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<div class="pound-text"><div class="pound-top">History of Pound</div>

For those that don’t know, Pound is a long running tournament series from the MD/VA region that has had six iterations so far (including Pound 5.5). The first of these events took place a full ten years ago all the way back in January of 2006. While the original Pound tournament had about the entrant numbers and talent pool of a good 2016 Xanadu, the series would only grow from there. Pound 2 saw their entrants rise above 200 for Melee singles and ChuDat beat Mew2King twice to win the event. Pound 3 saw the tournament series rise to even greater heights with the arrival of Mango’s Jigglypuff. Mango dropped into the loser’s bracket with a round one to Silent Wolf then went on an incredible run to eventually take a two set grand finals over Mew2King. M2K tried everything including a Puff ditto to no avail, and the Pound series hadn’t seen the last of that particular character in grand finals. Pound 4 was the largest of the series (until now) but it also unfortunately showcased eight games of Puff dittos between Mango and Hungrybox in winner’s finals and grand finals. Still the tournament was notable for the having a large presence of Europeans, a rarity for the era: Remen, Zgetto and Overtriforce who finished at 17th, Armada, who finished fourth, and Amsah, who surprisingly took third place after eliminating the Swedish Peach in what would be his last loss to a non-god for years.



Pound V should have been notable for the incredible sets between the top three players, but instead became rather infamous in the Melee community for the drama surrounding prize money distribution after the event.After Almost none of the $10,000 estimated prize pool (split between Melee and Brawl) was not paid out after the event, bringing the series to a grinding halt. Judged solely on the games, Pound V may have been one of the best tournaments ever. The star studded top 8 of Vanz, Hax, M2K, Cactuar, Axe, Hungrybox, PPMD, and Armada still looks amazing five years later (Mango finished 17th playing Captain Falcon). The thirteen games between PP’s Falco and Armada’s Peach were legendary and gave us one of the greatest grand finals sets of all time. However, the lack of payouts damaged the series’ reputation enough that we did not see another large scale Pound event until now.

Pound V.5 took place in 2013 and was somewhat notable simply because Mew2King finally won the event over Mango. This was his first Pound victory after finishing top 8 in the previous five including two Grand Finals appearances. However, entrants went down to below 100 for the first time since the original Pound, Mango mostly played secondaries, and the series disappeared until a tweet from Hungrybox back in November caused a bit of a stir in the Melee community.



Shortly after the Pound V prize money was finally paid, Pound 2016 was announced, which brings us to around present day and what will be, by far, the largest Pound tournament yet. If things go well, Hungrybox should receive his winnings via Paypal around 2020.



The field for Pound 2016 is incredibly stacked and features twelve players that we just saw at The Battle of the Five Gods. Speaking of Five Gods, let’s take a look at the tournament favorite.



<div class="pound-top">The Favorites</div>





<div class="pound-head">Hungrybox</div>



<img src="http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/peanuts/puff_da_god.jpg" align="left" /> While there are two gods registered for Pound, Hbox gets the nod here for several reasons. First of all, he just won Battle of the Five Gods after beating both Armada and Mango 3-0. Second, he has actually had Mango’s number over the past several months, defeating him in four out of their last five encounters dating back to EVO 2015. Third, Hbox looks fairly upset proof as opposed to Mango, specifically against this field. The last time the Florida Puff lost to a non-god at a major was all the way back in September with an anomalous defeat at the hands of Professor Pro, and even then he went on to make a loser’s bracket run all the way to third place. Any lingering worries were silenced last weekend at SuperNebs where he was able to defeat Prof, Hax and Swedish Delight in convincing sets. Because of his consistency, we have to put Hungrybox as the number one contender heading into Pound.



