Fans of high-level play in both Smash titles were given quite the treat last weekend, with several riveting events providing entertainment on both Saturday and Sunday.
At Colorado’s Flatiron 3, Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson stunned the crowd by resetting the bracket against William “Leffen” Hjelte. Although the fan-favorite Pikachu main was unable to take the tournament over Leffen, he brought Grand Finals all the way to the last stock of game 10 thanks to his confident edgeguards and powerful combo game.
The earlier stages of Flatiron 3 were entertaining as well, with a resurgent Kevin “PewPewU” Toy placing 3rd thanks to victories over James “Swedish Delight” Liu and Jack “Crush” Hoyt. PewPewU’s Fox looked crispier than ever before at Flatiron 3, taking games off of high-ranked players like Swedish Delight and Axe.
In Ohio, Justin “Plup” McGrath stood victorious at Aegis—an unsurprising outcome. In second place, Ryan “Ryan Ford” Ford stood above the rest of the competition, with victories over his fellow top 100 Fox players Colin “Colbol” Green and Kurtis “Moky” Pratt. Perhaps the biggest breakout of the tournament was the run of netplay warrior Jakenshaken, who defeated three SSBMRank top 100 players while on his way to a 7th place finish.
On the West Coast, hordes of top Smash 4 talent traveled to Long Beach, California, to compete in Switchfest. Among a stacked field, Leonardo “MkLeo” Lopez Perez stood apart, winning the tournament from winner’s side of the bracket. That doesn’t mean that his victory was uncontested, however: on his way to Grand Finals, he fended off Rei “komorikiri” Furukawa and Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada in consecutive five-game sets. The biggest upset of the tournament came in Winner’s Round 1 of the top 32 bracket, when top Duck Hunt player Ishiguro “Raito” Tetsuya defeated Gavin “Tweek” Dempsey, the tournament’s third seed. Raito ended up placing 7th at the event, one of the best-ever major tournament placements of a Duck Hunt main.
It’s not long until the next big Smash 4 tournament: next weekend, Maryland’s Glitch 4 will feature strong talent such as Tweek, Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby, and James “VoiD” Makekau-Tyson. Melee fans will have to wait a bit longer, as the next Melee major is Smash Summit 6 in the first weekend of May.
