Super Smash Bros. Melee events have changed considerably since the first Genesis tournament in 2009, except for one constant: the last two competitors standing.
Alliance’s Adam “Armada” Lindgren defeated Cloud9’s Joseph “Mang0” Marquez in the grand final to win the Melee singles tournament at Genesis 3. Armada and Mang0 have been the top two finishers at each of the three Genesis tournaments, with Mang0 taking the first in 2009 and Armada taking the second in 2011.
Mang0 entered the grand finale from the losers’ side of the bracket, and thus needed to win two first-to-three sets to claim victory. He raced out to a 2-0 lead with a pair of dominant victories in the Fox ditto match. Armada decided to switch to Peach and played better, but ended up losing the first set by a 3-1 margin, much to the delight of the largely-pro-Mang0 crowd.
Armada stuck with Peach for the second set, while Mang0 stayed with Fox. Armada took the first game solidly, and scored a critical comeback in the second to take a 2-0 lead. While Mang0 was able to get on the scoreboard in the third game, his comeback effort fell short as Armada claimed a 3-1 victory in a set that was almost a mirror image of the first.
Armada’s win cements his place as the game’s top player over the past year. Since his fifth-place finish at last January’s Paragon Orlando, Armada has won 16 of the 21 major tournaments and nine of the last 10 major tournaments he has entered—a run that started with his win at Evo 2015. A second-place finish at DreamHack Winter to Liquid’s Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma is his only blemish since then.
His run to the title included wins over Melee It On Me’s Johnny “S2J” Kim and mYinsanity’HOnce he reached the last eight of the tournament, he continued his dominance with wins over Evil Geniuses’ Kevin “PPMD” Nanney and Hungrybox to reach the grand finals.
Mang0’s place in the finale was in serious jeopardy on Saturday night after he suffered a 3-1 defeat to Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson of TempoStorm. The result sent Axe to Sunday’s top eight on the winners’ side, while Mang0 fell to the losers’ bracket, where had to defeat Panda Global’s Justin “Plup” McGrath, Splyce’s Michael “Nintendude” Brancato, and PPMD.
He then eliminated Axe and Hungrybox, in fourth and third places respectively, to reach the grand final.
A scheduled match to separate fifth and sixth places, a tradition unique to Genesis, never occurred. After his elimination from the tournament, Evil Geniuses’ Kevin “PPMD” Nanney declined to compete in the extra match. He officially ended the tournament in sixth place, while Zac “SFAT” Cordoni of Counter Logic Gaming took fifth. Splyce’s Michael “Nintendude” Brancato and mYinsanity’s Mustafa “Ice” Akcakaya, who tied for seventh, rounded out the top eight places.
The Melee tournament at Genesis 3 featured 1,828 entrants, which made it the second largest bracket in the game’s history behind the 1,869-player Evo 2015 tournament. The event featured 50 of the top 60 players in Melee It On Me’s 2015 rankings, including 17 of the top 18 players. Of the latter group, only William “Leffen” Hjelte of Team SoloMid failed to attend. Visa issues have prevented the Swede from entering the United States since October.
