Ultimate Summit Recap
The Summit series officially came to Smash Bros. Ultimate in early March. Few things get the Smash community as excited as a Summit — an event that pits the most competitive and most hyped players against each other in a laid back, friendly setting. The freshness of the game and the creativity of the players was on display, as the bracket was full of 3-0’s. The adaptability and the talent of the pros shined through brilliantly too, as the bracket had a number of back and forth 3-2’s. Team Liquid’s Dabuz and Alliance’s Armada saw their fair share of both.
Melee legend Armada struggled the more of the two, but that was to be expected. After a few months of tournaments, friendlies, and boot camps, it became clear that the Melee pros would need to work more on their Ultimate fundamentals than the Smash 4 players, as Melee’s game engine is very different from Ultimate’s.
Armada consistently leveled up through the tournament, starting off with a rough loss to VoiD’s godlike Pichu and ending by beating Maryland and Virginia’s finest, ZD, and the former Smash 4 champ Zero. He ended up losing to Cosmos, a player that placed 7th at Frostbite and Genesis. Though he lost, he showed a lot of improvement within the set itself, taking a game off of an ink-bomb snipe that reminded everyone why Smash fans call him the Swedish Sniper.
Dabuz continued his own trend of upward growth by getting a 2nd place finish. Dabuz fell out of the Winner’s Bracket when he lost to Japan’s best player, Zackray, and from there went on a Loser’s Bracket run of legends, 3-0ing top players left and right. Dabuz 3-0’d a Melee legend Mew2King, one of the world’s best Inklings in Cosmos, Europe’s best player in Glutonny, and his longtime bracket demon, Nairo. He even clutched out a nail-biting 3-2 win against Samsora by switching from Olimar to Rosalina in game 5. While he lost to MKLeo 3-0 in Grand Finals, he brought every game to a last stock situation. With his Summit performance, Dabuz showed that he isn’t a top 10 player, he’s top 5 at least!
Meanwhile, on the mic and in the skits, Chillindude was quietly killing it. He debuted his hugely popular new talk show, Chillin, and lead his team to a commentary crew battle win that was so convincing that he didn’t even have to play.