South by Southwest’s Battle of the Five Gods Super Smash Bros. Melee event concluded on Saturday as we ink another historic chapter into the ever growing story book that is Melee. The event, which took place over three days from Thursday, March 17th to Saturday, March 19th, played host to top talent from around the world, including all five of the perennial Melee Gods. In terms of pure talent, SXSW’s Bo5G might boast the most densely stacked pool of talent in Melee history with only two members of the top 20, #3 Leffen and #19 Hax, absent from play. In all, 55 glorious best of five sets were played over the three day span, as we were treated to exciting, and at times heart stopping Melee, presented in a unique tournament format.

Thursday started things off with five pools of four players playing in a round-robin format. That is to say that every player in a particular pool played each other, and the player with the best record was placed directly into Saturday’s final 8-man double elimination bracket. To find the three players who would join them on Saturday, the players with the second best record in their respective pools were placed in a playoff round-robin on Friday. PPMD, Plup, Silent Wolf, MacD, and Wobbles would duke it out in 10 total sets against one another, until three emerged to join Armada, Hungrybox, Mango, Mew2King, and Westballz for a thrilling Saturday conclusion. Overall we learned a lot about the state of Smash and the direction of the scene in general, but here are five major takeaways from this weekend’s play.

#1 – Will 2016 Be the Year of the Box?

Hungrybox keeps his momentum going with his 2nd Major tournament win of the year, after winning PAX Arena and placing 3rd at Genesis 3. This seems to be a continuation of a trend of Top 3 placings that started last year at FC Smash15XR: Return. In that time, the solo Puff main from Florida has put together a resume that includes winning Dreamhack Winter 2015, arguably his best win to that point, 2nd at Evo 2015, The Big House 5, and HTC Throwdown, and 3rd place at Paragon Los Angeles. Now after a win at Battle of the Five Gods, it looks like Hbox may be gearing up for another big win at Pound at the beginning of April. However, the question has now shifted from that of can he win to can he keep winning. If so, 2016 may very well be the year of the box.

#2 – Does Mango have a 2nd Place Curse?

For as decorated as Mango’s career has been, 2015 was not kind to the Kid. With only two significant wins in 2015, Mango is looking to bounce back in 2016, but has thus far had to settle for a couple of silver medals. While 2nd place at Genesis 3, PAX Arena, and Battle of the Five Gods is a step in the right direction, the self-proclaimed GOAT has a bit more work to do before he can reclaim his title of best in the world, as he had in 2013 and 2014. In a recent interview with Yahoo Esports Mango said, “I’m the second place master right now,” but seemed to have a positive attitude and outlook when thinking about his next tournament, Pound 2016. A win at Pound will be Mango’s first major victory since Paragon Los Angeles at the beginning of last September. Another second place finish would mean Mango placed 2nd at five out of his last six tournaments.

#3 – Armada can bleed.

For Armada, 2015 was a historic year that was punctuated by incredible victories such as Evo 2015, The Big House 5, and the first Smash Summit. After losing in Winner’s Semis at Apex 2015, Armada also started a streak of reaching Winners Finals that has lasted 13 months, over the course of 19 different tournaments, and in this period he has only lost to Hungrybox, Leffen, and Mango. Ultimately these accomplishments led to a unanimous number one ranking in the world. For a second, Armada seemed unbeatable, and aside from a small chink in his armor in the form of Dreamhack Winter, that has been the case since last July. However, Armada did not reach Grand Finals for the first time in eight months. Now it will take a little more than one 3rd place loss to take away Armada’s crown as best in the world, but could this be the beginning of the end of Armada’s reign atop the rankings? Unfortunately he won’t be attending Pound, so we will have to wait to find out.

#4 – Wobbles is Not to Be Underestimated.

While fans may know Wobbles for the Ice Climber infinite technique named after him, or his legendary Evo 2013 2nd place finish, many did not consider him for top four this past weekend. However, 4th place is exactly what Wobbles got after a grueling weekend where the ICs main ran the gauntlet. Taking 2nd in his pool by defeating  Shroomed and Lucky, Wobbles moved on to the Playoff Round where he preceded to defeat #Silent Wolf, Plup, and PPMD one of the Melee gods the event was named after. That was just the start for Wobbles though, as he moved into the 8-man double elimination bracket and rattled off two victories over Mew2King and Westballz, before falling to C9’s own Mango. His 4th place on Saturday was a reminder that at any time Wobbles can be considered a threat for top 8, no matter who’s in his way.

#5 – Rankings Aren’t Everything.

Aside from #32 Wobbles, the lowest ranked player present, surging to a 4th place finish taking down almost everyone ranked 5th to 12th, upsets throughout the event showed that rankings don’t always reflect in the results. In Pool play Group A saw #20 Hugs defeat #13 Sfat who defeated #11 Silent Wolf, while Group C saw #18 Druggedfox defeat #15 MacD who defeated #9 Axe. Most interestingly, however, is the fact that every god dropped a set to someone ranked below them. PPMD lost sets to MacD, Silent Wolf, Westballz, Plup and Wobbles. Mew2King lost to Wobbles and Plup. Mango lost to Westballz. Armada lost to Hbox and Mango. And even the eventual champion, Hungrybox, lost a set in Grand Finals to Mango.

As always the Melee scene is host to many different, exciting, and intertwined storylines and Battle of the Five Gods just added to that history. With the weekend behind us, all eyes are focused on MD/VA as they play host to Pound 2016 in just two weeks, April 2nd & 3rd. While Armada will not be attendance, it is still certainly a tournament worth keeping tabs on. Be sure to tune in yourself on VGBootCamps’s twitch channel and until next time, thanks for reading!

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