the Falcon standard combo. This clutch victory brought us to an exciting final game. Nothing ended up with a two stock deficit in game three, down three stocks to one, but managed to bring it back to even without being touched. After building up some damage and forcing Jigglypuff off stage, nothing finished it off with a stylish pivot slide off dair spike to take the set as the crowd went nuts.

Next up was MrMarbles against Senior Henior. The two Pikachu mains faced off, but the exceptional combo play of MrMarbles was too much for Senior Henior, allowing Marbles to take the first game with a commanding three stock. Marbles then finished off the second game with a flashy Thunder in a last stock situation. Moving forward with Winners Quarterfinals, TANK’s Fox took down Caneut’s Kirby in game one with a solid two stock. Game two saw a Pikachu counter pick by Caneut while TANK stuck with Fox. Game two started with each player taking a quick stock. Caneut turned up the heat took three stocks with a series of impressive edge-guards. TANK then entered the zone and fought all the way back to win it all on a great Fox combo string, finishing the match at 124% damage. NTA vs. Loto came up next, another of the FL vs. GA rivalry matches. NTA and his Mario took on Loto’s Captain Falcon in game one, which Loto closed out with a convincing three stock. Game two saw NTA switch to Falcon, setting up the Falcon ditto. The switch to Falcon was not much of a help for NTA, as Loto two stocked him and sent him to losers bracket.

The stage was set for Winners Semifinals. TANK would face nothing and Loto would face MrMarbles. TANK and nothing started it off with TANK going Mario and nothing choosing his traditional Captain Falcon. The first game had the two trading stocks until TANK broke the cycle and finished it off with a two stock win. In game two, TANK accidentally paused, forcing him to take a stock. A quick string of moves and a clean edge-guard later, and nothing was up four stocks to two. TANK was able to bring it back to last stock but his damage was too high to survive another back throw from nothing. The same match up began game three, but despite excellent recoveries from TANK and coming back from a three stock to one deficit, he was unable to close it out and nothing advanced to Winners Finals. Marbles and Loto, the other Winners Finals match, pitted Loto’s Captain Falcon against MrMarbles Pikachu. Game one came down to last stock and Marbles was able to put it a way with a well executed edge-guard. Game two had the same match up but the result flipped, as Loto finished it off on the last stock with a bair edge-guard. Down two stocks early in game three, things were not looking good for MrMarbles. However, Marbles brought it back with two beautiful ledge-hogs. The two then traded stocks until they each had one remaining. Marbles was then able to close it out with yet another clutch ledge-hog.

Fast forward to Losers Quarterfinals. NTA and CTG battled their way though their fellow one loss opponents. NTA was set to face TANK in another Florida vs Georgia showdown and Loto would look to exact some more revenge on the Texan CTG. Tank was unable to overcome NTA and was eliminated from the bracket as NTA took a set for Georgia in the FL vs. GA rivalry. The other half of Losers Quarterfinals gave Florida its retribution, when Loto took down CTG 2-1. Losers Semifinals pitted NTA and Loto against each other in five games of Captain Falcon versus Mario. Loto took the first two games handily, but NTA was able to collect himself and take two for himself. The last game saw Loto down two stocks early, but he was able to battle back to even at two stocks after hitting his edge-guards. It all came down to the last stock and the edge-guards proved to be too much for NTA. By making it this far, however, NTA was able to prevent an all Florida top five in his home state.

Winners Finals pitted MrMarbles against fellow Floridian, nothing. The Pikachu versus Captain Falcon match up proved difficult for nothing, as MrMarbles executed a decisive four stock. The second game resulted in a similar outcome when Marbles three stocked nothing. More of the same happened in game three as Marbles won with a three stock once more.

Losers Finals saw Captain Falcon mains meet on Dreamland in five games of epic battle. Loto was able to take game one, but nothing came right back and four stocked him in game two. Game three saw an intense trading of stocks until nothing pulled out the win on the last stock in a game that lasted a quick two and a half minutes. In a similar game four, Loto was able to snag the win. Game five ended in epic fashion as nothing closed out the set with an amazing combo finished off with a Falcon Punch.

Grand Finals was finally here, the moment we all have been waiting for. MrMarbles and his Pikachu would duke it out against nothing and his Captain Falcon. Nothing was able to take game one in a last stock situation, but game two saw Marbles turn it around with a three stock. Marbles pulled off a two stock in games three and four to take the tournament and cement a Floridian sweep of the podium on Georgia’s home turf.

Shout out to David Setzler for running such a smooth event. Great job to all the Smashers who commentated especially Shinfuji and thanks to Caneut for running a great stream. You can find the full bracket on Challonge and replay VODs can be found on Caneut’s Twitch channel currently.

News

Gerson Denied Visa!?

This past week featured some fantastic news regarding international players going to Super Smash Con, as well as some less fortunate news. Sadly, top Peruvian players Gerson’s Visa application was denied. This means that he must either reapply, which is another $200 charge, or he cannot attend Super Smash Con. On the brighter side, Super Smash Con received its first Peruvian registrant this past week, as Jose signed up for his first chance at glory in the United States! Jose applied for his Visa the same morning as Gerson, but ended up with better luck than his Peruvian pal. Jose joins Lorenzo from Brazil, who also registered this past week, as South America attempts to invade North America. This is not the first time a Smash player has had issue attaining a visa to the United States. Leffen, one of Melee’s top players has been struggling to get one for the past year, only recently being granted a temporary on for upcoming summer events. The community has not liked this and have rallied to try and get the government to change their policy on it by starting a petition. If you would like to help get the ball rolling on having Smash players be classified the same as other esports players sign the petition and make your voices heard by your local members of congress.

