​Although Zack "Captain Zack" Lauth is generally viewed as the best Bayonetta main in the world, however, Saleem "Salem" Young has consistently been strengthening his resume as the second best Bayonetta main in the world.





Throughout the course of 2GGC: Nairo Saga, Salem proved his more patient style of Bayonetta to be capable of giving the best player in the world a scary run for his money.

​​Still, the tournament started off looking like a poor one for Salem as he fell 1-2 to Jacob "JK" Johnson in only his third set of the day in ​pool A8 . Through and through, JK outplayed Salem, made better reads, and punished harder off of Witch Time openings.





However, the loss lit some kind of fire in Salem, and he left a trail of Smashers in his wake after that loss.

Out at pool semis. Lost to horse and salem. Overall couldn't close out stocks when I needed. More determined than discouraged. — TLTC (@ImTLTC) June 10, 2017

​​In order to make it out of his pool on the losers side of the bracket, Salem proceeded to beat Thomas "TLTC" Avery 2-0 and Horse 3-1.





There's no way that it was the day one he was looking for, but at least he made it into the top 48 bracket.

​​To begin his reign of terror through the losers side of ​top 48 bracket, Salem defeated Marcel "quiK" Romagnuolo 3-1 and Daniel "Twi" Jalali in quick succession to put himself in top 24.





However, that was when he began to run into other formidable opponents, starting with Ramin "Mr. R" Delshad. Throughout the 3-1 set, Salem was allowed to play at the pace he felt like. A slower, more defense-oriented neutral game followed by quick bursts of aggression for heavy punishes and very few over-extensions.





Most importantly, though, his use of Witch Time was immaculate. The few times he used it throughout the set, he knew full well that Mr. R would put out a hitbox right then, which led to a kill almost every time.

​​In order to avoid being put out of the tournament at 13th place, Salem then had to play Gavin "Tweek" Dempsey. The end of game three was a moment where Salem's tournament life flashed before his eyes as Tweek thought he sealed the game with a suicide Climhazzard.





However, the game ended up becoming a sudden death situation, meaning that they would play a one-stock, three-minute game to determine the victor. Salem won the decider of game three and then games four and five to reverse 3-0 Tweek.

​​Next on Salem's hit list was Kengo "KEN" Suzuki, one of the best Sonic mains in the world. Throughout the stop-and-go 3-0, Salem did his best to harrass KENs landing options and keep himself from getting annoyed by the patient Sonic play KEN brought to the table.





All three games the two played were close, but Salem consistently took the final stock where KEN couldn't, so Salem moved on.

​​To kick off top eight, Salem then beat Matt "Elegant" Fitzpatrick. Salem looked roughly the same in that set as he had in all his previous sets -- relatively defensive play for low-risk openings that offered relatively high reward, and a good sense of what he needed to do against Luigi





Except for the 70-second two-stock in Elegant's favor that happened game two, Salem looked like he had a pretty good handle on the matchup.

​​With a near-timeout in the first game and an actual timeout in the fourth game, Salem managed to advance with a 3-1 victory over Elliot "Ally" Carroza.





Especially when Salem took to the platforms, Ally didn't seem to really know what it was he was supposed to do. And whenever he did challenge Salem, Salem seemed to come out on top.

​​Over the course of just eight minutes, Salem became an agent of the 2GG curse as he outplayed Nairoby "Nairo" Quezada solidly to earn himself a swift 3-0 victory and guarantee himself at least third at the Nairo Saga.

...OK yeah Salem definitely made a deal with the devil lmao pic.twitter.com/1ghaWQ8d3u — Tylor (@theSirToasty) June 12, 2017

​​In order to earn himself a shot at Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios in grand finals, Salem then had to face off against Leonardo "MKLeo" Perez. However, the entire set boiled down to one instant.





Near the end of game five, Salem was a dead man. MKLeo escaped his combo, read his landing, and spaced a beautiful tipper f-smash to end Salem's run.





Fortunately for Salem, though, Bayonetta has a surprisingly thin frame. If Salem had been facing to the right or MKLeo had been less than half a step forwards, Salem would have taken third place instead of MKLeo.





With a narrow 3-2, he earned a chance at ZeRo.

I will continue to improve, even if how I play now gets me hate, it's okay, I'll eventually get to #1 — MVG | Salem (@MVG_Salem) June 12, 2017

​​However, the run ended at ZeRo, as the best player in the world denied Salem even the bracket reset to close out their five-game set.





Even if Zack's aggressive style of Bayonetta has earned him more acclaim than Salem has, Salem has certainly proven that he can compete at that same level.

Image courtesy of ​2GGaming