So this past weekend we had two major events take place! Tipped
off 11 which turned out to be a pretty solid event even with the top players
not in attendance, and the highly anticipated smash summit which was the reason
the top players weren’t in attendance at tipped off 11. So first I will talk
about the smash summit. If you have been keeping up with this blog then you’ll remember
that I posted a while ago about the smash summit and who I wanted to see make
it past the voting stage. Sadly my picks for the smash summit didn’t make it,
but even with the absence of two of my favorite players it still was quite a
fantastic event. The smash summit was a 4 day event which seems like quite the
endurance tournament, the summit however was about much more than just the tournament.
In these 4 days we got to see plenty of smash exhibitions between top players playing
a multitude of different characters! This was especially exciting for me to
watch because as much I very much enjoy watching high level melee its super fun
to see how these high level players play characters other than there primary
main and regular secondary’s. We got to see players like Mew2King play pichu and
mango play Donkey Kong, two characters rarely seen this day and age in high level
play. We also got to see the top players interact with each other in games
other than melee and outside of video games all together in games such as
Mafia. Something else that the summit
showcased is doubles play. So for those who don’t know about smash brothers
what so ever smash is a 4 player game, this is a quality that you usually don’t
see in fighting games, so because you can have up to 4 players you can also
play team matches of 2 on 2. Doubles has been in competitive play since melees
competitive inception, over the years however doubles has been getting less and
less attention and while it’s still played at every major tournament it often gets
very minimal to no stream time. I personally think this is due to the fact that
doubles or teams if you will, is a very different game, there is a lot to
follow as a spectator (and as a player) and many people often don’t understand
the dynamic of doubles so as a result people don’t like to watch or play teams
as much. The summit however showcased the whole doubles tournament, which I was
very happy about as I personally feel high level doubles play is one of the
most exciting things to watch. The doubles tournament was won by team PewFat,
which consists of the players PewPewU and Sfat, the team name is a play on their
tags. So there is a couple interesting things about the team of PewFat, first
off they are one of the only true teams left out there, what I mean by this is
that those two players always team together, they are friends in real life and
a s a result they are consistent teammates which is very important as they
understand each other’s play styles and have great chemistry with one another. This
day and age in competitive melee you often don’t see consistent teams anymore,
you tend to just see two really good singles players coming together just to
try to win what they may consider “easy money”. PewFat is also the only “godless”
team that does well at high level and even without either of them being in the
top 5 they are considered the best melee team in America which just goes to
show how different doubles play is over singles. To win they beat the team of
M2K and Armada, two of the greatest players to ever pick up a GameCube
controller. The team of M2K and Armada is an example of two really good
individual players teaming to win, this however was also due to the fact that
armada’s usual teammate, his brother android, was not invited to the summit. As
for the singles tournament Armada was the victor yet again. Even with this
predictable result however the tournament itself held some surprises, we Saw
PPMD get knocked out by Plup which was a very surprising upset, and we got to
see a Mango vs Armada grand finals which is something that we haven’t seen in
quite a while.
Now for tipped off 11. I don’t have as much to say about
this event but I still wanted to talk about it, with another tournament held
without the big 5 in attendance it gave the other players a chance to shine
again! This time we got to see a grand finals set between Wizzrobe and
DruggedFox. This was especially interesting because it’s the second tournament
where we got to see a Captain Falcon player make it this far. Both players played
superbly but in the end it was won by druggedfox who came all the way from loser’s
bracket to take it. Wizzrobe played very well but it seemed like there were a
few moments where he choked as he missed some very crucial punishes that could
have swayed the momentum in his favor. Congrats to both players though
