Zain Naghmi won Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles at DreamHack Rotterdam in the Netherlands on Oct. 20. He did not drop a single game throughout the entire tournament. This event adds to the large list of noteworthy tournaments Zain has won this year.
Zain advanced to top 8 with wins over Stijn “$tijn” Berents, Tim “Sixx” S., and Elliot “Frenzy” Grossman. He continued to sweep through a gauntlet of European talent in top 8. There, Zain defeated Mustafa “Ice” Akçakaya, Adam “Setchi” Farmer, and Aaron “Professor Pro” Thomas.
Zain had a bit of an easier bracket than he may have expected going into DreamHack Rotterdam. Johnny “S2J” Kim and Álvaro “Trif” García Moral were both upset early in the bracket. (Zain is even in sets against both of these players in 2019.) S2J lost to Roberto “Overtriforce” Iglesias and Professor Pro, while Trif lost to Setchi and S2J.
Though he has not won any supermajors this year, Zain boast victories at several smaller tournaments. These include The Script 2, The Gang Steals the Script, Full Bloom 5, Come to Papa 3, and Smash Camp: End of Summer. Zain can now add DreamHack Rotterdam to this solid résumé.
Other Smash Bros. results from DreamHack Rotterdam
Professor Pro dropped into the losers bracket fairly early, losing to Ice 3-0 in Winners Quarters. Nevertheless, he had a great losers run to 2nd place at DreamHack Rotterdam. He reached top 4 with dominant 3-0 victories over Amsah Augustuszoon, Frenzy, and Overtriforce. Professor Pro then made his way to Grand Finals with a pair of 3-1 victories over S2J and Setchi.
Setchi had a rather unexpected run to Winners Finals as the sixth seed at this tournament. He reached top 8 on winners side with a win against Linus “Pipsqueak” Nordin and an “upset” over Trif. (Although Trif has had better results than Setchi overall, Setchi is 3-1 in sets against Trif this year). Setchi then beat Overtriforce before losing to Zain and Professor Pro for 3rd place.
German Link main Sixx had an impressive run to 9th place at DreamHack Rotterdam. Sixx had not entered a Melee Singles tournament since Heir 4 over two years ago. Nevertheless, he scored good wins over Charles-Andre “Charlon” Assus, Ben “nebbii” Wolthuis, and Dominik “Nicki” Kunze.
