I hosted a Smash Ultimate Summit for my Subregion
by Louis Calone Jr. (Louie)
After a chaotic three month rollout, consisting of social media voting, local qualifiers, roster shakeups, and a weather related reschedule,
Long Island Summit finally came together.
What followed was one of the most volatile, storyline-heavy brackets our scene has ever seen. Which, despite the stress of running the event, was a thrill to see unfold!
Pools:
After a quick warmup with single elimination Random Team Randubs, the first set on stream was PkChris vs DTP from Pool 1, which would immediately set the tone for the rest of the event.
DTP and PKChris clashed in a nail-biting Game 5 set, with DTP narrowly taking the win.
Rather than folding, PkChris locked in with a 3-1 victory over Amaryllis, which gave him the head-to-head and game count he needed to cleanly recover and win the pool despite the early stumble.
Amaryllis bounced back by defeating DTP earlier on, as well as Pineapples to place 2nd in Pool 1.
Pool 2’s top seed was Wheezer, who looked composed and dangerous from the start, cleanly making it through his pool without dropping a set, but not without MintyFlesh pushing him to the brink in another tense Game 5.
Yufine would also prevail over MintyFlesh 3-2 to secure second place in the pool and quietly establish himself as a real threat.
Pool 3 was a little more volatile.
Moat and Amayné traded blows on stream in yet another Game 5, with Amayné barely surviving.
Amayné would also notably go Game 5 a second time with VB3, surviving another close call to win his pool.
But don’t cry for Vinny quite yet, because he would go on to reverse 3-0 Swish, who was on Mii Gunner, and shortly after shutting Moat down 3-0, making his claim to second place.
Pool 4 delivered both dominance and foreshadowing.
Stratas defeated MeKa 3-1, MeKa notably stealing a game with the switch off of Min Min to Falco. An omen for a set yet to come.
SoulArts, however, was untouchable. He cleaned up the pool, 3-0ing Stratas on stream and only dropping a single game to Meka’s Min Min.
Meka rounded out the pool with a clutch Game 5 win over Cajun Lady’s Diddy with a Ness/Falco combo.
Gauntlet:
All four Pool winners earned safe passage into Winners Quarters.
Everyone else had to survive the gauntlet…lose here, and you were officially on borrowed time.
DTP tore through his gauntlet over BopIt! and Stratas, both 3-0, making yet another statement right before the Final Cut.
MeKa would follow suit, defeating his fellow StonyBrook player Pineapples 3-1 right before taking the win over Moat 3-1 as well.
VB3 would beat Cajun Lady 3-1 before running headfirst into Yufine, who shut him down 3-0 in the ditto.
MintyFlesh defeated Swish, only to be immediately stopped by Amaryllis in a decisive 3-0.
Final Bracket:
Starting in loser’s bracket with those who did not survive the gauntlet,
Moat eliminated BopIt! 3-1, Stratas would take it over Pineapples 3-0, Swish sent Cajun Lady home 3-0, and MintyFlesh knocked out VB3 3-1. All to tie for 13th place.
Winners Quarters was where the Summit truly earned its name. Peak Smash Bros with almost every set going the distance.
Yufine shocked the room with an intense Game 5 upset over PkChris, actually making a comeback while at 103% in the final stock of the set, slowly and methodically chipping his way to Bell Up-Smash percentage, sending the first seed of the tournament down into loser’s early.
SoulArts and Amaryllis delivered one of the most intense sets of the tournament. Not having faced each-other in bracket since July, it was anyone’s guess as to who would take the win.
Ending in another Game 5, SoulArts would win in another final stock situation, where Amaryllis would whiff an air-dodge read, SoulArts responding with an F-Smash at 76% on Town and City to edge out the victory.
Wheezer barely held off MeKa in yet another last-game thriller, with the underdog Min Min multi-character specialist actually going up 2-1 during the best of 5 set. But alas, it was not enough to overtake the power of Nolan Wheezer, who would promptly make his way to Winner’s Semis.
Meanwhile, Amayné made a clean statement with a 3-0 over DTP, demonstrating his unmatched discipline on the sticks with Link.
The 9th place round was full of intense heartbreaking sets.
DTP, falling from winner’s, would fall 3-2 to Moat, who would use this set as a jumping off point for his momentous run through top 8.
MeKa, also falling from winner’s side, would run into a familiar face. Utilizing his earlier counter-pick, he would take Stratas to the wire in, you guessed it, another Game 5 set. Stratas would take the set, but the 9th place finishes for both MeKa and DTP hold more than meets the eye.
Both competitors finished the day with outstanding wins and are starting their respective seasons off very strong!
Jake Swish would activate his trap card, the Piranha Plant, against Amaryllis, putting it all on the line with his back against the wall. Sadly, he could not convert this play into a victory, succumbing 1-3 to Amaryllis and ending the day at 9th place.
PkChris began what would become a legendary run, dismantling MintyFlesh 3-0 to secure top 8 and ignite his run.
But before we can discuss that run, we first must talk about Moat’s warpath to top 4, defeating Stratas 3-1, and then Yufine, fresh off his semifinal loss to SoulArts, 3-1 as well.
On the other side of winners Semi’s, Wheezer survived yet another Game 5 against Amayné, and would follow this by defeating SoulArts 3-1 to claim his spot in Winners-side Grand Finals.
And now, finally back to PKChris’s run to end all runs.
After his aforementioned dub over MintyFlesh, He would absolutely tear through the rest of the Loser’s bracket. Chris 3-0’d both Amaryllis and Amayné back-to-back, reverse 3-0’d Moat to end the other extended losers run of the night, survived a back-and-forth Game 5 against SoulArts, and finally to top it off, put on an absolute clinic in Grands, 6-0ing Wheezer from losers side to take home the crown, and stand solely at the top of Long Island Summit.
This event was far from perfect, and if I were to have tried to do it all on my own, it would never have been possible.
Despite having to deal with start.gg’s weird custom bracket functions during gauntlet, having to make a new event for top cut, commentary mic’s dying, stream audio being delayed, and even having my wifi crap out on me halfway through the event, hearing the positive reception from all the people attending made it worth it all.
Thank you to BopIt! and Dannizura for providing a majority of the equipment, and helping me with start.gg and setting up the side and main stream. Without them, Long Island Summit wouldn't have happened.
Thank you to SEN Poopie for doing all of the promotional doodles for me.
Thank you to Tal_Dave for making the custom LI Summit Logo Pokemon Stadium 2 Mod.
Thank you to Player 4, GutBustr, Wildogz and Mr. E for providing commentary for the main stream.
Thank you to MintyFlesh for ordering pizza for everyone during the day.
Thank you to all of the attendees for making Summit such an unforgettable experience.
Last, but not least, thank you to everyone who followed along during the entire process!
I had an awesome time creating this little personal passion project alongside you all.
Truly, from the bottom of my heart, Thank you.
