With the smash summit 2 ending in victory for Armada , many viewers focus averts towards the next big tournament; EGLX, taking stage in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Usually this location wouldn’t be of great significance, besides of how stacked it is for a tourney outside the USA. However this location proves useful for one specific individual. One who is the main topic of conversation for many when speaking of EGLX; Leffen.

However he is not spoken of for his recent play like most are, rather the opposite. It was 8 months ago on September 19th 2015 that we last saw him compete on non-European soil. At this time we saw a player who’s reckoning for becoming the best in the world would cause a borderline dominance over the field and to become a worryingly strong threat to the gods. How this came to be so was in the year of 2015, where we saw this rising force get increasingly better at an alarming pace. He started off the year with his best foot forward taking BEAST 5 along with his first tournament win against Mang0 in a 3-2 set and following this up by claiming another close win against Armada to add to his resume. 2 weeks later he took a 2-1 victory over Mew2King at Apex 2015 causing Leffen to become the first player in melee history to take a set over each of the 5 gods.

Fast forward through a standard performance with an average placing of 4th over the course of 5 months. TSM chants echo through the crowd as Leffen lands the final edgeguard to take CEO 2015 (his first american major and the first american major taken by a non top 5 player in several years) in convincing fashion. It seemed these chants foreshadowed the future of the next month. With Leffen taking FC Smash 15XR and WTFox in the same convincing fashion. With this people began to question his contention for being first in the world or not.

Breaking his streak he experienced a slightly disappointing Evo 2015 losing to Hungrybox and Plup to get 5th. However he went on to take another event in Super Smash Con losing only 1 game in grand finals to Mew2King. A month later he went on to take 1st place yet again at HTC Throwdown on winners side. At this point of time he gained a positive record against all 5 gods combined; this record being 19-18. This was yet another USA major win for Leffen, and sadly his last as is.

Upon his flight to The Big House 5 he was denied entry to the USA due to visa issues. What seemed like a simple fix proved to be more troublesome as it resulted in Leffen missing 8 months of american competition. Despite his limited access he went on to take a set off Armada at Beast 6, 5 months after his deportation.

Now back to the present this issue still holds, as he remains barred to access the USA. As of such could not compete in many major events including The Big House 5, Smash Summit, Genesis 3, Battle of the five gods, Pound 2016, Smash Summit 2 etc. Despite not taking place in the USA , EGLX is Leffens first North-American major since HTC Throwdown. Although most likely experiencing the inevitable rust of lost experience he does not come unprepared. While the top players performed in American majors the last 2 months, he’s recently traveled across Europe to train and compete. This resulted in a “boot-camp” in the UK and a 1st place finish in HFLAN 12 taking place in Paris, France. Nine days before EGLX on April 20th he arrived in Canada going to The Come Up 2016 and training with top Canadians and other top players coming out for the event.

With Leffen out of the game for so long , victories were typically exchanged between Hungrybox and Armada , leaving them as the most likely and logical contenders for first. However this current position is not very foreign to Leffen. Upon the lift of his infamous ban from Swedish tournaments he proceeded to 6-1 Armada at his first tournament back in grand finals from losers side. Although fairly unlikely , if history repeats itself perhaps the true victor does not lie in Hungrybox or Armada but in Leffen.