<div class="pound-head">Mango</div>



<img src="http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/peanuts/mango_and_plup2.jpg" />





A brief glance at the player list suggests that Mango is the second best player who will be participating, and I would agree with that. All I’m saying to the Mango nation is that it is not a guarantee that Mango will even get a crack at Hbox given the players who are going to be at this event. He has to get through Plup, Westballz, Druggedfox, and MacD, all of whom have taken sets off of him in the past year. In particular he has to look out for Westballz, who beat him at Five Gods and 3-0’d him at Dreamhack Winter to leave him in 5th place. Mango’s inconsistency against the demigod tier of players makes him more susceptible to upsets than Hbox. However,this isn’t to say that a Mango win is impossible. As we all know, loser’s bracket Mango is not to be underestimated. One only has to look back three iterations to his legendary Pound 3 loser’s run where he took out Cactuar, Azen, ChuDat, PC Chris and Mew2King after being sent to Loser’s in the first round. And if Apex Mango shows up to another east coast event, it could be a disappointing weekend for the Nation.



<div class="pound-head">Plup and Westballz</div>



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It wasn’t easy deciding who should come in at number three here. The two have had similar results over the past year, and each has been occasionally taking sets off of the top six. Both shared the fifth place spot at Five Gods this month, and each player took a set off of one of the gods with Plup beating Mew2King in a tight five game set, and Westballz winning a fairly convincing 3-1 over Mango. I wouldn’t say that either of these players is favored over Mango as Plup has actually been eliminated by Mango at two events in a row (Genesis and Five Gods) and Westballz has more weaknesses than Mango overall (the IC’s and Sheik matchups in particular) but I also wouldn’t be surprised to see either of these players upset the Kid. Unfortunately for them, it is far less likely that either of these players will beat Hbox, evidenced by Westballz’s play against the Puff at Five Gods and SN4.



<div class="pound-top">The Contenders</div>



SFAT, Axe, Druggedfox, PewPewU, MacD, S2J, Nintendude, Duck, HugS, Wizzrobe, Colbol





I would expect that some combination of these players will make up the rest of the top eight. SFAT is coming off a fifth place performance at Genesis and tends to beat everyone that he should. Axe is obviously a contender with recent wins over Mango and a top four finish at Genesis. However, I would have him as the underdog against both Westballz and Plup and it is unlikely he could beat Hungrybox given their current states. Druggedfox is a bit of a wild card considering



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en" align="center"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I DONT KNOW WHO IM PLAYING AT POUND LMAO<br><br>that is all</p>— DruggedFox (@Druggedfox) <a href="https://twitter.com/Druggedfox/status/712049447459557377">March 21, 2016</a></blockquote>

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<img src="http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/peanuts/sfat_tho_yeeeee.jpg" align="right" />



Even he doesn’t know what character he is going to be playing. We could see the fox that we saw at Five Gods (beat MacD 3-2, lost to Axe and Mango 2-3 and 0-3 respectively), the falco we saw at Genesis (beat MacD and Silentwolf, lost to Hbox and PewPewU), or the sheik that gave him most of his 2015 success. PewPewU is a great player that just really wants to not get 9th at this national like he did at Genesis, Summit, CEO, EVO, and Apex over the past year or so. MacD has been improving quite a bit and has had strong results over the past year, but he could struggle against this strong lineup of foxes and falcons. S2J is a fan favorite for a reason and could potentially crack the top eight here, but he will want to avoid facing one of the top sheiks or Wizzrobe in the falcon ditto. Nintendude already showed at Genesis that he has what it takes to make top eight at a stacked national, and he’ll be playing on his home turf, albeit with some TO’ing responsibilities to balance with his play. Duck and HugS are both amazing Samus players that have a good deal of variance in their placements at nationals. With this field, I could see both of them falling somewhere from 25th to 5th. The same goes for both Colbol and Wizzrobe. Colbol finished 49th at EVO 2015 as his lowest placing of the year, but took fifth at Super Smash Con and HTC Throwdown. Wizzrobe has at times looked impressive, recently finishing 5th at PAX Arena, but has also had his share of bad performances at nationals including a 49th place finish at Big House 5. These nine players represent the most significant threat to make top eight, but we haven’t even scratched the surface of the talented pool of players gunning for the final bracket at Pound.



