If you’re a fan of competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee, you’ve probably seen the recent spate of trash talk between Roustane “Kage The Warrior” Benzeguir and Weston “Westballz” Dennis. Amid the controversy surrounding Ian “Eikelmann” Mooney’s exit from the competitive scene, Westballz, the top-level Californian Falco infamous for his flowery trash talk, took advantage of the fracas to tweet out a potshot at Ganondorf mains.
In response, Kage, long considered the world’s most skilled Ganondorf, offered to money-match the sweet-talking Falco main.
Though the Ganondorf main turned down Westballz’s offer of a $1,000 money match, he countered with his own $200 money match challenge, which the Falco player agreed to play out in a best-of-three set. It seems that this “salty suite” is actually going to happen, but the time and venue has not yet been determined. End of story, right?
Not quite. It turns out that Kage and Westballz have been talking trash about a $1,000 money match for over FIVE YEARS.
Take a listen to the commentary of this friendly played between Adam “Armada” Lindgren and Joseph “Mang0” Marquez at B.E.A.S.T. 3 in April 2013.
“Dude, $1,000 money match, Kage versus Westballz? That’d be fuckin’ hype,” says the commentator, Charles “Fuzzyness” Kimmelman, alluding to trash talk between the two players.
Since Twitter and Reddit had not yet supplanted Smash World Forums as the Smash community’s primary social platform at the time, it’s likely that Westballz and Kage’s beef originated on that site, now known as Smashboards. It appears that this trash talk bled into the Twitch chat of the B.E.A.S.T. 3 friendlies stream. Unfortunately, Smashboards’ search function is limited, and I was unable to find the original source of the commentator’s excitement.
Kage and Westballz currently have an even record in tournament sets. At Apex 2014, Kage defeated Westballz 2-0 in round 2 pools; a year later, Westballz beat Kage 3-1 at The Big House 5. They haven’t played since, though Kage defeated Westballz’s Donkey Kong in a challenge match at the first Smash Summit.
It’s impossible to predict the winner of Kage and Westballz’s upcoming money match. Westballz is clearly the favorite; he is the higher-ranked player, and his main is known to have an advantageous matchup against Ganon. However, Kage has been known to win high-profile money matches over Falcos in the past, and he would certainly not be Westballz’s worst loss this year if he were to take the W.
Either way, this set has been a long time coming.
