After more than a year with no in-person tournaments, players from all over the Midwest and the East Coast crossed state lines to converge in Chicago for Melee’s first regional-sized tournament of 2021. The result of said convergence was an entire day of intense, entertaining competition with some highly memorable moments along the way.
With a win at Hold That L #6, Ginger has most likely cemented his place as the Midwest’s greatest Melee player, and has built up a nice bit of momentum heading into Riptide, Melee’s first major of 2021.
After a year of collecting big-time wins online, Ben was the player going into Hold That L #6 with the heaviest expectations. Now, this tournament would be the perfect test to see if he could cross controllers with the MPGR-ranked players he had defeated over the course of the past year in an offline setting. It is safe to say Ben passed with flying colors after a phenomenal second place finish in a tournament that had eight MPGR ranked players.
Ben at Hold That L 6. Click to expand.
Interestingly enough, Ben defeated Drephen twice at Hold That L #6. In doing so, he avenged his loss from when they played at House of Paign 22, where Ben lost to Drephen 3-0. If Ben can keep racking up MPGR wins throughout the rest of the year, he could potentially hear his name in the talks during the next ranking phase, whatever form they take.
Going from one Sheik main to another, a spotlight must be given to perennial Midwest staple, Drephen. Drephen has been getting high placements at tournaments since before some of the up incoming players were even alive, and even all these years later, he still is making top eight.
Drephen at Hold That L 6. Click to expand.
Even though he may not have won the event, Drephen has shown that he still has a wealth of Melee mileage left in his tank and that he won’t let any generation of player take him down easily.