Over the weekend, hundreds of Super Smash Bros. players traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia, to compete in both Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Melee at Battle of BC 3. On Sunday, the event’s finals brought both excitement and controversy.
Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson won the Melee event, preserving his perfect record over Zain “Zain” Naghmi by defeating the Marth main 3-2 in the grand final. Zain’s loss to Axe was surely a frustrating turn of events for the Panda Global member, but he can rest easy knowing that he vanquished another demon at Battle of BC: Johnny “S2J” Kim, who Zain defeated in a clutch reverse 3-0 comeback in the loser’s final.
While Zain’s victory over S2J was arguably the best Melee set of the event, it was not the most memorable. That dubious honor went to the loser’s eighths match between Alejandro “Chango” Gastelum and Chaucer “Fauxhebro” Gilson. As a match between a Jigglypuff main and Ice Climbers main, the set was destined to go long, but both players took this languor to the next level, refusing to approach until Fauxhebro angrily unplugged his controller and walked away during the final game. The set elicited a wide range of reactions from community leaders in Smash and beyond.
In BoBC3’s Ultimate bracket, results largely followed the tournament’s seeding, with Eric “ESAM” Lew defeating Elliot “Ally” Carroza-Oyarce in the second set of grand finals. Though Ally was unable to win the whole thing, his bracket reset victory over ESAM was the Canadian champion’s highest-profile set win in Ultimate so far.
