I'm back! and this time not so tired that I can barely even write the damn thing. Well, okay, by the time it was done, I was pretty fucking tired. The -1 column was the last I had to do, and by the time I hit that I was fucking done. Anyway, this is a recap of Let's Make Big Moves, the TriState major. I covered all 64 of the Top Seeds, as well as the Top 64 placements.
Note: If you are one of the listed players and want to contribute a quote, please let me know.
Disclaimer 1: Not all runs are created equal. Some players needed to take on monsters to get their placement. Some less so. This is not meant to be an objective quality match-up of players.
Disclaimer 2: If a player had a bad tournament that doesn't make them a bad player. It is easier to perform below your standard then above. Thus, one tournament can make a career, but it can't break it. There are many reasons players lose.
As fans we have a responsibility to be good to players. They cry and sweat for us. The goal isn't to make players stress out about individual placements more, but to catch interesting story lines and data. Don't be a dick to players.
Disclaimer 3: It is easier for a low seed to overperform and for a high seed to underperform. Seeds are a stand-in for expectations. The bad part of high expectations is that beating them is hard. One should consider equal levels of over-performance to favor higher seed players in terms of level of impressiveness.
Disclaimer 4: An issue with seeding is just as good an explanation for some of these cases as bad play is. It is not always possible to tell the difference.
How to Read This: Number indicates placement relative to expected placement. The number reflects losers round expected to lose in vs actual loss. If a player was seeded between 13 and 16, that means they were expected to go out at 13th place. Thus, if they got a +1 it means they got 9th place. If they got a -1 then it means they got 17th.

+5 or More (Star Turn)

(TG) MVD. PGRU 17. 31st Seed. 5th Place. (+5) - The notion that MVD needs a star turn is absurd. He's been a top player since Brawl. Yet, there's a reason he was seeded 31st. At LMBM, he broke his streak without a Major Top 8 since Low Tier City by nikita'ing Wishes, Dark Wizzy, and...wait are you kidding...Tweek into the blastzone. If your goal is to make it forget the last six months happened, that's one way to do it.
(Nfinite) Toast. 66th Seed. 13th Place. (+5) - A Young Link main who has been on the radar as a potential top player. He made big moves (I will never apologize) towards that by nearly beating Tweek in winners before going on a run through losers including Fsharp, Wishes, VoiD (Sad SoCal Hours) and LingLing. I'm calling it now. I think Toast is Season 3 PGR.
Toast on his results: "It had been eating at me lately that I would place well but not get pgr wins, so someone told me to always play like me at all times and to never forget who I was when playing, so I held it close to heart this tournament and felt more confident than I had ever been, and thus played like me."

+2 to +4 (Strong Tournament)

(DA) Sinji. PGRU 25. 39th Seed. 9th Place. (+4) - To me a case of underseeding. Sinji has only got less than 25th at one Ultimate tournament so far, and that was Smash Con. He got 25th on the PGR and he was seeded to be out before Top 32? At you kidding? He got wins on LingLing, Gen, and (tragically) Riddles while losing to Dark Wizzy and Nairo. A clear mistake.
(R2G) Kameme. PGRU 19. 11th Seed. 3rd Place. (+4) - Finally, the EVO 2016 finalist makes Top 8 at a US S-tier. He came damn close (9th) at EVO, so this is great to see. He was lucky in that he avoided a seeded match against Tweek. But, this was no fluke. He beat Venia, Marss, and Maister while only dropping sets to two Top 10 players in Dabuz and Nairo.
(TR) Zomba. 84th Seed. 17th Place. (+4) - Gotta check my notes here. Zomba is...a child. Yes. He is a 14 year old from Staten Island. Mains ROB/Link/Roy, and this is his first major. Also his Twitter is distinctly run by a 14 year old and is thus awful. But, his Smash game is pretty fucking good. He knocked out Uncivil Ninja and Raito in losers. There was some luck in that he got Elegant’s empty pool. But, some of his wins were better than the pool leader he replaced. Oh god, this kid is going to be unstoppable in about a year.
Apollo. Unseeded. 33rd Place. (+4) - A Tristate smasher who mains Duck Hunt, but I saw VoDs of him playing like Peach and Icies and some other wacky shit. A key participant of the insanity of the bonkers pool C5, where he outzoned Black Twins to win a big upset and benefited from Rfang going down earlier leading to two unseeded players escaping pools.
AceAttorney. Unseeded. 33rd Place. (+4) - I had a hell of a time researching them. "Ace Attorney Smash Bros" does not take you to a player page. Apparently a NJ Zelda main. Clearly they're pretty good since they beat MattyG and JW.
(NRG) Nairo. PGRU 8. 4th Seed. 1st Place. (+3) - Guys, is Nairo number 2 in the world right now? He's had a near unbroken string of Top 4 finishes ever since Shine, consistently banished his demons, and now he's taken home the largest Ultimate tournament he's ever won. He beat WaDi and then narrowly lost to Dabuz in Winners. But that just seemed to activate "pitbull on cocaine" mode. He proceeded to crazy man through losers, taking out Sinji, Maister, MVD, Tea, Kameme, and finally getting vengeance on Dabuz in an overawing bracket reset grand finals. Fitting that his biggest win of Ultimate to date happened so close to home too.
(Liquid) Dabuz. PGRU 7. 5th Seed. 2nd Place. (+3) - Dabuz right after Nairo, huh? Fitting. Yet again, being a Dabuz fan means heartbreak. He came back from a fairly lackluster season to get a lot of great wins here. Wins like Raffi-X and Uncivil Ninja are just the ball to the real lip of it. Kameme, Nairo, and Tea. His 3-0 over Tea banished a former demon of his using new Rosa tech he invented. But, his run ended tragically as Nairo manage to reset Game 5 of Grand Finals on last hit. After that Dabuz deflated. You could see his elusive first major tournament win slip through his fingers. Dabuz in Ultimate is like watching a Greek Tragedy.
Tea. PGRU 15. 9th Seed. 4th Place. (+3) - Don't gotta lot to add. TeaPacMan Wakka'd through Marss, Samsora, and Light, while only losing to the top 2 finishers. We're all so used to Tea breaking ankles that it's almost not surprising anymore.
(T1) ANTi. 59th Seed. 17th Place. (+3) - ANTi was once one of the best smashers, as his Meta-Knight pick reminded us, but he really has not gone all in on Ultimate. It was a nice run, including small but meaningful wins on Big D and Epic_Gabriel. Not huge names, but hardly nothing either. Sadly, he ran into fucking Maister not once, but twice, and didn't take a game in either set. Brutal. I'm pretty sure that's against the Geneva Convention.
(DU) Bankai. 77th Seed. 25th Place. (+3) - NY ZSS and PKMN Trainer main. He got this +3 through a combination of NickC getting sick, the chaos of Pool C5 letting him dodge a ranked opponent in losers...and getting a small upset on his own friend Zan, the SoCal Toon Link Player. Zan’s tweet on the subject is a tragedy in three acts.
(lluZ) BONK!. 103rd Seed. 33rd Place. (+3) - a Meta-Knight from Philly. His upset over Ned was probably the most wild upset of pools that didn’t involve Pool C5.
(SH) TheRed. Unseeded. 49th Place. (+3) - Snake main who is apparently PR’d in Massachusetts. Got wins on Vivi and Diabeo. Also helped contribute to sending False packing from the tournament. So props for that?
(US|RIP LGBB) Mr. Mojo Risin’. Unseeded. 49th Place. (+3) - Okay okay so. This guy is seemingly Tristate, seems to use Donkey Kong a lot, and is distinctly a fan of the Doors. He’s on the list for upsetting the Sonic player UR2Slow and because Rivers decided to go to MagFest and DQd.
TonyZTank. Unseeded. 49th Place. (+3) - HE IS THE ONE RESPONSIBLE. Okay so, Pool C5 turned into a massive cluster fuck with both its leads, Rfang and BlackTwins getting upset. Tony here upset Roach, before losing immediately after...but then somehow managed to get out of pools in the slot that Rfang and Blacktwins weren’t fighting over, then beat...Daybreak and Raptor? Fucking chaos. Who is this guy? Sonic main from Nebraska? I asked RFang on twitter and Rfang said “Bro I don't fucking know either lmfaoo. All know is he might be the greatest sonic to ever do it”.
Cosmos. PGRU 11. 16th Seed. 9th Place. (+2) - That’s more like it! Cosmos fell off from his Season 1 Top 15 status hard in Season 2. Cosmos is relentlessly likeable so it was kind of hard to watch. 9th is still not where he used to be. Especially with Raffi-X and Larry Lurr as his biggest wins. Not bad, but it was his close set with Dark Wizzy, who is probably presently Top 20, that gave me hope. Is Season 3 the season Cosmos recovers from his anime girl induced bout of madness?
(3D) Gen. PGRU A51. 27th Seed. 13th Place. (+2) - One of Tristate’s best talents who never travels. I wonder who he’ll face!? Venia. Suarez. Sinji. Laid is slightly out of state, right? And he even faced one foreign player...and it’s Maister. Fuck. Oh well, at least he did well. Maybe that means he might travel more?
(djb) Laid. 46th Seed. 17th Place. (+2) - The Lucina from New England. The lord of the Side-Bet Discord. As near as I can tell, he didn’t get any upsets himself. Just benefited from Rivers ditching for Magfest and LeoN getting upset by Epic_Gabriel. But, he somehow made an 8:1 bet on Nairo making a reverse sweep on Maister, so he probably made more money than some of the people who actually placed.
Riddles. 34th Seed. 17th Place. (+2) - Someone on twitter asked over the weekend what players people just love watching. Besides NickC (obviously) the most common answer is Shut- ...Riddles. That only grows more true with each passing tournament. Not only did he dominate the crew battle, but he went on an epic run at LMBM. After losing in pools to a...gotta check my notes here...a chair from twitter, he went on a massive losers run, including Ned, Enzo, Z, and even Tweek himself, before losing to Sinji. Fucking beautiful. I just wish we got a proper stream of his match with Tweek. I wanted to watch that shit so bad I was hunting for phone vids on twitter.
Epic_Gabriel. 51st Seed. 25th Place. (+2) - ROB Main from Florida. This tournament was lousy with high placing ROBs, really. Skynet basically came online. He got a big ‘ol on-stream win over LeoN, which is where the entire +2 comes from. LeoN’s a for sure PGR win, so a round of applause is in order.
SKITTLES!. 69th Seed. 33rd Place. (+2) - The best player in Nebraska. I’ve definitly talked about him before but am way too rushed to figure out in which one. Got wins on Atomsk, Sharp, Comona, and Odyssey. Nothing big, but a healthy spread.
(Drexel) Yoda Cage. 122nd Seed. 49th Place. (+2) Philly based Boswer JR and DK main. Managed to get wins on Benny&TheJets and Mata-Door. However, this all might be bracket noise from Shuton falling sick. Someone should play Diddy Kong and call themselves “Baby Yoda Cage”.
(ATU) Mekos. 116th Seed. 49th Place. (+2) - One of the few relevant Lucas players. He got an upset on Venom and then benefitted from the chaos from bracket C5 by avoiding BlackTwins or RFang.
Sharp. 101st Seed. 49th Place. (+2) - Not FSharp the Canadian, Sharp is the #1 player in Rhode Island. He went all Shiek in bracket and upset both RFang and Dazai while taking NickC and Skittles to Game 3. Especially impressive because playing Shiek in bracket is like playing “Smash Bros: Dark Souls” where you do no damage and everything else two shots you. I see some potential here.
(NVR) SAUCE. 98th Seed. 49th Place. (+2) - Mario/Roy main. Got small upsets on Chrismus and PowPow, and benefited greatly from Lima oversleeping and getting DQ’d.

-1 to +1 (Normal Tournament)

