By Calen McGee

The North American East Coast continued to roast throughout the weekend as the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics continued to draw global eyes towards the television. Though from the 11th through the 14th, Smash Brothers fans had their eyes locked on their computer screens. This weekend also marked the second annual Super Smash Con held in Chantilly, Virginia. The Convention attracts fans of the Super Smash Brothers franchise from a myriad of backgrounds and interests; bringing spectators, collectors or even a cosplayers alike together for the love of the game. However, the highlights of the Convention are easily the Smash Brothers Tournaments that take place all three days. The largest of which was the Smash Brothers Melee tournament, which ballooned from 593 entrants last year to this years total of 940. Multiple players, such as Mustafa “Ice” Akcakaya of Berlin and Masaya “aMSa” Chikamoto of Japan, crossed entire oceans just for the chance to meet and play each other in competition. It surely did not disappoint for most fans.

The tournament was riddled with upsets and runs from a number of players, one of the most impressive coming from an unlikely player, James “Mafia” Lauerman. Hailing from Massachusetts, Lauerman is a Peach main that was ranked 91st in the World last year and aside from a few standalone tournaments (where the top six players weren’t in attendance), his results in tournament were not at the incredible level he achieved this weekend.

Looking simply at some of the largest Smash Brothers tournaments of the past few months, The Big House 5, Genesis 3 and EVO 2016, he placed 49th, 65th and again a 65th. Numbers that are impressive and reflect a clear placement of his skill amongst thousands of players in the world, yet are not high enough that his 9th place finish was expected in the very least. McCain “MacD” LaVelle, typically seen as the second best Peach in the World behind Sweden’s Armada, placed 13th at the tournament; worse than his 5th place turnout last year, but continuing his consistent struggle to place highly in the late 2015 – mid 2016 season. Mafia’s most promising set was actually versus Jeffrey “TempoStorm Axe” Williamson, a player who MacD seemed to struggle with Sunday, where a mix of strong play from Mafia and poor decision making/accidental SD’s from Axe allowed him to ultimately take the set 2-1, putting him in the unlikely position of Top 24 Winners side where he was eventually eliminated by EVO Champion, Juan “Liquid’ Hungrybox” Debiedma and Weston “G2 Westballz” Dennis. That said, Mafia exhibited the potential to improve his ranking in the future and his attendance in the next few tournaments will be worth paying attention to should he exhibit similar play.

There are a number of varying storylines coming into Super Smash Con: the resurgence of Captain Falcon on the big stage, aMSa’s return to the American tournament scene, the rise of Zac “CLG.SFAT” Cardoni and questions regarding G2 Westballz’ ability to perform after a number of shaky performances since early April where he placed 33rd at Pound V. Easily the most hyped storyline for fans, is that of Liquid’ Hungrybox and Joseph “Cloud9 Mango” Marquez. Seemingly untouchable coming into SSC, Hungrybox has been on a tear almost the entire year, placing first 9 times in his 14 total tournaments, and only placing outside of top three once on July 3rd during WTFox 2 (a tournament controversial for his poor play and losses to two players that he typically dominates heavily: Jason “M2K” Zimmerman, and Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallet).

The rivalry between Hungrybox and Mango has been repeatedly a theme in the Smash community, and has been the driving force for conversations on “proper play styles” in the game, and what it means to “play lame”. To someone new to the game, it would appear that the characters are just running around and hitting each other; but Smash Brothers is a game of cat and mouse, of manipulation, and of patience. Similar to all sports, each person who plays the game will have a different approach and style of play. Mentality, passivity, movement, and punish options are among the multiple variations that each player will have. On one hand, a more aggressive, fast paced play style is more appealing visually for spectators, drawing in fans with flashy, unpredictable, complicated combos. Yet on the other hand, slower gameplay can be more effective, precise and ultimately optimal.

Hungrybox typically displays a slower play style that advocates lots of safe individual pokes (or “footsies”) in order to slowly build damage and ultimately capitalize when the opponent takes too many hits. He also specializes in reading players tech options and applying lots of aggressive pressure, but safely in a controlled and rhythmic pattern. Jump in, apply pressure, jump out, rinse and repeat with variations for mix ups and reads.

Mango on the other hand draws glee from crowds due to his own play style, which boasts lots of hard reads (such as knowing where and when players will jump to escape his aggression) and a stifling pressure that makes his opponents constantly uncomfortable. While many other top players focus on analytical play that involves studying a player, or playing in a safe manner that forces their opponent to approach them unsafely; Mango forces players to make poor decisions by pressuring them relentlessly. This trait is not one exclusive to Mango, but he is popular as a player particularly for this reason. Hungrybox and Mango are similar in the way they approach the game from a pressure standpoint, forcing players to make poor decisions in desperate attempts to breathe, however the characters they play use this method very differently. Regardless, when these two players sat down to play, it was clear from the get go who was in control of the pressure.

In previous sets between the two this year, Hungrybox seemed to be on the back foot often at the start but would rearrange his hold on the game typically after a misstep my Mango due to being overly aggressive. On Sunday, we didn’t see this. In an instance in the Grand Finals, Mango overcommits in a failed attempt to take a stock and almost gets punished accordingly by losing his stock. Mango often in this instance would attempt to fight his way back to the center of the stage, which Hungrybox would take advantage of and shift the momentum in his favor. Sunday granted us a glimpse at a new Mango. In several instances after failing to overtake Hungrybox’s space and limit his options, Mango retreated to the other side of the stage to reset the situation and once again build up the pressure. He often willingly let Hungrybox return to the stage, in contrast to his typical aggressive overtake of the ledge to outpoke Jigglypuff. His movement was serpentine and pristine, weaving in and out of Hungrybox’s aerial spacing constantly. Never giving up too much of his own space before returning into his opponents. It was a great day to be a Mango Nation fan; in redemption for his losses at EVO 2016, and Clutch City Clash, Mango played his game incredibly well, losing to absolutely no one and claiming the championship for himself on Winners Side. Which by itself is a rare sight to see.

The two will both make an appearance in the summers last tournament of the year: Shine 2016; taking place on August 26th-28th in Boston. However should you not be able to make it, it can be watched via Twitch at twitch.tv/vgbootcamp. Until then you can watch Heir III this weekend, on Twitch.tv/GeekyGoonSquad which marks the return of William “Redbull.TSM Leffen” Hjelte to competitive Smash.

Credit for my gif links belong to VGBootcamp