<div class="pound-top">The Foreigners</div>



<div class="pound-head">aMSa</div>



aMSa is probably the only top player who appears at nationals more rarely than PPMD. Having the world’s best Yoshi and a massive fan favorite fly out for Pound is incredible, but what are his chances here? Last year we saw him finish 5th at Apex and take Mango to game five, but this is weighed against a somewhat disappointing 25th at EVO, his only other tournament in the US in 2015. Where he finishes mostly depends on his bracket and how much Yoshi experience his opponents have. As such, aMSa could finish virtually anywhere in the top 32 and I would not be surprised.



<div class="pound-head">The Dutchmen</div>



At US nationals, the only Europeans we tend to see are Armada, Leffen (when visas allow), Ice, and sometimes Professor Pro. Amsah and Zgetto will be an exciting throwback to see. Amsah as, already mentioned has some Pound history behind him, finishing 3rd at Pound 4 after beating Armada. Zgetto is probably less known to US fans, but he is currently ranked 7th in Europe and recently took a set off of Westballz during his stint in Europe this year.



<div class="pound-head">Professor Pro</div>



The Fox main from the UK is making a return to the US in 2016 after a mixed bag of results last year. He had poor finishes at Apex and Big House 5, but he did beat Hungrybox at Paragon LA and recently took a set off of Leffen at Kickstart in London. With this spread of results, it’s unclear how he will perform here. His most recent placing was finishing fourth at Shots Fired 2, where he convincingly beat Zhu and DJ Nintendo before getting swept by Mew2King and Hax, which leads me to believe his ceiling at the moment may be around 9th.



<div class="pound-head">The Canadians</div>



Ryan Ford and n0ne will both be making the trip down to Pound this year. n0ne is one of the flashiest falcons around, but unfortunately has yet to make a big splash at a national, with 3rd place at Tipped Off 11 being the strongest result of his career. Ryan Ford is a strong fox player who took a brief retirement, but he has been fun to watch since returning to Melee in 2015. Unfortunately the last time we saw him was at Genesis 3, where he finished 65th after losing to Frycook.



<div class="pound-head">Tristate</div>



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The Tristate region is bringing a number of players that I expect to hover right outside of the top eight come Sunday April 3rd. Hax is obviously the headliner, and it’s exciting to see where he will end up at his first national since EVO 2015. In 2014, Hax would be my pick to get third after Mango and Hungrybox, but at this point he is too much of a wildcard to predict. Behind him stands Zhu, Swedish Delight, and The Moon, all of whom are capable of top sixteen and potentially top eight with the right bracket. This writer will also be traveling down from New Jersey to play in the event. Look for me to finish somewhere in the top 1000.



<div class="pound-head">MD & VA</div>



With a major finally being held again in their region, you know MD/VA will be out in force. Obviously the charge will be lead by players like Nintendude and ChuDat, but other players to watch from the region are Chillindude, Redd, llod, SmashG0D, Milkman, DoH, and of course the organizer of Pound, Plank. Even Azen has entered after trying his hand at a few majors in 2015, finishing 49th, 33rd, and 65th at Paragon, EVO, and CEO respectively.



<div class="pound-head">Michigan</div>



KJH is an amazing player that I could see making it all the way to top eight. It is important that Prince Abu is attending because he can help players warm up to fight Hungrybox after he gets eliminated.



<div class="pound-head">Honorable Mentions</div>



Gahtzu is the fifth best player from Florida attending the event and debatably the fourth best Falcon. Still, he’s good enough that I would feel bad for leaving him out. I expect him to finish around 25th. Bladewise tends to be hit or miss at nationals, but he is the second best peach at the event, and I like to see a solid mix of floaties and fast fallers late in tournaments. MikeHaze has been one of the most improved players over the last year, and it’s great to see him at another major. He finished 25th at both Genesis 3 and Big House 5. DJ Nintendo might be interesting to watch if he plays Pikachu. Finally, Alex19 is coming off a strong 17th place showing at Genesis, where he upset Silentwolf and Wizzrobe before falling to Axe and Duck. It would be a strong statement to those who doubted him after Smash Summit if he were to match or surpass that result at Pound.