(MVG) Dark Wizzy. PGRU 31. 10th Seed. 7th place. (+1) - Dark Wizzy has completed the transformation from “Good player who says Mario shit on twitter” to “Consistent Top 20 Player”. Nothing here was that shocking. Wins on Sinji, WDGTHTBP, Cosmos, Z, and John Numbers. Losses to Marss and MVD. But, the regularity is his Top 20 appearances is something you love to see. It is fairly brutal watching him try to play his way through the badness of the Mario-Zss matchup though.
(lluZ) Raffi-X. 21st Seed. 13th Place. (+1) - Raffi doesn’t really feel like a Top Player yet, at all. Yet, he consistently gets Top 16 or better at Super Majors. My first impulse was to just claim he lacks top player wins...but actually Goblin and Raito are pretty fucking good wins. Maybe, he just needs to be memorable? Has he considered a catchphrase? “I’m Raffi, and when I’m done with you, you’re going to be Taffy!” Yeah, not sure. He’s increasingly a contender for not only Number 2 ROB...but a challenger to WaDi for the top spot. Don’t let a single word of this come across as an insult to his skill.
(T1) LarryLurr. 32nd Seed. 17th Place. (+1) - SoCal! SoCal! SoCal! We actually got someone into Top 24! We didn’t even get anyone into Top 32 in our own Tournament at Kongo Saga. This was a legitimately great result for the long time pro, including wins on Dill, Lui$, and a SoCal Teamkill on Sparg0. Okay, fine, it was only kind of a team kill, but we’re still claiming him. We’re Desperate.
Uncivil Ninja. 37th Seed. 25th Place. (+1) - Sad to say, but you should probably treat this one as -1. He got a + bump from NickC getting some kind of illness, presumably a bad case of Spiking Fever for Dairing so many fools. But, before this could be translated into any kind of run, he got sent to losers and then upset by literal child Zomba.
(lluZ) Jakal. 33rd Seed. 25th Place. (+1) - Not a lot to say about the TriState Wolf main’s performance here. He got a literally one seed upset over Larry.
(Ho3K) Frozen. PGRU 46. 61st Seed. 33rd Place. (+1) - I am not sure how he ended up in 33rd. I think Elegant’s DQ might have been the factor. I am also skeptical because of his proximity to the esoteric cursed pool C5. I am pretty sure this is just bracket chaos though.
(16B) LingLing. 58th Seed. 33rd. (+1) - The Peach Queen (King) of the North East. On examination, he actually should have got -1 because Toast upset him, but Shuton falling sick and fusing with Riddles left the bracket slot open.
(3D) Juuuuul. 49th Seed. 33rd Place. (+1) - Probably the only relevant player (outside of Texas) who uses Robin. No, that time Nairo pulled her out doesn’t count. He got a strong upset over Mr E, but got one back from DM. A mixed bag overall?
(BCe BBM) Beast. 83rd Seed. 49th Place. (+1) - PKMN Trainer from Philly. Got knocked into losers relatively early by Pazda, but actually got strong wins on Kofi and Tamim before being taken out by Suarez.
(Sinai) DM. 80th Seed. 49th Place. (+1) - A New England Top Player and one of the few actual Pikachu players with actual relevance. He got an upset on Juuuul, but I’d honestly say his losses were more impressive. Lui$ and Cosmos. Ain’t no shame in a scorecard like that.
(Evil) Nelvin. 78th Seed. 49th Place. (+1) - Another NE crab person. This time a Diddy main. Seemingly no upsets in either direction. Just got a +1 downstream because Purity beat Juice and Nelvin beat him.
(Ho3K) Ralphie. 74th Seed. 49th Place. (+1) - A Tristate player who used Wolf last I checked. But, I think that means, like all wolf mains, he dropped her for Palu. That was a joke. I hope. I think what happened here was he dodged facing Riddles or MVD because some chair from twitter upset Riddles, so Ralphie wound up with a less menacing foe.
WaDi. PGRU 24. 13th Seed. 13th Place. (+0) - WaDi did fine. WaDi always does fine. There is probably no more player who more consistently gets Top 16 in Ultimate. The problem remains same as ever. Top 16 isn’t Top 8. Oh well. Someone oughta give a “Let’s Go WaDi!” for old times sake.
(TG) MuteAce. PGRU 27. 24th Seed. 17th Place. (+0) - Not totally sure what happened here. Mute got upset by Stocktaker in one of the loudest matchest of the weekend as measured by Yerrr-Per-Minute. But, he came back with a pretty decent losers run, including a win on Jakal, that was only put to an end by an explosive set with a freshly upset Light.
(APE) Goblin. PGRU 39. 20th Seed. 17th Place. (+0) - A +0 by result, but probably in the - column when it comes to dignity. Goblin actually did fine. He lost to WaDi in winners, but fought all the way to the edge of Top 16 before suffering a tiny upset from Raffi-X. That last stock ended in a pretty intense cross-stage 0 to death by Raffi-X that appeared to break him. Goblin then proceeded to go on a pretty fucking intense twitter rant (mostly about how much he hates ROB) that was a little extreme even as the art of post-loss twitter rants go.
Suarez. PGRU 49. 35th Seed. 33rd Place. (+0) - Nothing to report. The Tristate Yoshi won/loss to seed.
Smokk. 48th Seed. 33rd Place. (+0) - Kind of a sad case. The Quebecois, who used to main Gannon but now plays mostly Wolf, actually got a bit win. Lui$ money. Depending on if Suar ever puts out PGRU 2, that could be an actual PGR win. Too bad MuteAce got upset early, and was standing right in his way...with a desire for vengeance against wolf players.
(lluZ) Enzo. 47th Seed. 33rd Place. (+0) - Philly based Joker main. For someone only at his second major to date, he did really well. And by really well, I mean “Upset VoiD”. So yeah, good shit. Sadly, after a loss to Wishes, he wound up stuck in Riddles freight train path through Losers Top 128. Oh well, two Top 100 losses and a pretty good win. Ain’t no shame in that.
(Ho3K) John Numbers. 42nd Seed. 33rd Place. (+0) - No upsets either direction and good losses in the form of VoiD and Dark Wizzy. John frequents PGStats and I’ve only ever had positive interactions with him.
(GG) Stocktaker69. 41st Seed. 33rd Place. (+0) - The Tristate Wolf player. Got a big win over MuteAce in what I heard, both from viewers and from the background Tristate-ing of the streamed matches. But, quick losses to Tea and Lui$ put his run to an end right after. Still technically a good run. Got an upset without being upset. Shame it didn’t translate to placement.
(XTR) Sparg0. 40th Seed. 33rd Place. (+0) - More of the same here. The North Mexican/SoCal Cloud child prodigy (not that prodigy) actually got an upset on Mr E, but his run was stopped by Light and Larry Lurr. Neither an upset, and the latter a team kill. Tragic stuff.
(Ho3K) Dill. 64th Seed. 49th Place. (+0) - A New York ROB, widely seen at one of the city’s rising stars. Sadly, he didn’t get that energy infusion the other ROBs got. Went par with his seed. No surprises.
Klaatu. 63rd Seed. 49th Place. (+0) - NorCal Olimar main. Suffered a small upset from Toast, who spent the rest of the tournament taking names and kicking ass.
(2scoops) Zan. 60th Seed. 49th Place. (+0) - SoCal (SIGH) Toon Link main and former seeder. Mostly did okay, but got upset by his friend Bankai. Also, beat a player named Boys ll Mensch, which if an objectively funny name.
(NPT) BlazingPasta. 56th Seed. 49th Place. (+0) - Philadelphia Peach/Daisy. Seemingly lost early MuteAce, but somehow made it to his seed? Ugh. I’ve been writing this post for like 12 hours. Someone else can dumpster dive into bracket to figure out how that happened.
Maister. 6th Seed. 7th place. (-1) - The most likeable hateable man in Smash. I know I’m not supposed to bash characters here. G&W mains read this shit too. But, there is something so viscerally unenjoyable about watching Maister out frame-data people into oblivion. I’m not saying it isn’t smart or that there’s something wrong with him doing it. It is simply aesthetically repulsive. And make no mistake “oblivion” is where he sent people. Maister continued his string of Top 8s with wins on Gen, Anti (twice. Poor man), Toast (RIP), and a Samsora who looked like he was having his soul removed from his body. I’m pretty sure there is no player who has the potential to change the meta quite as much as Maister at present.
(Rogue) Light. PGRU 10. 8th Seed. 9th Place. (-1) - Light was unremarkable. Thankfully, Light is still a blast even when he’s just doing okay. He knocked out WaDi and MuteAce, lost another set in his absurd game of back and forth with Tea before ending in a New England classic. Marss vs Light. Perfectly respectable result.
Wishes. PGRU 21. 15th Seed. 17th Place. (-1) - This is supposedly Wishes last tournament. I’m willing to buy it, if only because his interest has seemed in free fall for months. As far as career endings go, this is a whimper, not a bang. The expected wins, but then an upset at the hands of MVD followed by a second from Toast. There was a point where Wishes was one of the most exciting names in Ultimate. Time is a bitch.
(DA) Venia. 22nd Seed. 25th Place. (-1) - Don’t let the number fool you. He did fine. The New York Greninja managed to get a win on fellow Greninja (frog battle for dominance) JW, and traded upsets. Suffered a small one from Gen. Got a pretty notable one on LeoN. Evens out north of good, methinks.
(CLG) VoiD. PGRU 9. 18th Seed. 25th Place. (-1) - Everything is Darkness.
Lui$. 17th Seed. 25th Place. (-1) - Just a mediocre result overall for the NorCal Fox player. Beat DM and Stocktaker, but Smokk and Larry both got wins on him. The losses look a lot worse then the wins. Also, holy cow that’s a lot of wolves. Lui$ bracket was more furry than Cats 2019.
(Cacaw) Big D. 30th Seed. 33rd Place. (-1) - The giant of British Columbia smash. I believe we got to see some of his icies gameplay in a set on stream vs Suarez, but he was largely a non-presence for the rest of bracket. He lost early to ANTi, which makes sense because ANTi for sure knows how to kill icies from his brawl days.
JW. 43rd Seed. 49th Place. (-1) - Greninja from Ontario. Not a lot to report here. He suffered a big loss to AceAttorney, the NJ Zelda. Not a lot else to add here. With the exception of Smokk and Riddles, this was largely a not-great tournament for Canada, and this only continued the trend.
Tamim. 62nd Seed. 65th Place. (-1) - "With the exception of Smokk and Riddles, this was largely a not-great tournament for Canada, and this only continued the trend.” Equally applies here too. The former Smash 4 Top 10 player continued his run of “eh” results that followed his return to the game. Lost to Marss, unsurprisingly, and Beast, more surprisingly.
Z. 55th Seed. 65th Place. (-1) - The Canadian Palutena, not the Pikachu from Nevada. Seemed to do mostly fine here. Just went out one round early as a consequence of Riddles’ train run through losers.
(djb) MattyG. 54th Seed. 65th Place. (-1) - Chrom from New England. Had a mostly normal run until he ran into AceAttorney, the Zelda main, who sent him out a round early.
Daybreak. 52nd Seed. 65th Place. (-1) - Wolf Main from Michigan. A frequent resident of this segment of the list. He actually got a win on Bankai, who ended up on in the + column. But, he went out early when he ran into TonyZTank, the Sonic main partialyl responsible for the shit show in pool C5.

-4 to -2 (Weak Tournament)

(PG) Marss. PGRU 3. 3rd Seed. 5th Place. (-2) - Remember that time at Frostbite when he single handedly took on like half of Japan? Well, this time Japan struck back. He lost in winners to Kameme in a close set, and then fell in an equally close set against Frostbite antagonist, Tea.
(lluZ) Juice. 38th Seed. 65th Place. (-2) - Got upset in winners by a player named Purity (Bayo or Palu). Sadly, the early bracket was full of upsets, so this led to an early run in with LeoN and a failure to even make top 64.
Venom. 53rd Seed. 97th Place. (-2) - Got upset by Dazai and Mekos. They’re both pretty well known, so no harm no foul.
(SSG) LeoN. PGRU 35. 14th Seed. 33rd Place. (-3) - There’s a schrodinger’s box quality to LeoN. He has the potential to play like a Top 15 player. But, sometimes he’ll just be a pretty good regional player. Beating Juice and Hazmatt but being upset by Venia and Epic Gabriel is more the latter then the former. It’s frustrating because LeoN is such a treat to watch that you can’t help but want him to Side B his way through bracket.
(Demise) Mr. E. PGRU 38. 25th Seed. 65th Place. (-3) - Mr E shouldn’t have gone absolutely MadMan during the crew battle. After beating Kameme in that, he walked into bracket and lost to the decidedly not Kameme level Juuul as well as fellow Crew Battle Peak-er Sparg0. Gotta save some of that jet fuel for bracket.
(TG) Raito. PGRU 20. 12th Seed. 33rd Place. (-4) - I have no idea what happened here. Raito went down way early against Raffi-X and Zomba. This isn’t that bad, I think? Raffi is for sure Season 2 PR so that’s respectable. Zomba is a big ‘ol question mark, but he also beat Uncivil Ninja, so he’s clearly not some fluke.
(OES) Rfang. 29th Seed. 97th Place. (-4) - I’ve mentioned the chaos of pool C5 elsewhere, but after getting upset by a Sonic from Nebraska, Rfang had to crawl out of pools over the body of fellow Pichu. When discussing his results on Twitter, a drunk RFang told me to “Let the Reddit people know I woke up 10 min before my pool and I couldn't even up throw thunder”. The run continued on just as bad a trajectory when he was knocked out by Sharp in his first match of day 2.
(Armada) Ned. 26th Seed. 97th Place. (-4) - A mix of an upset and bad luck. He lost to the Meta-Knight BONK in pools. He might have had a chance to made a strong losers run if he hadn’t run into the also upset Riddles, technically seeded bellow him but an absolute killer.
(Mazer) Cyro. 44nd Seed. 129th Place. (-4) - Would it be a results list without a SoCal name near the washout segment? He lost in pools to the DK player Cee and the MewTwo Zapharos.
UtopianRay. 57th Seed. 129th Place. (-4) - Not sure what happened here. He drowned in pools to jamajaro and Diabeo. The latter of whom, at least, is a fairly well known name.
(EMG) Blacktwins13. 36th Seed. 129th Place. (-4) - One of the first major upsets of the tournament. He faced the local Duck Hunt Apollo and seemed totally lost in the unique Trench-War type dynamic of the DH matchup. That bad result compounded when he ran into fellow Pichu RFang in losers for 129th. As Duck Hunt Dog might say...Ruff.

-5 or Lower (Wash Out)

(EU) Samsora. PGRU 4. 1st Seed. 9th Place. (-6) - He faced Tea in Winner’s Quarters and Maister right after in Top 8 qualifiers. Pac-Man and G&W, two famously bad matchups for Peach. MuteAce's exact killers from his Summit bracket, actually. We got to physically watch on stream as Samsora seemed to deteriorate in the face of such a seemingly hopeless situation. By the time the ordeal was over, he looked like all fight had left his body.
(TSM) Tweek. PGRU 2. 2nd Seed. 25th Place. (-8) - Tweek randomly washing out early is a fairly common occurrence nowadays. It’s not like MVD and Riddles aren’t two killers who can easily take sets from Top 10 players on the right day. But, despite this tournament being home turf, he just didn’t really seem to show up much at all.

Final Analysis

There is a lot to like about Let's Make Big Moves. Just as a series of games of Smash Ultimate, there was a lot of really thrilling a fun content here. Any tournament so heavily dominated by Nairo is bound to make a fun watch. Oh, there was some slowness because of a lot of zoners doing well, but I found most of it pretty interesting on a tactical level. On a raw storyline level it was sometimes downright Shakespearean.
Not too much to report on from a technical side. Some small complaints about delays, but nothing overwhelming. A few poor choices in terms of the slides during the dead air. But, we got enough streams and there were no horrifying delays, so not a big issue. I do wish that we'd get less over-focus on one side of bracket during Top 128. But, it wasn't like we didn't get any matches from the other side of bracket.
What, this tournament is getting crucified on, and I think rightfully, is the commentary. A lot of the critiques focus on how barren it was in terms of top level casters. The Rod the Dutch/Korean team for finals had no chemistry and was so boring I switched to Coney's re-stream. Though, in truth my biggest issue with the commentary was that time Censored made an anti-semitic joke on the mic. That shit ain't professional.
Next review I do will probably be for Genesis and/or EVO Japan. It comes during a rough time for work for me, so we'll see. The issue of two super majors running against each other is complex. Tell me in the comments how you want me to handle it? Should I just cover one? If so, which? Or should I take a little bit longer and do both?
Past write ups: Frostbite, Ultimate Numbus, Collision, Prime Saga, Pound, Get On My Level, Momocon 2019, Smash N' Splash 5, CEO 2019, Albion 2019, Low Tier City 7, Super Smash Con 2019, Shine 2019, Glitch 7, Kongo Saga.

