Battle Arena Melbourne 10 brings Super Smash Bros. action to Australia

Last weekend, Australia’s premier major, Battle Arena Melbourne, brought hundreds of Smash players down under. Featuring top Oceanian talent facing off against some of the world’s best players, BAM 10 was exciting time for all involved.

Though the tournament’s finals happened extremely early in the morning for viewers on America’s East Coast, any viewer would tell you it was worth having bags under their eyes the next day. As the dust settled, the tournament’s first seed Adam “Armada” Lindgren stood victorious—a surprise to nobody familiar with the Swedish Sniper’s fearsome Peach play. However, BAM was no cakewalk for the SSBMRank No. 2; in Grand Finals, he dropped a game to Daniel “ChuDat” Rodriguez—only his third game loss ever to an Ice Climbers player (the previous two losses also came at the hands of ChuDat). To close out his kills, ChuDat innovated, using the uncommon down throw to forward air combo to finish off Armada at high percents.

While the Grand Finals were the highlight of the tournament, BAM 10’s Melee top 8 was full of excitement. Notably, up-and-coming Falco main MC made a flashy run to 5th place, and top Oceanian player Te Tuhi “Spud” Kelly represented his region well at 3rd place despite a someone one-sided loss to ChuDat.

On the Smash 4 side, BAM’s bracket was considerably less stacked with foreign talent, but was still full of interesting sets. In Grand Finals, Australia’s top player, Game and Watch main Nick “Extra” McKenzie defeated Australian No. 3 Ghostbone to win the tournament after dropping only one game in bracket. Over the last year, Extra has become increasingly dominant within the Australian Smash 4 scene.