Month: February 2017

In dominating fashion, TSM|ZeRo racked up another Saga win over the weekend by taking first at 2GGC: Midwest Mayhem Saga. His run saw him defeat players like the recently sponsored P1|Tweek, MSF|Larry Lurr, Ac and UCBEA|Locus, to cement his place at the 2GG Championship Finals at the end of 2017. Besides a close call with Larry Lurr–who has a history for taking down ZeRo during Sagas–ZeRo looked unstoppable throughout the tournament. Tweek only managed to take one stock in his Grand Finals set against ZeRo, with the world number one locking Tweek down on the ledge and never letting him get back on stage. Even Tweek’s DK could not discipline ZeRo’s Diddy, resulting in one of the most one-sided Grands Finals I’ve seen for a long while.

Tweek did have to fight for his life to get to Grand Finals, having super close sets with CLG|VoiD and two intense Cloud dittos against fellow Buster Sword wielder, komorikiri. It was quite the overcast Losers side actually, with three Clouds facing off against each other to try to make Losers side of Grands. While Tweek and komorikiri were on form, the man with the silver lining was Chicago’s best player Ned, who racked up some amazing wins against players in the top 20 of the Panda Global Rankings. With wins over VoiD (rank 6), Larry Lurr (rank 5), Zinoto (rank 16) and fourth place finisher at Genesis 4 CaptainZack (rank 20), Ned cleared showed that his position at rank 50 is well need of some further evaluation.

Speaking of players causing upsets, one must mention the California Falco and Meta Knight player Ac, who stunned pretty much everyone with his performance at Midwest Mayhem Saga. Starting off with a 2-0 victory against Circa|6WX with Falco, a character many consider as low tier, Ac turned more heads in top 48. Inching out a 3-2 win over Ned before losing to ZeRo, Ac managed a 3-1 win over the USA’s best Peach Samsora, before losing to PG|Rich Brown 3-1, sending him out at seventh place. Definitely keep an eye on this bird at future California events.

With much of the Smash 4 world being scattered to the four winds this weekend, with players at other events like Tokaigi 2017 in Japan and ARFI in Austin, Midwest Mayhem Saga was truly a SoCal/Midwest showdown, with SoCal holding its ground against the Midwestern invaders. Let’s see if the Midwest can defend their territory when the world comes calling at both Frostbite and Midwest Mayhem 8 in the coming months.

As ZeRo has already qualified for the 2GG Championship Finals, points from Midwest Mayhem Saga have been split among the rest of top 8. The current standings have ZeRo out in front with 256 points, with komorikiri in second with 96 points, Tweek in third with 80 points and VoiD in fourth with 30 points.

RESULTS:

1. TSM|ZeRo (Diddy Kong, Sheik/USA)
2. P1|Tweek (Cloud, DK/USA)
3. 2GG|komorikiri (Cloud, Sonic/Japan)
4. Ned (Cloud/USA)
5. PG|Rich Brown (Mewtwo/USA)
5. MSF|Larry Lurr (Fox/USA)
7. AC (Falco, Meta Knight/USA)
7. CLG|VoiD (Sheik/USA)

The next Saga on the card is the much awaited Civil War Saga, where Team Ally and Team ZeRo will clash to see which side is the best. The final teams have been decided and you can check out who is rallying behind who in the video below. At the moment, many reckon that ZeRo’s team will blow Ally and friends out of the water, but careful counterpicking and strategy may see Ally seize the day. Much of the PGR top 20 will be attending Civil War and with both pride and precious 2GGC points on the line, expect no mercy from anyone in bracket.

Sources: smash.gg; 2GGaming