2020...so far

So how bad has it been? When I started this, it was because I was bored. I wanted to see just how much shit has happened. Midway through, I was shocked. Then finally sad and angry.
-Enjoy!
2020
Jan 1 -Australia is on fucking fire. Like all of it. And Hong Kong is too?
Jan 2 I think Turkey just murdered an Iranian general in broad daylight. Great start so far, 2020. HK police are reported to have used excessive force. See, America is still an influence on the world!
Jan 7. I heard there is a virus named because you drink Corona beer?? Shit sign me up, I can use a few days off.
Jan. 8. Remember when Iran launched two missiles at a US Base? Also, Russia may have shot down a Ukrainian airline killing 173 but I'm not sure.
Jan 11. That virus just killed someone. Shit don’t sign me up.
Jan 16. Seriously, does anyone remember that the impeachment of President Trump was this year? I sure as shit didn't.
Jan 20. The first 'Rona case in the US. Yes, this thing has a meme.
Jan 23. Lockdown in Wuhan. Not the rap song, an actual lockdown of 11 million
Jan. 26 fuck.
Jan 31 I am sorry, did you say Brexit actually HAPPENED?
Well January, you sucked. Taking Kobe was a real dick punch, but February has to be better.
Feb 4. Iowa Caucus-shmacus, what is the hold up here?
Feb. 5 How do you fuck this up? Trump really gets to stay. Wow.
Feb 11 Due to the impact on Latin-created beer the virus is now known as Covid-19
Feb 24 Is this really the highlight of the year? Harvey goes to jail for being a rapist.
Feb 27 Dow drops over 1100 in one day. Speculators rejoice! Meanwhile in Syria, Russia shows how much fucks it gives again and strikes 33 Turkish soldiers dead.
God damn it, what the hell 2020?
Mar 5 ICC allows for the Afghan War Crimes inquiry allowing US citizens to be investigated. Bet you didn’t know that one, huh?
March 9 Dow drops 2013 in one day making Feb 27 look like baby cakes.
March 10 Hey, remember when they locked down an entire city? Italy said, "I think that we can top it."
March 11 The WHO declares the coronavirus a pandemic. What. The. Fuck.
Mar 12 Dow drops 2352 in one day making 1929 look like baby cakes. Also, MLB postpones their season and I can decide which is more important here.
Mar 13 RIP Breonna Taylor. President Chump, err... Trump declares national emergency finally.
Mar 14 Spain lock-down
Mar 15 Ides of March, aye?
Mar 16 Dow drops 2352 in one day making... wait, is this the new norm?
Mar 17 Iran announces millions may be infected. 90% of cases so far in the Middle East are here. Sorry Iran, shitty year for everyone, we will get through it.
Mar 20 20k dead from Covid-19 so far. Oh man this is going to be bad. CA becomes first US state to lock-down. Ahh, no place like home.
Mar 24 India goes into full lock-down. India. Yeah, the billion-plus India. Plus, no Olympics this year. Bummer.
Mar 27 North Macedonia becomes the 30th country to join NATO. God damn it I am reaching for something good but I got nothing. NOTHING!
Mar 30 A passenger train derails near Chenzhou, China, killing one person and leaving 127 people injured. Oil drops below $23, lowest since 2002 - ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.
Eyes closed:
April will be better. April will be better. April will be better. April will be better. April will be better.
Open eyes:
FUCK!!
Apr. 1 What the hell is Tiger King?
Apr 2 Covid-19 coming in hot, number of cases passes 1M worldwide
Apr. 4 Turkey hides Ministry of Interior after riots erupt in a large prison due to fears of Covid-19.
Apr 5 QE II addresses the UK for the 5th time in 68 years. Also, do people really think 5G will give you Covid-19?
Apr 6 Russian Imperial Movement is labeled a terrorist group. They are, but it also happened today.
Apr 7 Japan passes $990B in relief of Covid-19. or 20% of their GDP.
Apr 8 Say it ain’t so, Joe? Biden becomes presumptive dem nominee as Bernie drops out.
Apr 9 NY state declares more Covid-19 cases than any country in the world. Yep, you read that right.
Apr 10 Russia shows how much fucks it gives yet again by saying they do not have plans to discuss oil market turmoil. Death toll for Covid-19 hits 100k worldwide. And the first case of Ebola since Feb...wait, what the fuck? One virus at a goddamn time, 2020!
Apr 12 Pope Francis live streams the Urbi et Orbi blessing for the second time in just a month. This is only supposed to happen at Christmas or Easter. Jesus. Christ. Literally.
Apr 14 US President Trump announces the US is suspending funding of the World Health Organization (WHO). Yeah you read that right. Suspend during a fucking pandemic. Your President ladies and gentlemen. IMF also says we are going into something akin to the Great Depression.
Apr 15 Tax Day delayed, so there is that. Covid-19 passes 2M cases worldwide. Tour de France also delayed. I guess steroids don’t work on the virus.
Apr 17 UN announces Myanmar has been carrying out daily airstrikes that at least 32 civilians (mostly women and children) have been killed since March 23
Apr 19 Israel hits the streets in protest to Bibi and his corrupt government. 17 dead in a killing spree in Nova Scotia. Unrest starts to break out in Paris, Berlin and other cities opposing the lockdown
Apr. 20 So let me get this straight, oil is so cheap you will pay me to take it? I see you, 2020, I see you. Also, The Industrial Bank of Korea to pay US$86M and will enter a 2yr deferred prosecution agreement to settle with US DoJ and the state of NY for a 2011 scheme to help transfer US$1B to Iran. Bibi finds a way somehow again to stay. Tom Thabane resigns from Lesotho as PM, showing that killing your ex-wife is wrong there too.
Apr 21 Mozambique police say 52 male villagers were killed by Islamist militants for not joinging.
Apr 22 Iran's Islamic RG Corps deploys the country's first military satellite.
Apr 25 separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) announces the establishment of a self-rule administration in southern Yemen. This is bad, like, really bad. Also, the global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 200,000.
Apr 27 The Pentagon formally releases three videos of "unidentified aerial phenomena" encountered by the United States Navy. Cases of COVID-19 passes 3 million worldwide
Apr 28 Protests erupt in major cities across Lebanon for the second day over the country's continuing economic problems.
Apr. 29 Who didn’t see this one coming? An asteroid zooms past Earth with an approach of 0.042 AU (6.3 million km; 16 LD). That’s pretty effing close, man.
Apr 30 The government of Sudan criminalizes female genital mutilation. OH MY GOD SOMETHING POSITIVE!!!!!!
I don’t want to do this anymore.
May 3-4 Silvercorp USA and Operation Gideon. Blackwater eat your heart out. Silvercorp, you too. Please. Literally. I think we lost the driver of this bus somewhere in 2019.
May 5 The UK death toll from COVID-19 became the highest in Europe at 32,313 after exceeding the death toll of 29,029 in Italy.
May 6 New evidence indicates that an Algerian-born French fishmonger, who had not traveled to China and did not have contact with any Chinese nationals, was treated for pneumonia from an unknown source, now identified as COVID-19, on December 27, 2019.
May 7 11 people die and over 5,000 fall ill from a styrene gas leak in India
May 9 Chinese and Indian soldiers are injured in a cross-border clash at Nathu La
May 10 The Iranian Navy frigate Jamaran accidentally strikes the Iranian support vessel Konarak with a missile, killing nineteen sailors in friendly fire. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 4 million worldwide. Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic, reports its first coronavirus cases in more than a month
May 12 Gunmen storm a maternity hospital and kill 24 people in Kabul. In Kuz Kunar a suicide bomber kills 32 at a funeral.
May 14 The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 300,000.
May 18 UN announces 700k affected in recent 2020 East Africa floods
May 25 RIP George Floyd
May 26 And the people react.
May 27 RIP Tony McDade. RIP Calvin Horton, Jr. RIP David McAtee. RIP David Patrick Underwood. RIP Myqwon Blanchard.
Also, China closes autonomous Hong Kong with legislation. U.S. death toll passes for Covid-19 100,000 - more Americans than were killed in the Vietnam War and Korean War combined and approaching WW1 levels.
May 28 The Denver Post photographer is struck with pepper bullets. Not an accident.
May 29 Omar Jiménez arrested while giving a live CNN television report in Minneapolis. Linda Tirado, a freelance photojournalist, was hit in the eye with a rubber bullet or a pellet by the police in the same city. In Louisville, Kentucky, an officer fired pepper bullets at a reporter from NBC affiliate WAVE who was reporting live on air for her station.
May 30 RIP Barry Perkins. RIP James Scurlock. RIP Sarah Grossman. RIP Chris Beaty. RIP Marvin Francois. RIP John Tiggs. NYPD vehicles were recorded ramming into protesters. a Reuters crew were fired on with rubber bullets in Minneapolis. Deutsche Welle journalist Stefan Simons and his team were shot at by police in Minneapolis. Lesson of the day: DO NOT EVER GO TO MINNEAPOLIS.
May 31 RIP Dorian Murell. Police pull Taniyah Pilgrim and Messiah Young over, breaking the windows, yanking Taniyah out of the car and tasing Messiah. Justin Howell. Minneapolis PD thinks they are in GTA San Andreas and do drive-by chemical sprays. Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, a reporter for Los Angeles NPPRI affiliate KPCC was hit in the throat with a rubber bullet. Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske reported reporters and camera crews being at the receiving end of tear gas by Minnesota State Patrol, while the same happened to an KABC-TV news crew in Santa Monica. Detroit Free Press journalists were pepper sprayed by the city's police, as was KSTP reporter Ryan Raiche along with other journalists. BBC cameraman, Peter Murtaugh, was purposely attacked by police on May 31 outside the White House. Murtaugh filmed a line of police officers charging without warning, whereby a shield-wielding officer tackled Murtaugh to the ground. Also, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 6 million worldwide
We are killing each other.
I. Don’t. Want. To. Do. This. Anymore.
June 1 David McAtee RIP. Italia Marie Kelly RIP. In Cicero, Illinois, two men were fatally shot in separate incidents following an "afternoon of unrest" - Jose Gutierrez and Victor Cazares Jr RIP. In Las Vegas, police shot and killed Jorge Gomez RIP. Australian journalist Amelia Brace and cameraman Tim Myers assaulted by United States Park Police. President Dickhead clears a path to an old church for a photo op with a bible. That path is cleared by tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash grenades.
June 2 Blackout Tuesday. Unidentified looter in Philly shot and killed and another severely injured while attempting to break into an ATM. RIP David Dorn. RIP Sean Monterrosa. Leslie Furcron shot between the eyes with a bean bag. Grand Rapids PD goes ballistic and pepper sprays everyone. $5B class action lawsuit is filed against Alphabet Inc. and Google, alleging the company violates users' right to privacy .
June 3 RIP Robert Forbes. General Keith Ellison increases the charge against Derek Chauvin. Cyclonic Storm Nisarga hits Mumbai. 20,000 tons of oil leaked into the Ambarnaya River.
June 4 Buffalo PD shows just how tough they are when they almost kill a 75 year old man. Then say Martin Gugino attacked them, only to change the story yet again when the video comes out. I see a running theme here with these folks. Also, Prez Chump puts new fencing to expand the White House perimeter, and continues to hide in a bunker.
June 7 COVID-19 pandemic: The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 400,000.
June 8 In Seattle, wannabe anarchists attempt to steal BLM movement with Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 7 million worldwide
June 9 George is finally laid to rest, RIP.
June 11 NASCAR bans Stars and Bars 150 years after those traitorous assholes lost. I guess better late than never. But 150 fucking years! Oh yeah and some jackass named Ray Ciccarelli quits because of it. Ugh, it never ends does it?
June 12 Ok at this point 2020, can you please just give me a week where nothing happens that signals The End is near? How about a rainbow, you got any of those anymore?
-OUT

Top 100 Players of All Time! (20 - 16)

We're getting close to the goal. No use beating around the bush, let's get to the next five players.
20. Jouske
(Samus)
It's a shame that Smash 64’s scene doesn't receive much attention, because Japan's premier old school player was a force to reckon with in the early 2010s. Many players like to compare dominant players of one region or time period to a more famous player of another. For example, Ek is sometimes called “The Ken of Europe.” Wizzrobe is sometimes referred to as “New Mew2king”. I could call Jouske the “ZeRo of old school smash 64.” The “Armada of the OG game.” But, in reality, throughout his multiple accomplishments, he is one of the players we should be calling the X of. What's most impressive about his short, yet remarkable career is that he did it with such a bad character. Solo-maining Samus, a low mid tier at best, he dominated the scene in a time when the top tiers had a fierce hold on the game's tournaments. In his best years, Jouske showed exceptional skill never seen before in matchups like Kirby (40-60) and Pikachu (30-70). And this wasn't just with Samus. Of course no one saw a Samus main making those strides. But no one saw what he did with really any character.
In recap, Jouske practically created the Samus metagame, was the best player in Japan for a while, and became one of the first big online 64 players. Of all of his achievements, his advancements in character spacing is one of the best. In the same way that Ken's dash-dancing molded the way that every Melee player has approached the game since, Jouske's implementation of pivoting has popularized the mechanic in all versions of the game. He wasn't the first good player to use it a lot, but he was the first to use it at a Top 5, Top 3 level. Remember, he did all of this: with a low tier character. The highest ranked Top 100 low tier hero and an inspiration for 64 players worldwide, Jouske is one of the greatest Japanese players, greatest Samuses, and greatest Smash 64 players. It's no wonder he got this high. Let's keep going.
19. Larry Lurr
(Fox) (Falco) (Falco) (Wolf) (Falco) (Donkey Kong)
Do you hate Falco? Most Brawl players did in 2010 before Larry Lurr, then known as “DEHF” (Does Everyone Hate Falco?), astounded everyone by tearing through GNES, Mew2King, Atomsk, and Brood twice with a low tier character to take Apex 2010, the third biggest Brawl tournament at the time with a low tier character. Are you telling me Falco wasn't low tier in Brawl? Maybe that's an answer to Larry's question. Irregardless, Larry's incredible run exalted him as one of America's premier players for years to come. Although he definitely slipped in the latter years of Brawl, his legend continued in consistent success in Smash 4.
While definitely not as noteworthy as ZeRo, Nairo, or others, Larry's post-Brawl accomplishments are definitely nothing to scoff at. His repeated successes to showcase his abilities to compete with the best shouldn't be overlooked. One aspect that really mars his legacy on Smash 4 is his consistency, ironically. While consistency is the trait that gave ZeRo and Armada fame, by being ranked around the 6th to 7th range most of his career, Larry's consistent placings were 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, or 7ths, not as consistent 1sts or 2nds. Aside from his 2nd place at 2GGT: ZeRo Saga that was vastly overshadowed by MkLeo's performance at the event, Larry never had any watershed moments for his Smash 4 career, like PC Chris's MLG New York Opener, or Zain's Shine, so his Smash 4 legacy is often down played.
Does everyone hate Falco? Who knows. What do we know? That Larry Lurr's incredible career of over 8 years has turned him into a household name worldwide.
18. wario
(Pikachu)
You know this guy has had a long career when he made his tag the name of a character that’s been in the series for 11 years, before the character was added into the game. Of all the Smash 64 players around his tier, wario has one of the longest and most successful careers. Although the competition is stiff, it’s reasonable to say that wario is the second greatest Smash 64 player of all time. But what distinguishes wario against the others? Early Smash 64 had one of the most separated scenes in smash’s history. The American and Japanese scenes never interacted in tournaments and very rarely online so the metagame for each evolved independently as the game grew. Each community played on a different version of the game so things couldn’t be more different too. Where North America saw the rise of Pikachu, 64’s best character, right as the game launched, Japan lived in the era of Kirby. Consistently, up to half of Smash 64 Top 8s were Kirbys while Pikachu remained less popular. I can’t say that Pikachu was thought of bad in this era, but not as good as Pikachu. Did wario show them wrong.
It’s hard to create storylines for these players when there aren’t many results available and I don’t read Japanese, but it didn’t take any time for Wario to go from struggling in big events to a tournament winner. Until the modern era of 64, he swapped his claim to the best in Japan with Jouske almost every year until 2015, when Wario solidified his position as the best in Japan, and, probably, the world. Probably, that’s the thing. There was still a lot of crossplay between regions, but the best Smash 64 player in 2015 was still a giant question mark. The Japanese scene was respected overseas, but North America had its fair share of talent, not to mention little Peru’s budding competition. Even Brazil had some dedicated good players ready to show what they were made of. Genesis 3, in early 2016, was set to settle the score, determine who was really the best player in the beloved 1999 classic. Genesis 3 was the biggest Smash 64 tournament at the time and is arguably the game’s most important tournament of all time for its reunion between each scene’s best players.
This is a blurb on Wario after all, so I bet you can guess who won. By the end of 2016, wario had answered the ever burning question: he was the best Smash 64 player in the world, and by a respectable margin. Wario hasn’t matched his 1st in 2016 since, but is still a Top 5 tournament threat when he plays, recently being the runner up at Smash Con’s 64 event this year. After swimming against the current, being ahead of his scene’s meta, and just being an incredible player, wario is highly respected among SSB fans and fans from the whole series alike, and is, undoubtedly, one of the best to ever do it.
17. Azen
(Marth)] (Sheik) (Lucario) (Link)
Whenever I ask people who were the two players they remembered most after watching the documentary, the same two names are usually brought up: Ken and Azen. Ken is obviously higher up on the list, but what made Azen so good? Like many of the players in this area, the Virginia player had a long, successful career. He was consistently Top 6 player, won nationals in his home state as well as abroad, you've heard this all before, I'm sure. In this blurb, I want to highlight just how much he changed the meta though. In the early days of Melee, few things were universal between scenes. Aside from the high standard of Sheik and the competition was 1v1 play, the West Coast, East Coast, Japan, Europe, everywhere conflicted on rulesets, tier lists, playstyles, hell, even the legality of items. Even in this chaos, Azen showed the world just how lethal his flagship technique was: L-cancelling. L-cancelling was always in Melee, sure, and it was a feature in Smash 64, but many players were skeptical of his utility. A different time, yeah. Azen took L-cancelling to the next level, advancing aerial pressure to a new height never seen before. And which character did he do it with? Was it his Marth? His Sheik? No, Azen popularized a universally used mechanic with Link, the shitty low tier. Yeah, he was that good. The popularity that Azen gave the technique prompted Sakurai to remove it from subsequent versions of smash. Not many can say that their advancements have risen all the way to the big man himself.
I touched only briefly on Azen's career to highlight his metagame impact, but Azen had a really, really good career. Even though he played in a time when the competition wasn't as stiff as now, the skill and mastery he had over the game was matched by few. I don't know why I'm really continuing, if you really want to know more, go watch the documentary. We all know it, Azen was one of the GOATs.
Two cool side notes: First, Zagenite was one of the first prolific counterpickers of smash as a whole. He usually went Marth in tournament, but especially in his first couple years competing, Sheik, Link, Peach, Falco, and more were not out of the conversation for friendlies and tournament sets. Secondly, Azen was, by a good margin, the second best Brawl player in 2008. When Brawl was released, it definitely split the community, but Azen maintained a love of both games, at least in 2008. He was wildly successful too, appearing in the Grand Finals of every tournament he competed in, so he's no type of one-trick pony Melee player as what meets the eyes.
16. PPMD
(Falco) (Marth)
The doctor's grand return to Melee earlier this year came with enthusiastic celebration from Melee fans and energetic, albeit confused enthusiasm from Ultimate players. But who is PPMD anyways? First known as Dr. PeePee (yes, Dr. PeePee), the North Carolinan Falco quickly ascended the ranks of his state's small scene. There, PP was kind of stuck. Good competition didn't exist for miles, especially because of the sparseness of the 2008 scene, the players in his state were several leagues of skill below him, and netplay hadn't been developed for another 6 years. What did Kevin do? He trained and he trained and he trained by his lonesome, practicing techskill, edgegaurds, and neutral whenever he could find adequate opponents. By the time the first decently sized tournament occurred in the Southeast, PPMD had already made a name for himself as one of the best players in the region. At that point it was just up to him to make that leap to godhood that many have failed in the past.
Many would say that that leap to godhood happened at Pound V. Let me set the stage. All of the best Melee players including all of the gods (all four of them at this point) competed for the crown at one of the biggest tournaments in the game's history. Who made it to the Grand Finals? Legacy Mew2King, best player of the previous year, Hungrybox, ever consistent Mango? No, it was the southern Falco guy and Armada. Whoever walked away the victor would set their name upon the short list of those who have won a Melee major and did PPMD earn it. The Pound V Grand Finals is one of the greatest Melee sets ever. Not only does the gameplay still hold up today, but the atmosphere exactly lines up with the high stakes of the tournament. The set's most memorable moment, the blackout at the end of the set, can be viewed as an analogy for PPMD's career: a bright flash and then it's over.
PP ended up winning Pound V, but his momentum from 2011 victory didn't last as long as you would think. By 2014, only a few years after, he started feeling the effects of his medical condition, and by 2016, he effectively stopped playing completely. Just like all short and sweet careers (think Tupac), PPMD is still hailed as one of Melee's greatest of all time. His playstyle was/is something that we haven't seen in really any other player in the past or since. It's been described like water: optimal and complete adaptiveness to the player at hand, turtling, pressure, zoning, and aggression are all fair game for him. In addition PPMD's advancements in the Falco metagame have completely changed the way people view Lombardi's matchups against floaty characters as well as developed the way Falcos complement Mango spacing lasers with precise PP style dash dancing. And lastly, with his sets against Mew2King, PPMD has advanced the Marth ditto to new heights and spacings that few have reached, mostly because the king never had an equal in Marth until PP picked up the character. And this is all in one game! PPMD's innovative game style, amazing work ethic, metagame advancements, and national wins have grown him both a large fan base for good reason, and a spot in a list of smash's most respected.
See you guys tomorrow for the next five. Happy Holidays!

