Zain Naghmi overcame Joseph “Mang0” Marquez in their first-to-five Super Smash Bros. Melee charity money match at The Octagon. Golden Guardians hosted the Salty Suite-inspired event and raised over $10,000 for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Zain and Mang0’s set at The Octagon started off extremely close, with the players trading games back and forth. However, after reaching a set count of 2-2, Zain began to run away with the match. Zain won the final three games, earning a 5-2 victory and winning $1,000 in the process.
The Octagon took its inspiration from pay-per-view boxing events, with commentary provided by Kris “Toph” Aldenderfer and Bobby “Scar” Scarnewman. It featured three preliminary matches leading up to the main event of Zain vs. Mang0. Each set was a best-of-nine, differing from the typical best-of-five format used in tournaments. In addition, Golden Guardians made stat cards for each player and even produced skits featuring Zain and Mang0.
Other matches from Zain’s Domain, The Octagon
The first set of Zain’s The Octagon event pitted Zachary “SFAT” Cordoni against teammate Kevin “PewPewU” Toy. Both players are sponsored by Counter Logic Gaming and together make up one of Melee’s best Doubles teams. During their match, Fox main SFAT decided to play as his secondary, Falco. As a result, PewPewU convincingly beat SFAT 5-1. In the one game he lost, PewPewU went random and got Bowser, one of the worst characters in the game.
Captain Falcon mains Johnny “S2J” Kim and Edgard “n0ne” Sheleby faced off in one of the event’s most explosive matches. It was the most competitive set of The Octagon, and even it did not go to game nine. Instead, n0ne emerged victorious with a 5-3 victory over S2J. Impressively, n0ne won four straight games after going down 1-3 against S2J.
Just before Zain’s set against Mang0 at The Octagon, Cody “iBDW” Schwab won his grudge match over Weston “Westballz” Dennis. This was the most dominant performance by far, as iBDW swept Westballz 5-0. In fact, iBDW three-stocked Westballz in three out of their five games. It is worth noting that, of all The Octagon’s matches, this one featured the greatest discrepancy in rank between players. IBDW ranked No. 9 on the 2019 MPGR, while Westballz ranked No. 31.
