I hope none of you had money on those fantasy brackets, as no one was expecting what just transpired at CEO over the weekend. In one of the most unpredictable and nerve-wracking tournaments in Smash 4’s short history, we saw top players not even make top 32, low tier characters felling the best of the best, as well as one of the most explosive grand finals sets in a long time. It’s fair to say that the results of CEO have had some earth-shattering consequences, both on the global rankings and in the run up to Evo. It really is all to play for when everyone descends on Las Vegas in just over two weeks’ time, so prepare yourselves for even more madness.
Beware the Shark Infested Pools
In most tournaments, getting through pools is no problem; so much so that players have even suggested that top competitors should be floated straight through to bracket. Hopefully, the calamitous results for some players during the pools stage should show just how important the pools process is for every single entrant that attends a major. First off, it was not exactly the best showing for the newly signed Trela, not even making out of pools after there being significant talk of him actually taking the whole tournament. His very first match saw him up against one of Florida’s hidden bosses, Bowser Jr. main, Jade, which resulted in a 2-1 victory for the hometown heroine. Jade’s usage of the Mechakoopa and her masterful edgeguards proved too overwhelming for Trela’s Ryu, sending him into losers during his very first game. He was then dispatched by his old main from Brawl, falling to another Floridian, Mika. This loss should hopefully not dishearten Trela too much, but strengthen his resolve to fight harder and really make a mark at Evo. As long as he doesn’t turn into Evil Ryu, he should come through in Vegas.
The Florida crowd was clearly baying for blood, as yet more top players would fall to the might of the Sunshine State. Orlando’s own Prince Ramen took a huge victory over TSM|ZeRo, beating him 2-0 with Palutena, a character that is considered to languish in the bottom tiers according to many players. A lot of people will be wondering if Palutena’s placement in the tier list will radically change after this but I doubt there will be a massive surge of new Palutena players. Elsewhere, Ally was also knocked into the losers bracket early by yet another Florida player by the name of Blue Beast. While his Corrin may have won the first set, Ally did come back through losers side of the pool to beat Blue Beast in the runback and to qualify into top 64. However, this losers run would last all of a game, with Ally then losing to fellow Mario main Zenyou in round 1 of top 64, sending him out at 63rd place.
Those were the main three shockers in pools, but plenty of others either went out or were sent to losers in these shark infested waters, including Panda Global’s MVD being double eliminated by BigLou, falln being sent to losers by Mr E and notable Anther’s Ladder Samus IcyMist eliminating both Seagull Joe and Tremendo Dude from the tournament.
The Midwest Monkey Master
Let’s move on from losses to look at the breakout performance of CEO 2016. While Zinoto’s placements have been slowly improving ever since Genesis 3, his play during CEO was simply bananas. After qualifying winners side for Top 64, Zinoto ran through Z, Team Liquid’s Nairo with an impressive 2-0 victory, Team eLevate’s Larry Lurr with a super close 3-2 win before finally falling to DreamTeam|Dabuz and his oft-picked Olimar which put in double duty over the course of top 64. In losers, Zinoto only picked up steam, ploughing through SmashFactor’s Hyuga before meeting up against Abadango and forcing him to pull out his old main of Pac-Man. Twitch chat and Twitter went wild at the return of the Pac but this comeback was not to be, as Zinoto clutched out the win to get the runback against the man who knocked him into the losers bracket. Zinoto must have downloaded Dabuz’ matchup file into his phone mid-game as he was able to smash through Olimar and make his way to grand finals versus another Dream Team member, ANTi. While the first set was a clean 3-0 victory for Zinoto, the CEO belt was not his this day, with ANTi winning convincingly in the second set. While many expected a Mario versus Diddy grand finals, I doubt anyone thought that it would be Zinoto instead of ZeRo that would be taking that spot. Congratulations to Zinoto for such a brilliant performance, sending him up the Panda Global Rankings and positioning himself as the best solo Diddy player in the world.