Retreat, Hell - Episode 4

A/N: So, here is Episode 4! In this episode, Michaels bumps elbows with the higher-ups, and we learn the U.S. battle plan. Not a very exciting post, but you get some character background, and a few key elements are laid out or set in motion.
This episode could probably use another editorial pass, but so could the last three episodes. I'm also going to be real busy the next couple days, and I wanted to be able to work on Episode 5 over the weekend, which jumps back to Bradford's perspective, and should be much more fun to write, so... fuck it.
Hope you all enjoy, and as always, feedback is welcome.
EDIT: I now have a Patreon page!

Retreat, Hell – Episode 4

[First][Prev][Next]

“Well that escalated quickly…”

“Say again, sir?” Barakis asked.

“We’ve been in-theater, what, a day-and-a-half?” Michaels asked.

“About that long, give or take.”

Michaels nodded. “And I’ve already been relieved by a four-star general.” Michaels nodded at General Langstrom, on the other side of the room.

Barakis snorted. “Are you actually upset about that?”

“Not in the goddamn least.” Michaels inclined his head at the young Ganlin Supreme Commander and the gaggle of lords jockeying for position and influence around him. “The generals can have all the fun of that political clusterfuck all to themselves.”

“Don’t speak too soon, sir, that political clusterfuck is headed this way.”

“Ah, hell…”

“Colonel! Sergeant Major!” Yangri greeted them. He held out a hand, and they shook in the Ganlin way.

Probably some political power-play, Michaels thought.

“The speed at which your forces have constructed this fortification is nothing less than astounding, and what I can see of your world through the portal is incredible!”

“Our Marines are good at what they do, sir.”

“Indeed, they are!” Yangri flicked his ears straight up. “We all saw that first-hand yesterday!” He glanced across the room, filled with row upon row of metal folding chairs facing a projector screen. “Perhaps when we are done here, you could give me a tour? I would love to see more of your world.”

“Probably not, sir. My battalion is one of the few that was able to respond at full strength, and we’re going to be at the front of this thing before the big push even starts.”

“Ah, I see. Your men need you,” He nodded, his ears sagging a little. “Still, I’m saddened that we will no longer be working together. My army owes you and your men their lives.”

“Just doing my job, sir,” Michaels replied.

“His proper form of address is Lord General, Supreme Commander, or your grace,” one of the Ganlin generals snapped. “He is not a mere sir to you.”

“Lord Nahfi, do not be disrespectful, we owe this man more than just our lives, we owe him our kingdom!” Yangri glared at the offended general, his ears twitching flat against his skull for a moment. “”Sir” is a general honorific in the human tongue, applied to all superiors, with no class distinction.” He flicked his ears back in Michaels’ direction with a subtle smile. “Besides, I imagine his exploits will soon have him elevated to a higher status.”

Michaels struggled not to shift awkwardly from foot to foot. Yangri wasn’t wrong, but… “I wouldn’t say that I’ve done anything any other Marine officer wouldn’t have done in my place, sir.”

“Ah, come now, Colonel, our two militaries cannot be that different. Battle and victory bring promotion! With the campaign ahead, surely you and your men will see plenty of both.”

“I’m just a battalion commander, sir, all of this theater-level stuff is a bit above my paygrade.”

Yangri chuckled. “Between you and me, Colonel,” he said with a sly flick of his ear, “I wish it was a bit above mine.”
Michaels cocked an eyebrow.

“My father did, too. There is something more… honest about the battlefield. At least there, you know who wants to put a knife in your back.” He flicked his ear again, and Michaels wasn’t sure if it was just the keshmin version of a wink, or if it was a subtle nod in the direction of one of the “Lord Generals” behind him.

“Alright, everyone, let’s get started,” Langstrom called out, saving Michaels from further discussion.

“Duty calls,” Yangri said, waving at the rows of chairs before them and heading back to the Ganlin side of the room.

“And thank god for that,” Michaels muttered under his breath after the Supreme Commander left.

“Not too loudly, sir, I think their hearing is better than ours.”

Michaels snorted, but held in a smart remark as he took a seat.

The Ganlin leadership took up the front corner of the chairs, but the vast majority of them were filled in by the commanding officers and senior enlisted members of over eighty different battalion-level commands, their regimental equivalents, and the command staffs of First Marine Division, Third Marine Aircraft Wing, and First Marine Logistics Group. Several Army and Air Force unit commanders were also present, along with two Navy Captains. The command staff of I Marine Expeditionary Force took up the half of the first row not occupied by the Ganlin contingent.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Langstrom said, stepping in front of the dark projector screen. “We have a lot of work to do, and not a lot of time to do it in if we want to be able to press our current advantage, so this will be as brief and to the point as we can make it.”

In how many three-hour briefs about nothing have I heard that before? Michaels thought. Langstrom’s reputation is one of being brusque, even for a Marine, so maybe this time it will hold true.

Langstrom gave a nod to someone in the back of the room, and the lights dimmed while the projector turned on. There were some mutterings from the Ganlin contingent. “I’m not going to waste time going over what happened yesterday. Some of you were there, and the rest of you have had enough time to read the briefs. The results speak for themselves. We’re still counting the bodies, but estimates are over thirty thousand dead, with maybe a quarter of their force surviving to retreat. In a nutshell, the Keeblers got their goddamn asses kicked.”

Are you shitting me? Michaels marveled at how quickly words and phrases spread through the ranks. Lance Corporal Kawalski only just started throwing that term around this morning!

Langstrom clicked a remote, and a birds-eye-view image of the fleeing elven forces appeared. The Ganlin contingent muttered and whispered again. “Aerial recon tracked the survivors for about eight kilometers across the river, before they disappeared under heavy forest cover. How much of that force is combat-capable is uncertain, but given the number of fatal sword wounds we’ve found in the elven remains, many of which were self-inflicted, it seems likely they left all their casualties behind.”

He clicked the remote again, and a high-altitude photo of the region surrounding the portal appeared. The keshmin stared intently at the screen. “This is where we lost contact with the surviving enemy forces,” Langstrom continued with another click, popping a colored circle over a region of dense forest. “They were heading in a northly direction, but aerial recon showed no signs of activity, bases, or outposts in that direction for two hundred kilometers.”

Another click and the image changed to a photo much further to the west. “Recon did pick up two large basecamps roughly fifty kilometers to the west, and signs of mass troop movements between there and the river.”

“These camps appear to be lightly defended, and are far larger than is required by the occupying force.” Several clicks cycled through a series of zoomed-in photos showing row upon row of tents and huts in camps occupied by tiny numbers of soldiers. “We expect that these were staging areas, either for the legions that were originally campaigning in this region, the legions that were moved to bolster their attack on the Royal Host, or both.”

Clicking again left the screen dark. “Either way, these are targets. It is uncertain how quickly the surviving forces can move, but by all accounts from our new allies,” he nodded to the Ganlin corner. “They are primarily restricted to normal marching speeds, and their armies typically only travel twenty kilometers in a day.

“Even if they turned straight for their base camp as soon as we lost them in the forest, and double-timed it back, they’d still have another day of normal travel to go. Worst case scenario, eight hours. The combat engineers won’t have bridges across the river capable of handling our vehicles until this evening, but we can do an air lift to put boots on the ground in those camps with less than thirty minutes flight time.”

Several more murmurs from the Ganlin contingent were joined by a few whispers from the US commanders.

“We’re going to send a battalion of Marines to those camps, take them, capture any intel, equipment, and prisoners we can, and then the Air Force is going to bomb flat anything we can’t carry away. I want unit recommendations on my desk thirty minutes after we’re done here, with wheels up with Marines on board no more than two hours after that.” Several more murmurs followed this, mostly from the U.S. side.

“Care to place odds on it being us, sir?” Barakis whispered.

“I’m not taking that bet, Sergeant Major,” Michaels whispered back.

“That’s the immediate objective. Moving forward to more long-term objectives.” He clicked another slide up, this one showing a recon photo of both Tolkien, which was now a Main Operating Base, and the new FOB Williams alongside the Ganlin camp. MOB Tolkien was rapidly expanding to cover the entire kilometer-and-change width of the portal, and FOB Williams already had notable earthworks.

“Right now, our situation is something of a clusterfuck. Ganlin forces are recovering from near-defeat, and between casualties and half their troops still being scattered to the wind, their combat effectiveness is about fifty percent, with maybe twenty thousand troops capable of combat.

“To be completely frank, our situation isn’t much better. We have roughly four battalions worth of Marines, from eight actual infantry battalions and three different regiments, an assortment of Army Reserve and National Guard companies, elements of three armor battalions, and most of an artillery regiment. Second Battalion, Fifth Marines is the only infantry battalion that actually has their entire command in-theater right now, and that’s only because they were staging for a pre-deployment exercise.”

Langstrom shook his head. “I know it doesn’t feel like it, but this is only the fourth day since the portal opened up, and we’ve only been at war for barely thirty-six hours. You all did well with that initial scramble, but we can’t fight a war like that.” He laughed, putting his hands on his hips. “You’d think having the portal less than a half-mile from I-15 would be a supply officer’s wet dream. It’s probably the shortest supply line in history, and Marines in-country can have Dominos delivered straight to the states-side perimeter.” He got a few chuckles from the various unit commanders. “But it’s also a goddamn nightmare. We have too much of the things we don’t need, and the things we can’t do without, like replacement ordnance for all that artillery we sent down-range yesterday, are bogged down in rush-hour traffic.”

He shook his head, waving his hand before him to establish a hard line. “Before we can do anything more than lightning raids, we have to get our supply issues sorted, get the Ganlin army back on their feet, and get our own forces consolidated and ready to advance. That’s Phase One.”

He clicked the slide, and the aerial photo was augmented by lines along the river and around FOB Williams, MOB Tolkien, and the portal. “We establish a solid defensive line at the river, much like the Royal Host was doing before we showed up. Expand MOB Tolkien with a proper air strip, set up fire support bases around FOB Williams and along the river, and get the rest of One Marine Expeditionary Force in-theater.”

This declaration was accompanied by several grumbles and yips from the Ganlin contingent. “Is there a problem, Lord General?” Langstrom asked Yangri. Michaels was one hundred percent certain the use of Lord General instead of Supreme Commander was deliberate.

“While we are grateful for your assistance and support, and we would certainly be doomed without you,” he said, glaring at some of the other generals. A Marine acting as interpreter repeated his words for the benefit of everyone who wasn’t in range of the translation spell. “Some of our lords have expressed concerns over the… damage to their estates that have been caused by your construction.”

Langstrom’s expression darkened, but Yangri held up a hand before he could speak. “Their concern is moot,” he continued, speaking more to his own generals than to the Marine General. “Because all of their estates, and the entire Kingdom, was already considered lost. That’s why we created the portal in the first place.”

“You created the portal?” asked Brigadier General Harley, the commander of First Marine Regiment, as a ripple of shock rolled through the room at this revelation.

“Yes, we created the portal,” Yangri nodded. He flicked his ears back in a pained expression. “We knew the Kingdom was lost. Hard as we fought on, defeat was inevitable, and defeat meant extermination. Facing that, we took… desperate action.” He shrugged. “We had theories about creating portals to another world, and recent discoveries had suggested they were more than theories. With the alternative being extinction, we threw half of what was left of our treasury at it, with the hope of making a path to a new world, free of elves, where at least some of us could survive.”

“You made a hail-Mary pass,” someone said.

“I don’t know what that means,” Yangri replied, “But if it is what I suspect, then yes. It was a long shot, but we had no other hope of survival. We took a chance on finding a new world. Instead, we met you.”

“And now you hope to save your homes,” Langstrom said. “I can respect that. We will try to minimize our impact in your territory, but the war comes first. It won’t do a damn bit of good if we save your homes, but manage to lose the war in the process.”

“What if the Keeblers followed you through?” one of the Seventh Marine Regiment staff members asked.

“We had planned to shut the portal behind us.”

“You can shut the portal now?”

“Yes, we retain control over the portal,” Yangri nodded. “Closing it would not be an easy thing to do, and to be honest, from what I understand, being able to close it again is just as theoretical as opening it in the first place.”

“From what you have been told?” General Harley asked again.

“I am not an artificer, myself,” Yangri waved a dismissive hand. “I leave the specific details to them.”

“How energetic of an event would that be?” Langstrom asked.

“From what I’m told, about as energetic as opening the portal in the first place.”

Whispers roiled through the room as this new revelation was discussed.

“Freeway pile-ups caused by rubber-neckers produced more overall damage than the portal did, sir,” Barakis muttered.

“So did the perimeter we cleared,” Michaels added. “The Eminent Domain lawsuits from that will be raging for decades.”

“Suffice it to say,” Yangri added quickly, “We have ever interest in maintaining it open now, and should we win the war, some have already expressed hope at the possibility of trade through the portal.”
“A discussion for another time,” Langstrom noted. “Either way, it doesn’t change where we’re at now. We’ve still got a war to win. Moving on.”

He clicked the slide again, bringing up a scanned map of the Kingdom of Ganlin and surrounding territories, overlaid in a few places with high-altitude photos sized to scale. “Phase Two. While we’re all working on getting our shit in a sock, we’ll focus on scouting and recon. Identify enemy troop dispositions and deployments, potential targets, and what Ganlin infrastructure is still intact. We’ll keep the enemy on their heels with air strikes and lightning raids with air-lifted infantry and hardware.”

Another click of the slide and the screen was replaced with an advancing arc on the other side of the river, and deep prongs jutting far past the main line. “Phase Three. Once we’ve gotten all our shit in a sock, we’re going to surge on the offensive. It’ll be a two-prong affair. The main line of allied-controlled territory will be pushed by the Ganlin Royal Host, bolstered by U.S. Army and Reserve units. The Royal Host’ve got the man-power in-country to control a lot of territory. They’re not mechanized, so rate of advance will be slow, but for maintaining control of territory, that’s fine.”

The next slide shifted to focus on the prongs. “The second prong of the offensive will be deep strikes behind enemy lines. Using mechanized and aerial assets, we’ll deploy forces deep past the main line of advance, where they will set up FOBs, and corridors of advance that can be used to encircle any elven forces, and rapidly advance the main line. This will also serve the purpose of building strings of FOBs to facilitate and secure lines of supply, and provide fortified points to fall back to should the Keeblers surge back with something unexpected. All operations will be supported by heavy air cover.”

A click of the screen, and the prongs and line were replaced with a star at the portal and a deep cone of blue radiating out from it, and with the Ganlin border outlined in blue. “The primary objective of this operation is to establish substantial depth-of-field protection between the Elven and Allied lines and the portal. Secondary objectives are to identify elven strongholds, lines of supply, tactical and strategic assets, and neutralize them. Ultimately the goal is to push the Keeblers out of the Kingdom of Ganlin entirely. After that operation is complete, we take the fight to the Keebler homefront, and keep on pushing until the bastards give up, or there’s none of them left.”

