Last night, Gavin “Tweek” Dempsey defeated Leonardo “MkLeo” Lopez Perez in two sets to win Frostbite 2019.
After going down two games to zero in his winner’s final against MkLeo, Tweek didn’t look back for a moment, counterpunching with aggressive Wario play that caught the Mexican wunderkind off-guard, even after he desperately switched from Ike to Lucina in game five. When the rivals met again in grands, Tweek kept his momentum going, sweeping MkLeo to secure his first major victory of the Panda Global Rankings Ultimate season.
Tweek’s win was not the only underdog story of the weekend. After getting seeded 20th at the event, Floridian Olimar main Robert “Myran” Herrin ran to third place thanks to wins over Paris “Light” Ramirez and Shuto “Shuton” Moriya. Myran defeated the fourth-place finisher Shuton in two sets: an Olimar mirror match in winner’s quarters and a close victory over the Japanese player’s unorthodox Richter pick in loser’s semis.
Frostbite’s finals were full of five-game sets heightened by the shrieking of an excited crowd and a striking diversity in players’ character choices. Brian “Cosmos” Kalu was the hometown hero of the Midwest event, using his Inkling to tie for fifth place with Light. At seventh, Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada and Jestise “MVD” Negron used Palutena and Snake to great effect. Even Donkey Kong made an appearance, via an ill-fated game-one pick by Tweek in the winner’s final.
For the moment, both Tweek and MkLeo have a strong argument for the title of best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player in the world. Thanks to his two victories over MkLeo at Frostbite, Tweek appears to have the edge for the moment, but the Team SoloMid member’s disappointing ninth-place finish is worse than any of MkLeo’s placements this year, keeping the Echo Fox member very much in contention for the top spot.