<div class="pound-top">Doubles</div>



While two of the best teams players ever will be absent (M2K and Armada) the doubles event at Pound should be very entertaining. The odds on favorite for the event has to be PewFat, but there are several teams that could give them a run for their money. The first is of course PlupBox. The Florida duo have teamed together in the past, but typically Hbox teams with M2K at major events. If the two of them can find their synergy, I could see them beating the favorites from Norcal. The third best team on paper is probably Westballz and MacD. MacD is of course a highly proficient doubles player and Westballz brings the offense to offset Macd’s tankiness. Wizzrobe and Druggedfox will be a team to watch, with Druggedfox’s ability to switch between fox and sheik depending on the matchup coming in handy. The doubles fan favorite is probably Mango and S2J, but it would be pretty surprising to see the two of them actually win. Michigan’s two strongest players, Duck and KJH, are teaming, while Colbol and Gahtzu will be representing Florida. The Moon and DJ Nintendo will be teaming as usual, although they had a rather lackluster showing at Genesis. Finally we have Slox and Swedish Delight, who were the surprise 3rd place finishers at Genesis 3 after they upset Axe and Hungrybox twice in bracket before falling to PewPewU and SFAT.





<div class="pound-top">Hype!</div>



Pound 2016 is going to be an amazing event. It is great to see the Pound V debacle finally come to a close, and this event should be a fitting end to the frustration and drama that Pound V caused. With the (kinda) loss of Apex, it is incredible to see a major come back to the East Coast to match the rebirth of Genesis out west this year. The player lineup is stacked. The storylines are fantastic. The Hungrybox vs Mango rivalry will never end, but will Hungrybox keep up his recent momentum in the matchup, or will we see a repeat of Pound 4? Will a hungry demi-god like Plup, Westballz, or Axe take down either of the gods? Could S2J or Wizzrobe become the first Falcon in top eight at a national since Hax left the character? Pound 2016 should be exciting for attendees and spectators alike. I’ll be there to see one of the most storied tournament series in Melee history revitalized. Will you?