The screen went dark with another click of the remote. “That’s our grand strategy. Operation Bulldog. The specific details are going to be up to you your unit commanders; you all know your jobs, and I’m not going to do them for you. I do want no-bullshit reports from each of you by the end of the day, on what your units need to be ready for Phase Three, what you don’t have, and when you expect to get it.”

He turned to the Ganlin contingent, his tone a little less commanding. “Lord General, if you can get me a list of what your troops need, be it food, medical supplies, boots for their feet, whatever it is, I will do my best to ensure you get whatever materials you need to get the Royal Host combat-ready again. In return, I’m going to need maps, and whatever intel on the elves, their tactics, capabilities, and dispositions you might have.”

Yangri gave Langstrom a small but gracious bow. “I will ensure you have that report by sundown, General.” Some of his companions yipped and tittered their grumbles, but a flick of an ear and his tail silenced them.

“Outstanding.” Langstrom gave him a firm nod. “Now,” he continued, stepping away from the projector, “I give the floor over to Lieutenant Commander Rice from the Office of Naval Intelligence. Commander Rice will brief you on current known capabilities and potential threats demonstrated by elven forces. Commander Rice, the floor is yours.” Passing her the remote, Langstrom took a seat.

“Thank you, sir,” said a short woman with auburn hair and deep, brown eyes as she rose from her own seat. Mutters rippled through the Ganlin contingent as she stepped in front of the darkened projector. “Ladies and gentlemen, before I begin, I must emphasize how important it is to not underestimate our new enemy. Though their primary weapons and tactics were rendered obsolete centuries ago in our world, they have employed weapons systems and technologies that, if not on-par with our own, give them at least near-peer capabilities in several areas. They have also demonstrated technologies and capabilities for which we have no equivalent, and possibly no direct counter.

“Most importantly, they have demonstrated the ability to adapt their tactics under fire, and they no doubt will adapt and attempt to compete with our own technological capabilities. It is the estimation of myself and my colleagues that we hold a distinct and decisive technological advantage now, but we also cannot rely on retaining that advantage.”

She clicked the remote, and an aerial photo of the previous day’s battle was displayed, showing the elven cohorts and legions in regimented ranks. “The primary infantry weapons employed by the enemy are of three types. Their primary ranged weapons are called “Mage Staffs,” wielded by “Mages.” These staffs are capable of projecting a variety of concentrated energy blasts, with varying effects.”

Michaels took notes as he listened, but while Commander Rice’s presentation was as detailed and cogent as he could have hoped for under the circumstances, it was also incredibly dry. Having attended many similar intelligence briefings, Michaels was able to maintain at least the appearance of alert interest, but he noticed several of the keshmin lords struggling to stay awake. A few had even completely nodded off.

Rice seemed to be well aware of how dry her presentations could be, however, and as she moved on to talk about the elven artillery, the very first slide was a video from a Cobra’s gun camera, complete with audio. The video started with the staccato rattle of the Cobra’s chin gun, startling the Ganlin contingent awake.

Somebody took the time to set up subwoofers just for this, Michaels thought, chuckling to himself.

“Good hits, good hits,” one of the pilots said as the burst of gunfire exploded across an elven formation.

“Switching to rockets, let’s set up for a pass,” said the other pilot.

“Copy. Same target, that format- Holy shit! Did you see that?”

A flash of light had thrown a towering column of dirt and debris high into the air.

“Yeah, I saw it. Big Dog, this is Yankee One-Three, hostiles have artillery.”

Several more flashes threw more columns of dirt into the air. One struck an Abrams, knocking armor off its glacis, and two took out Humvees. The video froze.

“Produced by the same towers that provide them with their heavy shields produce a heavy explosion and smaller, fragmenting shards of energy upon impact. They are more than sufficient to neutralize up-armored Humvees and LAVs, but not sufficient to penetrate the frontal armor of an Abrams. The energy released appears to be roughly equivalent to five to ten kilograms of TNT, but it’s not quite the same. Elven artillery produces a much lower velocity explosion, somewhere on the order of fifteen hundred to two thousand meters per second, while TNT detonates at nearly seven thousand meters per second.”

The next slide featured an image of a heavy shardblast explosion next to the familiar detonation of a 155mm HE round. The HE round produced a column of smoke and dust, while the shardblast lifted much more clumps and clods of dirt. “The shardblast has a much lower lethal radius from detonation than a comparable artillery shell, but the shards produced appear to dissipate at sixty to seventy meters, and have significant penetrative ability on their own.”

She clicked the remote again and brought up another aerial photo of the battle, this one from higher and further away. The photo had several craters circled. “Their primary limitations are being direct line-of-sight weapons, and their range. Maximum effective range is about five hundred to five hundred fifty meters, while maximum range caps at seven hundred to seven-fifty meters, where the energy blast dissipates into nothing.”

She clicked the slide again, blacking out the screen. “Close range engagements against Elven artillery puts them at near-peer levels of capability, but longer-range engagements leave them unable to respond. How long this will remain the case is unknown, but for now, every effort should be made to neutralize elven artillery at long range, before closing to more conventional engagement ranges.”

No shit, Michaels thought. He wanted to roll his eyes, but… Sometimes, people need the obvious pointed out to them. Rather it be here in a brief than on the battlefield at muzzle velocity.

Rice wrapped up her briefing by highlighting the elves adaption of their existing weapons systems in the midst of the battle to remind the officers and senior enlisted before her to not take their advantages for granted, and to be wary of Elven efforts to adapt, in addition to the existing out-of-context problems, like straight-up invisibility.

“Thank you, Commander,” Langstrom said as she took her seat. “Alright, everyone, you have your marching orders, you all know your jobs. I want readiness reports on my desk by the end of the day, and unit recommendations for our first strike in the next half-hour. Let’s get the job done. Dismissed.”

“Any word on keshmin capabilities are?” asked Lieutenant Colonel Mayhew, the CO of 3rd Battlion, 5th Marines.

“They’re supposed to be setting up a tech demo for us tomorrow afternoon,” Michaels replied. “But they haven’t been very clear on what all they’ll be demonstrating.”

“They’re probably as wary of us as we are of them,” Barakis said. “Can’t say I blame them.”

“Well, we’re going to need them to pull their weight, if these elves prove to be a bigger problem than they were yesterday,” said Colonel Anders, the CO of 5th Marines. “Russia and China are already chomping at the bit over the portal, and demanding access. If things heat up over this on the home front, we might have to pull out and leave Ganlin to do all the heavy lifting.”

“Let’s hope we can avoid that particular clusterfuck,” Michaels grumbled.

“Yeah,” Anders agreed. “In the meantime, Henry, you have more immediate concerns.”

“The strike on the elven basecamps.”

“Yep. Two/Five’s the only battalion-strength unit we have in the field right now. I don’t really have anyone else to send. Plus, your boys are among the few who have recent combat experience against these bastards.”

“I know,” Michaels sighed.

“Rally your men. You’ve got two hours. Semper Fi.” Anders patted Michaels on the shoulder before walking off with Mayhew, discussing what he needed to finish moving his battalion in-theater.

“Well, Sergeant Major, you heard the man.”

“Retreat, Hell, sir,” Barakis said by way of confirmation.
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RetroSSBBRank #4 (2012): Ranking the Best Brawl Players of Each Year!

Can you believe that 2012 was eight years ago? It genuinely feels like yesterday. Who remembers 2012? We were in the middle of the golden age of super hero films with the release of both the first Avengers and the Dark Knights Rises (coughthe best movie of the 2010s cough) that year. Breaking Bad was becoming rapidly more popular, Netflix was in their prime time (before they virtually half Netflix Originals), there was the whole 2012 election for us American folks, and Minecraft (and Youtube with it) completely exploded, but you know one thing that's inarguably the funniest thing that happened that year? The apocalypse predictions. Anyone remember that? However, while the nutcases of the world were woeing themselves with their own apocalypse, you could say the Brawl scene was experiencing its own.
To cut to the chase, Meta Knight was a problem. He was a very big problem. By 2013, 40% of competitive Brawl players admitted to using Meta Knight, and top 8s were often 3/8 to 4/8 Meta Knight. 2011 saw only Meta Knight winning supermajors, and of the 11 largest tournaments at the time, Meta Knight won 8 of them (with the other 3 being Icies lol). Without directly spoiling anything, half of this years top 10 mained Meta Knight. If you count Ally, that's 6/10. Ridiculous, right? The biggest tournament of the year, Apex 2012, was no exception. You see, originally it wasn't going to be that way. An official panel of TOs, top players, and Smashboards organizers held a vote in late 2011 on whether or not to ban Meta Knight. Pro-ban votes outnumbered anti-ban three to one. Apex was supposed to follow.
After the ban, many tournaments started taking measures to reform. Texas adopted the ban early in the decision making process, and other, smaller scenes did so periodically over the rest of 2011 and early 2012. Still, one tournament went against the mold. Apex 2012. Well known for its international competition, players from all across the globe (most notably Japan) were vying to attend. However, as Japan hadn't ratified the MK ban, many of their best players played Meta Knight. Most of the Japanese attendees like Otori, Kakera, Rain, and others who had trained mostly Meta Knight were thinking about not attending because of the ban. Alex Strife, the Apex TO ruled against the Meta Knight ban for his tournament, mostly to attract more international players. His ruling set a standard for the rest of 2012 as more and more tournaments took to the ban reluctantly and the ruling fell apart.
You can read a lot more about the Meta Knight ban than what I can manage to write here. Basically, the hand friendship that Strife held for the Japanese lasted for the rest of Brawl, eventually creating a more interconnected and international scene. At the expense of every character not named Meta Knight, players from all around the globe traveled more often and competed with each other. Europeans like Mr. R and Orion traveled to the United States multiple times, top Americans played in Japanese brackets in their big tournaments, and Canada made their first major as the year progressed. And, of course, Apex became a hive of activity where people from every region on Earth came to compete and train. Enough backstory then. Who ended up as the best of the best in 2012 anyways?

Honorable Mentions

Masha (Falco) (Sonic) (West Japan)
Trela (Lucario) (Texas)
Earth (Pit) (Zelda) (West Japan)
Daiki (Sheik) (Meta Knight) (Ice Climbers) (Pikachu) (East Japan)
Shu (Snake) (East Japan)

20. Fatal (New England)

(Snake)

Reviving the dormant Snake meta as the only Snake solomain in the Top 20, and thus, the best one in the world, New England’s best Fatal returned to the rankings from his Honorable Mentions place in 2011. His year was marked by several ups and downs; he would pick up some good wins in one tournament, then completely flop compared to expectations on the next weekend. Since he was the best player in New England, many of his best moments this year were achieved at his trips to Tristate, where he competed with, and defeated many of the gods of the game. Some of his better wins in 2012 include Vinnie and Nairo.

19. Rich Brown (Socal)

(Olimar)

In a time period where Socal was marked by inactive and lackluster players, Rich Brown broke from the pack, repping the increasingly relevant Olimar in the tournaments he tested his skill at. Busy with work and hobbies, the musician failed to attend too many tournaments, but the ones he did attend, he made a mark. By 2013, he was one of two players to have a positive record on ZeRo and, at Apex, he defeated Mew2King and Mr. R to claim his spot in the Top 12. Still, playing at only four tournaments the whole year (with one featuring a loss to rusty Mike Haze) worked in his disadvantage in the end. Many of his West Coast rivals were still vying for their spot as the best in Cali, and Rich Brown's inactivity ultimately saw him handing the crown to Larry for best Brawl player in California at ReveLAtions 2012. Through it all though, Rich Brown strutted his stuff and proved that the world had room for yet another Olimar in Brawl’s top level.

18. Kakera (West Japan)

(Meta Knight) (Ice Climbers)

Traveling to the United States for the first time in 2012, Kakera made a big impression, placing 5th, beating ZeRo, Ocean, and Orion, only being defeated by the two best North American players. Although he placed the third best of all the Japanese players in attendance, his results back home didn’t reflect the 7th place position he held in the year prior. The Meta Knight main’s first tournament back in Japan was the first in a line of underwhelming ones, by finishing 9th overall at Japan’s first “league tournament”. The rest of 2012 just continued this slump of lackluster performances, and Kakera’s year ended up looking like a mixed bag. His less impressive results include that 9th at SRBT 1, another 9th at SRBT 2 a couple months later, and 5th at Piosuma 2 at the end of the year, where he picked up a less than perfect loss on a little known player named Kameme. Don't get me wrong, Kakera’s results were great for any Top 20 aspiror, but paled in comparison to his stellar 2011 or really most of his rivals in Japan or abroad. When I said it was a mixed bag, that means there were highlights too. At the Sunrise Tournament, he defeated Earth and Masha to finish 5th, and in September, after three to-the-wire sets, Kakera won SumabatoX 16 over bracket demon 9B. So, if there was any enemy for Kakera in 2012, it was comparison. He was bad in comparison to his twin brother, he was bad in comparison to many of the other top Japanese players, and he was bad in comparison to the year before. Still, Kakera kept up the momentum and became a name to fear and respect in Brawl circles.

17. ADHD (Tristate)

(Diddy Kong)

Continuing his backslide from the top, ADHD’s former glory was slowly slipping. If you look at his results, they don’t look that bad, sure. 7th at Apex, 2nd at Rescue, even winning Collision V, ADHD wasn’t that bad right? Well in reality, as good as his placings look from a distance, they were a far cry from Pound 4 winning ADHD or just two years before. His only winning records were with Vinnie and Brood, and he took L’s from pretty much everyone else. Respected players like Mew2King and Nietono and weaker names like Anti and even Ultimate Razer took shots at the Diddy as 2012 dragged on. However, even under constant scrutiny from his peers from his lacking results and the general decline of Diddy in the meta, the ADHD still achieved notable feats in the 2012 season. He still kept up his 4 year streak of consistent Top 8s (only interrupted by a DQ at 25th and a close 9th at a major) and even took a couple sets off Nairo, even though their set count was widely in Nairo's favor. ADHD’s most stunning performance that year was that first placing at Collision V I mentioned, taking sets from Vinnie, Nairo, and Mew2King to finish first.

16. Maguro (East Japan)

(Meta Knight)

Another one of the new Japanese faces that seems to pop up on these lists from time to time, Maguro, or “Tuna” translated directly to English, was one of the top Meta Knight players in Japan, only to add to the ever growing list. His high regard by contemporary players and by me is carried mostly by his breakout tournament at Piosuma 2, where he beat Nietono and Otori to place 3rd.

15. DEHF (California)

(Falco)

Larry’s fourth consecutive year in the Top 25 wasn’t as notable as some of his breakout years, but he still managed to make a mark on the scene within inactivity. Aside from reaching just outside of Top 8 at two of the biggest tournaments of the year, he defended his home turf at ReveLAtions 2012. At this tournament, out of region talents like Mew2King and Fatal and in region prospectors like Tyrant challenged the Falco for first place. DEHF defeated them all and took a hefty chunk of the $2000 pot bonus. Even though Larry Lurr was the best player in California by a good margin and held winning records over multiple great players, his biggest strength in 2012 was his freak upset over Japanese player Rain at Apex. The crazy upset sent waves through the tournament and kept Larry among those "names to watch out for" in national tournaments.

14. Dabuz (Tristate)

(Olimar) (Pit)

Here’s the thing with Dabuz’s 2012: there wasn’t that much good; there wasn’t that much bad. He didn’t improve much and he didn’t backslide much either. If anything, I’d say that Dabuz’s attendance in tournaments helped everyone else much more than he helped himself. As Olimar became more and more popular, the practice that Brawl veterans like Ally, Mew2King, ADHD, and more got from Dabuz was much more profitable than whatever practice Dabuz got from Meta Knight player #11. Anyways, in the occasional tournament that Dabuz attended, he still racked up solid wins over Nairo, Ally, and Mew2King, although holding losing records against players ranked below him like DEHF, Pelca, and Gnes. The most interesting bit about Dabuz in 2012, though, was his alter ego, "Angel of Icarus" which he used in a few tournaments, featuring a strange combination of Olimar and Pit. Angel of Icarus wasn't too bad too: with the mid tier character, Dabuz took a set off of Nakat who would've been considered a Top 40 level player at the time.

