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Light Dazzles In Smash Con Victory

By Dominique "Dom" Moore | 10/18/21

The creative minds behind the esteemed Super Smash Con tournament series gifted the Ultimate scene with a uniquely-timed event to showcase their game at the highest level.

Instead of the typical timing of somewhere around the first or second weekend of August, the setting was instead turned to mid-October, thus Super Smash Con: Fall Fest 2021 was born. Ultimate players repaid the favor of the event organizers to the tune of 769 unique entrants, good for the 4th most entrants of all events to take place post-timeskip (March 2021 onwards). 
The absence of both
Joker
Byleth
Pyra/Mythra
and
Diddy Kong
provided a perfectly placed atmosphere of optimism for Fall Fest, and said optimism was on full display from the get-go with numerous upsets shaking up the projected bracket.
Samus
(2-1 over
Kazuya
Terry
, 3-0 over
Pikachu
),
Pokémon Trainer
(2-0 over
Joker
Zero Suit Samus
), and
Snake
(2-1 over
Pac-Man
& ESAM) scoring big wins is a testament to that, and those wins tell nowhere near the entire story of the weekend. When the dust settled and Top 8 was finally set, the chaos that preceded it gifted us with one of the more exciting Top 8s of the game’s lifespan, with a couple fan favorites and character variety littered throughout.
Chief among them was a man who would not be denied in his return trip to an MDVA major: the grand champion, Paris “” Ramirez
Fox
of Moist Esports. He seemed to break out of his post-quarantine slump with a fifth place finish at Glitch 8.5, returning to form with that performance and then dominating Connecticut locals in early October.
Still, he made the trek to Herndon, Virginia with something to prove. Dropping early to
Wolf
couldn't deter him from victory, as Light went on to win 7 consecutive sets in Losers bracket, including five that went to a deciding fifth game, to snatch the gold medal and cap off a career-defining run (his previous best Losers bracket run was 5 sets at 2GG: Kongo Saga in December 2019). Perhaps the words of an anonymous Twitter fan was the spark he needed after all...
smith90922811 provides Light with the inspiration he needs to win.
Light's losers run at Super Smash Con Fall Fest. Click to expand.
Edgar “” Valdez’s
Cloud
Pyra/Mythra
ascent to greatness continued apace at Fall Fest as he brought home the silver medal, ensuring that the strength of Mexico’s thriving Smash scene would show itself in yet another major Grand Finals. Falling one game away from a major victory will sting for a while, but with plenty more events on the horizon in need of champions, it’s hard to imagine he won’t have another shot at it very soon. Sparg0 played foil to Light at this event, making it to Grands the clean way by knocking off
Wii Fit Trainer
, IcyMist,
Bayonetta
, Jakal, and
Mr. Game and Watch
.
Sparg0's Round 2 Pools and onward at Super Smash Con Fall Fest. Click to expand.
Tristate’s talent managed to creep into Top 8 yet again, even with the bigger names falling early in bracket or opting to not attend. Jude “Jakal” Harris has been in New Jersey’s Top 3 consistently since the days of Smash Wii U, but a breakout performance at this level was simply never in the cards. And then he beat
Min Min
Olimar
2-0 in Winners bracket, and the dam broke after that. Lopsided wins on
Mario
and Light guided him into Winners side of Top 8, where losses to
Snake
(who had a huge run of his own) and Sparg0 saw him exit at 5th place, well ahead of his 30th seed projection. With tournaments returning full swing and an impressive bracket run featuring TWO Top 10 wins, this could very well be the return that he, and the rest of the Jersey hopeful, had been waiting for.
Jakal at Super Smash Con Fall Fest. Click to expand.
But it wasn’t just New Jersey that showed out at Fall Fest. Not to be outdone, one of New York’s best players finally made a breakthrough of their own. Michael “” Tedesco
Falco
was finally freed from the shackles of fighting MkLeo during a promising run, a la Riptide and Glitch 8.5. Tilde took full advantage of a golden opportunity, soaring through bracket whilst notching wins on
R.O.B.
,
Zero Suit Samus
, and
Pyra/Mythra
on his way to a solid 7th place finish, further pushing the Falco Agenda in the process.
Tilde at Super Smash Con Fall Fest. Click to expand.
Marcus “” Wilson
Min Min
gave an impressive showing at Fall Fest, seemingly feeding off of the home field advantage like he has at many other points in his career. Unfortunately, he narrowly missed out on Top 8, being stuck with the dreaded 9th place finish after an unexpected loss in Winners to another MDVA player,
Pac-Man
. He woke up in Losers bracket, however, winning six straight sets before Light (who was on a Losers run of his own, mind you) outlasted him to qualify for Top 8 himself. Pink Fresh did manage to eliminate
Luigi
and ApolloKage in an effort to preserve his own tournament life, however, potentially foreshadowing the rise of another top Min Min player on American soil.
Pink Fresh's losers run at Super Smash Con Fall Fest. Click to expand.
Mural designs courtesy @ElevenZM and @MuralAltDrive.
“Dom” is a lead writer and commentator within the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate scene, currently residing in South Carolina. Follow him on Twitter @DomNeedsHelp.