I don’t know what to think anymore. Is Armada going to win Evo? Will PPMD come from the shadows of stream monstering to take it? What about Leffen? And I guess I shouldn’t sleep on the kid, even if he’s been awful lately. Here are my post-CEO thoughts.

1. The Curse is broken

leffen

Leffen has finally broken the 3rd place curse at US nationals with a marvelous first place performance. Things looked shaky on day 1 where he almost lost to Rula, a Falco, and had to scrap together a comeback in game 2 to not lose 2-0. He ended up winning the set 2-1, but still looked shaky, barely winning in close sets against Wizzrobe and Plup. Day 2 brought a completely different Leffen as he was able to run through Shroomed and Armada to win the tournament, even pulling off a 3-0 victory, something that hasn’t happened since Republic of Fighters.

2. Meanwhile, another Curse exists

Ever since Armada has returned from retirement, he has yet to win a super major, frequently dominating the field, but losing to a particular player twice:

MLG Anaheim – Mango x2
Evo 2014 – Hungrybox x2
Apex 2015 – PPMD x2
CEO 2015 – Leffen x2

Strangely enough, this was also the case prior to Armada’s reign in 2011-2013. Although many would be satisfied with 2nd place performances at multiple nationals, I’m sure Armada is not pleased.

3. 20tutu

Plup showed glimmers of what the Sheik metagame will look like for the next few years. Fox, Falco, and Falcon mains, be ready to get mercilessly tech-chased repeatedly.

In all realness, Plup has both the smarts and the technical ability to continue to play against anyone. Amazingly, he was two Pokemon Stadium shenanigans from defeating Leffen and Mango. Think about that for a moment.

4. Pokemon Stadium

As of now, there really isn’t any solution to outright banning Stadium from the current ruleset. We wouldn’t have enough stages. I may be biased, but it does leave a sour taste in my mouth to see what happened with Plup.

5. The E-Sports World

As a semi-regular attendee of the LCS, I was happy to hear similar chants of “T-S-M” in the screaming audience. On the flip side, Shea Lebaeouf “Just Do It” chants need to be laid to rest.

6. 20GX

Props to Gahtzu for winning 2 money matches against s2j and to Gravy for narrowly losing to PewPewU. They are showing great strides  in maximizing their punishes with reactive gameplay and cutting-edge movement.

7. Evo

I honestly don’t know what to think anymore. I’m going to have to throw darts randomly at a board to determine my top 8.