13. ANTi (Tristate)

(Meta Knight) (Diddy Kong) (Marth)

The boisterous social media king returns for the fourth year in a row, with his classic Meta Knight/Diddy Kong combination. In 2012, Anti didn't focus as much on singles as much as doubles, only entering singles seven times during the year, which was considered pretty low for a Tristate player at the time. However, in doubles, ANTi thrived, even with a multitude of different doubles partners each tournament. He placed second at Apex losing to the near invincible twin team of Otori/Kakera and at SKTAR, he still managed to place top 3 in doubles… teaming with a Luigi main. In addition, he never dropped any regional doubles event, only falling in doubles tournaments when strong out of state players attended. Either way, these posts aren’t about doubles, they’re about singles, and ANTi showed the world what he was made of in 2012. He picked up multiple wins on Nairo, went even with Mew2King, and maintained a positive record on Dabuz, ADHD, and Rich Brown. His worst loss the whole year was to Vinnie, a player I rank higher than him in 2012, so you know he had the consistency. In the end, 2012 ended up a relaxed year for the loudmouth Meta Knight which, actually, kind of suited ANTi as he took his Brawl career more casually as the years went on.

12. 9B (West Japan)

(Ice Climbers)

I’m sure anyone recalling 9B’s 2011 are confused with his remarkable low placing. I’ll just refer to a conversation between Keitaro and Smashboards user Djent in September of 2012 upon seeing 9B being double eliminated by Kakera’s Meta Knight, a matchup he excelled in during the previous couple of years.
Djent: It's interesting that 9B went years without losing to Meta Knight - then all of a sudden lost to several within 6 months. I'm not sure if it's the case that Japan's MKs have finally "learned the matchup," or if 9B himself is responsible for the decline.
Keitaro: I think the 9B side of Japan is a tad overrated. Maybe 2 years ago they were gods, but the Otori, Kakera, Rain side have improved so much within the last year that players like 9B, SLS, and Hayase simply aren't as strong as they should be. Especially since they don't travel to the other side of Japan for competition that much while Otori, Kakera, Brood, Rain have been going to America and improving a lot.
Where 9B had dominated in the previous few years, it seemed that the hand that had served him so many wobbles in the past was writing on the wall for his eventual demise. In a stark contrast to to 2011 where he won every single last set and tournament he entered with the exception of one set to Kie and one tournament sandbagging, 9B struggled to keep his hold (pun intended) on the Japanese scene. Technically the first tournament that he lost was a single elimination tournament, losing to Ranai of all people, but if you don’t count that, even after, 9B kept slipping (pun still intended) on players he dominated in the past. If his first “real” tournament loss was the Sun Rise tournament (where he placed 5th) it showed the world the capabilities of 9B in this new era. He could go toe to toe with great players: at just the Sun Rise tournament, he beat Nietono, Shogun, and Mikeneko, but he would still be getting trouble with the top echelon of Japanese competitors like Otori (who defeated him in Winners) and with niche players that don’t attend tournaments often like Masha (who defeated him in Losers).
After the Sun Rise tournament, 9B went on to lose two tournaments in a row in a fashion completely different to 2011. Losing to Brood and Kakera in Grands wasn't that bad, but his worst loss in I think his whole Brawl career happened at the second of these tournaments, to hidden boss Icies player Miyacci. In conclusion, 9B’s 2012 had serious ups and serious downs. If he was going to turn things around, he needed to tap into that godlike 2011 dominance and fix his issues with the Ice Climbers ditto, a matchup that he lost to Vinnie, Kakera, Ranai, and Miyacci with. When the 2013 rank comes out, we’ll see if he fixed his problems as Brawl advances.

11. Vinnie (Tristate)

(Ice Climbers) (Mr. Game and Watch) (Meta Knight)

If you’ve been catching the theme of 2012, you can probably tell that there were two groups of players: the Japanese who pretty much won everything, and the Americans who got whooped by the Japanese about 9 times out of 10. Many of the American player at #15 or above had competitive or even dominating records with their peers but did poorly against the Japanese. Vinnie was the exact opposite. Even though he was a respected member of the Tristate scene, he held losing records against most every North American player above him on this list. 4-6 with Nairo, 0-1 with Esam, 3-4 with Mew2King and even 0-1 with ADHD, a player six spots below him. In North America’s biggest tournament, Apex 2012, he drowned in pools and fell at 49th. But when he traveled to Japan, all hell broke loose. His first tournament, SumabatoX 15 was above average, placing 2nd beating Earth, Souther, and regional boss Oiwa before losing to 9B in the ditto in Grand Finals. SumabatoX 15 proved to be just a warmup, though. When he played in the Sun Rise Tournament, the second biggest tournament in 2012 and the biggest Japanese Brawl tournament ever, he went on a rampage. Before getting double eliminated by Rain (which you’ll soon learn isn’t a bad loss at all), Vinnie tore through Daiki, Masha, Brood, 9B, and Otori, placing 2nd by the end of the weekend... only to get third at his first regional back in the states. All in all, the New Yorker improved a lot from his 15th place in the last year, somewhat caused by his focus to Ice Climbers rather than Mr. Game and Watch. He just had much higher to grow before being considered one of the greats.

10. Mikeneko (East Japan)

(Marth)

I was going to write something original, but what I said in my Top 100 Introduction (this isn’t a shameless plug I swear) makes a pretty good point if I say so myself. I wrote:
When Mikeneko came into the international scene in 2012, Marth was pretty dead. Long since outclassed by Meta Knight and Snake, as well as developing top tiers like Ice Climbers, Diddy Kong, and Olimar, many of the best Marth players had either dropped the character or become inactive. I just want to remind you that Marth was ranked the seventh best character at the time. Meta Knight and Icies were a bitch. Mikeneko revolutionized the way Marth players spaced around Ice Climbers' options as well as made big strides in the character's strongest side: his range advantage, especially against Meta Knight. His Meta advancements pushed the character up two spots in the 2013 tier list as well as inspired a new generation of players to new heights with the character, most notably everyone's favorite Dutchman, Mr. R.
All of this is true and more. Mikeneko made his debut in the RetroSSBB Rank a flashy unforgettable one, and for good reason: he had to show the Americans what Marth was really made of. His impressive 7th at the Sun Rise Tournament only foreshadowed an impressive 1st place at Piosuma where he beat Otori and Kakera. You know what’s the ironic thing though? One of Mikeneko’s biggest strengths, matchup inexperience against Marth, ended up being one of his biggest weaknesses. You see, Mikeneko could chop up Meta Knights,Olimars, and Ice Climberrs all day long. He took at least one set from each of Japan’s best Meta Knights after all, and he went even and positive with Nietono and Brood respectively. But you know which players that did give him trouble? Daiki and Luminous. You might’ve caught that Daiki plays Sheik when I introduced him in the Honorable Mentions. Guess who Luminous plays? ROB! Even through the wack upsets to mid tiers, Mikeneko proved himself a worthy competitor and the definitive Brawl Marth player in the world.

9. Brood (East Japan)

(Olimar)

You know that one guy in apocalypse movies that likes to, well, “take a little off the top” if you will? He never enters the fray of the battle but once the heroes take out the zombies he has no problem coming out of hiding and stealing the loot. That was Brood. While it was a comeback story to rival his 2010, it wasn’t with mighty fanfare or some spectacular one-off performance. He just took a little off the top at every tournament. At Apex he didn’t do too much special, only took wins from Mr. R and Trela while taking respectable losses to Ally and ADHD. At SRBT 1, he beat Otori while taking a respectable loss to Mikeneko. All across the year, he slowly grew better and better while picking up better and better wins. And what happens at the end of some of those zombie movies when the guy who takes a little off the top has to actually fight? He has this bazooka from all of the loot he has and he’s now one of the strongest people in the movie. Brood did the same thing. After a slow, yet wildly successful 2012, he topped it all off by winning SumabatoX 17 in November, beating 9B and Miyacci, becoming the third Olimar to win a tournament with any size in Brawl, and outplacing them all, including his notable bracket demon Kakera. Oh and being the only player to have a winning record on the #1 and #2 in the world doesn't hurt too. Not bad for a little bit off the top, huh?

8. Mew2King (Tristate)

(Meta Knight)

Juggling college, Melee, and work, as well as being unmotivated to play, Mew2King’s Brawl career suffered, making 2012 the first time that players wouldn’t immediately recognize the king as the world’s best player. He already accrued plenty of out of form losses throughout 2011, but 2012 only brought deeper losses and more losing records. 2011 Mew2King could shrug off the occasional dropped set to Vinnie or Atomsk, but you can’t overlook Mew2King’s losses to drastically lower level players in 2012 such as Trela, Masha, Earth (twice) and, of course, Ocean in a set that’s been described as one of Brawl’s bests. And lastly, 2012 was a stark difference for set records for Mew2King. In previous years he only had a few losing records here and there, but out of the five Top 10 players that he fought in 2011, he sported winning records against only two, Ally and Nietono, while typically losing against Nairo, ZeRo, and Otori.
All of this is negative, I know. I just wanted to defend my position that M2K wasn’t the best at the time. Most people would agree then too. If you look through threads anticipating Apex 2013, or even any regional/local in the second half of 2012, you would sense users’ skepticism of Mew2King’s skill at the time. Either way, Mew2King didn’t become the 8th best player for nothing. He still had winning records against most of the Top 10 and generally did well like getting second at XSmash, just not as well as the rapidly improving younger generation. But who were the players to usurp the king’s throne?

7. ZeRo (South America)

(Meta Knight)

Yep, it’s all coming together. After years of intense training with limited resources in the weak scene of South America, the Chilean finally made the distance to America after handedly winning every single Brawl and Melee Chilean tournament in the previous couple years. With his few dollars he saved from working minimum wage jobs in his hometown, ZeRo traveled to the United States and placed a meagre 17th at Apex in January, beating Trevonte while losing to Kakera and Rich Brown. Undeterred and with a taste of peak Brawl play, ZeRo again hit up his locals, defeating every opponent that was sent his way, and winning every single tournament again, long before his infamous streak in 2015. The Chilean didn’t go out without a fight, however. Just before the year ended, he traveled to the US again, to spectacular success. In the two tournaments he attended, he placed first and second, beating Mew2King, Esam, Nairo, and Anti, only dropping two to Nairo in close sets. This was only the beginning for Zero, and as Brawl was just getting international, 2012 was just the start for one of the greatest to ever touch the game.

6. Ally (Canada)

(Snake) (Meta Knight) (Marth) (Ice Climbers)

Japanese players come, Japanese players go. New top players take the throne while new leave, but Ally stayed consistent. Really, in all of Brawl, he was the most consistent player, never really falling from that low from his rank. He’s been Top 5 all this time, after all. 2012 marked the start of the second half of Brawl, and generally a Brawl where Ally wasn’t the competitor for #1 of the years beforehand. After attending WHOBO in August, the Canadian took 5 months as a break from the game, slowly fading from the public eye. But did he make those first 7 months count. He held winning records against Nairo, Mew2King, Brood, Vinnie, and Gnes, and even in the matchups that he typically lost like Esam or Dabuz, he still managed to take a set or two off of them before the year closed. However, the rest of his losing records aside from his loss to Otori showed the chink in his armor against the unpredictable, unorthodox characters such as his losing record to Esam (Pikachu), Dabuz (Olimar), Nietono (Olimar), and his even record with Atomsk (King Dedede). Despite not winning any majors and disappearing on the scene for almost half a year, by years end, most still viewed Ally as a Top 10 level player, if not higher, for whenever he played in tournament.
As a small sidenote, 2012 was one of the years that Ally spent a lot of time experimenting with secondaries. Aside from the Marth and Icies I put next to his mains, Falco, Wario, Wolf, and even ROB were occasional picks for the Canadian to use.

5. Nietono (East Japan)

(Olimar)

Sure, Nietono has dropped a spot since the 2011 edition, but, in many ways, the Tokyo Olimar was performing better than ever. Many can say that his first tournament of the year, Apex 2012, set the mood for the rest. Nietono’s legendary run that still stands as his best tournament placement at a major, saw him defeating three top ten players (Nairo, Esam, and Ally) as well as two top 25 players (Fatal and DEHF) en route to 2nd. I touched on this a little bit in Nietono’s blurb for the Top 100, but this spectacular performance completely shifted top player’s perspectives on Olimar, lifting him from 8th in the July 2011 tier list to 2nd in the April 2012 one. All this to say, Nietono did pretty good in his first trip to the states.
Still, don’t think that Apex carried him to 5th. He maintained Top 10 level results for the rest of the year too. In April, he won a large regional with Rain and Otori in attendance, and by December, boasted winning or even records on every American player he played against, other than a -1 with Mew2King. Who were his winning records, you ask? None other than top level players like Esam, Ally, DEHF, ADHD, and Fatal. He did well against his Japanese foes too, taking sets from the one and two in the world as well as showcasing his broad matchup experience, having winning records on Kakera, Mikeneko, Brood, and Yui, playing Meta Knight/Ice Climbers, Marth, Olimar, and Fox respectively. By the end of 2012, Nietono had transformed himself into a Brawl legend and one of the most respected names in the far east.

4. Esam (Florida)

(Ice Climbers) (Pikachu)

Yeah, so Esam was really, really good in 2012. I’d argue it was the best year of his now decade spanning career. Coming off a 2011 where players were juuust getting comfortable with his status as a top player, he flipped the community on its head, surging to the top of the ranks as one of the world’s best players. But what did Esam do to crack into that top level of play that so many have failed to reach? Picked up Ice Climbers. Ok, it’s not that sexy, but it worked. Following a less than perfect 9th at Genesis 2 and an subpar 17th at WHOBO in the previous year, Esam disappeared from the spotlight and trained his new comain to the level of his electric partner. When he returned half a year later at Apex 2012, hefinished as the best Ice Climbers player in the venue, even racking up high profile wins like Kakera and Rain with the icy character.
Unlike many of his North American contemporaries that outplaced him in years prior, Esam kept up the heat in 2012, never losing momentum as the year continued. Other than going 0-2 with Nairo, he held winning records on every single North American player he faced, including ANTi and Mew2King, two players that went undefeated against the Floridian in years prior. Some of Esam's best moments include winning WHOBO 4, the largest Meta Knight banned tournament in Brawl history, beating Ally and Gnes. Finishing the runner up at SKTAR didn't hurt too. Ally, Anti, Vinnie, and Salem all ended up victims of Esam's effective dualmain combo at that stacked Tristate national. Overall in 2012, Esam kept up the heat day in and day out, proving himself to be one of the best the United States had to offer in a time when they were looking pretty weak, all things considered.
On the leadup to the 2012 rank, I debated for a while on who should be #3 and #4 but I ended up compromising for Esam as the second best in America. Who was the first?

3. Nairo (Tristate)

(Meta Knight)

I bet you guys figured it was only a matter of time before Nairo started snatching those W's in Brawl like he has in recent years. With a 14 spot leap from his 2011 rank, Nairo proved his Tristate friends that he was worthy of going toe to toe with the greats that the region had produced and proved the world that he wasn't just some regional threat Meta Knight any more. In many ways, in 2012, Nairo was the best Super Smash Bros. Brawl player in the Western World. All while being 15! Like holy shit! I know I always get surprised about people's ages but Nairo was getting 3rd at Apex 2012, disgracing grown men and earning almost a thousand dollars in one weekend all while being a sophomore in high school. When I was a sophomore in high school, I finally realized that it would save time if I just bookmarked Pornhub instead of searching it every time. Nairo was leagues ahead of me! But for real, even with his young age, Nairo meant business when it came to tournaments.
His vicegrip in-region was great, winning Tristate's biggest tournament at SKTAR and having winning records on Vinnie, Dabuz, and ADHD, but his biggest strength that defined him above the rest of North America was his strength against his Japanese rivals. While many just went 0-2 with every Japanese player, Nairo chalked up wins on Nietono and Kakera, with his only Japanese losing record being Otori. Hell, Nairo probably could've done better in 2012 too if he went to Japan one or two times. However, since he was, well, literally a child, he never got the opportunities to travel to Japan for runbacks and training sessions, as did Mew2King, Vinnie, Havok, QuiK (yep, that QuiK), and more did later in the year.
Nevertheless, it never affected his rule stateside and most agreed by December 2012 (or even by August after SKTAR, that victory was a big deal), that he was the best American player. Even after thoroughly defeating most every opponent in his path, Nairo's friendly nature, affinity to pull out wacky secondaries in bracket and unorthodox aggressive style quickly made him a crowd favorite. I wonder how that plucky Meta Knight main is doing now?

