It was an action packed day 1 in Somerset, New Jersey. Unfortunately, equipment issues hampered the Melee Stream, but Clash Tournaments was still able to pick up the slack and stream the Top 3 of Melee Doubles.

Melee Doubles

Winner’s Finals
C9.Mango/EG.PPMD vs P4K EMP Mew2King/EMP Armada
4 Gods. One Setup!

It was an exciting match between two high-octane spacie main players, C9.Mang0 and EG.PPMD, versus team EMP, Mew2King and Armada. Armada looked a little shaky as Mang0 and PPMD were very quick to juggle Armada and rack percentage quickly with some amazing team combos. Team EMP’s game plan of letting Armada take the lead proved to be overwhelming for them, as Mango/PPMD ended up defeating them in 4 games.

Loser’s Finals
P4K EMP Mew2King/EMP Armada vs. MMG|Shroomed/MIOM|SFAT

Heavily considered underdogs, Team Norcal (Shroomed/SFAT) surprised Team EMP early with devastating team combos and early kills on Armada. Team Norcal would end up taking a couple of games, surprising many, before Team EMP made adjustments to regain control and take the set in 5.

Grand Finals
C9.Mango/EG.PPMD vs P4K EMP Mew2King/EMP Armada

Coming in with momentum from Loser’s Finals, Team EMP looked much more coordinated against the aggressive spacie players. Armada’s out of shield and punish game was crisper. Team EMP also opted to change their team strategy to have Mew2King more closely involved near Armada as opposed to camping the ledge. Although Mango and PPMD had an impressive array of team combos, it was Mew2King that would quickly get gimps to take the lead in matches. It was exciting to watch the four players put on an impressive display of top level Melee teams and, at the end, it was Team EMP that ended up taking SKTAR Doubles crown besting Mang0/PPMD in two sets.

Team Results
1. Team EMP (P4K EMP Mew2King/EMP Armada)
2. C9.Mang0/EG.PPMD
3. MMG|Shroomed/MIOM|SFAT

Melee Singles

Unfortunately, singles was not streamed due to technical difficulties. The huge bracket progressed to Winner’s round 4 and Loser’s round 5 with about 64 players remaining. Here’s the progress on our players that are looking for those MLG spots.

An Update after Day 1

The Updated Singles Bracket can be seen here:

Interesting Matches

Winner’s Round 4: Shroomed vs. Cactuar – Cactuar, the very talented East Coast Fox, tends to go under the radar, but is still really solid. He’ll give Shroomed fits in the matchup with his defensive Fox and could potentially pull an upset.

Winner’s Round 4: VGBC|Hax vs. Zoso – Zoso, a Marth main from the New England region, has seen great success beating players such as Darc and KDJ. His smart Marth could potentially pull an upset against Hax, who has seemed to have prior struggles in the matchup.

Winner’s Round 4: ChuDat vs. Duck – There’s lots on the line for Duck as he will need to survive in Winner’s as much as possible to try to achieve at least Top 9 overall. ChuDat is definitely no-slouch and his unorthodox playstyle could overwhelm Duck

Winner’s Round 4: Westballz vs Darc – Darc tends to do very well against Falco and Fox players, going for unique rest set-ups. Westballz tends to be careless and could get himself into awful situations and get gimped/rested at low percentages. If there was a potential for an upset, this would be the match to check out.

Winner’s Round 4 – CTRL|The Moon vs. Liquid`Ken – Ken and The Moon both have been practicing Melee fervently over the past half year. Marth’s dittos are always interesting to watch. There’s a definite contrast between the old-school experience and new school technology. The Moon needs to win this or face a really difficult run in loser’s bracket.

Follow the action tomorrow (12PM Eastern, 9 AM Pacific)

on ClashTournaments or VGBootCamp

MIOM|Tafokints