In just a few days, the world’s finest players will be fighting it out on the grand stage. Apex 2015, in New Jersey, will feature 29/30 of the Top 30 on SSBMRank 2014 and over 70 in the Top 100. The melee action will include 3 exciting rounds of Bracket Pools that lead into the Top 8. A Melee It On Me show and Salty Suites will entertain viewers after hours. Read this article to see how you can tune into the action.
Streams:
Schedule
Full Schedule Here
All times EST
Thursday Night/Friday Morning
1AM – MeleeItOnMe Live Podcast on VGBootcamp Featuring Scar, Dr. Z, Juggleguy, and Tafokints
Friday
9AM – 9 PM – Melee Singles R1 Pools
9PM – 11PM – Melee Doubles R1 Pools
Saturday
9AM – 11 PM – Melee Doubles R2 Pools
11 PM – 1 PM – Melee Singles R2 Pools
1 PM – 4 PM – Melee Doubles Top 32 Bracket
4 PM – 5 PM – BREAK – Melee 1v1 Top 48 Analyst Desk Featuring Scar, Wife, and Tafokints
5 PM – 8 PM – Melee Singles Top 48 Bracket
8 PM – 9 PM – Salty Suite Preparation
9PM – 12 AM – Salty Suite (See below for more details)
Sunday
9AM – 11 PM Guilty Gear XRD Finals
1AM – 1 PM – Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 Finals
1PM – 3 PM – Ultra Street Fighter 4 Finals
3PM – 5 PM – Smash 64 Finals
5 PM – 8PM – Smash Wii U finals
8 PM – 11 PM – Smash Melee Finals
Salty Suite
9-9:45 PM – Melee Games Grand Finals
9:45 PM-10:45PM – Norcal Vs. Florida
10:45PM – 11:15PM – Kage Vs. Bizzaro
11:15PM – 11:40PM – Colbol Vs. Westballz
11:40PM – 12:05AM – Axe Vs. Silent Wolf
12:05AM – 12:30AM – Ken Vs. PC (MLG Stage List)
12:30AM – 1AM – Leffen Vs. Chillin FT5
Tafo Predictions
Everything remains uncertain, going into Apex. Is anyone fully comfortable predicting a winner? But alas, I must pick the list. Here are my predictions
1. Armada
Yes, it’s strange that I’m going with a player that’s been cold at Paragon and BEAST, losing to Hungrybox and Leffen. However, I am a firm believer that Paragon was Armada’s laboratory to experiment. His Fox shows promise in matchups that his Peach fails in. With a favorable route into Winner’s Semis (Duck –> Plup –> Axe), I believe he has what it takes to beat Hungrybox/PPMD in Winner’s Semis to advance into Finals. Fortunately, Armada and Leffen are on the opposite sides of the bracket and may not even run into each other, since Leffen is likely to face Mew2King in winner’s bracket.
2. PPMD
PPMD has the roughest route to Winner’s Finals with potential matchups against s2j/Wobbles and, later, Hbox. I am confident in PPMD revitalizing himself for Apex. He has strong fundamentals and spacing that do not disappear quickly. He has no matchups in which he’s an outright underdog and multiple characters to handle different players and counterpicks.
3. Mango
Am I sleeping on the kid? Isn’t that the first commandment of Melee? Historically, Mango has never done well at Apex (2010: 25th, 2012: 3rd, 2013: 4th, 2014:3rd). Perhaps, this may be a motivator for Mango as cynics can always cite that he never won an Apex. He’s been practicing with his Norwalk brethren, but something tells me that his focus is primarily to hang out with friends.
4. Mew2king
With recent losses to players such as Axe, Shroomed, Silent Wolf, and Fiction, Mew2king looks the most vulnerable to be upset and possibly be knocked out even before Top 8. Mew2king’s route into Winner’s semis remains straightforward as he plays HugS and the winner of Lucky/Ice, all of whom M2K is strong against. In Winner’s Quarters, he’s likely to play Leffen, another player that Mew2King does extraordinarily well against. While Leffen vows to improve in the Marth matchup, history has shown that Mew2King’s punishment game is too much for Leffen to handle. I have Mew2King losing to Mango in Winner’s Semis, where he is likely to play Axe or Wobbles, both of whom he will be ready for.
5. Axe
The man with an amazing Pikachu, Axe has a reasonable bracket into Winner’s Quarters with MacD followed by the winner of SFAT/Colbol. I think he loses to Armada in Winner’s Quarters, but then he’ll likely face either of the following: aMSa, Zhu, Lucky, s2j, depending on who wins out. Axe has seen a great deal of success against most of them. Although aMSa and Axe have never played, Axe routinely practices with V3ctorman, another strong Yoshi.
5. Hungrybox
Similar to Paragon, Hungrybox’s match against Armada will greatly effect his overall placing. If he wins, he’ll likely finish 2nd, but if he loses, then he’ll have a really tough route through losers with the potential to play PPMD, Leffen or a slew of Fox players.
7. Wobbles
The beloved Ice Climbers main, Wobbles has the potential to finish really far or lose early to s2j and have to deal with a tough loser’s bracket. Wobbles’ potential winner’s bracket run includes s2j, PPMD and Hbox, which is arguably the toughest bracket out of anyone. However, I would not count him out as he has shown potential in the past to defeat each of them. I’m riding high on Wobbles this tournament.
7. Leffen
Unfortunately, Leffen is the victim of his worst possible bracket at Apex with Mew2King in Winner’s Quarters. If he loses and falls into Loser’s, then he’s likely to play Plup and possibly Wobbles/Westballz/PPMD depending on how brackets play out. He’s a strong player and could easily Top 3 with an easier bracket, but Apex 2015 is not the case.
Knowing Tafokints, the opposite of what he says will happen. So congratulations to Leffen or Wobbles for the upset win at Apex!
Also, why is Brawl not in the finals on Sunday?
Thou shall not sleep on the kid. Nobody is above the melee commandments Tafokints.
Actually Wobbles said he would go Mario.