This weekend's Smash Bros Melee action was dominated by Press Start, a tournament held in Irvine, California. The event featured many of the top-level players in the game, including Cloud9's Mang0, Liquid's Hungrybox and TSM's Leffen.

Top eight ended up like this:

1. Cloud9 | Mang0

2. Fly Amanita

3. MVG | Axe

4. Liquid`Hungrybox

5. Lucky

5. MeleeItOnMe | SFAT

7. Shroomed

7. Cognitive | Mew2King

A Fox Too Far

Hungrybox's Jigglypuff met five top-level Foxes in bracket. He beat Cactuar, lost to Lucky, beat Mew2King, and then found himself down 0-2 against SFAT in the quarterfinals of the loser’s bracket. At this point, Hungrybox decided he’d had enough. He did the only thing he could do: he stood up.

Playing while standing is a quirk thoroughly unique to Hungrybox. He bounces around emphasizing expert interceptions and smash DI with his entire body. Eleven Jigglypuff KOs later, in game five, each player had one stock left on the board and loser’s semifinals within his reach. Then, in a move worthy of a 80's film soundtrack, SFAT did the unexpected: he stood up too.

These two competitors, playing their last stocks as if they were standing at an old arcade cabinet, was a thrilling moment and perhaps the highlight of the whole tournament. Hungrybox beat SFAT, but all the magic in the world couldn't help him the following round against Mang0, whose Fox went undefeated at Press Start and left Hungrybox with a 4th place finish.

Tryhard Season Is Here

Mang0 arrived at Press Start sporting his powerful beard (he likes to brag that it has a shadow) and a new haircut, creating a look reminiscent of Gerard Butler in 300. Like King Leonidas he was — if King Leonidas showed up late to battle and the Persian army DQ’d him right to loser’s bracket.

But Mang0 is well known for his loser’s bracket play, and the reigning Evo champ had no problem running the gauntlet. On his way to 1st place, he trampled over Hungrybox, Leffen, Axe, Hax, Westballz, Fly Amanita, Lucky, and Shroomed. Identifying them by their current MIOM top 100 rankings, Mang0 bested 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 12th, and 14th in a single 32-man bracket … and by the way did it with a 27-3 game count.

Like a groundhog with spring, Tryhard Mango arrives to herald the onset of summer. — MIOM | Toph (@toph_bbq) May 11, 2015

Shenanigans

Due in part to broken rules, a broken controller, and a borderline breakdown, Press Start featured one of the strangest championship brackets we have ever seen. Winner’s Finals featured Axe and Fly Amanita, and they treated spectators to an exceedingly uncommon character matchup: Young Link vs. Ice Climbers.

Four of the six Gods of Smash were in attendance, yet only one of them placed top three. Shenanigans aside, upsets seem to be happening with increasing frequency. The Summer of Smash is almost upon us, and Smash fans are wondering if the “Gods” rhetoric will still be relevant come fall …

Christopher Fabiszak is a Smash Bros Melee commentator and community figure. You can follow him on Twitter at @War_And_Peach.