Low Tide City Preview Feat. Sparg0, Zomba, Kola, Dabuz
Low Tide City 2022 wraps up this busy Spring of Smash by providing a very different slate of players from Pound looking to prove themselves at the Kalahari in Round Rock, Texas.
Low Tide City 2022 wraps up this busy Spring of Smash by providing a very different slate of players from Pound looking to prove themselves at the Kalahari in Round Rock, Texas.
These past few weeks have given us a lot of top level Smash. Genesis 8 was the largest post-lockdown Smash Ultimate bracket, while Pound 2022 was North America’s first Platinum Smash World Tour event. This weekend’s Low Tide City in Round Rock, Texas highlights the other half of North America’s top talent since it contains minimal player overlap with Pound (only five of LTC’s top 32 seeds were at Xanadu last weekend). The 561 entrant bracket looks to provide some heated top level competition as one young TWICE stan aims to solidify his legacy while the rest of the field looks to challenge his dominance.
Favorites
FaZe | Sparg0 
There’s no way around it. Edgar “Sparg0” Valdez is the clear singular favorite for this weekend’s event. Even putting aside his monumental wins at Summit and Collision, the young Cloud prodigy hasn’t dropped an offline set to any other Low Tide attendee since August of 2021, where his Aegis fell to Maister 
at the Smash World Tour Central America Finals.
Since then, however, the recently sponsored Sparg0’s reign has looked untouchable outside of a single digit number of players, none of whom are in attendance this weekend. Sparg0’s consistency and dominance look to be on display this weekend as he attempts to slot another tour that can help solidify his argument as a Top 2 - maybe even Top 1 - player in the world - assuming, of course, that BIGDUCKHUNTFAN7000
doesn’t suddenly last minute register.
Zomba 
That’s not to say that people haven’t come close to toppling Sparg0’s reign, however. At Genesis, Salvatore “Zomba” DeSena went on stage and watched as Sparg0 dramatically revealed his sponsor in front of tens of thousands immediately before their set, a power play that would petrify even the strongest of mentals. His response? Tweeting that he was “the only free agent in Top 8” before taking him to Game 5, losing a nailbiter Game 4 by four frames.
Zomba carried his momentum from Genesis into Pound just as well - an early loss to Jakal seems rough, until you’ve realized they’ve played 53 sets against each other, where they go even. More monumental is his win against Dabuz (Rosalina/Olimar), as Zomba had never beaten his Rosalina prior to the event (his singular set win was against Dabuz’s Sora, at Fusion #101). Make no mistake: Zomba’s looking to get a runback of Genesis’s Winners Semis, and he’s laser focused on taking his first major this weekend.
Moist | Kola 
Similarly to Zomba, Kolawole “Kola” Aideyan’s only played Sparg0 offline once - last November, at Mainstage 2021. The explosive Georgia Roy is looking to shoot for a high placement this weekend, especially considering that Mainstage was the last time he missed Top 8 at any event. Against the field present at LTC, Kola’s recent form bodes well - since Mainstage, he’s only lost to MuteAce 
once at CEO, and Zomba twice (once in Winners Finals of a local where Kola won through Grands, and once at SWT).
Consistency used to be an issue Kola struggled with - at last year’s Low Tide City, he took an early loss to Lavish 
before exiting the tournament at 17th - but since then, the Moist Roy has made his record watertight. Kola looks to be primed to go far this weekend - especially considering a Top 8 placement at Genesis - and everyone that’s been following post-lockdown Ultimate knows that he’s capable of making moves.
Dark Horses
Liquid | Dabuz 
“Dabuz kinda cute. Dabuz kinda clean. Dabuz is kinda in a weird place right now. He’s got the potential to be a top 5 player but is going through a slump.” This A.I generated Tweet, spawned by Deep Leffen Bot back in April 2020, perfectly summates my overall thoughts on the King of New York going into this weekend. Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby has missed Top 8 at his last three major events - Pound, Genesis, and Smash Ultimate Summit 4. The Summit 4 result hurts the most, since his reward for beating Tweek in pools was…a matchup with MKLeo in Round 1 of winners.
These results are tough, especially for a player of his caliber, and a lot of it has been exacerbated by a character crisis, as Dabuz played four unique characters last weekend at Pound. Still, it’s never wise to count him out - if you’ll recall, his landmark 2nd place performance at last year’s Low Tide City was right after a 13th at Glitch 8.5. All eyes are on him as to whether he can earn his wings, get his pilot's license back, and finally take a major event in Ultimate.
Moist | Maister
In a similar vein to Dabuz, Enrique “Maister” Hernandez, once the definition of consistency, is in the midst of a slump. At Genesis, he was upset twice by Big D 
and Yonni 
for a post-lockdown low of 25th place. At Delfino Maza Reta, he was upset by Cloudy 
, and at the Smash World Tour Championships, he was upset by Sonix 
and Riddles 
. With his back against the wall, Maister’s been trying out something new - his Sora, which saw some play at Genesis as well.
Foregoing Pound, Maister instead chose to come to Texas early, winning the Houston regional Limit Break over Niko and MuteAce . He’s also spent some time in Texas trying out Sora at locals, so - despite what Twitch chat tries to tell you about his playstyle - there’s no predicting what the PGR NA S Tier contender will do next.
Ikan 
Chicago’s current #1, Anik “Ikan” S., is currently coming off of a very hot streak after Genesis 8. En route to a 9th place finish after an early upset, he took down Nito 
, Leon 
, Kurama 
, ESAM 
, Cosmos , and Yonni before ultimately getting trapped in the Myran Zone. Genesis was his second major ever, and all eyes are on him as to whether he can follow up his Cinderella run.
His bracket path won’t be easy, however - it involves fellow 9th place finisher at Genesis Aaron 
into Zomba (whom he lost to at the LUA4 pre-local) into Lui$ 
(whom he is 0-3 against). It remains to be seen whether his run at Genesis was a one-off unprecedented result, or if he can solidify himself as a top NA talent.
Hidden Bosses
As per usual, majors are an excellent way to show off a region’s depth. Here’s a few regional hidden bosses showing up to LTC this weekend - don’t be surprised if you see them in the PGStats Twitter thread!
Jordan 
is Louisiana’s current #1, and coming off of a hot 25th at Pound, with wins on BONK! 
and Pink Fresh .
Jonhy 
is a Dallas player who won Summon Future!, a Texas Arcadian, last November, alongside a win at Ultimate Shockwave 91 over Lima 
.
Cannon Red 
is Oklahoma’s #2 and placed 7th at Ultimate Shockwave 100, owning wins over Brr , Kazma , NWA Danbi 
, and more.
Barnard’s Loop isn't here for his results, but you might still recognize him regardless as the co-creator and current administrator of OrionRank, the purely algorithmic unofficial ranking for Smash’s Top 100, which also keeps track of other stats like character usage.