Diversity’s The Name Of The Game
Throughout the tournament, character diversity was what stood out to many spectators, as seen through the triumph of certain low tier characters during the pools stage of CEO. This trend continued into top 16 and top 8, with top 16 having a total of 20 different characters on display while top 8 had 13 different characters being used in-game. Diddy Kong took the top spot with over 43 games being played with him, with Sheik in second with 23 games followed by Mario with 12 games. Notably, no one in the whole of top 16 used Zero Suit Samus, a character who usually featured heavily in any Smash 4 top 8 due to the presence of players like Nairo and Marss while characters like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong got a look in. It’s a testament to how volatile Smash 4 still is when it comes to deciding top tier characters, as well as the importance of counterpicking characters, as seen with the success of ANTi, Dabuz and Abadango. Match up inexperience seems like the downfall of many of the top players who would have featured within top 16 of CEO so people really need to hit the books and get practicing those low tier matchups, or you may see a top 10 player get bodied by a Wii Fit Trainer come Evo top 128.
The Red Rebellion Makes an Impression
While people with old standing sponsors may not have made the best start, new sponsors had their players showing up to dominate the Smash 4 bracket. One of these players was Fox master Larry Lurr, who after a possible shaky start during the pools stage of CEO, hit his stride and began to make his way through bracket on target to win the whole event. However, as mentioned earlier, a certain Diddy Kong from the Midwest did not like that idea, sending Larry to losers earlier than expected and forcing him to have an early encounter with ZeRo, who was currently in the middle of demolishing everyone in his way in losers. To say that stakes were high going into this match is a slight understatement, with the Smash room of CEO being crowded full of people ready to see this runback after the results of 2GGT: Mexico Saga a few weeks before.
Larry’s Fox must have drawn power from the spirit of Melee itself, as the Red Rebellion Fox looked unstoppable in the face of ZeRo’s Diddy. The most brutal of shinespikes and the fair spike/footstool finish in game 3 were the perfect way to mark a landmark moment in Smash 4 history; a top 8 where ZeRo would not feature. While this victory was momentous, the momentum was not quite enough for Larry, losing to Abadango’s Mewtwo in the next game and sending him out at 7th place. With yet another victory against ZeRo under his belt, Larry is certainly one of the ones to watch going into Evo and I think Team eLevate are rubbing their hands in glee at their signing.
ANTi’s Ascendency
Speaking of teams being happy with their signings, I’m sure Dream Team has cracked open a bottle of champagne after their two players earned both 1st and 3rd at CEO 2016. While Dabuz performed to expectation to his current rank 3 position of the PG Rankings, this tournament will be remembered for ANTi’s dominating performance throughout the bracket. Not only did he enter the top 8 ring with arguably the best entrance of any player at CEO this year, his impressive run through Nick Riddle, CLG|VoiD, False, Mr-R and fellow teammate Dabuz to reach grand finals put him on pace to take the CEO belt. Zinoto did not go down without a fight however, winning the first set with a fast 3-0, even beating ANTi at a Diddy ditto just to prove that he was the better monkey master. However, ANTi must have achieved a Limit Break in real life, switching to Cloud in the second set after a short consultation with Nairo offstage and subsequently brutalizing Zinoto’s Diddy. His Cloud play was some of the cleanest I’ve ever seen, using Nair to mix up his aerial chases and getting some perfect Limit Cross Slash reads to send Diddy flying into the blastzone. Not even the Diddy council of MVD and ZeRo could bring Zinoto back from the brink, as ANTi upsmashed his way into the history books, finally winning a major and the CEO championship belt.
CEO 2016 has caused a seismic shift for Smash 4, showing how there truly are no gods of the game and that the top spot is still there for the taking by anyone who really wants it. Evo is set to be a complete slobberknocker, as those who placed high try to prove their legitimacy while those who missed out on glory try to reclaim their rightful position. All I know is that be careful with your sidebets come Evo weekend, it’s anyone’s game.
Sources: smash.gg, r/smashbros , feature image c/o Robert Paul