2. Otori (West Japan)

(Meta Knight)

In some ways, Otori was two people. I could explain myself, but I think ZeRo could say it better than I ever could. This is taken from his Facebook recounting his experiences playing friendlies with Otori and some other Japanese players before Apex 2013 in January. Here's what he said:
... He (Kakera) is a good friend and person, is very joyful and fond. Same for otori. otori (Kenta) is VERY funny, and we troll a lot, as well as with 9B. I yell things like TATSUMAKI which means tornado, and he spams that haha. Also I told him in japanese "I'll grab your nipples" and then I did so, and all the guys there just died laughing hahaha. Good times!"
Otori sounds like a super chill person to hang around, right? In many ways, he was just that. Of course I never met him, but from what I've read, Otori was a joyful, joking around kind of guy. Here's ZeRo talking about the other person of Otori that I was just talking about:
Otori has timed me out thrice, twice by ledge grabs (I was winning but he won at the end by rules), and another one normally.
Let me be clear here. This isn't a set they had at Apex. This isn't a set they had at a regional. This isn't even a moneymatch. Otori was literally timing people out in friendlies. Brawl was crazy, right? Maybe Otori has everything solved, right? He's having fun even while ruthlessly pursuing victory. And let me tell you, when he wanted the gold prize, he got the gold prize. Otori's first trip to the US was in 2012, where, in January, he made history as the first Japanese player to ever win a Brawl major on American soil, and the third foreign player to ever win a smash major at all on American soil. Otori's run beating DEHF, Esam, Ally, Nairo, and Nietono (that's four out of the top six players for 2012 plus Larry) would've immediately launched anyone straight to at least Top 10 in the world, but he never let up the pressure in the coming tournaments.
Of course the 3rd at Sun Rise Tournament immediately comes to mind, where he defeated Mew2King, 9B, and Kakera, but he picked up respectable wins at every tournament he attended too. You can't complain at getting 2nd at Piosuma or even a 4th at SRBT after all. Brawl's community soon learned that Otori's strange mix of fun in real life and unapologetically defense in game would end up creating own of their most interesting and strong players. By the end of 2012, Otori was considered on the same level of and, more often than not, better than the predecessors that made Meta Knight who the masked menace is today. As successful as Otori was, he didn't finish the year without a superior in skill. That honor goes to...

1. Rain

(Meta Knight)

If 2012 was the apocalypse, Rain was the badass toting two machine guns in each hand, mowing down zombies while corny heroic music plays in the background. Of course this might come as a surprise. Hell, it should. Rain? That Meta Knight Falco player of the past couple ranks? Yeah, of everyone reaching for the throne, he was the guy to take the crown after Mew2King. It wasn’t easy, though. Rain’s first tournament appearance at Apex was a complete flop. He beat Dabuz and Dutch Marth main Orion, but lost to Esam and DEHF, two players much below his caliber. Nevertheless, he kept on training, winning the first two Japan league rankings tournament in February, placing a respectable 5th in April in the third one, then winning the Sun Rise Tournament and Piosuma 2 to finish out the year. As I mentioned in the introduction, the Sun Rise Tournament was the biggest Japanese tournament ever, a record it held for over three years.
You see, at this point, Rain was known for three things, two of them being slightly related. First was his biggest weakness and one of the three things: his tendency to self-destruct. Rain opting to go balls to the, well, blastzone in edgegaurds made him infamous for SDing in matches, leaving his consistency something to be desired. Second, he was a tier whore. Ok hear me out, look at his Smashwiki page and take a look at his mains. Ultimate: Joker. Smash 4: Bayonetta. Brawl: Meta Knight. Melee: Fox. I rest my case. But that’s the third thing he came to be known for: his versatility and history between games. Of course in 2012, Smash 4 and Ultimate weren’t out yet, but by this time, Rain had already played a lot of Melee, even placing 5th in the legendary Jack Garden tournament, featuring Ken and Isai from yore. Yeah, he’s been playing that long.
That lengevity ended up being his biggest strength though. As he played against these opponents for one years, two years, three years, and much much longer (the Jack Garden Tournament was in 2005 for perspective), he slowly got better and better and better against these opponents, slowly picking up on their habits then brutally capitalizing in each set. This wasn’t his first rodeo in Brawl too. His 8th rank in the 2011 version getting him practice over all of these great opponents just set up for his spectacular 2012. And was it spectacular. Rain did so much in 2012, so I’ll try not to go on and on, but he held positive records on Otori (#2), Nietono (#5), Mikeneko (#10), Vinnie (#11), Dabuz (#14), won the second most important tournament of the year, and won almost every tournament in the Japanese League Rankings tournament that he attended. As reluctant as Tristate pundits, Nairo fans, Japanese detractors, and Meta Knight haters were, many of them agreed on one thing: Brawl had finally gotten a new king.

I won't pretend to have a schedule, so 2013 comes when 2013 does. I hope you guys enjoyed this. Before you go, please answer this poll on how I can improve these posts. There's only 2 left so might as well make them better each time, right? Have a great weekend and I'll see you next time.
Edit: Links to the past 3 for those interested
2009
2010
2011

Far off Anniversaries in Baseball: 1919

Welcome back to a resuscitated /baseball recurring series, (far off) Anniversaries in Baseball. The premise is simple: time, like baseball, is a flowing stream, that changes much less than we like to think it does. This series is about reflecting and remembering upon baseball events, or jerks, and real-world intrusions that made up a certain year exactly a few decades away. I attempt to convey this by merging primary and secondary sources through a variety of mediums to paint a portrait of the season in review. For the next few weeks, until the end of 2019, we will be drawing our thoughts back to ’19, ’29, ’39, ’49, ’59 to better understand our shared past and our sublimely important present- I ask you to join me on a quest through time to preserve a precious perspective and I hope you enjoy the series. Please include any feedback or thoughts in the comments section.
This particular issue is going to factor in a bit more "World History" than the others, simply because of the disastrous tone the year 1919 took was reflected on in the baseball season.
World Leaders: (There really wasn’t any population estimates because the war had ended two months prior, so here’s where the lines were drawn)
Winners:
*England *:Prime Minister David L. George
United States of America: Woodrow Wilson
France: President of the Council of Ministers Georges Clemenceau
Italy: Prime Minister Francesco S. Nitti
Canada: Prime Minister Robert Borden
Cuba: Governor Mario G. Menocal
Losers:
Russia: Supreme Ruler Alexander V. Kolchak
Weimar Republic: SDS Leader and President Friedrich Ebert
Ottoman Empire: Mehmed VI
Others:
China: President Xu Scichang, Beiyang government
Japan: Emperor Yoshihito
Mexico: President Venustiano C. Garza
Persia: Shah Qajar
January- March:
We have another New Year’s Day baby, when Sol and Marie Sallinger first met their infant, Jerome David on Manhattan Island. Later that week, former President Theodore Roosevelt died on the 6th. Future HoF’er James Henry “Orator Jim” O’ Rourke died two days later on the 8th in Bridgeport, CT of pneumonia contracted while walking home from a consultation appointment one week earlier. He played baseball for 23 years and is credited with the first NL hit while holding a law degree from Yale.. He started playing semi-pro ball only three years after the Civil War and by 1877 he was hitting .362 in the NL. On the 16th of that same month, The U.S. congress ratified prohibition which would take effect one year from that day. More importantly to the geo-political landscape of the world, on the 18th the Paris Peace Conference opened, tasked with sorting out the horrific formalities of The Great War, having been recently decided with the United States’ last-minute entrance. The date was symbolic, according to dispatch from the Guardian:

The great conference was formally opened at the Quai d’Orsay, yesterday on the 48th anniversary of that scene, so calamitous to Europe, when the German Empire was proclaimed at Versailles on the eve of the capitulation of Paris. If anyone had chanced to be present at both ceremonies, he would have been struck by a sense of contrast. The meeting in the Galerie des Glaces gave birth to a new order which has been a fatal burden to Europe. The meeting at the Quai d’Orsay is to give birth to a new order to which all mankind is looking for freedom and peace.

On the 20th, the group of representatives from more than two dozen countries began discussing punishments for the “warmongering” Kaiser, without Germany. The Conference was buzzing along through its second week on Jan. 31, when in Cairo, GA, sharecroppers Mallie and Jerry Robinson were honored with the birth of their fifth child, who they named after the recently deceased president: Jack Roosevelt Robinson. Six days later, on February 5th, four of the largest movie-picture stars in America: Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffin and Mary Pickford created and agreed to the United Artists Corporation, in an attempt to control their artwork and profits more directly. There was no block booking for the new movie studio, and the actors and directors themselves controlled much of the common stock. That same day, in the National League offices, the Cincinnati Reds were making a case of corruption against a former player, Hal Chase. He was accused all throughout baseball for throwing games to his gambler friends while leading the league in hitting with .339 in his first year in Cincinnati, 1916. What triggered this hearing? Several Reds reported to their manager, Christy Mathewson, that they had seen or overheard Chase discuss his bets on the team. The NL president decided the suit when Mathewson was still serving in France:

"The testimony shows that Chase acted in a careless manner, both on the field and among the players, and that the club was justified in bringing the charges, in view of the many rumors which arose from the loose talk of the first baseman. In substance, the player was charged with making wagers against his club in games in which he participated. In justice to Chase, I feel bound to state that both the evidence and the records of the games to which reference was made, fully refute this accusation."

On Feb. 19th, the Reds traded him to the Giants and he signed his contract the day his old manager Christy Mathewson was named their assistant manager. On Feb. 25th, the state of Oregon created the first gas tax in U.S. history of a penny. On that same day in Haleburg Alabama, 81 miles west of Cairo, Monford Merrill “Monte” Irvin awoke to his first day of life. Only a few hours later on the 26th, President Wilson signed Senate Bill 390 which designated the Grand Canyon as a national park. Almost a month later, on March 23rd, Benito Mussolini founded the Italian fascist movement as a direct response to post-WWI turmoil. At this point in the year, however, spring was busting open and baseball was beginning to unveil itself again. The only problem was- baseball had taken such a hit in 1918: the “work or fight” movement derailed the season and it prematurely concluded with an almost false-World Series. This year, the season would be cut to 140 games and every owner lost money in the process. Still, many teams traveled to the south per usual for spring training. The Yankees and Tigers to Macon, GA, the Indians to New Orleans, the Red Sox to Tampa. The Phillies to Charlotte, the Robins to Jacksonville, the Pirates to Birmingham, the Braves to Columbus, GA and the Giants to Gainesville. While the Cardinals and A’s stayed put in the home parks, most of the rest of the teams settled in Texas, which was once the hot spot for Spring Training but was now losing its popularity. Still, the Reds showed up to Waxahachie, the O’s to San Antonio and the White Sox to the fabled health center, Mineral Wells. Their offseason was turbulent:

No one was quite sure how Gleason’s team would fare in the pennant race. The White Sox’ lack of pitching depth behind Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams was cited as a major concern by Chicago Tribunereporter Irving Sanborn, who predicted on April 20, “Unless he has a lot of luck developing new pitchers … (Gleason) is going to have a hard time keeping his team in the first division of the American League.” Veteran Red Faber, who had won three games in the 1917 World Series, was hampered by arm and ankle injuries, and he had come down with the flu virus and could not shake it. A global influenza epidemic had killed more than 600,000 Americans in the winter of 1918-19 alone. Faber’s condition was noticeably weak during spring training and it took him all year to fully recover.

How could we get into this much of 1919 without commenting on the global pandemic gripping the world: the Spanish flu virus? The world’s first wide war had given humanity an unwanted gift: bird flu, the H1N1 virus. Why call it the Spanish flu virus? Because the pandemic arose during the war, any country fighting censored reports of the disease, leaving neutral countries like Spain to wonder what was going on. No one knows where it started, but some estimates say 3-5% of the world’s population died. 10-20% of humanity was infected, including 28% of the American population. The worst year was 1918, but with the political instability the Great War had caused, the chaos of human civilization was seeping into baseball. As we would see, the White Sox would be in the center of a troubled, shaky world. Before teams departed from Spring training, a man put in the ground work to his legend. Red Sox two-way player George H. Ruth was on the starting nine for the Boston club in an exhibition game in Tampa, where he hit an estimated 587 ft. home run. Ruth and dingers this year would be a common theme, but this homer resonated far after his career was over- and this was important because Ruth had just ended a hold out with the Boston front office.
PLAY BALL!:
Until the 19 of April, 1919, Sunday baseball in New York was illegal. Governor Al Smith signed a bill repealing the blue laws, which opened up a new wave of passion for the national pastime on Sundays, when workers have the day off and are able to attend games. The president of the NL, Mr. Heydler, said:

I feel sure that baseball will have one of the greatest revivals in the history of the sport during the coming season, and I expect to see 1919 prove to be one of our banner years. I make this prediction more as a lover of baseball than as a baseball official… I believe the public can look forward to one of the most interesting seasons it has ever known.

144 years to the day after the Lexington and Concord skirmishes that started the rebellion, the season got under way. The Robins completed a sweep of their twinbill against the Braves- the rest of the teams got underway on that Wednesday the 23rd. One week later, if you had awoke in America to inspect the standings, you would see the 6-1 White Sox at the top of the AL and the undefeated 6-0 Reds at the top of the NL. You would have seen another full slate of games for that day: the Robins and Phillies tied a wild 20 inning game, where both starters (HoF) Burleigh Grimes and Joe Oeschger went the distance. Oeschger yielded 24 hits and only got two punchouts. Both teams scored 3 runs in the 19th before home plate umpire (HoF) Bill Klem called the game. But over the past few days in America, anarchists sent sticks of dynamite to the residences of prominent anti-labor and conservative politicians, specifically designed to coincide with May Day. The governor of Mississippi, Theodore G. Bilbo, the Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson, the police commissioner and mayor of NYC, John D. Rockefeller, Chicago District Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis and Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, among others. The country was horrified --) would the violence and revolts that were racking Germany seep into America? Fear spread like air throughout the country and the government quickly rounded up suspects.
Only two days after May Day, a composer and his violinist wife welcomed their son, Peter Seeger, into the world in Manhattan. Three days later, on the 6th, the Yanks lineup featured leadoff hitter and 24-year old rookie George Halas in a game against the 3-7 A’s. Halas got 4 PA’s before being removed for a pinch hitter and got his first hit in the Yankee loss. Rambling through the days to the 11th, Halas was still in the leadoff spot for a matchup against the Senators. Walter Johnson and Jack Quinn each went 12 innings- and Halas collected 2 of Johnson’s 9 K’s that day. In fact, Johnson gave up a double in the first and put down the next 28 batters until surrendering a leadoff single in the 11th. The game ended locked at 0 because of a curfew, but at least they were able to play the game after the disappearance of the blue laws. Johnson’s masterpiece was not the most amazing pitching performance of the day. The Reds were sitting in second place when they took on the bottom-feeding Cardinals. The game went by uneventfully in the first inning just before player-manager Rogers Hornsby led off the second with a walk. He was thrown out trying to steal second, and Reds starter used that momentum to only give up two more walks the entire game, achieving a no hitter in the process. This was the first no hitter at Crosley Field and Eller used his shine ball to baffle the Cards, according to this thought provoking look back.. On May 20th, the 9-8 Red Sox ran out onto the field of Sportsman Park to play the Browns. In the second inning, the first three Sox hitters Harry Hooper, Jack Barry and Amos Strunk all reached base.. Their teammate, Babe Ruth, socked a ball over the fence for his first career grand slam, to put his club ahead 4-0, his second regular season dinger of 1919.
JUNE:
A month had passed, but the red scare was just beginning with more dynamite sticks flying into unsuspecting residences. The next wave of anarchist strikes occurred on the 2 with larger bombs arriving at judges and mayors’ doorsteps, as well as a second bomb directed at AG Palmer, each carrying this message:

War, Class war, and you were the first to wage it under the cover of the powerful institutions you call order, in the darkness of your laws. There will have to be bloodshed; we will not dodge; there will have to be murder: we will kill, because it is necessary; there will have to be destruction; we will destroy to rid the world of your tyrannical institutions.