The Rest

Project Melbourne 2

This past weekend, the Land Down Under was host to Project Melbourne 2. The Smash 64 contingent came out with a strong showing of 29 competitors. Among those who took up the challenge was Pete, who attended Genesis 3 and made it to the second round of pools. Pete and his Yoshi looked to add another trophy to their mantle as they were set to take on the field from the 1 seed. As Pete marched towards Grand Finals, Kuro and Mitch, the 2 and 3 seeds respectively, faced off in Winners Semifinals. Mitch took the first game against Kuro’s Yoshi with his Pikachu, but then decided to switch to Kirby and he dropped the second game. After switching to Fox for game three he lost as well; all the while Kuro stuck with Yoshi. Game four saw the return of Mitch’s Kirby and a two stock win after two impressive strings of combos. Game five gave us another Kirby vs. Yoshi match up and a come from behind victory by Mitch during a last hit situation. Kuro and his Yoshi were fated for losers bracket. Kuro was able to battle all the way back to Losers Finals where he would earn a rematch against Mitch, who was one of Pete’s many victims. Pete took out Mitch’s Pikachu and Kirby before dropping a game to Mitch’s Fox. Pete’s Falcon was then able to easily three stock the wavering Fox of Mitch. In Losers Semifinals, Kuro met DSC and had some fun in game one when they both went Link. Kuro prevailed in the Link ditto. The next three games saw Kuro go Yoshi and DSC go Falcon. Kuro dropped game three but was able to pick up game four and leave DSC with an expected fourth place finish. Mitch came out strong in Losers Finals and four stocked Kuro’s Yoshi with Fox. Mitch then dropped game two with Fox and switched to Pikachu to face Kuro’s Yoshi once more. Mitch snatched up game three and the two ran it back for game four which Kuro snagged with a nice fair to uair combo in a last stock situation. Game five saw the return of Mitch’s Kirby and he punched his ticket to Grand Finals after a convincing three stock. Mitch then met the mighty Pete in Grand Finals. There, Pete dismantled Mitch’s Pikachu and Fox in a dominating 3-0 sweep. The full bracket for this event can be found on the Project Melbourne Smash.gg and replay VODs are currently available on Kaizmo’s Twitch channel.

Excelsior

The young Smash 64 scene of Maynard, Massachusetts was invaded by a boss this week. David “Shears” Shears, of OnlineSSB.com and Pikachu SD fame, stopped by Excelsior games to challenge the blossoming scene. Shears and his new favorite character, Yoshi, who he has picked up more seriously following Pound, were challenged early. He was sent to losers bracket by dajjal’s Fox and Kirby after a 2-0 loss in Winners Semifinals. Shears fought his way back through losers bracket, defeating Bread’s Kirby and Falcon with his Pikachu, which showed very little rust in Losers Quarterfinals. Shears then swept The (.)(.)’s Kirby in Losers Semifinals with his quickly improving Yoshi. This gave Shears another shot at dajjal in Losers Finals. Shears’s Pikachu came out once more against dajjal’s Kirby, but this time Shears was able to prevail and earn a trip to Grand Finals to face Yunque. Yunque dropped only one game on his way to Grand Finals and would prove to be a challenge for Shears in the end. Yunque’s Jigglypuff took game one off of Shears’s Yoshi, forcing him to switch to Pikachu. After dropping game two as well, Shears won games three and four but was unable to close out the comeback in game five as Yunque won the day. Replay VODs can be found on Karajan’s Twitch channel and the full bracket is available on Advanced Brackets.

Havasu Smash #15

The desert of Arizona came to life this past Saturday as eight of the Havasu Smash 64 gathered to face off. Seantos started out strong with his Fox after missing the past few weeks. Seantos was able to take down the fifth ranked Godspeed and his Captain Falcon. SonicFuzz also came out strong in the second round. SonicFuzz was able to take down Dusttin, the No. 2 on their power ranking. Dusttin was able to take one game with his Pikachu against Fuzz’s Pikachu, but Dusttin’s Fox fell to Fuzz’s Kirby in game two. Dusttin then dropped the following two Pikachu dittos. Dusttin then battled back through losers bracket to earn a rematch against SonicFuzz, who was sent to Losers Finals after his Pikachu broke under the pressure of Daniels’s Fox in Winners Finals. The two Pikachus clashed for four tense games, and in the end the No. 4 ranked SonicFuzz double eliminated the No. 2 ranked Dusttin. This surely raises some questions regarding the future of the Havasu power rankings. SonicFuzz earned the chance to have a go at Daniels once more in Grand Finals. Unfortunately, the result was the same and Daniels’s Pikachu and Fox were too much for Fuzz’s Pikachu and Kirby to handle. The full bracket can be found on Challonge and the replay VODs are currently available on TheMrDaniels’ Twitch channel

Remember to follow us on Twitter at @Smash_Writer and like us on Facebook for weekly previews, recaps, and much more.

Want to be included in The Weekly Smashback results, have a small scene you want to see in the spotlight? Shoot us an email at thesmashwriter@gmail.com and we’ll be sure to make you a part of a future edition.