For some people, yesterday was all about the Super Bowl. For me, it was about a better match-up, one of the best and most dramatic Smash Bros. matches Iāve ever seen.
To tell the story of Sundayās amazing match, we have to go back a day further, to Saturday and the Apex 2015 tournament, the biggest
Smash Bros. competition ever. The multi-day competition, which was held in New Jersey, hosted a special segment where players could take on money matches against each other. Itās called āSalty Suite.ā Players were allowed and even encouraged to talk as much shit as they wanted before matches started.
One of the matches planned for the night was between players called āLeffenāand āChillindude.ā Leffen, a svelte player from Sweden who mains Fox, is a āheel.ā In other words, heās often
considered the villain of the pro Smash Bros. community, thanks to infamous incidents where he has displayed bad sportsmanshipāat one point, he was banned from all tournaments in Sweden because of bad behavior. Leffen is a shit-talker who often makes fun of his opponents. He likes to humiliate people he doesnāt think are worthy. He looks like this, if youāre curious.
(Source: design work by Jason Durso)
Chillindude, on the other hand, is considered a good guy by the Smash community. On the
competitive Smash Bros. Wikipedia page,Chillin is described as the āfatherā of sorts to people who main Fox in Melee, and as such many Fox combos and moves are named after him.
(Source: design work by Jason Durso)
You can tell the community regards him highly, too. A few APEX spectators were carrying around a giant version of Chillinās face at the tournament.
LOL shoutout to these guys for being my biggest fans apparently. 1st in my r1 #ssbm pool! Teams with @MorChuDat soon pic.twitter.com/vRCTTtmcri
ā Chillindude (@LiquidChillin) January 31, 2015
Being beloved, however, didnāt save Chillin.
Before the match started, viewers were brought up-to-date with the storyline that brought the match into fruition. Basically, it all started because of catty tweets. Hereās Leffen, dissing Chillindude:
(Source: design work by Jason Durso)
Chillindudeās response? To tell Leffen to respect his eldersā¦and he also gave Leffen a challenge:
(Source: design work by Jason Durso)
As Chillin proposed, the Salty Suite match would be a Fox versus Fox match. The stakes would be high: the loser couldnāt choose the standard, classic Fox skin in a tournament from that day forward. Ever.
āItās going to be 5-o,ā Leffen promised in a video that played before the match. According to Leffen, Leffen was going to destroy Chillindude so hard, Chillindude wouldnāt even win a single match in their set. āI really wish he would have more of a shot, so I could tear him up as a goal, and practice really hard,ā Leffen continued. āI wish that was the case.ā
It was a video meant to stir up hype. But, it wasnāt the only thing that played before the match. Chillindude decided that, instead of trash-talking the old-fashioned way, he was going to rap all his grievances with Leffen out. And so he created a diss track about Leffen, which played right before the match started. You can listen to it here:
(Producedby Jason Durso)
Then, the match ensued. You can watch it in this video uploaded by
VGBootCampāit starts around the 1:19:42 mark:
To be clear, this wasnāt a great match. This isnāt the one I really want you to know about. But it was important. It was a prelude.http://youtu.be/XtjLb84i-Tw
At first, things looked promising for the āgoodā guy. Chillin scored the first kill, and he seemed to keep up with Leffen. And then Leffen started playing for real. You can tell, too. Around the 10:20 mark, Leffen started smiling and laughing devilishly at things that were going in his favor. He went on to win the first match, and his reaction was typical Leffen:
The second match was close, with both players trading stocks right after each other, but Leffen still took the win. You can guess his reaction.
Chillin, meanwhile, was starting to feel the pressure. You could see it in his face.
The giant Chillin sign in the background probably didnāt helpāwhenever the camera turned to the players, it looked like the sign was looking down at Chillin disapprovingly.
āIām demoralized by this right now,ā one of the announcers remarked during the match. āAnd Iām not playing.ā The commentators said Chillin should take down the diss video from YouTube. It was just too embarrassing given how the match was going, they said.
Leffen then absolutely destroyed Chillin in the rest of the matches. Chillin couldnāt win a single one. And in between every match, Leffen would just laugh at Chillin. Chillinās stressed face became a Twitter meme:
https://twitter.com/embed/status/561751618610536448
https://twitter.com/embed/status/561749043211038720
https://twitter.com/embed/status/561752988054605824
That Chillin vs Leffen Salty Suite wasā¦ kind of painful.
ā smashbros (@twilightman234) February 1, 2015
chillin got embarrassed.. better take down that diss video. atleast @C9Mang0 covered his ass a bit #Apex2015
ā justinvan (@gigglyfart) February 1, 2015
https://twitter.com/embed/status/561752946040659968
God, Chillin vs Leffen was so hard to watch.
ā Cody (@Fibersoptiks) February 1, 2015
https://twitter.com/embed/status/561752826599051264
When you get bodied 5 times in a row. pic.twitter.com/hdi8zDNuMk
ā Velox (@VeloxSSBM) February 1, 2015
https://twitter.com/embed/status/561757382707929089
But then! Something amazing happened. Instead of having things end there, another top player came up to the stage to stand up for Chillin. Known as āMang0,ā and also well-loved by the community, heās the guy on the left here:
āThis man, I went to his country, and he beat me,ā Mang0 said, in reference to the Swedish Leffen. āBut, you come to my country, and you beat my man five-oh? If we play in bracket, weāre gonna put one-thousand on it.ā Thatās $1,000. Leffen agreed to it, and they shook hands. In response, the crowd stood up and chanted āUSA, USA, USA!ā
Later that night, Leffen couldnāt help but remark on the dayās events on Twitterā¦
https://twitter.com/embed/status/561756034063421440
https://twitter.com/embed/status/561756531226836993
https://twitter.com/embed/status/561757181138452481
https://twitter.com/embed/status/561758756154126336
This was APEX day 2. On day 3, it was unquestionable that the potential Mang0 versus Leffen match was the most anticipated of the night. Spectators were more concerned about whether or not those two would face off than who would win Apex 2015, which, remember, wasthe biggest
Smash Bros. tournament in history They couldnāt just agree to fight. They had to wind up in the same bracket.
