As the Smash Summit 7 voting process heats up, Super Smash Bros. fans throughout the world have spent hours at their computers supporting their favorite players’ bids to compete at the Beyond the Summit. But why wait until mid-November? This weekend, Canada Cup 2018 offers viewers a chance to catch some exciting top-level Smash—for free.
Canada Cup is a mainstay of the Canadian tournament calendar; the tournament features many of the world’s most popular fighting games and has been host to a Super Smash Bros. bracket since 2013 (and a Smash 4 bracket since 2015). Past Melee champions include Aziz “Hax$” Al-Yami, Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman, and Kevin “PPMD” Nanney, who won the tournament in 2016 in one of his final serious showings at a Melee event. Past Smash 4 champions include Canadian hometown hero Elliot “Ally” Carroza-Oyarce and Leonardo “MKLeo” Lopez Perez, who has dominated the event for the last two years.
The latest edition of the event has attracted a multitude of killers in both titles. On the Melee side, Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma leads the field, with William “Leffen” Hjelte as his only elite-level competition. Though Hungrybox has a dominant record over Leffen and is without a doubt the favorite to win Canada Cup, Leffen showed his ability to overcome Hungrybox at Low Tier City 6 and Evolution Championship Series 2018 earlier this year, and he has everything it takes to defeat his Jigglypuff-playing rival. That’s not to say that Leffen isn’t aware of the threat that Hungrybox poses, of course: he ranked Jigglypuff as the best character in the game in his recently published tier list.
Hungrybox and Leffen are joined by a number of other top-level players, including James “Duck” Ma, Edgard “n0ne” Sheleby, Ryan Ford, and former champion Hax$. Though these players’ abilities to defeat the “gods” in attendance is questionable—with the exception of Duck, who boasts a career winning record over Leffen—the earlier rounds of bracket are sure to be a bloodbath, and the competition between Canadians such as Ryan Ford, n0ne, and Kurtis “moky” Pratt and invading Americans will be fierce.
On the Smash 4 side, the top seed is Larry “Larry Lurr” Holland, who shook off a series of middling places throughout the summer to place seventh at Super Smash Con 2018, his most recent major-level event. To win Canada Cup, he will have to contend with former champion Ally, along with top European player Ramin “Mr.R” Delshad, who will be competing at Canada Cup for his first time. The bracket also features such names as Dennis “iStudying” Kwarteng, the renowned European Greninja main, and top female player and fan favorite Kelsy “SuperGirlKels” Medeiros.
If you like what you see above, be sure to tune in to Canada Cup’s Twitch stream to catch the action all weekend!
