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WaDi's biggest upsets and best runs

By Jack "Jackie Peanuts" Moore | 04/02/21

Today, Panda announced the signing of its newest player, WaDi, one of the top R.O.B. and Mewtwo players in the world and the man who has run the MDVA Smash Ultimate scene since the game's release. A competitive Smasher since the Brawl days, WaDi has been a staple of the PGR since the Smash 4's second edition of the ranking, when he ranked 21st in the world, and peaking at 12th on the PGR v4, the Fall 2017 edition of the rankings.

In Ultimate, it has been more of the same, with WaDi ranking 24th and 20th on PGRU v1 and v2 respectively. Let's dive deeper into the numbers and take a look at some of WaDi's biggest success stories in Smash Ultimate:

Biggest Upsets:

Losers Top 8 Qualifier vs. Samsora, CEO 2019 (Upset Factor: +4)

WaDi was the unfortunate one at CEO 2019 to run into a criminally underseeded ProtoBanham in the round before Winners Quarterfinals, forcing WaDi to make one hell of a losers run for any chance at a Top 8 appearance. By the time he reached Samsora, WaDi had already beaten Florida hidden boss Zurak, two PGRU players in Goblin and Mr. E, and wunderkind Sparg0, who seems like a lock for the PGRU once offline competition resumes. WaDi and Samsora had met once before, at MomoCon 2019, where WaDi ate a swift 3-0. WaDi managed to take Game 1 of this best-of-three set, a last-stock affair ended by a roll-read back-air from WaDi's ROB. It looked like Samsora had figured things out again by Game 2, though, as Samsora took an early lead and was running away with it a few minutes in:
There's hardly such a thing as a lead in Smash Ultimate, though, especially against ROB, a character with one of the best comeback tools in the game in Arm Rotor. As Samsora came to find out, all it takes is one good read:

Losers Top 16 vs. Cosmos, MomoCon 2019 (Upset Factor: +3)

After a clean run to winners Top 32 that included a win over MuteAce, WaDi's new teammate Marss sent him to losers, where met up with Cosmos, in losers early due to a loss to Pac-Man maestro Sinji. This remains the only time WaDi and Cosmos have ever met at a PGR event.
Momocon came at the tail end of the PGRU v1 season, when Cosmos was at his peak. He would go on to finish 11th on the PGRU v1 before falling to 23rd on the second edition. This set would require all of WaDi's patience. Game 1 looked like it would be all Cosmos until WaDi managed to find a reverse edgeguard down over 70 percent on his first stock. And then WaDi found another one of his patented jump reads:
Cosmos simply couldn't find his bearings after that. WaDi was able to win a close Game 2, and in Game 3, WaDi was once again able to take advantage of Cosmos's aggressiveness off-stage to take a two-stock led that he would not relinquish.

Losers Top 16 vs. ESAM, The Big House 9 (Upset Factor: +3)

Unfortunately, this one was not streamed or locally recorded. WaDi was one of ESAM's biggest demons back in the Smash 4 days, taking the last four of their five Smash 4 sets with a combined game count of 11-3. But this was a different game and, for WaDi, a different character, now using ROB after using Mewtwo for every single set he played against ESAM in Smash 4. Would ROB's big body change things in this matchup?
Nope. Not even a little bit. WaDi jumped out to quick lead with a two-stock Game 1, recovered from getting two-stocked himself on Smashville Game 2, and then sealed it with victories on Pokémon Stadium 2 and Kalos. There aren't many people who can say they have ESAM's number, but for nearly five years now, WaDi's been one of them.

Best Tournament Runs:

CEO 2019 (A-Tier, 1,164 entrants)

Seed: 16th | Placing: 7th | Seed Performance Rating: +2 | Upset Factor: +5
PGRU Wins: Samsora, Mr. E, Goblin

Momocon 2019 (S-Tier, 1,250 entrants)

Seed: 18th | Placing: 9th | Seed Performance Rating: +2 | Upset Factor: +3
PGRU Wins: Cosmos, MuteAce, Wrath

2GG Kongo Saga (S-Tier, 909 Entrants)

PGRU Wins: Abadango, Fatality, Ned
Seed: 18th | Placing: 9th | Seed Performance Rating: +2 | Upset Factor: 0
WaDi is one of the most consistent Ultimate players in a game that is hardly known for its consistency. In 18 runs at PGRU-ranked events, WaDi has never finished more than two rounds below his seed projection, an impressive feat for someone who regularly attends majors as a highly seeded player. He has finished Top 64 at all nine S-Tiers he has entered, making Top 32 seven of those times. And he has shown his ability to hang with the best: WaDi owns 20 wins over PGRU-ranked players, including three over Top 10 players (Samsora, VoiD and Dabuz).
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