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</div></div></div> History of Pound For those that don’t know, Pound is a long running tournament series from the MD/VA region that has had six iterations so far (including Pound 5.5). The first of these events took place a full ten years ago all the way back in January of 2006. While the original Pound tournament had about the entrant numbers and talent pool of a good 2016 Xanadu, the series would only grow from there. Pound 2 saw their entrants rise above 200 for Melee singles and ChuDat beat Mew2King twice to win the event. Pound 3 saw the tournament series rise to even greater heights with the arrival of Mango’s Jigglypuff. Mango dropped into the loser’s bracket with a round one to Silent Wolf then went on an incredible run to eventually take a two set grand finals over Mew2King. M2K tried everything including a Puff ditto to no avail, and the Pound series hadn’t seen the last of that particular character in grand finals. Pound 4 was the largest of the series (until now) but it also unfortunately showcased eight games of Puff dittos between Mango and Hungrybox in winner’s finals and grand finals. Still the tournament was notable for the having a large presence of Europeans, a rarity for the era: Remen, Zgetto and Overtriforce who finished at 17th, Armada, who finished fourth, and Amsah, who surprisingly took third place after eliminating the Swedish Peach in what would be his last loss to a non-god for years.Pound V should have been notable for the incredible sets between the top three players, but instead became rather infamous in the Melee community for the drama surrounding prize money distribution after the event.After Almost none of the $10,000 estimated prize pool (split between Melee and Brawl) was not paid out after the event, bringing the series to a grinding halt. Judged solely on the games, Pound V may have been one of the best tournaments ever. The star studded top 8 of Vanz, Hax, M2K, Cactuar, Axe, Hungrybox, PPMD, and Armada still looks amazing five years later (Mango finished 17th playing Captain Falcon). The thirteen games between PP’s Falco and Armada’s Peach were legendary and gave us one of the greatest grand finals sets of all time. However, the lack of payouts damaged the series’ reputation enough that we did not see another large scale Pound event until now.Pound V.5 took place in 2013 and was somewhat notable simply because Mew2King finally won the event over Mango. This was his first Pound victory after finishing top 8 in the previous five including two Grand Finals appearances. However, entrants went down to below 100 for the first time since the original Pound, Mango mostly played secondaries, and the series disappeared until a tweet from Hungrybox back in November caused a bit of a stir in the Melee community.Shortly after the Pound V prize money was finally paid, Pound 2016 was announced, which brings us to around present day and what will be, by far, the largest Pound tournament yet. If things go well, Hungrybox should receive his winnings via Paypal around 2020.The field for Pound 2016 is incredibly stacked and features twelve players that we just saw at The Battle of the Five Gods. Speaking of Five Gods, let’s take a look at the tournament favorite. The Favorites Hungrybox While there are two gods registered for Pound, Hbox gets the nod here for several reasons. First of all, he just won Battle of the Five Gods after beating both Armada and Mango 3-0. Second, he has actually had Mango’s number over the past several months, defeating him in four out of their last five encounters dating back to EVO 2015. Third, Hbox looks fairly upset proof as opposed to Mango, specifically against this field. The last time the Florida Puff lost to a non-god at a major was all the way back in September with an anomalous defeat at the hands of Professor Pro, and even then he went on to make a loser’s bracket run all the way to third place. Any lingering worries were silenced last weekend at SuperNebs where he was able to defeat Prof, Hax and Swedish Delight in convincing sets. Because of his consistency, we have to put Hungrybox as the number one contender heading into Pound. Mango A brief glance at the player list suggests that Mango is the second best player who will be participating, and I would agree with that. All I’m saying to the Mango nation is that it is not a guarantee that Mango will even get a crack at Hbox given the players who are going to be at this event. He has to get through Plup, Westballz, Druggedfox, and MacD, all of whom have taken sets off of him in the past year. In particular he has to look out for Westballz, who beat him at Five Gods and 3-0’d him at Dreamhack Winter to leave him in 5th place. Mango’s inconsistency against the demigod tier of players makes him more susceptible to upsets than Hbox. However,this isn’t to say that a Mango win is impossible. As we all know, loser’s bracket Mango is not to be underestimated. One only has to look back three iterations to his legendary Pound 3 loser’s run where he took out Cactuar, Azen, ChuDat, PC Chris and Mew2King after being sent to Loser’s in the first round. And if Apex Mango shows up to another east coast event, it could be a disappointing weekend for the Nation. Plup and Westballz It wasn’t easy deciding who should come in at number three here. The two have had similar results over the past year, and each has been occasionally taking sets off of the top six. Both shared the fifth place spot at Five Gods this month, and each player took a set off of one of the gods with Plup beating Mew2King in a tight five game set, and Westballz winning a fairly convincing 3-1 over Mango. I wouldn’t say that either of these players is favored over Mango as Plup has actually been eliminated by Mango at two events in a row (Genesis and Five Gods) and Westballz has more weaknesses than Mango overall (the IC’s and Sheik matchups in particular) but I also wouldn’t be surprised to see either of these players upset the Kid. Unfortunately for them, it is far less likely that either of these players will beat Hbox, evidenced by Westballz’s play against the Puff at Five Gods and SN4. The Contenders SFAT, Axe, Druggedfox, PewPewU, MacD, S2J, Nintendude, Duck, HugS, Wizzrobe, ColbolI would expect that some combination of these players will make up the rest of the top eight. SFAT is coming off a fifth place performance at Genesis and tends to beat everyone that he should. Axe is obviously a contender with recent wins over Mango and a top four finish at Genesis. However, I would have him as the underdog against both Westballz and Plup and it is unlikely he could beat Hungrybox given their current states. Druggedfox is a bit of a wild card considering I DONT KNOW WHO IM PLAYING AT POUND LMAO