Palmer was not home when the pipe bomb went off. His neighbors across the street, Franklin and Elenore Roosevelt, walked past his door moments before the explosion and were only feet away from serious injury. Roosevelt was the assistant secretary to the Navy, tasked by Palmer to root out “homosexual behaviors” in the navy. FDR did this by arresting and trying veterans for sodomy. Roosevelt began expanding the illegal investigation harshly and was rebuked by Palmer, who shut down the investigation.. The calls of violent mayhem were not just coming from inside the house. Mexican revolution leader Francisco “Pancho” Villa organized an attack on nationalist forces in Ciudad Juarez, which his godson carried out at his wishes on the evening of the 14th. As the bullets hit buildings in nearby El Paso, the United States army got nervous and invaded Juarez to calm down tensions. Two American citizens were killed and over 90 Mexican soldiers and civilians died. One day after the tensions subsided, on the 17th, the New York Giants (30-14) prepared to play the Chicago Cubs (25-21) at Weeghman Field. Cubs ace Pete Alexander notched a win after giving up two runs to the Giants in the second. Hal Chase was playing at first and got a hit but was removed for a pinch hitter in the late innings. This would be the major league debut of Frankie Frisch. Strikes, bombs and violence was not just the new normal in Mexico and America at this drawn out summer of 1919. Back in mid-May, the entire population of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, went on strike. The population wanted more worker protections and a better life. The strike surged until the leaders of it found themselves behind bars on the same day Frisch made his debut. On the 21st, Canadian soldiers began a silent parade on main street and were met by Mounties with pistols, who unloaded their ammunition into the crowd, wounding 30. These battles between common folk and police, revolutionary leaders and military soldiers were occurring all over the world as the general population waited for the countries to settle their differences in Paris. All throughout this year, this season, the grand leaders sat in rooms hashing out the new world order and as you can imagine, this was quite an exclusively elusive bunch. A former baker from a Boston hotel, born in French Indochina and living in London, co-wrote a letter to the assembly asking them to attend on behalf of their home nation. He was Vietnamese and argued for the creation of a country under the yoke of French occupation, one of several foreign entities that had invaded and tried to control their countryside. In fact, the man who called himself Nguyen Ai Quac showed up at the conference and demanded to speak to President Wilson!. This did not happen and Nguyen the Patriot would find different political idols in France- communists. On the 28th, the leaders emerged from their comfy halls of power to alert their subjects that they had agreed on terms and at the suggestion of Woodrow Wilson, established the “League of Nations”. Wilson embarked on a vigorous campaign to convince the isolationist country to join the world powers.
JULY:
On the 28th of the former month, Brooklyn’s Ed Konetchy went 3-3 in his plate appearances. In fact, he got a hit every single plate appearance until the 1st, when hit his 10th straight baseball in 10 tries at the box, setting the major league record for consecutive hits. Four days later, on the fifth, was Halas’s last PA in baseball. A hip injury forced his retirement but he continued playing semi-pro baseball and football back home in Ohio. He got a day job at a starch manufacturer, A.E. Staley. He served in sales and ran the company football team, the Decatur Staleys and by 1922 coach George Halas was guiding the Chicago Bears through the infant seasons of the NFL. One day after Halas left the stage, Chicago Cubs president/manager Fred Mitchell gave up his job of controlling the business side of his roster to his VP, William Veeck Sr., a former sportswriter. Veeck would transform the team with shrewd moves, partnered with the infant radio industry and he brought his son, William Veeck Jr., along with him. The Chicago they lived and worked in was not cheerful or peaceful. As soldiers burst back into domestic life, black soldiers began questioning the Jim Crow system that terrorized them at home. Back in May, NAACP co-founder W.E.B. DuBois published an essay, “Returning Soldiers”--) and scolded the status quo which supported lynching and encouraged ignorance. He ended with a call to arms:

This is the fatherland for which we fought! But it is our fatherland. It was right for us to fight. The faults of our country are our faults. Under similar circumstances, we would fight again. But by God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land.
We return
We return from fighting
We return fighting
Make way for Democracy! We saved it in France, and by the Great Jehovah, we will save it in the United States of America, or know the reason why.

By 1919, the rest of the country was tightly segregated but Chicago, mostly, was not. Beaches along Lake Michigan were, and that’s where we go on the 27th. The White Sox were 6 games up in first place, the Cubs had Pete Alexander toeing the bump and a unknown white attacker on a beach in Chicago stoned a black swimmer to death. America’s common man poet, Carl Sandburg, wrote an essay about the race riots that ensued and ripped the city apart. A major societal trend was occurring- African Americans were leaving the Black Belt in the South, which they had clung to since Emancipation, for better job opportunities in the industrial north. Sandburg reported on what we call now the “Great Migration”, and predicted the chaos earlier in the year. For a week, gangs of Irish citizens and rabble rousing racists donned blackface and lit up immigrant neighborhoods to stoke tension among the races. The mayor and the governor haggled over the specifics of sending the national guard as 23 African American citizens were hunted down and murdered. Gangs, like the Hamburg Athletic Club continued escalating the violence because they occupied south side neighborhoods stuck in the middle. History will never know for sure if Hamburg Athletic Club gangster, 17-year-old future mayor Richard Daley, took part in busting skulls of protesting African Americans.
AUGUST:
By the 4th, Chicago declared the riots had subsided. Now, the battle that occupied their time was in the National League Standings, where the Reds and Giants swung back and forth through the next few weeks. Twenty days later on the 24th, the 28-79 Athletics sent their abysmal hitters up to face the Cleveland Indians at League Park, against Ray Caldwell. The Indians scored twice in the fourth, around the time the foreboding sky started to emit rain and Caldwell waltzed out in the 5th and surrendered his only run. With two outs in the ninth, Caldwell needed one more out to end the game and bared down- when he was struck by lightning and knocked unconscious. A sportswriter described the scene:

“There was a blinding flash that seemed to set the diamond on fire and Caldwell was knocked flat from the shock of it.”

Caldwell came to, stood back up, and retired the last A’s hitter for the victory. This kept the Indians 8 games back of the White Sox, who were the first team to score over 500 runs. The next day, the 25th, in Clio, Alabama, George Corley Wallace Jr. entered the great stage of life.
SEPTEMBER-
Entering the 8th of this month, the defending pennant winning-Red Sox were squarely out of the race. Their bright young pitcher, Babe Ruth, was in his first year of a three-year pact and was slowly transitioning into an electrifying power hitter when he wasn’t pitching. He set the AL record in homers in July and on this day he set the major league record with his 26th homer, in the first game of a doubleheader against the Yankees in the Polo Grounds. Harry Hooper also hit his third home run. The 66-53 Yanks wouldn’t get much better luck later in the week, on Wednesday the tenth the red-hot Cleveland club came to town. Ray Caldwell, fresh after his run in with a bolt of electricity in the sky, got two quick supporting runs from his team in the top half of the first. He knocked in his second double of the season later in the game and was a walk away from a perfect game. Caldwell’s first no hitter occurred less than a month after being struck by lightning. Earlier back in the year, Giants manager John McGraw traveled to the Ohio farm of Harry F. “Slim” Sallee and offered him a contract. Sallee was focused on retirement but noted he would only play for a team close by, in this case, Cincinnati. McGraw walked away and watched as Sallee achieved great things as a control master lefty for the Reds. He even got his own day at the ballpark, for his start on the 21st. He threw 65 pitches in total and finished his complete game shutdown of the Giants in 55 minutes. Six days later on the 27th, the last Saturday of the regular season, Babe Ruth became the first AL hitter to homer in every park. The October matchup was already decided: White Sox vs. Reds.
POSTSEASON-
The White Sox were the best team in baseball, but their success originated from their clique-driven clubhouse. Team captain and superstar Eddie Collins, his future Cooperstown buddy Ray Schalk and others were well-paid and good at their jobs. The second half of the clubhouse- Eddie Cicotte, Happy Felsch and 1B Buck Weaver were culturally on a different planet. Weaver was underpaid, and in his search for money contacted a Boston bookie to place a bet against his own team. “According to the grand-jury testimony of Eddie Cicotte, his faction first began to discuss the feasibility of throwing the upcoming World Series during a train trip late in the regular season”. There was still the persistent rumor that the Cubs threw the previous World Series to Ruth’s Sox, and Hal Chase had escaped hot water over his close ties to gamblers. Lefty Williams and Joe Jackson joined the fix during the off days before the Series. Every player demanded their 10k share but only Cicotte got his before the series, which began on the first. At this point, according to “Eight Myths Out” from SABR,, the Chicago owner Charles Comiskey knew about the fix, as did famously connected gambler Arnold Rothstein and Hal Chase. Cicotte hit the first batter in the back as a signal that the fix was on. Here’s the footage. The Reds scored a run in that inning but Chicago answered it. In the fourth, Cicotte made a throwing error and the Reds ended the inning with five runs, eventually winning 9-1. The Reds won again the next day on Sallee’s masterful performance, to go up 2-0 and rolled into the south side of Chicago, still smoldering from the race riots earlier. Not all the cheating players had received their share and the White Sox had a rookie pitcher who was not in on the fix for game 3, so the club got their first series win. Eddie Cicotte was scheduled to start the next day, and after Jackson and Cicotte made obvious errors, the Reds went up 3-1. For what its worth, Cicotte would later mention he tried to win that game. All the White Sox went cold in October, going 26 innings without plating a run during the series. After a rain delay gave the teams their first off day, the Reds lost the next game 5-0. Jackson finally got support from his teammates the next game which led to a 5-4 White Sox win. Cicotte pitched up to snuff in game seven to give White Sox fans hope. Lefty Williams started game eight and gave up a four spot in the first. The Reds won 10-5 and their first World Series. Some writers and fans had questioned the White Sox for their sloppy errors and their owner Comiskey led an investigation that confirmed the truth. He buried the news, ruled Gandil ineligible and hoped no one would find the skeleton in his closet. This scandal would rock baseball to its core for generations and was one of the most famous events from this year with the faulty myths.
In that first week of October, however, throwing the World Series was not the only thing occurring behind closed doors. Woodrow Wilson crisscrossed the country to campaign for his League of Nations to see its ratification in the Senate. In April, he contracted H1N1 and his sickly picture of health and asthma loomed ominously. For days, Wilson [ignored his health and felt painful headaches](https://www.pbs.org/newshouhealth/woodrow-wilson-stroke). On the day of game two of the WS, he either got up from bed and collapsed or woke up to feel his left hand numb. It was a stroke- he was paralyzed on his left side. Partially blind in his right eye. Suffered a UTI infection three weeks later and another bout of influenza the next year. Just like the White Sox scandal, it would take months for the American public to get wind of just how serious it had been. Until then, his wife, Edith became the de-facto president, our first female executive. Her duties included, in her own words:

I studied every paper sent from the different Secretaries or Senators and tried to digest and present in tabloid form the things that, despite my vigilance, had to go to the President. I, myself, never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs. The only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present matters to my husband.

Would the chaos, the suffering, the pain of 1919 continue into the next decade? Was violence, corruption, disease and the lying be the new normal? Around this time, a young veteran in Germany, disillusioned with the ridiculous post-war society joined the German Workers Party. They convinced him to make his first public speech at the Hofbraukeller brewery in Munich on the 16th of October. According to Adolph Hitler, it was the Jews who were to blame for the 1919 post-war madness. Over one hundred brown shirts in the brewery latched on to Hitler’s ideas quickly and his public speaking scheduled increased as President Wilson attempted to regain his health after the stroke.
November-December
Historians would later call the summer of 1919 the “Red Scare”, where conservative forces in the government and its citizens lashed out against reformers, socialists, and African Americans with zeal as anarchists and foreign revolutions spread fear. AG Palmer had been a victim of the bombs earlier in the year. This August, he appointed 24-year-old J. Edgar Hoover to prosecute political threats from foreigners and leftists. Hoover forged a pact with local cops to conduct a raid on November 7th, as Wilson sat in bed. Many of the humans they arrested were later freed and Palmer drew condemnation for the raids that bear his name, if little of his actual handiwork. Jumping ahead to December 12, inching toward 1920, the major league owners met and decided to severely limit the use of the spitball, allowing two players on each roster to continue the practice. After the 1920 season, the number would go down to one, allowing several pitchers to be grandfathered in. Toward the end of the year world health officials celebrated the end of the Spanish Flu epidemic and as fans would learn in 1920, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sent George H. “Babe” Ruth for a hundred thousand dollars and a 350-thousand-dollar loan for Frazee’s new Broadway play, tied to a mortgage on Fenway Park.
STANDINGS

AL team	W/L	pythag record	run diff
Chicago White Sox	88-52	84-56	1.0
Cleveland Indians	84-55	80-59	0.7
New York Yankees	80-59	78-61	0.5
Detroit Tigers	80-60	74-66	0.3
St. Louis Browns	67-72	66-73	-0.2
Boston Red Sox	66-71	70-67	0.1
Washington Senators	56-84	66-74	-0.3
Philadelphia A’s	36-104	41-99	-2.0

NL team	W/L	pythag record	run diff
Cincinnati Reds	96-44	92-48	1.
New York Giants	87-53	86-54	1.0
Chicago Cubs	75-65	77-63	0.3
Pittsburg Pirates	71-68	70-69	0
Brooklyn Robbins	69-71	71-69	0.1
Boston Braves	57-82	70-67	-0.7
St. Louis Cardinals	54-83	58-79	-0.6
Philadelphia Phillies	47-90	48-88	-1.4

STATS

Player	BA	OPS+	wRC+
Cobb, Ty	.384	166	161
Jackson, Joe	.351	159	157
Ruth, Babe	.322	217	203
Sisler, George	.352	156	151
Veach, Bobby	.355	158	152

Players Missing: Jack Tobin (.327 BA), "Baby Doll" Jacobson (.323) Henie Groh (157 wRC+).

Player	IP	WHIP	ERA
Adams, Babe	263.1	0.896	1.98
Alexander, Pete	235	0.928	1.72
Cicotte, Eddie	306.2	0.995	1.82
Johnson, Walter	290.1	0.985	1.49
Vaughn, Hippo	306.2	1.063	1.79

Players Missing: Jim Shaw (306.2 IP), Dutch Reuther (1.82 ERA), Jesse Barnes (295.2 IP, 1.008 WHIP), Lefty Williams (297 IP)

each way bet grand national 5th place video

An each way bet is a bet made up of two parts: a WIN bet and a PLACE bet. Two bets of equal amounts are made; the first on a selection (horse) to win and the second on the same selection to place. A ‘win’ obviously means that the horse finishes the race first. If your Initial Bet is an Each Way bet then only the part of the bet on the winner of the selection and not the part of the bet on the selection to place will count towards your Initial Bet. For example, if you placed an Each Way bet of: a) £5 (i.e. a total stake of £10), only £5 would count towards your Initial Bet. For the 2019 Grand National, bet365 offered unbelievably strong terms for punters with their innovative Each Way Extra option offering punters a Grand National 10 places each way option! Each Way Extra gives you the option to increase or decrease the number of places in a race when you are betting Each Way on selected Horse Races at bet365. The general rule with Grand National each way betting is that because the place part of an each-way bet is ¼ of the winning odds, the benchmark price to bet each-way is around 4/1 or higher. Anything lower than 4/1 and unless the horse wins you’ll actually return a loss on your overall stake. With so many permutations and combinations of odds for the Grand National, it can be tricky to figure out how much your winnings might be, especially if you’ve backed it each-way! Thankfully, our free bet calculator has been designed to make the whole process of calculating odds and winnings easy. You place your Each Way bet knowing that the payout terms may change subject to non-runners. The key piece of advice would always be, however, to think before you choose to bet Each Way. It is less sensible to do so if your pick has odds of less than 5/1 as you would earn a lesser return than the amount you originally staked. The most popular way to back a horse in the Grand National is the Each Way bet. It’s easy to understand why most people prefer this type of wager on the National, as the bet covers a horse finishing in any of the first four places. If you bet online with Betfair they’ll usually extend the finishing positions out to the first five places. An each-way bet consists of two separate bets: a win bet and a place bet. For the win part of the bet to give a return, the selection must win, or finish first, in the event. There’s an unwritten rule that to get the most out of an each-way bet, the price should be 16/1 and above, so here’s our look at some possibilities for this year. Read More Grand National 2019 Fans of each way betting are often on the lookout for bookies that pay extra places on their each way bets. This extra place can turn a losing bet into a winner and put more money in your pocket. But which bookies pay 5 places (or more) and on what events?

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Grand National 6 Places Each Way Summary 2021

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