Axe wins Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles at East Park Rollback

Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson won Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles at East Park Rollback on August 16. It marked his first online tournament victory since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The event was livestreamed on FGC legend Justin “JWong” Wong’s Twitch channel.

Axe unsurprisingly started the bracket strong, with 2-0 wins over Andrew “blAZ” Vu and Daniel “DannyPhantom” Durant Schultz. However, he found a tougher opponent in top 32 in the form of Jeffrey “Kuyashi” Luce. Axe narrowly overcame Kuyashi, winning their set 3-2.

However, his Winners Quarters match went much smoother, as he beat Josh “Morsecode762” Morse 3-0. Axe kicked off top 8 of East Park Rollback with a 3-1 victory against Kalindi “KJH” Henderson. In Winners Finals, he had another close set, this time defeating Avery “Ginger” Wilson 3-2.

Then, Axe faced off against Zain Naghmi, who entered under the “DontTestMe” moniker. In perhaps the most unorthodox Melee Grand Finals set to date, Axe used Young Link to combat Zain’s Roy. After losing the first set 1-3, Axe switched to his main, Pikachu. As a result, he was able to beat Zain 3-1 in the second set of Grands, claiming 1st place at East Park Rollback.

I won first place today!!

And grand finals was against Roy ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME. Zain is crazy

Even though his Roy neutral game against Pikachu looks like this: pic.twitter.com/84OAJdwxy2

— Tempo 🌩️I Axe (@TempoAxe) August 17, 2020

Don’t test him

While Zain has used the low-tier Roy successfully before, East Park Rollback was perhaps DontTestMe’s best performance. Amazingly, this performance started with an upset at the hands of Christopher “ZeldaFool” Hines. ZeldaFool played Zelda, one of the few characters in the game considered worse than Roy.

Despite this early setback, Zain kicked off his losers run in a big way. He beat Steven “Blues Clues” Joseph, Isaac “NOOT” Blake, and Dawud “Aklo” Rahman’s Link, all without dropping any games. From there, Zain’s sets got more competitive. He defeated Andrew “Tai” Vo 3-2, Kuyashi 3-1, Kevin “Bones” Emm 3-2, Sasha “Magi” Sullivan 3-2, and KJH 3-1.

All of these wins led Zain into top 4. He won five-game sets against Falco mains Albert Luu and Ginger, earning himself a spot in Grand Finals. Finally, Zain took a set from Axe’s Young Link, before falling to Axe in the second set. Ultimately, his phenomenal East Park Rollback run ended in 2nd place.

Tried my best with Roy

He'll take the crown next time

GGs everyone 🙂

— Zain (@ZainNaghmi) August 17, 2020

Other results from East Park Rollback

Despite faltering against Axe and Zain, Ginger still had a solid performance at East Park Rollback, leading him to 3rd place. He defeated NOOT 2-0 and Matt “Mot$” Gaydos 3-1. Impressively, as he faced more difficult opponents, he seemed to perform even better. This was evidenced by his 3-0 wins over Magi and Cody “iBDW” Schwab, who was the tournament’s No. 1 seed.

Likewise, Albert scored many impressive wins on his path to 4th place at this event. He dipped into the losers bracket earlier than expected, losing to Magi 1-3 in top 32. Despite this, he ran through opponents like Timothy “TzD” D., Mot$, and Luis “Smashdaddy” Rangel. Then in top 8, Albert eliminated Morsecode762 and iBDW before dropping a set to Zain.