Four takeaways from Momentous Smash Ultimate invitational
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A graphic depicting the top eight players at the Momentous Smash invitational.
Provided by @CollisionSmash on Twitter
Category:
Smash

Four takeaways from Momentous Smash Ultimate invitational

Tweek wins in his return to offline competition
Image of Dylan Tate
Dylan Tate
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Published: Jun 13, 2021 04:16 pm

Sixteen of the best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players in the Tristate area gathered in New York City for an in-person invitational on June 12. Gavin “Tweek” Dempsey cruised to first place, dropping only three games throughout the entire tournament.

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Here are the highlights of Tweek’s win, plus other major takeaways from Momentous Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Singles.

Tweek comfortably pilots Diddy Kong to victory

Tweek is renowned for the deep roster of characters he can play at a high level. In the past, he has made it into Major top eights using the likes of Wario, Pokémon Trainer, Young Link, Banjo & Kazooie, Roy and more. At the Momentous Smash invitational, he got the chance to show off the character he’s been working on over quarantine: Diddy Kong.

In the round robin pools phase, Tweek beat Jimmy “Sensei” S. and Jon “Suarez” Suarez 2-0. John “John Numbers” Goldberg put up more of a fight, pushing Tweek to Game 3 with his Wii Fit Trainer. However, Tweek secured the win thanks to his strong edgeguarding, dropping a banana peel on John Numbers as he tried to recover and then meteor smashing him with Diddy Kong’s down-air.

Tweek had a comparatively comfortable road through the main bracket. He defeated David “LeoN” Leon 3-0 and Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby 3-1 to reach grand finals. While LeoN managed to take a game in their grand finals rematch, Tweek found an offstage back-air edgeguard to finish off a close Game 4 and win the set.

LeoN makes a hard-fought run to second place

LeoN was the fourth seed overall for Smash Ultimate Singles at Momentous and the first seed in his pool. However, just advancing into the main bracket proved to be no easy feat. Though he defeated Tyrell “NAKAT” Coleman, Dominick “NickC” Cuccurullo and Joel “Beast” Veras to win his pool, all three of them pushed LeoN to a Game 3.

LeoN was no match for Tweek in their winners semis set, dropping to the losers bracket after a 3-0 loss. From there, LeoN secured more hard-fought victories, eliminating Jude “Jakal” Harris and Michael “Tilde” Tedesco 3-1.

In losers finals, LeoN faced No. 2 seed Dabuz. LeoN’s Bowser went the distance against Dabuz’s Min Min, culminating in a Game 5 where Dabuz held the lead. Despite his significant percent deficit, LeoN found a down-air meteor smash at the ledge to win the game and the set.

Tilde has his offline Smash Ultimate breakout at Momentous

While he has competed since Smash Ultimate’s release in December 2018, Tilde did not have a breakout offline performance prior to Momentous. He earned a spot in the Tristate invitational thanks to his high placements at online tournaments in recent months. However, he was seeded last in his pool on account of his mediocre offline results from before the pandemic.

With the odds stacked against him, Tilde made an unexpected run to fourth place. In pools, he secured a 2-1 upset over top 10 offline player Paris “Light” Ramirez. Tilde also beat Trevor “Atomsk” Hirschen 2-0 and Dillon “Dill” R. 2-1 to advance out of pools on winners side.

Tilde lost his winners semis set against Dabuz 3-0. Even so, he had one more good win in him. Tilde put Falco’s punish game and edgeguarding potential to good use in order to beat NickC 3-2 in losers quarters before he lost to LeoN in losers semis.

Light underperforms after a year-long break from competition

Light’s disdain for online competition is well-known. After his last offline tournament in March 2020, Light did not compete again until May 2021. Even then, he only entered two online tournaments, including the Smash World Tour Northeast qualifier.

His lack of Smash tournament experience over the past year put Light at a disadvantage, resulting in a seventh-place finish at Momentous despite his No. 3 seed status. While he defeated Atomsk 2-0 and Dill 2-1 in pools, he entered the main bracket in losers after an unexpected loss to Tilde. Then, Light suffered an early exit from the bracket after losing to Jakal for the first time in his career.

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Author
Image of Dylan Tate
Dylan Tate
Dylan Tate is an alumnus of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a gaming journalist with a love for Nintendo esports, particularly Super Smash Bros. and Pokémon.
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