that is all — DruggedFox (@Druggedfox) March 21, 2016 Even he doesn’t know what character he is going to be playing. We could see the fox that we saw at Five Gods (beat MacD 3-2, lost to Axe and Mango 2-3 and 0-3 respectively), the falco we saw at Genesis (beat MacD and Silentwolf, lost to Hbox and PewPewU), or the sheik that gave him most of his 2015 success. PewPewU is a great player that just really wants to not get 9th at this national like he did at Genesis, Summit, CEO, EVO, and Apex over the past year or so. MacD has been improving quite a bit and has had strong results over the past year, but he could struggle against this strong lineup of foxes and falcons. S2J is a fan favorite for a reason and could potentially crack the top eight here, but he will want to avoid facing one of the top sheiks or Wizzrobe in the falcon ditto. Nintendude already showed at Genesis that he has what it takes to make top eight at a stacked national, and he’ll be playing on his home turf, albeit with some TO’ing responsibilities to balance with his play. Duck and HugS are both amazing Samus players that have a good deal of variance in their placements at nationals. With this field, I could see both of them falling somewhere from 25th to 5th. The same goes for both Colbol and Wizzrobe. Colbol finished 49th at EVO 2015 as his lowest placing of the year, but took fifth at Super Smash Con and HTC Throwdown. Wizzrobe has at times looked impressive, recently finishing 5th at PAX Arena, but has also had his share of bad performances at nationals including a 49th place finish at Big House 5. These nine players represent the most significant threat to make top eight, but we haven’t even scratched the surface of the talented pool of players gunning for the final bracket at Pound. The Foreigners aMSa aMSa is probably the only top player who appears at nationals more rarely than PPMD. Having the world’s best Yoshi and a massive fan favorite fly out for Pound is incredible, but what are his chances here? Last year we saw him finish 5th at Apex and take Mango to game five, but this is weighed against a somewhat disappointing 25th at EVO, his only other tournament in the US in 2015. Where he finishes mostly depends on his bracket and how much Yoshi experience his opponents have. As such, aMSa could finish virtually anywhere in the top 32 and I would not be surprised. The Dutchmen At US nationals, the only Europeans we tend to see are Armada, Leffen (when visas allow), Ice, and sometimes Professor Pro. Amsah and Zgetto will be an exciting throwback to see. Amsah as, already mentioned has some Pound history behind him, finishing 3rd at Pound 4 after beating Armada. Zgetto is probably less known to US fans, but he is currently ranked 7th in Europe and recently took a set off of Westballz during his stint in Europe this year. Professor Pro The Fox main from the UK is making a return to the US in 2016 after a mixed bag of results last year. He had poor finishes at Apex and Big House 5, but he did beat Hungrybox at Paragon LA and recently took a set off of Leffen at Kickstart in London. With this spread of results, it’s unclear how he will perform here. His most recent placing was finishing fourth at Shots Fired 2, where he convincingly beat Zhu and DJ Nintendo before getting swept by Mew2King and Hax, which leads me to believe his ceiling at the moment may be around 9th. The Canadians Ryan Ford and n0ne will both be making the trip down to Pound this year. n0ne is one of the flashiest falcons around, but unfortunately has yet to make a big splash at a national, with 3rd place at Tipped Off 11 being the strongest result of his career. Ryan Ford is a strong fox player who took a brief retirement, but he has been fun to watch since returning to Melee in 2015. Unfortunately the last time we saw him was at Genesis 3, where he finished 65th after losing to Frycook. Tristate The Tristate region is bringing a number of players that I expect to hover right outside of the top eight come Sunday April 3rd. Hax is obviously the headliner, and it’s exciting to see where he will end up at his first national since EVO 2015. In 2014, Hax would be my pick to get third after Mango and Hungrybox, but at this point he is too much of a wildcard to