The early stages of Smash Ultimate saw a number of contenders for the title of world’s best, but recent months have seen Leonardo ‘MKLeo’ Lopez Perez, an 18-year-old Mexican sponsored by Echo Fox, emerge as the number one player in the game. Over the course of the weekend, Beyond the Summit held their inaugural Ultimate event, and MKLeo once again proved his dominance over the scene by winning the event from winners bracket.
His closest competitor is considered by many to be Gavin ‘Tweek’ Dempsey, the Wario main recently picked up by TSM as their replacement for the departed Gonzalo ‘ZeRo’ Barrios. The latter player was considered the greatest over the course of Smash 4, but attended the Ultimate Summit and was eliminated early, losing a game to Melee GOAT Adam ‘Armada’ Lindgren in one of the biggest shocks of the weekend.
The other major talking point was the fact European Wario main and Brawl legend William ‘Glutonny’ Belaid made it to Winners Finals, taking out such fan favourites as 16-year-old Japanese Wolf man Zackray and Panda Global’s Brian ‘Cosmos’ Kalu along the way, but he was defeated by new Team Liquid signing Samuel ‘Dabuz’ Buzby, who impressed but didn’t excite with his Olimar play throughout the event.
Clash of Clans
There was also an interesting mixture of cultures, with Melee legends such as William ‘Leffen’ Hjelte, Joseph ‘Mango’ Marquez and Armada alongside the likes of MKLeo, Dabuz and ZeRo, and the weekend was a success from an entertainment point of view. There were a number of great skits made for the event, one of which you can see below.
Sadly, or maybe happily for Melee fans wanting their game back, none of them were able to make an impact, with Mango in particular looking way out of his depth at an event he traditionally struggles with due to the free flow of complimentary alcohol, among other things. Leffen, M2K and Armada had the joined highest finish of any ‘Melee’ names, ending the weekend in ninth.
How successful the event was will probably be revealed in coming days with the viewing figures and so on, but as is always the case Summit made some extremely intelligent and high-quality content to compliment the gameplay. As is the case with every Summit event, it was also a fantastic advert for the value of invitationals versus open bracket, with an entire weekend of top level play on show.
Image credit: BTS
