Beyond the Summit announced Monday the first six invitees for its upcoming Super Smash Bros. Melee invitational, Smash Summit 13. The event will take place at the Summit Gaming House in Los Angeles, California, from May 12-15.
While the tournament will feature 16 competitors in total, the following players have already qualified or received direct invitations:
- William “Leffen” Hjelte
- Justin “Plup” McGrath
- Zain “Zain” Naghmi
- Cody “iBDW” Schwab
- Joseph “Mang0” Marquez
- Linus “Pipsqueak” Nordin
16 players. 1 survivor.
Say hello to the first six lucky players joining us at #SmashSummit 13 Presented by @coinbase 🌴🔥
Who will be brave enough to be a part of the other ten who challenge them? Stay tuned… 👀
🌳 #TeamWhispy | #TeamRandall ☁️ pic.twitter.com/98pmCrhI1d
— Beyond the Smash (@BTSsmash) April 4, 2022
Beyond the Summit has split the Smash Summit 13 invitees into two factions as part of the tournament’s Survivor theme. Leffen, Plup and Zain will be part of Team Whispy, while iBDW, Mang0 and Pipsqueak will be part of Team Randall. These team names draw their inspiration from the stage hazards on Dream Land and Yoshi’s Story, respectively.
The Survivor theme is fitting for the Melee community considering Ken “Ken” Hoang — who is known as the “King of Smash” because he was the undisputed best Melee player in the world from 2003-2006 — was formerly a Survivor contestant. In 2008, he competed on Survivor: Gabon and finished in fifth place out of 18 contestants.
Smash Summit 13 is the first iteration of the series to be officially “presented by Coinbase,” though Coinbase has sponsored every Ultimate and Melee Summit since August of 2021. The cryptocurrency exchange platform’s presence as a tournament sponsor has been a point of contention for many members of the Smash community. Coinbase also sponsors Coinbox, an online Smash Ultimate tournament series hosted by Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma.
>crypto company infiltrates the Smash community
>Hbox gets mindcontrolled into shilling the crypto company
>MKLeo’s acct gets hacked pic.twitter.com/sKs2vrDeVF— Gresh (@GreshGANG) March 28, 2022
Meet the Smash Summit 13 invitees
Zain and Mang0 headline the list of Smash Summit 13 invitees. They placed first and second, respectively, at the Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series 4 and they are also widely considered the top two Melee players in the world.
Leffen is the best player in Europe and the greatest potential contender to usurp Zain and Mang0. Meanwhile, iBDW is the reigning Smash Summit 12 champion. Finally, Plup is the reigning Smash World Tour champion for Melee.
Amidst the field of invitees, Pipsqueak is the only player who has actually qualified for Smash Summit 13 thus far. He received his invitation after winning the SAME Finale in November of 2021.
