William “Leffen” Hjelte has beaten Adam “Armada” Lindgren to claim the EVO 2018 title in a surprising turn of events. Although Leffen is by no means a new player to the competitive Super Smash Bros Melee scene, Armada has long ruled as one of the gods of the game. This means that winning a game against him is already a great feat, let alone taking the EVO 2018 title over him.
Despite being the reigning EVO champion, Armada’s road to the grand finals was quite a spectacular one. After a surprising loss to James “Swedish Delight” Liu very early on in the tournament, Armada was forced to climb all the way back through the loser brackets. Despite his surprising loss though, he still proved that he is a world class player as he demolished all the competition while making his way through the loser brackets. Together with his trusty Peach, he got into the Grand Finals with extreme ease just as we expected of him in the first place.
Leffen on the other hand clearly showed that he has what it takes to go up against the ‘Gods of Smash’. Leffen together with fellow ‘God-Killer’ Justin “Plup” McGrath managed to beat two of the 4 gods before the finals, namely Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma, and Joseph “Mango” Marquez. In the end, Plup and Leffen had to square off for a spot in the finals against Armada, which Leffen ultimately won. The final god, Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman never even got the final brackets this tournament.
In the finals everyone expected Armada to win as he has always been the better player in the past. However, it turned out quite differently than expected when both players picked Fox. This means that both players have the same tools at their exposal making it a matchup that is purely about the player with the greater skill. This time that was clearly Leffen. Armada stood no chance in the mirror matchup and ended up switching to his standby, Peach. However, despite strong play on Peach, he was not able to bring the series back. With a final grab and attack from Leffen’s Fox, Armada’s Peach was sent flying off the stage.
The victory clearly meant a lot for Leffen. Not only did he beat one the gods of the game, he did it in the grand finals of the largest fighting game tournament in the world The EVO 2018 title belonged to him. After the victory, Leffen shared his happiness on social media through the following posts.
I have a lot more to say, feeling all kind of things, but I’ll save them for now and just enjoy the moment.
Thank you for all the support.— leffen (@TSM_Leffen) August 5, 2018
