Early into Monday morning, hundreds in person and 40,000 on Twitch were yelling at NorCal’s Top 8 for I’m Not Yelling. Mango’s Falco running a train on the Foxes. Leffen’s three game comeback on PewPewU. Armada pulling out the Peach in Grand Finals. Mango’s staircase combo on Yoshi’s Story.

But that was last week.

Now we sit just a few days later with more storylines to discuss in the West, this time at MVG’s regional, Sandstorm. And following the events of I’m Not Yelling, this storylines entering this major are both abundant and important. Here’s why.

The Sinister Six

Sandstorm will be the first tourney to have five of the top six players present since Apex and before that Big House 4. Armada and Leffen, who are both confirmed, will be attendance, as well as Mew2King and Hungrybox, neither who were present in NorCal. Mango made the offhand comment during his post-tourney interview that he had to go. “I might go to Sandstorm. I feel like I have to. I mean, who’s gonna defend America from these dirty Swedes? It’s gotta be Mango.” He confirmed his attendance the following day on Twitter. Sadly, he also made the honest statement concerning PPMD. “PP’s not going anywhere. We’ll see you at Evo. That’s the only time I’m gonna see PP.”

Mew2King is making his first appearance at a major tournament since Apex (other than Shots Fired, which he won). In New Jersey, M2K had losses to Leffen, the first time the God Slayer had taken a set off of him, and a disappointing loss to Shroomed, the first time he has ever lost in the Sheik ditto. (Edit: M2K had previously lost the ditto to Shroomed last December at Pacific Northwest Regionals, 2-3. Thanks for the catch, Kongo and H0LT.) While their most recent set was a loss, M2K still has a 5-1 record against Leffen since Apex 2014, and the question remains if he will still have the advantage against the fundamental Fox, one of the only players Mew2King begins their sets with Marth.

After becoming the first god to place outside of Top 8 since the gods were established, Hungrybox took home the Paragon Orlando trophy, the first tournament he won with four of the top players present since 2010. But one week later at Apex, Hungrybox dropped another set to a non-god, PewPewU. And after finally gaining the edge on Armada’s Young Link, the newest class of 20xx inductee has made the decision to go exclusively Fox against Puff. As of right now, they’ve traded sets since the Fox switch. Sunday may be the opportunity for the tiebreaker.

And as for the three that attended I’m Not Yelling, all three have traded sets with one another at BEAST 5, Apex and just days ago. While Armada currently seems to have a slight edge sitting on his pocket Peach, it really is a tossup of which one is the true favorite. Mango discussed the idea of 20xx being a character counterpick meta post-tourney, and took to Twitter the following day, tweeting he may pull out the legendary Puff to counter Armada’s Peach.

Now that’s character counterpick the Melee scene would kill to see.

 

The Demigods

Right below the battle of the gods, there are a select number of players who all have their eyes set on those four spots left in the top 10 players. Four of those players will be attendance: Axe, Westballz, MacD and Wobbles.

Axe is everyone’s favorite “low-tier hero,” outside of maybe aMSa. Leaps ahead of the second-best Pikachu, Axe is preparing to hold down his home state with the unorthodox Arizona crowd behind him (i.e. Scrub That Dish). Outside of Hax and maybe Evo 2013 Wobbles, Axe has some of the best wins amongst his peers, including Mew2King, Hungrybox, Hax, Colbol and his classic win over Silent Wolf at Evo. But he’s coming off a 17th place performance at Apex in which he was double eliminated by NorCal’s elite (SFAT in winners, Shroomed in losers).

Westballz, who many considered to be among the top players, finished 33rd at Apex, sandwiched between a 4th place at Paragon and 5th at I’m Not Yelling. Similar to Axe, Westballz has done the uncommon and taken sets off of the top players, including Mango, Axe and much of SoCal’s finest. But 2015 has been an up and down year for Weston, with his placings as said above, as well as dropping sets to Duck, KirbyKaze and Eddy Mexico.

The odd-man out of the four listed is easily MacD, California’s Peach. While he may not have the caliber of wins that Axe and Westballz have, he does have what the other two have: placings. Since Big House 4, MacD has placed high at every major he’s attended, his lowest being 17th at Apex. On the flipside, his highest of those placings is 7th, which happened on three occasions. But you can’t argue with consistency. Now we wait for the self-proclaimed “best Peach in America” to break the curse and finish among the greats.

A late registrant, the Arizona semi-retired legend Wobbles looks to join Leffen as the only other player to defeat all five of the original gods. The problem still stands for Wobbles, and it looks just as bad as ever. The only player he has yet to take a tourney set from is Armada, mainly because of the difficulty of the Peach/Ice Climbers matchup. And with Armada playing Peach as a co-main, it’s still looking grim for Wobbles to get the last win on his historic checklist.

With both groups of players, we can feel a slight shift in power. During the Summer of Smash, week in and week out, it felt like Mango and Armada had the ability to win whatever event they chose. And they did, going back and forth between wins. But know we can sense a bit of vulnerability. Mew2King has dropped sets, as has Hungrybox. Leffen has experienced his share of close sets. Even Mango felt his back against the ropes against aMSa. Not all feels entirely normal amidst Melee’s top, especially entering Sandstorm.