While I was at the tournament, people kept close tabs on both players, unsure of whether or not the redemption match would happen. For a while, people didnāt think it would. Leffen would have to come out on top in matches that werenāt in his favor. He would have to beat people that were considered āgodsā by the
Smash Bros. community. But then he surprised everyone by moving forward in his bracketāand Mang0 did, too. While people often rooted against Leffen during his matches, they cheered when it was clear he would in fact go on to face Mang0. The match that ensued between the two rivals is one for the Smash Bros. history books, and one that I feel very lucky to have seen in person. You can watch it in this Twitch stream by VGBootCamp, at around the 14:36:21:
Mang0 was maining Falco, and Leffen was maining Fox. Most people at the tournament were rooting for Mang0āand you can hear that in the match, too. The crowd couldnāt stop chanting āUSA, USA, USA.ā It was deafening. The room felt like it was shaking.
The first match was intense, with both players giving it their all. You could tell, too. Unlike the match with Chillin, Leffen was serious throughout the entire thing. He was clearly trying to focus and win.
At first, they seemed evenly matchedāthis is something that surprised many spectators, since Mang0 was widely considered to be better than Leffen. To wit: people betting on the players at the venue had a hard time finding people vouching for Leffen. Everyone wanted to bet Mang0. Regardless, Leffen held his own in the first match. Rare was the moment when the two didnāt have the same number of stocks, and any kills were matched by the other player, evening things out. The first match was close, thanks to aggressive plays by both men. The last stock of this first match was particularly tense, as Mang0 juggled Leffen off the stage for a whileāonly to have Leffen fight back and kill Mang0 unexpectedly.
The second match carried the same intense pace, though you can see players whiff a little more, likely thanks to continued pressure. Leffen started tilting the scales in this match, sometimes enjoying an entire stock or two over Mang0. Mang0ās āassuredā victory started looking a little less certain at this point. āMang0ās definitely going to have to mix it up,ā one of the commentators opined. The crowd, trying to be supportive, kept screaming USA! USA! USA! for Mang0. Still, Mang0 faltered, and had trouble coming back onto the stage for the last two stocks. Leffen was killing it, even if nobody was cheering for him.
As if trying to rewrite history, Mang0 repicked the Yoshiās Story stage for the third match. Itās a small stage that favors aggression, and Mang0 seemed to be packing a lot of it. Most of the damage at the start comes from Mang0, who seemed intent on landing as many combos and hits as he could. Leffen seemed to be playing more defensively at the start. Regardless, Leffen spikes Mang0 down off the stage for the first stock. Mang0 does manage to spike Leffen back, and eventually he found himself in an intense one-stock-versus-one stock match. The possibility of a comeback tantalized the crowd, and they went wild. āMang0 looking super flustered right now,ā one of the commentators noticed. When $1,000 were on the line, of course thatās his response: he wasnāt just trying to put a rival back in his place, or to defend Chillinās honor. He was trying to keep his cash in his pocket! And so Mang0 did manage to win that one match.
In the fourth match, Leffen seemed to have Mang0ās number. Leffen got the first kill, and even pulled off a few choice chaingrabs. Eventually, Leffen managed to spike Mang0 once more. āDudeā¦.DUDE!ā one of the commentators said in response. āOh my god!ā In this match, thereās even a few moment when both the characters āclangāāthat is, they hit each other in the exact same way, nullifying damage for both of them. It was some DBZ-level shit. While Leffen enjoyed a healthy lead for most of the match, Mang0 managed to bring it down to one stock for both of the playersāand for a second, there was a sliver of hope that Mang0 could turn it around, and maybe win a second match. While Mang0 was at over a hundred percent damageāmeaning he could be vaulted off the stage with easeācomebacks like that werenāt unheard of. Plus, Mang0 was considered a god, remember? If anyone could pull it off, it would be him. āIf he does this, heās the best,ā one of the commentators said, hoping for the best.
But he didnāt. Instead, Leffen took the win. And, despite being despised by some, the crowd responded with cheers: they had just witnessed an exceptional match between two of the greatest players around.
Easiest way to blow 1k ROFL
ā š¦ š¦ GO BIRDS š¦ š¦ (@C9Mang0) February 2, 2015
Worst part about losing my 1k is I lost it to leffen while he wore that stupid sweater
ā š¦ š¦ GO BIRDS š¦ š¦ (@C9Mang0) February 2, 2015
Sorry nation I went out like a super busterino
Sorry I let you guys down.. I know it sucks being a mango fan sometimes
ā š¦ š¦ GO BIRDS š¦ š¦ (@C9Mang0) February 2, 2015
What made this match stand out wasnāt just the top-level play. It was the hype, the storyline and the rivalries leading up to it. The crowd was just as interested in the people playing the matches as the matches themselves. That the ābad guyā went on to wināand then came in third in the tournament overallāonly made things more interesting.
Though it upset some people, it was a good thing that the crowd favorite in the Chillin or Mang0 matches didnāt go on to win. We wouldnāt have had the pleasure to watch one of the best Smash Bros. matches in history otherwise.
Update: this post did not originally credit the streamers that uploaded the matches. We apologize for the mistake.
Additionally, we originally took screenshots from the Salty Suite stream, which featured a video produced by Jason Durso. Weāve added credit to Dursoās portion of the Salty Suite stream.
