On January 23, William “Leffen” Hjelte took to Twitter to express his enthusiasm for Super Smash Bros. Melee’s controversial game-fixing code modification, the Universal Controller Fix.
This is far from the first time Leffen has voiced this sentiment. Since the release of UCF, he and countryman Adam “Armada” Lindgren have used their platforms on Twitter to advocate for the widespread adoption of the mod, which mitigates several factors of Melee’s “controller lottery,” including the fidgety shield drop angles and dashback issues for which the game is infamous.
Last August, Leffen’s strong support for the Universal Controller Fix became a focal point of community discussion when he requested a replay of his Top 8 match against Daniel “ChuDat” Rodriguez after learning that the tournament organizers had mistakenly forgotten to activate the code modification.
Leffen’s reiteration of his pro-UCF position comes in spite of the fact that community figureheads have begun development on a more Nintendo-friendly alternative: Aziz “Hax$” Al-Yami’s arduino adapters, which will purportedly provide the same benefits as UCF without requiring tournaments to use a legally-questionable game mod.
Perhaps this should come as no surprise, given the well-known and long-standing enmity between Leffen and Hax$. Or perhaps Leffen, a known skeptic who always has something to say about community issues, is simply waiting to see the arduino adapters in action before he gives them his endorsement. For now, the fate of the contentious code modification—which has rapidly become tournament-standard in many regions—hangs in the balance.