Alexander Lee 3 Minute Read

As Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma and William "Leffen" Hjelte sat down for their grand finals set at Smash Summit 7 on Sunday, commentator Bobby "Scar" Scarnewman explained the gravity of the moment to the thousands of viewers tuning in to the Super Smash Bros. Melee invitational.

"We're playing for more than money," Scar said. "Pretty much, No. 1 in the world for this year is in contention... this is pretty much as much of a title fight as you can imagine."

Though Scar may have exaggerated slightly -- even a Smash Summit victory may not have secured Leffen the year-end top spot in the Melee Panda Global Rankings -- the set's stakes were high indeed. Hungrybox's win over his Swedish rival in the ensuing four-game grand final earned the Team Liquid member the lion's share of the tournament's $47,006 singles prize pool.

And after dominating another major tournament, Hungrybox has all but confirmed that he will take the top spot in the year-end rankings for the second consecutive year.

Smash Summit 7 was a triumph for Hungrybox from more than a rankings perspective, too. Perhaps the greatest stains on the Floridian's season were his unexpected losses at the hands of up-and-comers such as Justin "Wizzrobe" Hallett, Zain "Zain" Naghmi and Masaya "aMSa" Chikamoto, but over the last weekend, he defeated all of them back-to-back, though Zain and aMSa managed to take him to the brink in tense five-game contests. After mounting a last-minute comeback against Zain, Hungrybox leapt out of his chair, pumping his fists as he yelled expletives joyously.

All three of the aforementioned Hungrybox challengers made it into quarterfinals of Smash Summit 7, with aMSa defeating Justin "Plup" McGrath and Rishi "Rishi" Malhotra for a landmark fifth-place finish. Zain finished in seventh, losing to Jeffrey "Axe" Williamson shortly after his soul-crushing loss to Hungrybox.

Despite his second-place finish, Leffen was still able to get a taste of revenge at Smash Summit 7. In the earlier stages of the event, the Team SoloMid member dropped sets to Joseph "Mang0" Marquez and Wizzrobe; in the losers bracket, Leffen got both of them back, dispatching Wizzrobe 3-0 before defeating Mang0 to make it into grand finals.

Top-eight action notwithstanding, the most surprising run of Smash Summit 7 occurred during the earlier stages of the event in the breakout performance of Connor "Bananas" Lamb. The Ice Climbers player, ranked No. 1 in Central Texas, entered the event with a low seed despite a fifth-place run at The Big House 8 that earned him a Smash Summit spot. Undeterred, Bananas defeated Mang0 and defending champion Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman during the pools stage of the event, outplaying both for long stretches using his solo Climber.

"Bananas has this effect right now," commentator Oscar "Lovage" Nilsson said. "This week, he's just this unstoppable force."

In the event's bracket stage, Bananas nearly clawed his way into winners semifinals, barely losing to Leffen after mounting a three-stock comeback in their set's fifth game. Another 3-2 loss to Rishi in losers side gave Bananas the dubious honor of being the the first player to place ninth at a major after defeating two of the game's "gods."

With the conclusion of Smash Summit 7, the only major-level Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament left in this ranking period is Don't Park On The Grass 2018 in December, and it's unlikely that all of Melee's active "gods" will make the trek out to Seattle for that event. Though the rest of the Melee Panda Global Rankings may still be in flux, one statistic is almost certainly set in stone: Hungrybox will be this year's Melee Panda Global Rankings No. 1.