predict. Behind him stands Zhu, Swedish Delight, and The Moon, all of whom are capable of top sixteen and potentially top eight with the right bracket. This writer will also be traveling down from New Jersey to play in the event. Look for me to finish somewhere in the top 1000. MD & VA With a major finally being held again in their region, you know MD/VA will be out in force. Obviously the charge will be lead by players like Nintendude and ChuDat, but other players to watch from the region are Chillindude, Redd, llod, SmashG0D, Milkman, DoH, and of course the organizer of Pound, Plank. Even Azen has entered after trying his hand at a few majors in 2015, finishing 49th, 33rd, and 65th at Paragon, EVO, and CEO respectively. Michigan KJH is an amazing player that I could see making it all the way to top eight. It is important that Prince Abu is attending because he can help players warm up to fight Hungrybox after he gets eliminated. Honorable Mentions Gahtzu is the fifth best player from Florida attending the event and debatably the fourth best Falcon. Still, he’s good enough that I would feel bad for leaving him out. I expect him to finish around 25th. Bladewise tends to be hit or miss at nationals, but he is the second best peach at the event, and I like to see a solid mix of floaties and fast fallers late in tournaments. MikeHaze has been one of the most improved players over the last year, and it’s great to see him at another major. He finished 25th at both Genesis 3 and Big House 5. DJ Nintendo might be interesting to watch if he plays Pikachu. Finally, Alex19 is coming off a strong 17th place showing at Genesis, where he upset Silentwolf and Wizzrobe before falling to Axe and Duck. It would be a strong statement to those who doubted him after Smash Summit if he were to match or surpass that result at Pound. Doubles While two of the best teams players ever will be absent (M2K and Armada) the doubles event at Pound should be very entertaining. The odds on favorite for the event has to be PewFat, but there are several teams that could give them a run for their money. The first is of course PlupBox. The Florida duo have teamed together in the past, but typically Hbox teams with M2K at major events. If the two of them can find their synergy, I could see them beating the favorites from Norcal. The third best team on paper is probably Westballz and MacD. MacD is of course a highly proficient doubles player and Westballz brings the offense to offset Macd’s tankiness. Wizzrobe and Druggedfox will be a team to watch, with Druggedfox’s ability to switch between fox and sheik depending on the matchup coming in handy. The doubles fan favorite is probably Mango and S2J, but it would be pretty surprising to see the two of them actually win. Michigan’s two strongest players, Duck and KJH, are teaming, while Colbol and Gahtzu will be representing Florida. The Moon and DJ Nintendo will be teaming as usual, although they had a rather lackluster showing at Genesis. Finally we have Slox and Swedish Delight, who were the surprise 3rd place finishers at Genesis 3 after they upset Axe and Hungrybox twice in bracket before falling to PewPewU and SFAT. Hype! Pound 2016 is going to be an amazing event. It is great to see the Pound V debacle finally come to a close, and this event should be a fitting end to the frustration and drama that Pound V caused. With the (kinda) loss of Apex, it is incredible to see a major come back to the East Coast to match the rebirth of Genesis out west this year. The player lineup is stacked. The storylines are fantastic. The Hungrybox vs Mango rivalry will never end, but will Hungrybox keep up his recent momentum in the matchup, or will we see a repeat of Pound 4? Will a hungry demi-god like Plup, Westballz, or Axe take down either of the gods? Could S2J or Wizzrobe become the first Falcon in top eight at a national since Hax left the character? Pound 2016 should be exciting for attendees and spectators alike. I’ll be there to see one of the most storied tournament series in Melee history revitalized. Will you? Writers: Darkhorse Editor: Peanuts CSS: amazingxkcd, FO-nTTaXGraphics: KnivesCiao Photos: Peanuts Writer "My greatest skill is my enjoyment of the game" - Grubby | @TL_Peanuts