Ishiguro “Raito” Tetsuya won a stacked Weds Night Fights weekly in Santa Ana, California on June 12. As a weekly tournament, this event did not count for the upcoming PGRU. Nevertheless, it featured very high-level competition. In fact, many of Southern California’s best players were unable to make it into the top 16 of the bracket.
Raito advanced out of pools without dropping a game, defeating Bryan King and Armando “AC” Castañeda-Villalobos. He made it into top 8 after a 2-1 victory over Freddie “FOW” Williams. In Winners Semis, Raito earned a 3-0 win over Edgar “Sparg0” Valdez.
Raito’s last opponents of the tournament gave him the greatest challenge. He edged out a 3-2 Winners Finals set over Larry “Larry Lurr” Holland. Matt “Elegant” Fitzpatrick defeated Raito 3-2 in the first set of Grand Finals. However, Raito pulled the reverse in the second set, beating Elegant 3-2 in order to win the tournament. This Weds Night Fights was Raito’s first significant tournament victory in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Other results from Weds Night Fights
Elegant had another strong 2nd place finish, just like he did at The Kid, the Goat, and the Mang0. He advanced out of pools by beating Yuta “Abadango” Kawamura but lost to Sparg0 in Winners Quarters. Even so, he had an incredibly impressive run through losers. On the way to Losers Semis, Elegant beat Chris “Legit” Russell, FOW, and Nicko Bonilla. Then, he won a five-game rematch against Sparg0. Elegant beat Larry Lurr 3-0 and took a set off of Raito before falling to Raito in the second set of Grands.
Sparg0 is a 13-year-old Cloud main from Mexico. He was considered a “wi-fi warrior” in Smash 4. GENESIS 6 was his first major tournament for Ultimate, and he made it to top 64. However, his best Smash Ultimate results by far came at this Weds Night Fights. Sparg0 beat Dustin “Zenyou” Rice, James “VoiD” Makekau-Tyson, Elegant, and Takuto “Kameme” Ono en route to 4th place. His only losses came from top 2 finishers Raito and Elegant.
FOW was one of Smash 4’s strongest competitors at the beginning of its lifespan. However, his results in the latter part of Smash 4’s lifespan into the beginning of Ultimate were not as stellar. Considering this, Weds Night Fights was a strong showing for FOW. Like Sparg0, he only dropped sets to Raito and Elegant. FOW also earned impressive wins over Shawn “K9sbruce” Bruce, Ramin “Mr. R” Delshad, and Tsubasa “Tsu” Takuma on his way to 7th place.
Nick “Nitro” Galvan was another unexpected face in top 8 of Weds Night Fights. He placed 7th, losing to Larry Lurr and Kameme. During the tournament, Nitro won sets over Legit, Kevin “Brosinex” Alvarado, and Mr. R.
